(2 Tm 3:10-17 / Mk 12:35-37): Strengthen your faith with the living Word
The Word of God is by no means a dead letter. It is a living word that breathes among us, illuminates our lives, becomes our daily nourishment, and serves as a milestone and a guidepost that secures our path.
When we close our hearts and center our souls on worldly things, the Bible may seem like nothing more than a bound book sitting far in the distance. However, when it becomes the path for prayers arising from the depths of our hearts and the meditation that follows—tinged with our raw emotions and tearful sighs—it transforms into an irreplaceable channel of personal dialogue between God and ourselves. This is truly the living "Word of God."
My dear brothers and sisters, please cling to the words of Sacred Scripture every single day. Let us taste and delight in the Word that pierces our entire being and invites us into the Truth, rather than settling for human philosophies or fragments of ideas woven by individuals within the narrow vision of a few decades.
The difficulties we encounter in life do not reveal the absence of God when we truly seek Him and try to remain before Him. Rather, through these very hardships, they become a turning point that allows us to look at ourselves as we truly are and grows us into a greater faith.
In his Second Letter to Timothy (3:12, 14, 16), Saint Paul reminds us: "In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted... But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed... All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness."
Just as these words promise, when we gain insight into what is truly valuable and allow a firm faith to take root within us, no suffering—from transient trials to death itself—will ever be able to shake the clear calling of our lives.
The life of Saint Boniface, whom we honor today, beautifully demonstrates the profound steadfastness of a disciple completely captivated by the love of the Lord. Neither the wealth and honor that could have offered him a comfortable life, nor the high status that maintained his holy dignity, could capture his heart. He simply dedicated his time, soul, and body to proclaiming the presence of God and the path of true faith.Even when he had to lay down everything he had gained during his earthly journey at the hands of pagans, he was filled with hope rather than fear at that final moment. This was surely because ofthe overflowing joy that continuously filled him through the Word of the Lord.
In the Gospel of Mark (12:37), the Lord says, "David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?" Through this, Jesus reveals that although His presence was realized on this earth through human cooperation, He is the true Master of history. Furthermore, David, with his soul opened by the help of the Holy Spirit, had already deeply understood and confessed this truth from the bottom of his heart.
In this way, the Spirit dwelling within the Word reminds us of who we are and how we ought to stand before God. I pray that we may seek the grace to live with total trust in the fact that He is the secure fortress of our souls, and the Lord who illuminates every step we take through His Word and all creation.
Rather than seeking worldly knowledge that merely discerns passing trends, let us respond in faith to the Word that teaches us the root and origin of our lives, guiding us into eternal wisdom. As we petition for this grace, may we truly live through the living Word, and by doing so, joyfully witness to His presence in our lives, sharing in a joy that will never fade. Amen.