Living out the Word of God

Every Church organisation should have a distinctive calling. This refers to its spirituality, its charism, and an ideal towards which its members strive; a goal that draws them towards holiness, for, according to Pope John Paul II, the primary criterion for the recognition of a Catholic association is the pursuit of holiness (Christe fideles laici). What is the calling of those who join a ‘Word of God’ group? ‘Take care not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God has made with you’ (Deut 4:23). The essence of our spirituality is to live the Word of God; it is the ‘lived experience’, it is ‘living it out’. The Movement of the Incarnation exists above all through lived experience: we are talking about the practices of the lived Word. A true member of the Movement of the Incarnation exists in a certain way, not because of what they say, not because they have set up a Word of God group in a parish, not because they are in charge of a group, but because of how they live. ‘You will be my witnesses’ (Acts 1:8) means, ‘you will be people who live out the Word of God’. A witness is someone who has experienced a situation, who has lived it out. Jesus said: ‘It is not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of my Father, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven’ (Mt 7:19–28). This means those who ‘live’ by it.

The Virgin Mary is our model. We do not see her preaching, but she keeps the Word and lives it out. The Church Fathers say that the Virgin Mary is honoured not because she is, in human terms, the mother of Christ, but because she did God’s will; she lived out the Word of God. At the Incarnation, the Word of God is lived out; the Word becomes flesh. Yet for us, the temptation may well be to talk a great deal rather than to live it out. In our parish councils, our communities and our groups, many are often interested in positions of responsibility, in having their say and being respected, if not simply for financial gain. Often the priority is not to do God’s will; yet what matters is to ‘live’ it. ‘Blessed rather is the one who hears the Word of God and puts it into practice’ (Lk 8:21).

We may be asked to give advice, to provide spiritual guidance to others or even to teach the faith. But that is not the essential point. Our advice and our teachings must even be imbued with the Word put into practice. Talking is easier; ‘living’ is more difficult. For ‘living’ requires self-denial, the cross. It is more difficult to live this way because it requires integrating the Beatitudes into one’s life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that there is no authentic Christian life without the cross or self-denial. This refers to the cross of living out the Word of God. One cannot truly live out the Word of God without the cross; it would be superficial. Living out the Word of God comes at a cost, and that cost is the cross. Our first instinct in life is to reject the cross, to shun self-denial and to complain. The icon of our Movement of the Incarnation features the image of a cross: this cross is necessary if we truly wish to live out the Word of God. St Paul said to Timothy: ‘That is why I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you’ (2 Tim 1:6).

Today, do members of the Word of God groups place the emphasis on lived experience? If so, to what extent? ‘To those who have been given much, much will be asked of them,’ says Jesus. Are we bearing as much fruit as Jesus expects? Are we true witnesses to the Lived Word? Those who are truly committed, the truly active members, are first and foremost those who ‘live’ the Word. Without lived experience, our activities are empty.

Pope Francis has told us to dream. Let us imagine a parish where the members of the parish council have as their main objective to live out the Word of God. Imagine a parish where the members of the choirs, the altar servers and other groups, and the seminarians have as their main aim to do God’s will. The parish priest will be able to work in peace. Imagine a Word of God group where the main concern of all the members who attend is to please Jesus. Imagine a family where the husband wants only to love his wife and her alone, where the mother treats her husband like a baby, where the children are obedient to their parents and please them, all in order to live out the Word of God; and where the parents sacrifice themselves for their children without favouring one over the other. What a family! It is this ideal that the Spirituality of the Incarnation promotes. Pope Paul VI said: ‘The modern world needs witnesses far more than it needs teachers’. What the world really needs are Christians who ‘live out’ their faith. What the Church needs is more Christians who ‘live out’ their faith. What our families need are couples and children who truly live out the Word of God. What every ‘Word of God’ group needs is a leader whose primary focus and priority is to live out the Word of God. In this way, they will help many people. For it is not enough simply to be a witness; we must help our families and others to live out the Word of God; we must share the witness of our lives.

Jesus wants us to be his witnesses always and everywhere. A true witness to Jesus is an evangeliser, and a true evangeliser is a witness. However, without a life of prayer we cannot ‘live out’ the Word; we cannot be true witnesses.

Henri Bayemi