Sunday of the Word of God 2022

Pope Francis missed out on last year’s Sunday of the Word of God because his sciatica was acting up. It must have been doubly painful for the Pope, since he had only established this special Sunday in 2019.

The Holy Father is making up for it this year: he’s celebrating Word of God Sunday by conferring the ministry of lector on lay men and women for the first time. Until now, only men were formally instituted as lectors, almost always on their way to ordination.

By admitting women to the ministry of lector or reader, the Pope is reminding us that all the baptized, not only the ordained, have a special relationship with Sacred Scripture. This formal recognition is, of course, just icing on the cake, since women have been reading at Mass for many years now.

And there’s even more happening at today’s historic celebration at St. Peter’s Basilica. The Pope will also confer the brand-new ministry of Catechist, which he established last year on several laywomen and men.

It will take a while before developments like these make their way from Rome to Vancouver. But the values behind them, the service and calling officially recognized by these lay ministries, is here already and here to stay.

So today’s a great day to ask: what am I called to do on this Sunday of the Word of God—not by the call of the Pope or Archbishop but by our baptism.

Because all the baptized are called and commissioned to proclaim the Word of God in one way or another.

At first glance today’s readings aren’t obviously about the Scriptures themselves—for instance, I would have preferred to hear what the Letter to the Hebrews says about the Word of God being living and active, a two-edged sword.

Yet the late Cardinal Vanhoye, my favourite Biblical scholar, says that this Sunday’s readings do an excellent job of showing us the importance of the Word of God. [See Albert Vanhoye, SJ, Le Letture Bibliche delle Domeniche: Anno C, p 178]

In the first reading, Ezra and his fellow priests moved the people to tears by reading from the Law, which is to say from the first five books of the Old Testament, traditionally written by Moses. The reaction of the crowd proves the point made by Hebrews. God’s word was living and active in the hearts of all who heard, piercing them right through.

In today’s Gospel, the circumstances in which the Scripture is read are ordinary—just a Sabbath service, a congregation much like ours this morning.

But the reader is anything but ordinary: as Jesus reads the prophetic words of Isaiah, they are fulfilled for all time. There’s a good reason the people in the synagogue could not take their eyes off him.

The reaction of the emotional crowd at the Water Gate and the attentiveness of the congregation in the synagogue at Nazareth are models of how to listen to the Scripture even for us today, because the liturgical reading of the Word requires both proclamation and reception—a partnership, as it were, between reader and hearer.

Personal contact with the Word of God through the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, can be life-changing. Cardinal Vanhoye tells us how important it is for us to be aware of this Word, because it can guide, comfort, and help us in every circumstance of life.

There are two ways this can happen. One, of course, is by turning to the Bible for guidance and consolation in times of trial. But this is hard to do if we are not familiar with the general outline of God’s Word—which is why the second way is listening attentively at Mass and privately studying the Bible in good times, so that we know where to turn in times of trouble.

On this Word of God Sunday let’s ask the Lord for the grace to be truly open to hearing his Word—for the grace of active listening to both Testaments, Old and New, in church and at home.

And during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, let’s give thanks that we share the Scriptures with our fellow Christians, some of whom provide us with a fine example we would do well to imitate.