The word of the Lord

THE THEOLOGY OF THE "THE WORD OF THE LORD" AND THIS THIS THE WORD OF THE LORD"

you are the living word of God, not the printed word…

You and I witnessed it in many of our parishes. What began to happen was that both readers and deacons not only said, “This is the Word of the Lord,” but they began to hold up the Lectionary or the Book of the Gospels as they made that proclamation, as if the book itself was the word of the Lord.

The problem is that is not exactly accurate, not exactly faithful to our theology. The prophet Ezekiel says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”

St. John, in his Gospel announces, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In other words, what we believe is that the word of God is not a static, printed word; the word of God is alive, active, dynamic, interactive, incarnate, personal. The Word is alive. It is alive in our proclaiming it; alive in our hearing it, in our accepting it, in our embracing it; alive in the person of Christ speaking to us. The Word of the Lord is not printing or pages; it is a person, and that is Jesus Christ. This Christ speaks to us sometimes in words of consolation and support, sometimes in words of challenge, sometimes in words that singe our consciences, sometimes in words that spur us into action, all dynamic realities. There is no limit to how God uses words to direct us, no limit to how Christ wants to act with us and through us. There should be, then, no gesture that seems to limit what, where, how and who this Word of the Lord truly is.