The readings this Sunday raise some questions about hearing and proclaiming the Word of God. In both the first reading from the Book of Nehemiah and the Gospel account from Luke, the assembled people are riveted to what is being read to them. Now Ezra may have been an excellent lector, but I don't think it was because of his oratorical ability that the people cried afterwards! Even though the message was read from "daybreak to mid-day", the people did not become distracted.
In the Gospel passage, Jesus may have drawn a crowd as the local boy who was becoming famous but it was what Jesus read that actually captured the people and the moment. In both cases, there seems to be universal devotion to and acceptance of the importance of God's message. Times have changed.
There are lots of reasons why people's attention is far from riveted on the Word these days. Whether it is an inadequate sound system, an unpracticed lector, a less than spiritual incoming call song on someone's new smartphone, noisy children or simply the nine million things floating around in each person's head at the time, we simply do not attend to the Word as we should! Church attendance is way down and those who do attend, well, many really don't attend at all. We can all share some "you wouldn't believe" stories about what people actually do at church ! In one sad way, many times we miss the joy of the moment, the joy of really feeling the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word.
There are many practical efforts underway to remedy the situation. We have hearing devices and nursery or cry rooms available for those who need them. We have reminders about turning off cell phones and proclamations from well trained lectors . What we don't have and what I think we really need is a way down deep desire to hear what God says to us. We are too busy with other things or listening to other voices.
Some distractions are important like how to pay for the grocery store trip after Mass when in a difficult economic situation or how to juggle listening to a small child who wants another Cheerio or crayon during the readings when no child care options are available in or out of church. Some are not really important but are there anyway because we are human. So what do we do, collectively as a Church and individually as listeners to God?
The teacher in me says that we must go back to the basics of teaching. We simply must revisit why we go to Church in the first place and what happens at Mass... and we must do it with ourselves and within the entire community from the toddlers to the elders. We must act as one body in revering the Word! The preacher in me says we must individually prepare to hear the readings and the homily by pre-reading the selections and learning more about biblical history and literary styles.
As an active church community, we must focus on the importance of the message each week and find ways together to follow God's ways. For instance, a community might ask how the people as followers of the anointed Jesus fulfill the Scripture passage they hear each week. What a wonderful after Mass chat over donuts that would be !!!
The first reading calls us as
listeners to rejoice in the Word of God for rejoicing will be our
strength. Let us rejoice that our God is ever faithful, even when we
are less than attentive to the Holy Word ! The Gospel selection
reminds us of the certainty of the Word and our call to proclaim it.
Let us do so by listening with reverence and then acting with
compassion. The Word is our lifeline... let us hang on to it for
dear life!
(Comments to Lanie at lanieleblanc@onebox.com.)