Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 1, 2013

Reflection on Lectoring

“At that time Jesus spoke and said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike’.” (Matthew 11:25).

Jesus came among us to reveal his Father to all people regardless of age, academic accomplishments or economic status.  No one needed special qualifications to hear his words.  Similarly, today, those who share their faith with others need not be among the “wise and learned.”  In some ways, those who have a simple faith may make the most effective witnesses.

Lectors can be very effective witnesses. They can make words written thousands of years ago sound like they were written for people living today.

Lectors can be effective translators.  They can make the stories, instruction, and exhortations found in the Bible sound less like abstract concepts and more like the words of a good friend.

Lectors can be messengers of joy.  They can show that Christians can find joy in everyday life because everything in life (including themselves) has a purpose.

Lectors can be connectors.  They can proclaim the Scriptures in a way that shows their relevance and connection to real life.  Lectors can also share with their hearers a common bond of words, ideas and beliefs that strengthen their common identity as Christians.

Lectors can be prayerful members of a worshiping community.  Only love and a simple faith are required.

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First Reading  -  Sirach 3:17-18, 28-29
Short and Sweet

Imagine having just the right thing to say for every occasion. Something short, memorable, and thought provoking.   You would be the life of the party.

The Book of Sirach is a treasure trove of witty sayings and practical advice.  Everything from table etiquette (“Moderate eating ensures sound slumber” - chapter 3, verse 20), to lending money (“Many borrowers ask for a loan and cause trouble for those who help them” - chapter 29, verse 4), even to advice concerning women (“Do not dally with a singer, lest you be captivated by her charms” - chapter 9, verse 4)). 

Today’s passage from Sirach offers five aphorisms for living a better life and finding favor with God.  They make connections with everyday life in order to draw out simple truths with lifelong importance.

Lectors might do well to consider each of the five aphorisms individually, identify how they connect to their lives, and find a simple truth that can be proclaimed to the assembly.

There are hundreds of memorable sayings in Sirach.  Today you have the opportunity to make five of them especially memorable for your hearers.

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First Reading  -  Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
A Tale of Two Scenes

There are two scenes described in today’s second reading.  In the first scene, the Israelites approach Mount Sinai, a frightening place where the law and the old covenant were decreed.  In the second scene, Christians approach Mount Zion, the joyful place of the new covenant which was mediated by Christ.

Unless the members of the assembly have researched this passage prior to Mass, it is unlikely they will recognize or identify Mount Sinai and its “blazing fire and gloomy darkness.”

However, an effective proclamation will use the harsh descriptions of the first scene to set off and accentuate the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem and the promise of the new covenant. 

Jesus paid a heavy price (“the sprinkled blood”) so that we could experience the joy of the final scene of triumph.   The lector has a responsibility to paint in words the exciting climax.

© George Fournier 2013

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 25, 2013

Reflection on Lectoring

What makes something important to you?

Important enough to talk about with your family or friends?  Important enough to think about when you are alone?  Important enough to make part of your day?  Important enough to make part of your life?

Lectors might do well to ask themselves what makes the Scriptures important to them.  They might also ask why sharing the Scriptures with others is important.

To be effective in their ministry, lectors can read books about lectoring or attend lector workshops.  All of these things can help.

Or lectors can become more effective by prayerfully asking themselves why the Scriptures are important to them and to those who hear them.

It is a process of searching for real meaning that transforms reading into proclaiming.

It is a search for what is important.

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First Reading  -   Isaiah 68: 18-21
A Continuing Conversation

Imagine, for a moment, a conversation between two parishioners standing outside church after this Sunday’s Mass.

Parishioner #1 says, “The first reading sounded like the outline of an epic movie.  People excitedly rushing around on horses and chariots, in carts, and on mules and camels.”

Parishioner #2 says, “They came from places I never even heard of.”

This kind of conversation may or may not occur this Sunday on the street in front of your church.  But, perhaps, a fair question might be: “Why not?’

According to today’s passage from Isaiah, there was a time when people got really excited about the importance of God in their lives, and would travel great distances to “come and see my glory.”

To be effective in proclaiming the Scriptures, lectors must believe that God is still just as important today.  They must believe that the excitement and enthusiasm depicted in today’s first reading is still just as real.  In today’s secular world, the scenes described in Isaiah may sometimes seem like they are buried in antiquity.  However, the essential job of the lector is to keep the conversation going, and to keep the epic story alive. 

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Second Reading  -  Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
A Best-Selling Message

For everyone who is tempted to think that the Scriptures do little to address current, real-life situations, they would do well to listen carefully to today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.

Discipline is the message.  It is a practical message that is drawn, in part, from chapter 3 of the Book of Proverbs - a compendium of proven ways to lead a prosperous and productive life. 

The shelves in bookstores are filled with self-help books offering advice on health, careers, family matters and personal fulfillment.  Many are best sellers read avidly by millions of people.

This Sunday, lectors have the opportunity to tell their hearers something that has universal appeal: “God treats you as sons.”   It is a best-selling message appearing in a best-selling book that gets better every time it is read.

© George Fournier, 2013

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 18, 2013

Reflection on Lectoring

Many years ago, the Catholic diocese where I live produced a half-hour TV Mass watched each week by several thousands of people.  One of the regular lectors on the program was a retired US Navy captain.  Her name was Esther.

Esther lectored with an air of authority.  However, she always proclaimed the Scriptures with a warmth that conveyed how much she cared about the people who watched.  She cared about them, despite the fact that she would never see most of them face to face.

Esther allowed her personality to be reflected in her reading.  She was genuine and sincere, and the viewers easily recognized how much she cared.  She was not acting.  She was not posing as a celebrity seeking attention.  She was simply who she was.

It was not unusual for Esther to be mentioned in the mail addressed to the TV Mass.  For many viewers the readings took on special meaning because Esther read from her heart.  Viewers responded to her not because she was a scripture scholar.  Not because she was a great orator.  But because she shared something that was important to her and to them. 

Esther passed away several years ago.  But who she was and what she shared will never be forgotten by anyone who heard her proclaim the Scriptures.  She will always be remembered as a lector who genuinely cared.

Thank you Esther.

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First Reading  -  Jeremiah 38:4-6,  8-10
Getting Along

After reading today’s first two readings and Gospel, you might be tempted to ask, “Can’t we all just get along?”  Are we doomed to violence, hatred and, as experienced by Jeremiah, the total destruction of Jerusalem?

During Jeremiah’s 40 years as a prophet there was one crisis after another.  After an initial period of religious reform, the Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians and a bunch of self-serving Jewish kings all caused turmoil and confusion.

Jeremiah’s life reflected the chaos.  His relatives plotted his death.  He was put on trial for his life and barely acquitted.  He went into hiding for almost 12 years.  And when he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, a group of unhappy princes decided that the best way to kill him was to put him in a damp cistern.  Not a very novel idea since Joseph’s brothers did the same thing to him in chapter 37 of Genesis.

It is no small wonder that Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. . .” (Mt. 23:37). 

Perhaps the most a lector can do with this reading is to acknowledge that the choice of “getting along” in our families, our church, or in our country is ultimately up to each one of us.  So is sharing our faith with love and charity even when it is difficult.

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Second Reading  -  Hebrews 12:1-4
It is Never Easy

In the above reflection on today’s first reading, we suggested that the ball is in our court when it comes to avoiding hatred, discord and the many other byproducts of sin.  Fortunately, in today’s second reading, we find that we have an ally in the struggle: “the leader and perfecter of faith.”

However, there is no free ride.  When receiving help from Jesus, we incur an obligation to make use of his help by ridding “ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us.”

In today’s second reading, Paul also offers a “cloud of witnesses” who can offer encouragement in our struggle against sin.  In the verses preceding today’s reading these witnesses are described as people who “closed the mouths of lions, put out raging fires. . . turned back foreign invaders, escaped the devouring sword. . .  were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point.”  They also “wandered about in deserts and on mountains, in caves, and in crevices in the earth.”

None of this is easy.  Ridding ourselves of sin is never easy.  Perhaps, however, we might take some comfort in knowing that Christ suffered “in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

© George Fournier 2013

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 11, 2013

Reflection on Lectoring

We begin this week’s Reflection on Lectoring with words spoken by conductor Leonard Bernstein when commenting on Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony:

This music remains endlessly satisfying, interesting and moving to all kinds of people. . . . No composer has ever lived who speaks so directly to so many people: to young and old, to educated and ignorant, amateur and professional, sophisticated and naïve. To all these people of all classes, nationalities and racial backgrounds. . .   It has a purity and directness of communication which never becomes banal.  It is accessible without becoming ordinary.

Alle Menschen werden Brüder.  All men shall be brothers.

In the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven put the words of Friedrich Schiller’s poem, Ode to Joy to music.  If Schiller’s poem and Beethoven’s music can be understood by people around the world, how much more can the words of Scripture speak to all humanity.  The Ninth Symphony is less than 200 years old.  The words of the New Testament are nearly 2,000 years old.  The words of the Old Testament are even older.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?  Ahnest du den Schöpher, Welt?  Do you fall in worship, ye millions?  Do you know your creator, World?

The words lectors speak at every Mass have the power to change, enrich, and encourage those who hear them.  They have the power to enthrall, to stir the emotions, to give meaning and purpose.  Perhaps lectors can take a cue from Beethoven and recognize the potential words have to change hearts every time they are proclaimed.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken!  Oh joy, thou lovely spark of God!

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First Reading  -  Wisdom 18:6-9
A Reason for Joy

There was little joy to be found in last week’s first reading from Ecclesiastes.  You may recall reading, “All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest” (ch.1, v.23). Happily, today’s first two readings offer us a different perspective.

Humanity has always been beset with the question of why there are wars, natural disasters, sickness and death. The problem of suffering is compounded by the question of why some really bad people seem to get whatever they want.

Today’s first reading suggests that faith may have helped the Hebrews endure their more that 400 years of suffering in Egyptian captivity.  The reading also makes clear that, at a critical time in their history, the Hebrews had faith in Moses’ announcement of the coming Passover.  At the same critical time, the Pharaoh did not.

The Passover and the Exodus combine both joy and sadness.  Freedom for one group.  Death for another.  It is a pattern that would be repeated many times in the course of Jewish history.

There are no easy answers to the question of human suffering.  There is, however, reassurance to be found in the gift of faith - a comforting faith in a faithful God, who gives us hope, and who truly loves us.  A good reason for joy in a world of questions. 

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Second Reading  -  Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
A Better Homeland

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”

Depending on how old you are, faith can take on different appearances.  For young children, loving parents are the foundation of their faith in the goodness of creation.  For young adults, their youth gives them confidence that they can figure out almost anything.  For older people, a lifetime of experience gives them confidence in knowing what works and what does not.

In today’s second reading, Abraham was no wide-eyed teenager when he was told to leave home and seek his fortune in a foreign country.  He was “past the normal age” when he was told he would be a father.  And even though the Promised Land was centuries in the future, Abraham along with many generations of his descendants “died in faith.”

Today’s second reading offers us great comfort.  It reinforces our faith by telling us, “But now they desire a better homeland a heavenly one.”  It reassures us that because God “has prepared a city,” it is possible for us to live and die with faith.

© George Fournier, 2012