A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy

BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 28)

Trinity Sunday, Year B – June 7, 2009

“The Trinitarian Dimension of Suffering”

BIBLE READINGS

Dt 4:32-34, 39-40 // Rom 8:14-17 // Mt 28:16-20

(N.B. Series 7 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 B from the perspective of the Second Reading. For other reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year B, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 1 & 4.)

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

On this Trinity Sunday we celebrate the goodness of God in revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From his wondrous actions in salvation history, we have experienced the one, holy God as Trinitarian and have believed that he is indeed so in his inmost nature.

We give praise and thanks to God for he is our creator and benevolent Father. He wills the best for us and cares for us. He is our redeeming God and his plan of salvation is awesome and ineffable. He wants to enter into a very personal relationship with us as his chosen people and as his adopted children. Moreover, we give praise and thanks to God for he reveals his tremendous love for us in his Son Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and rose to life that we too may have a share in his glory. Finally, we give praise and thanks to God for the Holy Spirit of love that binds the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit leads us into an intimate relationship with our creator-liberating God, transforming us into his own children and enabling us to cry out to him, “Father! My Father!” Indeed, the Holy Spirit unites us deeply with the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that in being configured into his passion and death, we too may have a share in his glory.

In his stupendous message to the Romans (cf. Second Reading, Rom 8:14-17), the great apostle Paul declares that we have been adopted and chosen in love by a divine being so loving that we can respond with the intimate term “Abba”. We can do so by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Easter gift of our Lord Jesus Christ. As adopted children or “heirs”, we have a right to inherit the promised reign of God just as Christ did through his obedient suffering. The Spirit enables us to bear the suffering that leads to glory. If we share Christ’s suffering and allow ourselves to be totally configured to the divine Son’s obedient and saving death on the cross, we too will share in his eternal glory with the Father and the Son and with the boundless blessings of the kingdom of heaven.

These past weeks have been emotionally intense for me. The recent death of my dear brother, Gisbert, has touched me deeply. The experience of accompanying him in his terminal illness and in the painful process of dying was poignant and transforming. The basis of the Trinitarian revelation and confession of the Church was the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection-glorification. In the same way, the presence of the one and triune God was especially revealed to me in the terminal illness and passing to eternal life of Gisbert. In his bout with a vicious cancer, he was journeying home to God the Father, his Creator and ultimate destiny. Moreover, he was deeply united with the redemptive suffering of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was for him the Good Shepherd leading him to the green pastures of eternal life. Finally, the Holy Spirit was the Consoler giving him patient endurance. The power and energy of the Holy Spirit enabled him to bear the suffering that led to glory.

My brother Gisbert died in Toronto, Canada in the evening of May 20, 2009 of stomach-liver cancer. I was with him in his last ten days at the hospital. Together with his wife, Veron, and his six-year old daughter Nicole, I was beside his bed when he expired. I could not attend the funeral rites of my brother.  For some urgent apostolic reasons, I needed to fly back to California in the morning of May 23. I composed the following eulogy for my brother, which was read by my niece Erica at his wake celebrated in the evening of May 23.

EULOGY FOR GISBERT TAPANG

“The Lord Is My Shepherd”

The sacred song that accompanied the TAPANG family when my father “Papang” was battling with terminal cancer was Psalm 23, “The Lord Is My Shepherd”. It is the same inspired song and prayer that gave strength and trust to Gisbert and to his family in the illness which ravaged his body, but not his spirit and soul. I would like now to share some insights about Gisbert, using some passages from Psalm 23.

1. “HE GUIDES ME ALONG THE RIGHT PATH”

Gisbert was my younger brother – about seven years younger than me. Forty years ago, he played a great role in guiding me along the right path. It was a balmy day in May 1969. Our family was on a summer vacation at our Auntie’s house in our hometown Guinobatan, Albay. My kid brothers and I were in the yard talking with Fr. Peter Barisoro who was cleaning his motorcycle. Fr. Barisoro, a priest of the Society of St. Paul and an announcer at Radio Veritas in Manila, was my Auntie’s godson. He was making a stopover at her house. When he was a young boy, Gisbert was “madaldal” – chatty and garrulous. He confided to Fr. Barisoro: “My sister would like to be a nun.” Fr. Barisoro then told me: “I would like you to meet the PDDM Sisters in Antipolo. I am their chaplain. We have the same Founder - Fr. James Alberione. They are especially dedicated to prayer and the service of the Eucharist, Priesthood and Liturgy. Next week, when you go back to Manila, I will pick you up and introduce you to the Sisters.” Fr. Barisoro picked me up and brought me to the Sisters’ convent in Antipolo. The following year – on May 3, 1970 – when I was 19 years old, I entered the PDDM congregation. God had used my kid brother Gisbert to help me find my religious vocation and respond to it.

2. “YOU HAVE PREPARED A BANQUET FOR ME”

Gisbert was almost 12 years old when I left home and entered the convent. I had very little contact with him in my formative years as a Sister. From 1981 I was assigned in Italy, India and other places. When I went back to the Philippines in 1990, he was already married to Veron and had two children: Hannah and Francis. Since Gisbert became a “Born Again Christian”, it was understandable that we would have some fiery discussions on some elements of Catholic faith that he contested. But one day, my youngest brother Allen and his wife Cecille and their kids: Gregory and Erica, together with Gisbert and Veron and their kids, went on a swimming excursion at a resort close to our Antipolo Divine Master convent. They invited me to join them, which I did. I was just relaxing under the cool shade of a mango tree beside the refreshing pool of water and Gisbert was also there talking to me. In that peaceful atmosphere of family togetherness, Gisbert and I finally had a mature and cordial sharing of our faith. He listened attentively when I explained to him about the role of saints as models of those who have participated fully in Christ’s paschal mystery of passion, death and resurrection. From that moment on, Gisbert and I focused on what unites us in our Christian faith, that is, the Word of God that is purifying and life-giving – the Word of truth and life – the Spirit-filled Word that is the cause of our salvation. Indeed, the table of the bread of the Word is plentiful, abundant, nourishing and enriching. When Gisbert was diagnosed with cancer, I was calling him almost every day from the States to share with him the strength that comes from the Word of God. By phone I would cite a Bible passage and pray over him. In our weakness and in the fragility of our human body, we believe that God has prepared for us the rich banquet of the bread of the Word of God to give nourishment to our spirit and to offer power and strength to our soul.

3. “IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH”

When I was informed that Gisbert’s condition had worsened and that he was admitted to the Palliative Care section of Brampton Civic Center Hospital in Toronto, I started to use Psalm 23 as the main content when I was praying over him by phone. On May 9, with the blessings of my Superior, I traveled to Canada to be with Gisbert for two weeks. When I arrived at the hospital that Saturday night, I was shocked to witness Gisbert in a pitiful state. I could not see in his devastated and worn out body any semblance of the dear handsome brother that I knew. With a bald head and emaciated body, he was like a victim in the Auschwitz concentration camp. I was aghast for he was practically a holocaust victim. Another thing that struck me in the room when I looked around was Veron’s handwritten copy of Psalm 23 pasted on the bulletin board. In those days at the hospital, I realized that Jesus was there all the time for Gisbert – with his rod and staff – to give him strength and comfort. The Good Shepherd was there for him in the person of the faithful and long-sacrificing wife Veron and their devoted children. He was there in the person of his pastor and Church members who continued to strengthen him with their life-giving prayers and other forms of assistance. He was there in the people he had inspired, welcomed, helped and ministered to in their needs. Compassionate people were hovering like angels of comfort around his sick bed to give him solace and strength. Family members, relatives and friends became instruments of the loving hand of the Good Shepherd. The care of the hospital staff was exquisite and the service of social workers and volunteers commendable. Above all, when the shadow of death started to engulf him radically, he trusted in the Lord. I have never seen so much courage and patient endurance in the face of extreme pain and acute suffering. The intensity of his pain frightened me and broke my heart. One day, I spoke to him: “Gisbert, if the Lord comes to take you, you may go. Veron is letting you go. Veron and the children will be taken cared of and they will be all right.” He answered: “Yes!” Then he continued, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

4. “SURELY GOODNESS AND KINDNESS SHALL FOLLOW ME”

In the hospital room where Gisbert spent his last days (exactly, one month), there were many signs of God’s favor and grace.

a)      WATER: There was the sound of gurgling water. It was coming from a hospital water-based mechanism that the nurses used to administer oxygen to Gisbert to ease his breathing problem. That peaceful sound of streaming water evokes the passage from the Book of Revelation: “I am the root of Jesse and David’s son, the radiant star of morning and God’s own light. The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come.’ Let him who hears their voices say, ‘Come.’ He who has thirst let him come and he who has desire let him drink from the waters of everlasting life. ‘Yes, I come very soon.’ Amen. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:4-5). The Good Shepherd finally answered Gisbert’s Advent expectation and led him to the font of everlasting life.

b)      SUNSET: Gisbert’s hospital room was facing directly toward the west, which has a splendid view of the setting sun in its colorful, splendid glory. Gisbert died at 6:55 P.M. As the family and friends paid homage to Gisbert’s mortal remains, the dying sun made me remember some intuitive message from the Book of Revelation: “They shall see the Lord face to face and bear his name on their foreheads. The night shall be no more. They shall need no light from the lamps or from the sun, for the Lord will give them light. And they shall reign forever” (Rev 22:16-20).

c)      GROWING PLANT: Gisbert’s six-year old daughter Nicole, as part of her school project, planted a seed in a plastic cup filled with soil. She brought the plant to her dad and it was placed on the window sill. Nicole’s sprouting plant is very suggestive of new life and the resurrection of our body. Saint Paul writes: “What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies … So also is the resurrection of the dead … It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (I Cor 15:36, 42, 44). Like the seed that is buried and dies in the ground, the mortal body of Gisbert dies, but his spirit lives forever and on the last day, even his mortal body will be brought to life.

4. “IN THE LORD’S OWN HOUSE SHALL I DWELL FOREVER”

The hospital’s social worker, Michelle, was helping young Nicole cope with the imminent loss of her dad and one of her therapeutic activities was art work. I found Nicole’s art exercise very interesting. She did this at the hospital while visiting her dad. She probably has a different interpretation, but I would like to have my own. Nicole’s art work of “MY FAMILY” has four figures: one male figure with spiked hair representing her 19-year old brother Francis and three female figures representing Veron, her 21-year old sister Hannah and herself. The four figures are contained in a balloon representing the family members left here on earth. Connected to it, but outside the balloon, is a smiling colorful butterfly blurting out: “ME TOO!” The butterfly is a symbol of metamorphosis – of new life and transformation. The colorful butterfly represents the glorious, resurrected form of Gisbert. He lives in the house of God forever. But he continues to be united with his family here on earth – with Veron and children Hannah, Francis and Nicole – by his legacy of faith centered on the person of Christ and by his efficacious witness of active charity to those in need.

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

1. Have we experienced in our personal life the goodness of God the Father, the redemptive passion and death of God the Son, and the sanctifying power of God the Holy Spirit?

2. Do we allow the Spirit of God to lead us and enable us to have an intimate filial relationship with God? Are we able to relate to God personally and call him, “Abba, Father”?

3. Do we allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen us for the suffering that leads to glory? Do we perceive the Trinitarian presence in the paschal events of daily life and in our sufferings?

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD

Leader: Loving Father,

you know what is best for us

and you are our ultimate good.

You care for us beyond telling

and your plan for us is gracious and benevolent.

Your Son Jesus Christ went through the crucible of suffering and death

that we may have life.

By the power of your Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead,

strengthen us in our own experience of passion and suffering

in today’s world and at the hour of our death.

We believe that in Jesus Christ

and by the power of the Holy Spirit,

we shall attain our eternal destiny

and experience the plenitude of blessings in your everlasting kingdom.

We adore you and bless you;

we praise you and serve you,

our one and triune God,

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.

“We suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:17)

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

1. ACTION PLAN: Pray for those in extreme pain and suffering that they may discern the presence of the one and triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in their lives. Be an instrument of the Trinitarian presence and benevolence for those in deep need and anguish.

2. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate the mystery of the one and triune God and its effects in our lives, 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: A Weekly Pastoral Tool (Year B, vol. 5, n. 28).

Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang  PDDM

PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI

SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER

60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314

Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323

Website: WWW.PDDM.US