The Word of God Cannot be Chained!

In today’s 2nd reading from St. Paul to Timothy, Paul writes, “But the word of God is not chained.” He is referring to his imprisonment, even though the authorities, whomever they may be, can keep him in chains, they can never imprison the Word of God or keep it in chains, it is impossible. The Truth is personified in the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. The Word can never be held down, chained up, or put away, rather the Word pierces every human being, and it pierces us like a two edged sword, cutting in two directions, both in and out. Yet, when we refer to the Word, a term we hear often, to what or whom are we actually referring and once understood, what are we supposed to do with that Word?

When we refer to the Word of God we can be referring to 3 different things or all of them at once or in some combination. When we refer to the Word of God we are recalling to mind the Word Himself, (the Logos), Jesus Christ. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1) A little later in the same chapter John the Evangelist tells us, “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…” (Jn 1:14) First and foremost the Word is a person. It is with the Word, Jesus with whom we are in relationship. The second way we refer to the Word is the Word we read, and that is the Word of God as well, but in this reference it refers to Sacred Scripture, the Bible. As Christians we believe that in the Scriptures it is God Himself, through human authors influenced (not put under a spell), who speaks to us. The Scriptures are used for many purposes, be it at mass for the readings, be it at home for prayer and study, be it by theologians for scholarship, and on and on. A third way we refer to the Word is the Word we hear. When we listen to someone else read it as we did in mass today it takes on a different aspect, yes it is the same Word but when we truly listen the Word of God comes alive in our audible understanding of it.

So, these are the theological points about the Word of God and you can memorize all of that and compartmentalize it and maybe even use it one day as a master theologian. All of which would be good, but more importantly for us is that we remember the Word of God cannot be put in chains, even though we may sometimes put the Word of God on a shelf and only call on Him when in need just like the ten lepers from today’s Gospel. They called out to the Lord in pity as it says because of their disease, Jesus cured them all, but only one kept the Word alive in His heart, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

The lesson from both St. Paul and today’s Gospel is not to put the Word of God on a shelf or attempt to put it in chains. It won’t work because it will come back to cut us, what I mean here is that the Word of God will convict us in our complacency.

We are to keep the Word of God alive in our daily lives and this is done by reading Scripture at home as often as possible, to listen to the Word of God as we are doing now at mass every Sunday, and most of all to be in a relationship with the Word Himself all the time, not just for sixty minutes on Sunday or 15 minutes on a Monday reading a passage from the Bible, but always in union with Christ, just like the Samaritan who returned glorifying Jesus, so that we too will hear from Jesus as did the Samaritan, “Then he said to him, "Stand up and go your faith has saved you.”  Amen!

FJ