The Inspired Word of God

Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This past Tuesday, October 11, the Church celebrated a significant milestone as it remembered Pope St. John XIII. The date for the memorial of the good Pope St. John was chosen because it is also the anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, which made this past Tuesday the sixtieth anniversary of that momentous Council. Much was accomplished at this remarkable meeting of the bishops of the Catholic Church. One of the most significant outcomes of that council was the Dogmatic Constitution on the Word of God, Verbum Dei. That Constitution set up the mechanism that brought about the current Lectionary for Sunday and Daily Mass. The bishops had set as one of their goals that the people of God would be exposed to more of the Scriptures than was currently used in the Lectionary for Mass. On Sundays and major feasts and solemnities, the lectionary would provide us with a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, a Psalm as a response, a reading from the Christian Scriptures and the reading from one of the four Gospels. As it is currently set up, a person who attends daily mass will be exposed to more than 90% of the Scriptures. Not content with simply exposing people to the Scriptures, the Council fathers also asked that the presider at the liturgy would also explain the readings in what they called a homily instead of a sermon about the various elements of our faith.

Since 1967 when the church began to use the vernacular in its celebration of the Eucharist, the people of God have heard the Word of God proclaimed and explained as they come to the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. The daily and Sunday liturgy was reconfigured into two parts: namely, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

The rationale behind this decision depends a great deal upon the passage that we hear today from the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy. In his attempt to build up the morale and the zeal of St. Timothy, St. Paul reminds him that he has learned the Scriptures since his infancy from his mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois, two women of the early Christian community. Timothy’s father was a Gentile; but he was raised according to the custom of the day by the women of his household until he reached the age of puberty. Indeed, when St. Paul met Timothy and led him to the baptismal font, God’s plan to send Timothy to other Gentile communities as a missionary bore fruit.

St. Paul reminds Timothy that all of Scripture “is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Inasmuch as we know that the Gospels of the Christian Scriptures were written after the letters of St. Paul, this statement points us to the Hebrew Scriptures. It reminds us that the Old Testament is a document that reveals God’s plan of salvation from the time of the fall of Adam and Eve to the advent of the Messiah in the person of Jesus. Careful study of the Hebrew Scriptures will reveal not only the various components of that plan, it will also reveal the immense and providential love that God has for humankind, created in God’s image and which God called “good” in the very first chapter of the Book of Genesis.

St. Paul also makes reference to the fact that the Scriptures are inspired both in their literary and cultural context. The literary context refers to the issue of “false teachers,” who have been plaguing Timothy and the community of Ephesus. Deception, lying, false teaching, and the susceptibility of many to these false teachers raise the issue of concern on the part of St. Paul. The cultural context reminds us that deception, lying, and secrecy are commonplace and acceptable strategies in the service of honor, the driving force of Middle Eastern culture. This is why St. Paul points Timothy back to his original teachers, his mother and grandmother, rather than to the false teachers of the present time. He then reminds Timothy that he is to preach and proclaim the word of God at all times, both when convenient and when inconvenient, because he is called to be faithful just as the Word of God is faithful. If God is faithful, then those who preside over the community must also remain faithful.

Sixty years after the closing of the Second Vatican Council, we are still using the lectionary that was created by the men who wrote and promulgated the Dogmatic Constitution on the Word of God. At the same time, we are experiencing more and more methodologies to pray with, meditate upon, and contemplate God’s goodness as it is revealed to us through the Scriptures. The practice of Scripture study and of “Lectio Divina” are becoming more and more popular and effective ways to expose the people of God to more of God’s Word. Like Timothy, St. Paul admonishes all of us to become so familiar with the Word of God that we can turn to it at every juncture in our lives and draw from it that which will equip us for every good work.