Christ is present whenever the Word of God is proclaimed and received in faith; this includes the reading of Holy Scripture and any form of preaching or teaching the Word of God. When we hear the Word with faith, the grace of Christ acts within us, enlightening our minds, touching our hearts, and moving our wills, to the extent that we are receptive.
During His public ministry, Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples to go through the towns of Galilee proclaiming the message of the Kingdom which they had received from Him. He assured them, “Whoever listens to you, listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me” (Lk 10.16). These words assure us that Christ accompanies those whom He sends, and, in some manner, is present in the words which they speak in His name. To hear their words is to hear Christ Himself.
The Prologue of John’s Gospel which we proclaim at the end of every Mass tells us that Christ is the Word of God who reveals the Father; He is the Light who enlightens those in darkness. When we say that Christ is present in His word, however, we do not mean that His sacred humanity is somehow sacramentally contained in the word as it is in the Eucharist, but that His divine person is really present to us and acts upon us through His grace in the ways we have mentioned.
In Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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