Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
March 2, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

Lectors get all kinds of advice about how to prepare for proclamation.

There are dozens of things they should do like:

     - Becoming familiar with the historical context of the reading

     - Meditating on the meaning they find most important in the reading

     - Practicing the proper pronunciation of the names and places

All these things are good, but do any of them make the reading more meaningful for the assembly?

If the assembly is to reflect actively on the Scriptures, what is most important for that to happen?  If they are to be joined with the lector in a communal act of worship, what is most essential?

The proclamation of the Scriptures is not like a homily during which the homilist guides the assembly’s understanding of some Scripture passage.  The lector does not teach.  The lector does not offer new insights.  Lectoring is not performed by someone with knowledge to share.

It is more like prayer and meditation.

Lectors create a space where they and the assembly meet together and meditate on the Scriptures.  By their reverence and demeanor lectors invite the assembly into that space.  By their desire to connect with the assembly, lectors join with others in a communal act of worship.

Preparing for proclamation is essential.  Lectors need to find personal meaning in the Scriptures.  However, inviting their hearers to do the same is the lector’s most important job.

__________________________

First Reading  -  Isaiah 49:14-15
I Am So Afraid

It is so easy to be afraid.  When you are homeless.  When you don’t have enough money to feed your children.  When you have been unemployed for many months.  When you can no longer take care of yourself. 

Both the first reading and the Gospel advise us not to worry.

It sounds so simple, But try telling that to someone who lives in the back of his or her car.

If the Scriptures are to be believed by people in desperate situations or by people who have experienced fear, they have to be more than a collection of nice platitudes.  Lectors have to make them sound real.

In the first reading, Isaiah tries really hard to avoid empty reassurances and pleasant sounding phrases when he counters the emotion of fear with the powerful reality of a mother’s love.  And yet, he honestly acknowledges that even love can sometimes be overpowered by fear.

Offering encouragement and consolation must start with acknowledging the reality of fear and pain.  There are only two short verses in today’s first reading.  But the job of effectively proclaiming them involves the highest degree of sensitivity to peoples’ deepest feelings.

________________________________

Second Reading  -  1 Corinthians 4:1-5
The Source of Certainty

In today’s second reading St. Paul offers us an example of real bravado.  “It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal.”  This coming from the same guy who also said, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, no good dwells, because to wish is within my power, but I do not find the strength to accomplish what is good” (Romans 7:18).

It is hard to reconcile his statement: “I do not even pass judgment on myself” with what he says in Romans.

Perhaps one conclusion that can be drawn from these contradictory statements is that Paul was a real person with real and complex feelings.  He was also a person who searched for a truth about himself that he could hold on to with confidence.  He found that truth in his calling as a servant of Christ and as a steward of the mysteries of God.

He also found certainty in something even more important.  When the Lord comes “he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness.”

When the Lord comes all the contradictions and all the uncertainties of life will be resolved.  All need for bravado will be replaced by the most profound and eternal certainty.  As with the first reading, lectors and the assembly have a lot to think about. 

© George Fournier 2014

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 23, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

“O Magnum Mysterium.” O great mystery.  In the Liturgy of the Hours for Christmas there is a hymn that celebrates the mystery of the Incarnation.  Originally composed over 450 years ago by a Spanish priest, this hymn has inspired centuries of composers ever since.

It is a testament to the transcendent glory of sacred mystery - the aspects of God’s creation that go beyond scientific or rational explanation, but are no less real.

Life and death, good and evil, joy and freedom are all big questions that cannot be solved by an equation or achieved by a strategy.  They cannot be quantified.  They are not a problem to be solved.  They can only be experienced to be understood.

The Scriptures are like that too.

Poorly proclaimed Scriptures can sound pedestrian - a collection of historical names and facts.  However, when proclaimed as words that touch the human heart they can be sublime, they can move our spirits.

In a most powerful way, the Scriptures proclaim creation’s most profound mystery:  God made each of us with a purpose and in his image.

Lectors are people who share that mystery with their hearers at Mass in a sublime act of worship.

For one composer’s moving expression of the mystery of the Incarnation, the link below will take you to Morten Lauridsen’s choral masterpiece “O Magnum Mysterium.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y9yM53TowA

________________________________

First Reading  -  Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
United In Goodness

“Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.”  These words appear four times in the Book of Leviticus almost like a refrain, making this third book of the Pentateuch a guidebook on how to be holy.

“The Lord said to Moses.”  This introductory phrase appears at the beginning of almost all of the book’s 27 chapters, thereby making it clear that God is the author of the book’s advice on staying holy.

In spite of all the injunctions against bad behavior and directives to follow the rules, today’s reading offers a reason to feel positive and reassured.  Unlike many of the pagan gods whose integrity and good intentions were questionable, the Jewish God was the source of unassailable good.  If you followed his advice, you could be good too.

There is another reason to be hopeful that is found in the Book of Genesis:  “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them” (1:27).  God who is good created men and women to be good.  He is a model whom people can follow with ultimate confidence because there are no surprises and no compromises to be found in a truly good God.  It is our nature to be united with him in goodness since we are created in his image.

Today’s first reading concludes with four simple words that can make the whole world seem right:  “I am the Lord.”

________________________________

Second Reading  -  1 Corinthians 3:16-23
The Mystery of You

Sometimes people may be tempted to read a familiar passage of Scripture and think, “I have heard that before,” and move on to something else.  It can be like that in parts of today’s second reading.  People have heard about being temples of God so many times that the phrase may rush by without being noticed.

Perhaps Paul recognized this danger and Immediately followed up with some strikingly harsh words: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.”  That’s it, you’re done.

Paul also has some harsh things to say about people who think there is no mystery that is beyond their ability to figure out:  “God catches the wise in their own ruses.”  Then, to get their attention, he quotes Psalm 94 and says, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

It is one of life’s mysteries that God would choose to dwell in us.  You can’t scientifically measure his presence.  You can’t weigh it.  Yet the Scriptures say it is so.  It is a remarkable mystery that people like us who are flesh and blood can be God’s temple.

Nevertheless, that is the remarkable and mysterious truth that you as lector are going to tell hundreds of people at Mass this weekend. 

© George Fournier 2014

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 16, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

Has it ever happened to you that someone you don’t know approaches you and asks, “Don’t you lector at Mass on Sundays?”   Although people may not even know your name, they will often remember what you do. 

Experiencing an encounter like the one above can prompt a person to think about the connection between who he or she is and what he or she does.  Whether you are a doctor, a teacher, a supermarket clerk or a lector, people often remember who you are based on the service you provide.

A few Sundays ago, identity was an important theme in the readings.  In the first reading, Isaiah recounted how the Lord “formed me as his servant from the womb” (Isaiah 49:5).  On the same Sunday in the second reading, Paul says that by the will of God he was “called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:1). 

Both Isaiah and Paul knew they had a calling to do something important.  Despite feelings of inadequacy, Isaiah and Paul knew that “who they were” and “what they did” were intimately bound together.  And because their human freedom allowed them to accept or reject God’s call, they were free to make an authentic commitment.

An authentic call to be a lector must first come from God.  Then it is up to us to make our response to that call equally as authentic.  The best doctors, teachers, supermarket clerks and lectors are those who work hardest at making a real connection between who they are and what they do.

It is this kind of real connection that the people in the assembly will remember.  It is this kind of connection that makes a Scripture proclamation memorable.

___________________________

First Reading  -  Sirach 15: 15-20

The Drama of Choices

This week’s Reflection on Lectoring talks about our human freedom to choose - a freedom to choose between being our authentic selves as God wishes, or to stray from the mark.  It is a two-edged sword.  Nevertheless, it is also a necessary part of our human nature, making it possible for our actions to have merit.  Freedom is an integral part of the human drama.

Today’s first reading from Sirach is all about the drama of choices.  We have the freedom to choose between “life and death, good and evil.”  And we shall receive whichever one we choose.  To make our understanding of choice even more vivid, Sirach says God “has set before you fire and water, to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.” 

Sirach goes on to say, “Immense is the wisdom of the Lord.”  Is it wise for our Creator to allow his creatures to put their hands into the fire?  Perhaps he knows that our actions have merit only if we are allowed to choose.  Perhaps he also knows that free will is a prerequisite for acquiring genuine wisdom.

Sirach says a lot in five verses.  As you prepare this reading, you also have the freedom to meditate on the insights that are most important to you.

__________________________________

Second Reading  -  1 Corinthians 2: 6-10

True Wisdom

How many truly wise people have you met?  What are the signs that let you know someone is truly wise?  In today’s second reading, Paul talks about speaking “a wisdom to those who are mature.”  And If, as he says, it is not “a wisdom of this age,” what then is mature wisdom?

Paul goes on to complicate the discussion of wisdom by saying God’s wisdom is a “mysterious, hidden” wisdom.”  In part he is saying that the crucifixion defies a certain kind of human logic.  But the question remains, if true wisdom is mysterious and hidden, how can we acquire it?

There is a paradox about being wise.  Truly wise people recognize how little they know.  Truly wise people are also more likely to feel comfortable knowing that only God has the complete answer.  While on earth we are destined to have more questions than answers.

Can we be comfortable with the insecurity of incomplete understanding?  Can we trust that God really does have the answers?   Perhaps that is the beginning of true wisdom.

Today’s second reading is all about questions and answers, wisdom and confidence.  As lectors, you have the opportunity to invite your hearers at Mass to consider what true wisdom is.

© George Fournier 2014

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 9, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

Here is a question:  Why does our lector workbook frequently encourage lectors to make eye contact?

Is it because we simply want the assembly to see we are looking at them in the hope that they will look back at us?  Is it because a little eye contact somehow helps the words get across better?  Would the words be less effective if the lector concentrated solely on the Lectionary?

In last week’s Reflection on Lectoring we said that many in the assembly find benefit in reading along from their books while the words are proclaimed.  For those who read along does eye contact make any real difference?

It is certain that the Scriptures can be effective for meditation and inspiration when read by someone in silence.  If this is so, what does eye contact add?  Perhaps the best answer to these questions may lie in what we are attempting to do. 

It might be good to think of the Scriptures as part of communal, shared worship.  Not something done in isolation.  If a lector is truly worshiping with the assembly, he or she is not standing alone, using his or her voice simply to pace a guided reading.  If the assembly is worshiping as a communal body, its members are not simply sitting as solitary individuals allowing the lector to lead their reading.

The proclamation of the Scriptures is a joint undertaking, a communal act of worship.  In this act of worship the lector and the assembly are joined together mutually sharing the Scriptures.

_________________________

First Reading  -  Isaiah 58:7-10
Doing What is Right

There is a remarkable contrast between today’s first reading and the Gospel.

Isaiah is describing the obligations appropriate to a just society, most especially the obligation to remember the needs of the hungry, the oppressed and the homeless.  He then goes on to say that if people do these things then “you shall call, and the Lord will answer.”  When you do what is right, you will be blessed.  There is a direct correlation between the two.

While not denying that a just society functions better and produces better results, the Gospel emphasizes a different reason for doing what is right.  The followers of Jesus do what is right simply because they follow Jesus.  As the Gospel says, “You are the salt of the earth.”  They do what they do not for reward, not because of a contractual or societal obligation, but because that is who they are.

True identity is not defined or determined by what a person does.  The opposite is true.  Identity governs and directs what a person does:  “You are the light of the world.”

Isaiah rightly says that God is better served by acts of kindness than by fasting and rituals.  Taking that a step farther, Jesus is saying that because love asks for nothing in return, it is the best witness to God’s presence.

________________________________

Second Reading  -  1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Knowing Who You Are

St. Paul had a clear notion of who he was.  He had a strong grasp of his identity.

As he states in the second reading, he lacked sophistication in stating his case: “My message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom.”  He understood his strengths and weaknesses.   He also acknowledged that when he came to the Corinthians he came “in weakness and fear and much trembling.”

What he did have, however, was a powerful conviction that he was God’s messenger, that he had a purpose and identity, and that everything he did had to flow from that purpose.

Knowing who God was calling him to be was an essential source of Paul’s strength. It enabled him to travel thousands of miles, suffer beatings and rejection, and sacrifice both his freedom and his life.   It enabled him to fight through his fears.  And it gave him comfort when he knew the end was near: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

In different ways, all three of today’s readings talk about doing what is right.  Other than Jesus himself, there can be no better role model for doing what is right than St. Paul.

© George Fournier 2014