In an era filled with trivial chatter, where tweets broadcast mundane activities, politicians lie without shame, and words like justice, love, and God are diluted by arrogance, we forget the power of words.

We mistrust each other and settle for superficial interactions, avoiding the risk of genuine loving. We distract ourselves with busyness, ignoring others’ needs. Words can deceive us, trapping us in falsehoods. The lie that deceived humanity continues to mislead us today. Our modern arrogance claims we can control the world with science and ingenuity. Are we smarter than Jesus?

Even in our pride, we know something is amiss. We yearn for eternal words full of meaning, spirit, and life—to hear them, break free from our falsehoods. The 5,000 who journeyed with Ezra from captivity heard the sweet truth, felt God’s word pierce their hearts, making them weep and washing away the lies that bound them.

Centuries later, people who heard the voice of a young man reading from the scroll likely desired freedom. The act of Christ reading the prophet’s text may have held significant power. His audience was attentive to his words. In the modern age, are people, are you still interested in hearing the words of the Galilean preacher. Every Sunday they are read and yet I see people not listening, they may hear but there is a difference,

Our emotions are similar to those who mourned with Ezra or experienced renewal through Christ. We want to cleanse falsehoods with our tears, but language fails us. Thus, we must rely on faith to lead us to the living Word.

St Paul sensed this reality, this consoling Gospel, and although his words at first seem mundane, they speak to us of a reality that breaks the chains of self-centered isolation and draws us into relation with one another. Listen without distraction! By Baptism and the Eucharist that we share, the Body of Christ speaks of our solidarity, our call to play an integral part in one another’s lives. It is the lie of this age that tells us that I am my own master, that the ego is absolute. We will never be free, never find true happiness locked as we are in the isolation of our self-absorption. No matter how many gadgets we have or how much we tell ourselves that we are socially networked, it is all a lie if we fail to be the mystical Body of Christ. Community and communion complete us, incorporate us into the Body of Christ.

Paul struggled to find a way to help us realize that our lives each play a unique role in the Body. He knew that we understand ourselves not in isolation but in relation with one another. We all take part in Christ, we all manifest God’s call, God’s Word made flesh dwelling among us. It shatters our deceptions and sets us into the drama of God’s saving act in history. By the waters of Baptism, we were given our Christian names and given a share in the divine name itself.

Words do have power to heal us, to set us free, to restore our sight, to give us comfort, if we but hear the Master’s voice. Listen. Put away your earbuds, turn off the noise, listen with an inner stillness and you will hear the Word of everlasting life. This mysterious Body is made real in our Eucharistic ‘Amen,’ a word that bids us to become what we receive. The power of the prophetic word hits us even today amid earthquakes and wars, amid poverty and neglect. Do you hear it? Does it speak to your soul and call you into caring? For there is its power, our being the Body of Christ.