Hearing and keeping the Word

Saturday, October 12, 2019
27th Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Jl 4: 12- 21
Gospel Reading:
Lk 11:27-28
As Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to him, “Blessed is the one who bore you and nursed you!” Jesus replied, “Surely blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it as well.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A listener’s overwhelming admiration for Jesus flowed over the Jesus mother. The listener said, “Blessed is the one who bore you and nursed you!” Jesus was humble and spontaneous in his reply. He said: “Surely blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it as well.” This response carries the assurance that anyone can be where Mary is by hearing the Word and keeping it the way she did. The Gospel summarizes how she did it in this short sentence: “Mary kept and pondered everything in her heart” (Luke 2:19). How do we hear the Word and how do we keep it the way Mary did?
We hear the Word if we listen to the Church. Jesus said to his Apostles, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:16). In no clearer terms did Jesus establish that he continues addressing us through the leaders of the Church. If we ignore the official teachings of the Church we ignore God.
Understood in this sense, many of us are guilty of not hearing the Word. We complain that politicians are corrupt yet we listen to them when they clash with the Church on matters of morality. Those who follow the voice of politicians on sensitive moral issues instead of listening to the Church can hardly be considered listeners of the Word. “The sheep that belongs to me”, Jesus said, “listens to my voice” (John 10:27).
How do we keep the Word as Mary did? We keep the Word like we keep a promise. As a promise is not kept until it ripens to fulfilment so the Word is not kept until it is brought to fruition in charity. A story is told of an old lady who heard Mass daily. One day her grandchildren asked her jokingly what she would do if on her way to attend the last Mass a neighbor gets a heart attack. Without batting an eyelash she said that not even that can stop her from going to Church. The children laughed and said they will do the same if one day she will get a heart attack. It was then that she said she was only
joking.
In listening to the Word let us be guided by the teachings of the Church. In keeping the Word let us be guided by the commandment of love. Like Mary we shall also be in paradise one day. That’s a promise that Jesus will keep. — (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.