WORDS OF LIFE

WORDS OF LIFE

 

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness. – 2 Timothy 3:16

 

You’ve seen them on TV.

Each one professes to be right. Both quote the Bible expertly, using God’s Word for defense and offense.

Yet, what they seem to achieve is more divisiveness. Insults and provocations are their primary weapons as they tear down each other on different channels. It’s saddening to note that the Good News is used for destructive debates and un-Christian misinformation. They seem to just one-up each other.

Overuse, misuse and abuse of Scriptures will never lead to God.

My friend Rene sends me text messages that contain God’s Word of hope regularly. Often, they will strike me at the heart. They are just the right words at the right time. That’s what Scriptures should do: become a source of inspiration and personal words of God to you. Jun Asis mabuting.balita@gmail.com)

 

REFLECTION:

Have you quoted the Bible to uplift somebody today?

 

Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life. Grant that I may be Your witness.

 

INSPIRED OF GOD

 

I love poetry. I love songs, including pop, most especially if they are poetic. I enjoy even the religious poems of Rumi, the classical Muslim man of letters and mysticism. I love them, for they inspire me. Oftentimes, they lift my sagging spirits. When I feel down, all I need to do, besides prayer and even during prayer, is reach out for my favourite lines from a favorite chanteur or chanteuse, poet or writer.

They inspire me, no doubt. But that is not to say that they are inspired themselves. They console me alright, but in the same vein, that does not mean that they lead me without fail to the God of consolation, no matter if what they afford me appear to be divine and heavenly consolations. The story of Paul, too, has always moved me in many ways. Today’s first reading is one of those high points in Paul’s life that do not fail to tug at my rather sensitive heart. Paul is saying goodbye. He knew he is to die soon as he writes to his beloved disciple, Timothy. His story of fidelity and love for the Lord is an account that people could not easily gloss over. His story moves us, inspires us and catapults us to higher levels of resolve and resignation to the Divine Will.

But there is more to life than merely being lifted up emotionally. We need more than just ephemeral emotional “highs” that come and go. Today, Paul refers precisely to this God-given resource that serves not merely as inspiration, but as solid basis for a life lived as God would have us do. “All Scripture is inspired of God,” Paul avers, “and is useful for teaching — for reproof, correction and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and equipped for every good work.”

It is definitely good to seek for inspiration from anywhere one can get it. But it is best to seek for the God who inspires — the God who is behind  book “inspired of God,” no less. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

Reflection Question:

Do I seek inspiration from Scriptures?

 

Lord Jesus, inflame my heart and mind with Your Word.

 

St. Breaca, pray for us.