There's a tie-in with the religious practices of post-exilic Jewish priests in the Book of Malachi and the Ministry of Lector. Temple worship was out of hand and filled with abuses. Priests were offering animal sacrifices from sick and diseased stock vs. healthy unblemished "prized" lambs as their ancestors once did. They were placing defiled food on the Lord's altar. 

And in response, God said...

When you offer a blind animal for sacrifice, is there no wrong in that? When you offer a lame or sick animal, is there no wrong in that? Present it to your governor! Will he be pleased with you, or show you favor? (Mal 1:8)

How does this relate to us as lectors when we approach the ambo on Sunday? What kind of lamb are we offering to God? Is it a pure and unblemished proclamation as a result of preparing well?  Or is it lame and sick when we hold back our precious time for preparation in same way as the Jews in Malachi's time held back their choicest lambs? 

We never “arrive” at a level where we can't do better, no matter how many attaboys our listeners or even our pastor give us.  When someone says to us, "Great Job!" or "You really nailed it up there," we must be careful because these accolades can lure us into complacency if we bask in them too much. And the more complacent we get, the more “blemishes” that work their way into our proclamations.

In the movie, Whiplash  (by director/producer Damien Chazelle), a music instructor dedicated to pushing his students beyond their expected limits,  said, "There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'Good Job'." 

Harmful to those in pursuit of higher excellence, yet satisfying to those who feel they're "good enough." 

And we too, myself certainly included, can often get so familiar and “good enough” with some readings that we no longer feel the need to study it any more. 

But Thomas Merton in his powerful book, Opening the Bible, said it all in these words...

There is, in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible...until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves. But then we are perhaps too used to it and too at home with it. Let us not be too sure we know the Bible just because we have learned not to be astonished at it, just because we have learned not to have problems with it. Have we ceased to question the book and be questioned by it? Have we ceased to fight it? Then perhaps our reading is no longer serious.

And Scott Hahn, in his eye-opening book on the Mass, The Lamb's Supper, put it this way... 

Right from the beginning of Mass, you and I are under oath. By receiving the word, which we acknowledge comes from God, we are agreeing to be bound by the word and are liable to judgment depending on how well we live up to the readings.

Pretty strong stuff.  And if our listeners are to be bound and "under oath" to hear and heed the word, then what about us as proclaimers of it?

Should we not feel an even more serious responsibility to deliver God's word in a way that touches and penetrates their minds and hearts?  To deliver that unblemished lamb of a proclamation digested by our fellow parishioners with earnestness, devotion and joy?

So stay fresh! Try to avoid giving listeners that "same ol', lame and sick lamb of a proclamation. They’ll thank you for it... if not after Mass directly, at least in their hearts.

The Book of Malachi was a wake-up call for me. I hope it touches you as well.