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Homily (Reflection) for Thursday of the First Week of Advent (I) (06th December, 2018) on the Gospel
 
Is 26:1-6;
Ps 118:1.8-9.19-21.25-27. (R. v. 26);
Matt 7:21.24-27.

Topic: The Word of God.
Considering how often people go to church and other religious exercises, read and preach the word of God among other things, one may tend to conclude that heaven has come at last. But at the same time, evil of different kinds keeps increasing everyday in the world. Hence, Jesus’ warning in the gospel: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:21). We also read: “Blessed ... are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11:28). Again, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15:14).
The word of God is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Saint Peter also wrote: “You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1Pt 1:23).
Can we then say that the word of God has either changed or has lost its vitality? Never, cf. Rom 9:4-6.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul admonishes us to “... take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17). But many Christians have rejected the word of God because of other things like traditions, cf. Mk 7:13; Matt 15:6; 2Tim 4:9-11. But for the apostles, it is wrong to leave the word of God for any other thing, Acts 6:2. We ought to accept the word of God as the Thessalonians did “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1Thess 2:13).
Bible Reading: Jas 1:19-27; Rom 2:1-16; 9:1-18.
Thought for today: What is God’s word to you?
Let us pray: God, give us the grace to receive your word as what it really is. And may it be our guiding principle through Christ our Lord – Amen.
You are free to share this reflection with others if you consider it worthy.

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