Sunday Reflection, January 21: Inspiring News for Life

Scripture Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/012107.shtml
Nehemiah 8: 2-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12: 12-30
Luke 4: 14-21

These days we hear and read in the news so many stories of violent human behavior that has tragic results. The news that comes from Baghdad each day is enough to make a person weep. It was so refreshing, then, to read the story about Wesley Autry a couple of weeks ago. I first saw it online and then read several articles about it in the paper. Autry was the construction worker from Harlem who risked his life to save the young college student who had fallen onto the subway tracks in New York City. Autry had been standing there with his two children, waiting for the train, when he noticed this young man having a seizure. When the student lost control and fell onto the tracks as the train was approaching the station, Wesley Autry jumped down, grabbed the young man, and lay on top of him between the tracks so that the train would pass over them. The first two cars of the train did pass over them, missing Autry’s head by a couple of inches. In fact, the cap he was wearing had grease stains on it from the undercarriage of the train. When Autry was asked what motivated him to perform such a courageous act, he reportedly said that he did so because he did not want his two young children to see a person killed in front of their eyes. Every day, we see and hear about many examples of contempt for human life. The image of Wesley Autry lying on top of that young college student to protect him from the subway train stands as an icon of reverence for the gift of human life.

Today’s Gospel passage is a riveting scene from Luke’s programmatic preface to the public ministry of Jesus. The scene is filled with drama; we can picture it in our imagination. Jesus comes to his own hometown and his home synagogue, the place where he had been raised. As an observant Jew, he stands up to act as lector for the synagogue service. The reading that he proclaims is from the prophet Isaiah. Everyone is looking intently at him, as there is a sense of wonderment, of heightened curiosity and expectation about this local man and about what this moment might mean. And Jesus does not let them down. He makes the very bold proclamation that “today,” at this unique moment, what Isaiah proclaimed centuries earlier, is being fulfilled in their hearing. Something entirely new and dynamic is taking place in their very midst. At first the hometown crowd marvels at him. But, as we will hear in the Gospel passage for next Sunday, these people soon turn on him and drive him out of town because he does not live up to all of their expectations.

In this inaugural moment of his public ministry, Jesus lays his cards on the table. He proclaims that he has been anointed by the Spirit of God to offer good news to the poor, to liberate people who are in bondage, to bring healing to those in need. As the anointed of God, Jesus identifies himself and his mission, first and foremost, as that of servant. You and I have heard this message so many times that it may lose some of its power and significance. The long-awaited Messiah, the mighty leader, is one who leads and rules by serving those most in need. His power is displayed through courageous, self-giving love. It is a power to give life, to restore life to those who have been deprived of it. It is a power that reveals the God who reverences the life of every person. The power of the Almighty Creator will be displayed in this Jesus who touches the dreaded leper, who opens the eyes of the blind man, who forgives the penitent woman and speaks a word of hope to the good thief at the moment of death.

Jesus continues to speak these same words to you and to me. We turn to the living Jesus as one who wants us to be free and whole people. He continually invites us to life. He summons us to turn to him in honesty in order to experience forgiveness when we need it. He invites us to face those things that may be imprisoning us, whether they are physical, mental or spiritual, and to ask for the grace of freedom. He calls us to recognize our own inner poverty and to allow him to meet our deepest needs. The risen Christ is still in our midst as one who serves. He offers us freedom and healing in a host of different ways.

The vision that guided the ministry of Jesus is also meant to direct and inspire our mission as Christians in the world today. In the second reading, Saint Paul reminds the Christians at Corinth that they are the body of Christ. The Spirit lives in them and they are called to embody the living presence of Christ in the world. Paul emphasizes the indispensable role that each believer has to play in this mission. Everyone has a gift to contribute; each person has been anointed by the Spirit so that he or she can continue the life-giving mission of Jesus.

In some dioceses and parishes, this Sunday is Respect Life Sunday. This reminder of our call to reverence the gift of human life coincides with the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, Roe v. Wade. People like Wesley Autry stand as witnesses for us to the precious gift of life that is so often taken for granted and even cheapened in our society. He risked everything in order to protect the life of that young college student. I don’t think I would ever have had the courage to jump down from that subway platform onto those tracks as the train was pulling into the station. But his witness, as well as the witness of courageous people like him, points us to the Gospel scene of Jesus at the Nazareth synagogue. It reflects the person and ministry of Jesus, who revealed a God who is the Author of Life and who wants people to be alive in the fullest sense of the term. At the end of the second century, the great bishop and theologian Irenaeus of Lyons put it like this: “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” The God who gives the gift of life rejoices when people flourish in their lives.

This Sunday’s Scripture readings present a clarion call to reverence the gift of life in an active, committed way. You and I are called to defend the gift of life from conception until natural death. We live in a country of tremendous wealth and privilege. But it is also a country where the lives of the unborn are often in danger of termination. It is a society where the poor, who suffer most from the effects of winter, are often ignored. It is a land where elderly people often cannot afford their medication and feel neglected in their senior years. As those called to participate in the mission of Jesus, you and I are challenged to imbue our society with a sense of reverence for the life of every person.

The risen Christ continues to be present among us as one who serves and offers us new life. He does that for us in a special way through the great gift of the Eucharist. As we are sent forth from the Eucharist this Sunday, may we allow him to continue to offer life to others through us.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp