Learning to trust his word

The phrase, ‘Thus says the Lord’ often introduces the word of God to readers and listeners. Here Isaiah says, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.’ (cf Is 55:10-11). 

Beloved people of God, we continue to learn to trust God’s word. It is also what faith teaches. We learn to rely wholly on what God says. The word of the Lord as introduced in the biblical passage above, Isaiah 55:10-11, tells us how emphatically definite the word of God is. The debate must never be about whether the Lord has the capacity to accomplish what his word has decreed. The word is God himself; he has power to do what he will. We can pray and discern if God can relent on what he has decreed in his word. In his infinite wisdom, love and compassion, God can relent on the word he has spoken. His word is not lacking among us. Like the seed that the sower sows, it is more about where the seed falls, along the path, where the birds come and devour them, on rocky ground, where they are scorched, among thorns, where they are choked or on good soil, where they produce grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty? (cf Mt 13:1-9).     

May we be among the ones who have ears to hear. The word of God says, ‘Oh, that today you listen to his word, harden not our hearts’ (Ps 95:7-8 and Hb 3:15). May we receive the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and strive after all that does it honour. Amen

 Fr Ted

All to Jesus – Through Mary our Mother