THE LIVING WORD OF GOD

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3^RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – C

Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

            God speaks through the grandeur and the wonders of creation which reflects His Wisdom and Beauty that came into being when God spoke His Word.  Creation remains in existence and is sustained because God continues to speak His Word.  When the “Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), God did not just the assume the human nature but spoke the human language as well.  In this instance, the Word of God used human words to communicate Himself  with humanity.  When God spoke to us using our words, He was able to understand man not from the point of view as the Creator but as a creature.  And because we heard God speaking our words, we now understand God better and we are able to express ourselves in a fuller way.

            The Jewish Scriptures is the written account of the encounters of Israel with God reflected in the events that shaped them as a nation.  The stories contained in the Scriptures showed the intervention of God in the lives of His people.  These stories had been handed down from generation to generation first through oral tradition then later on written down as sacred texts.

            When Jesus read the passage from the prophet Isaiah, He proclaimed Himself as God speaking to the Israelites and to us today.   He did not just read the text but declared Himself as the Word of God personified bringing a message of hope to His listeners. 

Our knowledge of the historical Jesus  and the Christ of faith is based on the written account of the faith-experience of the early Christians.   We call it the New Testament.  Our faith-experience of today is anchored on the written texts of the Bible which continue to invite us to be part of a historical continuum.  In fact, we continue in our own lives the saga of the people in the Bible making us active participants in the History of Salvation.  The Bible as a book contains the texts of the Word of God but those texts become the living Word of God when we read them as if God is speaking to us face to us.  The Word becomes even more alive and dynamic when it is proclaimed in the Christian assembly most especially through the Liturgy.  That is why, the first part of the Mass is called the Liturgy of the Word.  It is the time when God speaks to His people and we respond through active listening.  When the Word is proclaimed, the ambo (or lectern) became an altar where God feeds His people with His Word through the lector, minister or the priest.  The texts being read become alive as the sound of the words reverberate through our hearing.  There is a mystery that happens when the Word enters into our consciousness and speaks to our hearts.  Through the Holy Spirit and depending on our disposition, the Word of God can change our lives forever.  The Word continues to re-create us as He  continues to re-create creation.

In this age of cyber-communications and virtual revolution of the internet, the mobile phone is considered the greatest gadget ever invented by man.  It is an all-in-one tool that changed our lives and shape our present and the future.    But we can never use it if we want to communicate with God.   We are able to speak to God “heart to heart” if we listen to Him who speaks to us in the silence of our hearts.

THIS WEEK, THE BLOG HAS BEEN READ IN 100 COUNTRIES!   LET US CONTINUE TO BE MINISTERS OF THE WORD....