GOD’S WORD IS ALIVE AND ACTIVE

XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Hebrews 4:12-13

In just two verses, the letter to the Hebrews gives us a summary of the greatness and the role of the Word of God. 

The Word of God is “alive and active”. When we speak of the Word of God, we do not speak of dry, empty and meaningless words; it is not empty talk, full of words that have nothing to do with us. The Word of God is always alive and active, and therefore it is always challenging, forcing us to choose in which way we are going to move and what meaning we are going to give to our lives.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the eternal word of God who reveals himself and shares our human life.

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God. 

He was in the beginning with God. 

All things came into being through him, 

and without him not one thing came into being. (Jn 1:1-3).

Jesus Christ is the Word who assumed a human body and came to live among us, becoming one like us, so that he stands out as the true Son of man and the role model for all of us to follow. Faced with Jesus Christ, we are forced to choose; and that choice will have profound consequences for our lives and for the future of humanity. With Christ, we will carry the cross and pass through death to resurrection. Without Christ, we reject the cross and remain closed in ourselves, ending in despair and death.

The Word of God “cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.” (Hb 4:12).

The encounter with Jesus Christ, the Word, makes possible to know the Father, because to know Jesus is to know the Father (Jn 14:9); and at the same time brings into the light our inner self. Nothing can remain hidden from this light that is Christ. We are challenged and judged in the saving love and mercy of God.

With the wave of refugees coming into Europe, with the war in Syria and Iraq, with the crimes of the Islamic State and their persecution of the Christians, we are forced to read about Islam and to get acquainted with the Koran and with the Muslim fundamental beliefs. In an effort to understand, we may make comparisons to see the similarities and the differences between Christianity and Islam. We can compare the Bible and the Koran. Both of them are accepted as Holy Scriptures, but that is where the comparison ends. The way we understand the Bible as the word of God is very different from the Muslim understanding of the Koran as the Word of God. While the Bible is made up of many different books written by many different people at very different times, the Koran is seen as the perfect copy of what is written in heaven, which was revealed to Muhammad. In the Bible, we find human history, which is pervaded with God’s presence, as he acts and reveals himself through that history. In the Koran, there is no history, only the eternal and unchangeable word of God. If we can make a comparison, it should be between Jesus Christ, the Word, and the Koran, as the eternal word of God. But in Jesus Christ, the Word took flesh and lived among us; the Word became involved in human history and acquired an historical dimension. In Jesus Christ, the Word entered into dialogue with us, and in this dialogue, the word challenges us and the cultural, social, economical, political and religious setting in which we live.

The Allah of Islam is very different from the Yahweh of the Bible. He is a distant god, who doesn’t enter into a personal relationship with us. Yahweh is a God who who reveals himself through his interventions in human history and he has a plan of salvation for us. In Jesus Christ, he calls us to be his adopted children and to have a share in his life and in his divinity. With the Allah of Islam we are called to total submission and we will always be his slaves. Yahweh always chose to be with people and to become their companion in the journey of life. He is the God who set us free, so that we may live with the dignity of children, created in his image.