The Mouth of God
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most difficult mysteries to try to understand. The simple truth is that we will never be able to explain the Trinity perfectly, but we can understand the doctrine a little bit better by looking at the world around us. Without the Incarnation, even the slightest understanding of the Trinity is missed, but when God became man, He opened up the possibility for us to live according to this doctrine. The Gospel of John describes the second person of the Trinity as the Word, which became human in the person of Jesus Christ. That Word is spoken by the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. The breath that comes forth from the mouth to make the Word present in our senses is the third person, the Holy Spirit.
In Christianity, we can experience all three persons. The Son is present to us in the Gospel and in the Eucharist, the Spirit is present to us in the inspiration of the faith (and likewise can work through us), and even the Father is present to us in our relationship with God. If the Father is the one who speaks according to the analogy of the Word, then anyone who testifies to the Gospel and who testifies to the Word under the influence of the Holy Spirit serves as the mouth of God. This does not make us divine, but instead allows us to participate in the proclamation of the Word, which is the most physical expression of God on earth. That being said, we cannot act as the mouth of God simply out of desire - we need to make sure that we are speaking the Word properly and that we are rightly inspired by the Holy Spirit in doing so. We simply cannot do this on our own; humans can only act as the mouth of God when they are speaking what God Himself says, not our own words. This means that the Gospels and the doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church are the Word that is perfectly spoken and truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. By speaking the Word, we can become the method by which God communicates to the world. We become the mouth of God.
When Stephen spoke in today’s first reading, he was not speaking on his own behalf; rather, he was fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, which enabled God to speak through him. As a result, even Stephen’s countenance was seemingly heavenly. Likewise, the message of Christ in today’s Gospel is to not focus on the miraculous works being done at the hand of a man, but to instead focus on the heavenly origin of those works. God is in control, not humans, when He chooses us to act as His mouth to the world. To be the mouth of God will not protect us from the dangers of this world; Stephen is well-known as the first martyr, yet whenever we read about him in Scripture, he seems so focused on the Word of God and the person of Jesus Christ that any bodily harm is insignificant compared to the grace of being the one to share a direct message from God to humanity. If you sincerely want to do God’s work, He will work through you. But this means that the work that is done through you will be His, not yours. Our responsibility is to proclaim the Word of God, and we must take care to express the Word as it truly is.
Today's Readings:
