THE WORD OF GOD
Hebrew 4:12 For the word of God is quick (living), and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner (judge) of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
This is the only time in Hebrews where the word “living” modifies a noun other than God. Nothing is living in the absolute sense other than God Himself, we have life only as a gift from God. He is Life and His Word is Living because His word is Divine and flows out from Him. Ultimately the Living Word as we have said is the Logos, the second person of the Trinity who became the Man Jesus Christ. He is that Word in the ultimate sense. But the Word also fills the whole world and is disseminated in and through that which he has made: Creation, The Law, the Prophetic ministry, The Scriptures, Apostolic preaching, the Sacraments.
LINGUISTICS: LANGUE & PAROLE
Langue and parole are linguistic terms. A langue is a system of rules and conventions governing system of communication. The langue governs the principles of language, necessary for meaningful communication. Parole refers to the tangible use of the langue as in actual speech, formation and utterance of words in the langue.
As humans we have a developed langue and parole and through this very physical creation we can impart and share in something immaterial and even eternal. A word is potentially not just a word, it can be life giving or for that matter life taking. We are experiencing it at this very moment, I am forming sounds with my mouth and breath based on an accepted langue and you are hearing these sounds and they carry to your very soul something immaterial something that touches on God Himself, that is if you are not asleep. This profound relationship between the created physical realm and the immaterial realm is sacramentalism and it is a spiritual event which goes on in all the senses. Most people are not able to look thru the event into the deeper meaning because a crust lays over the nous, it is clouded and non-perceiving but that does not negate the reality, just the perception.
THE PREACHED WORD
I Thess. 2: 13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
As the Word goes forth from the preacher aurally as he preaches in the Spirit that word is of the Spirit, it is the Word of Christ made alive by the Spirit in those who “hear” it, not just hear intellectually but really hear it. And that word works effectually, it re-creates, transforms, brings to bear upon the hearer the weight of the Divine life and revelation. This reflects a deep sacramental understanding of how the created can communicate and impart the immaterial and eternal life of God. A person forms words with the mouth and breath which produce audible sound built upon an accepted langue, that is an assemblage of symbols and this temporal creation is transformed by the Spirit into a life giving event.
WORD AS SWORD
The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. (eph. 6) Rev. 1:16 speaks of Christ, saying: of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. When St. Peter preached the Word cut to the heart.
The Word as Sword is not only therapeutic in that it cuts away the gangrene but it is an instrument of Judgment. The Word of God penetrates to the deepest recesses of man’s being and judges confronts, discerns, and exposes the truth of things in the soul, in the same way that the light judges the darkness. It cuts to depth of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. The Soul is the human life, the spirit is the capacity of that human life to know God and eternal things. The word parses the temporal from the eternal the flesh from the spirit. The word circumcises the heart fulfilling the promise God made in Deut 30:6. As we hear by faith the Word of God He makes clear what is real and what is true from what is false, about the world and about ourselves, our intentions and motivations, the Word brings all to light and it is only in the light -in the truth- that we are set free.
This Word Sword is double edged. This word saves and condemns. The result of judgment depends on how the word is received. For those who receive it, it is like a scalpel which cuts away the tumor of sin, for those who reject it, it is a sword of destruction, (Wisdom 18:16 ).
When we come to the Word of God, or rather when the Word of God comes to bear upon us, whether through the still small voice in our hearts, the Scriptures, the Preaching of the Gospel, the Reception of the Blessed Word in the Sacrament, we will either lower ourselves under its scrutiny and allow it to re-tool us or we will resist, ignore, or sit above in judgment. It is our disposition in relation to the word which will determine whether we will live or die.
From an ancient anonymous author:
“O you elect blade and sharpest sword…who are able powerfully to penetrate the hard shell of the human heart, transfix my heart with the shaft of your love… Pierce, O Lord, pierce, I beseech you, this most obstinate mind of mine with the holy and powerful blade of your grace.”
Is. 55: “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.