Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 26, 2025

2025 Jan 26 SUN: THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Neh 8: 2-4a. 5-6. 8-10/ Ps 19: 8. 9. 10. 15/ 1 Cor 12: 12-30/ Lk 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21 (I added 4: 22-30, which would have been heard next Sunday, were it not for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.)   It happens that we have some really wonderful Scriptures prepared for us here in the early Sundays of Ordinary Time. One difficulty, however, is that a week from today we will be celebrating the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and some really good Ordinary Time readings are going to be skipped. So I commend to you the reading on your own of First Corinthians 13. This follows on what we've heard -- this really utterly understandable analogy of the body which St. Paul has given us. It goes on to say that, yes, we have many gifts but without love our gifts are nothing. And if you were following along there in Breaking Bread you noticed that the gospel went a little long because I included the Gospel which we would have heard next Sunday, had there not been the Feast of the Presentation and it follows immediately upon what was prescribed for today, and we find Jesus at the beginning of his ministry provoking people and we consider why they were so provoked.    But I'd like to give you three principles which will explain the rest of what I say today. First is that truth is not anyone's possession. Truth is something which we discover together. The second one: If friendship were based on people agreeing completely with one another, there would be no friendships. And third: in our day it is unfortunate that we have become used to hurling opinions at each other as if they were rocks. And it is on the basis of these principles that I share with you how grateful I am for the act of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde,  when she lifted up her voice and pleaded for mercy.    We are living in difficult times -- difficult for so much as the communication of truth with one another. We think of this analogy of the body which even very young children can grasp. But we ask whether the point of this analogy is understood: that the whole Christian people is a body and truly the entire world is a body and we each have our contribution to make. There are those who would look upon themselves as the brain, saying, "I know everything; just follow my orders." If you were only a brain disembodied you would have a hard time getting your inspirations carried out. And again we look at this Gospel and people are complimenting Jesus. And then he mentions that in the Scriptures God showed favor to foreigners, and this enrages the people in the synagogue and they want to throw him off a cliff. But it was not his time; he escaped them. But this is all the foreshadowing of the fact that his ministry would end in his death.    Now if you disagree with me in any respect on any topic whatever that's good; that's natural; that's normal. We must recognize that we must not take up the position of those who hug their opinions to themselves when they are not hurling them like rocks. Disagreement is the first step toward finding the truth together. And we have a very big task before us as we in fact listen to one another and discover how we act as a healthy body of human beings acting on behalf of mercy and love.