Archbishop of Sydney

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Luke 1:1-4; 4: 14-21

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
25 January 2004

In today’s readings we hear of two very different public occasions, where God’s word, the Scriptures, and on one occasion the Law, are presented in dramatic circumstances.

Everyone present in Jesus’ home synagogue of Nazareth - when he announced to his sceptical cousins and friends that the prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled in him, whom they knew as the Son of Mary and Joseph – everyone present would have remembered that claim to their dying day.  It is not surprising that the incident is also conserved in the gospels of Matthew (13:53-8) and Mark (6:1-6).  But the locals could not accept these wild claims and ran him out of town, although Our Lord had been well received earlier in other places.

The first reading tells of an incident with Esdra the priest and his Jewish people, perhaps 100 years after their return to Israel from exile in Babylon i.e. c.450 B.C.  Here the people listened attentively from early morning until noon as Esdra read the Law to them and explained the practical consequences of these teachings.

Things had not gone well with the Jews after their return from exile although the Persian kings continued to be favourably disposed.  The Samaritans were hostile, poverty continued and the Jews became disappointed and religiously lukewarm, taking on the pagan attitudes of their neighbours.

It is always useful to know e.g. to know how to read, to add-up and subtract, to say what we want to say.  We are grateful to those who know and can tell us what we personally might not know e.g. when we consult a doctor or an expert in some field.  Most basically of all, it is good to know what life is about; that is what all religions (or most) claim to do and we believe that the Judaeo-Christian claims are true.

The Jews in the first reading had drifted away from right living.  They now realised what they had lost or never known and were full of enthusiasm.

I heard recently of a Catholic secondary school principal, who had been away from the Catholic system for some years in state and independent schools.  He had come to realise in a different way what Christ and the Catholic tradition had to offer and he had a renewed enthusiasm to hand on these treasures in his Catholic school.

Psalm 18 which we used today explains very accurately the role and consequences of following the Law of God, or the Ten Commandments or the Christian way.

God’s words can be trusted; they revive the soul and bring wisdom to simple people.

Do we look on Christian teaching like that?  Recently a letter writer to one of our papers explained that he could not accept some important Christian teachings, but he could not leave the Church because he had been indoctrinated as a child.  That is not an adult response.

The only justification for an adult Christian to remain in the Church is to believe that the precepts of the Lord are right.  Catholicism is not for people who simply do not have the courage to kick the religious habit.

When we believe that the precepts of the Lord are right, we then learn that these teachings gladden the heart, because they bring right order into our lives, give us direction, meaning and purpose.  We could say with the psalmist that they give “light to our eyes”.

The psalmist did not claim that we can use our conscience to wriggle out of following these commandments that seem too hard or old fashioned; those commandments that many start off by refusing to follow.  All the decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them are just.

If we truly had this set of attitudes to the basic teachings of Christ and His Church our lives would be transformed; as they are, I am sure with many of you.

Christ explains to us the secrets of life, this life and life after death.  Christ has brought us the Maker’s instructions on how we are to live.  God truly is our rescuer and our rock.

Christ when he quoted Isaiah was not merely speaking about those captives held in prison, those who are physically blind, those who are politically oppressed, sociologically downtrodden, although he was certainly speaking to them.

He was also speaking to those chained by bad habits, drug addiction, alcoholism, the addiction that can accompany sexual misbehaviour; to those who are religiously blind, perhaps heading in the wrong direction, perhaps totally confused about life’s meaning, about what is right or wrong.  Jesus was offering to all of them, all of us, the good news, announcing the Lord’s year of favour.

That is the meaning of his claim, after he had read that beautiful text from Isaiah “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.