The ancient people of Israel, as we see in the first reading, greatly prized the written Law. To be a scribe was a position of respect and veneration. The Law is read in the presence of the community, a liturgical assembly. It is really an act of worship; the written part only comes alive as part of a living passing-on of God’s revelation. The same is true in the Gospel. Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah in the liturgical assembly in the synagogue, as part of an act of worship, a living meditation of God’s word. Jesus Himself is God’s eternal Word, the Word who was made flesh and still lives among us. Like people gathering to hear Ezra, or the people in the synagogue at Nazareth, it is as a worshipping community that we most faithfully encounter God’s word. Again, like the people at Nazareth, we have Christ with us, though in a different way. They had the privilege of seeing Him in the flesh, hearing His voice, being able to touch Him. We have the even greater privilege of being physically and spiritually nourished by Him in the Eucharist – His body and blood, soul and divinity.