3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: 24th January, 2016
Neh 8:2-6,8-10; 1Cor 12: 12-30; Lk 1:1-4, 4:14-21
Jesus came and lived here on earth amidst us to remind us about our call to be God's people and to show us how to do it!
There are three tasks outlined in the readings today:
1. Beginning with the Word
Building up the people of God has to be done on the foundation of the Word of God. We see Nehemiah doing it in the first reading and Jesus himself teaching in the synagogue for the first time. In our families or in our communities, we need to found ourselves on the Word.
2. Building up the Word
The Word was made flesh, the flesh was given to us and we were made One Body in Christ. The Word invites us to build up our communities of faith, in communion and sharing, thus building up the Word into a formidable challenge to the ways of the world. This task is to build up our believing community, the Body of Christ, the Body of the Word.
3. Becoming the Word
The word you have heard is fulfilled today in your hearing, declared Jesus. He was the Word personified...and we are today called to model our lives after him, to become the Word, to grow into the Word, living Word, images of Christ for the world today. Can our daily lives be fulfillments of the Word, here and now?