3^rd Sunday In Ordinary Time - Cycle C – January 24^th, 2010 - “Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.” Jesus impressed people with his words. More than that, he impressed people because his words were God’s words, because He was God.

Do you know that if you get to Church after the Gospel has been proclaimed at the Sunday Mass, then you have to come to another Mass? Why? The reason is that in the Mass there are two ‘meals’, one is the meal of the Lord Jesus’s Body and Blood, and the other meal is the meal of his word. The Church wants us to receive both meals at least once a week.

We can realize how important God’s word is. To help us do this, can you imagine a meeting where nobody says anything? A meeting where nobody even raises his hand to say hello? God is a social being like us because we were created in His likeness. God wants to speak to us, not be silent in our lives.

How can we hear Him? God has many ways in which He speaks to us. One of them is through His Word. I like the first reading, from Nehemiah, “Ezra read out of the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand; and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law…

These people really understood what God’s word was. “Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.”

This Sunday the Gospel invites us to recognize the greatness of our faith. This week we are focusing on the richness of God’s word. The responsorial Psalm said: Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life. The author of the Psalm understood all this very well. He wrote: The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the command of the LORD is clear.

Now, what is the next step? We have to listen to God’s word. This is what we need to do. It is important to have the virtue of listening. We need to be able to pay attention and try to understand what God is telling us. In order to hear Him, we need to be able to control our feelings and emotions.

Sometimes, we may be so upset, angry or sad that we do not realize that someone close to us is trying to tell us just what we need to hear. Because of our lack of control over our emotions, we do not use our ability to hear, and we do not receive what we were supposed to receive. The same may happen with God and his word.

This Sunday, let us thank the Lord for His word that is among us. Let us tell Him that we really want to hear Him, that we really want to be impressed by Him like the people in the synagogue in Jesus's time. Lord, we want to have our eyes, ears and our whole being focused upon you.