The Centrality of the Word of God (Sunday, Week 3, Year B)

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We celebrate this 3rd Sunday of the year as the Sunday of the Word of God, instituted by Pope Francis on the 30th of September, 2019 on the feast day of St Jerome. Last Sunday, we were reminded that God still calls us just as He called Samuel. In different ways, He still calls or speaks to us: through the Scriptures (His Word), through the teachings of the Church, through the events of life, and so on. Our focus today is on the Word of God. Does it have any role to play in our lives? Of what importance is it to us?   


In the first reading (cf. Jon. 3:1-5.10), we are told that Jonah preached the Word of God to the people of Nineveh. In the gospel (cf. Mk. 1:14-20), we learn that the first public act of Jesus after His baptism was the preaching of the Word of God. In these two readings, we see the centrality of the Word of God in the life and ministry of Jonah and Jesus: they considered it a primary responsibility to preach the Word of God. God had no business with Jonah but that He should arise and go and preach His Word to the people of Nineveh. Jesus would have begun His public ministry by healing or feeding or raising the dead. But He did not! He began by preaching the Word of God. 


What do you we learn from above? If we do not place the Word of God at the centre of whatever we do or say in the name of God and for the sake of God, we are just wasting our time. One of the things that marked the early Christians out is their devotion to and preoccupation with the preaching of the Word of God (cf. Acts 2:42). Where have we placed the Word of God in our lives?


Now, there are two things about the Word of God or the Good News which I want to highlight. First, the Bible has many instances that prove to us that the primary reason for the preaching of the Good News (the Word of God) is to arouse or bring about REPENTANCE. When Jesus began His public ministry, He had one message: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; REPENT and believe in the good news”. Repentance, translated in Greek as “metanoia”, means a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of perspective (a new way of seeing or thinking) or a change of movement.


The Good News should not just be understood as an invitation to a mere acceptance of Jesus as Our Lord and Personal Lord without a real change of life. It is a call to repentance: it must bring about a CHANGE (change of heart, a change of mind, a change of perspectives leading to a new of way of seeing, thinking or doing things). When Jonah preached the good news (Word of God), the immediate response of the people of Nineveh was REPENTANCE: they REPENTED and believed God; they changed their ways. When Jesus preached the good news in Galilee, hearts were touched; minds and perspectives were changed: there was a new way of seeing reality: there was a change of movement, a change of profession. Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John the sons of Zebedee changed from being ordinary fishers to being fishers of men. 


Secondly, as Jesus preached in Galilee, He invited some men to follow Him. The Gospel remarks that they “LEFT” everything and followed Him: Andrew and Peter “LEFT” their net and followed Him; John and James “LEFT” their father and the hired servants and followed Him. Jesus' preaching must have made deep impressions in them that they had no other option but to LEAVE everything and follow Jesus. When the Word of God changes our hearts, minds and consciences, it must result in DETACHMENT (from somebody or something) and ATTACHMENT to Jesus in the form of discipleship (or followership).


Many of us have listened to the Word of God for many years. At different times and in different places, the Word of God has always been proclaimed to us loud and clear. It is one thing listening to it. It is quite another allowing ourselves to be changed by it. The Good News is primarily preached to bring about some CHANGE in us. If this CHANGE is not visibly seen in some form of “detachment” and consequent attachment to Jesus, then no real change has ever taken place.


Prayer:

May the entrance of Your Word, O Lord, give me understanding and bring about a lasting change in my life, Amen!


Have a Blessed Sunday!




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