1 The Word of God –Meanings of “the Word of God” –How God communicates with us...

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The Word of God

–Meanings of “the Word of God”–How God communicates with us–Understanding God’s Word–How we should respond to God’s Word–God’s promise for those who “listen and act”

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The Word of GodMeanings of “the Word of God”

In the beginning was the Word:

The Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things came to be.

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The Word of God

The Word was made flesh,

He lived among us and we saw his glory

The glory that is his as the only Son of the Father

No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son

Who is nearest to the Father’s heart

Who has made him known.

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The Word of God through whom all things were made and who became flesh, is the same Word who is in the beginning.

The Word exists before creation

God was never without his Logos

The Word here is the eternal Word – the Only Son – who was with God before all ages

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This is the cosmic dimension of the Word:

Anything that exists does not exist by chance but is willed by God and part of his plan.

Psalm 33: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood forth.

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Contemplating the cosmos we come to realise the unique position occupied by us,

humans, in creation.

Also: the natural law: Listening to the word of God leads us to value the need to live in

accordance with his law, written on human hearts.

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This same word became flesh

Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, is truly the Word of God; He became one of us, he dwelled among us.

As we profess in the Nicene Creed:

For our salvation he came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.

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Turning back to Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God’s Spirit hovered over the waters. God said: “Let there be light” and there was light.

St John: through him all things came to be.

All things, all creation, the book of nature is part of the many voices in which the one word is spoken.

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The Word of God

God also made his voice heard

by the power of his Spirit:

he has spoken through the prophets

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The Word of God

God has spoken most fully in the mystery of the

incarnation, death and resurrection of

his Son.

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Hebrews: At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our

ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us

through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through

whom he made everything there is.

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The word of God is also the word spoken by the Apostles in obedience to the command:

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.

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The word of God is thus handed on in the Church’s living tradition.

And finally, the word of God, attested and divinely inspired, is Sacred Scripture, the Old and the New Testament

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The Word of GodHOW God communicates with us

•Adam and Eve :heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden Gen:3:8

•God spoke to Noah about the coming flood

•Abraham was 90 yrs old when “the Lord appeared to him and spoke with him.” Gen 17:1

•God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob. And he said: Here am I .” Gen. 46:2

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The Word of GodHOW God communicates with us

Exodus 33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend.

Joshua 1:1-2 The Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, “Moses my servant is dead. You get ready to cross the Jordan into the land I am about to give them.”

Manoah the father of Samson. His wife came to him one day to inform him that God had spoken to her through an angel…..

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The Word of GodHow God communicates with us

•Samuel in the temple. Eli, the priest told him what to say, when he heard God’s voice: “ Here am I. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. (1 Samuel 3:4)

•Isaiah was called, “Whom shall I send?” He answered: Here am I, send me (Isaiah 6:8)

•God speaks to us directly or in visions, dreams, through angels, prophets…. And finally through his Son.

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The Word of GodUnderstanding God’s word

•Paul to Timothy: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

•Jesus to the disciples on their way to Emmaus: “Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.” (Luke 24:27)

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The Word of GodUnderstanding God’s word

Although we can all benefit from reading the Word of God in the Bible, we should make use of all the means available (tools of modern exegesis) as well as listen to the teaching authority of the Church to discover the truth of God’s word spoken to us.

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The Word of GodHow to respond to God’s word

• In love God made a covenant with us, his people. The covenant is not a contract between two equal parties, but a pure gift.

•By this gift of love God bridges every distance and makes us his ‘partners’.

•We appear as people to whom the word speaks, challenges and calls to enter a dialogue of love through our free response.

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• In this dialogue we come to understand ourselves and we discover an answer to our heart’s deepest questions.

•God responds to the yearning present in the heart of every person.

•God speaks and acts in history for our good and salvation.

•Jesus came that we might have life in abundance.

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• Both the Old Testament and the New contain many lines showing us how to respond to God’s word.

•One strong line from Isaiah indicates how God expects his word to bear fruit: “..so my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

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• The parable of the seed is explained by Jesus himself: Luke: 8:11-15 “The seed is the word of God. (..)

•As for the part in the rich soil: this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.”

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• A little further in St Luke (8:21) “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

•Matthew 7:24-25 “Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock; rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, but it did not fall; it was founded on rock.”

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The Word of GodGod’s promise – our reward

• John 6:45 “They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father and learn from it, is to come to me”

•This teaching will lead to faith…

•John 6:47 “I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life.

•John 6:61 “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life”

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The Word of GodGod’s promise – our reward

• John 10:10 “I – the Word made flesh – have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

•John 12:49-50 “…what I had to speak, was commanded by the Father who sent me, and I know that his commands mean eternal life.”

•John 14:23 “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.”

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The Word of GodADVENT – eagerly awaiting the Word made flesh

• For thousands of years, people were looking forward with great hope to the coming of the Messiah. Their hope was fed by the God’s own words spoken to us through the prophets.

•We look forward to celebrating that great turning point in history when the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.

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The Lord made his word short, he

abbreviated it. The Son himself is the

Word, the Logos: the eternal word became small, small enough to fit into a manger.

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He became a child, so that the word could

be grasped by us. Not only does the word have a voice, now it has a face, that of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Warmest Christmas greetings to you from all of us at Our Lady

of Fatima Parish, Tawa – New Zealand!

1 The Word of God –Meanings of “the Word of God” –How God communicates with us...

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