We are now at the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C. When you look at the Gospel for this weekend (Luke 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21), you become aware of something that may not be so apparent when you hear it read to you in church: it’s taken from two completely different chapters of the Gospel. It’s true that sometimes a few verses are taken out to make the story clearer; or you have the choice of a short or longer form of the Gospel; but this is the only example, I think, of running together separate chapters as if they were one – and thereby concealing the fact that there are 180 verses in between!

What we start with is Luke’s introduction to his Gospel (1: 1-4), where he records that others have written an account of the life of Jesus (most notably Mark) and then promises to do a better job: “Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence”. We then sweep past the infancy narratives concerning John the Baptist and Jesus (some of which we heard in Advent and at Christmas); past the baptism (read two weeks ago) and the temptation (saved for the first Sunday of Lent); and arrive at the second part of today’s Gospel (4: 14-21) which is the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. He comes to his home town of Nazareth, goes to the synagogue and volunteers to read. When he unrolls the scroll and finds the passage for the day, from the prophet Isaiah, it seems to speak of him: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor”. The congregation obviously feels that they have witnessed something special, as Luke records: “the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him”; and Jesus confirms their feeling: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”.

So today we move from Luke introducing himself to Jesus introducing himself, and there is a connection in the idea of unrolling the scroll. Jesus literally unrolls the scroll in the synagogue, but he also unrolls its deeper meaning by showing how the Old Testament Scriptures point to the coming of the Messiah, the anointed one – to himself. In turn, Luke would have had to write his Gospel on a scroll around 30 feet long (and use a separate scroll for the second part of the story, the Acts of the Apostles); and he promises to unroll the story of Jesus for us in an orderly and accurate way.

We now have books rather than scrolls, but we too try to unroll the story of Jesus gradually during the course of the year. Sometimes, perhaps, it will seem like a reading from history, but the Church fails if the Good News is heard as a dead letter. Our purpose in reading the Gospel and commenting on it in the homily is that the Scripture should be fulfilled in our hearing – fulfilled in us who now make up the Body of Christ. This weekend we will accept and bless five young candidates for baptism at Easter. Catechists and friends have been trying to unroll the Scriptures and the living tradition of the Catholic Church for them. Please pray for them as they enter the next stage of their preparation. May God’s promise of salvation and eternal life be fulfilled in all of us.