Word of God Sunday

In its homily in St. Peter's BasilicaThe Pope evoked the initiative of the Word of God in creating the world, and his love in having chosen us in Christ, his eternal Word. If in the Old Testament God spoke to us through the prophets, in the fullness of time this Word has been fulfilled: it is no longer a promise, but has been realized (cf. Lk 4:21). Now, "by the power of the Holy Spirit he has dwelt among us and wants to make us his dwelling place, to fulfill our expectations and heal our wounds".

Like those Jews who contemplated him in the synagogue of Nazareth, keeping their eyes fixed on him (cf. Lk. 4:20), we too should be able to grasp the radical newness of this Word who is Christ. In it, Francis proposes, we can contemplate two aspects linked together: "the Word reveals God and the Word leads us to man. She is at the center, she reveals God and leads us to man".

The revealing Word of God

First, the Word reveals God. "It reveals to us the face of God as the One who takes care of our poverty and is concerned about our destiny.". Not as a tyrant shut away in heaven, nor as a cold, indifferent and unperturbed observer, a neutral and indifferent god. He is the "God with us," Word made flesh, who takes sides on our behalf and becomes involved and committed to our pain, the "Loving Spirit" of man.

As a qualified spokesman for that Word in the Church, Francis addresses his listeners, each one of us, personally:

"He is a close, compassionate and tender GodHe wants to relieve you of the burdens that crush you, he wants to warm the cold of your winters, he wants to illuminate your dark days, he wants to support your uncertain steps. And he does it with his Word, with which he speaks to you in order to return to to kindle hope amidst the ashes of your fears, to make you find joy again. in the labyrinths of your sorrows, to fill with hope the bitterness of your loneliness. He makes you walk, not in a labyrinth, but along the way, to meet him every day".

This is why Francis asks us if we carry in our hearts and transmit in the Church this true "image" of God, wrapped in the trust, mercy and joy of faith. Or if, on the contrary, we see him and show him in a rigorous way, wrapped in fear, as a false idol that neither helps us nor helps anyone.

The Word leads us to others

Secondly, the Word leads us to man. When we understand that God is compassionate and merciful, we overcome the temptation of a cold and external religiosity that does not touch or transform life. "The Word urges us to go out of ourselves in order to set out to meet our brothers and sisters with the unique humble strength of God's liberating love".

This is what Jesus did and said in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he revealed that "He is sent to go to meet the poor - who are all of us - and set them free". He did not come to deliver a set of rules but to free us from the chains that imprison our souls.. "In this way he reveals to us what is the worship that pleases God most: to take care of our neighbor".

Hence, the Word of God is opposed to rigidity: "Rigidity does not change us, it only hides us, the Word of God changes us". Penetrates the soul like a sword (cf. Heb. 4:12): on the one hand it consoles, revealing to us the face of God; on the other hand it provokes and shakes us, showing us our contradictions and putting us in crisis. "It does not leave us at peace, if the price of this peace is paid by a world torn apart by injustice and hunger, and those who suffer the consequences are always the weakest (...) The Word puts in crisis those justifications of ours that always make what does not work depend on the other or on others".

The Pope does not speak of theories: "How much pain we feel when we see our brothers and sisters dying at sea because they are not allowed to disembark".

He goes on to plunge the sword into the soul: "The Word of God invites us to come out in the open, not to hide behind the complexity of problems, behind 'there is nothing to do' or 'what can I do' or 'it's their problem or his'. It exhorts us to act, to unite the worship of God and the care of man".

In addition to rigidity, which for Francis is typical of modern Pelagianism, the Word of God is also opposed to any "angelic" or disincarnated spirituality, typical of the neo-Gnostic movements. With a very graphic expression the Pope describes it: "A spirituality that puts us 'in orbit' without taking care of our brothers and sisters".

Instead: "The Word who became flesh (cf. Jn 1:14) wants to become incarnate in us. It does not distance us from life, but introduces us to life, to everyday situations, to listening to the suffering of our brothers and sisters, to the cry of the poor, to the violence and injustices that wound society and the planet, so that we may not be indifferent Christians, but hard-working, creative Christians, prophetic Christians".

The Word of God is not a dead letter, but spirit and life. Quoting Madeleine Delbrêl (a French mystic who worked in the working class environments of Paris, died in 1964 and is currently in the process of beatification) Francis says that "The conditions for listening to the Word of God are those of our 'today': the circumstances of our daily life and the needs of our neighbor" (The Joy of Believing, Santander 1997, 242-243).

All this commits us, the Pope points out, first of all to place the Word of God at the center of pastoral care, to listen to it and from there to listen to and attend to the needs of others.