Fr. Paul Murray, a professor of Spiritual theology at the Angelicum, who was for a long time Mother Theresa’s spiritual director tells the story of how on one occasion, in the sacristy before Mass Mother came up to him with a radiant look on her face and said: “You know Fr. Paul, God is love!” What was remarkable was the manner in which she said these often used and overused words.
These words which can sometimes seem banal to us who hear them so frequently
and do not take the needed time to explore the fathomless depths of their meaning—came to life!
When Mother Theresa said to Fr. Paul, GOD IS LOVE, she meant it, and as Fr. Paul tells the story, she said it as one who has seen the depths of God’s Love and realize what it meant to say: GOD IS LOVE. God only knows how many miracles and great works Mother Theresa merited by her prayerful trust in these words.
Today Peter too discovers the power contained within the Word of God. Like the definition, God is Love, I think that because we hear and read the 6th chapter of John so often that these words can sometime seem lifeless. They loose their radical newness, and power, BUT WHAT WE MUST REMEMBER IS, as Peter tells us: these are the Words of Eternal Life.
All words have power, but these aren’t just words, rather these sacred words are The Word reveal, the revelation of the LOGOS, the Son of God, which have the power of life and death within them. My brothers we live in such a de-mythologizing age, that we can forget or start to doubt the power of God’s Word—but the deposit of faith is clear. God’s word has power, whether it be the Hoc Est Enim Corpus Meum, of the Mass or the simple prayer: Jesus Christ heals you; rise up.
Just as it isn’t superstition to believe in the real presence, it isn’t superstition to believe and pray that God heals the sick. This isn’t the stuff of Harry Potter “witchcraft!” By mumbling a few words in an ancient tongue we don’t seek to control God, but rather we humbly beg Him to do now what He in His loving mercy has done for us before. And because GOD IS LOVE, he often does.
My brothers do not allow the scriptures which we read to become ordinary, don’t take them for granted, because in these words are Spirit and Truth, and through them we can accomplish anything that is God’s will, whether it be curing the cripple or waking those who have fallen asleep in death.
Therefore through this Mass let us give thanks to God for His Revelation of Himself and never take for granted the power of these sacred words, which like the Eucharist we are about to receive, feed us.
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