25 January 2025 – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) (Sunset Mass) | Sunday of the Word of God

by Fr Raymond Raj

Brothers and sisters in the blessed Lord, an English man, preacher by the name Charles Spurgeon, once he said this. He said:
The Word of God is a lamp by night, a light by day and a delight at all times.

So my dear friends, as baptised Catholics, if you want to be led by the Spirit of God, then devote yourself to the Word of God. Devote yourself.

So speaking of the Word of God, a little story.

Colonel Sanders, you all have heard about that? Colonel Sanders, you know him? He is not a military Colonel. He is the owner of KFC. Colonel Sanders, the owner of KFC, he was having some difficulty to run his company, KFC company. His sales, the KFC sales, were going down the drain. So he decided to meet one of the Catholic priests to have a discussion. Colonel Sanders meeting a Catholic priest.

So seeing the Catholic priest, Colonel Sanders said,
‘Father, please, Father you must help me. I am having a big problem with my company’s sales. My sales are going down. KFC sales are going down. Sooner or later my fear is this company will bankrupt. Father, please help me, Father.’

The Catholic priest asked Colonel Sanders,
‘As a Catholic priest, what can I do? What can I do? The only thing I can do is eat KFC. Nothing much I can do for you.’

Colonel Sanders said,
‘No, Father. There is something that you can do. Father, can you please modify, change the Lord’s prayer? What I mean is the verse ‘Give us our daily bread‘. Can you please modify, change it to ‘Give us our daily KFC‘?’ 

Immediately the priest shouted,
‘No way! No way! That is impossible to do.’

So Colonel Sanders said,
‘Father, listen here. I am willing to donate USD1 million to your parish if you are willing to cooperate with me. USD1 million I will transfer to you if you are willing to change from ‘bread’ to ‘KFC’.’

The priest said, ‘Let me think about it.’

One week later, Colonel Sanders called up this parish priest and asked, ‘Father, can I know your decision?’

The parish priest said, ‘Well, I am still not sure whether it is possible to work it out.’

Colonel Sanders said,
‘In that case, Father, I am increasing my offer from USD1 million to USD10 million. USD1 million to USD10 million.’

The parish priest said, ‘Of course, Colonel Sanders, we can close a deal.’

Do you know in Tamil, some of you may know this. In Tamil, there is a beautiful saying: Even the dead body can smell money.

Brothers and sisters, the Word of God is perfect. It is accurate. Therefore, there is no need for one to modify it according to his or her fancy. There is no need for alteration.

To put it short, the Word of God is infallible, without error. As a baptised Christian, let us take a moment and ask ourselves this fundamental question. Each one of you ask yourself these questions. These two fundamental questions.

1. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, am I familiar with the Word of God? As a baptised Catholic, when I come and take part in this Mass, am I familiar with the Word of God?
2. How often do I read, pray and meditate on the Word of God? How often I as a baptised Catholic read, pray and meditate on the Word of God?

If your answer is ‘Yes, Father, I am very, very familiar, even more familiar than you, Father, the Word of God.‘

Praise the God! Alleluia!’

If you are familiar with the Word of God, praise God!

But if your answer is, ‘Heh, heh, heh. No, Father. Not interested, Father. Not famliar, Father.‘

Then my dear friends, it is time for us to turn our heart and mind to the scripture. Listen to this carefully:
Unless and until we familiar ourselves with the Word of God, discipleship means nothing. Has no meaning.

If you are not familiar with the Word of God, then the whole idea of discipleship carries no weight.

Brothers and sisters, the whole idea of discipleship is rooted, is grounded in the Word of God. Therefore, familiarisation with the Word of God helps us to be drawn into the mission of Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, just some extra knowledge for you today.

Considering we are celebrating the Sunday of the Word of God, the Holy Bible was made known to public in the 16th century. Only in the 16th century, this Holy Bible was made known to the public. Which means before the 16th century, ordinary people, lay people have no access, no permission to read the Bible. In fact, before the 16th century, it was a sin, forbidden to read the Bible.

The first English Bible was published in 1539. The first English Bible was introduced in 1539 and this bible was known as the Great Bible. The first Bible. And the best part is this Bible was chained to the pulpit. It means it is not kept in the sacristy. The Bible is chained to the pulpit in every parish.

Moving forward, today in the 21st century, there are approximately 3,000 versions of Bible in 2,000 different languages. And the best part today is technology has digitalised the entire Bible into soft material.

So brothers and sisters, with all these evolution and progress, the fundamental question remains:
As a Christian, am I familiar with the Word of God?

If you ask me personally, the Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is just let loose the lion and the lion will defend itself.

So as we celebrate Sunday of the Word of God, let us pray for the grace to be a Christian who is familiar with the Word of God.

And I leave you with these words to ponder over the weekend:
To do God’s will. Everybody wants to do God’s will. To do God’s will, one must be familiar with the Word of God.

Amen.

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