January 26, 2014
Reflection on Lectoring
Sing the Lord, ye voices all!
Utter thanks, ye all his works!
Celebrate his power and glory!
Let his name resound on high!
The Lord is great;
His praise shall last for aye.
Amen.
These are not inspired words taken from the Bible. They occur at the conclusion of Joseph
Haydn’s monumental Creation oratorio. In
their own way they are truly inspired words.
God gave humanity the power to praise. He gave that power to every man and woman who
ever lived.
He gave us that power not because he needed someone to
sing his praises. Not because he wanted
his creatures to acknowledge how small and insignificant they are.
He gave us that power because he wanted us to experience
the joy of singing to our God and Father.
He wanted us to have a small glimpse of his limitless love. He wanted us to feel uplifted in a very
special kind of prayer.
Haydn was a devote Catholic who wrote more than 100
symphonies. He customarily began his
manuscripts with the phrase “In nomine Domini.” (“In the name of the
Lord’). He ended them with “Laus Deo”
(“Praise be to God”). In this way his entire
life’s work became a genuine prayer of praise.
Lectors also have the same power to praise. Their proclamation can be just as powerful
and uplifting. They can be just as
prayerful.
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First Reading - Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Zebulun and Naphtali
In today’s Gospel, Matthew does something clever. To prove his point, he quotes from an
acknowledged expert. Isaiah is the
expert. And the point Matthew is making
is that the “light has come.”
It is no accident that you will find the passage quoted
by Matthew also present in today’s first reading. In 733 B.C. Assyria grabbed the land of
Zebulun and Naphtali and turned them into Assyrian provinces. Ten years later they came back and took the
rest of the Northern Kingdom.
However, Isaiah unequivocally promises that the people
who live in the land of gloom will have “abundant
joy and great rejoicing” when the light appears. For Matthew and the people of his time this
was the great messianic prophesy that took more than 700 years to fulfill. Referring to Jesus he says, “He left Nazareth and went to live in
Capernaum by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.”
Unlike the Jewish people, most of your hearers at Mass
will not know much about Zebulun or Naphtali, but they can recognize the
connection between the first reading and the Gospel. They can understand - if you proclaim it
clearly - that Isaiah was prophesying a glorious day when the darkness would be
dispelled.
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Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Is Christ Divided?
It makes you wonder sometimes.
How can someone who joyfully praises God with his or her
fellow worshippers on Sunday let disputes and disagreements come between them
on Monday? How can human beings who have
the power to praise (see this week’s lector reflection) also have the ability
to hold a grudge, or even worse?
Paul must have wondered too. Listen to the way he phrases the question in
the second reading: “Is Christ divided?”
How could the believers in Corinth allow “rivalries” to develop? It seemed inconceivable that anyone could
think that one baptism was better than another.
Yet the facts spoke for themselves.
The news on TV and in the newspapers presents us with two
seemingly irreconcilable truths. Humanity is capable of selfless
sacrifice. It is also capable terrible
pettiness and factional disputes. In
today’s second reading Paul makes clear what the choice must be.
So can the lector.
© George Fournier 2014
