Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)
January 24, 2016 5:00 pm · Father David Mbimadong
Friends in Christ, today the scriptures speak to us in a special way. The 1st reading offered us a glimpse into the role the law of God plays among the people who keep it. We are informed that when the law was read all the people old enough to understand bowed down in reverence to the message of life contained in the law. Then the people were encouraged not to cry since it was the day of the Lord. They were to ponder in their hearts all that they heard from the law so that it would safeguard their lives. They were rejoice because the law of the Lord is meant to liberate and not to punish The law of God is meant to bring joy, peace and healing to all who hear it. It is not supposed to be a burden to them.
In the gospel, we encountered Christ the fulfillment of the OT law and prophecies. When He entered the synagogue, He outlined His law which had already been among the people for a long time but which law was never fully carried out until the time of Christ.
Note that it was immediately after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan and the temptation in the wilderness when He went to commune with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Coming into the synagogue, Jesus was handed the role of one who would read and explain the message to the people.
We are made to understand that when He unrolled the scroll, He found where it is written,
“The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for He has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor.
When Jesus had read this, He said to them, “This text is being fulfilled today as you listen.” It is an old law that Jesus refashioned, as it were, and gave it new meaning Now, the law of Jesus Christ is the law of liberation and not of condemnation.
This new law, which Jesus gave us, is meant to unite us – this is exactly what St. Paul sought to explain when he used the analogy of the body and its different parts to illustrate the unity in diversity of the people of God. The new law is also meant to bind us together as responsible people set free from the bondage of sin. It is meant to enable us work together for the full realization of the kingdom of God.
Therefore when we listen to the words of the law, we should make a conscious effort to ponder them in our hearts and so let them come alive in our daily lives. When we have done this, then we shall experience fully the liberating effect of the law of God – which is called mercy. Until this happens, we will continue to live in fear and so fail to rejoice in the presence of our merciful God