Vocations Newsletter

Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. (tb confirmed)Luke 4:21Jesus, as we know, was a very great teacher and preacher. During his public years, he attracted crowds throughout Galilee as he taught in synagogues throughout the land. The crowds, St. Luke tells us, celebrated his message, not just his preaching skills.In today’s Gospel, Jesus is in his hometown, Nazareth, where he joins the elders of the community as a scripture reader at the Sabbath service. A fellow worshipper gives Jesus a scroll of readings drawn from Isaiah and the words are prescient. In sum, the message goes something like this: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. I have been appointed to bring good news to the poor. I have been sent to release the prisoners, to recover the sight of the blind, to comfort those broken into pieces, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
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“They have no wine.” John 2:3In Africa, weddings re crucial, fateful, far-reaching, revelatory social events. They are not merely joyful private, personal celebrations, but momentous cosmic communal actions. A marriage binds together the visible and invisible worlds: the extended families or clans of the bride and groom, all their clan ancestors, the invisible living dead, and the yet-to-be-born awaiting entrance into the visible world. Weddings are also predictive events. Nothing should go wrong during such a pivotal social affair. Everything needs to go right: plenty of happy people, plenty of food, plenty of dancing, plenty of noise. Lavishness, a sign of abundant babies to come, is critical. If something goes wrong, it is more than a regrettable blunder. It is a distressing sign of impending evils. Ancient Galilee, it turns out, had much in common with contemporary Africa. Things and signs should go just right at a wedding. That’s why I empathize with Mary. The family is at a wedding feast at Cana when she notices that something has gone catastrophically wrong. Filled with dread, Mary tells her son, “They have no wine.”
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The Feast of the EpiphanyLord Jesus Christ,may Your Word rise like a guiding starin our hearts and mindsto lead us through the darkest nightsand show us the waywhen we seem lost or far from You.May we always follow Your stareven to foreign lands and unfamiliar peoplesto seek and find You in unlikely places rejoicing in Your truth no matterin what language and regardless of who speaks it.Like the holy Magi of oldwe cross borders that divide usand break down barriers of divisionthat our gifts may show we understandthe great gift You are to usas king, both human and divine. Amen.Father Joseph Veneroso, M.M.
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“I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice; I have grasped you by the hand.”Isaiah 42:6Sometimes, when I read Scripture, the meaning is crystal clear. Other times, I find myself asking questions. This week’s Gospel has prompted me to do that once again.We know from our readings that Jesus is the Lord’s chosen one, the one on whom God’s favor resets. And the one who humbly asked his cousin John to baptize him. But who is he really? Could he really be they, not an individual but a group? Christians rightly identify Jesus as the servant, the beloved Son who pleases God and on whom the Holy Spirit descends. But he is not the only servant, the only beloved, the only pleasing one on whom the Spirit rests. Every baptized person is a servant. I find the identity of the servant enigmatic, if not outright mysterious.The identity of the servant may be a mystery but the servant’s mission is easily understood. In describing the Lord’s calling of his people, Isaiah refers to tsedeqah. Translated from the ancient Hebrew, we moderns might call this idea “distributive justice”—a practice that supports the well-being of all people through fair access…
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