A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 10)
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – February 4, 2007
“Here I Am! Send me!”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 6:1-2a, 3-8 // I Cor 15:1-11 // Lk 5:1-11
N.B. Series 5 of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY includes a prayerful study of the Sunday liturgy of Year C from the perspective of the First Reading. For another set of reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year C, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 2.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
I made my annual retreat in January 2005 at our convent in peaceful Monrovia, which is in the foothills of the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains. The topic of my meditation was part 2 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church entitled “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery”, one of the richest and most comprehensive documents we have on Christian worship. One of the themes I focused on was the reality of the Eucharist as a foretaste of heavenly glory. On the Sunday Mass that I attended in our parish in Monrovia during my retreat, I received a special gift – a tremendous experience of the nearness of the all-holy God and the community of the angels and saints in heaven. While the choir and the assembly were singing the Sanctus, at one moment I felt the overwhelming presence of the heavenly court, the saints and the faithful departed. The liturgy of the Eucharist celebrated right there and then at the Parish of Immaculate Conception gave me an intimate foretaste of the heavenly liturgy and an incredible glimpse of cosmic worship. As I continued my prayerful contemplation after that Mass, I realized that I had often taken things for granted with regards to the tremendous gift of Christian sacraments, especially the Eucharist. I became greatly cognizant of my mediocre response to the grace that I have received as a disciple and apostle of the Eucharist. I was deeply sorry for not having lived to the full my religious vocation as a Pious Disciple of the Divine Master called to the service of the Eucharist, the Priesthood and the Liturgy. I therefore begged God to purify my motivations and to help me in my resolve to commit myself more totally to his love and the service of my neighbors. That profound religious experience challenged me to recommit myself more deeply to my apostolic mission. My experience of the sacred replicated to some degree that of prophet Isaiah in this Sunday’s Old Testament reading (Is 6:1-2a, 3-8) and that of Peter and the other apostles in the Gospel reading (Lk 5:1-11)
The biblical scholar Eugene Maly comments: “Accounts of two of the most profound religious experiences ever recorded are in this Sunday’s first and third readings. They involve cases of human confrontation with the divine and a consequent awareness of mission. While only relatively few persons have so intense an experience, most believers are probably conscious, sometime, of God acting in their lives. At the least, vocation means the conviction of God’s call, however it may be experienced. In our first case, that of Isaiah, the religious phenomena are many and richly symbolic. God is pictured as a majestic king seated high on a throne. Seraphim, winged creatures representing the royal court, act out their worshipful reverence … The triple holy, familiar to us from the Eucharist, is the only way in which they can give utterance to God’s absolute goodness, his transcendence, his otherness. No wonder foundations shake and earth takes on his glory … Let us look now at Isaiah’s reaction. It is one of sin-consciousness; not any particular sin, but the sin-prone condition of the human person when aware of the divine majesty and holiness. Unless that holiness somehow sears my lips, my heart, my soul, I can do nothing. I am lost. With Peter the reaction is the same. That is why we know we are dealing with the same kind of religious experience. He falls down at Jesus’ feet and begs him to depart … In each case, however, holiness cleanses and makes a partner in mission. With Isaiah the cleansing rite is, as expected, elaborate. A winged creature with burning coal touches the sinner’s lips with the message, Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Isaiah recognizes and accepts the forgiveness. When the call to mission comes, there is no hesitation, Here am I! Send me! With Peter, again, there is no ritual. Just the assuring words, Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men. And the counterpart to Isaiah’s request for mission is Peter’s leaving all and following him."
Indeed, holiness, as God’s essential quality, indicates his utter transcendence, his complete apartness from anything sinful, and his utter power and grandeur. The triple-holy God initiates his love-service relationship with us by giving us a sacred experience of his glory, which is the radiation of his holiness upon the world, especially his own people. The experience of God’s holiness and awesome grandeur entails an invitation to mission, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? (Is 6:8). It involves an appeal to total surrender and a submission to his baffling, mysterious command: Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch (Lk 5:4). Indeed, the experience of the sacred and divine power calls us to plunge more deeply into the awesome mystery of his divine life. It purges us of our unworthiness and fickleness, making us partners in his mission to save and bring back humankind and the entire creation to his kingdom of love, beauty and grace.
The Dominican friar, Gerald Vann, underlines the profound and life-giving implications of responding to Christ’s enigmatic invitation: “Launch out into the deep, our Lord tells us; it can be a frightening thing, the first time you plunge into the sea, because you are in a new strange element; but if you go on you forget the fright and enjoy the thrill, the sense of freedom; and the strange element becomes friendly and buoyant even while it remains immense. That is what religion is meant to be like: it means not just knowing more things than you otherwise would, but knowing something underneath all things, knowing the secret heart of things, because you know the Presence, the Love, that is in and about all things. It means plunging into the divine life as a diver plunges into the sea. That is why our Lord said that he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly; if you plunge into this element you escape from the narrow confines of the selfish and the shallow, and move into immensity.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Are we sensitive to various religious experiences that the loving God is giving us as gift? What have I learned from the religious experience of the prophet Isaiah? Like Isaiah, are we willing to have our “unclean lips” purged and thus experience a deep spiritual cleansing that would prepare us to be mission partners in God’s plan of salvation? How do we respond to the triple holiness of God?
B. What did we learn from Peter and the apostles at the Lake of Gennesaret with Jesus? How does the episode of the miraculous catch of fish impinge on us? Are we ready to respond personally to Christ’s enigmatic command: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch”? Are we ready to risk the mysterious, the profound, the immense, the unknown, and the deep? Do we feel our unworthiness and vulnerability when the challenge of the “sacred” and the profound encounter us?
C. When we hear the Lord say, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” what is our response? Are we ready to declare with the words of prophet Isaiah, “Here I am; send me”? After having made the initial response to Jesus Master’s command to launch into the deep and cast our nets, are we ready to leave everything to follow him and become fishers of men?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: O loving God, you are infinitely holy and your grandeur is immense and infinite. We adore you with the seraphim stationed in the heavenly temple and bow down in worship. We cry out to you, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with your glory!” Let our unclean lips be purged of all that is not right and true.
Assembly: Heaven and earth are full of your glory! Hosanna in the highest!
Leader: Jesus Master, you meet us by the shore of our daily life experiences and invite us to put out into deep water for a catch. Give us the grace to venture into the profound, the unknown, the immense, the mysterious, and the infinitely sacred. May we plunge into the sea of divine life as a diver immerses himself into the deep blue sea. May we venture more and more into your life-giving immensity.
Assembly: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
Leader: We thank you, Lord, for giving us a glimpse of your holiness, power and glory. We listen eagerly to your voice, “Whom shall I send; and who will go for us?” We declare with alacrity:
Assembly: “Here I am, Lord; send me!”
Leader: We thank you, Jesus, for resounding the call to be partners in your saving plan and to work with you in your redemptive mission as fishers of men. We leave our nets and boats by the empty and lifeless shores and we follow you unreservedly.
Assembly: All I longed for I have found by the water; at your side I will seek other shores.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’” (Is 6:8)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the people of today may be deeply grateful for the experience of the sacred and be utterly sensitive to the call to mission. Contribute in any way you can to promote vocational ministry in the Church and to assist the priests in their work as fishers of men. Endeavor to alleviate the plight of the poor and to restore the rights of the wronged in today’s world.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us to be more open to profound religious experiences and to contemplate more deeply the challenge of our call and mission as fishers of men, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 3, n. 10): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
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