This is my personal story about how the word of God changed me. The emphasis is on the words “my personal story”. I am saying this because the word of God can affect different people differently. Perhaps you remember the parable of the farmer sowing his field. He threw the seeds on a stretch of land which he had. Some of the seeds fell along the path; some others fell among stones, some others among thorns and the others on good fertile soil. The seeds represent the word of God. The places where the seeds fell are different people and the way they receive the word of God.
This story or parable is ‘the word of God’ in itself as it was narrated by Jesus who is God. But before I go any further I wish to refer to a sentence which can be found at the beginning of the gospel of St. John, “the word was made flash”. This means that God wanted to talk to us humans, not in a Godly way but in a human way so that everyone could understand loud and clear. ‘The word of God’ became human in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the way God chose to tell us how we should behave and live our life.
Now let’s go back to the parable of ‘The Sower,” and see how it affected me. When I was growing up I had this sort of confusion about all which others told me, at home, at school and at the catechism lessons. Young as I was, I did not understand everything and my inquisitive mind would ask questions and have doubts. There was a period in my life when I almost gave up and this thing called faith was too much for me. But deep down I realized that life with its nice and not so nice circumstances, must have a meaning. The human mind has the great ability to connect with its creator in a unique way when compared to other creatures. This made me search and ask here and there. I did not get all the answers not even to this day but I am sure that it was God’s answer to quench my thirst for the truth when he presented to me the chance to let ‘His word’ fall on my heart’s fertile soil. This was when I was invited to join a prayer group. I already told you the story about this and my reactions. But although, not that willingly, I attended the first meetings and soon God attracted me so much that there, in spite of everything, my wife and I found the fulfillment of our life. As we learned in our meetings, faith comes through listening to the word of God and this is said by one of the greatest saints in my book, St. Paul.
When I attended the prayer meetings I would concentrate and try not to miss a single word. I took it very seriously and I could see that those who came just to have a break from the everyday routine or just to socialize with friends they met there, these did not grow spiritually as others who had better intentions. There we heard an abundance of the word of God. I imagine myself and others who attended in the right attitude that with every word of God we were being chiseled as a sculptor chisels a nice statue out of a block of stone. The more we heard, the more we were transformed in all that we said, did, thought….etc. We felt that we became very close to God as we were living according to his ‘word’.
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Now in the second part of this story I want to tell you about some of this ‘word of God’ which made me what I am today in the way I believe and behave.
Word of God, “Forgive us in the way we forgive those who wrong us.”
You surely know that this is part of the prayer, “Our Father”. This is the way Jesus taught us to pray. ‘Forgiveness’ is a very, very important word for a true follower of Christ. In fact if one is forgiving to all those who wronged him but one; this stops him from proceeding forward in his relation with God. This is very true and it is not only a question of spirituality, it affects us badly in our health, it stresses us and prevents us from being truly happy. It is very true and you and I know it because we all have experienced it. In my life I meet people, also relatives who have wronged me seriously. In my heart I set out to fight them, if possible even destroy them and I sincerely thought that by inflicting vengeance on them, I would feel better. But believe me, this is everything but the truth. The thought of vengeance, the hatred that one harbors for someone in his inner self, erodes his existence and, I can tell you that it really makes one sick and worried and depressed.
Forgive and forget……..some say, “I will forgive but never forget.” Of course one cannot forget……to forget, one has to lose his memory but this means that when you remember of any bad deed done to you by someone you do your best to excuse him. I bet you know who said the following words, “Forgive them, because they know not what they are doing!” Yes these words were said by Jesus himself when he was dying on the cross…...... He not only forgave those who were killing him but he excused them.
Even in our relation as husband and wife this method works miracles. As you all can imagine although my wife and I do really love each other, there were and still are instances where we do not agree. Several times this leads to a break in our relation and being human we stop speaking and our home instantly turns into hell. Before I discovered the word of God this would go on and on for days. But just a little courage and a small gesture can change things and the relation will be as good as ever, if not better. Just go buy a present or a bunch of flowers and give it to your wife together with a warm hug and a kiss, saying, “I love you dear.”.......and see what happens.
Word of God, “Love your enemy”
No religion emphasizes this better than our Christian religion. These words are said by Christ in the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’. So this is word of God. Here in Malta we just went through a long general election campaign. It is very silly to see relatives, friends and neighbors who in such circumstances , they become enemies and more often than not, they hate each other and try to hurt each other by the way they talk and behave.
There is a parable which Jesus narrated which depicts a similar situation. This is word of God. Perhaps you know, or perhaps you don’t that in the time when Jesus was on earth the Jews were divided in two major parties. There were the Jews and the Samaritans, who were also Jews but they had different religious and political ideas. The Samaritans lived in a part of Palestine which was just for them. They even dressed differently. One could not imagine a Jew and a Samaritan as friends or helping each other.
The story narrates how a Jew was once attached by a band of thieves who stole all his belongings and gave him a good beating, leaving him dying in a deserted place. It happened that several Jews saw the dying man but they just passed by and left him there. Even a Jewish priest did likewise. A Samaritan also happened to pass that way and he saw the wounded Samaritan. He not only dressed his wounds but carried him on his donkey and took him to someone who could take good care of him, feed him and cure him at his (the Samaritan’s) own expense.
Love thy enemies…..and you will change the word………..you will sure reach the heart of your enemy by loving him.
Here may I tell you a personal experience to prove this point.
This happened quite some time ago when my wife and I used to go in a summer house just few years after we joined the prayer group. It was my wife’s mother house which after her death, we decided to use as a summer residence. We had already four children. Our next door neighbor was a middle aged grumpy and lonely man. I tried several times to befriend him but he was always nagging about my children making a lot of noise (which was very true); he even reported us to the police more than once. Again I tried to reason with him but he was all insults and offenses. There was no other way but to ignore him and live our summer days as best as we could. This irritated him more and he begun to try to annoy us in other ways such as throwing garbage in our yard, sweeping the rubbish in the street in front of our house and once he even had two of my car’s tires punctured with a sharp pointed object. Although we had no proof, we were sure that he was the culprit. Yet we did not retaliate and still ignored him.
It was in September when I had to go to our town house to run some errands. It seemed that we were about to have one of those September stormy days. when I left it was not raining yet but all signs showed that a storm was moving over the island. I went to our town house. Then it began to rain and in a few seconds it was pouring cats and dogs. I was on my way back hurrying to arrive home to my wife and children. As I was driving through the main street which led to the village, I saw a man waiting on a bus stage. The man seemed to have been caught in the rain as I could see that he was all wet. He was trying to take refuge in a closed doorway in front of the stage sign. When I came closer to the stage I could recognize the man. He was my neighbor. I intended to give that poor man a lift but when I learned who he was, I drove past him. But something told me that that was not the way. I stopped the car and reversed till I came near the bus stage. He looked at me. He recognized me. I opened the passenger door of my car and told him to get in. I could see the astonishment on his face. He even looked back to see if there was someone to whom I was talking. Then he exclaimed, “You are asking me to get in???” “Yes, yes come on hurry, you are getting drenched. Hop in. Aren’t we neighbors?”
He was confused. He was all wet and hesitated to sit on the seat but I told him that it doesn’t matter. I drove off and he kept staring at me as if asking……. “Why???”
Form that day on he changed his way and we can say that we became friends.
Word of God, “Do not judge, or you will be judged.”
Again this is the ‘Word of God’ because Jesus said it, again in the Sermon on the Mount.
This is wisdom. The trouble begins when we judge others. When we judge others, we are in a way saying that we are better than the one we are judging. This is pride. Pride is the root to other wrong doings. It is a sort of vicious circle. What if we, instead of judging, condemning and criticizing others, we try to find what is nice, good and pleasant in a person. Sometime we think that some people are downright rotten……. and it maybe that they are but deep down there is always something good in everyone. Besides, who are we to judge? Are we perfect? Just listen to the word of God. Here I am not narrating one of the parables which Jesus used to tell. This is an episode in His life. See how He acts. Listen to what He says.
Some elderly men once took a young woman in front of Jesus. They accused her of adultery. They expected that Jesus would condemn her for sinning and tell them to stone her to death as the old law said. Jesus did nothing of the sort. He bent down and in front of each accuser he wrote or drew something in the dust with his finger. Bible experts say that those writings or drawings were signs to each of those men, of sins which they committed in their life. He told them, “He who has no sin, let him cast the first stone.” This made them feel ashamed and surely not in a position to judge and condemn someone else…….and slowly they went away and left Jesus alone with the adulteress. He asked her, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, my lord” she replied. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus, “go and don’t sin anymore.”
Click here http://youtu.be/s3QRYZWiZ0Q
This word of God is for me, for you for everyone, “Do not judge.” How dare I judge anyone and then pretend not to be judged.
Perhaps you say, “Easier said than done.” This is very true but as it is the word of God, I do my best to go for it and do it. Forgiveness. Loving the enemy. Not judging. These are just three 'words of God' which will change those who rely on the word of God. Try it and you will see.
To conclude may I mention something which is happening and which made the world
wander. We have a new pope, Pope Francesco. In these few days during which he has been head of the church, this man is showing that it is possible to live according to the word of God. The name he chose is that of a great saint who lived the word of God. In this day and age where secularism and materialism excel, Pope Francesco is shining brightly just with his simplicity, humility and loving words and actions. May we all be led by this light of our pope!
Quote of the day:
Blessed are the poor of spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus Christ (Word of God)