A homily — or perhaps a sermon — for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 26, 2025
Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Many of us grew up when Catholics weren’t supposed to read the Bible. We heard passages from Scripture at Mass, and the priest — always a priest in those days — would share some insights and his learned interpretations, and we’d be enlightened by the Word of God.
‘Nuff said.
Most, if not all, of us had Bibles at home, but those stayed on the shelf, pretty much. If that Bible was a family heirloom, its inner front and back covers held the kind of birth and baptism and marriage and death information that Ancestry.com would drool over.
The pages in between, though … those didn’t get much of a looky-see. Sad to say, some of those family Bibles wound up being used as door stops or tools for pressing dried flowers.
A few years ago, when I was a fourth-grader at St. Leo the Great in Lincroft, I thought I’d found a divinely wonderful use for our family Bible.
We had new next-door neighbors, a rabbi and his family.
All fired up by religion class, and incredibly naive, I hoped that, if I showed the rabbi’s son our Bible with the New Testament, he wouldn’t have to wait for the Messiah anymore.
Win-win, I figured. His family would be saved by the carpenter from Nazareth, and I’d have a first-class ticket to Heaven because I’d brought them into our faith.
Uh, no.
My bubble burst when David told me that his house was loaded with Bibles, and none of theirs had that New Testament thingy. It wasn’t something they believed in.
That day, I learned that we can’t hit somebody over the head with God’s Word. I learned it’s pretty close to sinful to even try.
Today, on the Sunday of the Word of God, as proclaimed by Pope Francis in 2019, we should take an extra moment with Scripture and ask the Holy Spirit for some inspiration, the kind of quiet insight that the noise of our busy lives may have drowned out.
Let’s start by reacquainting ourselves with the Bible and its 73 books. Yes, all those pages between the leather covers are separate books, but they all have the same author: God. God had some human help writing down what he said, so the different books are named for the people God employed at the time.
From the Old Testament through the New, we have laws, prophesies, histories, insights into human nature, insights into God’s nature, attempts to explain the inexplicable, and attempts to predict how humankind’s journey home to God will wind up.
Something for everyone, since time began.
Let’s note, however, that through Scripture we do not always have facts, especially not scientifically verifiable facts. But that’s OK, because the Bible is not calculus or astrophysics or organic chemistry or e=mc2.
Scripture is Truth, God’s Truth.
Through Scripture, we always have Truth.
We always have the Truth that God is Love.
We always have the Truth that God loves us and all of Creation.
We always have the Truth that God’s Love is patient and eternal.
We always have the Truth that God patiently offers each of us a loving, eternal relationship.
We always have the Truth that God sent his Only Begotten Son, his Word Made Flesh, to rescue us from the darkness of sin and evil.
We always have the Truth that God mercifully forgives us whenever we thumb our noses at that relationship because we misuse our free will and embrace sin.
We always have the Truth that God welcomes us home. To a loving home and family that we call the Body of Christ.
It takes about 3,000 years of writings in 73 different books to — frankly — get that through our thick skulls. (Sorry if I sounded a lot like my Dad just then.) But that’s the beauty of the Word of God as compiled by Moses, Isaiah, David, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and Paul. There’s something here for everyone, distilled from billions of perspectives over thousands of years, all pointing to the Ultimate Divine Reality at the center of this and every possible universe.
Prophetic works. Wise insights. Parables. How to live a life of kindness and strength of character. And much, much more.
Truth.
Truth is timeless, which means each of us can relate to something in those hundreds of pages and apply it to our 21st-century lives.
Yes, Truth can even be practical and modern. Imagine that!
So let’s make time today, let’s make time every day — unless we’re driving on the Parkway — to find a passage from Scripture and let God speak to us. Let’s not allow the dust of ages to build up on the books that contain the Wisdom — and Truth — of ages.
