What role does the Word of God have in your life? - Daily Reflections April 9,2015

IT IS WRITTEN

 

There are times when life is not a bowl of cherries, as Americans would say. In Pinoy context, peanuts could take the place of cherries. Life is not as easy as eating peanuts. Let me give you my time-tested formula. When the going gets tough, I go back to my favorite poems and read my best-loved lines from favorite writers.

     The written word has a way of soothing rattled nerves and straightening crumpled faces.

       I am a sentimental person. I keep old letters. I seldom delete years-old email messages from people dear to me, both living and dead. In the age of digital filing cabinets, I have taken to saving some of them as pdf files. In my low moments, I read some of them all over again. The written word does not fail to energize me to stay the course and do what I ought to do. Well-crafted poetry and prose always lift my spirits up and give me a fresh dose of courage for the challenges up ahead.

       If human words can do so much to uplift me, then all the more can we say the same about the Word of God. The two disciples “recounted all that had happened,” and that became a prelude to their “recognizing the Lord in the breaking of bread.” They were in the middle of “speaking” to each other when the Lord “stood in their midst.” The Lord Himself reminded them “of the words that [He] spoke while still with them.”

       “Thus it is written…” These are important words that usher in the great news of Christ’s suffering, death and rising from the dead on the third day. These are words that we need to hear again and again.

       My favorite authors’ words may give courage, but the Word of the Lord gives life. Thus it is written! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: What role does the Word of God have in your life?

 

Make me ever hungry for Your Word, O Lord, that I may seek consolation from it when I am down.