We continue our reflection on what it means to become the family of Jesus. Today our Scriptures offer us a reflection on the place of the word of God in the life of the Family of Jesus.
St. Dominic, the patron of this church was said to have spoken in his lifetime only to or about God. it's a beautiful reflection on his life as a man of the Word. We are called to imitate this, but we cannot speak about God, if we do not know God. The rich source of growing in our knowledge and love of God is the Word of God, the Bible.
In recent Catholic history there has been an uneasy balance between the relative places of Word and Sacrament in Catholic life. One of the criticisms of the reformers at the time of the Reformation was that Catholics were so focused on sacrament, on ritual, on doing and that we didn't place enough emphasis on knowing God through his Word. That has been a caricature of Catholic life for the last 500 years. Catholics are focused on Sacraments and ritual; Protestants are the ones who are focused on the Word.
The second Vatican Council sought to restore a proper balance in Catholic life between liturgy and the word. We see this reflected in the liturgy itself with up with and emphasis after the Council in a balance between the Liturgy of the Word, where we are nourished by the word of God, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where we are nourished by the body and blood of Christ. We are reminded that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. A spiritual life focused entirely on the Eucharist and the other sacraments is a rich spiritual life, but, absent the Word of God, we are not getting a recommended daily allowance of spiritual nourishment. If we do not know the Scriptures we will not grow we will not mature in faith.
We need to be like the rich soil in the parable in today's Gospel - rich soil that receives the Word of God allows it to take root in our lives and our hearts and bears fruit in the world. So I'd like to offer these reflections about the word of God and it's place in the family of Jesus.
First, as I said before, the Word of God is a source of spiritual nourishment. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” St. Jerome, who first translated the Scriptures into a language that could be read by the masses, said “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” As Catholics we understand that God put himself in the Scriptures we experience the presence of God when we read the Scriptures. Saint Paul told Timothy “…All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”2 Tim 3:16-17 (NAB)
The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the Word as food for maturity: “…you have become sluggish in hearing. Although you should be teachers by this time, you need to have someone teach you again the basic elements of the utterances of God. You need milk, (and) not solid food. Everyone who lives on milk lacks experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties are trained by practice to discern good and evil.” Heb 5:11-14 (NAB)
Second, as Catholics we understand the Bible, the Scriptures as our common story; it is the story of the church - it tells where we have come from, it gives us direction for where we are going. We must read it with the church, so that we come to a deeper understanding of ourselves as the family of Jesus.
Third we must read and know the Scriptures because in our world the Bible is constantly misused, misquoted and misunderstood.
Sometimes this is innocent - people just simply don't know the Bible and they'll say something like the Bible says "the Lord helps those who help themselves." No it doesn't; but that sounds vaguely biblical, so people think it's in the Bible. Or people say the Bible says "money is the root of all evil." No, the Bible says "the love of money is the root of all evil." That's very different. These are relatively innocent misquotings of Scripture.
But other times the misquoting of Scripture is used in nefarious ways to manipulate people and to make people believe false doctrines. If we do not know the Scriptures we cannot defend ourselves against such misquoting.
And finally knowledge of the Scriptures strengthened us against the enemies and evil in the world. The letters to the Hebrews tells us that the “…the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. Heb 4:12 (NAB)
And St. Paul tells the Christians at Ephesus that the Bible is a weapon to be used in spiritual warfare, warfare against real evil in the world...
Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all (the) flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Eph 6:10-17 (NAB)
Like the prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading, we need to answer the call of the Lord to spread his word in the world. We need to allow him to write it on our times and in our hearts. He has called us from our mother's womb to speak his word to those who need to hear it. But we will not be able to speak his word to others if we have not become rooted in that word ourselves.
So brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to go home and find your Bible; blow the dust off the cover, and open it up and began reading it. And become that good soil wherein the word of God can take root and began to bear fruit in your life and the life of the world. Amen?
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