Saturday August 26, 2017
Every word of the Gospel: is addressed to every Christian without distinction: to the one who proclaims it, as much as to the ones who hear it proclaimed. It is “alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). It can never be used, though it has often been used, by one person against another. It is not a dead instrument to be brandished at will; it is alive with a life of its own. The preacher cannot say, “You sinners…” but “We sinners….”—because one edge of that sword is always turned towards the speaker.
That word of God does two apparently opposite things: it pulls down and it builds up. Its work is “to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10). We cannot expect the truth to lie like a veneer over falsity. So we hear Jesus, the Prince of Peace, say that he has not come to bring peace on earth, but the sword (Mt 10:34). Today’s reading is an application of that sword, and Christian preachers and teachers know that he is addressing them.
But the word also builds up and plants. Even if the preacher is personally unworthy of what he or she is preaching, the word has a life of its own and takes root in unexpected ways. Despite our great failures, we are all sent out “to make disciples in all nations”.
