Word of God: preserved and transmitted

Pope Francis proclaimed the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time as Word of God Sunday. Of course, with this proclamation, the Catholic Church continues to highlight the centrality of the Word of God in the Catholic faith.When there were disputes in the early Church on interpreting the Gospels or the Letters, the role of the Catholic Church was to help us understand what the Christian Scriptures teach. It was not until the fourth century that Pope Damasus I confirmed at the Council of Rome (382) that there are 27 books in the New Testament and of course 46 books in the Old Testament.
 
If your OT does not have 46 books it means you are missing 7 books. Only Catholic Bibles have 46 books in the Old Testament. These Biblical books reveal the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, our salvation through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Receiving Baptism, and going to Confession, partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ, to give us light, understanding, strength, so we can live and die in holiness -- in  a state of Grace.
 
The Word of God is meant to lead us to eternal life.
 
And so we need to thank the Holy Spirit, active in the Church, teaching us true doctrine and, showing us what is false. To instruct us on holiness, and sin that is to be avoided.
 
The Catholic Church has preserved the Word of God from the time it had been transmitted and recorded by the early Christian communities almost 2000 years ago. When there were disputes and disagreement over understanding the Scriptures as happened throughout the history of the Church, the Holy Spirit was entrusted to the Church Jesus Christ left us, so we would be protected from teaching moral or doctrinal errors. 

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​The Word of God is a two-edged Sword: we can teach others what is true, just as we can defend ourselves against false teachings.
 
The Word of God is God’s Wisdom. The Word of God is the Second Person of the Trinity.
The Word of God is God enfleshed, Jesus Christ. The Word of God is the Biblical readings we hear proclaimed whenever we attend Mass.
The Word of God is the Holy Scriptures we personally read and meditate.
 
The mission of the Church as  prophesied by Isaiah 9  is to bring light, the light who is Jesus Christ. The light shines upon us and shows us the way out of darkness; this is the light of our Baptism. In our Baptism we have the light of Christ. Jesus begins by removing the darkness of original sin that has broken our relationship with God.
 
So, the Word which is the light of Truth, Jesus who is Truth, who brings us out of darkness and into the light of God, Jesus is our salvation. We experience this light on earth as we hear the Word of God proclaimed.
 
But the fullness of this light we shall experience when we are in the presence of the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, in heaven for all of Eternity. Jesus wants us with Him – this is why He came into the world, to bring us back to Him, to join the Father, the Angels and Saints, His Blessed Mother.
 
1 Corinthians 1 tells us already in the early Church, when St. Paul is writing to the Corinthians perhaps around 20 years after the Resurrection, there is conflict and dissension over authority. And what does Paul say, we belong to Jesus Christ. It was Christ who died for us, it’s in His name whom we are baptised, and so we belong to Him. The message is beautiful, extraordinary, Jesus the Light, Jesus the Word, God made Flesh, we belong to Him.
 
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 4, the same territories mentioned in Isaiah are repeated: Zebulun and Naphtali; St. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah whom we have just heard,
 
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across, the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
 
The regions Zebulun and Naphtali are in the north, northern Israel, not in Judea. The Sea of Galilee which stretches across the north, as Isaiah says, is the land of the Gentiles. Even though Jesus is born in Bethlehem and executed in Jerusalem, and both cities are in Judea are in the south, Jesus will be rejected. Jesus grows up in Nazareth; remember he is a Nazarean, not far from the Sea of Galilee where much of his ministry took place, and as St. Matthew tells us, Jesus made Capernaum his home, right on the shores of Galilee.
 
The darkness not far from where Jesus grew up in the north, in Zebulon and Nephtali, many of the people who also became known as Samaritans, Samaria was regarded as the land of the Gentiles; they were the ones to abandon the God of Israel bowing before pagan gods.
 
In these pagan surroundings, well, darkness set in.
 
Remember when Isaiah writes he is talking about the people abandoning the God of Israel for pagan gods; and so, Jesus born in the midst of this darkness -- He brings light -- to the north, the south, the entire world.
 
This echoes the Gospel of St. John because this is precisely what John says: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. (John 1). The Word which is God, the Word is Jesus Christ, the Word of God is Light.
 
Let us give thanks to God’s Word, His Son, Jesus Christ made flesh. The words given to us by the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, the Psalms of David, Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of the Word. The Word is God’s eternal Wisdom, The Word that takes us out of darkness, into the light, and everlasting Salvation.
 
Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Word made flesh, that she might accompany us, to live in Truth and Love, to bring the Word of God to all people.