3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

January 24, 2010

Neh 8,2-4.5-6.8-10
1 Cor 12, 12-30
Lk 1, 1-4; 4,14-21

Luke, author of today’s Gospel, your name comes up fairly often to us who try to regularly read the Gospels. You, Paul, we all should know you, too, even if not all of us can grasp all of your letters. But the two other names mentioned with you today are not as familiar: Nehemiah and Theophilus. Who were they?

Nehemiah, we learn, was cup-bearer to the King of Persia, Artaxerxes. A Jew to the bone, he grieved to know that the walls of Jerusalem  had been broken down. He asked permission from his master to go home and rebuild  them, and, being a faithful servant, was granted leave. In an amazing 52 days, it is told, under his guidance and leadership, the Jews rebuilt their walls.

Theophilus, on the other hand, is the name Luke uses for the person to who he is writing his gospel. The name is Greek, and means lover or friend of God. A real person? A fictitious name by way of a literary device? It is not clear. Sufficient for now that because of him, we have Luke’s account of the life of Jesus.

Jesus then comes in. There is a bit of jump here, though, we must note. The first part of the gospel is the introduction of Luke’s gospel where he addresses Theophilus; this, naturally, is in the first chapter. Then we shift to chapter 4, the scene where Jesus comes into the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath and there he is given the scroll of the prophet isaiah to read. The parallel to the first reading is that there, too, the Word of the Lord is being read to the people; there, under orders from Nehemiah who wanted the Jews to appreciate the connection between the Word of the Law and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

Jesus ends his reading of the test by saying: “Today, this text is being fulfilled even as you listen.”

What do all this mean for me today – I who am neither Luke nor Paul, Nehemiah nor Theophilus, who am living oh so far in place and time from the Old Testament, and Jerusalem and Nazareth?

That I am reading this now, wherever I am, whatever state of life I am in, is God’s way of telling me that I am important to him. As Paul says in the second reading, I am a part of the body of Christ, and no matter how I or others think my part may be, I am still part, and the body of Christ is incomplete without me. I am important to God. He reaches out to me even now with the message of love. “I am here. I am with you. Today, this scripture is fulfilled for you.” The walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt by Nehemiah and his people. The walls that separated humanity from God were destroyed by Jesus so that there now is a chance to be one with God once more. No more walls, only a bridge: Jesus. If I have not been in the past, today, I am invited to be friend and lover of God – Theophilus – and Jesus must live in me, His Gospel lived by me – today.

Fr. Roderick Salazar, SVD
USC, Cebu City