3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) 01-24-10

Scripture Readings
First Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Second 1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Gospel Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Prepared by: Fr. Allen B. Moran, O.P.

1. Subject Matter
· The Holy Spirit inspires, gives gifts, and fulfills what was inspired: The movement of the Spirit
is towards unity and the fulfillment of the inspired Word of God. In the first letter to the
Corinthians, it is through the one Spirit that one becomes a member of Christ’s body in
Baptism and through whom the diverse gifts and callings within the Body of Christ are given.
Each is given for a purpose within the overall order. Likewise, it is in the power of the Spirit
that Jesus returns to Nazareth and pronounces the inspired words of the prophet Isaiah
“fulfilled in your hearing.” The same movement of the Spirit gives gifts to us that through the
Body of Christ and the power of the Spirit that the poor might hear the Good News, those
imprisoned might be freed, the blind might see, and the oppressed might be set free.

2. Exegetical Notes
· “The solemn assembly of Neh 8 must be compared with the convocation of Sinai, Ex 19ff,
and with the ceremony of the renewal of the covenant under King Josiah 2 Kgs 23; these
texts deal with three vital moments in the history of Israel, and they present a striking
parallelism: (1) in each case the people are called together to a convocation by God’s
word; (2) then they hear a solemn proclamation of the Law; (3) after which they are led to
agree, by praise and prayer, to the word thus expressed. But whereas the ceremonies of
Ex 19 and 2 Kgs 23 were crowned by a sacrifice, the convocation of Neh 8 comes
practically to an end with the people ‘making great rejoicing’ in a community-meal.”
(Simon)
· The diversity of organs in a human body is not only an element of beauty, but an essential
condition of life. The diversity within the body does not arise from cultural background nor
from what nature establishes but from the gratuitous gifts which the Holy Spirit grants to
the faithful for the common good of the Church: the apostolate, prophecy, discourses
marked by wisdom or learning, etc…The charismata are definitely social peculiarities and
have for their author the Holy Spirit himself, who fashioins as he likes the mystical body,
of which he is the soul. (Prat)
· “If each of the organs could instinctively attract everything to itself, the entire body would
soon perish. It would be the same with the social body; but nature warns us against
selfishness. It makes us understand that we are not sufficient for ourselves, that each
member has its sphere of usefulness, that the weakest are often the most necessary, that
the least honourable are those who are usually treated with the most honour, that the
general health depends upon the proper working of the whole, and that the welfare of all
is dependent on the good condition of each one…We are members of one another (Rom.
12:5).” (Prat)
· “Separated from the head, the member no longer lives; isolated from the other members,
it would lead only an imperfect and precarious life.” (Prat)
· In St Paul the members, united to the head by the other members, receive the flow of life
through their means. The social life of the Church regulates and measures the growth of
each Christian, and the agent of this supernatural life is the Holy Spirit. (Prat)
· In this section of the Gospel according to Luke, the Spirit’s main role is to guide Jesus
and equip him for teaching; this is related to how the Spirit work in the infancy narratives
(1:15, 41, 67; 2:25). The Spirit is present at the start of Jesus’ ministry, just as the Spirit
will aid the earliest Church’s ministry in Acts 2. This point of continuity between Jesus’
ministry and that of the Church is the first of many made by Luke. (Bock)
· “The OT background of the passage is significant, as is the history of the interpretation of
Isa. 61. The Servant Song-like passage describes the prophet’s role in terms used of the
Servant of Isaiah, especially in 42:1-4 and 49:1-11. The figure of Isa. 61 brings a
message of God’s deliverance to exiles. The deliverance imagery parallels the
description of the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:8-17), when debts were canceled and slaves were
freed every fiftieth year. It is a picture of forgiveness and spiritual liberation, which is at
the center of Jesus’ message.” (Bock)
· The history of Jewish interpretation of Isa. 61 shows that by the first century this text was
seen to picture the dawning of the new eschatological age, so Jesus’ citation of this
passage would have led the audience to conclude that he was announcing the coming of
God’s new age of salvation…It is a time when much of what the prophets called for can
be realized among those who respond. (Bock)
· “It is the poor in general who sense their need in the greatest way and, as a result,
respond most directly and honestly to Jesus. They characterize concretely the person in
need. Their material deprivation often translates into spiritual sensitivity, humility, and
responsiveness to God’s message of hope. The message is offered to them and they
tend to be the most responsive to it…A strictly material and political interpretation of these
verses often ignores this crucial spiritual element and also tends to forget that Jesus
spoke in 6:23 of the reward existing in heaven for those who suffer.” (Bock)
· The Greek word used here for “release” of captives (aphesin) is used elsewhere in Luke
to denote forgiveness. (Harrington)
· Jesus’ proclamation of sight to the blind includes not only the miracles of restoration of
the sensory power of sight but also spiritual overtones (cf Lk. 1:77-80; 8:10; 10:23-24;
18:41-43). (Bock)
· Jesus declares that the time of fulfillment is today, that it is currently available. Luke uses
“today” repeatedly in his Gospel to make the point that the opportunity for salvation is this
very moment (2:11; 5:26; 12:28; 13:32-33; 19:5, 9; 22:34, 61; 23:43 and nine times in
Acts). The association with the Church in Acts is a part of this “today.” The “today” is not
so much a “now and only now” affair, as much as it is a timeless “now,” a reference to the
 immediate present, when fulfillment is available and a life-changing decision can be
made. Hope becomes a reality “today.” (Bock)

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

· CCC 716 The People of the "poor" - those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their God's
mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah - are in the end the
great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission during the time of the promises that
prepare for Christ's coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit,
which is expressed in the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people
prepared for the Lord."
· CCC 791 The body's unity does not do away with the diversity of its members: "In the
building up of Christ's Body there is engaged a diversity of members and functions. There is
only one Spirit who, according to his own richness and the needs of the ministries, gives his
different gifts for the welfare of the Church." The unity of the Mystical Body produces and
stimulates charity among the faithful: "From this it follows that if one member suffers
anything, all the members suffer with him, and if one member is honored, all the members
together rejoice." Finally, the unity of the Mystical Body triumphs over all human divisions:
"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in
Christ Jesus."
· CCC 795 Christ and his Church thus together make up the "whole Christ" (Christus totus).
The Church is one with Christ. The saints are acutely aware of this unity: Let us rejoice then
and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself. Do you
understand and grasp, brethren, God's grace toward us? Marvel and rejoice: we have
become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole
man.... The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members. But what does "head and
members" mean? Christ and the Church. Our redeemer has shown himself to be one person
with the holy Church whom he has taken to himself. Head and members form as it were one
and the same mystical person.
· CCC 798 The Holy Spirit is "the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of
the Body." He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity: by God's Word
"which is able to build you up"; by Baptism, through which he forms Christ's Body; by the
sacraments, which give growth and healing to Christ's members; by "the grace of the
apostles, which holds first place among his gifts"; by the virtues, which make us act
according to what is good; finally, by the many special graces (called "charisms"), by which
he makes the faithful "fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal
and building up of the Church."
· CCC 953 Communion in charity. In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself,
and none of us dies to himself."(Rom. 14:7) "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one
member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually
members of it."(1 Cor. 12:26-27) "Charity does not insist on its own way."(1 Cor. 13:5; 10:24)
In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints,
the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this
communion.
· CCC 1168 Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the
Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this
 source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really is a "year of the Lord's favor." The
economy of salvation is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the
Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is
anticipated "as a foretaste," and the kingdom of God enters into our time.
· CCC 1286 In the Old Testament the prophets announced that the Spirit of the Lord would
rest on the hoped-for Messiah for his saving mission. The descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus
at his baptism by John was the sign that this was he who was to come, the Messiah, the Son
of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit; his whole life and his whole mission are carried
out in total communion with the Holy Spirit whom the Father gives him "without measure."
· CCC 2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn
away from them: "Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from
you"; "you received without pay, give without pay." It is by what they have done for the poor
that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When "the poor have the good news
preached to them," it is the sign of Christ's presence.
· CCC 2444 "The Church's love for the poor is a part of her constant tradition." This love is
inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the
poor. Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to
give to those in need." It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of
cultural and religious poverty.

4. Patristic Commentary
· “Let the fear of God be unto us instead of a bond of iron. Let us loose them that are bound by
poverty, by affliction. There is no comparison between opening the doors of a prison, and
releasing an enthralled soul. There is no comparison between loosing the bonds of prisoners
and “setting at liberty them that are bruised;” (Lk 4:18). This last is far greater than the other;
for the other there is no reward in store, for this last there are ten thousand rewards.” (St.
John Chrysostom)
· By the sanctification of these seven gifts of the Spirit, as Isaiah said, is signified the fullness
of all virtue; the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the
Spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the Spirit of the fear of God. One, then, is the River,
but many the channels of the gifts of the Spirit. This River, then, goes forth from the Fount of
Life…Our rust is wantonness, our rust is lust, our rust is luxury, which dim the keen vision of
the mind with the filth of vices. Again, our moth is Arius, our moth is Photinus, who rend the
holy vesture of the Church with their impiety, and desiring to separate the indivisible unity of
the divine power, gnaw the precious veil of faith with sacrilegious tooth…But no one says to
the potter, “Why hast Thou made me thus?” For though our vessel be but common, yet one
is in honor, another in dishonor. (St. Ambrose)
5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars
· “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't
complicate the matter.” (St. Joan of Arc)
· We do not think it necessary to set forth here the praises of such instruction or to point out
how meritorious it is in God's sight. If, assuredly, the alms with which we relieve the needs of
the poor are highly praised by the Lord, how much more precious in His eyes, then, will be
the zeal and labor expended in teaching and admonishing, by which we provide not for the
 passing needs of the body but for the eternal profit of the soul! Nothing, surely, is more
desirable, nothing more acceptable to Jesus Christ, the Savior of souls. (Pope St. Pius X)
6. Quotes

· “It is in the "consolation of the Holy Spirit" that the Church increases. (Ac 9,31) The Holy
Spirit is the soul of the Church. It is He who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the
teaching of Jesus and of His mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today just as at the beginning
of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by Him.
The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself, and at the
same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the
Good News and to the kingdom being proclaimed.” (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75)
· “The entire activity of the Church is an expression of a love that seeks the integral good of
man: it seeks his evangelization through Word and Sacrament, an undertaking that is often
heroic in the way it is acted out in history; and it seeks to promote man in the various arenas
of life and human activity. Love is therefore the service that the Church carries out in order to
attend constantly to man's sufferings and his needs, including material needs.” (Benedict
XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 19)
· “As the years went by and the Church spread further afield, the exercise of charity became
established as one of her essential activities, along with the administration of the sacraments
and the proclamation of the word: love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and
needy of every kind, is as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of
the Gospel. The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect
the Sacraments and the Word.” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 22)

7. Other Considerations
· “The fulfillment of the Gospel in our lives depends on our hearing it attentively, listening to it
lovingly, and responding to it faithfully…The fulfillment in our hearing also involves our
seeing: ‘The eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.’ For the fulfillment in Christ
takes effect at the moment of its proclamation, yet it enfolds systematically over the course of
Jesus’ ministry. To witness this promised fulfillment, we must continue to keep our eyes
intently fixed on Jesus at every moment. There is a certain urgency about this, for Jesus will
lament: ‘If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your
eyes’ (Lk 19:42). When we lose focus of the Lord in our life, the fulfillment he professes
loses its force for us personally.” (Cameron)
· “We are a body taken up into the today of Christ. The Jews were not members but were
individuals within a national community; we are interrelated members within the body of
Christ. Paul describes this in detail. There are no individuals anymore, only organs, each of
which functions for the living whole that constitutes the organism…Our differentness is not for
us alone but for all the others, who corporately make up the indivisible Whole. And this is an
ethical, not a physiological, matter: in Christ’s constant Today we live for him and for one
another. Each of us has a personal, irreplaceable task, but not for its own sake, rather for
the living whole. Each of us has to carry out our mission in the Spirit of the whole, the Spirit
who assigned that which is specific to each of us…each of us who has the Spirit must live
outside himself, in love to the other, in the other. That is the Today that results from Christ’s
Today of fulfillment.” (von Balthasar)
Recommended Resources
Biblia Clerus, Congregation for the Clergy, http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/index.htm
Bock, Darrell L. Luke: 1:1-9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament. Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1994.
Cameron, O.P., Peter John. To Praise, to Bless, To Preach: Spiritual Reflections on the Sunday
Gospels, Cycle A. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2001.
Harrington, O.P., W.J. “St. Luke” in A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Reginald
Fuller, Leonard Johnston, Conleth Kearns, O.P. eds. Nashville: Nelson, 1975.
Prat, S.J., Fernand. TheTheology of Saint Paul. Two Volumes. Westminster, MD: Newman,
1927.
Simon W.F., P. “Ezra-Nehemiah” in A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Reginald
Fuller, Leonard Johnston, Conleth Kearns, O.P. eds. Nashville: Nelson, 1975.
Von Balthazar, Hans Urns. Light of the Word. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993.