3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, C January 26, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
What’s the longest you’ve ever waited for something? A new book in a series? A concert? A line for a roller coaster? The first McDonalds in Russia had an 8 hour wait to get a burger on opening day. The Beatles had lines half a mile long and I’m sure Taylor Swift concerts usually come with long wait times. Each time World Youth Day rolls around, people often hike for miles to camp overnight in a field to be present for the Papal Mass.
There are just certain things people are willing to wait for. It’s a fascinating phenomenon because in almost every case, the thing you’re waiting for is way shorter than the wait itself. A roller coaster is a couple minutes at most, a concert a couple of hours, even a papal Mass usually doesn’t go more than half a day. Speaking of which, our first reading kind of captures that. We see a huge crowd standing for 6 hours listening to Ezra read the bible. Only then does he start his homily. Would you stand there for 6 hours just to hear me preach? Don’t answer that!
Really, it isn’t the homily they want. They are there because they want to hear the bible. The want the 6 hours of reading. Why? Because they weren’t just waiting overnight for this, they were waiting 70 years for it. That’s how long Israel was in exile. God’s chosen people were forcibly dragged out of their country to Babylon where they didn’t have the opportunity to gather and hear God’s law proclaimed like this.
That might baffle us, but that’s probably because we don’t appreciate God’s word the way they did. When I say “the law of God,” what do you think and feel? Rules? A sense of constriction? Technical language? Old and stuffy ideas? Not this crowd. They feel about the Law of God the way we feel about our favorite band playing our favorite song. The law of God is music, it is poetry, it is art and beauty and goodness and love. Our psalm is quite literally a poem about how beautiful it is. Sure, before the exile, they were probably just as bored by the law of God as most teenagers are at Mass. That’s kind of why they got conquered in the first place. But after 70 years living under pagan rule? They finally appreciated what they had.
It’s even more dramatic in the Gospel. Jesus arrives on the scene more than four hundred years after what we see in the first reading. After rebuilding the temple and enjoying some freedom, the Israelites are conquered again, sometimes allowed to practice their faith, sometimes not. Eventually, they end up under the control of the Romans: allowed to worship at the temple, but not quite free enough.
And for this entire time – really stretching back 1500 years all the way to Moses – they have been looking forward to a special prophet. They were promised a man of great wisdom and power who would bring about God’s kingdom. Again and again they would read the prophecy of Moses about this great leader. Again and again they would hear Isaiah read aloud, poetically describing this promised messiah.
So, take the longest line you’ve ever waited in, take the biggest thing you’ve ever looked forward to and expand it as much as you can imagine. Expand it a whole lifetime, expand it across multiple lifetimes. Imagine growing up hearing your grandparents talk about how their grandparents always looked forward to some great promise. That’s what it was like when this man named Jesus, this carpenter-turned preacher walked into a synagogue in an unimportant town named Nazareth, took out a scroll, read the promise of a messiah setting captives free, sat down and said “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Today? Right here and now? By you? In front of us? Yes. Imagine the excitement, the sudden sense of importance, the way the atmosphere in the room must have dramatically shifted. If you truly grasp what that must have been like, then perhaps you’ll understand what happens next; how they can go from such excitement to suddenly wanting to kill him. It’s a dangerous thing to mess with people’s expectations, much more so when they’re expectations over a 1000 years old.
But that’s not the point today. The point is that, even though this crowd quickly turns on him and rejects his claim, what Jesus says is true. Jesus is the messiah. He does bring glad tidings, give sight to the blind, and set captives free. [ACTS men probably get that quite clearly right now after a weekend of experiencing it].
Only, he’s not done fulfilling these promises. And the fulfillment doesn’t always look like we expect. Perhaps worse, we often don’t genuinely want what he gives. The reality is that anticipation if often a key part of what makes the thing we’re waiting for so great. If you were to walk into a room to unexpectedly find a band you’ve never heard of playing a song you don’t know, what would happen? Maybe you’d enjoy it or maybe not. It would be nothing like the concert of your favorite band after waiting for months to get a ticket and for hours in a line. One of the world’s best violinists once played some of the most famous classical music on one of the best violins ever made, but did it in a subway. Most people ignored him because they weren’t anticipating the music or looking forward to hearing him. So they did not notice.
This moment with Jesus is both what the Israelites anticipated and what they did not expect. Distraction, ignorance, false expectations, no expectations at all – these things can cause people to miss what God is really doing. Sadly, this can even affect our entrance into heaven. If we aren’t looking forward to heaven, if we don’t ever stop to consider what heaven actually is, how can we be sure we’ll ever make it there? Or recognize it when we stand before it? Those who go to hell go there by their own choice. Who would choose hell? Anyone who didn’t know enough about heaven to even recognize it as an option.
So, how do we avoid that tragic outcome? How do we avoid missing out on Jesus Christ and his kingdom when he comes again? Simple: start looking forward. People going to a concert take time to search for tickets, to plan the trip, and even listen to the music ahead of time to be more familiar with the lyrics. Why? Because they already love the band and the music. Because even though the concert is in the future, the band and the music are already here.
Even though Jesus’ 2nd coming and heaven are in the future for us, they are already here too. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. He is here now. If we want to know what to expect, if we want to keep our anticipation going, we should pay attention to the Word of God. Maybe you don’t love the bible enough to stand and listen for 6 hours, but I bet you didn’t always love some band enough to do that either. That love had to grow, to be developed. Attention is not something we give passively – that’s why we say we “pay attention.” Attention is a currency we spend on things we decide are valuable. So, spend it on God’s word. Spend it in reading, studying, listening to scripture. Spend it rejoicing in the Lord who has spoken and is speaking still. Spend it on the Word-made-Flesh-made-Sacrament in the Eucharist. Spend it now while you have the time because, unlike a concert or a roller coaster, what we’re waiting for lasts far longer than the wait itself.