A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday and Weekday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 12, n. 6)
Epiphany and Christmas Weekday: January 6-11, 2014 ***
(N.B. The pastoral tool 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 three perspectives. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 3. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 6. For reflections based on the Second Reading, open Series 9. Please go to Series 10 and Series 12 for the back issues of the Weekday Lectio.
Below is a LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY - WEEKDAY LITURGY: January 4-11, 2014. The weekday reflections are based on the First Reading. For the weekday reflections based on the Gospel Reading, please open Series 10.)
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January 5, 2014: SUNDAY - THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is the Ultimate Gift”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 60:1-6 // Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6 // Mt 2:1-12
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s feast of Epiphany reminds me of O. Henry’s classic story, “The Gift of the Magi” about a poverty stricken, but self-sacrificing married couple, Dell and Jim. Out of deep love, they sold their most precious possessions in order to present to each other the best Christmas gift one could ever give. Dell sold the beautiful hair that rippled down to her knees like brown cascades to buy Jim a grand platinum chain for his gold watch heirloom. Jim sold his gold watch to get money for a set of beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jeweled rims, to adorn the gorgeous tresses of Dell. Jim ended up with a precious chain for a watch that had been sold for her sake. Dell received the coveted adornments for her beautiful tresses that had been unselfishly sacrificed for him. O. Henry concluded the beautiful story of self-giving in the following words:
The magi, as you know, were wise men – wonderfully wise men – who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones … And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in the last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts such as they are the wisest. Everywhere they are the wisest. They are the magi.
Today’s Gospel reading (Mt 2:1-12) depicts the journey of magi from the east in search of the King of the Jews. They had seen his star at its rising and wanted to do him homage. The insidious King Herod met them privately and told them hypocritically to look for the child that he too might adore him. The star guided the magi and preceded them until it stopped over the place where the child was. The evangelist Matthew narrates: “On entering the home they saw the child and Mary his mother. Then, they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mt 2:11). The magi were a caste of wise men variously associated with interpretation of dreams, Zoroastrianism, and astrology. In Church tradition, their number settled at three, deduced from the three gifts that they brought to the Child or from the belief that they represented the three races of those who came to Christ and welcomed his Gospel: the Semites, the Black and the Indo-Germanic.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the magi from the East who came to do homage to the King of the Jews represented the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy: “The wealth of the nations shall be brought to you … All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord” (Is 60:5-6) // “The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts; the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring him tribute. All kings shall pay him homage, all nations shall serve him” (Ps 72:1-11). Eventually, the Christian tradition gleaned a deeper meaning from the threefold gift of the magi to the Child in Bethlehem. St. Irenaeus (c. 135-202) remarks: “Myrrh signified that he, for our mortal human race, would die and be buried; gold, that he was the King whose reign would be without end; incense, that he was God who came to make himself known in Judea, and to show himself to those who never sought him.”
Moreover, the modern-day writer and apostolic worker, Dorothy Day, perceived the dimension of oblation and reparation in the magi’s gifts. She asserted: “Even the gifts that the wise men brought have in themselves an obscure recompense and atonement for what would follow later in this Child’s life. For they brought gold, the king’s emblem, to make up for the crown of thorns that he would wear; they offered incense, the symbol of praise, to make up for the mockery and spitting; they gave him myrrh, to heal and soothe.”
In the context of the Christmas-Epiphany liturgy which celebrates the stupendous manifestation of the Father’s love in his beloved Son Jesus, born of the ever-virgin Mother Mary, the enchanting figures of the magi from the East offer us a lesson in gift–giving. In her article, “Journeying with the Magi” (cf. The WORD Among Us, Advent 2003, p. 50), Louise Perrotta exhorts us: “The magi presented Jesus with a sampling of the ancient world’s costliest gifts. They gave the best. Finding much to ponder in these offerings, the Church Fathers often interpreted them as symbols of what every Christian is called to present to God: the gold of charity and good works, the incense of prayer and faith, the myrrh of purifying suffering and belief in the resurrection. During this season, we might consider how to make such an offering in our own lives. While it is always right to turn to God for what we need, this season encourages us to find ways of giving him what we value most, beginning with our very selves. As we give ourselves to Jesus, we will find ourselves side by side with the magi.”
The beautiful homage of the gift-giving Magi as they encountered the Christ-Child in Bethlehem, together with Mary his Mother, gently leads us to the divine gift-giver: the loving God the Father who loved the world so much that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life (cf. Jn 3:16). The Son of God, Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the paramount GIFT – the Father’s gift to us – the sign of his great love for us. Indeed, the Son of God made flesh, born as a child, is the most powerful sign of the Father’s will to bring us salvation. As the Christmas liturgy proclaims: “UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN! UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN!” He is the sign of the Father’s marvelous love and the means of salvation. The Child who is the Father’s gift to us is JESUS, humankind’s model of ultimate self-giving.
One of my students, now an ordained priest, remarked: “When we give anything, we give part of ourselves. When we give our self, we give everything we have – past, present and future. Perhaps in no other book of the Bible is this most explicitly stated than in Job. Until Job’s suffering became personal and involved his own self, Satan always has a loophole, a reason to question his integrity. And this is what God intended. He refused to be a mere spectator in human affairs. He wanted to participate, to be a part of it. This is the tremendous mystery of Incarnation; this is the beautiful mystery of Christmas; this is the profound mystery of the Eucharist. They are all a definite participation of Jesus the Christ in our human affairs in a self-giving manner. Thus, in these moments, Jesus gives us a model of self-giving. He shows us the way to this path of love.”
Indeed, the celebration of Christmas and the Eucharist, the actualized memorial of Christ’s death on the cross, is unique because it is the celebration of the life-giving Jesus who gives himself for us and for the whole world. The joy of self-giving which Jesus has begun at his birth is continued in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, he continues to give himself to us that we too, may become bread broken and shared – the cup poured out and offered for the life of the world. Our celebration of the birth of Christ and his manifestation to the nations in the Christmas-Epiphany mystery … our sharing in the Eucharistic feasting … our service of his kingdom of justice and peace should configure us more and more to him, the ultimate model of self-giving. In effect, Jesus the Savior is for humankind the perfect gift and gift-giver of all.
The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly leaves us with the following words to ponder: “The Christian Epiphany took place not as an act of divine self-satisfaction, but for us. God hoped that we would be amazed at it all, that we would react like the Magi and give him ourselves as gifts, that we would be awestruck by this supreme act of love and begin to love him in return. Will he be disappointed?”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
What does “the gift of the Magi” mean to us personally? How do we imitate the Magi gift-givers? Above all, how do we imitate Jesus Savior, the perfect gift-giver of all? Do we intend to give ourselves to the Christ Child as “gift”? How?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Father,
in Jesus, your beloved Son,
you have given us the greatest Christmas gift
and the perfect model of self-giving.
Like the magi from the East,
we present to you today
the gold of our charity and good works,
the incense of our prayer and faith
and the myrrh of our bitter suffering
that leads to glorious resurrection.
By incarnating the Christmas-Epiphany mystery
in our life of service and caring for the poor and needy,
let us offer Jesus to the nations,
in a perpetual epiphany of love.
We thank you with humble and grateful hearts for Jesus,
our Lord and Savior,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“They offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Mt 2:11)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Prepare a “gift” for one lonely person in most need of the love of Jesus. To celebrate the Epiphany of God’s love for us, make an effort to spend some quiet time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
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January 6, 2014: MONDAY – CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY; SAINT ANDRE BESSETTE, religious (USA)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is the Great Light and Came in the Flesh”
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 3:22-4:6 // Mt 4:12-17, 23-25
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
In today’s Gospel account, Matthew declares that Jesus’ return to Galilee is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in the darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen” (Mt 4:15-16). The expression, “the people who sit in the darkness” originally refers to the oppressed Israelites, but as used here by Matthew, it also includes the Gentiles. The Gospel of salvation is for everyone, of every time and place. In Jesus, the great light of liberation has dawned over the suffering people of all nations. Aelred Rosser remarks: “With the coming of Christ, a new age dawned over the world. And Christ brings more than a new age; he ushers in the final age, for in the mystery of incarnation heaven and earth are reconciled, the redemption of humankind is accomplished, death has been conquered and the reign of justice and peace has been established. Now all we need to do is to make these realities visible by following in the footsteps of Jesus.”
Today’s First Reading helps us to understand the implication of the Christmas mystery. The mystery of the Incarnation is a central affirmation of our Christian faith. To deny that Christ came in the flesh is to deny his role as Savior. The Christmas mystery is at the heart of our belief. The Son of God, who is intimately united with God the Father, took on a human nature. Any spiritual movement in the Church that denies this reality is a deception. The crucial test of those who claim to be teachers in the Church is faith in the Incarnation. To be truly genuine, faith in the incarnate Word entails love of neighbor. Faith and love indicate, therefore, belonging to God. Moreover, the presence of the Holy Spirit testifies to Christ dwelling among us.
The following excerpt from the life of Blessed Charles de Foucauld testifies how he finally opened up himself to the Christmas mystery, that is, to the saving presence of Jesus Christ, who became incarnate in his personal life (cf. Patricia Treece, God Will Provide, Brewster: Paraclete Press, 2011, p. 115-116).
When he was about five, Charles experienced the tragic deaths of his father and mother, and then – before Charles’ very eyes – his only living grandmother, who, taking the by then six-year-old orphan and his three-year-old sister for a walk, was charged by a herd of cows. The grandmother, French Vicomtesse de Foucauld, successfully dragged aside the walking boy and then the cart containing the girl and then died of fright.
Charles’ mother had been “both virtuous and extremely religious”. A biographer described her as gliding “dolefully through the household, convinced that life was but one long ordeal intended to make one worthy of heaven”. She passed on that kind of faith to her little son; faith that sees life only as an ordeal meted out by a stern God could not sustain such a tragedy, and died with his family. He tried to “behave” but was prone to emotional outbursts.
Once the maternal grandfather, the only grandparent left, who took the children in, died, Charles went wild, using the fortune he inherited to give himself up to an outwardly glamorous, inwardly miserable, playboy lifestyle. Educated as a military officer, he was sent home from a colonial post, because he deliberately flaunted his mistress before the officers’ wives and daughters.
When war broke out he straightened up out of loyalty to his military mates, was reinstated, and after honorable service, became a noted explorer. Yet always he remained too marked by his early traumas to be easy with spiritual realities. Sudden conversion at age twenty-eight through a saintly priest and a cousin changed all that completely.
His discovery that God was real led him into deep surrender and inner change. So profoundly had he retooled himself from inner misery to joy in the Lord, that he experienced the highest mystical event possible in this life, the mystical marriage. Charles of Jesus, as he was now called, wanted to live like Jesus in Nazareth, that is, in silent oneness with God without public ministry. But whereas Jesus had all the joys of his mother, Joseph, the kin, and neighbors, Charles sought out ever more solitary hermitages. From them he wrote time and again to his spiritual director back in France, “My usual state is pleasure in the presence of Jesus”, or, “I am happy very happy.”
He would have liked companions to join him as he lived among Muslims in today’s Algeria as “their little brother”. But his extreme lifestyle attracted no one. He remained alone but in deep companionship with Jesus. In 1916, living in his final hermitage among the Taureg tribe in Algeria’s Sahara, he was murdered by anti-French marauders. Then, having died a happy man but, like Jesus apparently a failure, he was resurrected as a role model for many who lived out his spirituality.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we truly believe in the mystery of Christmas – of the Son of Man became man for our saving? How do we translate this faith in the Christmas mystery into love of neighbor? Do we let the light of Christ dispel the gloom and darkness that our fragmented and secularized world is experiencing?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Ever-living God,
we believe in the Christmas mystery
of the Word-made-flesh.
Help us to translate into daily life
the saving power of the Incarnation
by our concrete acts of love and service
to one another.
By our faith and love,
let us manifest to the world
that we belong to you.
Let your Holy Spirit help us
incarnate the spirit of Christmas
every day of our life.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God.” (I Jn 4:2)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
By a concrete act of charity to a needy person today manifest to the world your faith in the Christmas mystery.
***
January 7, 2014: TUESDAY – CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY; SAINT RAYMOND OF PENYAFORT, priest
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is the Life-Giving Bread and In Him God Is Revealed as Love”
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 4:7-10 // Mk 6:34-44
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
We continue to relish the beauty of the Christmas mystery: the Word became flesh … the Word became bread. The Son of God, who became man for us, is also the font of nourishment. Jesus incarnates God’s pastoral care and loving providence for his people. Although the apostles need time with Jesus, he responds first to the greater need of the crowd that has pursued him to their place of refuge. They too need a shepherd and to be fed. He “teaches them many things” and nourishes them with the bread of the word. But he does even more. Jesus multiplies the bread and the fish and prepares for them a banquet so rich that there is an abundance of leftovers. Indeed, the incarnate Word is also the bread of the Word and the bread of the Eucharist. Jesus in the Christmas mystery is God’s word of love enfleshed. He is the self-giving Lord in the Eucharist.
The First Reading helps us to contemplate God who is love. He has first loved us. He loves gratuitously, unmotivated by any worthiness on our part. He radically revealed his love by sending his Son Jesus as our Savior. God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have eternal life. God loves us so much that we too must love one another. Whoever loves proves that he is born of God. The one who loves “knows” God, because love is the very nature of God. The one who does not love does not “know” God and does not belong to him. The love revealed by God in Jesus is perceived by faith and must be responded to in faith. We “manifest” our communion with God by our love for each other.
The following story, written by a parishioner and inserted in the Parish Bulletin of St. Mary Queen of Apostles Church in Fresno, gives insight into the meaning of the divine love in which we share. The writer, who identifies herself as “The Saint Benedict Catholic Worker”, tells of her ministry to a dying cop, John. On October 20, 2012, he went home to God. He was 61 years old and deeply loved. As a Fresno County Sheriff’s Lieutenant, John was instrumental in supporting the presence and ministry of the Saint Benedict Catholic Worker at the jail.
The days were growing colder, darkness came earlier, and fog had begun to appear, lying across the city like a shroud. Winter’s penetrating chill had settled in – bleak and unrelenting. It was during this time that John’s illness, COPD, became unresponsive to the medications that had controlled his pain and made it easier for him to breathe. The disease was unyielding and brought on an avalanche of pain and suffering. His hands and feet had turned a bluish-purple due to lack of circulation, this cold now literally took his breath away and at night, as I sat vigil with him while he tried to sleep, I could hear the wheezing in his chest and a rattling sound that came with each effort to bring air into his lungs. Like the snow of winter, “snow on snow on snow”, John’s illness was interminable and the darkness it brought, at times, seemed impenetrable.
One evening, as I returned home to John’s house (where I have been living and taking care of him for the past year), I noticed, as I came through the darkened hallway, a light on in my bedroom. As I entered, I discovered that the light had filled the room with a warm, welcoming glow. My bed had also been turned down in a tender effort of loving care. John, despite the bleak midwinter of his pain and suffering, penetrated the darkness through his simple act of love, Jesus’ incarnate love, the Word made flesh – the Word made real.
What John’s actions that night revealed was the love of Christ, a love that melts winters, however bleak, and pierces the darkness with the love that Christ came into this world to teach us. His act of loving kindness released the love he needed to give and that I needed to receive. It also helped each of us to live in the realness of Christ’s love through the simplest acts we did for one another and for others. This love brought much joy into our daily lives and helped prepare for his final journey home to God. And during that final journey both John and I received, and experienced, the lesson that despite the hardship of winter and the seemingly impenetrable darkness that one may be experiencing, that the power of Christ’s love overcomes even the harshest winter and the darkest night.
Christina Rossetti, in her poem, In the Bleak of Midwinter, asked “What can I give him, poor as I am?” Her answer was a simple act of love, “I must give my heart” … We believe that if you ask God he will reveal what is in your heart to give.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we relish the reality that God is love? How do we incarnate in our daily life this reality? Do we imitate Jesus in compassionately responding to the needs and hungers of the people around us?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Father,
you reveal yourself to us
by sending your Son Jesus, our Savior.
In Christ, our Shepherd and the Lord of the banquet,
we have experienced that you are “love”.
Help us to share in the gift of eternal life.
O almighty God,
you love us so much.
Give us the grace to respond to your love
by caring for each other
and by serving one another.
By our word and deed,
let us manifest to the world
that “God is love”.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“God is love.” (I Jn 4:8)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Through words and deeds of kindness on behalf of a needy and/or the sick person manifest the love of God made incarnate in Christ Jesus.
***
January 8, 2014: WEDNESDAY – CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY
“JESUS SAVIOR: In Him We Do Not Fear and We Remain in God’s Love”
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 4:11-18 // Mk 6:45-52
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s Gospel reading makes us realize that the incarnate Word is also the Lord of creation. Immediately after the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the feeding of the hungry crowd, Jesus is depicted as calming a wind-swept sea on behalf of fearful disciples. Jesus comes to the rescue of his disciples tossed about in the boat by a raging sea. Only God has mastery over the sea, and Jesus’ calming of the sea manifests his supernatural character. Moreover, Jesus calms not only the raging sea but also the fearful disciples. He says to them: “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” The Son of God manifests his great love and saving power especially in our distress and crisis-filled situation.
Today’s First Reading helps us in our contemplation of the Christmas-Easter mystery. The love of God is made incarnate in Jesus Christ. The divine love is fully “manifest” in his expiatory life, suffering, and death. The “epiphany” of God’s love continues to be experienced by those who put their faith in the Son and by their love for one another. Indeed, by loving one another as brothers and sisters, God dwells in us and his love is made perfect in us. The presence of the Spirit likewise “manifests” that God dwells in us. The indwelling is further testified by our fearless proclamation that Jesus is the savior of the world. Our union with God in love gives us true confidence to face Judgment Day for, indeed, perfect love drives out the morbid fear of punishment. In the Christmas-Easter mystery, Jesus Savior continues to teach us how to abide in God’s love.
The following story, entitled “The Hugging Judge” gives us a glimpse of the self-giving that love entails.
Lee Shapiro is a retired judge. He is also one of the most genuinely loving people we know. At one point in his career, Lee realized that love is the greatest power there is. As a result, Lee became a hugger. He began offering everybody a hug. His colleagues dubbed him “the hugging judge”. The bumper sticker on his car reads, “Don’t bug me! Hug me!”
About six years ago Lee created what he calls his Hugger Kit. On the outside it reads, “A heart for a hug”. The inside contains thirty little embroidered hearts with stick gums on the back. Lee will take out the Hugger Kit, go around to people and offer them a little heart in exchange for a hug. Lee has become so well known for this that he is often invited to keynote conferences and conventions, where he shares his message of unconditional love. At a conference in San Francisco, the local news media challenged him by saying, “It is easy to give out hugs here in the conference to people who self-selected to be here. But this would never work in the real world.”
They challenged Lee to give away some hugs on the streets of San Francisco. Followed by a television crew from the local news station, Lee went out onto the street. First he approached a woman walking by. “Hi! I am Lee Shapiro, the hugging judge. I’m giving out these hearts in exchange for a hug.” “Sure”, she replied. “Too easy” challenged the local commentator. Lee looked around. He saw a meter maid who was being given a hard time by the owner of a BMW to whom she was giving a ticket. He marched up to her, camera crew in tow, and said, “You look like you could use a hug. I’m the hugging judge and I’m offering you one.” She accepted.
The television commentator threw down one final challenge. “Look, here comes a bus. San Francisco drivers are the toughest, crabbiest, meanest people in the whole town. Let’s see you get him to hug you.” Lee took the challenge. As the bus pulled up to the curb, Lee said, “Hi! I’m offering hugs to people today to lighten the load a little. Would you like one?” The 6-2, 230-pound bus driver got out of his seat, stepped down and said, “Why not?” Lee hugged him, gave him a heart and waved goodbye as the bus pulled away. The TV crew was speechless. Finally, the commentator said, “I have to admit. I am very impressed.”
One day Lee’s friend, Nancy Johnston, showed up on his doorstep. Nancy is a professional clown and she was wearing her clown costume, makeup and all. “Lee grab a bunch of your Hugger Kits and let’s go out to the home for the disabled.” When they arrived at the home, they started giving out balloons, hearts, and hugs to the patients. Lee was uncomfortable. He had never hugged people who were terminally ill, severely retarded, or quadriplegic. It was definitely a stretch. But after a while it became easier with Nancy and Lee acquiring an entourage of doctors, nurses, and orderlies who followed them from ward to ward. After several hours they entered the last ward. These were the 34 worst cases Lee had seen in his life. The feeling was so grim it took his heart away. But out of their commitment to share their love and to make a difference, Nancy and Lee started working their way around the room followed by the entourage of medical staff, all of whom by now had hearts on their collars and balloon hats on their heads.
Finally, Lee came to the last person, Leonard. Leonard was wearing a big white bib which he was drooling on. Lee looked at Leonard dribbling onto his bib and said, “Let’s go Nancy; there’s no way we can get through to this person.” Nancy replied, “C’mon Lee. He’s a fellow human being, too; isn’t he?” Then she placed a funny balloon hat on his head. Lee took one of his little red hearts and placed it on Leonard’s bib. He took a deep breath, leaned down and gave Leonard a hug.
All of a sudden Leonard began to squeal “Eeeeeh! Eeeeeh!” Some of the other patients in the room began to clang things together. Lee turned to the staff for some sort of explanation only to find that every doctor, nurse, and orderly was crying. Lee asked the head nurse, “What’s going on?” Lee will never forget what she said: “This is the first time in 23 years we’ve ever seen Leonard smile.”
How simple it is to make difference in the lives of others!
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Are we ready to love and serve one another, especially the most vulnerable, and manifest to the world the love of God who dwells in us? In crisis-filled situations, do we turn to Jesus and respond to his exhortation, “Take courage, it is I, do not fear”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
God our Father,
you love us so tenderly
and we feel that love aflame within us.
Help us to radiate the warmth of your love,
to share the gentleness of your peace,
to offer the strength of your saving help,
and to manifest the beauty of your healing grace
to a wounded world that longs for the glory of Christmas.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“If we love one another, God remains in us.” (I Jn 4:12)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Make a difference in the life of others by showing them little acts of tender love, e.g. a warm smile, an encouraging word, a token of gratitude, etc.
***
January 9, 2014: THURSDAY – CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is the Messiah and in Him Love Triumphs”
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 4:19-5:4 // Lk 4:14-22a
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s Gospel passage tells us that Jesus came to Nazareth, where he grew up, and goes according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and participates in the liturgy. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah is handed to him and, unrolling the scroll, he solemnly proclaims the messianic prophecy: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19). This passage is an excellent summary of the messianic work of Jesus, “the anointed” of the Spirit. The Gospel passage concludes with Jesus returning to his place and with the eyes of all in the synagogue looking intently at him, he solemnly proclaims: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). This is an astounding revelation and a challenging moment of truth. Jesus of Nazareth declares himself as the long-awaited Messiah and the fulfillment of the messianic yearning through the ages. He radically avows that the moment of salvation is already being achieved in his person.
In today’s First Reading, the epistle-writer John continues to underline that the love of God generates and inspires ours. If God has loved us, we must have a similar love for one another. Christ’s command is simple: whoever loves God must love his brothers and sisters also. Saint John reiterates that love is intimately linked with faith in Christ. Those who believe that Jesus is the Christ are children of God. They ought to be loved in the same way that we love God our Father. True love for God entails love for his children. Faith in Christ gives us the power to love and to overcome the evil forces that prevent us from incarnating the love of God. Love triumphs over the world.
The life witness of Sr. Bridget Haase, an Ursuline nun, exemplifies the love of God that is manifested in loving service to our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and the needy (cf. John Feister in ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER, December 2009, p. 30-31).
Sister Bridget Haase has been a teacher all along, from her first class of 40 first-graders (“hardly room for a desk, but it was a wonderful year!” she says) to less typical assignments. Those started with a TV show, Charles Kuralt’s Christmas in Appalachia, in the mid-1970s. She watched the show and felt a voice in her heart. “I’m a person who always follows my heart, because that’s where God speaks to us”, she says. The next summer, on break from her Illinois teaching assignment, Sister Bridget spent a few weeks as a volunteer, teaching Bible school at a Glenmary parish outreach in eastern Kentucky. She returned to Appalachia the next summer, and felt her heart telling her that she should move into full-time ministry in the mountains.
She and another sister were assigned the following year to work “up Sandylick Holler” near Dunlow, West Virginia. She lived for five years in a converted three-room shed heated, not uncommonly for the area, with a wood stove. “We shared an outhouse with our beloved neighbor, Bird”, she fondly recalls.
There were no Catholic schools in that region; in fact, in rural West Virginia, Catholics were suspect. Bridget went to volunteer her teaching skills at the public school and was rejected. “I was a Catlick,” she recalls. “I finally asked the principal if I could have all the children that the other teachers didn’t want, who I noticed sitting in the back of the room, just coloring all day long.” The principal hesitated, but eventually relented. “I think they grew in trust of who I was, and then I was able to teach.” She earned the title “Church Lady” from the locals.
She had plenty of humorous stories from her time in the hills, like when Bird, in an act of kindness to the sisters, hunted squirrels and lined the outhouse seat with fur for cold days. (Bridget delicately persuaded him to move the skins to the wall.) Her most touching story, though, is of a family, some of the very poor, who are typically rejected even locally as “white trash”, a term that plays on racism as well as poverty.
Bridget went, by invitation, “up the holler” (hollow) to have Thanksgiving dinner at Delana and Elam’s house with their five young children. The house was less than meager and the meat at dinner was questionable, but Bridget ate. Afterward Delana said to Bridget, “I mean hain’t never, never anyone come to our home for a meal and never, ever on Thanksgiving Day. But you done come, and Miss Bridget, I don’t have to look anywhere else for Jesus. He done come to our home and he stands in front of us.”
When she heard that, says Bridget, “It shifted everything.” She had tried to see God in the poor, but now the tables were turned. “The poor had seen God in me”, she recalls. “And I realized through Delana and Elam, this is what life’s all about. I see God in you. You see God in me. We are God-bearers, and everything is a reflection of God … It doesn’t have to do with who you are, what you’re doing; it has to do with the fact that God is present here in this moment.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Do we believe that in Christ, love triumphs over all? Does our love of God entail service to our needy brothers and sisters?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
O gracious Father,
your Son Jesus radiates the glory of your love and mercy.
Let our lives be a reflection
of the saving Christmas mystery.
Let the fire of love that you have kindled in our hearts
bring warmth and joy to all,
especially to the poor and the lowly.
We bless you and adore you,
now and forever
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.” (I Jn 5:4)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Pray for those who are experiencing great difficulties and challenges in loving and serving God and neighbor. When you are in the same situation, persevere with faith, confident that love triumphs over all.
***
January 10, 2014: FRIDAY – CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Cleanses the Leper and the Spirit, the Water and the Blood Testify to Him”
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 5:5-13 // Lk 5:12-16
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
The Son of God became flesh for our saving. Today’s Gospel reading depicts the compassionate act of Jesus on behalf of the leper who falls prostrate before him, pleading: “Lord, if you wish, you can make him clean.” Lepers are considered a menace to society and are thoroughly ostracized at the time of Jesus. But our Savior breaks through social prohibitions to help the outcasts. Jesus does not stand at a distance fearing contamination. He “touches” the leper and accompanies it with the efficacious words: “I do will it. Be made clean.” The afflicted leper is made clean by his faith in Jesus and is victorious.
Faith is belief and total surrender to Jesus. He is the Son of God who, in the Christmas mystery, becomes man to save us. He comes “by water and Blood”. He is proclaimed “Son of God” by the heavenly Father in the baptism at the River Jordan. Jesus is again declared “Son of God” upon the cross by the Roman centurion. Indeed, Jesus brings to completion the messianic mission he embraced in baptism by the outpouring of his Blood on the cross.
The Holy Spirit is a witness to the saving events of Christ’s baptism and his bloody sacrifice on the cross. Moreover, through the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, the Spirit continues to testify in the Church to the reality of Jesus’ baptism and sacrificial death. As the faithful responds to the Spirit’s testimony, the saving events of Jesus become, for that person, a revelation of the Father. It is for this reason that the witness of the Spirit is called the “testimony of God”. The Spirit, the water and the Blood are, therefore, part of God’s testimony. To deny them is to reject God’s own witness and is tantamount to accusing the Father of being a liar. The content of the witness is the eternal life that God wishes to share with us in his beloved Son Jesus Christ.
We are called to be faithful Christian witnesses in the here and now. From the blood bath of the Columbine High School tragedy, the heroic witnessing of a teenage girl emerged awesome (cf. chapter 5 of Sr. Mary Rose McGeady’ book, “Please Forgive Me, God”).
The two kids walked into the schoolyard, an arsenal of weapons hanging from their bodies and hidden inside their black trench coats. Their first two victims were a 17-year-old girl and 15-year-old freshman boy, both classmates, who were shot in the head and the back immediately outside the front entrance to the school. Once inside, the two killers strode quickly through the school, first to the cafeteria then upstairs to the library, pointing guns at their terrified classmates, casually deciding who should live and who should die. As each shot rang out, and each innocent life was snuffed out, we’re told the kids laughed triumphantly, and then moved on to the next victim … In one particularly nightmarish sequence, one of the killers confronted a girl trembling on the ground, and asked if she believed in God. Knowing full well the safe answer, the girl stood her ground. “There is a God”, she said quietly, “and you need to follow along God’s path”. “There is no God”, the boy gunman said, and shot her in the head. (…) The girl proclaimed her belief in God, knowing that her answer would be the last words she ever spoke.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Like the trusting leper, do we turn to Jesus in our distress and afflictions? Do we treasure the testimony given by “the Spirit, the water and Blood”? Do we endeavor to give faithful witnessing to Christ through “the water and Blood” by the power of the Spirit?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Father,
the spirit of your Son Jesus,
continues to give witness to him
through the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist.
By the power of the Spirit,
help us to witness faithfully in today’s world
the great love you have for us
in sending us Jesus our Savior.
Let us live fully our baptismal consecration
and enable us to embrace the Eucharistic sacrifice.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” (I Jn 5:11)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
By your kind words and deeds let your Christian testimony shine in today’s world. When you make the sign of the cross and do other religious acts, such as vocal prayer, kneeling at Mass, etc., do them in such as a way as to inspire and give witness to your Christian faith.
***
January 11, 2014: SATURDAY – CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY
“JESUS SAVIOR: John the Baptist Gives Witness to Him who Incarnates Confident Prayer”
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 5:14-21 // Jn 3:22-30
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s Gospel reading presents John the Baptist’s final witness to Jesus. The Baptist has previously confessed that he is not the Messiah and that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The people leave him to seek the baptism of Jesus. Devoted disciples of John try to talk to him into waking up that Jesus is taking the people away from him. The “prophet of the Most High” mentioned in the canticle of Zechariah makes a final declaration that he is not the Christ. John the Baptist celebrates Jesus as the bridegroom who has finally come to claim his bride. His final witness to Jesus consists in living out the implication of his mission: “he must increase; I must decrease”.
In the First Reading, the author of the First Letter of John concludes with an exhortation to confident prayer: if we ask anything according to the will of God, our prayer is heard. The experience of God’s love made “manifest” in Jesus inspires this prayer of trust and surrender. We should pray especially for the forgiveness of those who have sinned and be cautious about the “deadly sin” of the apostates. Their rejection of the whole witness of God and their deliberate apostasy – choosing darkness over light, death over life, hatred over love – is death-dealing. Hence, the disciples must avoid the lethal “idolatry” of the “antichrists” who deny the incarnation of Christ and who reject God’s gift of Christmas.
The following story, “Winter Morning Guest”, by John Edmund Haggai, illustrates the power of true prayer (cf. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories of Faith, ed. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Cos Cob: CSS, 2008, p. 134-136).
One winter morning in 1931, I came down to breakfast – and found the table empty. It was cold outside. The worst blizzard on record had paralyzed the city. No cars were out. The snow had drifted up two stories high against our house, blackening the windows.
“Daddy, what’s happening?” I asked. I was six years old. Gently Dad told me our fuel and food supplies were exhausted. He’d just put the last piece of coal on the fire. Mother had eight ounces of milk left for my baby brother, Tom. After that – nothing.
“So what are we going to eat?” I asked. “We’ll have our devotions first, John Edmund”, he said in a voice that told me I should not ask questions. My father was a pastor. He arrived as a teenager in the United States with no money and barely a word of English – nothing but his vocation to preach. He knew hardship of a kind few see today. Yet my parents consistently gave away at least ten percent of their income, and no one but God ever knew when we were in financial need.
That morning, Dad read the scriptures as usual, and afterwards we knelt for prayer. He prayed earnestly for the family, for our relatives and friends, for those he called the “missionaries of the cross” and those in the city who’d endured the blizzard without adequate shelter.
Then he prayed something like this: “Lord, Thou knowest we have no more coal to burn. If it can please Thee, send us some fuel. If not, Thy will be done – we thank Thee for warm clothes and bedcovers, which will keep us comfortable, even without fire. Also, Thou knowest we have no food except milk for Baby Thomas. If it can please Thee …” For someone facing bitter cold and hunger, he was remarkably calm. Nothing deflected him from completing the family devotions – not even the clamor we now heard beyond the muffling wall of snow.
Finally someone pounded on the door. The visitor had cleared the snow off the windowpane, and we saw his face peering in. “Your door’s iced up”, he yelled. “I can’t open it.” The devotions over, Dad jumped up. He pulled; the man pushed. When the door finally gave, an avalanche of snow fell into the entrance hall. I didn’t recognize the man, and I don’t think Dad did either because he said politely, “Can I help you?”
The man explained he was a farmer who’d heard Dad preach in Allegan three years earlier. “I awakened at four o’clock this morning”, he said, “and I couldn’t get you out of my mind. The truck was stuck in the garage, so I harnessed the horses to the sleigh and came over.” “Well, please come in”, my father said. On any other occasion, he’d have added, “And have some breakfast with us.” But, of course, today there was no breakfast.
The man thanked him. And then – to our astonishment – he plucked a large box off the sleigh. More than sixty years later, I can see the box as clear as yesterday. It contained milk, eggs, butter, pork chops, grain, homemade bread and a host of other things. When the farmer had delivered the box, he went back out and got a cord of wood. Finally, after a very hearty breakfast, he insisted Dad take a ten-dollar bill.
Almost every day Dad reminded us that “God is the Provider”. And my experience throughout adult life has confirmed it. “I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor their children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25). The Bible said it. But Dad and Mom showed me it was true.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Like John the Baptist are we willing to give witness to Jesus? Do we entrust ourselves to God in confident prayer? Do we believe that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears it? Do we pray for the forgiveness of sinners and do we keep alive the Christmas mystery in our hearts?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Father,
we believe in the power of prayer.
We believe that if we ask anything according to your will,
you hear it.
We pray especially for the forgiveness of sin.
Give us the grace to be faithful
and let the spirit of Christmas be alive in our hearts
every day of our life.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (I Jn 5:14)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
When you ask God anything in prayer, let it be accompanied by “If it is according to your will”.
***
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