The First Annual Word of God Sunday

It is not every day that a new celebration is added to the universal Church calendar, but today is the first celebration of “Sunday of the Word of God”! While the celebration is new, it is rooted in our history of reverence for the sacred scriptures and our renewal through-out the past century of a co-equal focus on Word and Sacrament. It was on the Feast of scripture scholar St. Jerome (Sept. 30) that Pope Francis published an apostolic letter declaring and describing how, from here on, “the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God. This Sunday of the Word of God will thus be a fitting part of that time of the year when we are encouraged to strengthen our bonds with the Jewish people and to pray for Christian unity” (Aperuit Illis, n. 3).

The Pope reminds us the Vatican II constitution on the Word of God, “Dei Verbum, stresses that... ‘the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salva-tion, wished to see confided to the sacred Scrip-tures’ (n. 11).... The Bible is not a collection of history books or a chronicle.... The evident historical setting of the books of the Bible should not make us overlook their primary goal, which is our salvation. Everything is directed to this purpose and essential to the very nature of the Bible, which takes shape as a history of salvation in which God speaks and acts in order to encounter all men and women and to save them from evil and death” (Aperuit Illis, n. 9).

Many people in our parishes hunger for a deeper understanding of the Bible, and there are a variety of ways that we can feed that hunger for God’s Word. Reading from a good Catholic study Bible provides some commentary to make the Word a bit more acces-sible. Simply reflecting on the Sunday readings in the days before or after they are proclaimed at Mass can help us be more receptive to the ways the Word of God connects with our own lives. The U.S. Bishops’ website usccb.org provides easy access to the scripture readings for each Sunday and daily Mass. There are several scripture-based daily prayer booklets, such as The Word Among Us, that foster a brief reflection on the readings each day for a month. A scripture study program like the one Fr. Lambert offers a couple of Wednesday evenings each month is an opportunity to go deeper into one book or theme of the Bible and share insights with one another.

Even without a teacher, some people form small scripture sharing groups using a reputable book or periodical to guide them. Pray for your priest or deacon to be more open to the Spirit as we strive to break open God’s Word and apply it to the lives we all live.

We pray that this new celebration may remind us just what a powerful gift the Word of God is to our faith and relationship with the Lord. May it be just the invitation we need to start or renew our efforts to make the scriptures a regular part of our Catholic lives.