| Homily for 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time |
| Nehemiah 8:1-4, 5-6, 8-20 | 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 | Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21 |
 One day in an introductory Bible class one of the participants asked: "Why are there four Gospels rather than one?" Certainly things would look a lot easier if there was only one Gospel. Everything we read in that one Gospel would then be the gospel truth, pure and simple. Now that we have four Gospels that often differ significantly from one another, things can be quite confusing. When you come to think of it, however, you begin to realise that things would be a lot worse if we had only one Gospel. If we had only one Gospel we would think that there is only one way of understanding Jesus and how he relates to us. But now that we have four different Gospels, each of them telling a significantly different story of Jesus and his mission, it becomes easier for us to see that no story of Jesus can exhaust the whole truth of what Jesus is. As limited human beings we can only tell part of the story of God.This remind us of the story of the six blind men who set out to discover what
the elephant is. The first blind man feels the elephant's side and says the
elephant is like a wall. The second blind man feels the elephant's tusk and says
it is like a spear. The third feels the trunk and says it is like a snake. The
fourth feels the elephant's leg and says the elephant is like a tree. The fifth
feels the ear and says it is like a fan. And the sixth blind man feels the
elephant's tail and concludes that the elephant is like a rope. You could
imagine the bitter disagreement that would ensue among them if they got together
to discuss the nature of the elephant. Every one of them would insist that he is
right and the others wrong. But the truth of the matter is: yes, he is right,
but then so also are all the others. Each of them has a valid experience of the
elephant but no one of them possesses the full knowledge of the total reality of
the elephant. Even when you put all the six images of the elephant together it
still does not capture the full mosaic of the elephant.After Vatican II the church's reading of the Gospels on Sunday was revised into a three-year cycle: year A for the gospel of Matthew, year B for Mark, and year C for Luke. The gospel of John is read on certain Sundays interspersed within the three years, such as the Sundays of the Easter season. We are now in year C, the year of Luke. The question we shall be asking ourselves this year is, What aspect of the mystery of Christ does Luke highlight, as distinct from the focus of the other Gospels? A certain scholar has outlined in one word the aspect of Christ that each of the Gospels highlights. Matthew highlights the Christ of majesty (who heals by word of mouth alone, never touches people, never hungry, never angry, etc.), Mark highlights the Christ of might (who proves he is the Messiah by his acts of power and authority over natural and demonic forces), Luke highlights the Christ of mercy (who reaches out to the poor, the outcasts, foreigners and women) and John highlights the Christ of mystery (who was with the Father from all eternity and who has come into the world to reveal this hidden mystery, the truth that leads to life). Today we begin reading the Gospel of Luke. In his opening preface (1:1-4) Luke tells us why he wrote the gospel. It was to explain to Theophilus, probably a Roman official, what Christianity was all about. Have you ever tried to explain to someone what Christianity is all about? Many people think that Christianity is all about sin and judgment, heaven and hell; and that God is a heavenly policeman who is constantly monitoring our movements, writing down all our sins in His book and waiting to throw us into hellfire as soon as He catches up with us. Luke sees it all differently. For him Christianity has more to do with God's love and mercy than with punishment. That is why, in telling Theophilus about the Christian faith, Luke finds the incident in the synagogue in Nazareth very useful. In this incident found only in Luke's Gospel, Jesus makes a solemn declaration of his mission in the world. We can call it the Jesus Manifesto. People who initiate a revolution usually start off with a declaration of their manifesto. Karl Mark started by publishing the Communist Manifesto. Martin Luther started off with the publication of the 95 theses in Wittenberg. Jesus has come to start a revolution of mercy and love in the world. And here in today's Gospel reading he publishes the Christian manifesto: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. (4:18-19)In these few words we see in a nutshell how Jesus, in Luke, understands his mission in the world. What is Jesus' work? It is "to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." In Matthew Jesus speaks of "the poor in spirit" but in Luke he speaks simply of "the poor." Jesus in Luke is concerned not only with the spiritual aspects of human life but also with the material and social aspects. Here we see the love and mercy of Jesus reaching out to all in need. Like the master, so the followers. We who bear the name of Christ – Christians – ought to live according to Christ's manifesto. It is our mission as individuals and as a community to bring Good News to the poor in our society. Today's gospel challenges us to stretch out our hands in practical solidarity with those who are visibly disadvantaged around us. As Christians we should not only be concerned with saving people's souls, we should also be concerned with saving their bodies, their health, their housing and their jobs. The Good News is not only for the soul, it is also for the body. The Good News is for every person and for the whole person, body and soul. Fr. Munachi |
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