Ordinary Time

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

Ezra was the religious leader of the Jewish community that had recently returned from the Babylonian exile. Nehemiah led the people back and then supervised the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. During a liturgical event, Ezra, acting in his capacity as priest, opens the scroll and interprets the law for those present. For their part, the people stand in respect for the words that they hear. His reading is more liturgical than historical, with some of the details of the narrative meant for future generations that will read the account as part of their own liturgical recommitment to the law.

Paul continues his instruction on the diversity found within the community by using the analogy of the body. In the body, each part has its own unique function, but all parts work for the good of the whole. This figure of speech characterizes several aspects of the ideal Christian community. It portrays unity in diversity; it underscores the absence of competition among members, since no one activity is elevated above the others; it underscores the interdependence that exists within the community. The unity within the community is based on common baptism. Cultural and gender differences will remain, but they will not determine one’s membership within the community.

The author of the Gospel reading claims that, though not an eyewitness to the events that he recounts, his reports are part of the authoritative tradition of the church and therefore can be trusted. He then tells how Jesus returned to Nazareth, his hometown, and attended the synagogue service there. After reading a passage from Isaiah, Jesus made a bold claim: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” In this way he announced that he was the one filled with the Spirit as spoken of by the prophet; he was the one who would inaugurate the hoped-for year of deliverance; he was the one who would launch the long awaited era of fulfillment.

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

According to Isaiah, the vindication that is in store for Jerusalem is more than a restoration. The city is promised a new name, and this implies a new creation. One of the best ways of portraying God’s passionate love and the depths of the intimacy that God desires is with marriage imagery. Within the context of such intimacy, the consequence of betrayal of God’s love is characterized as “forsaken” or “barren.” The people who were once forsaken are now the delight of the Lord; the land that once was barren is now newly espoused.

Paul launches into a discourse on the varieties of functions within the Christian community. He speaks of gifts, ministries, and works. “Gifts” here refers to operations of the Spirit, notably speaking in tongues and prophesying, gifts that were usually operative during worship. Ministry was service within the community. Works were feats of great energy or divine power. Since all of these gifts or ministries or works were manifestations of the Spirit, no one was to be considered superior to another. Further, they were not given for the self-aggrandizement of the one who received them. All were given for the benefit of the entire community.

According to John, Jesus’ hour is the time when he will be manifested in all his glory. The culmination of this hour will take place when he is lifted up on the cross. However, throughout his ministry there will be times when aspects of this glory will be manifested. The miracle of changing water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana is one such time. The miracles of Jesus were never mere exhibitions of supernatural power. They were always revelations of the inbreaking of the reign of God. Evidently the hour of his glorification had arrived. In this first sign, Jesus transformed a Jewish ceremonial into a celebration for the end of time. His glory was manifested to his disciples and they believed in him. The establishment of the reign of God had begun.

Dec 13 2024

Our Extravagant Bridegroom

Weddings of the famous have become known for their extravagance. Syndicated radio host Diane Rehm once recalled how she and her husband had gone to two weddings over a few months, each costing over twenty thousand dollars, and neither marriage lasted a year. It seems that as expenses have increased, longevity has decreased. Even so, our faith holds up one marriage whose extravagance is located in its fidelity: Christ’s love for his bride, the church.

One of the less remembered titles Jesus applies to himself in the Gospels is the bridegroom. When asked why his disciples do not fast, he replies that as long as the bridegroom is present, there is no fasting. It is a time for celebration. Jesus remains the bridegroom the Father sent to woo God’s people. The generous and extravagant abundance of the bridegroom comes across in today’s miracle at Cana. Even though he has said his hour—that is, the hour when he reveals the extravagant love of God—has not yet come, still Jesus yields to his mother’s request to remedy the embarrassment of a wedding without wine.

The moral: when the Bridegroom comes, there will be endless joy. Ordinary Time begins with this marvelous story, proclaiming that God’s generosity cannot be overestimated. We see it in the gifts St. Paul mentions in his letter to the fractious Corinthians, gifts that continue to be given. Such abundance and variety of gifts reflect God’s extravagant love for us. Such gifts are given for the good of all.

Consider/Discuss

What does the image of Jesus the Bridegroom say about your relationship with him?
What gifts of a generous God do you see in your own life and in those around you?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, you remain the bridegroom come to reveal your Father’s extravagant love. In union with many of the saints, we dare to call you the spouse of our souls. May we revel in your passionate love shown on the cross, and reveal that love to those most in need of it.

Dec 12 2024

God’s Ways, Not Our Ways

Theologians tells us that we have a God who speaks, a God who is by nature a Self-communicator. There is a symphony of voices through which the Lord of the universe sings to us—through the created world, through salvation history and the prophets of old, through the preaching of the apostles, through the Holy Spirit at work in our midst, and of course through the written saga of the Word-become-flesh, Jesus himself, as recorded in the scriptures. Our God is not silent.

Today, Luke gives us Jesus’ final end-times speech. Calamities and disasters will happen. Read the signs of the times in history and in the created world: earthquakes, famines, plagues! Persecutions, wars, and insurrections! Bad stuff. The end is coming. Be attentive!

There are times when we are more aware of our fallibility, our finitude, and our ability to break. In the northern hemisphere, November is such a month. The tree branches look lifeless. The sunflower stalks are in the compost bin. The Baltimore orioles have flown south. The daylight grows short.

We do not know the future. Jesus says not to presume that we do; we should not be deceived. Though God is always speaking, there are some things about which God does not communicate—not the when, not the how, not the where—of the world’s end or our own. About that, God is silent.

Malachi prophesies about the coming of the day of the Lord, in a blaze, on fire!

And yet, ironically, when that great and terrible day came, the Savior of the universe, slid through the birth canal of a young woman, in the most helpless way possible, to come into the world. Is there a heavenly sense of humor?

God’s ways are not our ways. We do not know what is coming.

Consider/Discuss

We understand some things. Yet there is so much more that we do not grasp. Who knows what is yet to come? How can we persevere and remain faithful, be attentive and stay strong in trust, even though we do not know?
Bad things happen. But whether we live or die, no matter what darkness swirls around us, no matter how dire the situation, the Lord desires to shine through us like stars in the night sky. You and I are to be the blessing of God in this point of history. What does that mean for how are we to act? For how we are to pray? How can you and I grab onto that personal mission even more strongly as this church year draws to a close?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, you are the God of surprises. If we had known so many years ago what our lives would be like, would we have had the strength to walk forward into them? Thank you that you don’t show us the future either! But you do show yourself to us in so many little ways, right here and right now. You are full of amazements! Who would have guessed that you would have become flesh in the way that you did? Do you chuckle a bit at that? You are so good. Lead us to your eternal light, whenever and however that comes. Thank you, thank you, God of glory!

Dec 12 2024

Scripture Study for

The first several decades of the post-exilic period were a time of great trial. The former kingdom of Judah remained under foreign rule and only very slowly emerged from severe economic and demographic stagnation. Malachi focuses on additional problems: the resumption of injustice in the land, widespread marital infidelity, and priestly negligence and complacency. Through the prophet, God continually chastises the people for persisting in many of the very behaviors that led to the Exile in the first place. Where was the purification that was supposed to have taken place? The people always respond to these criticisms with disbelief: “How have we disdained your name?” (1:6). The prophet and others begin to wonder, “Where is the just God?” (2:17). In response we have today’s short reading. There will come a purifying fire when the Lord comes in judgment. The heat of God’s judgment will consume evildoers, but it will bring “healing rays” for those who are faithful to God.

In his conclusion to his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul exhorts the community to avoid acting in a “disorderly” way, which is to say, in a way that disrupts the peace and harmony of the community. This can happen in a couple of ways: by sowing doubt and dissension about Christian doctrine or by refusing to contribute to the needs of the community through work (3:6). As they have been instructed to look to Christ as a model of trust in God (3:5), so they should look to Paul as a model of industriousness for the “common good.” Paul and his companions have avoided burdening the Thessalonians by demanding anything from them, but instead have worked for their bread. Those among them who are shunning work (perhaps because they thought the parousia had already occurred) or otherwise disrupting the harmony of the community are not looking out for the good of that community.

The temple in Jerusalem was massive and completely covered in gold. It must have been hard to imagine that it could ever be destroyed, as Jesus claims it will be (and was, by the Romans, in A.D. 70). Jesus assures the crowd that there will come a time when the world will come undone. But before this, and more immediately relevant to them, his followers will be subjected to the same trials and persecution that he is about to undergo. In response to this, they should not fear, but trust in God and see the trials as occasions to proclaim the gospel, which is perhaps most effectively and authentically preached under such circumstances. Although many will suffer, some even to the point of death, yet “not a hair on your head will be destroyed” if they remain faithful. He is speaking, of course, of life in him, both in this world and in the next.