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Reflection by Katherine Jelavic; Shining A Light Committee member
On Australia Day, the readings turn our thoughts to laws, the standards and rules societies live by. They can allow us to flourish or they can hinder and imprison us. It depends upon our view of the law and how it is enforced.
Today’s first reading, psalm and gospel are about the law while Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us something about who God’s law is available to.
In the first reading, Ezra translated and explained the law to the people for half a day and they became mournful. Nehemiah and Ezra told the people to stop being sad and celebrate as “the joy of the Lord is your stronghold.”
Psalm 18, entitled God’s glory in creation and the law, sings that the law is perfect, imparts wisdom, is gladdening, clear, and gives light to the eyes (spirit and life perhaps). It is truth and it is just.
Taking a different direction, Paul’s letter identities everyone as belonging to the body of Christ. We are so closely related that if one suffers or is given special honour, we all feel the effects (from the longer reading).
This brings us to the first detailed account of Jesus’s public ministry in Luke’s gospel where Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah. In light of the earlier readings, Jesus’s choice of scripture can be understood as his translation and explanation of the law. His standard to live by. It takes less than a minute to read and is easy to remember.
Not only was it short and sweet, but it was being fulfilled as the people listened. Those in the synagogue who heard it were the poor, the captives, the blind and the downtrodden. It is unlikely that the entire assembly had physical ailments and restrictions, so these traits are also about behaviours, mindsets, images of God and worship that impoverish or entrap people and/or prevent them from seeing (a biblical motif for idolatry).
The impact of the law can be felt in the final line from Isaiah. Here Jesus described his final year on earth, his single year of public ministry and of freely living the law, as the year of favour. Now that sounds like his interpretation and his living of the law was good.
