Reflection for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2025

Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Cor. 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

“The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.”

 

Has something really beautiful ever touched you so deeply that you shed tears? This may have been the case in the event described in our first reading. When Ezra the priest read and explained the book of God’s law to the whole assembled group of Hebrew people, they wept! Their tears of joy and relief flowed freely. Finally, after 70 years the banished exiles had returned from Babylon to their beloved capital, Jerusalem. The cherished scroll of God’s law had been rediscovered, waiting for them in their temple.

The returning Israelites knew, as we know, that we need law. We need boundaries, not just of decency and manners, which are important, but we need limits to the exercise of our freedom. “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul (Psalm 19)”.

Law applies to everyone. The vast variety of people will have different functions in society, but we all know to observe the same precepts of justice and love, whatever occupations we have. The natural law within each of us unites us as a human family. This is what St. Paul alludes to when he writes to the Corinthians that they “were all baptized into one body…, and all given to drink of the one Spirit.”

The law of God is a law of love, because His Spirit directs it. The idea of law seems to restrict our thoughts, words, and actions, but it clears the way for our greatest freedom. To observe the limits of law actually distances us from dangers and from obstacles to love.

Teenagers sometimes say they are glad of a parent’s curfew that helped them avoid dangerous situations. Helpless sheep inside a sheepfold are protected from the wolf’s attack. Even more precious, a little child inside a walker or held securely in a parent’s arms is free from falling. We need God’s “demands” and “ordinances” to keep us safe from falling, too.

Once we are secure in the Lord’s embrace, we can also more confidently reach out to others. When the “firewall” of the Lord’s Ten Commandments encircles us safely, our hands are free to help others and we can think clearly to do it.

Jesus’ own fulfillment of the law is His circle of love around us.

Let us rest in His love this Sunday.

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“With Mary, our lives continually proclaim the greatness of the Lord and the joy experienced in rendering service to Him.”

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