July 6, 2014
Reflection on Lectoring
Lectoring is a unique ministry. During your career as a lector, you will tell
people about miracles and mysteries, sin and sanctity, life and death. About all the things that are beyond our ability
to comprehend completely.
You will tell people about love and hate, self-sacrifice
and selfishness, dignity and shame. About
all the things about ourselves that are difficult to comprehend.
You will tell people that Jesus came to change the world,
not by eliminating pain and suffering, but by allowing us to believe that there
is something beyond pain and suffering.
You will tell people that there is a reason to hope.
You will give people an image of church in which people
can love and forgive, console and encourage, embrace and hold tight. You will give people reassurance that there
is a reason to pray - for ourselves and for others. You will give people, while they are here on
earth, a small glimpse of what awaits them when they see God in heaven.
During your career as a lector you will show people the
widest possible spectrum of emotions, beliefs, hopes and dreams. Through the Scriptures you will offer
reassurance that God has a plan for our salvation.
Lectoring is a unique ministry through which God speaks
to his people in a profound and loving way.
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First Reading - Zechariah 9:9-10
To the End of Time and the Ends of the Earth
Sometimes we need to hear that there will be an end to
suffering. That there will be an end to
war. That good will overcome evil. That
God wills all his children to be with him forever at the end of time.
“Rejoice
heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!”
We cannot know for certain what heaven will be like, or what
we will see when we are face to face with God.
But we can be certain that we have a just savior who came in peace to
make salvation a real hope for everyone
“See,
your king shall come to you; a just savior is he.”
In Hebrew, the name Zechariah
means “Yahweh has remembered.” God has
not forgotten his promise. “They shall be
my people and I shall be their God” (Jeremiah 32:38). Zechariah did not know about Jesus or about how
he would bring salvation to a broken world.
But the words of the prophet convey a sense that we all need a savior
whose “dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
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Second Reading - Romans 8:9, 11-13
A Right to Hope
Do we have a right to hope? Do we have an obligation to hope? Today’s second reading tells us that we
do. As Paul says, there is a reason that
Jesus came to earth, died and was resurrected. “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
Faith, hope and trust are all intimately
intertwined. If we trust in God, if we
trust that his Son came to save us, and if we trust that God deeply loves us,
we must also have faith and hope that, “Our
help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth” (Psalms
125:8).
Today’s second reading puts us on notice. We have a responsibility to put life before
death. We also have an obligation to
trust that the Spirit supports us in doing this.
As lector, when you
read the words “. . . but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live,” you share
with the assembly why we all have a right to hope.
© George Fournier, 2014
