July 7, 2013
Reflection on Lectoring
Do lectors have a mission statement? What might a mission statement for lectoring
look like?
Good mission statements put their focus on the people or
groups who benefit from the performance of the mission. Good mission statements establish a
relationship between the person providing a product or service and the person
receiving that product or service.
When a lector says, “I proclaim the Scriptures,” that is
only part of the story. The complete
story must involve the people who hear the word. Who are they?
What do they need? How does the proclamation
of the word respond to their needs?
The people in the assembly are a very diverse group of
people with diverse needs.
- They
are people who are struggling to deepen their understanding of what it means to
be a Catholic.
- They
are people who do not struggle.
- They
are people who are struggling to deepen their relationship with God.
- They
are people who have unresolved struggles with God.
Lectors minister to all of these people, and many more. These people and their needs help to define
the mission and ministry of lectoring.
They also define the purpose and identity of the person who performs the
mission.
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First Reading - Isaiah 66:10-14c
Something for Everyone
You might think you were reading from two completely different
books when you compare today’s first joyful reading taken from the last chapter
of Isaiah to a few sobering lines from the first chapter. “Your
country is waste, your cities burnt with fire; Your land – before your eyes
strangers devour it, a waste, like the devastation of Sodom” (ch.1, v. 7).
The book of Isaiah spans a period of over 200 years. During that time, the Assyrians caused havoc
throughout Judah and shut King Hezekiah up in Jerusalem “like a bird in a
cage.” Then the Babylonians came along,
destroying everything, and hauling off the Jews into captivity. Finally, the Persians became the area
strongmen, and let the Jews return to their ruined homeland.
The Jewish people who read Isaiah experienced a variety
of triumphs and catastrophes, hopes and fears.
They experienced the promise of God’s help and the knowledge of what can
happen when they spurn that help.
_______________________________
Second Reading - Galatians 6:14-18
Marks That Show
Paul is not speaking metaphorically when he talks about
bearing “the marks of Jesus on my body.” When you are nearly stoned to death, savagely
beaten with rods three times, whipped five times with forty lashes minus one,
and shipwrecked three times, your body takes a beating. You can check Second Corinthians, chapter 12,
verses 23 to 28 for all the details of his hardships and suffering.
Furthermore, all of Paul’s suffering was just a prelude
to his martyrdom later in Rome - a possibility that may have crossed his mind
when he writes about the cross of Christ “through
which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
In much of his letter to the Galatians, Paul sounds
downright grumpy. In some places even
crude. There seems to be little effort on
his part to soften his language or his opinion of certain people who sought to
reinstate the slavery of Jewish law.
© George Fournier 2013
