Word: The Liturgy of the Word

So now we've been freed of our sins and we're a clean slate. We're empty.

God then does what he loves to do when we're empty...fill us up.

For those who are just joining, this is Part 3 of my series on the Mass, Guided Missal. Part 1: Opening the Doors. Part 2: A Rite for Wrongs.

On a normal Sunday Mass, we hear three readings: one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament letters, and one from the Gospels. They follow a three year cycle of readings known as the Lectionary. It's worked out in such a way that if you go to Mass daily for three years, you hear almost the whole Bible, save a few verses here and there.

Why would the Church put so much effort into making sure we get the Bible, especially for a denomination that is stereotypically not considered "Bible Christian". The answer is that Catholics are perhaps more biblical than any other. The difference can be found in history.

The Catholic Church stretches back two thousand years...back to a time when books were rare and expensive and even if you were rich enough to own one you likely couldn't read anyway. So, how were people expected to imbibe Scripture? They heard it. It was read to them. It was woven throughout the entirety of the Mass. It was spoken.

And, if it's the Word of God, we better listen. When we made that Sign of the Cross, we agreed to live "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". So we had better know what exactly that entails. 

We should show the same reverence to Jesus in the Word as we do Jesus in the Eucharist, because Jesus "was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1). 

Here are a few quotes about the importance of the Liturgy of the Word:

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.” 

― A.W. Tozer

“We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.” 

― John R.W. Stott

“Quoting from Thomas Merton

Dialogues With Silence
The true contemplative is not one who prepares his mind for a particular message that he wants or expects to hear, but is one who remains empty because he knows that he can never expect to anticipate the words that will transform his darkness into light. He does not even anticipate a special kind of transformation. He does not demand light instead of darkness. He waits on the Word of God in silence, and, when he is answered it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence. It is by his silence itself, suddenly, inexplicably revealing itself to him as a word of great power, full of the voice of God. (17)” 
― Stephen Cope, The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living

This Sunday (which happens to be, you know, today) don't let the readings just go in one ear and out the other. God is saying something to you. Yes, you directly. Right now. You might not know what it is, but you can't really know if you aren't listening. 

Part 4: I've Got Good News