Saturday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 14, 2023

Hebrews 4, 12-16

The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.  Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

“The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.”  This is one of the most important verses in the entirety of the Sacred Scriptures.  In it the Holy Spirit himself speaks through the human author, teaching that “the word of God”, the word of the Scriptures, is “alive and effective” — not dead as in merely human works — and is “sharper” than any “two-edged sword”.  The Holy Spirit, whose word comes to us in the books of the Bible, himself enlivens and animates the word.  It is not “like” a living thing, but is itself alive — and effective, that is, causing that which he wants to happen, to happen.  This word, he tells us, is most “sharp”, that is, it is irresistible and will be accomplished.  It penetrates the hearts of those who see it and hear it and converts them, which is one side of the sword, or destroys the one who rejects it and fights against it, the other side.

We find the word of God in the Holy Scriptures written by human authors under the inspiration of the the Holy Spirit who entrusts it to the Holy Church.  The Church does not hoard the sacred writings but from the beginning has published them far and wide, even commissioning translations into other languages.  These editions are carefully scrutinized by the Church before she allows them to be made public, her guarantee of the sufficiency of the translations by the seal of her imprimatur.  Thus, anyone picking up and opening a Catholic Bible is assured of meeting the very word of God.  This means that when you and I read a verse of the Bible, we know that God is speaking directly to us, and not only do we hear his words, but if we open to him, we are changed — “effected” — by them.  Therefore, when we read the account by St. Mark of the call of Levi/Matthew the tax collector, the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass (Mark 2, 13-17), we learn of what happened, and we are also changed by what we read, through the grace we receive in the act of reading these words.  Because of the effective power of God’s word, when we read, “As he [Jesus] passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me’ ”,  we learn how the future Apostle was called, what was his profession was, and his immediate obedience to the Lord’s call.  We may also be inspired to follow Matthew’s obedience.  The grace we receive from reading or hearing these words, though, makes us capable of separating ourselves from our sins and to follow Jesus more closely.  

Such a breathtaking gift from God as this causes us to shout out in the words of the Psalms that he himself inspired, and with the ancient Hebrews we can say, “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us?” (Deuteronomy 4, 7).