June 22, 2014
Reflection on Lectoring
A lot depends on how you say the words.
“It is finished.”
Think of all the ways you can say, “It is finished.” You can say these words with a sigh of
relief. You can say them with a sense of
accomplishment and completion. You can
say them with a sense of resignation and failure. You can say them a dozen different ways.
According to the Gospel of John, “It is finished” are the
last words spoken by Jesus before he died.
Try imagining how he said them.
As a lector, you accept the challenge of finding meaning
and conveying meaning in the words you proclaim. They are words that have the power to move
people’s hearts, guide their decisions, and provide meaning in an often
confusing world. They are all words that
must be spoken and heard with prayerful reflection.
No Scripture passage resonates in exactly the same way
with every person. The Scriptures were
authored by God in a way that makes individual prayer and reflection essential. And it is no easy task to proclaim the
Scriptures with a combination of humility and confidence in a way that both
speaker and hearer can find meaning.
When spoken aloud, the meaning of Scripture is textured
by inflection and brought to life by expression. When these things are lacking, or when
personal understanding is missing, part of the message is lost.
At every Mass, a lot depends on how you understand and say
the words.
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First Reading - Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
A Time to Remember
Forty years is a long time.
Forty years is enough time to witness countless events
both big and small. Encounter thousands
of people and ideas. Experience many
feelings of happiness and joy, pain and sorrow.
It is also time enough for memories to fade.
Today’s first reading comes in two large sections. The first is a command by Moses to
remember. The second is an admonition by
Moses not to forget.
It was the Israelites’ own fault that they wandered forty
years in the desert. They could have avoided
all the dust and dryness, serpents and scorpions if they had trusted God and gone
directly into Canaan. But they got
scared at the prospect of fighting the Canaanites and said “no” to God.
Now, after forty years, out of the original group that
left Egypt, only Moses, Joshua and a guy named Caleb were left. All the rest were second and third
generation. And they all needed to be
reminded.
A lifetime is filled with a lot of things to remember,
both good and bad. It is only God who
can take all those things and offer us something to look forward to - if only we
remember that he has been with us every step of the way.
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Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Paul's Vision Statement
Today’s Gospel says it all in one short sentence. “Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” When we receive Jesus into our hearts, the
union is complete. We are no longer
alone. God is in us.
The vision statement on my parish says, “Called into
relationship by the Holy Spirit and centered in the Eucharist, we are a welcoming community sent to serve as Christ did.” As parish members we acknowledge that we, who
are centered in the Eucharist, have been called into a relationship with God
and with each other.
When he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul
must also have had a vision statement in mind.
It is a vision that contains an intimate “participation” in the very substance of Christ. He then takes it one step farther. He makes this participation a pivot point for
our relationship with each other. He
says, “Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
Perhaps as you
proclaim this vision at Mass, you might make a special effort to look out at
the assembly and say directly to them, “for
we all partake of the one loaf.”
They may just agree with you.
© George Fournier, 2014
