Aug. 30 and 31: Lectionary # 431 and 432

Scripture: Lectionary for Aug.30, # 431. I Cor.2:1-5. Psalm
119:97.98.99.100.101.102. Luke 4:16-30.

Today Jesus tells us the Scriptural passages from Isaiah are being
fulfilled. Those who hear him and do what he says to do are blessed; they
praise him. Those who consider his words offensive and not atuned to what
they want to hear, want to throw him over a huge precipice in northern
Galilee. But the message and words are for us and how will we react in
listening to him?

We are helped by realizing that the Scriptures are to be fulfilled and that
Jesus is very pro-active in seeing to it that they are. He helps us relate
to him as we hear his living voice, that of the Resurrected Jesus, speaking
to us through the liturgical reading from Luke. We are now in transition
from reading Matthew and now turn to Luke, but it is the same living voice
of Jesus we hear. He now is beginning his active ministry and the scene is
a foretaste of what it to come for him from those who like what they hear
and those who do not like it. This proclamation from the scroll of Isaiah
is meant to be heard today. It is a prophetic text that involves us with
others and in our helping them. Jesus, who is Wisdom Personified,
interprets the word of God through the prophet Isaiah in order to have it
fulfilled.

Paul also does the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he is
preaching. It is the Gospel of Jesus crucified and resurrected. He never
lets go of the all pervading Paschal Mystery that is the blood line of his
epistles; we are saved through the blood of Christ, his sufferings, death,
and resurrection. Though aware of his own personal foibles and limitations
he has the courage and the trust in the power of God worked through the
Holy Spirit. He is preaching the Wisdom of God through what he himself has
received after his conversion. He no longer lives for himself but for the
people of God to whom he is called to bring this Good News to them.

Psalm 119, the longest in the scroll of Psalms, is a wisdom psalm. It uses
the Hebrew alphabet for 24 stanzas to bring home the inner life of the
Torah through its praise of God and its love for the Torah teaching. There
are five points connected in the verses we have that deal with this Wisdom
of God. First, is the meditating that is to be done on God's words.
Secondly, we are to love God's commands and thus share in the Wisdom of
God. Thirdly, we are led to understand the teachings of that word.
Fourthly, we are to discern how to observe the precepts of the Lord and
finally, we are to be instructed as devout listeners to that word of God.
The message is both prophetic and filled with wisdom. It is also salvific
for all who believe in God's words. Amen.

Scripture. Aug.31. Lectionary # 432. I Cor.2:10-16. Psalm
145:8-9,10-11.12-13, 13-14. Luke 4:31-37:

Paul is so filled with the Holy Spirit that his words are totally filled
with power and grace for those who listen to them. One of the Psalms gives
us the phrase found in a traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit: "Send forth
your Spirit, and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of
the earth." We are encouraged by the Scriptures to pray before pondering
them and reading or proclaiming them. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of
Blessed Trinity is this power of God manifested in the scriptural passages
read in the Church. Yesterday, we heard and saw how Jesus is filled with
the Spirit and power of God as he begins his inaugural proclamation of the
Good News through the prophet Isaiah. He then interprets the passage for
us and shows us how it is to be fulfilled. This is definitely the work of
the Spirit in Jesus.

Paul assures us that the Holy Spirit scutinizes all of our being, our
questioning, our reasoning. He knows the Spirit reveals the deep things of
God--the Holy Mysteries of God working in our lives through the Testaments,
through others, and directly through our cooperation of will, heart, and
mind. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts freely and helps us to recognize
them. They are the daily graces that come from being united with God and
God's Son through the Spirit. We are all being taught how to interpret the
wisdom of God found in the scriptures. We are encouraged by Paul to be men
and women who live, move, and have our being through the Spirit. Paul asks
us rhetorically, "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" And he answers his
question through his own example when he tells us, "Indeed we have the mind
of Christ." (see Phil.2:1-4). Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the
faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your divine love. Amen.