27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) {Commissioning of Readers}
Isaiah 5:1-7; Matthew 21:33-43
We have just listened to the Gospel of St Matthew in which Jesus took a parable used by the prophet Isaiah and developed it to speak about himself. Of course, in the first place, Jesus was speaking to the people of his own time: They surely understood that the servants in this parable were the prophets and other holy men and women who had brought God’s message to his Chosen People. They understood that all-too-often the prophets were not accepted: their message was derided; frequently they were ‘roughed up’; and sometimes they were killed. The people listening to the parable could also understand that Jesus was naming himself as the Son of God – a son who was destined to be rejected and killed. And God’s punishment for this crime is also made plain: God will transfer his blessings to another Chosen People who would produce the fruit expected of them.
You and I are members of the new Chosen People and now the Word of God is addressed to us. Jesus does not walk among us in flesh and blood as he did 2000 years ago – but he still addresses us just as surely as he addressed Peter and Andrew, James and John, Mary of Magdala and the others who followed him in Galilee and Judaea. How does he address us now? He addresses us when we make space for him in our prayer. He addresses us in the needs of our brothers and sisters. He addresses us in the words of Sacred Scripture, and most especially when the Scriptures are proclaimed in the Liturgy. ‘O that today you would listen to his voice, harden not your hearts’ (Psalm 94(95)) calls out the psalmist. So we must pray that the word of God today has fallen on receptive hearts, our receptive hearts, and that we are prepared to act upon what we have heard – for the time of the vintage is close at hand and even now the Lord calls us to ‘render unto God what belongs to God’ (cf. Matthew 22.22).
From what I have just said I am sure that you can see that the question of who should read the Scriptures is an important one. If God speaks to us through the Scriptures proclaimed in the liturgy then the Scriptures must be read well. In his Rule St Benedict has something to say about readers. He legislates for the appointment of a weekly reader to read the books appointed to accompany the meals which the monks will eat. He says, ‘The reader should not be the one who just happens to pick up the book’ but rather he should be chosen ‘according to his ability to benefit his hearers’ (RB38.1,12). If this is the instruction given for reading to accompany meals, how much more important it is to choose readers to can proclaim the Word of God intelligibly and intelligently so that those of us gathered for the Mass can understand both the words and the sense of the words which are being spoken to us in the readings and so that we can make our own the prayers we offer in the Intercessions which follow our proclamation of the Creed. The readers being commissioned today are being singled out because they can read well. Thjis being singled out carries some risks and it is interesting that St Benedict knew all about the temptations which confront a chosen reader. He says, ‘let the ... reader ask all to pray for him so that God may shield him from the spirit of vanity’ (RB38.2) and he tells the abbot that he should pronounce a blessing over the one who is to read. We shall do precisely this. We shall ask that our readers to commit themselves to prepare properly to read in the Church throughout the coming year. We will ask them to pray that they may be receptive to the Word they proclaim so that their lives may be shaped by the Gospel of Christ. And finally we will pray that our brothers and sisters may embrace wholeheartedly this ministry of service, doing all they can to avoid any vanity or self-satisfaction which may arise as the result of their use of the gifts which God has given them.
And so now I ask those who would serve as readers to come forward to make their commitment...
Abbot Cuthbert Madden OSB