YOUR WORD IS A LAMP FOR OUR STEPS LORD (Genesis 1:1-19/Psalm 104:1-2,5-6,10,12,24,35/Mark 6:53-56)

YOUR WORD IS A LAMP FOR OUR STEPS LORD
(Homily for Monday February 11, 2019)

Today we begin a reflection from the book of Genesis tracing the biblical account of creation and the beginning of all things. In the first place, the first question we have to ask; is it necessary that God should create things since He is contented and nothing adds to His greatness or reduces it? Creation itself does not even add anything to His greatness.

Well, we may not adequately address this question since we are not God, He Himself knows the reason why He started creating things. But if we go with the expression that nothing adds to His greatness or reduces it, we may begin to infer that God started creating things so as to reveal the extent of His love to human person which is the last thing He created.

Again, God through the act of creation wants us to participate and share in His likeness. This could be the reason why He created us in His own image and likeness as we are going to see at the end of God’s creation.
When we take a closer look at this creation account, we will discover that God started creating without anything but by the power of His Word.

It was through His Word that things started taking their original shape. Which means that the power of God’s Word is a great force that produces things without the assistance of anything. Now what is exactly this Word of God that God uses to bring about the origin of thing? To know this, let us go to the opening verse of the gospel of John that says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning, the Word was with God. All things were made through him, and not one thing in all creation was made without Him. The Word was the source of life and this life brought light to humanity” (John 1:1-4). And lastly, the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

From this gospel verse of St. John, we can now draw our conclusion that Christ is indeed the Word of God and it is through Him that all things were made and without Him nothing in creation would have been created. And the same Word of God who is God Himself came to live with us, what a great sign of God’s love to Humanity.

The power of the Word is immense and the Bible equally teaches so. God created the world with His word (Genesis 1). Jesus is the word of God, and scripture tells us that; without Jesus, nothing would have ever been (John 1:1-3). Having this background in mind, we can now see the power of the Word of God by which God created the universe.

This implies that the Word of God we hear every day has this great force and power and it can only generate and regenerate, create and recreate something in us if and only if we dispose ourselves for this Word of God to act.

Imagine what happened on the first day of creation when things started coming out, taking their original shape by the power of God’s Word (who is Christ Himself). What happened during the creation account can as well be taking place in us any time we hear the Word of God and receive it with faith. God’s word is indeed powerful for those who make it their heritage. It has the power of making things anew in us, it has the power of reforming and transforming us. Christ is indeed the lamp that illuminates the whole of Scripture: He is its gateway and its foundation. The Word of God makes our foundation firm, it directs and illuminates us in the right path if we allow its entrance, it leads us in through the gateway.

It is the standard by which the wisdom that God has given us should be measured. The substance and fruit of holy Scripture are very specific: the fullness of eternal happiness. For this is what Scripture is – its words are words of eternal life, and it is written not just so that we should believe, but specially so that we should possess eternal life in which we may see, and love, and have all our desires fulfilled.

Let Us Pray: Lord God help me to open my heart to receive your word always and may your grace be suffuent for me. Amen.