The Sunday of the Word of God!
The Sunday of the Word of God!
On September 30, 2019, on the Feast of St. Jerome, Pope Francis declared the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time as Sunday of the Word of God. On this day he published an Apostolic Letter, Motu Proprio "Aperuit illis" which also marks the 1600 death anniversary of St. Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin. St. Jerome said: "Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ." The Sunday of the Word of God is dedicated to the celebration, study, and dissemination of the Word of God. The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum solemnly promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965. The Pope Francis says that Dei Verbum makes clear that “the words of God, expressed in human language, are in every way like human speech, just as the Word of the eternal Father, in taking upon himself the weak flesh of human beings, also took on their likeness” (No. 13).
This Sunday’s readings tell us about the importance of listening to the Word of God. In the first reading from the book of Jonah, chapter 3, we see Jonah who announces God’s message. The first two chapters of Jonah describes God’s call and humorous story of Jonah’s flight from His call and the mission and after effect: exposing him to a deadly storm and an agonizing experience in the belly of a whale. Assyrians lived in Nineveh; they were known for their aggressiveness. No wonder why Jonah ran away from the mission. Jonah obeyed when God came to him a second time with the mission to preach the repentance to Ninevites. Jonah had not even finished the first day of his preaching journey before the people had totally turned around – doing visible penance while asking and hoping for God’s love, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Contrary to Jonah’s expectations, the pagan peoples of the city "believed in God" and "renounced their evil behavior." If we read chapter 4, we can see Jonah reacts to God’s mercy by grumbling and praying for death (Jonah 4:8).
This Sunday’s Gospel is from the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus invited the people of Israel to a profound conversion (Metanoia) and embrace the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God closely connected the ancient kingdom of Israel. Even though David’s kingdom is collapsed, but it foreshadowed the glory of Christ's reign. Where there is Jesus, there the kingdom of God is present. Then Jesus invited two sets of brothers, Simon, and Andrew; James and John to follow him. “Follow me” – these words indicate the nature of their calling to win others for Christ. Catechism of the Catholic Church 787 says, “From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and sufferings. Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him: "Abide in me, and I in you. . . I am the vine, you are the branches." And he proclaimed a mysterious and real communion between his own body and ours: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."”
As we celebrate “The Sunday of the Word of God,” the readings invite us to take with us three points: 1. Find time to read, study and meditate the “Word of God”; 2. Live and Proclaim the Word of God in our daily life; 3. Pay for missionaries around the world and for one another.
Pope Francis quote Dei Verbum, 21 in his Apostolic Letter, “Aperuit illis,” “the Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she has venerated the Lord’s body, in that she never ceases, above all in the sacred liturgy, to partake of the bread of life and to offer it to the faithful from the one table of the word of God and the body of Christ.” The Gospel of John chapter 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1) … “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14).
Every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we receive Jesus, in the “Word of God,” and in the “Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.” Then we are sent out to live the Eucharist and share with many – our mission. We are in Eucharistic Revival and Maintenance to Mission Years. In Bishop Powers Pastoral Letter on Evangelization, he quotes Pope St. John Paul II, “I sense that the moment has come to commit all the Church’s energies to a new evangelization…No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all people.”
Today, we have thousands and thousands of missionaries that proclaim the “Word of God” around the world. We are the missionaries sent out in our neighborhood. Jesus said to Simon and Andrew, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." Jesus called us at our Baptism and gives us nourishment, the Bread of Life and sent us out to share with others, to invite others to celebrate the faith with you -to win others for Christ.