Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Gospel speaks of Jesus’ relationship to Scripture. “According to his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. They handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah.” (Luke 4:16-17).

DI
God longs to meet people. Encountering God is real. It only takes so little. Scripture is a book whose first author is God. God instructed the scribes what to write. The Bible, the Holy Scriptures, is the word of God. God desires to meet a man as much as man is available to Him. It is a particular mystery. John, by the word “Word,” represents Jesus. The eternal Word or Jesus, the Second Divine Person, is a “light in the darkness” for man; He wants us to know and live under the influence and in the power of the Word that Jesus speaks to us. Jesus came that we might believe through him, receive him, become children of God, that man might realize that God is so near.
The Gospel describes how Jesus manifested himself as the God-man. He proved that he was the predicted and expected Messiah through his teachings, miracles, and signs. He redeemed and saved us by His suffering, death, and resurrection, reconciling us to his Father. If Jesus had not done this, we would never have known with our human reason what Jesus has revealed to us. Jesus said: “I will not leave you as orphans” (Jn. 14:18). And He gave us the assurance, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20). These are the last words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel.
With today’s Gospel passage, St. Luke reveals what led him to write the Gospel. He shows that others have already narrated the events as they happened around Jesus. They are the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Luke was a companion of St. Paul, listening to he preach about Jesus, especially among the Gentiles. The addressee of the Gospel is “the noble Theophilus.” He may be an unknown person, but it may be a term referring to all who desire to know God. “Theophilos” means “friend of God” or “loving God.” The word, for Luke, is the words of those who have seen Jesus with their own eyes, listened to him, encountered him. All of this, after careful examination, he wants to offer as a source for believing that Jesus was the Son of God.
Luke describes the event as Jesus coming to Nazareth, where he grew up. Jesus is already known. His parents had already heard of him. Jesus has already performed several miracles, and his speeches in the synagogues surprise the Jews. On the Sabbath in a temple he knew intimately, and among those who knew him well, he takes up his role as an adult Jew to read and explain the text of Scripture. Unrolling the scroll he is handed, he reads a passage from the prophet Isaiah to the Messiah. After reading the text, he unrolled the scroll, and the eyes of those present are fixed on Jesus. What Jesus says about the passage surprises the natives. They feel offended by Jesus’ words, “Today this scripture you have just heard has been fulfilled.” (Luke 4:21). The Evangelist St. Luke bears witness to Jesus being the Messiah. The parents would still have accepted Jesus as a prophet, but not the Messiah.

PAR
Theology teaches both the presence of Christ in the Church and that Jesus is truly present in His Word whenever the Holy Scriptures are read, that is, when He speaks.
The Arabs call both Jews and Christians “people of the Book.” The name is nice, but not entirely true. The Church is never a community gathered around a dead, inanimate book. At the heart of the Christian community is the living Jesus, the Word of God. Christ stands amid his people as the living Word. St. Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, defines, “The living Word is the Word of God, more effective and sharper than any two-edged sword; it penetrates to the separation of the soul from spirit, and of the joints from the point, and divides the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).
If the Holy Scriptures become the word of life, they must be known and meditated upon constantly. By frequent reading of the Scriptures, one can come to the knowledge that “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:8). Then we agree with the words of St. Hieronymus: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

MY
To read the Holy Scriptures is different from reading the daily press. In reading Scripture, one is confronted with the Word of God. One is in dialogue with God. One realizes and responds to whom one considers the Son of Man. The response is not a one-time response, only a sacramental one, because the reaction is the bread of life. Daily life is a response to the Word of God. In dialogue with God’s word, a man stands face to face with God. It is necessary to understand God’s word correctly, understand it, and live by it.

There was a shepherd who whistled different melodies to his flock according to the state of his inner being. Every day he found time to whistle but also to think. This led him to think of something more beautiful, significant, and perfect. The silence and the songs, the melodies, developed this in him more and more. One day he saw a beautiful, brightly colored bird. “This is what I long for,” said the shepherd to himself and decided to catch the bird. When he had it in his grasp, the bird flew away and landed on a branch of a tall fir tree. The shepherd climbed up after it. But as he got closer, the bird flew away. He saw a cat that wanted to catch the blackbird as he was coming down. He saved its life. Then he saw a colorful bird sitting on the shore of the lake. As he was about to catch it, it flew away. The shepherd saw a little fish in the net. He freed it from the trap and let it go. He noticed that the bird was sitting on a branch opposite.

Again the shepherd hurried after the colored bird. He did not catch it now. He noticed that the flower was drying up by the bush. He watered it but did not catch the bird. The bird took to the heights and seemed to invite him on with its song. The shepherd thought to himself, “Are you making fun of me?” He returned to the sheep. As he slept that night, he dreamed that the blackbird he had saved from the cat was singing to him. Looking at the surface of the river, he was comforted by the sight of the fish he had rescued from the net, and by the bush, he was comforted by the presence of the flower that had not withered away. When the shepherd awoke, he understood the meaning of his happiness.

Reading the Scriptures, meditating on them, even if one does not at once understand the meaning of his life, one comes to know values that far surpass all that one ordinarily regards as one’s happiness. The time, the strength devoted to reading and meditating on the Scriptures, very quickly becomes an enrichment and a source of joy. This has been understood and experienced by many.

ADE
Many priests, not only priests, have come to know the inspiration of a beautiful life with the Holy Scriptures. The proverb says that “a book is a man’s friend,” and whoever gets to know the Book of Books – the Holy Scriptures, gets to know the greatest friend, Jesus, the Son of God.