January 26, 2025
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 69
Reading I: Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
which consisted of men, women,
and those children old enough to understand.
Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,
he read out of the book from daybreak till midday,
in the presence of the men, the women,
and those children old enough to understand;
and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform
that had been made for the occasion.
He opened the scroll
so that all the people might see it
— for he was standing higher up than any of the people —;
and, as he opened it, all the people rose.
Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God,
and all the people, their hands raised high, answered,
“Amen, amen!”
Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD,
their faces to the ground.
Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God,
interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe
and the Levites who were instructing the people
said to all the people:
“Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep”—
for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
He said further: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
R. (cf John 6:63c) Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart
find favor before you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Reading II: 1 Cor 12:12-30 or 1 Cor 12:12-14, 27 (abbreviated)
Brothers and sisters:
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many.
If a foot should say,
“Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, “
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
Or if an ear should say,
“Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body, “
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God placed the parts,
each one of them, in the body as he intended.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you, “
nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.”
Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker
are all the more necessary,
and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable
we surround with greater honor,
and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety,
whereas our more presentable parts do not need this.
But God has so constructed the body
as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,
so that there may be no division in the body,
but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;
if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.
Some people God has designated in the church
to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers;
then, mighty deeds;
then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,
and varieties of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Alleluia: Cf. Lk 4:18
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
and to proclaim liberty to captives.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings
you have received.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Reflection
Today’s Readings, Responsorial Psalm and Gospel point to man’s encounter with God through holy worship and why we must keep the traditions of our faith. Saint Paul made mention of this when he said: “…stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). The Bible is part of our written tradition and its pages contain the oral tradition of the Church. Those pages were caused to be written for liturgy and posterity – so that it may be passed on from generation to generation. The Bible, as we know it now, is an heirloom if you may because it was compiled by the authority of the Church, for the Church and to be read in the Church.
The First Reading and the Gospel, portrays to us that God’s Word is read before the congregation in a liturgical setting while in the Second Reading, Saint Paul reminds us that all of us are endowed with gifts from the Holy Spirit to be shared with our fellowmen and contributed back to the Church, which is nothing less than the family and kingdom of God. The Church is, among others, a Christian tradition because all the members are called to make it grow by making disciples of all nations. Therefore, our individual gifts from the Holy Spirit, when contributed properly, are meant to call others into the Church because by those gifts, they see Christ in us. It should make others believe and hope in Christ.
It is true that the faithful are encouraged to read the Bible all the time for spiritual growth and piety. In fact, there are even indulgences given for prayerfully reading the Bible daily. However, today’s Readings and Gospel highlight the fact that holy Scriptures are part and parcel of liturgical service and worship to God. In case you hadn’t noticed, the Bible is filled with instructions from God for worship which were given for our sake, out of His unconditional love for us. The Book of Leviticus, which is filled with instructions for the Levite priesthood, is an example of this.
In Exodus, God gave instructions on how the Passover should be celebrated. There, you’ll discover a long list of things to do that you can’t just consign to memory. There are simply so many of them. The Passover “…shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance forever (Ex 12:14). They have to be written so that succeeding generations could memorialize and perpetuate it for future generations. Like any other tradition in the Jewish faith, the Passover had to be passed on because it is part of their identity as God’s chosen people.
For us Christians, the Mass is our tradition. It is also our worship. We would not have understood and memorialized the Last Supper of Christ if we didn’t even bother to read the Old Testament and had discovered that the said event was not only the new Passover in the New Testament, it was also obedience and compliance to God’s faithful words: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 24 & 1 Corinthians 11). If the Passover was intended as a memorial of the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, the Last Supper was intended as a memorial of the man’s liberation from sin and death. The Last Supper, read together with the Crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, completes the work of salvation of our Lord. All of these rightfully deserve our worship of Him who paid so dearly to give us new life and to perpetuate that which our Lord instructed us to do.
If these things weren’t recorded for the purpose of remembrance and perpetuation of events, they would’ve been forgotten and died a natural death due to trivialization and unfaithfulness to orthodoxy, and that would have been the greatest disaster that fell on mankind.
To worship God is right and just. It is also fitting and proper. Because we were created in the image and likeness of God, and because He gave us life, it is only natural for us to worship and serve Him. We go back to Him regularly by reading what He has said and worshipping Him according to His ordinance and will. In worship, there must be solemnity and purpose, and it must always point to the divine. To trivialize and vulgarize what is and should be divine is the very definition of apostasy and sacrilege.
In the very pages of the Bible, particularly in the Gospel of Luke and Saint Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, we have been commanded, because of love, to remember Him in the breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine in liturgy. And that includes, reading aloud, before the congregation, what He taught us from the very beginning because He is the Word of God as the Bible is also included in our written tradition.
Saint Paul made it clear when he said: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).
First Reading
Today, we come across the story of the handing down of God’s law (Commandments) by Ezra the priest before the twelve tribes of Israel. It was read aloud before them – men, women and even children who could already comprehend. After it was read, the people of Israel declared that everything that the Lord God was asking of them to do, they will follow and obey:
“Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand. Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate, he read out of the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand; and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.” (Nehemiah 8: 2-3)
Notice that the reading of the God’s law is spearheaded by a priest of God and read aloud before God’s people in assembly, including children.
This particular account most probably took place on the Festival Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year, which is the first day of the seventh month in the Jewish calendar called “Tishri”, and usually coincides in September of our Gregorian calendar.
If Jews are called to gather and read aloud the creation account and law of God during Rosh Hashanah, it is no wonder that the First of January is a holy day of obligation for Christians to gather at Mass since Christianity indeed takes from Jewish traditions. Besides, it is always good to thank God and ask for His blessings at the start of everything that we do in life.
The First Reading continues: Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people, their hands raised high, answered, “Amen, amen!” Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD, their faces to the ground. Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read (Nehemiah 8:6).
The account unmistakably tells of a liturgical service because of the following elements present thereat – blessing from priests who mediates between God and man, a congregation who assents to the blessing and mediation by proclaiming “Amen”, the gesture of humble prostration in recognition of the presence of the divine and offering of self to the divine and the reading of the law of God and Scriptures.
May we again point to the fact about the importance of Scriptures and that they should be read aloud before the people of God during liturgical services because it is part of tradition.
National Bible Month Catechesis: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21).”
This passage makes for very interesting catechesis about the Bible because with these verses, our Lord Jesus himself referred to Scriptures, specifically Isaiah Chapter 61, Verse 4. And to top it all, He even says that what He just read is already fulfilled, implying that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy. That must have been some declaration which must have drawn drastic reactions. In fact, several verses later, the congregation started asking who Jesus was and some of those who knew Him commented that He is none other than Joseph’s son, a carpenter and an ordinary but God-fearing man. You can hear the slight contempt that they had because they couldn’t imagine that a son of a lowly carpenter from Nazareth would have the balls to say that the prophecy from Isaiah is fulfilled and He is the fulfillment of it all. People in the congregation would have been angry because anybody who makes such a claim and is not a lunatic is saying that He comes from Heaven. Their doubting minds would have easily considered this blasphemous.
Notice that Jesus read from the Old Testament because the New Testament has yet to be written, preached and canonized by the Church. Let’s unpack this story a little more.
Jesus went to a synagogue in Nazareth for Sabbath service and prayers. Strictly speaking, Jewish worship can only be done in Jerusalem where the Temple is because that is the only place where animal sacrifice is offered for worship, for supplication, thanksgiving and atonement for sins. True worship requires sacrifice. Since the time of Noah, “clean animals” were already being sacrificed to God by His chosen people. What is done at synagogues all over the world, on the Sabbath, is the reading from the Old Testament, homily, prayers and fellowship – in short, worship without sacrifice. Notice that these things are similar to what Catholics witness at Mass, and this clearly highlights the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith. There is one stark difference though – The Eucharist, which is the perpetual thanksgiving sacrifice of Jesus to the Father.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Mass is the only true worship to God because we offer Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29; Rev 4:6), as the only pure and worthy sacrifice to the Father in the Eucharist (in holy thanksgiving), through His ministerial priesthood, as we partake of Him in Holy Communion as one body in Christ (Romans 12:5). Saint Paul said: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1Corinthians 10:16-17). To “worship” God only with the reading of Scriptures, homily and prayers does not comply with the Last Supper command of: “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Jesus, the Eternal High Priest of Heaven and earth, offers Himself as the only worthy, pure and perpetual sacrifice to the Father. The suffering and death of our Lord on Good Friday is the perpetual thanksgiving sacrifice that, by its nature, never ends even if all of the elect and saved are already in Heaven because thanksgiving to the Father will never end and should not end. Therefore, every Mass is a thanksgiving for the salvation Jesus won for us all. It is NOT about sacrificing Jesus over and over again because His thanksgiving sacrifice had already been done on Good Friday. However, the benefit of the thanksgiving of Jesus to the Father on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday, including remission of all our sins, is something that will go on forever due to its eternal characteristic since it was meant to forgive all sins and give thanks to the Father forever – something which does not end and will never end even when time gives way to eternity.
Therefore, the Mass is the liturgy which represents the never ending liturgy already going on in heaven since before the world began, and in fact connects to the said heavenly liturgy as a uniting worship when the congregation on earth joins with the congregation of angels and saints in heaven. From another perspective, we say that the Mass does not repeat the unrepeatable sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary; instead, it is a divine link into the eternal liturgy happening in heaven for the benefit of those who are on earth and purgatory.
Going back to the story, Jesus was allowed by synagogue leaders to read Scriptures in front of the congregation. He was handed the scrolls and read a passage from Isaiah which we now know as Chapter 61, Verse 24 (remember, there were no chapter breaks and verse designations then): “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Isaiah 61:24, Luke 4:18-19). Then, Jesus says these explosive but hope-filled words: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Reading & Announcing Holy Scriptures
Since the invention of writing instruments and media like papyrus, the Israelites put down in writing pretty much everything that God has said and done in salvation history. God has caused men to write down His message.
Reading from Holy Scriptures was not new to the Jews during the time of Jesus. Ever since God commanded Moses to make sure that His ordinances were taught and read to Israel with regularity, Israelites-Jews relied on the writings of the prophets and messengers to remind them about God’s commandments and ordinances because “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3: 16-17).
When the Israelites were at the foot of Mount Sinai, God instructed Moses to tell the House of Jacob (referring to the nation of Israel) to pass on His words and ordinances to the children of Israel (Exodus 19:6). So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” (Exodus 19:7-8).
In connection with the Great Shema in Deuteronomy, God said to Israel: “And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
Christianity picked up the tradition of reading and announcing from Holy Scriptures from the Israelites-Jews because like them, we need to be reminded of what God has said and done because everything is for our benefit. With more reason that we should listen to Jesus (Mark 9:2–13; Matthew 17:1–13; Luke 9:28–36) and obey Him because He is the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev 19:13) incarnate. Reading and announcing God words is usually done with worship.
In the Gospel today, Jesus reads from Holy Scriptures, following the tradition of the Israelites-Jews, because He is the Son of Man and a faithful Jew from the tribe of Judah. But He is also the only begotten Son of the Father, the Lamb of God and the Word of God who fulfills all the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament. This is the reason why He had all the right to say: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God in the flesh, is actually telling us that it was He who spoke those words way back in Isaiah 61:24 and it is He who stands in front of the congregation at Nazareth to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37) and the fulfillment of the promises of the God in the Old Testament. Jesus is Truth (John 14:6).
Reflection: Help Spread the Word & Make This World A Better Place
The story tells us one simple and straightforward point – God is true and His mighty Word, Jesus, is Truth himself – Jesus is Truth incarnate. The Bible is called the Word of God because in all its pages, books, chapters and verses appear Jesus, the Word of God, and “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (John 1:3).
The Bible has been canonized by the Church in the fourth century for the purpose of spreading the Gospel (the good news), and the message is this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
To believe in Jesus means that all those who profess to be Christians must make Him Lord and King of their lives. Anything less than this kind of loyalty and discipleship is an insult to Jesus because He never held anything back and He gave away His life just to save us from eternal death.
To believe in Jesus means loving Him more and to love Him more each day is all about daily conversion. It is about changing our minds and hearts so that they are always in-tune with what God wants. The pages of the Bible provide us with so much information about Jesus. In fact, God calls us into covenant and deeper relationship with Him through the pages of Holy Scriptures because the Bible speaks God’s Word.
With today’s technology, there is no more excuse not to read the Bible daily because there are several dozen apps which offer free download of the Bible into your phones and devices, IOS or Android. Just make sure you download the Bible with 73 Books: 46 in the Old and 27 in the New Testament.
We can make this world a better place if we stop relying on politicians and candidates as if they are the only solution to problems. In Jesus, we can make a difference if we only start believing, thinking and acting like the Lord. Jesus is our salvation and here we dare say, the only solution to all our problems if we only start believing. Therefore, if you still believe in the power of the name of the Almighty Word of God, please do your part and help in spreading the Gospel to all those you encounter daily in your life. Start by reading the Bible so that you can impart the Word of God to others and maybe, just maybe, we can start infecting others with something which goes viral again – not Covid-19, but with the Gospel.
A blessed Sunday to everyone.
– Gospel Reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry