“Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.  Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.”  James reminds us of the power of God’s Word in our lives.  The Word that is given to us through revelation in the Holy Scriptures is a Word of Life and is able to save us by growing God’s eternal life within us.  God’s Word is a beautiful gift that is given to us to allow us to have the fullness of life.  God’s Word forms us and reforms us into the Divine Image through the power of the Spirit of love that is poured out in God’s Word.  In the beginning the Word was with God and through him all things came into being.  It was through the power of that Word that all things were created. 

     The dynamic power and life giving properties of the Word are expressed in the Hebrew word “dabar” and in the Greek word “logos”.  The Word, dabar, logos, brings order out of chaos and orders all things according to God’s will and purpose.  It creates beauty and goodness in all things and places within each created thing an ordering of truth.  In the ordering of all things according to God’s Word we know that all things are governed by divine law which is a perfection of natural law.  The divine law does not destroy the natural law but it raises it up and perfects it.  To know God’s law is to understand the meaning and purpose of life.  In the goodness and compassion of God, God chooses to reveal to us the truth and meaning of all things.  He speaks to us and teaches us through prophets and he gives to his people the law.  When we receive the Word in faith it is able to accomplish God’s purpose in our lives because God has promised that it will not return to him void but will accomplish His purpose.

     When we reflect upon the gift that is the Word of God in our lives we fully realize that this Word is a gift from God, that it is God’s Word and transcends all human thought and understanding.  Our response to this Word must be to “humbly welcome the word” into our lives and try to cooperate with the grace and power of the Word in order to live according to God’s truth.  The Word of God requires a response from us that is an assent of faith, “I believe”, an obedience to the Word, “Let it be done in me”, and action directed by the Word, “love of God and neighbor”.  God’s Word is true, powerful and filled with His Spirit.  As limited human beings there is nothing that we can add to it or subtract from it for it is perfect in its nature.  Moses instructs his people, “In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.  Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’”  God can add further to his Word and does perfectly fulfill and complete His Word when the Word is made flesh and comes to dwell among us.  However, human beings would be foolish to alter the Word themselves and change the law of God through their own human processes.  In the gospel, Jesus criticizes the leaders of the people of Israel who have substituted human precepts for the Divine Law and commandments of the Lord.  We have to carefully listen and observe the Word of God given in his Law trying to understand God’s will and purpose and not alter the Word to try to make it say what we want it to say and justify our disordered behaviors.      This is certainly relevant in our society today as  there are many people that seek to justify their own behaviors by bending the Word of God to be more convenient and acceptable to them.  James calls us to be “doers of the Word and not hearers only” in our Christian lives.  Certainly we all have sinful inclinations that we struggle against in carefully observing God’s law and God loves us even though we are sinners but we cannot condone changing the law through a human vote to escape our responsibility to be a holy people before God.  As Jesus reminds us, unchastity, licentiousness and folly come from within a person and defile us and will not allow us to reach our full destiny as God’s holy people called to share in His Divine Life.  Humbly welcome the seed of the Word that Jesus, the Sower of the Word, has come to sow in the rich soil of our hearts and allow it to bear its rich fruit a hundredfold.