A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 31)
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – June 28, 2009
“To Life!”
BIBLE READINGS
Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24 // II Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15 // Mk 5:21-43
(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
Today’s Old Testament Reading (Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24) resounds the reassuring truth that God wills life not death. Death is not his invention, nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living. According to the Book of Wisdom, when God created us, he did not intend for us to die for he made us like himself. But it was the Devil’s jealousy that brought death into the world. Death therefore is a consequence of sin. Physical death, which is an end to earthly life, resulted from the greater “death” that issued when humankind negated God’s love. Spiritual death, which is doubly unfortunate, ruptured our intimate and filial relationship with God.
We give thanks to God who in his kindness willed to save us. He offered us the unmerited gift of eternal salvation through his beloved Son Jesus Christ. The human situation of sin and our grim experience of weakness and “death” are thus radically undone by the paschal mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. Through God’s justice, embodied in the person of Jesus, the Servant-Son of God, the fullness of life and filial communion with God are forever restored as kindly gifts to us. Indeed, it is God’s gracious will to lead us to life!
The Gospel reading (Mk 5:21-43) focuses on the healing acts of Jesus Christ, who accomplishes the Father’s benevolent plan to bring us to the fullness of life. The biblical scholar Eugene Maly comments: “Every day is special, a time in which unique gifts from God are always being celebrated. One of these gifts is life. While this includes our physical life, expressed in our breathing and moving about, it is also something more than that. It is a sharing in God’s own divine life. It is a symbiosis, a living with God … It is a full life, joy-filled and God-entrusted. And that kind of life is what God’s action among us is all about … Obviously not all men and women have this life. They have either a deficiency in their physical life because of some sickness or malady, and this is terminated with physical death. Or they lack God’s life; they have deliberately rejected his grace. This is a death more terrifying than the others. God’s will is for life, which was abundantly manifested in his Son’s coming that we might have it to the full … The Gospel reading is a glorious celebration of life. It tells of the restoration of the fullness of life to a hemorrhaging woman and to a young dying girl. To both, Jesus brings life and brings it gladly.”
The woman healed of her bleeding and the little girl whom Jesus raised from the dead would die again. But because of Jesus’ benevolent actions on their behalf, their chances for eternal and unending life were hopefully and happily enhanced. Their contact with Jesus was transforming and radically life-giving. In the same way, we are being challenged today to improve and enhance the quality of our own life and of that of everyone. The Lord Jesus wants to give life and build a new world through us. The great apostle Paul conveys this basic challenge to the church members in Corinth. He was exhorting them to aid the community of believers in Jerusalem, who were suffering from persecution and poverty.
Today’s Second Reading (II Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15), in which Paul appeals to the Corinthians’ generosity, could be understood better if we consider his reference to the inspiring example of the church in Macedonia (II Cor 8:1-5). The biblical scholar Mary Ann Getty comments: “Paul presents the Macedonians, who provide hospitality for him while he wrote to the Corinthians, as an example of extreme generosity. They gave not only out of their abundance but out of their generosity. They were not responding merely to a concept of justice that would be considered natural. Nor were they motivated merely by so lofty an ideal even as the equitable distribution of resources to all. They had a deeper source of motivation and power. Grace combined their own poverty with overflowing joy to enable them to perform a service that would be a sign to all. Beyond all hopes, the Macedonians actively searched for the opportunity to reach into their own experience of poverty in order to testify to their dependence on God and their joy in being Christian. Their surrender in faith was expressed in astonishing liberality.”
After setting the Macedonians up as an example of generosity, Saint Paul explains the spiritual motivation for almsgiving, which is deeply centered on Christ’s gracious act. Mary Ann Getty explicates: “Paul had testified that the Corinthians are rich in every conceivable blessing. For him this is a sure sign of their debt to those with whom and because of whom they share in the blessings of salvation. The intended beneficiaries of the collection are the starving saints in Jerusalem, who were suffering the effects of persecution and deprivation. Paul reasons that since the Corinthians are rich in spiritual benefits, because they are identified as heirs to the promises originally made only to the Jews, they owe the Jewish Christians a share in their abundance ... One of the real effects of the gospel is that faith makes believers responsible to one another. If the gospel is really preached and really believed, it has practical effects for the betterment of all. The same faith that eliminated the spiritual barriers between Jew and Gentile now acts as an equalizer, expressing itself in acts of justice and mercy toward the poor. The collection, for Paul, represents acceptance of mutual responsibility. The Israelites’ confidence in God was similarly tested when Moses required that they collect only as much manna as was needed for one day. This was to prevent them from letting greed cause divisions among them and to allow their dependence and equality before the Lord to be manifest in their daily actions.”
My favorite newspaper is the FRESNO BEE. Sure enough, when I went for a visit to Fresno last May and went through the day’s newspaper, I saw an article that I could share with you. The neediest people are the most generous for though poor in material goods, they are rich in faith and with the joy of the Lord. The modern day “neediest but generous” people represent the exemplary Macedonians, who were giving not out of abundance, but out of kindness and generosity. Here are some excerpts from that inspiring article (cf. Frank Greve, “Neediest People Are Most Generous” in FRESNO BEE, May 14, 2009, p. A1 & A14).
When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald’s recently, he bought the man a cheeseburger. There’s nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsized chunk of the $9.50 he had earned that day from panhandling.
The generosity of poor people isn’t so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America’s poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What’s more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does. “The lowest-income fifth of the population always give at more than their capacity”, says Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice-president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. “The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give.” (…)
“As a rule, people who have money don’t know people in need”, said Tanya Davis, 40, a laid-off security guard and single mother. Certainly, better-off people aren’t hit up by friends and kin as often as Davis said she was, having earned a reputation for generosity while she was working. Now getting by on $110 a week in unemployment insurance and $314 a month in welfare, Davis still fields two or three appeals a week, she said, and lays out $5 or $10 weekly. To explain her giving, Davis offered the two reasons most commonly heard in three days of conversations with low-income donors: “I believe that the more I give, the more I receive, and that God loves a cheerful giver”, Davis said. “Plus, I’ve been in their position, and someday I might be again.”
Herbert Smith, 31, a Seventh-day Adventist who said he tithed his $1,010 monthly disability check – giving away 10 % of it – thought that poor people give more because, in some ways, they worry less about their money. “We’re not scared of poverty the way rich people are”, he said. “We know how to get lights back on when we can’t pay the electric bill.” (…)
Women are more generous than men, studies have shown. Older people give more than younger donors with equal incomes. The working poor, disproportionate numbers of whom are recent immigrants, are America’s most generous group, according to Arthur Brooks, the author of the book,”Who Realy Cares”, an analysis of U.S. generosity. Faith probably matters most, Brooks – president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington policy-research organization – said in an interview. That’s partly because above-average numbers of poor people go to church, and those who attend church give more money to secular and religious charities than non-attenders, Brooks found.
Less-religious givers such as Emel Sweeney, 73, a retired book-keeper, say that giving lights up their lives. “Have you ever looked into the face of someone you’re being generous to?” Sweeney asked with the trace of Jamaican lilt. That brought to mind her encounter with a young woman who was struggling to manage four small, tired children on a bus. They staggered and straggled at a transfer stop, along with Sweeney, who urged the mother to take a nearby cab the rest of the way. When the mother said she had no money, Sweeney gave her $20, she said. The mother, as she piled her brood into the cab, waved and mouthed a thank-you. “Those words just rested on my chest”, Sweeney said, “and as I rode home I was so happy.”
Pastor Coletta Jones, who ministers to a largely low-income tithing congregation in southeast Washington, The Rock Christian Church, thinks that poor people give more because they ask less for themselves. “When you have just a little, you’re thankful for what you have”, Jones said, “but with every step you take up the ladder of success, the money clouds your mind and gets you into a state of never being satisfied.” Brooks offered this statistic as supportive evidence: Fifty-eight percent of non-contributors with above-median incomes say they don’t have enough money to give any away.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
Do we believe that God wills us life, and not death? Above all, do we believe that Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life through the Gospel? Do we respond to God’s invitation in Jesus Christ to enter into the spiritual world of faith and salvation?
In the Gospel stories of the healing of the bleeding woman and of the young dying girl, do we perceive anew God’s call for us to tread the path to the fullness of life? Do we trust that through the paschal sacrifice and the “gracious act” of Jesus Christ, eternal life and filial communion with God are forever restored as gifts to the human person?
How do we respond to Saint Paul’s invitation to imitate the Macedonians and, above all, Jesus Christ in generous and selfless giving? How does our sacrifice and generosity to the needy promote the divine saving plan of leading us “to life”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, the fullness of life is your will for us.
In your Son Jesus Christ,
you healed our infirmities and transformed our sinfulness into grace.
In him, you bestowed upon us the astounding gift of salvation.
Jesus leads us along the path of justice and eternal life.
Rich as he was, he made himself poor for our sake,
in order to make us rich by means of his poverty.
May we follow his example of poverty
and imitate his generous self-giving.
We bless you and thank you for the example
of those who have experienced the poverty of Christ as true riches.
We are deeply inspired by the generous Macedonians
whose donation to the poor of Jerusalem
was an expression of their dependence on you and their inner joy.
Saint Paul appealed to the Corinthians
to be mindful of the poor in Jerusalem.
The call to liberality to the needy
resounds through time and space
and its forceful challenge is most urgent in today’s here and now.
Help us to respond to Saint Paul’s appeal
to be generous to the poor.
Grant us the grace to be charitable
and to risk being vulnerable for the sake of our needy brothers and sisters.
We trust in your love and care for us, loving Father.
We adore you and submit ourselves to your saving will
for we believe that you destined us for the fullness of life.
With all the saints in heaven
who have been generous in serving you and in our brothers and sisters,
we cry out with joy, “TO LIFE!”
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.
“For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” (II Cor 8:9)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray for the poor and the needy and those who generously share their gifts with them to alleviate their suffering. By your own “gracious act” of charity to those who are beset by difficulties and trials on account of today’s economic crisis, give testimony to the world that the “poverty of Christ” is true riches.
ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate deeply the “gracious act” of Christ’s kenosis and his gift of spiritual riches to us, 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. 31).
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