<\/p>\n
They were remnants; those who were left over after everyone else had gone.\u00a0 That\u2019s who the people were that Ezra and Nehemiah were speaking to in the first reading.\u00a0 You see, the entire nation of Israel was exiled to Babylon.\u00a0 And after many years, the King of Persia released the remnants.\u00a0 Most of those that had been exiled were no longer there- they had died during the exile. \u00a0To say that they had suffered greatly would be putting it mildly.\u00a0 They were repressed captives; almost slaves to their captors.\u00a0 Only a few were living who remembered the good old days of freedom.\u00a0 But those that did remember returned to Jerusalem.\u00a0 They were a rag tag group of people, trying to reestablish themselves in their original homeland.\u00a0 And they brought with them their children and grandchildren who didn\u2019t know anything about the past, except what this remnant could hand down to them.<\/p>\n
Now in the scene described in our first reading, this rag tag remnant is experiencing a new found joy because they had finally reached their homeland; they had started reconstruction; and could finally see the effects.\u00a0 They were overjoyed at truly being free of their oppressors.\u00a0 Ezra, their prophet, reads the law to them- the law that they had hung on to despite many trials over the years of exile in hopes of this day.\u00a0 And that is why they were so emotional; that is why the people cried as the historic words of the law were read.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know about you, but I can identify with these people.\u00a0 I look back over the 70 or so years of my life, and remember many toils and trials with some great memories sprinkled in between.\u00a0 But I see a majority of my family gone.\u00a0 Three of the four parent figures between my wife and I are gone; and all of our aunts and uncles are gone.\u00a0 It was like I woke up one day and suddenly realized that most of the roots in my family were gone.\u00a0 We are a rag tag remnant of believers that is left.\u00a0 We are the elders now; all the young people look to us for the roots of their faith.\u00a0 And we find ourselves gathered together with others in a similar situation, celebrating our liturgy each week in hope of the joy of an eternal Kingdom, wary of the drudgery of physical life here that gets more taxing with every passing year.\u00a0 The mind is not as quick; the body is not as nimble; and we are easier victims to illnesses and infirmities.\u00a0 But there is hope, because the words of our faith still resonate each week as we hear them read, and deep down, we know that we are truly free of the grip of the world, because we have overcome decades of real trials and still have our faith.<\/p>\n
And so, just as the Israelis cried with joy when they heard their precious law, we too, can be joyful when we hear our faith proclaimed, and so we say \u201cAmen\u201d to it.\u00a0 And the essence of our faith is that we are waiting in joyful hope of everlasting life in the kingdom of God, something that our faith and our lives have convinced us is real.<\/p>\n
In the second reading, we come to see that all of us together, yes even the rag tag remnant that we are, constitute the real Church- we have our faith that unites us in the Body of Christ.\u00a0 And that is a strength that we share as a group.\u00a0 But we still have a mission.\u00a0 And that mission is to pass on the real faith to our own.\u00a0 You see, most of the people living today are focused on life in this world, not life in the kingdom of God.\u00a0 That being the case, they really need us.\u00a0 Because they need to be focused on what life is really all about.\u00a0 Those of us who are older and not as nimble, not as quick, and prone to infirmities-\u00a0 we have the experience that breeds wisdom, the wisdom to know what life is really not all about.\u00a0 Ultimately it is not all about fame and wealth and pleasure because all of these pass.\u00a0 Rather, it is about Faith and God and the promise of everlasting life.<\/p>\n
And so, we still have a mission to evangelize others- our families and loved ones in particular.\u00a0 It\u2019s ironic that the Gospel today shows Jesus launching his career.\u00a0 For 30 years- some 90% of his life, Jesus was just like any one of us- and in fact, was just a carpenter\u2019s apprentice and then a carpenter.\u00a0 But he basically returns to Nazareth after his Baptism, and announces to the world that he is off on his mission- his mission as the Messiah.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it is never too late for us to evangelize even if it is 90% or more into our lives.\u00a0 We do it with the prayer life and commitment to our faith that others see; we do it by the dignity of our acceptance of God\u2019s will for us, and we do it when we project our hope for Everlasting life in the world to come.\u00a0 So let us all keep doing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time Neh 8: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Cor 12: 12-14, 27; Luke 1: 1-4, 4: 14-21 Dc. Larry Brockman They were remnants; those who were left over after everyone else had gone.\u00a0 That\u2019s who the people were that Ezra and Nehemiah were speaking to in the first reading.\u00a0 You see, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[188,128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}