“This passage of the scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.” (Lk 4:21)

“This passage of the scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.” (Lk 4:21) 

Today’s Passages: Lk 4:14-22a; 1Jn 4:19-5:4

Meditation: The bible is the word of the living God. We believe and express it through the confession before and after each reading of the scripture. It is also considered as the letters or messages from the living God. Some opines that it is the manifestation of the will of God for each one of us. Once you believe that this is the will of God for you, then, you have to listen to it and abide by it. It is truly said that the bible is the only book whose author is present when one reads it.

Adrian Rogers puts before us five steps of bible study: pray over the text, ponder over it, preserve it, practice it, and proclaim it. Once you do it regularly, then, slowly you will get the messages from God; you become one with the will of the father. You begin to set your mind according to the will of the father. The result is that God’s will is done through you and me. By constantly listening to as well as speaking to the father, Jesus himself sets before us a model to be emulated.

Consequently, he announces, “This passage of the scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.” (Lk 4:21) When we go through the word of God, we should ask ourselves as to what message God wants to communicate to me today through this passage. In the Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis exhorts the homilist, “Whoever wants to preach must be the first to let the word of God move him deeply and become incarnate in his daily life. In this way preaching will consist in that activity, so intense and fruitful, which is communicating to others what one has contemplated.” (GE 150)

It is to this understanding we are rightly led by the second reading. John says, “If someone says he loves God, but hates his brother, he is a liar. For, he cannot love God, whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother, whom he has seen.” (1Jn 4:20) This is actually the meditation over Jesus’ commandment, “The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love his brother also.” (1Jn 4:21) Do I ever realize, as I read the scripture, that this is God’s will for me? Is the bible reading for me a conversation between God and myself?

                    

Prayer: Lord God, we thank you and praise you for your daily eternal bread. We believe that the bible is your loving message to us. So, in order to make our life according to your word, we have to listen to it, treasure it in our hearts and proclaim it. Give us your Spirit in its abundance and guide us each moment of our life so that we may do your will and become your faithful children. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen! 

Greetings: God is with you! Have a blissful Thursday!