A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 12)
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – February 18, 2007
“Be Merciful …”
BIBLE READINGS
I Sam 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 // I Cor 15:45-49 // Lk 6:27-38
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
A few weeks after I arrived in the Philippines in 1990, after nine years of missionary experience in Rome and India, I received the distressing news that Nelson, the director of SONOLUX ASIA was brutally stabbed at his office by his enraged driver. He died in a car while being rushed to the hospital. In the 1970s Nelson was part of Fr. Paul Brunner’s staff at the Audio-Visual service of the East Asian Pastoral Institute. Every time we needed Nelson’s audio-visual expertise, our dear friend Fr. Brunner, a Jesuit missionary from France, would ask him to share his skills with the Sisters. The greatly talented Nelson would assist us in preparing sound-slide productions for our PDDM vocational ministry. With a debt of gratitude for all the good that he had done for us, we attended Nelson’s funeral, which was very emotional and touching. At the Responsorial Psalm, we heard the beautiful and limpid recorded voice of the deceased Nelson praying Psalm 23. The sight of the grieving widow Ditas and her two young children broke our heart. At the concluding rites and with great dignity and inner strength, the young widow spoke the following powerful words of forgiveness to the assailant who was still at large: “I forgive you. I am praying for you.”
The widow’s merciful and heroic forgiveness gives us a glimpse of the ideals of Christian discipleship that are delineated in this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Lk 6:27-38). Love, compassion and forgiveness are the marks of Christian discipleship. The Old Testament reading provides us with a fitting background on Jesus’ teachings on how to model our behavior on God. The merciful and compassionate David, strengthened by his faith in the Lord, spared the life of Saul who was cruelly and unjustly persecuting him. David’s magnanimity and his respect for the one God has anointed as king of Israel is a forceful example of one who strives to imitate the all-inclusive and tremendous love of God for all, including those who seem undeserving. David’s action seemed incomprehensible and was definitely beyond mere human logic. But the grace of God made forgiveness of his enemy possible.
The biblical scholar Adrian Nocent comments: “The Old Testament reading provides us with a remarkable example of generosity and respect for an enemy’s life and for his person, which is consecrated by God … David’s reaction is quite different, for it is inspired by the Lord. He instinctively respects God’s action in originally choosing Saul, and he needs far clearer signs before he can bring himself to kill someone, though his enemy, who was once anointed by God. Therefore he refuses to lift his hand against the anointed king and leaves it to the Lord to see justice done: The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness (v. 23) David will not take the law into his own hands … This is a splendid story; even today it strikes us as one that does honor to mankind. The Christian of today should have the same respect for God’s plan as it affects every created person. The merciful David has been a pre-figuration of Christ. He, David, was a man anointed, and he foretold the great Anointed One who was to come and who would forgive his enemies from the Cross.”
The Love incarnate Jesus Christ – the ultimate merciful, benevolent and forgiving One – challenges us to live up to the challenges of Christian discipleship and this Sunday’s Gospel passage contains the demands of an all-inclusive love that is a signature mark of his true followers. We may never fully achieve this ideal, but the word of Jesus addressed to us today, in the here and now, is a call and invitation to love more fully and to imitate God’s love more closely, even with regards to those we may consider our “enemies”.
Lawrence Mick remarks: “The examples given of what love of enemies demands seem extreme. They probably are not meant to be taken literally, but they are intended to challenge any limitation that we are tempted to put on our willingness to love … The last part of today’s reading seems to reverse the pattern, suggesting that as we do, God will do. This is not uncommon when Jesus speaks of forgiveness. Certainly, forgiveness comes first from God through Christ, yet only if we forgive others can we embrace God’s forgiveness. The final image of the measure of grain, shaken down, packed tightly and overflowing being poured into one’s lap, or the fold of their garment, is almost humorous … This is a wonderful symbol of the overwhelming generosity of God, which we are called to imitate.”
Indeed, those who are called to experience the beatitudes are also called to model their life in imitation of the compassionate God and his all-inclusive, forgiving love. Jesus had shown us what it means to love without measure – even one’s enemies. The distance from “loving one’s neighbor” and “loving one’s enemies” is infinite, and the cross of the Love incarnate Jesus Christ alone can bridge it. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 6, conclude: “In contemplating Christ, the disciples will learn how to perceive the true value in all things and all situations. And their behavior will be modeled on that of God revealed through Jesus.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What can we learn from the tragic figure of Saul, full of jealousy and vengeance? What does the action of the forgiving and benevolent David in sparing the life of Saul say to us? How do we react to unjust persecution and those who treat us with hatred and evil? Do we see in merciful David a figure of the redeeming and forgiving Christ? Do we have the grace, strength and courage to be peaceful, respecting God’s benevolent plan as it affects every created person and his beloved creation?
B. Are we capable of “loving our enemies” and do we strive to do good to those who hate us? Are we tempted to set limits on the love that God asks us to show to them? Do we seek to be merciful as the Father is merciful? Do we strive to embrace God’s forgiveness and open ourselves to extend God’s forgiveness to others?
C. Are we ready to embrace the cross of Christ as a means for bridging the infinite gap between “loving our neighbors” and “loving our enemies”? Is our love pro-active, deliberate, willful, and animated by the love of Christ?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. Girolamo Savonarola in Meditations on the Sunday Gospels, Year B, ed. John Rotele, New York: New City Press, 1998, p. 86-87)
Leader: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy. Not according to the world’s mercy. So pitifully small, but according to your own great, immense, incomprehensible mercy, far exceeding all sins put together – according to that mercy whereby you so loved the world as to give your only Son. What greater mercy could be imagined, what greater love?
Assembly: Your mercy, Lord, is that abundance of pity that has always made you look on the needy with tenderness. Mary Magdalene comes to your feet, good Jesus, washes them with her tears, dries them with her hair; you pardon her and send her away in peace – that, dear Lord, is one of your mercies. Peter denies you, protesting with an oath that he does not know you; one look from you and he weeps bitterly. You pardon him, confirming him as prince of apostles – another example, Lord, of your great mercy. The thief on the cross is saved by a single word. Paul, at the time a rabid persecutor, is filled with the Holy Spirit as soon as you call him. Such, Lord, are your mercies.
Leader: Time would fail if I tried to count them all. The number of your mercies equals the number of men, women, and children justified by your grace. No one can boast of his own achievement. Let all the just appear together, both those on earth and those in heaven, and let us ask them in your presence if it was by their own power they were saved.
Assembly: With one heart and one voice all will answer: Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory, because of your mercy and faithfulness.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Be merciful as your Father is merciful.” (Lk 6:36)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the Christian disciples of today may have the grace to love all, even their enemies, to be merciful as the Father is merciful, and to forgive unconditionally. Endeavor to live out this Christian ideal, especially with regards to those who have hurt you. Let us also remember and assist those who work in detention ministry and social rehabilitation.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us to be more open to the grace of God who loves us richly and unconditionally, 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. 12): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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