By Fr. Marco Benini, June 22, 2026
In this weekly series, Fr. Benini invites the reader to join him in a prayerful exploration of Eucharistic celebration as a daily encounter with Christ. Used with permission of Paulist Press, www.paulistpress.com.
LIVING WORD OF GOD
“If only God would speak today!” someone once said to me during a spiritual conversation. Many of us are probably familiar with this wish. Every liturgy reminds us that God speaks to us. The introduction “A reading from…” indicates the book or the human author, while the conclusion states that what we have heard is the “The word of the Lord.” This word is not a dead letter. It is alive! The letter to the Hebrews says: “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword…and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart” (4:12). God’s word wants to encourage, comfort, rebuke, stimulate, and motivate us.
We hear the living word of God, addressed to us today—not as an old text. At least that is what our lips profess during the subsequent “Thanks be to God.” We recognize that what we have heard comes from God and we consider it so relevant to us that we give him thanks. The rite is meant to make us prick up our ears. The Second Vatican Council emphasizes that God “meets His children with great love and speaks with them” (Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum 21), indeed begins a dialogue: “For in the liturgy God speaks to His people and Christ is still proclaiming His gospel. And the people reply to God both by song and prayer” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium 33). Liturgy unfolds a dynamic of dialogue: listening—receiving—responding.
This dynamic underlies the structure of the Liturgy of the Word in the Mass: God speaks in the first reading; we respond with the psalm. God speaks in the second reading; we greet Christ in the acclamation before the Gospel. Christ speaks to us in the Gospel. And the Creed expresses our faithful response, which continues in the intercessions. Each time, the liturgy invites us into this “ping-pong game,” into the dynamic interplay of divine word and human response.
From: Marco Benini, Were Not Our Hearts Burning? Understanding the Mass – Living the Eucharist, Paulist Press: New York / Mahwah, NJ, 2026, p. 29 f.
You can purchase Benini’s book here.
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