DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Thursday, October 18, 2018

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.   The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. – John 1:1-5

According the writer of John’s Gospel, the Word was present in the processes of Creation; according to the writer of John’s Gospel, the Word was present in the life of Christ; but nowhere does the writer of John’s Gospel declare that the scriptures and the Word are one and the same.

To be sure, the Word was active into those souls who wrote the scriptures and the Word was active in the historical moments that the scriptures record; but the  Word and the scriptures are not one in the same.  And because of this understanding of mine … there are those who accuse me of heresy.

I read the scriptures continually through each and every day.  Reading them deeply to the point of hearing once more the whisperings of the writers themselves.  I learn from the scriptures; I am inspired by the scriptures; but I do not deify the scriptures.  They are but one means through which the Voice of God makes itself to be heard.  That Voice I hear in the wondrous processes of Creation.  That Voice I hear in the words and the manner of Christ my Lord.  That Voice I hear in sacred moments that I experience.  That Voice I hear in the soulful conversation I have with others.  That Voice I hear even in the silences within my hours of prayer.  And that Voice I hear by way of beholding the Light that diminished the Darkness.

The Word of God is found with the pages of a Bible; but the Word of God is not confined to those pages of a Bible.

Read scripture.  But also listen for the Word as it echoes throughout the unfolding of Creation and as it expressed in fleshly form in Christ and in the Christ among us.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz