January 28, 2025
Jesus proclaims God’s kingdom and his mission as he begins his ministry in Sunday’s Gospel. What does that mean for us, his followers?
Here’s a short reflection:
The Bully Pulpit. As we recognize the change of administration happening in the United States at this time, a phrase like this comes to mind. We think that presidents, senators, mayors and others enjoy a special place in public discourse. They can use their positions, and their voice, to call attention to certain things — a bully pulpit. Sometimes we like this; often, however, we resent being told what to feel or think.
We have the striking image of Ezra getting into a pulpit to speak to the Jewish people in our first reading. The scene echoes others in the Jewish Scriptures when a prophet speaks to the people as a whole. Obviously in the days before microphones and video, it is unlikely that someone could address an entire population. But these scenes speak of the importance of God’s Word, and how God’s Word formed the identity of the Jewish people.
This Third Sunday of Ordinary time has been designated as The Sunday of the Word of God by Pope Francis. It asks us how we hear God’s word, and how big a place God’s Word has in our lives. We might think this about knowing bible history better or memorizing important Bible sections. But the real emphasis is on whether the essence of the Good News has entered our hearts.
In today’s Gospel, the situation seems very different than Ezra’s. Here, Jesus is back in his hometown, is visiting a synagogue or faith-sharing center. He has no pulpit on which he is standing. Yet his words, taken from the prophet Isaiah, challenge us to this day. Jesus is announcing his mission, what he hears the Father asking of him. He is telling us that his mission is to embody the mercy and healing of God, particularly for those we seem to have no hope.
Jesus’ first mission is to bring Good News to the poor. This, then, is the first thing we must hear and learn as his followers. Jesus comes as a Savior and as new hope to people who are desperate, whose lives would be otherwise empty. Have we personally heard this Good News? Behind all the catechism classes we attended, behind all the sermons we have heard, behind all the rules and commandments, have we heard and felt the Good News of God’s infinite love for each one of us? This is the Gospel we need to hear: God’s personal and infinite love for each of us.
We know we have heard God’s Word when that Word begins to make sense of our lives, when we know why we are living, when we experience love and compassion, when our lives are filled with joy because we have experienced God’s love. This is the first and most important thing that God’s Word has to teach us: how his love brings meaning and direction in our lives.
This, Jesus says, is the reality of our lives, what makes us his sisters and brothers, what makes us children of the heavenly Father. And this infinite love of God, revealed in Jesus’ words and life, is what makes sense of everything: why we are, what we are called to do, and what our unending destiny will be. God’s Word is Good News. How deeply have we heard it?