By Tom Thomas –
“Oh no! Here they come!” At sharp 8 am, this is the thought going through my mind as the gates open to the noisy, bustling traffic. I am in one of the few green spaces in my city, a lung space that is precious for us to walk or run in amidst the verdant greenery. Reserved solely for morning walkers and joggers from the early hours of the day, at 8 am sharp, the park gates are thrown open to the vehicular traffic that uses the roads through the park to get across to their destinations fast. The peace and tranquility of the fresh air get splintered by the bustling traffic; everyone is in a hurry to get wherever they are going.
The calm moments spent before the park opened are soothing to the mind, and the fresh oxygen fills my lungs. This helps me deal with the rest of the day. As I head out of the park into the traffic, I am grateful for these moments of respite that recharge me. There are many things to be grateful for.
One thing I am certainly grateful for is the wonderful stream of communications from Holy Father Pope Francis that come to us with great regularity and help us focus on our Christian lives mission. One such example is the Homily the Holy Father delivered on 21st January, Sunday of the Word of God. In this communication, the Holy Father directs us to the power of the Word of God. He says, “The word of God unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit, a power that draws people to God, like those young fishermen who were struck by Jesus’ words, and sends others, like Jonah, towards those distant from the Lord. The word draws us to God and sends us to others. It draws us to God and sends us to others: that is how it works. It does not leave us self-absorbed, but expands hearts, changes courses, overturns habits, opens up new scenarios, and discloses unthought-of horizons.
Brothers and sisters, that is what the word of God wants to do in each of us. As with the first disciples who, upon hearing the words of Jesus, left their nets and set out on a stupendous adventure, so too, on the shores of our lives, beside the boats of our families and the nets of our daily occupations, that word makes us hear the call of Jesus. It calls us to set out with him for the sake of others. The word makes us missionaries, God’s messengers, and witnesses to a world drowning in words, yet thirsting for the very word it so often ignores. The Church lives from this dynamic: called by Christ and drawn to him, she is sent into the world to bear witness to him. This is the dynamic within the Church.”
The words echo within me; yes, I am drowning in words in this digital world today; they pass by us in a never-ending stream, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. What impact does it have on me? It seems too much to absorb. And yet, hearing the Word caused some to pause and change their life’s direction completely towards Him. Citing the example of the saints, the Holy Father says, “If we look at the friends of God, the witnesses to the Gospel throughout history, and the saints, we see that the word was decisive for each of them. We think of the first monk, Saint Anthony, who, struck by a passage of the Gospel while at Mass, left everything for the Lord. We think of Saint Augustine, whose life took a decisive turn when God’s word brought healing to his heart. We think of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, who discovered her vocation by reading the letters of Saint Paul. And we think too of the saint whose name I bear, Francis of Assisi, who, after praying, read in the Gospel that Jesus sent his disciples to preach and exclaimed, “That is what I want; that is what I ask; that is what I desire to do with all my heart!” (THOMAS OF CELANO, Vita Prima, IX, 22). Their lives were changed by the word of life, by the word of the Lord.”
Why is it I wonder that many times the Word of God I read does not impact me and there is no change in me? I seem to be like the seed sown on the rocky path or amidst the thorns even as described in the Parable of the Sower ( Mk 4:1-20). The Word falls away from me after my initial enthusiasm for hearing it. This aspect, which the Holy Father addresses, “We hear the word of God many times, yet it enters into one ear and goes out the other. Why? Perhaps because, as those witnesses make clear, we need to stop being “deaf” to God’s word. This is a risk for all of us: overwhelmed by a barrage of words, we let the word of God glide by us: we hear it, yet we fail to listen to it; we listen to it, yet we don’t keep it; we keep it, yet we don’t let it provoke us to change. More than anything, we read it but we don’t pray with it, whereas “prayer ought to accompany the reading of sacred Scripture, so that it can become a dialogue between God and the reader” (Dei Verbum, 25).”
Looking up Dei Verbum, 25 promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI, I find, “Therefore, all the clergy must hold fast to the Sacred Scriptures through diligent sacred reading and careful study, especially the priests of Christ and others, such as deacons and catechists who are legitimately active in the ministry of the word. This is to be done so that none of them will become “an empty preacher of the word of God outwardly who is not a listener to it inwardly.”. . And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture so that God and man may talk together, for “we speak to Him when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine saying.” Maybe this is the reason why the Word of God does not reside in me—I need careful study and prayer accompanying my reading.
The Holy Father stresses on this point, “Let us not forget the two fundamental aspects of Christian prayer: listening to the word and worshipping the Lord. Let us make room for the prayerful reading of Jesus’ words. Then we will have the same experience as those first disciples. To go back to today’s gospel, we see that two things happened after Jesus spoke: “they left their nets and followed him” (Mk 1:18). They left, and they followed.
They left. What did they leave? Their boat and their nets—that is to say, the life that they had been living until then. How often do we struggle to leave behind our security and our routine because these entangle us like fish in a net? Yet those who respond to the word experience healing from the snares of the past, because the living word gives new meaning to their lives and heals their wounded memory by grafting upon it the remembrance of God and his works for us. Scripture establishes us in goodness and reminds us who we truly are: children of God, saved, and beloved. “The fragrant words of the Lord” (Saint Francis of Assisi, Letter to the Faithful) are like honey, bringing flavour to our lives and making us taste the sweetness of God. They nourish the soul, banish fear, and overcome loneliness. Just as they led the disciples to leave behind the monotony of a life centred on boats and nets, so they renew our faith, purifying it, freeing it and bringing it back to its origins, the pure wellspring of the Gospel. In recounting the wonderful things God has done for us, sacred Scripture releases a paralysed faith and makes us savour the Christian life for what it truly is: a love story with the Lord.
The disciples thus left and then followed. In the footsteps of the Master, they moved forward. Christ’s word not only liberates us from the burdens we bear, past and present; it also makes us mature in truth and in charity. It enlivens the heart, challenges it, purifies it from hypocrisy and fills it with hope. “
Really powerful words prompt me to change how I need to read the Word of God. Because if the Word truly touches me, I will have to leave my existing way of life—much as the first disciples and the Magi did – and follow Him. It does not seem easy, though, not at all. And how to listen to the Word every day, there does not seem to be any time or space to do so; we are called to do something else other than really what is most important for our Christian lives. In this aspect also, the Holy Father offers us some great pointers, “Finally, let us ask ourselves a few questions. What room do I make for the word of God in the place where I live? Amid so many books, magazines, televisions, and telephones, where is the Bible? In my room, do I have the gospel within easy reach? Do I read it daily in order to be faithful to my path in life? Do I carry a little copy of the Gospels so that I can read it? I have often spoken about always having the gospel with us—in our pockets and purses, on our telephones. If Christ is dearer to me than anything else, how can I leave him at home and not bring his word with me? And one last question: Have I read through at least one of the four gospels? The Gospel is the book of life. It is simple and brief, yet many believers have never even read one of the gospels from beginning to end.”
The Holy Father shows me the way forward, to being connected and transformed by the Word of God.
It is up to me now. Will I take these words of the Holy Father to heart, or will they just slide by me?
I make a decision. Let me start reading one gospel. I pick up the first one as it is the shortest, with just 16 chapters. The opening verse tells me, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.’
The journey begins with the Word of God. I pray for understanding and transformation by the Word. Help me Lord.
“Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul soak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!”– Charles Haddon Spurgeon