Monday, July 21, 2008

July 13, 2008

"A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day." -- Emily Dickinson

"Take the word of God with you as you go.
Take the seeds of God's word and make them grow."

These two lines of one of our hymns summarize this week's gospel. In Genesis, it says, "God spoke," and the world came into being. God's word is powerful. Jesus is the Word of God in human form. God had a vision for our world and tried to convey it to people down through the years, but we didn't "get it." We didn't "hear" and we didn't "see."

Jesus used parables -- stories with a lesson in them, lessons that did not always "fit" in the structures of society. Some people "got" them, and some didn't. Jesus' words were always about hope, love, healing, and freedom.

Words are powerful. They can heal or hurt. When the person speaking and the person hearing are on the same wavelength, the words can deepen their relationship. On the other hand, sometimes in the same meeting or in a homily, people can hear different things from the same speaker. A note of warning: the internet is part of our world, and we must not use words in our emails that we would not use in person and to be aware of how we use the internet.

It's not always easy to speak words of healing, hope, and love; but that is what we are called to do -- to take Jesus' words to the world and change it into the kingdom of heaven here on earth -- even if it's just within our families and communities.

Let us be open to Jesus' word to "see" and "hear" what God wants to tell us. Then someday God's vision for the world will be accomplished.

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