November 17, 2013
Reflection on Lectoring
What would be wrong with having just a small group of
three or four, well-trained lectors proclaim the Scriptures at every Mass? Send them to Scripture classes and workshops
on public speaking. What better way to
ensure high quality lectoring?
Of course, some people may object that lectoring is a
ministry that should be available to more than just a small handful of people. Greater participation should be, by itself,
an important value. On the other hand,
even if there were as many as 30 or 40 lectors, that number would still represent
only a tiny percentage of parish members.
Why should 30 or 40 be better than three or four?
Perhaps the Scriptures themselves may suggest an answer. Perhaps presenting the depth and richness of the
Scriptures is best accomplished by many diverse voices. Perhaps, keeping the message of the
Scriptures current is best accomplished by lectors of different ages and
backgrounds proclaiming God’s word to their fellow worshipers of different ages
and backgrounds. Perhaps, ultimately, it
is a matter of recognizing that diverse perspectives create vitality and offer new
insights, while sameness creates a kind of entropy that puts listening and
thinking to sleep.
Commenting on the need to keep the Christian message
vital and relevant to our times, Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar
wrote, “It is especially the duty of Christians to bring this creative touch to
the spiritual ‘material’ a period offers.
It is part of their vocation to interpret the times, according to the
world of Christ” (The God Question and
Modern Man). People living in different
times and places have different experiences and speak in different idioms. The same is no less true for lectors.
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First reading - Malachi 13:19-20a
"What do we gain?"
All three of today’s readings can combine to leave the
assembly feeling a little battered, bruised and not a little uncomfortable.
In the first reading the prophet Malachi warns, “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an
oven.” Then Paul admonishes each
Thessalonian who is on perpetual vacation that, “neither should that one eat.”
In the Gospel, Jesus prepares his followers for hard times by predicting
that they will “be handed over by
parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to
death.”
Malachi is the last book in the Christian Old
Testament. It describes a time
approximately 50 years after the Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of the
temple. It also describes the Jews’ indifference
to God when they brazenly say, “It is
useless to serve God, what do we gain by observing God’s requirements?” (3:14).
Somehow, these proud “evildoers” missed the point. The God of Israel was not a god who gave you
things like good health, great wealth or abundant crops in exchange for
sacrifices and offerings. He was a god
of love and justice who offered his chosen people a covenant of love and
justice.
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Second Reading - 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
No Work, No Food
As evident in Second Thessalonians, Christians were just
as capable as the post-exilic Jews of becoming indifferent or confused about
what God is saying and about their responsibility as a community of believers.
Believing that the day of the Lord was at hand, some
Thessalonians became frozen in fear. Others
decided that working for a living no longer made much sense. While still others made a general nuisance of
themselves. This was a genuine
problem. Not just because no work was
being done, but because this distorted notion of the parousia was threatening the faith.
The “perverse and wicked people” spreading falsehoods mentioned in last
week’s second reading were doing a lot of damage.
© George Fournier 2013
