3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jan.

24, 2010
(Neh. 8:2-4, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Cor. 12:12-30; Lk. 1-4, 4:14-21)

The structure of the Catholic liturgy has roots dug deep in the past, a past
traceable at least in part to the liturgies of the Jewish Synagogue services which
began during and after the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. That liturgy was
comprised in simple terms of prayers, singing of Psalms, readings from the Law and
the Prophets and sermons or discussions on those readings.
In Sunday’s reading from Nehemiah, a reformer of the post exilic period (i.e.
sometime after 500 B.C.), all “the men, women and children old enough to
understand” in Jerusalem were assembled to hear the Law proclaimed and
explained by Ezra, the priest. The scene suggests it was the formal proclamation of
the Law as though it were a new publication, which it may well have been. Moses
was the great hero of the Exodus which gave rise to the original law revealed on Mt.
Sinai. It is THAT law to which Ezra refers when he proclaims the law to the
assembly. But it is the formal revised version, some of which had clearly been
worked out by the priests while in exile. Now that the exiles had returned to the
Holy Land this became the occasion of the Law’s formal publication.
Once the proclamation was complete and they had a chance to study more
closely what had been proclaimed it led to a public confession of the many sins they
and their ancestors had committed. Even though they did no penance during the
proclamation and continued to eat and to drink and to celebrate, when the reading
was over they went into a state of mourning and confession of guilt for their sins
and the sins of the ancestors. The confessional prayer can be found in Neh. 9: 6-37.
It is a powerful confession that links the present generation with all their ancestors
in an admission of collective responsibility for the dire straits in which the nation
now struggled. The confession is used to remind the Lord of all the acts of mercy
that had been granted in the past and an expression of hope that God might act
again in mercy.
In fact the Synagogue had developed during the Exile when no sacrifice could
be offered since the Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed in 586. Jews kept the
faith alive by coming together in meeting places to pray and reflect on the law and
the prophets, probably while they were still in Babylonia. For Jews not near
Jerusalem this became a way to strengthen their religious moorings even if they
could not offer sacrifice in Jerusalem.
 This system was in place and is part of the scene described in the Gospel of
Luke. Note Sunday’s passage jumps from Luke’s opening gospel verses explaining
why he has chosen to write down his own version of events to the scene in Nazareth
in the synagogue he was probably raised in. Typical of the service he is invited to
read from the prophet Isaiah. He had to unroll the scroll since scrolls were written
on parchment (animal skins) sewn together. It was the job of the scribe to find the
passage on a given Sabbath.
The dramatic claim Jesus makes that the passage is fulfilled in their hearing is
bold. Now Luke will begin the gradual revelation of how Jesus fulfills the vision of
Isaiah. But the shock value of an opening line like that delivered to his own
townsfolk would have sparked precisely the kind of reaction we’d expect--complete
and utter rejection. That will be reported in next week’s Gospel passage.

Fr. Lawrence Hummer