Jan 10: The Eternal Word Spoken Once and for All

Raffaello Sanzio: La Disputa
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican, 1510-11 (detail)

Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 1:1-6

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word (NRSV, Heb 1:1-3a).

Heavenly Father, how wonderful it is at every moment to be able to grow in your divine life that you offer to every human being. And not only to grow in your life but also to have the possibility of understanding you better, who you are, and how we are to live out the life that you share with us.

Father, over the centuries, in reflecting on what you have given us to understand, we have realized that you are unchanging; that you have no before or after, just an every present now; that you have no bounds; that you are not here or there; that you do not do this and then that; that you just are; in fact, that what you do is what you are; that your act is your being and your being is your act.

We change constantly in our relationship with you, Lord. To be created is to change. Hopefully we change constantly for the better, Lord, always growing in your life. But you have made us to be free, Lord, and so we can choose to say “yes” or “no.” We can even turn away from you, if we choose, and try to live for ourselves apart from you.

But we have also learned, Father, that you never abandon us. Your uncreated Word, your only begotten Son, who is God from God, is always present to us, from the first moment in the womb, speaking your unchanging Word to us, offering us your life in the Spirit, if only we would accept it. Even in our sinfulness, Father, you remain present to us in your Word who continues always to offer us your live-giving Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who proceeds from you and the Son, God with you and the Son, who is the love that you and the Son have for one another.

Father, you have not taught us all of this gradually, over the centuries, as we often think. That is because you speak only one unchanging Word. We are the ones who have come to learn your truth gradually, and continue to learn it, as we turn inward to listen to your Word who always presses upon us. We have been helped by those among us, the prophets, who are more sensitive than the rest of us but who still learn gradually as everyone does. Finally, we have come to understand more fully through your Word made flesh, your Word, who is all truth, become one of us in the body, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, may we continue always to grow in your life and our understanding of you spoken once and for all through your Word, made flesh in our Lord Jesus your Christ, now gloriously enthroned with you in his human body in heaven. Amen.