Next
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C - 7/7/2013 - Gospel: Lk 10:1-9
Power of the Word
Words that make no impact on us soon disappear from us, leaving no trace of the words. Words that stir up feelings within us are worth of considering because they give meaning to our lives. Our spoken or written language has no power and it is inactive and empty unless we are tuning to hear them with an active heart. Unlike ours language the Word of God is never empty.

The Word itself has the power because the Spirit of God accompanies the Word and makes it active and alive at all times, even if it is outside our hearts.  There is another reason making us believe that the Word is alive and active because the Word has the power to create. It creates the entire universe and gives it life. The whole of creation is very much dependent on the Word for its existence. Our universe exists and is active and in the process of re-creation because the Word of God creates it and empowers it to give birth to the creation, known as self evolving. We are all conditioned by time and space but the Word is free from time and space. The Word adjusts itself so well to the creation that it moves with the same speed of the expansion of the universe and it can limit itself, patiently waiting for the slow response of our hearts.

When our hearts don't respond to the Word it is not because the Word has no power but it is because our hearts are closed to the Word. When our hearts are closed to the Word the Word will not force our hearts open but it patiently waits for the heart to respond. The instruction Jesus gives to the 72 disciples is clear

Whatever house you go into, let your first word be 'Peace to this house'. And if a man of peace lives there your peace will go and rest on him; if not it will come back to you'.v.6

The Word is free to come and go to a heart that makes the Word unwelcomed. Wherever it comes it brings with it power and peace. The power and peace that the Word offers is not diminished by the minister who delivers the Word. When our hearts are not opened to welcome the Word there is another way to crack open the closed heart that is the attitude or manner of the person who bears the Word. When we bear the Word with personal conviction towards the Word the assurance of our heart makes the hearts of others change. In other words the disciples of Jesus needed to have firsthand the personal experience of God who is active in their lives. It gives them internal joy and peace and they want others to have the same experience they have enjoyed. When they experienced joy and peace they live no loner for themselves but for Christ and Christ is the first priority of their lives. Everything they do and say has Christ focused. This changing renews their life and St Paul vividly describes it in the second reading that they are made anew, a new creation. He is a new creation in Christ who enjoys the Spirit of God in them.

Previous