Word to the Wise
Monday, August 30, 2010 - Monday in the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and Luke 4:16-30]I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God. [1 Cor.] Jesus came to Nazareth where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attending and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
A famous Reader's Digest survey showed that more people fear public speaking than they fear death! One gets the impression that this fear is an ancient one because some of the great prophets tried to avoid their calling on the excuse that they were not good public speakers. Take a look at the calls for Moses (Exod. 3) or Jeremiah (ch. 1) for instance. St. Paul (and some of his critics) mentions his inability as a public speaker in today's first scripture. One time he had to revive a guy who fell asleep during one of his homilies and fell out a window! (Acts 20:7-10). The grammar and syntax of his letters have been a challenge to translators (and to the scribes who took dictation) since they were first issued! Yet there is no question of the importance of what he wrote!!! If nothing else, he was a dramatic person and this sense of drama probably made up for whatever lack he had in formal training in public speaking! One cannot help but admire the drama of the gospel story for today! By the time Jesus returned to Nazareth, word has gotten around that he was doing some very dramatic things elsewhere! So, when he showed up at the synagogue, folks were ready for some of what they had been hearing about. He deliberately chose the passage from Isaiah, read it, sat down (the position of a teacher) and said simply: " Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." It's hard to beat that for dramatic timing. I suspect more than one "pew person" wishes most homilies were that brief! The reaction of the congregation is favorable at first but they were expecting something a bit more spectacular, and Jesus then tells them why they are not going to get what they want!!! That's when they try to run him out of town! Every preacher knows that there will eventually be a time when he or she has to say something to a congregation that is likely to evoke a negative response! Both Moses and Jeremiah complained about this duty! St. Paul seems to have been more combative and challenging! Sometimes Jesus had to escape crowds that wanted to stone him! Every preacher should also remember that the message is more important than the preacher. It is important to use whatever public speaking abilities one has when getting into the pulpit, but these should serve the message and not the ego of the speaker! In Jesus' case, however, the preacher and the message are one and the same!! For the rest of us, despite whatever fears we may have, we must preach to the best of our ability. It can be a matter of life and death! AMEN
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