"And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"
Sr. Silvia Maria Tarafa, sctjm
February 15, 2010
For private use only -©
Though the season of
Advent is over, throughout the year we do well to remain attentively
listening to the Lord. We are called to be awaiting Jesus’ second
coming and our own preparation for our final and ultimate
destination - where we will spend our eternity. For those who are
discerning their vocation in life, how can it be discerned unless we
remain attentive to it?
The Lord tells us,
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn.1:14). Why does
Jesus come as the Word? What does this tell us about our Lord? Why
does John not say, “Jesus became flesh? By telling us that He is
“The Word,” Jesus is manifesting who He is: the ultimate revelation
and the ultimate communication.
What does Jesus
reveal? The Word reveals the Father; He reveals Himself as God and a
God who is Love. In this loving revelation, the Word also draws us
to Himself to communicate to us His divine life - so that we may
become one with him. He wants to communicate not only who He is, but
also the specific plan He has for each of us to reach this
transforming union with Him.
And how can the Word
best communicate Himself to us? We can learn much from the
receptivity of the Blessed Mother who held the Word in her heart;
like her, we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to allow Him to
impregnate us with the Word, to unveil the plan He has for our
lives, to make us fruitful, to make us no longer us, but Him.
One very practical
way of listening to the Word is by spending time in Scripture,
pondering the Word. Through our attentive reflection of Scripture,
the Word speaks and enters our everyday lives and guides us one step
at a time. It is through our time before the Blessed Sacrament,
reading and pondering the Word of the Lord, that we can dispose
ourselves to hear Him speak to our hearts: Come, follow me!
There is only One
Word. You and I are not the Word. The many voices of the world are
loud and wordy- but they are not the Word. There is but one Word. It
will pierce us and transform us only if we are open to receiving it.
It will become enfleshed in us, if we - the entire Church - in the
feminine posture of the receptive heart of the Blessed Mother, are
able to, as Church, receive the Word. It will transform us if, in
imitation of our Blessed Mother, we are able to make room (in the
inn of our hearts) for the Word, and if we receive Him with a Marian
docility - allowing it “to be done to us, according to His Word.”
May our hearts
imitate the, receptivity of the Blessed Mother to permit the Word to
have a home in us, to reveal Himself and his plan for us, to freely
communicate to us His love and His life in us - so that we can reach
the summit of it no longer being us, but Christ’s Word who lives and
moves and has His being - in us.
See Sr.
Silva Maria's blog in the Archdiocese of Miami...
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
