{"id":7336,"date":"2022-01-22T12:58:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T12:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=7336"},"modified":"2022-01-22T12:58:47","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T12:58:47","slug":"sunday-of-the-word-of-god-23-01-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/sunday-of-the-word-of-god-23-01-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday of the Word of God (23.01.2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!<\/em><\/strong> (Lk 11: 28)<\/p>\n

Within the heart of the liturgy <\/em><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s gospel reading (Luke 4:14-21) we are in the heart of the Sabbath morning liturgy. When Jesus gets up in the synagogue of Nazareth to do the prophetic reading, the reading of the Torah and the prayers included in the first part of the rite have already been proclaimed. It is in the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah that Jesus finds the foundational scriptural passage of his mission. Who knows how many times the Jewish faithful have heard and prayed these prophetic words that announce grace, mercy, justice and fraternity? We note that the prophetic text he reads speaks directly, not in the third person but in the first person: \u201cThe spirit of the Lord has been given to me for he has anointed me. He has sent me<\/em>…\u201d But of whom does the Prophet speak, \u201cis the prophet referring to himself or someone else?<\/em>\u201d (cf. Ac 8:34).<\/p>\n

The \u201ctoday\u201d of Jesus<\/em><\/p>\n

There are moments of silence, everyone is holding their breath. Jesus rerolls the scroll (it is he who opens it, it is he who closes it), hands it back to the attendant and sits down (the reading is done standing, the homily seated). Everyone\u2019s eyes are on him. What will he say in the homily? However, Jesus does not preach, he does not comment on the text, he declares instead its fulfilment: \u201cThis text is being fulfilled today even as you listen<\/em>.\u201d (Lk 4:21). Jesus himself is the fulfilment of the Scripture, he is the one consecrated with the anointing of the Spirit, sent to bring the Good News to the poor. He is the \u2018year of favour\u2019, the \u2018jubilee\u2019 who forgives debts, sets prisoners free, makes the poor rejoice and \u2018mother earth\u2019 breathe, she too is in need of rest and liberation.<\/p>\n

In the synagogue of Nazareth, the verb of fulfilling. of fulness resounds: \u201cThis text is being fulfilled today<\/em>\u201d. It is the same verb that in Mark\u2019s Gospel inaugurates Jesus\u2019s preaching, \u201cThe time has come<\/em>\u201d (Mk 1:15). The time of the promise opens to the \u201ctoday\u201d of Jesus, a \u201ctoday\u201d that runs through the entire Gospel of Luke, from Bethlehem to the cross: \u201cToday in the town of David a saviour has been born to you<\/em>\u201d, the angel tells the shepherds (2:11); \u201cToday salvation has come to this house<\/em>\u201d, Jesus tells Zacchaeus (19:9); \u201cToday you will be with me in Paradise<\/em>\u201d, Jesus answers the evildoer crucified with him (23:43).<\/p>\n

From seeing to hearing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Note also the shift from \u2018eyes\u2019 to \u2018ears\u2019. The faithful present in the synagogue wanted to see (\u201cAnd all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him<\/em>.\u201d), but Jesus leads them back to the biblical primacy of listening: \u201cThis text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.<\/em>\u201d Today we too are challenged to move from the curiosity of seeing to the faith that comes from listening to the Word (Rom 10:17). Let us therefore activate the \u2018beatitude of listening\u2019! Only those who listen to the Word with faith, with all their hearts and with all their lives, will be able to be its witnesses and credible heralds. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!<\/em> (Lk 11: 28).<\/p>\n

Links :\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 www.pcpne.va\/content\/pcpne\/en\/news\/2022.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday of the Word of God.pdf (pcpne.va)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it! (Lk 11: 28) Within the heart of the liturgy In today\u2019s gospel reading (Luke 4:14-21) we are in the heart of the Sabbath morning liturgy. When Jesus gets up in the synagogue of Nazareth to do the prophetic reading, the reading of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feasts-celebrations","category-parish-notices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7338,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7336\/revisions\/7338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}