Most Reverend Wm. Michael Mulvey, STL, DD discusses how —Jesus is present in the Word of God.
Bishop Mulvey, you have just completed the second talk on the Eucharist in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress that will take place in June of this year. The address you gave was on The Eucharist and the Word. Please discuss with us the scripture passages that tell us that Jesus is the Word, such as, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). How is Jesus present in his Word?
This is an important topic, not only for me but for all of us to understand that Jesus is truly present in His Word. He is what God has pronounced for us. In the prologue of the Gospel of John, he speaks of Jesus as the preexisting and Incarnate Word. This existence of God in the Word has always been the faith of the Church.
Dei Verbum, in the Second Vatican Council, begins with the fact that God is present in his Word. Jesus is present in His Word because the Word of God creates. When God spoke, creation happened. “Let there be light,” and there was (Gn 1:3). Therefore, we have always seen that the power of God, the presence of God, is in His Word, especially the Word Incarnate in Jesus Christ.
St. Augustine was asked if God, Jesus, was more present in his Word or in the Eucharist, and he said he is present in both. As Catholics, we profess that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul, and divinity. It is the center of our faith. Therefore, we ensure and are extremely careful that not a particle of the host drops to the ground because every particle is a part of the whole host, who is Jesus. Saint Augustine also said that not one word of God should escape us, nor be ignored by us because in every word is the presence of God. This has been the faith of the Church for centuries. The revitalization of this understanding is especially critical now, in our present time.
We are in the midst of Lent, and soon it will be Easter. In the Scripture passage where the disciples are on the road to Emmaus after just witnessing the death of Jesus, they meet a man walking the same way they are going. After talking to them and explaining the Scriptures, they invited him to stay with them because the hour was getting late, and they really did not want to be parted from him. As they sit down to eat, these disciples recognize that it is Jesus, and then Jesus disappears from their midst. Here is where I want to focus. They say to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:13-32). Do these words uttered by Jesus’ disciples speak to us of the power of God’s word?
The disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced Jesus himself –in person. Their hearts were burning because the words he spoke to them were himself, his presence. As he explained the scriptures from the Old Testament, he was explaining himself. And the words burned because it’s an encounter with Jesus. Every time we read the Word of God, every time we pray over the Word of God, every time we listen on Sundays to the Word of God proclaimed, we are listening to Jesus. At the moment when we hear the powerful Word of God, we should ask for that grace of faith; then, those words will burn in us as well. They will burn because they will change us, awaken us to something new. Therefore, we must strive to listen to and understand what God is saying to us. Invite the Holy Spirit to help us listen and guide the way to our understanding. The Power of God’s Word is that it is He who is speaking to us. This is our Faith. By listening and being open, God speaks first in us so that we can then talk to Him. It is something we must practice.
How important is it for all Catholics to be familiar with scripture?
Every Christian must encounter Jesus in the Scriptures and spend time with Him. A beautiful part of our faith has always been the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. And it is fitting that we should give time to that. We need to provide the same kind of time to the presence of Jesus in the Scriptures. If we can pray and understand even one sentence of scripture and allow Jesus to burn inside of us, we come to a greater love for the Scriptures, which is a path that each one of us needs to renew. We may not understand how Jesus is present in the written word of God, but he is. Learning to meditate in humility and silence on a single passage or sentence can open a conversation with God and can make a change in us.
It is a matter of faith that we see Jesus present in the Eucharist, in the bread and the wine consecrated into His body and blood. That is an act of faith. And we give ourselves to that. We take time with that. In the same way, it is important to give time to scripture, to Jesus’ presence in his Word, the living Word, which the Church has affirmed for centuries –from the very beginning.