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.

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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.

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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