3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 18:8-10, 15
1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
January 24, 2016
After a brief introduction our gospel today begins the story of Jesus’ public ministry following his baptism. He reads from the prophet Isaiah of his Mission, “to bring glad tidings to the poor… To proclaim liberty to captives… recovery of sight to the blind… and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
This is Jesus’ mission but it is not just his mission. It is a mission we are all called to work towards, not just the priests, not just the deacon, not just the sisters, but all of us. Our first reading speaks of Ezra and Nehemiah working together. Ezra is a priest and Nehemiah is the governor but they work together.
Through the Spirit we are all baptized into one body. That doesn’t make us all identical. As Paul writes, the body has many parts. Each part fulfills a different role. The eye enables us to see. The ear enables to hear, the foot to walk, the stomach to eat, etc. Every part of the body is important and each of you is important to God and to us.
As we began our Increased Giving Campaign last week we prayed together the Stewardship prayer that is found in the pews. This prayer reminds us that if we want our church to do great things, we must be willing to be part of the effort.
We already have a number of parishioners involved in our ministries. We need more. We are working on a new ministry brochure to describe our ministries and we also have a group working towards a Promise Tree that will list ways you can help in either a one-time activity or in the ongoing ministries of the parish.
We have some good ministries here. We could be doing better. What will it take? You, well you in the sense that you contribute of your time, talent, and treasure. What skills (talents) do you have that might be helpful? Can you give a little time? How about treasure? When was the last time you thought about how much to contribute to the parish?
Not everyone can give the same. For instance a family with young children may not have a lot of time to give because they are taking care of the children (this doesn’t mean you can’t give some time) while the newly retired person may have lots of time to give.
The same is true for treasure. We don’t all have the same means. What you can contribute is ultimately for you to decide but I ask that you pray about it. Do you have time to offer? Do you have a talent to offer? Do you have treasure to offer?
If not, you can always pray.