Hearing and Receiving the Word of God

Homily for Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Easter

In these readings, we’re given a powerful reminder of what happens when God’s word is not just heard but received—when it becomes the force that shapes our choices, our courage, and our mission.

In Acts, we hear that “the word of God continued to spread and grow.” That line comes right after persecution, imprisonment, and danger. Yet nothing can stop the Gospel. The Church in Antioch listens to the Holy Spirit, sets Barnabas and Saul apart, and sends them out. It’s a moment of trust: God spoke, and the community responded.

Then Jesus, in the Gospel of John, makes the mission unmistakably clear. He cries out that whoever believes in Him believes in the One who sent Him. He is the light, and He has come not to condemn but to save. His words are not burdens; they are life. They are the path out of darkness.

It’s easy to treat faith as something private, something interior. But today’s Scriptures push us outward. The early Church listened to the Spirit and acted. Jesus Himself declares that His mission is to illuminate the world.

The word of God still wants to “spread and grow.” And it does that through us—ordinary people who choose, one moment at a time, to walk in the light and to share it. As Matthew’s Gospel puts it; “freely you received, freely you are to give.”