Homily for Sunday, January 24, 2010

There was a time when the children of Israel were conquered by an invading army from Babylon.  After conquering the City of Jerusalem, the Babylonians carried off all the Jewish survivors to the land of Babylon and kept them captive for 70 years.  At the end of those 70 years the conquering Persians set the children of Israel free to return to their destroyed capital of Jerusalem allowing them to rebuild their destroyed city and reestablish the Temple. 

    The Persians put in charge a Jew by the name of Nehemiah to govern the people.  The priest Ezra was authorized to reorganize the religious life and he recognized the immediate need to refamiliarize the people with their collective memory of who they were as the chosen people of God.

    It was while the children of Israel were languishing in exile in Babylon for those 70 years that the oral tradition was put down in writing and collected together as what we now call the books of the Torah or the first 5 Books of the Old Testament.  

    This brings us to today’s first reading.  Ezra gathered the people and read to them from the Torah.  As he read he expounded on the text as I am doing right now.  As the people were reminded of who they were, they were so stricken that they were weeping.  They saw the difference between their noble calling and how they did not live their lives in accord with their noble calling.

    That’s why Ezra had to tell them not to be sad about what they have failed to do, but rather to rejoice at how the Lord was calling them to with greater purpose, as the children of God.

    My brothers and sisters, we are in a similar situation today in that very many of our own people do not grasp the noble calling which has been given to us.

    Is it not true that the overwhelming majority of our people do not know the Scriptures, do not know who Adam and Eve were, nor Abraham, nor Moses and the Burning Bush?  Do they know the promise of a Messiah and the fulfillment of that promise in Christ Jesus?  Do they realize the impact of what life in Christ is meant to be?  Look and see if there is really much difference between the way life gets lived by believers and non-believers.  

    Does forgiveness mark our lives more deeply than a tattoo?  Are the poor really at the top of our list of concerns?  Do we really want the imprisoned to go free?  Do we really and genuinely care about what has driven so many people to abandon the land of their fathers and come to this country -- even illegally?  Have we allowed the Lord Jesus to liberate us from our self-interest so we can challenge our own behaviors, our own greed and self-indulgence and other ways of surrendering to the values of our culture which are contrary to the Gospel?

    We are the body of Christ.  Each of us has our own unique part to play in the salvation of the world, each us is but a member of the whole body, but each of us is indispensable, because when one part of the body suffers the whole body suffers.  Do we not grasp this dynamic now as we watch our brothers and sisters in Haiti suffering as much as they are?  Are we not stirred into action?

    It was the proclamation of the Scriptures that reinvigorated the returning exiles.  And it was Jesus’ proclamation of the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah that made clear the meaning and purpose of Jesus – that He came to bring good news to the poor, to set captives free, give sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free and to announce the favor of the Lord.

    So today I call upon you and appeal to you, take advantage of our Lenten program that will help us rediscover the Bible.  On Tuesdays starting in Lent, we will have a morning session and an evening session, whichever time of day works for you.  It’s called a “Quick Journey through the Bible.”  A modern day Ezra will show you how to interpret the Word of God in such a way that you will by the end of Lent say, “Oh Lord, how could I have waited to this point in life to begin to grasp the meaning of life you offer us in the Bible?”