Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 13, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

“Did you hear that?  That was God talking.  I heard him speaking directly to me during the proclamation of the Scriptures at Mass.”

Is that the kind of reaction people have when they hear the proclamation of the Word at Mass?  Do they believe God is speaking directly to them?  Equally important, do lectors believe that God is speaking directly to them and through them?

If God came to talk directly to you, how would you feel?  What expression would be on your face?  Would you forget everything else around you and see only the reality of God’s presence?

Chapter 34 of Exodus says that Moses’ face became radiant after encountering God on Mount Sinai.  After that encounter, the Israelites could tell God really had spoken to Moses by just looking at his face. 

Perhaps mountain-top experiences are not everyday occurrences.  And perhaps not every proclamation will be equally inspiring.  That is for God, by means of his grace, to decide.  It is, however, certain that the Scriptures should always be proclaimed with reverence and with the kind of enthusiasm that recognizes who is really speaking.

“Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow” (Isaiah 60:5 - the first reading from the Mass of the Epiphany of the Lord).

Isaiah understood that it is hard to be casual when God manifests himself to us.  It is also hard to be unenthusiastic when proclaiming his Word.

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First Reading  -  Isaiah 55:10-11
Who Is in Charge Here?

Isaiah felt well justified in saying God’s word gets things done.  In 586 B.C. the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish people were hauled off into exile.  Not long afterwards, in 539 B.C., the Persian king Cyrus came along and told the Jews they could go home.   Just like in the exodus from Egypt, God had a plan, and was ultimately the person in charge.

Today, we are more likely to put our faith in more rational and scientific reasoning.  The rules of science work pretty well, and provide reliable explanations for how things get done.  But where does that leave God? 

Perhaps Isaiah was scientifically unsophisticated.  Perhaps he thought the trajectory of history was determined more by God’s plan then by the patterns of human behavior. Perhaps today, relying on our modern knowledge and perspectives, we find Isaiah’s perception of reality somewhat uninformed.

This weekend’s first reading presents a real challenge.  Unequivocally the lector will proclaim that God’s word “shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”  How should the lector reconcile the idea of God at work in the world with the view that the world seems to work well enough by following its own set of rules?

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Second Reading  -  Romans 8:18-13
Wait and Hope

There are times when you might be justified in wishing that just a couple more verses would have been included at the end of the reading. . .  just two more verses.

The two verses immediately following today’s second reading are, “For in hope we were saved.  Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.  For who hopes for what one sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance” (Romans 8:24-25).

How do you deal with the “futility” that is an inescapable part of our present lives?  How do you reconcile yourself to pain and suffering and to the absolute certainty that, no matter how hard you try, the world will never be a perfect place?

Where do you find “the glorious freedom of the children of God”?

Hope is a difficult virtue.  As Paul says, when hope becomes certainty, it is no longer hope.  Almost paradoxically, uncertainty is a prerequisite for hope.  Perhaps that is why, “Our hope is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth” (Psalms 124:8).

© George Fournier 2014