4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Introduction to the Liturgy
Resurrection Medical Center

Today is the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  This period of time in the liturgical year is offered to us to as a time to deepen in the understanding of what the incarnation of Jesus that we have just finished celebrating, means to us as we prepare for lent and Easter and new personal revelation of what the death and resurrection of Jesus means to us.

 Jeremiah, in the first reading, describing his calling says he was told by God “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”     The responsorial psalm echoes the personal calling of every person to be a prophet: “on you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength.”

 Saint Paul in his letter to the Corinthians describes what it means to be a prophet in God’s Kingdom and what are the criteria by which they are known to others: So faith, hope, love remain, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”

 The gospel from Luke describes the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as a prophet and how, even though he was faithful to his call and the most loving of persons, people who heard him did not respond to him, did not recognize his actions as those of love, and did not accept him as a prophet.

 Through this liturgy, we are invited to reflect on our own lives to determine whether we are answering our personal call to be prophetic, to do the loving thing, and whether we are recognizing the other prophets in our society.

 Today, the most significant thing that divides our society is the right to life of the unborn.  As our symbol today, we have an ultrasound image of an unborn child.  By choosing this image, we want to affirm our belief in the value of each life that God has chosen to call into being and with whom God as a relationship from the very beginning.

 We who participate in this liturgy are called to be prophets for life in our society and to do so by choosing always to do the loving thing.