WEAK WITHOUT THE WORD OF GOD


FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME  

2 Sam 11:1-4,5-10,13-17; Ps 51:3-7,10-11; Mk 4:26-34

The Word as the Seed of Kingdom of Heaven

The Word of God is the truth, and God made human nature rational to receive the truth. We have considered the rationality of our nature as the sense in which we resemble God. If God created us in his own image, the implication is that we can receive and process intelligible things. Everything God made is intelligible, for they all come from his word that is truth. God pronounced all that he made good in confirmation of the truthfulness of their being. They all come from the Word and are therefore intelligible and good. They exist for the purpose God made them. In the universe composed of these intelligible and good things, we live and receive our education in truth and orderliness from these creatures. Hence, the seeds of our knowledge of truth come from the universe or the source of things in the universe, the Word of God. Paying close attention to the universe, the order inherent in the universal operations and relations, and the word of God communicated to us daily, we cannot go wrong or sin. To ensure that our attention remains focused on the Word of God and his presence in the universe, the Lord sends the Holy Spirit to dwell with us daily. Saint John informed us in his first letter that the Anointing will teach us everything. He will do this without fail if we keep our attention spiritually within and with Him. The easiest way to re-ignite our spiritual attention to the Holy Spirit is by reading and meditating on the scriptures.

External attention on creatures does not suffice, for our weakened nature fails to penetrate the true meaning of external representation of creatures to see God’s presence very often. This is why we need the Word of God as our teacher in temporal and spiritual matters. The heavenly Father knows this and did not just stop at preparing the Garden of Eden for man but gave Adam and Eve His word to guide them in their interaction with creatures and in their relationship with each other. All who remained with the Word of God were pleasing to God. David remained invincible throughout his youth due to his unremitting attention to the word of God. He defeated the fearsome Goliath through his faith in God’s word and promise. He became miserably weak against the temptation of the flesh without his usual reliance on the word of God. “It happened towards evening when David had risen from his couch and was strolling on the palace roof, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David made inquiries about this woman and was told, ‘Why, that is Bathsheba, Eliam’s daughter, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ Then David sent messengers and had her brought. She came to him, and he slept with her. She then went home again. The woman conceived and sent word to David, ‘I am with child.’” Adultery is a grave sin against the Lord, not to mention the killing of Uriah. All these happened because David turned his attention and heart away from the word of God.

If we fail to plant the word of God within our awareness in a consistent manner, we will grow weak before the attack of demons. In his first letter, Saint John writes that our victory over the world and our enemies is our faith in the word of God. If the Word rules over our minds and hearts, then we will remain victorious. As we reflected earlier in the week, the Word has already won the victory for us; we are to share the temporal and spiritual spoils he left for us. Our Lord puts this in the form of a parable for us in the Gospel. “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord, the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.” We must first throw the seed of the word of God on the land that is our soul, our minds, and hearts, by reading and meditating on the word daily. The Word will soon germinate in us, and the divine presence will bloom within and around us. The harvest is unimaginable. The Word is like a mustard seed, but when it germinates in our minds and hearts, God’s tremendous power and authority emerge within and around, signalling the reign of the Word through the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure, that in the name of your beloved Son we may abound in good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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