A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 6, n. 17)
Easter Sunday, Year A – March 23, 2008
“We Are Easter Witnesses”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 10:34a, 27-43 // Col 3:1-4 or I Cor 5:6b-8 // Jn 20:1-9
N.B. Series 6 of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY includes a prayerful study of the Sunday liturgy of Year A from the perspective of the First Reading. For another set of reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year A, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 3.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
The First Reading of the Sunday liturgy during the entire Easter season is taken from the Acts of the Apostles to show that the origin and dynamic growth of the Church, the community of faith, is deeply rooted in the saving event of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. Today is Easter Sunday, the solemnity of solemnities and the greatest festival day! As we bask in the joy and glory of the saving event of Jesus Christ rising from the dead and listen intensely to the First Reading of the Mass (Acts 10:34a, 27-43), we relish anew the content of Peter’s Easter proclamation addressed not only to the God-fearing Roman centurion, Cornelius and his household, but to the entire Church of all ages.
The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent remarks: “The first reading is today’s Mass is from Peter’s sermon in the house of Cornelius the centurion. The two men were deeply moved when they met for the first time. Cornelius had had a vision in which he was told to send for Peter. Peter came, learned of what had happened, and responded with the catechesis that forms today’s reading … The few verses read today sum up both the Church’s mission and the essential object of saving faith: God raised Jesus up on the third day and had him appear to the witnesses – chosen beforehand by God … The mission of the apostles and of the entire Church is to bear witness to this resurrection and to proclaim it as the object of a faith that saves because it brings forgiveness of sins (v. 43) … The preaching of the Church, and the witness each of us must give, can be summed up, at every point in time until Christ comes again, in the paschal message that Christ is risen from the dead and is now living.”
Easter is the summit of salvation history and gives it its definitive orientation. The mystery of the victorious Christ radically overcoming the power of sin and death lives on in the Church – in the life of each Christian believer – and in the world and the entire creation. Harold Buetow comments: “Our faith tells us that the Risen Jesus lives in and loves every person, and he accepts as done to himself whatever we do to one another. When we say or sing Jesus Christ is risen today, we do not mean only Jesus Christ was risen once upon a time. We mean that the risen Christ is all around us, in the eyes and faces of those sitting beside us, in the bread and wine on the altar, in the newly baptized, and in the people we meet all the time. He walks the earth today – teaching, healing, touching, suffering, dying and rising. If we go seeking the risen Jesus with faith, hope, and love we will find him. Seek him, find him, and love him in every person by serving each one’s needs. Then truly not only is Christ risen, but we, too, are already living a risen life by his power and grace … May the Risen Lord provide us with the grace to grow in love, and may the joy of Easter cast its glow on our efforts.”
The challenge of Christian discipleship is to allow the power of the Easter event to shine in our personal lives. The paschal mystery of Jesus Christ is complete, but our Easter experience of death and rising is progressive and ongoing. What gives us strength to embrace fully the paschal event of death and resurrection in the day-by-day situation is the power of the Holy Spirit who “anointed” us for the victorious struggle against the temptations of sin, evil, hopelessness and despair. The following testimony given by Rose Cerbo on April 23, 2003 during a liturgical retreat conducted by the PDDM Sisters at their convent in Fresno, California illustrates the spiritual power that animates today’s “Easter people”.
When I was diagnosed with lung cancer, we had no medical insurance. Three years before, we had lost our Restaurant, our shopping center and our savings to a con-artist; over three million dollars, gone! In trying to save the Restaurant we borrowed over a hundred thousand dollars against our home. So there we were, all we had left was our mortgaged home and a small take-out restaurant in Pinedale.
Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse … they did … much worse. The things we had lost were just that: things. This was my life … cancer! We prayed, we prayed for strength, for guidance and for help.
We found a doctor who would do my surgery and a hospital that would accept payments, and I had my surgery. Afterwards, there wasn’t money for chemo or radiation, and the doctor said that it would be alright to take a chance without it. It was in God’s hands.
Meanwhile the I.R.S. decided that we owed them one hundred thousand dollars. We were able to produce proof of what we had lost, so they reduced it to twenty-five thousand dollars. Still more than we could ever afford unless we sold our home. But they had a lein on our home so we couldn’t sell it. Again we prayed for guidance, and again our prayers were answered. Friends and family came forward to lend us the money to pay the I.R.S. with only our word to pay them back when we sold our house.
We paid the I.R.S. the money owed them and they removed the lein on the house. We did what we could to make the house more attractive, and put it up for sale. We conducted an open house and received three bids. We accepted one of them. After three months it was done; the house was sold, the bank was paid what we owed them. All the people who had helped us were paid back in full … we were out of debt.
We were able to put a down payment on a small house. We had a chance for a new start. But this time things were going to be different.
I’ve been cancer free for eleven years. We both have jobs and have a good life. We’ve learned that each day is a gift … to enjoy all the gifts God has given us – the birds, the flowers and the trees, the sunsets, the star-lit nights, and the sparkle of morning dew on the flowers. There is so much beauty in the world. We finally learned to enjoy and appreciate all He has given us.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
What was the Easter experience of Peter? How did he share his Easter experience with Cornelius and his household? What was the basic content of Peter’s catechesis to them? What was the response of Cornelius and his household to Peter’s Easter witnessing?
Do we truly believe that the Risen Lord is present in our midst? Do we believe that by the paschal event of his passion, death and resurrection, we die to sin and rise to new life with him and in him? Do we believe that at the Eucharistic table, we continue to eat and drink with Jesus – he who rose from the dead – and that as the Risen Lord he lives on in the Church and in creation by the power of the Holy Spirit?
Do we embrace fully our grace and responsibility as witnesses of Christ’s death and resurrection? By our joy and charitable stance to the people around us and to God’s beloved creation, do we testify that we are an Easter people and that “Alleluia” is our song? Do we endeavor to commit ourselves to the missionary work of the Church and nurture in faith the new members added to the rich harvest of God’s new covenant?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, we thank you for the great festival of Easter, the solemnity of solemnities, by which we come in contact with the saving event of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Through him who suffered and was glorified, we receive the forgiveness of sins. At the table of the Eucharist and in the other sacraments, and through the daily events and various modes of presence that surround us, we encounter him anew as our saving Lord – the judge of the living and the dead. Your beloved Son-Servant, Jesus Christ – the Risen Lord - has commissioned us to be his Easter witnesses to the ends of the earth. May we truly die to our sins and live by his grace that we may become limpid signs of the glory of Easter, especially for today’s world that yearns for life and beauty, for grace and healing. As the “Alleluia people” formed by Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we adore you, we serve you and we love you, now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“This man God raised on the third day … He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as the judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:40, 42)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Meditate on the tremendous joy and transforming effect that the Easter event brings to us personally, to the Church community, to the world and the entire creation. By your acts of charity and service, endeavor to share the joy and peace of the Risen Lord to the many distressed people in our society who are deeply in need and are longing for the warmth of Easter.
ACTION PLAN: To help us experience more deeply the transforming gift of the Easter event, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 4, n. 17): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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Website: WWW.PDDM.US