Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 23, 2022 – Nehemiah 8:2-4A, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

Enthronement of the Word of God is all the readings we have today. Enthronement of the Word of God. Nehemiah, with a red face, had to tell us the story of what happened in exile, fifty years of exile. Where Nehemiah himself was in the king’s court as a cup-bearer in that place. And so he was somebody who was known in the place. Ezra himself, as a scribe and a priest was also, almost at the same time, over there. And, you know, the Persian kings were powerful people in those days. Artaxerxes, himself, was a very powerful king. But there was another small king rising up to become somebody we call Cyrus the Great, who overtook and defeated Babylon. So, when he came to Babylon, and as their king, he told the Israelites, who had been in bondage for fifty years, they can now return to Jerusalem. That was the handiwork of God anyway. So, Nehemiah, when he heard that the city was in ruins, he decided to go there to rebuild the city walls, to fortify the place. His intention wasn’t to stay there, but he had to stay there for so many years, rebuilding, and then trying to help the people for twelve years and more.

Ezra, himself, acted like Moses. Moses read the Law of God, the Commandments, to the people at an elevated area. You know, when they got annoyed, he threw the Commandments at them. But Ezra had to do that for a long, long time. And people listened. They didn’t complain. Rather, they cried after hearing the Word of God. He read from the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the bible, we call it the Pentateuch. He read from there for so many hours. So, instead of the people complaining about, “Oh, the preacher was so long, what now are we going to do? Why does he expect as if we have nothing to do at home.” They didn’t. Rather, they cried after hearing it. And he told them not to cry because, “Today is not the day of crying. It is the day of worshiping, honoring, glorifying God through His words. It’s the day of the Lord, the “Yom Yahweh,” the day of the Lord,” he said. And the people were happy after that because now they have decided to listen to the Word of God. They have decided to come back to God. They have decided to come back and reconcile with their God. That was the joy created by Ezra, the priest and the scribe.

We go over to Paul, himself. How this world realized that they were one. How they have recognized to know that God is in charge of us. He created us, as a people, in His own image and in His own likeness, so we are one. And Paul takes it up from there to tell us that we are one. No matter what you think you are, you are part of the building, the Body of God, the Body of Christ, which is called the church. The church is not what we are in, the church is you and I. We make up the church. And that’s why we have the chorister here, we have the player, we have the lector here, we have the altar server, we have the priest here. We are all priests. All of us. We share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. So, whenever we come to church, the only person that is the chief celebrant – I am the chief celebrant – but we’re all celebrants. And that’s why, when we say we respond to the word of God, we respond to what the priest says because we are, what they say in Latin, actuosam participationem, active participation, in the word of God. Nobody comes here as an onlooker. No, we all share, we all participate, in the body of Christ, in the word of God.

So, on the day you were baptized, the priest said something. Who can remember what he said? Only three words. When he puts the chrism on your forehead, he says, “You are now a priest. You are now a king. You are now a prophet.” That’s what he said to you the day you were baptized. A priest like Christ. A king like Christ. A prophet like Christ.

So, we are all one. The same body. That’s what Paul has taken up here to tell us. That there is no need for the infighting in the church – we fight a lot – we are supposed to be one, building up the body of Christ, holding up the body of Christ, protecting the body of Christ. That’s our mission. That’s what Paul is telling us. There are prophets, there are evangelists, there are interpreters of the Word. Everybody’s doing something just for the sake of the same family, the family of God. The Mass is said for the people of God. We didn’t say it for one individual. And so, we always participate.

The gospel is almost saying the same thing, the word of God. “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” Christ said, just as Nehemiah said. It was the same thing. “Today we have proclaimed the word of God to you, there’s no need to weep.” And Christ says, “The word has been fulfilled in your presence.” As usual, like the lector, all the budding young prophets and the rest of them, they participate in reading in the synagogue. So, they give Him a passage to read, as usual. That’s what the bible says. So, some people shy away when they’re asked to come and read, to participate, do this in the church. “No, no, I don’t have time. Can’t another person do it?” And who is that other person? You. To participate in the church, the body of Christ, to which you belong. The leg, the hand, the eye, the head, the toe, every part of it.

So you become part of it. You don’t have to fight your body. You don’t have to put your body down. You have only to protect and raise up the body of Christ, the church. Some people go out and criticize the church, “Oh it has done this.” But who is the church? Ask yourself who is the church? Nobody, but everybody. Because we belong to Christ and Christ belongs to us. And He says we have to build up this body. He is the foundation of that body. That’s why it is still standing. Otherwise the crowd would pull it down. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone of that wonderful strong building called the church.

So, we have to build up the body of Christ because the scripture reading has been fulfilled in your presence. And, you know what it is. The Holy Spirit works. And he continues to work in the church through you and through me. And everybody has to be “all hands on deck” so that we can preserve the body of Christ. So that we can uphold the body of Christ. So that we can strengthen the body of Christ which all of us are.

So, as Christ is inviting all of us today, and Paul is inviting all of us today, now you are Christ’s body and individually parts of it, individually parts of it. So don’t fight against yourself by fighting the church. It doesn’t pay any dividend anyway. So we have to build the body of Christ.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant. “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. Just like Nehemiah said. Just like Ezra said. When we listen to the word of God we put it into action. And the action is to worship God in spirit and in truth.