Does the Word of God speak to your heart?
Psalm 19 suggests that the people of Israel believed that the law of God, as inscribed in the five books of the Torah, enriched their lives and improved their understanding of their relationship with God and with each other. The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye, the psalmist sings; when properly interpreted, Scripture gives wisdom to the simple. Unfortunately, the community that gathers to hear Jesus in his hometown, Nazareth, has no interest in Jesus’ interpretation of the passage he presents to them. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus reads in Luke’s Gospel, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. But his audience believes they have heard all they need to hear; once Jesus adds, Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing, they will make their rejection of him clear. They, like the Corinthians to whom Paul is writing, are too focused on themselves to understand the gifts they have been given, including the gift that is Christ, God’s Word itself; they will therefore remain at a distance from the Lord.
Only the community described by Nehemiah seems ready to open fully to God’s words. When Ezra the priest reads out of the book of the law – the Torah – from daybreak to midday, all the people listen attentively. Indeed, they are so moved by the words of God that they weep with emotion. Ezra must interpret the law for then; like Luke the Evangelist, Ezra realizes that God’s words and Word need to be examined and understood anew in their context, and then expanded on, that all might integrate them into their daily life. This is precisely the function of the homily at Mass: to interpret God’s Word so that it makes sense to us in our time.
Do we think about the prophecies of God being fulfilled in us now, because we are Body of Christ, united in his love, through one baptism? Can we hear God’s Word? That Word tells us who we have the potential to be, giving us hope. Prophecies are possibilities. We are commissioned at our baptism as priests, prophets and kings. As such, we must speak God’s Word, bringing glad tiding to poor, proclaiming liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and letting the oppressed go free… all of which is possible, if only the Word of God speaks to our hearts.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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