A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 13)
1st Sunday of Lent, Year C – February 25, 2007
“Worship the Lord …”
BIBLE READINGS
Dt 26:4-10 // Rom 10:8-13 // Lk 4:1-13
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
Our friend, choirmaster Chie Garcia, who greatly helped us prepare the Liturgy of the Hours in Pilipino, has a wonderful story. When he was a little boy, while playing in the street in front of their house, he was run over by a car. The passersby screamed in terror. When they went to check under the car to retrieve what they thought was a mangled, bloody body, they found little Chie alive and trembling. The family celebrated Chie’s experience of salvation with a Mass of thanksgiving at our chapel. The mother narrated to us the story with great emotion and gratitude to the Lord for the saving event experienced by Chie and the entire family. The Eucharistic liturgy offered for Chie was a heartfelt thanksgiving to God for his gift of life and Chie’s liberation from death. The Mass that they celebrated was a renewed consecration of the family to worship and serve the Lord God alone.
On this First Sunday of Lent, we are being invited as a Church to renew our commitment to the Lord and to worship him totally and absolutely. This Sunday’s Old Testament reading on Israel’s ritual of remembrance (Dt 26:4-10) reinforces the Lenten clarion call of the Church to renew our total consecration to God and worship him in living worship. This scripture passage, which recounts a beautiful Jewish liturgical ritual that reminds the people of Israel who they really are and to whom they owe their pledge and obedience, has a great significance for the Christian community as it embarks with Jesus Christ on a special Lenten spiritual journey to Easter glory.
The biblical scholar Leslie Hoppe explains: “Ancient Israel’s ritual was one vehicle for acknowledging its debt of gratitude to God who gave Israel a bounteous land. In paying that debt of gratitude, Israel also chose to remember a prior act of God on its behalf that was even more important than the gift of the land. That was the Exodus, which transformed Israel from a nation of slaves into a people set free … The portrait the Deuteronomists paint here is that of a highly successful farmer who comes to the central sanctuary to present his tithe. His party includes not only his family but also the economically dependent Levites and resident aliens. The whole community benefits from the bounty God gives to Israel, and so all Israel is to be involved in the ritual of thanksgiving. The heart of this passage is the confession that the Israelite makes as the offering is set before the Lord (vv. 5-10). The worshippers acknowledge their origins as a people without land or freedom. They can now present their tithes only because God took the side of their ancestors against the Egyptians and because God gave them a bountiful land as their new home. Following the ritual, the whole group assembled by the wealthy farmer celebrated with a festal meal the bounty given by God. This is in accord with the typically Deuteronomistic view of the elements of a sacrifice being used for a meal to be shared by the participants in the ritual.”
Indeed, this Jewish ritual of thanksgiving for the gift of land and for the gift of freedom reaffirms the people’s dependence on God for their sustenance and freedom. Moreover, the basic formula of faith found in the ritual reminds them of the consistency of God’s loving plan to save his people. Furthermore, this ritual of remembrance invites the people to worship and to present to the Lord God a true offering – their total submission to God’s saving will: “You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God” (Dt 26:10).
Aelred Rosser gleans the significance of this ancient liturgical rite and makes the application for our Lenten journey: “In a broad and sweeping way, during the Lenten season we will imitate all that is described in this reading. We will offer the very best of our praise, together with the offering of our penance, knowing that we have fallen short of our faith’s expectations. We will hear again the history of God’s plan of salvation for us and the fidelity of God’s intervention on behalf of our ancestors in the faith. In Jesus we will see, in the most dramatic way possible the fulfillment of promises of deliverance. Our response to this 40-day liturgy will be the joyful celebration of Easter when we, like the Israelite in this reading, will make merry over all these good things.”
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Lk 4:1-13), the main emphasis is trust in and worship of the one true God. In the drama of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, the Son of God and the Word made flesh manifests what true worship means – faithfulness to his baptismal consecration, total submission to God’s saving plan and trust in the Father’s compassionate love and care. The initial temptation in the desert prepares Jesus for the ultimate temptation in his passion on the cross – for the last assault of the demon at the appointed time. In his ultimate temptation and passion, the humble and obedient Jesus emerges victorious. His worship of God is absolute and the offering of himself to the saving plan, perfect and complete.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 2, conclude: “The devil’s first attack against Jesus helps us to understand the drama played out in the passion. At this time, as at the temptation, the true question concerns the person of Jesus, Son of God. The answer lies in his obedience to the Father unto death itself, in death itself. In this obedience, the Lord’s sovereign power is manifested.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What part does religious ritual play in our life? Do we try to glean its true meaning for our personal and community life? What does the ancient Jewish ritual of the offering of the first fruits of the harvest say to us? Does the formula of faith uttered during the Jewish ritual of thanksgiving for the gift of land and freedom inspire us?
B. Do we depend on God for sustenance and are we grateful to God for all the benefits received? Do we remember with joy and lively faith the marvelous acts of God in the history of salvation and in our personal history of grace? Do we meditate constantly on the consistency and faithfulness of God’s loving plan to save us? Are we ready to give all to the Lord and bow down in his presence? Do we worship the Lord our God absolutely and endeavor to serve him alone?
C. In this Lenten season, are we resolved to offer the very best of our praise and thanksgiving to the Lord and embark on a spiritual program of fasting, prayer and almsgiving? Are we resolved to be more intimately united with Christ, the true worshipper of the Father and victorious over all temptations?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, we thank you for the gift of the Lenten season, sacramental sign of our conversion and a privileged time of grace and conversion. We thank you for the bounty and the fruits of the earth. We praise you for your great love in liberating us from all forms of slavery and in making us your holy people. Help us to be more intimately united with Jesus Christ, victorious over all temptations, in giving true worship to you and in filial obedience to your saving will. May we respond more generously to the needs of the poor, the defenseless and the suffering in our land. We love you and serve you, now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’.” (Lk 4:1-13)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that in this Lenten season we may be able to render true worship to the Lord God and serve him alone. In thanksgiving for the gift of sustenance and freedom, endeavor to alleviate the needs of the poor, needy and suffering in our society today. Resolve to live out the trinomial spiritual Lenten program: fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us to be more open to the grace of God who calls us to conversion and unconditional worship, 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. 13): 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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