Jan. 27, 2013: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
How many of us enjoy in the morning, opening up the newspaper, turning on the TV news or listening to radio? As much as we enjoy morning breakfast to feed our body, we crave reading or listening to feed our spirit. Before I entered the seminary, on my daily 35-minute drive to work, I used to enjoy listening to morning radio news. But at some point in time, I changed from listening to the news to popping in an audio bible in the CD player. I came to realize that by the time I arrived at the plant, I felt different--I felt as if I was enlightened in some way.
Perhaps our responsorial psalm gives us an explanation as to why there is a different effect between listening to news and listening to scriptures. The psalm reads, “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life. The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul...The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The command of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eye.” News may be filled with information--traffic, weather, politics, and police reports. With news, we stay informed, but "the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
It has been said that ‘a person is enlightened’, not ‘when they get an idea’, but ‘when someone looks at them’. A person is enlightened when another loves them. Our eyes are windows on to the heart; they search the person out and have power to elicit life. In a sense, the gospel is the gaze of Jesus, which is not dispassionate, nor merely passive. His gaze is not an art gallery gaze, wandering from exhibit to exhibit and leaving what he sees unchanged. His gaze engages what he sees and affects it: For Jesus, to gaze is to love, and to work favors. His eyes are effective: His gaze works four blessings in our souls: it cleanses us, makes us beautiful, enriches and enlightens us.
In today's Gospel, Jesus is handed a scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, and he reads the following passage: “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.” The gospel is not mere information like news, but it is the living and loving gaze of Jesus into our souls, bringing about the freedom he has won for us through his death and resurrection. It's is a living word that has power to change and transform lives, and bring freedom and healing to those who receive it as the word of God.
If Jesus says his words have the power to set captives free and let the oppressed go free, he does not mean to apply it to someone way out there. It should apply to each of us in our own home. Do my words to others comfort and ease, or do my words bind and oppress? Just as Jesus' words transforms me, my own words should bring freedom and healing to my spouse, my children, or my friends.
Do you want to be changed and transformed by God's living word? Listen to his Son and receive his word with expectant faith and trust.
