FEEDING ON THE WORD OF GOD

 

SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR

Apo 10:8-11; Ps 119:14,24,72,103,111,131; Lk 19:45-48

The importance of Eating the Word of God

Away from the liturgical setting of the previous visions, John’s vision turns to our daily activities as Christians. These activities outside temples or churches of God also draw from the liturgical activities, during which we hear the word of God and consecrate ourselves to do his holy and immutable will. One of the roles we play as members of Jesus Christ is to help further or carry out his mission of proclamation of the will of the Father to everyone. The facility with which we accomplish this duty depends on how well we have received and chewed the word of God. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, that faith comes from hearing the word of God. Paying attention to the word of God read during our liturgical activities is of utmost importance, for the word of God feeds us spiritually and enables us to proclaim the will of God in words and deeds. For this reason, we take the readings and give the sermon before the Eucharistic liturgy. The word quickens our spirits to receive our Lord in the Eucharist.

The vision given to John brings out this need as the angel commanded him to take the scroll containing the word of God and eat. “I, John, heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. ‘Go,’ it said ‘and take that open scroll out of the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.’” The word of God is given to us to read and meditate on so that our spirits can grow fat on the will of God. Without constant reading and meditation on the word of God, we cannot grow spiritually, and we would also lack the spiritual strength to accomplish the will of God. “Take it and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.” The experience of John illustrates our encounter with the word of God. It is always pleasant to read or listen to the word of God, for it contains promises of blessings. But the word is the Spirit that judges us and brings our interior or hidden life to the fore. The uneasy feeling from unrepented sins and sinful attachments is compared to the turning of an unhealthy stomach when it receives food. In our reflections on our vocation as prophets, we said that God sends his word to the prophet before the people. It uproots illegal structures in our spiritual life first so that we can effectively communicate God’s will to the people. “You are to prophesy again, this time about many different nations and countries and languages and emperors.”

In the Gospel, we read of our Lord’s action against those obstructing the true worship of God in the Temple. Just as the word of God clears our interior life for a true worship of God, reception, assimilation, and communication of his divine will, Jesus Christ clears the Temple of people and activities not related to the true worship of God. “Jesus went into the Temple and began driving out those who were selling. ‘According to scripture,’ he said ‘my house will be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a robbers’ den.” Thus, we understand that our reception of the word of God will upset internal and external structures that are not of God. Internally, the word of God causes us to die to self, and externally, it causes us to die to the world. The life of the virgin and martyr Cecilia, a fourth-century saint, gives us a good illustration of the interior and exterior sacrifices the word of God invites us to participate in. Though we do not know much about her life, devotions to the Passion of Saint Cecilia present her as a perfect example of a Christian woman who embraced virginity and suffered martyrdom for her love for Jesus Christ. The Passion presented her as singing to God deep within her heart while suffering martyrdom. She is always known as the patroness of church choirs. By reading/listening, meditating, and contemplating the word of God, our life becomes a sweet singing unto God.

Let us pray: O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of your handmaid Saint Cecilia, grant, we pray, that what has been devoutly handed down concerning her may offer us examples to imitate and proclaim the wonders worked in his servants by Christ your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.