A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday & Weekday Liturgy

 

BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 13, n. 40)

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time and Weekday 22: Aug. 30 – Sept. 5, 2015 *

 

 

(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 B from three perspectives. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 1. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 4. For reflections based on the Second Reading, open Series 7. Please go to Series 10 - Series 13 for the back issues of the Weekday Lectio. For the Lectio Divina on the liturgy of the past week: August 23-29, 2015, please go to ARCHIVES Series 13 and click on “Week 21”.

 

(Below is a LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY - WEEKDAY LITURGY: August 30 – September 5, 2015.)

 

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August 30, 2015: TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“JESUS SAVIOR: He Calls Us to Follow God’s Commands”

 

 

BIBLICAL READINGS

 Dt 4:1-2, 6-8 // Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 // Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

The Gospel reading (Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) reminds me of a very amusing story about the Guru’s cat (cf. Anthony De Mello, The Song of the Bird, New York: Doubleday, 1982, p. 63). A prescription that is contingent on a particularly mischievous cat became codified and ritualized. 

When the guru sat down to worship each evening the ashram cat would get in the way and distract the worshippers. So he ordered that the cat be tied during evening worship. After the guru died the cat continued to be tied during evening worship. And when the cat expired, another cat was brought to the ashram so that it could be duly tied during evening worship. Centuries later learned treatises were written by the guru’s scholarly disciples on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat while worship is performed.

The Gospel passage speaks of human traditions and prescriptions that have been codified and made binding for the people of God, for example, ritual washing of the hands, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds, dietary legislations, etc. Last Sunday’s ritornello was Simon Peter’s avowal of faith in Jesus: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). Against this backdrop, the unmitigated legalism of the Pharisees and scribes seems pathetic. They have not adhered to Jesus who has “the words of eternal life”, but have chosen instead to bind themselves to human prescriptions that cannot give life nor refresh the soul. In their rejection of Jesus Christ, the Bread of revelation and the wisdom of God, they have disregarded the life-giving divine Word. They have sought salvation in the rigorous observance of what is merely human invention. Therefore, Jesus indicts them vigorously: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’ You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition” (Mk 7:6-7). 

Jesus lambasts his opponents for following the letter of man-made laws and not the spirit that animates them. They have lost sight of the Word of God as the true law that refreshes the soul. Indeed, the true meaning of God’s commands is to give life. The sweet yoke of God’s law is meant to focus our attention on the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Bread of revelation offered to us by the Father for the life of the world. Jesus, the Wisdom of God and the crystallization of the divine law of love, is the authoritative interpreter of the Law and the fulfillment of the life-giving meaning of God’s commands. 

The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly comments: “God has revealed himself in history as a loving, saving God. If we respond to this God and accept his love, we will act properly. When we can say with conviction that no other god has shown himself as our God has to us, then we will follow his statutes and decrees, because we know they are for our good.” The person who loves Christ and is nourished by the Bread of his Word focuses on following the divine will and cannot be defiled from within. The words and deeds of that person, marked by personal dedication and self-giving, evince a life of loving relationship with God, the author of life. 

***

 

When I was a student at Maryhill School of Theology in the Philippines, a lanky and amiable Dutch professor, a member of the religious congregation Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, taught the courses in Canon Law. He was both a Canon scholar and a moral theologian. His approach was so spirit-filled and refreshing that Canon Law, together with Sacred Scriptures, became my favorite course. Some of my friends could not believe that Canon Law had become a favorite. One of them joked that probably my professor disagreed with Canon Law – that could explain why the course became so interesting. I countered that the approach was what made the course special. The professor, with his quaint Dutch accent, helped his students understand the meaning and the function of the Law in the Church. He discussed various cases with insightful reflections. He introduced us to the principle of epikeia – that in a particular situation a law may not apply. Thus properly understood and interpreted, Canon Law ceases to be burdensome, constricting and legalistic. It becomes a very positive and regenerating element of the life and growth of the Church.

 

In the first reading (Dt 4:1-2, 6-8), we hear Moses exhorting his people to cherish the statutes and decrees that he was teaching them to observe. The Law that Moses transmits to Israel is part of the love relationship between God and his chosen people. It is meant to promote the wisdom and life of God’s people so that they may reach and take possession of the Promised Land. The Law is an instrument to teach God’s children to walk on the way of life to their privileged destiny as a “great nation that is truly wise and intelligent”. The Law or the Torah serves as directions for living and orients towards the holiness and greatness willed for them by the Lord God. 

 

The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent remarks: “The commandments and decrees that Moses transmits in God’s name are a sign of the Lord’s love for his people. They bring out the two major aspects of the covenant he is establishing with the Israelites. On the one hand, God chooses this people, leads them, protects them amid the many difficulties they encounter, and constantly proves his fidelity to them. On the other hand, God’s fidelity calls for man’s fidelity to him in return; concretely, man must hear and keep the commandments; he must observe them in their entirety without adding or subtracting anything. This then is how man should respond to the fidelity of God. If he hears and accepts the law, if he meditates on it and observes it, he will contribute to the carrying out of God’s plan of salvation. If and when Israel thus responds, she will show herself to the pagans as a great and wise people. The law is thus not meant as a crushing burden but as a leaven and a source of enthusiasm for Israel, which will find in the law both salvation and greatness.”

 

Indeed, our life that is an Exodus to the Promised Land necessitates walking in the way of God’s commands. The Word of God, of which the Law is a vital expression, summons us to a greater intimacy with God and to a deeper responsibility for the advent of salvation and the promotion of God’s glory.

  

***

 

In the Second Reading (Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27) we are energized by the words of Saint James: “Be doers of the word!” His main concern is to help the Christian community persevere in conversion to God and to make the believers grow in the Gospel life. He underlines the intimate relationship between faith in God and love of neighbor, which characterizes our covenant relationship with God. The great pastor, Saint James, inspires us with his keen sense of the wholeness of Christian life. Indeed, there is an active and inseparable relation between religion and life. For Saint James, there is no fragmentation of faith and works, and there is no such thing as part-time Christians in the Church.

 

Adrian Nocent comments: “Saint James, the great apostle of Christian action in the world, gives good advice. We ought to welcome the Gospel with a truly teachable spirit: humble enough to learn, able to face the truth even when it hurts, not blinded by prejudice, and sufficiently self-controlled to accept discipline. We should practice true religion. He wants our faith to be not merely an abstract assent, but a practical application in human living. James’ orphans and widows (v. 22) are his shorthand for all the oppressed for whom religion calls us to care.”

 

It is our joy to present some notes concerning Alberto Hurtado, the remarkable Jesuit priest from Chile who was canonized by Pope Benedict on October 23, 2005, in Rome (cf. Luis Quezada, “I’m Content, Lord! I’m Content!” in The Word Among Us, August 2006, p. 51-56).  St. Alberto Hurtado is an excellent example of a disciple who is both a “hearer of the word” and a “doer of the word”.

 

Alberto Hurtado was born in 1901, in Vina del Mar, a port city in central Chile. By the time he was five, his father had died and his mother had moved to Santiago with her two sons, after selling the family property to pay off debts. Having no home of their own, they lived with different relatives – an experience that acquainted Alberto with the struggles of the homeless and needy. He learned compassion from his mother, too. “It is good to put your hands together to pray, but it is better to open them in order to give”, she used to say. Young Alberto did this by sharing with poor children the coins his uncle gave him. Later, as a student, he devoted Sunday afternoons to helping serve the poor in Santiago’s most blighted areas.

 

He also prayed. In fact, as he sensed a growing call to be a Jesuit priest, he prayed long and hard that doors would open and that his mother’s financial situation would improve. Eventually, his prayers were answered in the form of a court ordered settlement that ensured his mother a decent income. In 1923, with a law degree in hand, Alberto entered the Society of Jesus. His long years of formation took him to Argentina, Spain, and Louvain, Belgium, where he wrote a doctoral thesis on the art and science of education. Upon being ordained a priest in 1933, he wrote a friend that he felt “completely happy” and wanted only “to live out my ministry with all the fullness of my inner life and my outer activities”.

 

Once back in Chile, Hurtado lost no time putting his dreams into action. He taught high school and university students, seminarians and lay people. Young people were drawn to him through the retreats he preached and the mission trips he led; it seemed that no matter what activity he was pursuing, he fired young hearts to give themselves to Christ and work for his glory. But in the midst of all these outreaches, Alberto was most concerned for the poor. He worried about the orphans who roamed Santiago’s streets and climbed onto city buses to sing for money, to beg, or to steal purses. While others ignored them, he was keenly aware of the homeless youths who spent nights around bonfires under bridges and in parks. Some, he knew, were addicted to drugs or drink and stole to support their habits; some had done jail time. What he saw broke his heart. “Every poor person, every vagrant, every beggar is Christ himself who is carrying his cross”, he often said. “As such, we ought to love him and care for him.”

 

In October 1944, a sick, shivering man came to Hurtado looking for a place to stay. He was the very picture of misery. Days later, still shaken by the encounter, Alberto spoke of the man’s distress at a women’s retreat. His heartfelt account of the poverty on Santiago’s streets was like seed falling on good soil. When he spontaneously suggested opening a shelter for the neediest and the street children, the women responded with generous donations of money, jewels, and land. “Christ’s Home”, the Hogar de Cristo, opened its doors the following May. Everyone was welcome, the only requirement being that they have a real need. Alberto was directly involved in the project, recalled Maria Opazo, whose husband often accompanied him when he went out at night looking for children in need. He drove a green truck and drove it fast, slamming on the brakes when he saw a child lying on the ground. Stopping briefly on the bridge over the Mapocho River, he would blow the horn, and the children would come out yelling, “It’s Papa Hurtado!” When the truck was full, he took the children to the Hogar and then started all over again. “This would go on almost every night from 10:00 p.m. to about 3:00 a.m.”, said Mrs. Opazo.

 

Fr. Hurtado opened more houses, some of them rehabilitation centers and vocational schools that offered people the skills they needed to earn a living. Above all, he wanted everyone served to come to respect “their value as a person and dignity as a citizen, and more so, as child of God.” Today, the Hogar de Cristo and its many affiliates carry on their founder’s vision by caring for thousands of children, teens, and adults throughout Chile. (…)

 

Alberto was only fifty years old when he experienced the first symptoms of the disease that would cut his life short. A year later, after suffering a stroke, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The illness meant a reduction in the amount of work he could accomplish and, ultimately, an early death, but he received the news as a gift from God. Wanting to make the most of his last days, Hurtado kept his door always open. His room became a place of pilgrimage for people of all social conditions. He said farewells, thanked everyone for “such evidence of love and devotion” – and never forgot the poor. In his last letter, written only days before his death on August 18, 1952, Alberto charged his friends to continue his work: “As the needs and miseries of the poor show themselves, find ways to help them as you would help the Master … I confide the poor little ones to your care, in the name of God.”

        

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO 

 

Do we honor God with our lips and not with our hearts? Do we live according to God’s commands? Do we have a proper understanding of the purpose and meaning of law in the Church? Do we continue to cling to Jesus and avow our faith in him: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” 

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO

(Based on Psalm 15 and John 6:68)

 

Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Lord Jesus,

you incarnate God’s command

and thus give life to our soul.

In you and through you,

we discover that God’s decree is trustworthy.

You are joy for the heart,

wisdom for the simple

and light for the eyes.

God’s law is perfect – refreshing the soul.

It is more desirable than gold,

better than the finest gold.

Lord Jesus,

you are the word made flesh.

You embody the true spirit of God’s love-command

and perfect it.

The words you speak to us are life-giving.

They are sweeter than honey,

even than honey that drips from the comb.

Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

 

 

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.

 

“Hear me, all of you, and understand.” (Mk 7:14)

 

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO   

 

Ask the Lord pardon for the times when we have followed the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law, and for the wounds and injuries caused by our legalistic attitude. Pray for our legislators and those in the law practice that they may be imbued with a Christian outlook of the role of the law in human society and the Church.

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August 31, 2015: MONDAY – WEEKDAY (22)

 “JESUS SAVIOR: He Was Rejected in His Own Country … We Will Be Always with Him!”

 

 

BIBLE READINGS

I Thes 4:13-18 // Lk 4:16-30

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

(Gospel Reflection by Heather Jacobs, Bluff City, TN – U.S.A. // Illustrative Account by

Sr. Mary Margaret, pddm)

 

As I reflected on the Gospel reading, the question kept coming to mind, why did Jesus’ relations and countrymen respond to him the way they did?  Even though they saw the miracles and heard His profound wisdom, they still would not accept Him.

 

As I applied this question to my personal experiences, I realized that oftentimes we do the same thing with our own family members and those whom we have known for a period of time. When we’ve grown up with someone and known them through various stages of their life, we often take that person for granted.  There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary about them.  They become another increment of our regular, predictable, everyday life and we can’t imagine that person as anything other than the ideas we’ve formed about them through our limited experiences of that person.

 

Often, we limit our knowledge, respect, and love for a person to the roles they’ve played in our own lives.  For example, when I think about my dad, it’s hard to think of him in any way other than as fulfilling the classic role of the father.  He helped raise me with discipline and love, and worked hard to provide for my needs.  All this is very important, but I must recognize that there’s more to him than just this, much more.  To know him more fully, I have to learn to step outside my own personal experiences of him and try to walk in his shoes.  A few years ago, my dad entered the deacon program.  Now, each time I go home to visit he seems more and more different from the person I grew up knowing.  It can be difficult to readjust and accept change, even when that change is positive.

 

I think a similar thing happened with Jesus’ relatives and countrymen. They helped raise Him, they fed Him, and played with Him. They helped clean Him and change Him when he got dirty as a young one. They helped teach and instruct Him. Suddenly, this man, who they thought they knew so well, returns and has profound wisdom and is working incredible miracles.  They grew up with Him, what’s so special about Him that such a change has occurred?  How and why did this change come about? If Jesus was a stranger to them and they didn’t have such preconceived ideas about Him, they probably would have accepted Him.

 

From this I realize that we need to learn to take a step back and try to view our acquaintances (especially those we know most closely) in a new way, rather than taking them for granted and just settling in our limited perspective of them.  Most of all, we need to step back and ask: how is God working in and through this person?  What is special and unique about this person?  And how can I love and know this person more fully and completely by recognizing who they are as an individual, not just according to the way I’ve chosen to perceive them from my limited experiences of them.

 

 

Illustrative Account: The rejection that Jesus has experienced from his countrymen continues to be replicated in the life of today’s Christians. The following modern day account, circulated on the Internet, is an example.

 

This was sent by Father John Pitzer, formerly at Holy Ghost Church and now in New Orleans. Please offer your prayers and share with as many people as possible.

 

Dear Friends,

Just a few minutes ago I received the following text message on my phone from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI). We then spoke briefly on the phone and I assured him that we would share this urgent prayer need with all of our contacts.

 

   "We lost the city of Queragosh (Qaraqosh). It fell to ISIS and they are beheading children systematically!!! Oh, dear God, what a world we are living in!!!!!

 

This is the city we have been smuggling food to. ISIS has pushed back Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) and is within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working. Thousands more fled into the city of Erbil last night. The UN evacuated it's staff in Erbil. Our team is unmoved and will stay. Prayer cover needed!"

 

Please pray sincerely for the deliverance of the people of Northern Iraq from the terrible advancement of ISIS and its extreme Islamic goals for mass conversion or death for Christians across this region.

 

***

 

Today’s First Reading (I Thes 4:13-18) is a Pauline masterpiece. This beautiful passage declares that God will unite with him the faithful departed. Animated with divine wisdom, Paul assures the Thessalonians, distressed about the destiny of their loved ones who died before the Lord’s parousia or final coming. They need not fear that their beloved dead would miss the glorious deliverance. Indeed, that we shall be united with the Lord always should be a deep consolation for us all.

 

The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent, comments: “Saint Paul is trying to instill hope into the Christians of Thessalonica. His message, in brief, is that the resurrection of Jesus is what gives meaning to every Christian life, and that God will take to himself those who have died with Christ. We died with Christ in baptism; we shall also share his resurrection. The confusion in the minds of the Thessalonians provides Paul with an occasion for describing what will happen at the end of time. He works with images, but his point is clear. His essential teaching is that all, whether already dead or still living when Christ comes, will be taken up with Christ into glory.”

 

In light of Saint Paul’s words of wisdom, we believe that death is a participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is also our last act of self-giving to our heavenly Father. As an intimate participation in Christ’s paschal mystery, death is life’s completion. It leads to eternal and intimate union with God. The following story can help us appreciate the beauty of this tremendous mystery and realize that the faithful departed are indeed with God (cf. Brian Clark, “September 11 Journeys of Faith: Vision of Hope” in Guideposts, September 2011, p. 54-55).

 

I lay on my side in bed, a week after the attack, waiting for the comfort of sleep, still trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Tomorrow, I was supposed to return to work at Euro Brokers’ new office space. I was one of the company’s executives. People expected me to be there, but was I really ready to go back? After what I’d been through?

 

It was still so surreal. I’d survived. Scrambled down 84 floors from my office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Some in the media were calling me a hero, because I’d stopped to pull a man from the rubble on the eighty-first floor. But surely anyone would have done the same. The truth, Stanley Praimnath has saved my life as much as I’d saved his. If not for him … I shuddered at what might have been. Just minutes after we got out, the building collapsed. I thought of the colleagues I’d lost, more than 60 in all. I’d never see them again.

 

I closed my eyes and I was back there in the South Tower with Stanley, holding onto each other, the stairwell lit only by my flashlight, pushing past huge pieces of drywall, water cascading down the steps. The air was thick with dust. Hacking, coughing, we got to the seventy-fourth floor, and suddenly it was like we’d entered another world. The lights were on. I could breathe again. We hurried on.

 

On the sixty-eighth floor we met a man coming up. Jose Marrero. He’d worked in the Euro Brokers’ security department for years, a friend to everyone he met. He was a handsome man, in his mid-thirties, with a 100-watt smile that told everyone that things were right with the world. But that day he was drenched in sweat, breathing hard, holding a walkie-talkie to his ear. “Jose”, I said, “where are you going?”

 

“I can hear David Vera’s voice up above”, he said. “I’m going to help him.”

 

“Dave’s a big boy”, I said. “He’ll get out on his own. Come on down with us.”

 

“No”, Jose said. “Dave needs help. I’ll be all right.”

 

It was the last time I saw him alive. I opened my eyes, staring into the empty darkness of my bedroom. My wife stirred and put her arm around me. Had Jose made it all the way to Dave Vera? Where was he when the tower came crashing down? He’d never again know his wife’s touch. He’d had his whole life ahead of him. Like so many of the others. Now, there was nothing.

 

My thought faded: tired …

 

I was awake again. I’ve gotta get some sleep. I was lying on my back looking at the foot of the bed. I never sleep like this. Why don’t I turn over? And then, suddenly, there was the image of Jose, standing inches from my feet. He was wearing the most unusual shirt, blousy and brilliant white. I stared at him. Jose, you’re alive. How did you do it?

 

He just smiled that glorious ear-to ear grin. He was okay, joyful even, like he was in on some kind of wonderful secret, and he seemed to be telling me, “You’ll figure it out.”

 

Then he was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Still, there was something that lingered. A powerful, reassuring presence. Jose is with God, I thought. But more than that, I sensed God was with me.

 

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO

 

1. Do we allow the adage “Familiarity breeds contempt” to take hold of us negatively and thus diminish our positive response to God’s marvelous actions and prophetic voice?  Are we open to the positive change that occurs in the people around us? Do we welcome the “surprises” that each new day brings to our life?

 

2. Are we heartened by the truth that God, through Jesus, will bring with him those who have fallen asleep and that we shall always be with the Lord? 

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO

 

Loving Father,

you sent prophets

to speak your word of mercy to your erring people.

In their ministry of salvation,

they experienced the agony and the ecstasy

that their proclamation entails.

In the fullness of time,

you sent to us your divine Son, the Incarnate Word.

He is the ultimate prophet and message-bearer,

the radical revelation of your saving love.

Jesus was rejected in his own native place.

As Christian disciples,

we, too, are called to proclaim your word today

and thus experience the agony and ecstasy of prophecy.

Give us the grace to be faithful to our vocation.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

            Amen.

 

***

O loving God,

we believe that Jesus died and rose again

and that you will take back with Jesus

those who have died believing in him.

We believe that the faithful departed

will experience the fullness of life

through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection.

In the spirit of the wisdom-filled Saint Paul,

let us be messengers of hope to the bereaved.

Help us assure the grieving

that their deceased loved ones are in your care.

We are deeply consoled

that we shall be always with you

and live in your presence, 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.

 

“No prophet is accepted in his own native place.” (Lk 4:24) //“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” ( I Thes 4:14)

 

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO

 

Pray that Christian disciples may be faithful to their prophetic ministry and be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in their task of witnessing to God’s message of truth, salvation and liberation. Offer a helping hand for modern day prophets who are being ostracized, abused and persecuted. // By your acts of kindness and compassion to the bereaved and the grieving and by your words of comfort, let them experience the hope of resurrection in Jesus Christ.

  

***

 

September 1, 2015: TUESDAY – WEEKDAY (22)

“JESUS SAVIOR: His Word Is Confirmed by His Deed … He Died for Us that We May Live Together with Him”

 

BIBLE READINGS

I Thes 5:1-6, 9-11 // Lk 4:31-37

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

 

Today’s Gospel reading (Lk 4:31-37) depicts the early phase of our Lord’s public ministry. Jesus is in the synagogue at Capernaum on a Sabbath, speaking the saving word of God and teaching with authority. The evangelist Luke describes the impact of his ministry on the worshipping assembly: “They were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.” Jesus then manifests the power of God’s saving word by performing a healing sign. He cures a man possessed by an unclean spirit. His word is confirmed by his deed. Both word and action manifest that he is truly the Messiah sent from God.

 

Cardinal John Henry Newman remarks: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. In him God is fully and truly seen, so that he is absolutely the way, and the truth and the life. All our duties are summed up for us in the message he brings … Christ has brought from his Father for all of us the full and perfect way of life. Thus he brings grace as well as truth, a most surprising miracle of mercy.”

 

A contemporary Church mission that is dear to me is the Vladivostok Mission: Reviving the Catholic Church in Eastern Russia. A way of collaborating is to send Mass stipends. I sent $20.00 requesting that a Mass be offered for two special intentions. Fr. Myron Effing’s letter of acknowledgment, dated July 31, 2012, contains an update of their mission and shows that their Gospel proclamation follows the way of Jesus, that is, by word and deed.

 

More good news, Sister Mary Margaret! You remember that our Lesozavodsk parishioner Vladimir needed to fly to Korea for a cancer operation – he came through the operation just fine, but now the extra good news. The two tumors were not cancerous! The doctor said that it was extremely dangerous anyway, and could be fatal if it had burst accidentally. He has returned home. And he says that for the first time in 57 years he feels normal! Most of his life he has lived with fever and a high white cell blood count. He wants to write a personal letter to all those who helped him with the operation. The donations for him from America came to just over $5000. Donations from the Russian side came to $3500. Most of this came from the active work of the parishioners of Visitation Parish in Lesozavodsk. Congratulations to everybody! Thanks be to God!

 

***

 

In today’s First Reading (I Thes 5:1-6, 9-11), Saint Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to stay awake and sober. They must be personally involved and absolutely ready for the Day of the Lord. It will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. The Day of the Lord has a twofold connotation: salvation for the just and judgment for the evil ones. The authors of the book Days of the Lord, vol. 4, remark: “For certain people, it will be catastrophic because, living heedlessly – in peace and quiet, as they see it – they will be taken unawares. For others who remain watchful, this coming will hold no surprise. It will happen in the night of the world; but Christians are not in darkness, for they are the children of light. They behave as in full daylight. They remain at all times spiritually awake, ready to welcome the Lord as a friend they have waited for; to him, they will joyfully open the door.”

 

The reason for Christian optimism is God’s saving activity. We are not destined to wrath, but for that future salvation that comes on the Day of the Lord. He died for us that we may live together with him. That definitive salvation is already at work in the present. With this assurance, we are to console and encourage one another as we look forward to the Day of the Lord.

 

The following story is a powerful example of how a believer prepares himself for the Day of the Lord (cf. Deena Burnett Bailey, “September 11 Journeys of Faith: A Glimpse of Heaven” in Guideposts, September 2011, p. 60-61).

 

I was married to Tom Burnett, one of the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93. Terrorists hijacked the plane, intending to fly it to Washington D.C., perhaps aiming for the White House. Tom managed to call me several times from the plane and he told me that he and other passengers were going to try to wrest control of the cockpit from the hijackers. Thanks to the bravery of those passengers, the plane didn’t reach its target but instead crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.

 

A ray of light cut through the darkness of that day for me – Tom’s faith. In the months leading up to September 11 a profound change had come over him, a deepening of his connection to God. At the time neither he nor I understood why. Then on September 11, it became clear to me.

 

Tom grew up Catholic. Unlike me, raised a Baptist, he seldom talked about his faith, though his rock-solid commitment to God was one of the things that drew me to him. After we married and had kids, I would go to church with him and I began to understand how he drew spiritual sustenance from the liturgy. The public prayer and sharing of faith experiences that I’d grown up with just wasn’t part of his makeup.

 

One day in the fall of 2000 Tom got home from work and said, “Deena, have you noticed that I haven’t been coming home for lunch lately?” We lived in California, where Tom was an executive at a medical-device company. Though he traveled frequently on business, whenever he was at the office he made a point of heading home to have lunch with me.

 

“I figured you were busy”, I said. “Actually, I’ve been going to Mass”, he said. I looked at him, puzzled. He went on, “A parish near the office has a noon Mass and I’ve been attending every day.”

 

“Why?” I asked. Tom paused. “I don’t know how else to say this. I feel like God is trying to tell me something. Maybe if I go to church every day, I’ll be able to hear better.”

 

Now I was really surprised. Tom never talked like this. “What do you think it is?” I asked. “I don’t know”, he said. “I have some sense that it’s going to affect a lot of people. And … well, this is the weird part, I think it might even involve the White House somehow.”

 

I had no idea what to make of this. Neither did Tom. Still, he kept attending Mass daily. He prayed more often and more openly, and we talked a lot about his growing relationship with God.

 

Tom never grew any more certain about the message being sent to him. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was the wonderful closeness that he shared with me.

 

That’s why even as the events of September 11 were unfolding, I had no doubt about the source of Tom’s courage aboard Flight 93 that day. And I believe his experience offers a ray of light through any darkness. A light that shines through my life even now, and forever.

 

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO

 

1. How do we share in Christ’s prophetic ministry? How do we make the voice of truth resound in the world today? In imitation of Christ, are we ready to support our prophetic proclamation with prophetic action?

 

2. How do I prepare for the Day of the Lord so that it will not overtake me like a thief in the night?  

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO 

 

Lord Jesus,

you are the true prophet.

The words you speak are confirmed

by marvelous signs and healing actions.

We thank you for revealing to us, by word and deed,

the mercy of God.

In you, we have received the vocation to proclaim the Gospel.

Give us the wisdom of the Holy Spirit

that we may fully discern and carry out the divine saving will.

You live and reign, forever and ever.

Amen.

 

***

O loving God,

we thank you for Saint Paul

who exhorts us to be ready for the Day of the Lord.

As children of light,

may we imitate him in living the life of Christ

and radiate the light of the Gospel to the world.

Please do not allow the Day of the Lord

to overtake us as a thief,

but rather, let it be for us a saving grace.

For the kingdom, the power and glory are yours,

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.

 

 “What is there about his word?” (Lk 4:36) //“Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us so that we may live together with him.” (cf. I Thes 5:9-10)

 

  

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO

 

Endeavor to bring the word of God and his healing love to a painful predicament and/or an unjust social situation. // Pray for the grace of a holy death and for greater readiness for the coming of the Day of the Lord. By your acts of justice, kindness and compassion, manifest that you are children of light, eager to welcome the Day of the Lord. 

  

*** *** ***

 

September 2, 2015: WEDNESDAY – WEEKDAY (22)

“JESUS SAVIOR: He Heals, Prays and Proclaims the Gospel … His Gospel Is Proclaimed to the Whole World”

 

 

BIBLE READINGS

Col 1:1-8 // Lk 4:38-44

  

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

 

Today’s Gospel (Lk 4:38-44) depicts our Lord Jesus in full swing in his public ministry. The paschal victory of Jesus is prefigured in the healing he carries out on behalf of Simon’s mother-in-law afflicted with a severe fever, the many others suffering with various diseases and those possessed by demons. The healing ministry of Jesus is a sign that the kingdom of wholeness has come. By his mission of healing, he asserts that sickness, suffering, and death do not have the ultimate word.

 

At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The “dawn” of Jesus is poised in earnest towards greater intimacy with the loving Father and the proclamation of the Gospel. The saving ministry of the healing Lord is sustained by his life of prayer and personal dialogue with the Father. Hence, the restoring touch of Jesus reaches out more extensively and the Good News is carried even farther, propelled by a life of recollection and prayer. Indeed, the ability to make core decisions for God’s kingdom is made possible by his profound communion with the Father in a relationship of prayer. Jesus’ tryst at the dawn of day and his deeds of healing invite us to sustain our own healing ministry by a life of prayer.

 

The following story of a consecrated religious, Sister Blandina Segale (cf. Margaret and Matthew Bunson, “Woman of the Wild, Wild West” in Our Sunday Visitor, March 25, 2007, p. 12) made me smile. I find her life of total dedication to the service of God’s people very inspiring and interesting. United with the Lord, she heals, prays and proclaims the Gospel.

 

One of the most intriguing Catholic women serving the people of the United States was Sister Blandina Segale, a Sister of Charity who cared for those who journeyed along the dangerous Santa Fe Trail. In 1872, Sister Blandina was sent alone to Trinidad, Colorado, a Wild West haven for outlaws and renegades. She was 22 at that time. Because she was a Catholic nun bent on aiding the local Native Americans and the poor, Sister Blandina was not welcomed to Trinidad with overwhelming enthusiasm. The residents of Trinidad faced hard lives and did not fancy the sort of concerns that a nun might have. They were not cruel or insulting toward her, but they obviously had little interest in her labors. That changed rather abruptly, however, when her “patron” announced one day that he expected one and all to treat her with respect and courtesy. If any of the good people of Trinidad caused Sister Blandina any problems, he would deal with them personally. Actually, he promised to shoot them down like dogs.

 

The townspeople knew the “patron” well, and some recalled that he had shot a man for snoring too loudly at a campsite, so he was a man to take seriously when he made a threat. The “patron” of Sister Blandina was William Bonney, known in history as Billy the Kid. She had given nursing care to one of Billy’s companions when he was shot and left for dead in an abandoned hut, and the famous outlaw was repaying her for her merciful care of his friend. He also appreciated her efforts for others. The first time they met, actually, Billy the Kid had come to town to scalp the four doctors who had refused aid to his wounded companion. Sister Blandina talked him out of it.

 

She had also saved the life of another man soon after arriving in Trinidad. Caught after fatally wounding a companion in a gun battle, the man was about to be dragged from the jail by an angry mob. Sister Blandina hurried to the bedside of the dying victim and talked him into forgiving his attacker. She and the sheriff then walked the murderer through the streets to the victim, who did forgive his assailant and then died. When Sister Blandina announced the deathbed scene to the angry men standing outside in the street, the mob thought it was all a bit peculiar, but they lost their enthusiasm for a hanging and let justice prevail in a courtroom. (…)

 

Sister Blandina was transferred to Santa Fe in time, where she continued establishing charitable institutions and programs. She labored for 21 years in the American West, becoming famous and respected … In time, Sister Blandina was assigned to Cincinnati, where she continued her labors with her sister, who was also a nun. She died in Cincinnati on February 23, 1941.

 

***

 

We begin today the semi-continuous reading of Saint Paul’s letter to the faith community in Colossae, a town in Asia Minor east of Ephesus. Though not established by him, Paul feels responsible for the Colossians as he sends out workers from Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia. Epaphras, a Colossian who is described by Paul as a “dear fellow servant” and “Christ’s faithful worker”, has brought the faith to Colossae. Epaphras, who may have been converted by Paul at Ephesus, reports to Paul of the love that the Spirit has given to the Colossians.  In today’s reading (Col 1:1-8), Saint Paul thanks God for their faith in Christ Jesus and for their love for all God’s people. Indeed, the Gospel that has been proclaimed to the Colossians and abroad is growing and bringing abundant blessings upon the believers.

 

Like Saint Paul, the apostle of Christ Jesus, and his fellow worker Epaphras, we too are called to proclaim the Gospel and experience its abundant fruits in our daily life. The following story gives a glimpse into the fruition of Christian faith (cf. Scott Walker, October 24 Reflection in Daily Guideposts 2010, p. 333).

 

All of our children are now in college or graduate school: Drew, a student at the University of South California Law School; Luke, a senior at Samford University; and Jodi, a sophomore at Furman University. Over the years many older friends told us that our children would grow up before we realized it. They were right!

 

But we have anything but an “empty nest”. My wife Beth is the international student relations adviser at Baylor University. One of her responsibilities is to find host families in our community of Waco, Texas, who will befriend international students. This year we have adopted three students: Lulu, a pre-dentistry student from Singapore; George, a prelaw student from the Philippines; and Lian, a graduate student in photo-journalism from China.

 

This afternoon I received an e-mail from George’s father. Tonight Lulu ate dinner with us and is spending the night. Yesterday Beth had lunch with Lian. Our life is enriched by our friendship with these wonderful young adults from Asia. They are now part of our family.

 

Beth and I are discovering that when we extend friendship and hospitality to God’s children, we receive far more than we give. And when we embrace people from around the world, God is able to multiply goodness and love between cultures and nations.

   

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO

 

1. Do I witness to the healing power of the Good News? Do I incarnate the healing compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ today? Do I derive strength and meaning for my healing ministry from deep communion with God in prayer?

 

2. Do we imitate Saint Paul and his fellow workers in proclaiming the Gospel and in letting it bear abundant blessings to all?

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO

 

Lord Jesus, our healing Lord,

people are hurting more than before.

Hold the sick in your arms.

Comfort them.

Fill their lives with meaning.

Touch their sufferings with your gentle healing hand.

And though we pray for health and healing,

let us find you in the mystery of suffering

and continue to work as God’s co-workers.

You live and reign, forever and ever.

Amen. 

 

***

Lord God,

we give you thanks for the spread and growth of the Gospel.

Give us the grace to be Christ’s faithful workers

in proclaiming the Good News of salvation to all.

Let our faith in Christ grow,

our love for one another inspire

and our hope of final union with Christ Savior be satisfied.

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.

 

            “He laid his hands in each of them and cured them.” (Lk 4:40) //“The Gospel is bearing fruit and growing.” (Col 1:6)

 

  

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO

 

Anointing of the sick is understood incompletely by many as “extreme unction” to be administered to a dying person, with the result that the person no longer has control of his/her faculties and so is incapable of receiving it with complete awareness, faith and devotion. As part of your healing ministry as a Christian, encourage a seriously ill person to receive the Anointing at the proper time. // By your kind words and acts of charity, let the Gospel spread and bear abundant fruits. See what you can do to utilize the digital media to proclaim the saving Gospel.

    

*** *** ***

 

September 3, 2015: THURSDAY – SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT, Doctor of the Church

 “JESUS SAVIOR: He Calls Us to Put Out into the Depths … In Him We Share the Lot of the Saints in Light”

 

BIBLE READINGS

Col 1:9-14 // Lk 5:1-11

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

 

Some years ago our class at Maryhill School of Theology celebrated the “Misa ng Bayang Pilipino”, the Filipino inculturated form of the Roman Mass, with the barrio inhabitants of Talim Island, located in the middle of Laguna de Bay, a beautiful lake in the Philippines. We lodged there overnight, hosted by several families. The following sunrise, we went to celebrate the Morning Prayer beside the lake. As we sat on the sand, we heard the waves gently touching the shore. We gazed upon small boats, called “bancas”, lying upturned on the sand and fishing nets hanging on bamboo poles and fences to dry. Indeed, the “bancas” and the nets are the life-blood of fishermen. In light of this experience, I can vividly imagine the episode described by the evangelist Luke at the Lake of Gennesaret.  It is easy for me to glean the significance of Simon Peter and the other fishermen renouncing their boats and nets and leaving everything behind to follow Jesus.

 

            The mission of Jesus is to bring salvation to all, in accordance with the Father’s saving plan. Today’s Gospel (Lk 5:1-11) describes him preaching beside the lake. In order to minister more effectively to the great crowd pressing upon him, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and asks him to put out a short distance from the shore. Jesus then sits down and teaches the crowd from the boat. Seated on that improvised pulpit, his voice as true Teacher resounds as the people listen attentively to his saving word.

 

            The next scene portrays the power of the word of God. After proclaiming to the crowd on the shore, Jesus commands the boat owner, who has worked all night without a catch: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  If the night fishing has been unprofitable, the daytime fishing would be even more so. Hence, it seems preposterous for a village carpenter-turned-prophet to command that to a professional fisherman.  Simon, however, acts upon the Master’s word. As a result, they catch such a great number of fish that the nets begin to tear. They signal to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. All are “awed” by the catch. Simon falls at the knees of Jesus saying, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus assures Simon and gives him a mission: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

     

            The reading concludes with an image of a dynamic response: “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.” The Lord who proclaimed the saving word of God to the eager crowd at Lake Gennesaret and challenged Simon and his companions to put out into the depths is the same Lord who calls us today to discipleship. The response of Peter and his companions inspires us to make a total commitment to Jesus and follow him into the depths of his paschal destiny. Like them, we too must be willing to launch into the deep waters and thus share in the bounty of salvation.  

 

***

 

In today’s First Reading (Col 1:9-14), Saint Paul prays for the Colossians: that God may give them the knowledge of his will – with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. This “knowledge” is not conceptual, but personal. It is a personal experience of God’s loving plan to save us in his Son Jesus Christ. True knowledge of the divine will implies living a life that is pleasing to God. It bears fruit in good deeds and is a total commitment to the divine saving will. The Christian believers are sure to encounter difficulties in their “walking in a manner worthy of the Lord”. Hence, Saint Paul prays that they may be strengthened by God’s glorious power. Then they will be able to endure everything with patience. Paul now invites: “Let us give thanks to the Father for having made you worthy to share in the lot of the saints in light.” God is worthy to receive thanks and praise because it is he who rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Through the paschal mystery of his Son Jesus Christ, we have redemption and our sins are forgiven.

 

The following story is an example of a call and response to share “in the lot of the saints in light” (cf. Linda Lochtefeld, “A Different Light” in 101 Inspirational Stories of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Sister Patricia Proctor, Spokane: Franciscan Monastery of Saint Clare, 2006, p. 11-12)

 

I grew up a Protestant, active in my church until I went to college. I never paid much attention to other faiths until I met my husband-to-be. Joe was a Catholic from a very Catholic community. I began attending church with Joe and tried to learn about his faith. When we got engaged, I decided to join the Church – mainly because it was important to Joe and his family. I believe I joined the Church with my head and not my heart, which is why things began to fall apart shortly after our wedding.

 

Within a year after our son, Lee, was born, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Suffering had begun. I was very confused. I got angry at everything and everybody: my husband, the doctors, and God. All I saw everywhere, including the church, was suffering and I couldn’t handle it. I felt that God had abandoned all of us. I quit going to church. My actions and attitudes became full of sin. I emotionally began leaving my marriage and unknowingly went into a deep depression.

 

In 1997, a few years after my mother’s death, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I hit bottom. I had never been more terrified in my life. Worst of all, I had no faith. When I checked into the hospital for surgery, I was asked what church I attended, what my faith was. I had no answer. I felt abandoned by God, but He was there watching over me, along with my husband, who never left my side.

 

After surgery, I turned on the TV trying to calm down, and that’s when I found the channel with the camera on the crucifix in the chapel at the hospital. I left that channel on all night. Every time I woke up there’s a soft glow from the TV filling the room – and there was Jesus on the cross. I stared at Him and began to see His suffering in a different light. For the first time I started to see within my heart the beauty and love of our crucified Savior on the cross. My life began to change.

 

My mother-in-law gave me a tape of the rosary that Joe and I played and prayed together whenever the fear set in. During this time, I experienced one of the greatest healings of all, through the sacrament of reconciliation. I had only gone to confession once, when I first joined the church fifteen years previously. As a Protestant I had been taught that all I had to do was tell God I was sorry for my sins, and He would forgive me. I had been doing that over and over since my surgery, but I couldn’t stop feeling guilty for the many, many sins of my past.

 

Finally, I made an appointment to see our priest, Father Daniel Conlon, now bishop of Steubenville, to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation in his office. Before my confession, I wrote down everything I could think of then, even though I dreaded facing Father with my embarrassing sins. I felt this push from the Holy Spirit and I couldn’t stop. I poured out my past amidst tears and Kleenex. Father counseled me, and then he stood up, laid hands on me and prayed over me. He told me that in the name of Jesus, my sins were forgiven. I felt numb as I left his office.

 

In the days ahead, I became aware that a change was happening. Every time I would begin to think about the past, my thoughts immediately would turn to something else. Later, I would realize that I had not spent any time thinking about my guilt or my sins. Thoughts and feelings that I couldn’t seem to control before were being cleansed completely from my mind. My past was being lifted once and for all.

 

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO

 

1. What is our personal response to the Master’s command: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch”? Do we ever allow our human unworthiness and insufficiency to daunt us? Do we imitate the faith-response of Peter and his companions: “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him”?

 

2. How does this Pauline faith affirmation impact us: “God rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Through him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins”?

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO

 

Lord and Master,

you challenged Peter to put out into the deep.

May we imitate Simon Peter’s faith response

and experience the bountiful catch.

May poverty and insufficiency never daunt us.

May we trust in your words: “Do not be afraid!”

You live and reign, forever and ever.

Amen.

 

***

Loving Father,

grant us a true knowledge of your will.

Help us to live in a way that pleases you.

Make us bear the fruit of good deeds.

Let our faith grow and produce abundantly.

We give you thanks, God our Father,

for calling us to share in the lot of the saints in light,

through Jesus your beloved Son.

Through him we have redemption,

the forgiveness of our sins.

We give you glory and praise,

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.

 

            “Put out into deep water.” (Lk 5:4) //“Let us give thanks to the Father for having made you worthy to share the lot of the saints in light.” (Col 1:12)

 

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO 

 

Pray for all Christians that we may realize the greatness of our vocation as “fishers of men”. Offer special prayers and acts of charity for the increase and perseverance of priestly and religious vocations. // At the end of the day, find a quiet place and moment, and pray meditatively Col 1:12-13. Consider also the possibility of celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation one of these days.

      

*** *** ***

 

September 4, 2015: FRIDAY – WEEKDAY (22)

“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is the Bridegroom-Messiah … He Is the Image of God and Icon of God’s Love”

 

BIBLE READINGS

Col 1:15-20 // Lk 5:33-39

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

 

Today’s Gospel (Lk 5:33-39) depicts Jesus as the Bridegroom-Messiah. He invites us to a new relationship that transcends mere legal observance and superficial piety. A loving relationship with the Bridegroom entails a radical transformation and infuses new meaning into such religious practices as fasting, an issue raised by some people when they observed that John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, while Jesus’ disciples did not. Jesus answers them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, they will fast in those days.” The reference to the Bridegroom being taken away is an allusion to the death of Jesus that led to his saving glory.

 

Indeed, in the new dispensation that resulted from the paschal event of the death and resurrection of Jesus, his disciples would fast, but not in the meaning given to this religious practice by the disciples of John and the Pharisees. Following a new lifestyle based on the radical salvation won for us by Christ’s saving death on the cross, the Christian disciples would also fast, but for the right reason. An erroneous notion of fasting has no place in the messianic kingdom ushered in by Christ. Indeed, the followers of Jesus would exercise various forms of salutary asceticism, in a spirit of receptivity to the coming of the Kingdom. They would carry these out in anticipation of the full joy that is prepared for them by the victorious Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, in the nuptial banquet in heaven. 

 

The radical newness of our relationship with Christ can be compared to a piece of new cloth which should not be sewn into an old cloak, for it will make the tear even greater. It can also be compared to new wine which should not be poured into an old wineskin for it will cause the skin to break and spill the wine. Indeed, the love-relationship with Christ, the Bridegroom, demands an exhilaratingly new vision and life-style, symbolically portrayed by Luke as “new wine” poured into fresh wineskins.

 

The Redemptorist John P. Fahey Guerra gives insight into Christian fasting as an opportunity to gauge our cooperation with God’s plan (cf. Ligourian, A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication, February 2012, p. 11).

 

We have formed attitudes, feelings, and beliefs about the poor and about poverty in our lives that are simply not in accord with our faith in the God of Jesus Christ. Many of these attitudes have become so habitual that they appear “natural” to us, and, as a consequence, we don’t see the need to reflect on them.

 

Fasting is a spiritual exercise that seeks to break the power these habits of mind and heart have over us. It is not deprivation for deprivation’s sake, but rather a distancing of ourselves from our present worldview so that our faith in God’s view of the world might take hold of us.

 

Our encounter with the poor family in Mexico was disconcerting to us; it broke the pattern of our comfortable view of the world. It questioned our way of living. It showed us that we were far from where we were called to be. Fasting is a way for us to intentionally bring into question our present way of living.

 

***

 

We are called to love. This Christian imperative takes on a deep meaning and broad perspective when seen against the backdrop of today’s First Reading (Col 1:15-20), which is an early hymn of the Church extolling Christ as Creator and Redeemer. As the first-born of all creation and the first-born from the dead, he is the head of the body, the Church, and has primacy in everything. It is astounding that this highly exalted Jesus Christ fulfilled the divine saving plan “to reconcile everything” both on earth and in the heavens through “the blood of his cross”. Christ is the image of the invisible God. By his paschal mystery, he revealed the fullness of the God’s love for us and became the perfect icon of the Father’s compassionate love. Through his sacrificial death that brought redemption and peace to all creation, Christ manifested radically the absolute and uncompromising love of God for all and thus became the utmost sacrament of salvation.

  

As Christian disciples, we are urgently called to be deeply involved in the work of creation and redemption. We do this by following the demands of covenant love: “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” We too need to be icons or living images of God’s compassionate love for all.  One efficacious way to reflect the goodness of God is to treat with sensitivity and preferential concern the poor and needy, the weak and vulnerable among us.

 

The following story is lovely and very inspiring. It illustrates how we can be “icons of love” in today’s world. We need more inspiring and heart-warming testimonies like this (cf. “The Life Cycle of the Egg Salad Sandwich” by Colby Thiele and Roger Williams in The Way of St. Francis, March-April 2010, p. 11-15).

 

It all began in December 2008. The U.S. economy was continuing its decline, foreclosures were mounting, unemployment rates were steadily rising, and newspaper articles were being written about how the growing homeless population had increased the strain on the local food banks. That was when we – Roger and Colby – decided we wanted to give back to the community by volunteering our time. The two of us shared an employer and rode the bus to work each day. As luck would have it, our route passed right by St. Mary’s Basilica, a Franciscan parish in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Each morning we observed a congregation of homeless men and women in the church’s parking lot, waiting in line for something. Our curiosity aroused, we called to inquire about volunteering our services – and to find out what was really going on.

 

Our journey began in earnest the first week of February 2009 when we met Linda and Tom, the couple in charge of the St. Mary’s Food Program. What we had been witnessing from the bus was a church-sponsored effort that provided a sack lunch to some 200 to 300 people a day. We were immediately welcomed into the volunteer family of the morning food program. Initially, we thought we could give a little of our time to help those less fortunate. After our first day, however, we found that we had committed to volunteering three days a week: every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning. Little did we know that we would benefit more from our efforts than those who received food from us.

 

On occasion, the two of us had discussed just how fortunate we both were in life. Life, after all, can take many different paths. Depending on your philosophy, you can attribute your path to luck, choice or divine intervention. After our first few weeks of volunteer work with the food program, we were both overwhelmed with questions. We wondered, if we had made different decisions, or if our circumstances had been slightly different during periods in our life, would we be on the other side of the receiving line? We came to the conclusion that this could have easily been the case.

 

Our first day consisted of placing sandwiches in brown paper bags that already contained round tortilla corn chips and candy. After that, we were escorted by Linda and Tom to the street level with the bagged meals and a cart full of juice boxes. We began the distribution process by joining hands and reciting The Lord’s Prayer. Twelve months later, it is safe to say that the two of us have recited The Lord’s Prayer more often in the back parking lot of St. Mary’s than in all our other days combined!

 

We handed out the sack lunches and the drinks, and offered simple greetings such as “Good morning” or “How are you?” Each of our guests replied with a pleasant “thank-you” or “God bless you”. It felt good to receive such a warm response and see the appreciation in the eyes of the men and women. Then came the first ripple in the pond that provided the moment of change – we asked a person for his name. He said his name was Clyde, and we, in return, introduced ourselves. The look in Clyde’s eyes and his demeanor immediately changed. The idea that someone would ask his name and take more of an interest than just handing out food surprised him.

 

As each day went by, we made it a point to introduce ourselves and find out the name of at least one additional person per day. Before long we knew Clyde, Chet, Adam, Tony, David, Guy, Anna, Pat, Adrian, Meagan, Blake, Ed, Floyd and many more. We became familiar with some of their likes and dislikes. Guy, for example, likes Costal Cooler juice boxes, so we would save one for him each day and slip him two sandwiches so that he could keep one for dinner. Blake prefers bologna sandwiches with a crunch, so he would take his chips and add them to the middle of his sandwich. Forearmed with this knowledge, we were able to make Blake feel that his preferences were known and important: when he showed up, we’d have his sandwich ready, chips already inserted in the middle.

 

It didn’t take long before we had our first uncomfortable encounter. One of the homeless men began shouting at others in line. We didn’t know what to do or how to handle it. Fortunately for us, the situation resolved itself. The shouting ended and the man left. The next day the man was back, and we were worried about another confrontation. Instead, the man took his place in line, and we asked his name. He told us his name, Michael, and we introduced ourselves, thus beginning a dialogue that lasted nearly a year. Then we had Sam get upset over a candy bar. He threw it on the ground in front of us and stepped on it. The next day we greeted Sam and went out of our way to be nice and befriend him. We found out very quickly that the way to change people was through kindness and understanding.

 

As the days and weeks past, we realized we were receiving more from the program than the homeless were. We looked forward to our Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. We found that beginning our day at St. Mary’s was not only good for our souls but actually energized us. We work in an office building with more than 300 coworkers, yet we noticed we were saying hello to more people on the streets than to coworkers in the office. Over the course of the last year, we have become involved in the lives of the people we serve. We have raised funds for cross-country bus tickets; donated watches, hats and clothing; purchased brakes for bicycles; and made hundreds of brownies to add to the food bags. We do these things because we feel we are making a difference. And each time we give, we receive.

 

Our week begins before 6:30 each Monday morning at St. Mary’s. Immediately upon our arrival in the church’s downstairs social hall, we add 180 to 216 ham and cheese sandwiches to bags already packed with other items. While we are getting the meals ready, Linda is hard at work, running up and down the stairs to the friary kitchen to boil 15 dozen eggs. At 7 a.m., we move the ham and cheese sandwich lunches to the street level, recite The Lord’s Prayer and spend the next sixty minutes handing out food and greeting the people we have come to know over the last year. During this sixty-minute period, other volunteers are peeling the hard-boiled eggs (yes, all 180 of them) and crushing them into sizes small enough for egg salad. The crushed eggs are wrapped and refrigerated.

 

On Wednesday morning we arrive – again, before 6:30 a.m. – and once more place the day’s sandwiches (this time tuna salad) in the pre-packed bags. Once we have completed this task, it’s time to mix the crushed eggs with mayonnaise into a mixture with the proper consistency to spread on bread. We then proceed to make 180 to 216 egg salad sandwiches. These sandwiches are bagged, boxed and refrigerated for the following day.

 

On Thursday morning we arrive and transfer the egg salad sandwiches from the refrigerator to the pre-made bags for distribution to the homeless that morning. We have come to know our week as The Life Cycle of the Egg Salad Sandwich. Our journey begins on Monday with the raw eggs and ends on Thursday with very tasty sandwiches.

 

As an aside, since we became involved with the St. Mary’s Food Program, our professional careers have flourished and our personal lives have improved in ways that are indescribable. Coincidence? Some may think so, but we know better.

  

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO

 

1. Do we respond to God’s eternal and faithful love incarnated in Christ, the messianic Bridegroom? Do we cherish the radical newness that God’s forgiving and renewing love brings to us through his Son Jesus Christ? Are we ready to share the tenderness of God’s love with the forlorn and abandoned of today’s world?

 

2. Do we truly honor Jesus Christ – highly exalted in creation and salvation history – by allowing ourselves to be molded by him into “icons of divine love”? 

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO

 

Lord Jesus,

you are the Bridegroom of the Church,

Renew us in your love

and pour “new wine” to our feasting.

Let us be faithful servants and trustworthy stewards.

Purify the motives of our hearts

that we may render God fitting praise,

now and forever.

Amen.

 

***

Loving Father,

Jesus Christ is the image of your compassionate goodness.

Your Servant-Son Jesus is the primordial sacrament of your saving love.

He is the first-born of all creation and the first-born from the dead.

He is the Lord of all creation and our Savior-Redeemer.

Grant us the grace to be transformed,

through our intimate participation in Christ’s paschal sacrifice,

into living “icons of love”.

May we reflect the radiance of your life-giving love

in today’s fragmented and suffering world.

Bless us, loving Father.

We love and serve you;

we give you praise

and glorify you as the font of love,

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.

 

            “When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” (Lk 5:35) // “Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.” (Col 1:15a)

 

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO

 

Pray for those whose marriage bond has been adulterated and shattered. Offer your contribution to promote the healing of nuptial relationships and the integrity of the sacrament of matrimony. // By your active works of charity to the poor and vulnerable, strive to be “icons of love” in today’s world. 

    

*** *** ***

September 5, 2015: SATURDAY – WEEKDAY (22); BVM ON SATURDAY

“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is the Lord of the Sabbath … By His Death We Are Reconciled to God”

 

BIBLE READINGS

Col 1:21-23 // Lk 6:1-5

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO

 

The Pharisees, the religious experts, become more and more critical of everything Jesus does. In today’s Gospel account, the Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of profaning the Sabbath, the seventh day. According to Jewish tradition, the Sabbath is to be kept holy and as a day of rest since God rested on the seventh day. The biblical scholar Samuel Oyin Abogunrin comments: “In order to make sure no one did any work during the day of rest (Friday evening until Saturday evening), the rabbis later added numerous additional regulations so that scrupulous people could be sure they obeyed the Torah rule properly. In the process they focused on doing the right thing and making sure others did the right thing; as often happens in such cases, some people lost sight of the true meaning of the Sabbath.”

 

In today’s Gospel reading (Lk 6:1-5), the Pharisees confront the disciples of Jesus for doing what is unlawful on a Sabbath. Eating the grain out of someone’s field is not unlawful, but plucking the grain and rubbing the kernels to remove the husks is tantamount to “plucking” and “winnowing”, farm tasks that break the Sabbath law. Jesus defends his disciples by appealing to sacred scriptures. He asks the Pharisees if what his disciples have done is wrong, what about David: he and his hungry men went into the house of God, took the bread and ate the bread which can be “lawfully” eaten only by priests. In this incident (cf. I Samuel 21:2-7) the disciplinary restriction of the law gives way before human need. Jesus then makes a climactic assertion: “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus is the “Son of Man” who ushers in the dawn of salvation even on a Sabbath.

 

The following story gives a glimpse into the perversion of the Law/religion as well as its true interpretation/meaning (cf. Anthony De Mello, Taking Flight: A Book of Story Meditations, New York: Image Books, 1988, p. 90-92).

 

Among the Jews, the observance of the Sabbath, the day of the Lord, was originally a thing of joy. But too many Rabbis kept issuing one injunction after another on how exactly it was to be observed, what sort of activity was allowed, until some people felt they could hardly move during the Sabbath for fear that some regulation or other might be transgressed.

 

The Baal Shem, son of Eliezer, gave much thought to this matter. One night he had a dream. An angel took him up to heaven and showed him two thrones placed above all others. “For whom they are reserved?” he asked. “For you” – was the answer – “if you make use of your intelligence, and for a man whose name and address is now being written down and given to you.”

 

He was then taken down to the deepest spot in hell and shown two vacant seats. “For whom are these prepared?” he asked. “For you” – the answer came – “if you do not make use of your intelligence and for the man whose name and address are being written down for you.”

 

In his dream Baal Shem visited the man who was to be his companion in paradise. He found him living among Gentiles, quite ignorant of Jewish customs, and, on the Sabbath, he would give a banquet at which there was a lot of merrymaking, and to which all his Gentile neighbors were invited. When Baal Shem asked him why he held this banquet, the man replied, “I recall that in my childhood my parents taught me that the Sabbath was a day of rest and for rejoicing; so on Saturdays my mother made the most succulent meals at which we sang and danced and made merry. I do the same today.”

 

Baal Shem attempted to instruct the man in the ways of his religion, for he had been born a Jew but was evidently quite ignorant of all the rabbinical prescriptions. But Baal Shem was struck dumb when he realized that the man’s joy in the Sabbath would be marred if he was made aware of his shortcomings.

 

Baal Shem, still in his dream, then went to the home of his companion in hell. He found the man to be a strict observer of the Law, always apprehensive lest his conduct should not be correct. The poor man spent each Sabbath day in a scrupulous tension as if he were sitting on hot coals. When Baal Shem attempted to upbraid him for his slavery to the Law, the power of speech was taken from him as he realized that the man would never understand that he could do wrong by fulfilling religious injunctions.

 

Thanks to this revelation given to him in a form of a dream, the Baal Shem Tov evolved a new system of observance whereby God is worshiped in joy that comes from the heart.

 

When people are joyful they are always good; whereas when they are good they are seldom joyful.

  

***

 

In today’s First Reading (Col 1:21-23), Saint Paul reinforces the idea that God made peace through his Son’s sacrificial death on the cross by applying it to the personal experience of the Colossians. In their pre-Christian pagan past, they were alienated from God by the evil things they did and thought. But their former existence has given way to a new one through Christ’s reconciling action by his death on the cross. Through the death of Jesus they are reconciled to God and are presented to him “holy, without blemish and irreproachable before him”. Paul urges the Colossian believers to maintain this present state of holiness and blamelessness. They must continue to be faithful and steadfast in keeping the Gospel that has been proclaimed to them. The apostle Paul is at the service of this transforming life-giving Gospel that has been proclaimed to the world.

 

Christ’s act of reconciliation lives on in today’s here and now through the works of his ministers. The following story is an example (cf. Daniel Longland, “Won’t Go to Confession” in 101 Inspirational Stories of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Sister Patricia Proctor, Spokane: Franciscan Monastery of Saint Clare, 2006, p. 17).

 

I am a priest in the Diocese of Plymouth in England, and for seven years I was the Catholic chaplain in a rather large local hospital there. One day as I was visiting patients, a man told me that he did not want to see me. I said, “Okay, that is all right.” Each day as I passed his bed, I would greet him and then walk on.

 

On one occasion he called me and said, “Listen, if I wanted to receive the sacraments again after more than sixty years, I know I would have to go to confession and I cannot do that.” I assured him that going to confession would be quite easy, and that I would ask him the questions. We talked for a long time and finally he said he would go to confession. I made an appointment for him for three days later.

 

The following day as I passed his bed he called to me and said, “Sorry, but I cannot possibly tell you what I have been doing all these years. I won’t go to confession.” I sat at the foot of his bed and asked him, “What are you afraid to tell me?” To my amazement, he told me about all the sins he thought he could not tell in two or three days’ time. When he finished talking, I asked him, “Is there anything else you have to tell me?” He said, “No, that is everything.”

 

I asked him if he was truly sorry for all these faults and failings because he had now confessed everything! Then I told him about God’s love for him and for us all. I gave him absolution and anointed him. He was so happy!

 

The next day when I went to the hospital, I was informed that the man had died that night. All I could say was, “God is so great! His love is beyond understanding”.

  

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO

 

1. What does it mean for us personally that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath? How do we keep the Lord’s Day holy?

 

2. How do we respond to the affirmation that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ and that we are called to stand before him “holy, without blemish and irreproachable”?

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO

 

O Jesus Lord,

you are the Lord of the Sabbath.

Teach us the meaning of compassion

and help us discern the true demands of God’s commands.

You live and reign, forever and ever.

Amen.

 

***

 Lord God,

we thank you for the ministers of the Gospel.

Above all, we thank you for Christ’s death on the cross

which reconciled us to you.

Let us be steadfast in faith, hope and love

and keep us “holy, blameless and irreproachable” in your sight.

Teach us how to be of service to the Gospel

and imitate Saint Paul and the apostles in their missionary zeal.

We bless 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 week. Please memorize it.

 

“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.“ (Lk 6:5) //“God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death.” (Col 1:22)

 

                                                                                                                                               

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO

 

Endeavor to celebrate Sunday as truly the Lord’s Day. // In any way you can, enable your friends and family members to appreciate the meaning and importance of the sacrament of reconciliation.

***

 

 

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

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