Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for January 21, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
3th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney
 Topic: We believe in Jesus Christ
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Gospel
Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
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I do not know what it is about snow. I’m sure you just love it and are fascinated by it. I’m sure someone here can’t stand it but just deal with it.

This is a very dramatic scene in the gospel of Luke today. Jesus returns home to Nazareth today. His reputation must have preceded him somewhat. He had just started his public ministry. This is very early in the Gospel of Luke. He returns home and someone asks Him to read and to speak in the synagogue. The synagogues were located throughout Israel and the disparate. There were synagogues in Rome, Egypt, places where the Jews were.

The structure of worship in the synagogue, we would be familiar with as Catholics. It varied somewhat, but there would be an admission of their sinfulness or weakness and they would ask God for pardon from sin. Then they would read from their scrolls. As many as seven different people read. They read mostly in Hebrew but most of the people didn’t understand Hebrew and they would translate into Aramaic and/or Greek. Interestingly, when they were reading the law, they would read one verse in Hebrew and then translate it. When they would read the prophets, they would read three verses at a time and then translate it. Then someone who was honored would speak or give the homily on what had just been proclaimed or he might give a sermon on some other topic. Then there were intercessory prayers asking God for what they needed and finally there was a benediction, a blessing, and then they left. There must have been a collection too, but there is no record of that. The word synagogue is a Greek word, which means, “to gather together”. It is similar to another Greek word ecclesia, which means, “to come together, to assemble”. That is where we get our word for church. It was the Jewish way of going to church.

Jesus comes and they heard about him. He is coming home, and how dramatic is the scene when He picks up the scroll from Isaiah that God will send someone powerful to give sight to the blind, to heal the sick, to proclaim the day of freedom, to free the captives. You know, a reference clearly in the prophet’s writing to the messiah, to the promised one. He reads the scroll and then He sits down. That is very important. It says that the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. They looked at him intently. I can almost see Him pausing and then saying, “Today this scripture passage has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Then He went on to explain that. In other words, right from the beginning He has proclaimed that He was the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah. He was the Messiah. He would later be come to be known as the Son of God.

It is important that we notice that He sat down. That says a lot. To sit down and speak is to speak with authority. We have that same custom. We may not know it, but if the boss visits you, if the director of the lab comes to see you in your office, stand up if you want to keep your job. You know, this is probably the exception . . . never mind. In most places . . . To sit down and to speak is to speak with authority. Some bishops sit and speak. The Latin word for “chair” is “cathedra” and that is where the word cathedral comes from because that is where the Bishop’s chair is. What that means is that He sits there and teaches us and that shows His authority. In fact, the expression, “The Chair of Peter” is in Rome. If you have been to St. Peter’s, there is the Great High Altar. There is another altar behind it at the end of the great Basilica. That’s called the Altar of the Chair. Above that altar is this tremendous piece of artwork by Bernini; it is a magnificent gold chair. That is the chair of Peter. There are four fathers of the church, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory and Ambrose, who appear to be holding the chair up. They really are not touching the chair, so it is suspended in air. A sign, Bernini’s message in the artwork, being that this is where the Vicar of Christ lives and teaches us from. This is his chair, in an artistic sense

We even use this term, the chair, to be seated, to teach in the secular world. There is a chairman or chairwoman of the board. Universities they often have the Chair of History, where the most principle historian, the expert, would sit in this chair and teach at Harvard or at Yale or wherever. We even have of course, in the Unites States, the seat of government which is in Washington. This notion of sitting and teaching is very important. It is important to the Scripture today because it means that Jesus spoke with absolute authority. He announces that He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Fulfilled in your hearing, He is the messiah, the Son of God. It is almost as if from the very beginning of his ministry, in his hometown, which of course would reject him. He is saying, “Let’s get one thing clear right from the start. Let me tell you who I am.” It almost cost him his life, as we will see in next weeks reading of the Scripture. Several verses later, Luke continues, “The people in the synagogue heard this they were all filled with fury. They rose up and drove Him out of town onto the brow of which their town had been built to hurl Him down headlong, but He passed through their midst of them and He went away.”

I speak to many people who are struggling with the faith. I meet many people who want to believe what we believe, and they are good people. They study, they read, and they pray. They do everything that is suggested to them. They long to have the faith that you have and that I have. Sometimes, try as they must, they say to me, “It’s just not there. I am leaving.” I just respect those people so much. Almost inevitably, they tell me, “You know, Jesus is a good man. I am very attracted to him. I have read his reading, I have studied him, and He was a good man. I just can’t accept that He was the Son of God, that He is God.” Indeed, leaders of other religions have respected Jesus. The Dali Lama hardly gets through a speech without mentioning Jesus. Gandhi considered Jesus one of his great heroes, a man of peace. Even some Christians really see Jesus as a great man, and not the Son of God. You know that when they don’t give him lordship over their life. In other words, those who claim to be Christians, who perhaps are Christians, when you hear them talk, and they say, “but I don’t follow that teaching, I don’t do that.” They are lord of their own lives. I guess when you boil it down, they think of Jesus as just maybe a great man, a great teacher. However, He is not. Jesus was not primarily a great man. That is not why we are here tonight. This is not the church of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. No one worships those guys as much as they love and respect them. We are here tonight, because we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, The Living God, the God Incarnate. I read this from a Christian blog today. For those of you who do not know what a blog is, God bless you, you are normal. Anyways, it is a series of thoughts on the Internet, where you can post your thoughts and people answer. You can have an ongoing discussion that never ends. It is very interesting and it is a way to find out lots of information.

Regarding the question of “Is Jesus who He says He is?” This is what is written. I think it’s written well.

We can make one of  three choices about Jesus by looking carefully at the New Testament.
  • Who He said He was.
    • He was either who He said He was, the Incarnate God.
  • Or, He was a lunatic, some guy who thought He was God.
    • I’ve met a few people like that too. They think they are God sometimes.
  • Or, He was a liar, He knew He wasn’t God, but claimed to be.
But as for being just a man, just a good moral teacher ... the New Testament does not leave open that possibility. That’s true if you think about it. He claims He was God. If He wasn’t, He wasn’t a good man because He lied or He was crazy. Right? We believe Jesus Christ is true God. As such, He is Lord of our life. Not because He is wise and good and compassionate, although He is all those things in spades, but because we believe He is the Lord because He is Lord. He is God. He is the only Son of God . . .

Eternally begotten by the Father
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
one in Being with the Father,
Through Him all things were made
For us men and for our salvation
He came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
He was born of the virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day He rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.

That is who Jesus Christ was and that’s who Jesus Christ is to those who have faith, to those who believe, to you and to me.