This week’s Sunday Mass readings collectively represent a call to let go of old ways and embrace a new program for action.
The reading from the prophet Nehemiah describes the return of exiled Jews to their own ancestral land. They should be happy to be going home but are instead discouraged, finding the task of reestablishing life according to the Law of Moses an exhausting one. Their leader, Ezra, reminds them that living by God’s Law should not be depressing but uplifting, because it gives people identity, dignity and purpose.
The conviction that we are energized when we recognize that God, not we, are in charge is found also in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Paul is concerned that men and women are reluctant to use their gifts in service of the common good. Paul is also unhappy that they are reluctant to appreciate and encourage the personal gifts of each other. In response, Paul uses the metaphor of a body to underscore the unity among themselves which believers must have based on their relationship with Christ.
What makes this new (and happier) way of living possible, of course, is the impact of Jesus on human history. As Jesus embarks on his public ministry, he explicitly links his mission to the great traditions of prophecy in Israel. And he calls for a restructuring of the way people relate to one another.
Jesus’s challenge is as valid for us today as it was during the years in which he walked the earth. We know that even those who are committed followers of Jesus are often inclined to see others and their gifts more in terms of competition than of cooperation. And too often, the excellence of the other person looks more like a threat than a promise. Let us take to heart the “program for Christian life and action” as Paul and Jesus propose it, recognizing our own gifts and truly rejoicing in the gifts of others, so that we may more fully become the people that God desires us to be.
-Fr. Frank Reale, SJ
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