Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of
the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may
use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change
or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies
is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some
aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from
glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).
The Word That Is Made Up of Flesh
and Blood
Everyday we use words.
We are so familiar with words that we do not notice the importance of the Word.
Yes, I am talking about the Word, singular, not about words, plural. But Luke
who wrote the Gospel for today's reading saw the value of this Word. That is
why we heard it read a while ago, "While the crowd was pressing in on
Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of
Genesareth" (5:1).
Notice carefully what Luke
wrote. He said that the crowd was listening to the word of God. He could have
said, "listening to the words of God" because Jesus used or spoke
many words. But he did not use the plural. Luke used the singular, word. As we
shall learn today, the difference is not just one of grammatical number,
singular or plural. The singular "word" has many things to say to us
which cannot be conveyed by the plural "words".
For hundreds of years
before Vatican II, that is, before 1962, the Mass did not end with a blessing
but with a reading from the Gospel according to John, the first 14 verses. This
portion of John's Gospel is about the Word. It begins, "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And the
last verse of this portion is, "The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us". Some of the old people among us here remember this
ending although most probably we did not understand it because the priest read
it in Latin.
Today we reflect upon
this Word who has become flesh and blood and lived on this planet earth.
In the dictionary the
basic meaning of "word" is that it is the basic unit of a language.
In other words it is something we use to communicate with others. Interestingly
enough the word exists in six places or situations, just like water existing in
three states: liquid in its normal state, solid as ice and gaseous as vapor.
First, the word exists
as a sound. Secondly, it also exists in print. Before it exists as a sound or
in print the word exists in our mind as an idea. So, thirdly, the word exists
in our mind as an idea. Fourthly, it may also exist in a sign. The deaf and
dumb use words but in signs. The Trappist monks use the word in signs because
they are not allowed to speak except on special occasions. Fifthly, the word
also exists as a series of numbers in the computer and in the media attached to
a computer. You see, the computer uses only two numbers, 1 and 0. When a word
enters a computer this is translated into numbers composed of 1 and 0, the only
language the computer understands. The sixth way that the word exists is the
one we are interested to learn today.
Why is the Word so
important in our lives? Because it is the Word who created us. In John's Gospel
we read, "Through him (that is, the Word) all things came into being, and
apart from him nothing came to be." It is through this Word that we exist,
that we are here on planet earth, that we are here inside this building.
It is through the word
that we are healed of our diseases. We say this everytime we make communion. We
say, Lord I am not worthy that you enter under my roof but only say the Word
and I shall be healed. Notice we do not say, "only say the words,"
but "only say the Word," singular.
It is the Word who
cleans us of our sinfulness. Jesus told his apostles during his last supper,
"You are clean already, thanks to the word I have spoken to you (John
15:3).
How can the Word
create us, heal us of our diseases, clean us of our sinfulness? It can do all
these and more because this Word is the Word of God. God spoke the Word to
express himself, to communicate himself to us and to our world. And he spoke
this one Word, his Son who became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth. This Word is most powerful because it is Jesus himself. The sixth way
the word is present is in the flesh and blood of Jesus. He is the Word.
It is the Word who
improves our lives, who gives us what we need. It is also the Word who can give
us what we want. All the sciences in the world use words and all these words
come from the one Word of God. If all the words in all the worlds were boiled
down to one word, this would be the one Word of God. Scientists do not realize
they are studying the Word of God by using his words. The farmers and the
employees do not realize that their life comes from the Word, the improvement
of their lives comes from the Word, any genuine progress comes from the Word.
Only fellowship or
companionship with the Word who has taken on flesh and blood will make our life
better because only he knows what words to use to make our life better. He has
these words with him.
In the dictionary in
the meaning of "word" there is an entry which says that if the word
begins with a capital letter it is the Bible. Yes, the Bible is the written
Word of God. The Bible is the written Jesus Christ. It is a unique book. It is
unlike any other book because what it contains is not just words as in other
books. It contains a person, the Word of God, Jesus the Christ. That is why in
the Christian Community Bible of the Claretian Publications the first sentence
in the introduction reads, "You have opened the Bible; now look for Christ
as you read."
Vatican II urged all
of us to read the Bible with devotion. It is intimate familiarity with the Word
in the Bible, that is, with Christ speaking to us from and through the Bible
that will help us live with peace and joy in our life.
As a closing prayer
let me borrow from a cellphone message from my friend Fr. Buddy Torres OCD, a
Discalced Carmelite missionary in the province of Palawan, Philippines.
Let us bow down our heads to pray.
Lord, teach us to be
always Word or Christ centered and refrain from being work or I, me, mine
centered. Amen.
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