“A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All glory of people is like grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:6-8
Through the counsel of God, the Prophet Isaiah cries out his warning to all human beings so that they can hear and reflect on the reality that in this life all things are temporary. This earthly life, its works, and its glories will one day wither and disappear like the grass and the flowers in the fields. With the passage of time, our bodies grow weak, decay, and become dust on the ground. In the same way, our work, — all that we create and construct —, becomes irrelevant and old, losing its previous luster, and disappearing with the changes of time.
As the Prophet declares, there is only one thing that remains eternal: God’s Word. John, at the beginning of his Gospel, discloses that this Word of God is the Only Begotten Son. Indeed, Jesus Christ is the all-encompassing reality that God desires to reveal to us. Jesus completes and embodies the Word of God because He came to earth and lived with holiness and perfection as described throughout the Scriptures. He is the eternal Word of God, who is before time, above time, and overtime.
Throughout this Great Lent, let us approach the Holy Scriptures with this kind of awareness. Each and every time we study the Holy Scriptures, let’s reflect that we are in communion with eternity. Let us call to mind the sayings of Jesus Christ: “The heavens and the earth shall pass away, but my word will remain forever.” (Matthew 24:35) And let us realize that eternal life is possible only if we are in communion with the Word of God.
