by: Deacon Paul Rooney (deaconpaul@cox.net)
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Cycle "C" - January 25, 2004)

Q. 251: Why does Jesus start his public ministry (in Luke's gospel) by quoting the prophets?

A. 251: Every five years we Rooneys hold a Family Reunion. Some families - perhaps yours - can hold one every year, because the vast majority of their clan are "localized" within a 100-mile radius. However, our Rooney clan spreads across the USA from coast to coast, with around 200 ancestors flowing just from "my" (now the "first") generation alone. We gather to have fun, to renew bonds with kin, and especially to tell stories and to "remember."

In our First Reading (Nehemiah 8) the scriptures are read to a few generations who had never heard the truth proclaimed and shared (i.e., God's Word). It was very important to "hear and remember," because without God's word to guide them, they were bound to fall into a pagan lifestyle. It became important thereafter to have the community assemble and "listen" again to the "history of salvation" as they remembered it from the time of Moses, by listening to God's Word - holy Scripture.

Now Jesus comes forward and quotes Isaiah 61, telling the people of Nazareth that this Word has been "fulfilled in your hearing." So Jesus, too, was engaging and continuing the centuries-old tradition of "remembering," by retelling the stories of yesteryear, including the prophecies of God's special servants. God's Word is especially important, because to forget the loving directives of our Creator is to lose touch with the root of our existence. Jesus IS that root! In him and through him we have our being!

Know Your Catechism!. One of the Old Testament prophets tells us a fact that is still true today: there is still a famine "of hearing the words of the Lord" (CCC #2835). "Hearing" in Scripture means listening and obeying! What do you do about avoiding a daily spiritual starvation from this real famine? Take a Missalette home with you - the Church almost demands it (CCC #2653) to increase and improve your prayer life. Even our very prayer life is a participation in the "passing on" of the memories of the Judeo-Christian "clan" (CCC #2769) - and it is part of the responsibility of every Christian.

Deacon Paul Rooney
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha