A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 14)
2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C – March 4, 2007
“He Put His Faith in the Lord …”
BIBLE READINGS
Gen 15:5-12, 17-18 // Phil 3:17-4:1 // Lk 9:28b-36
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
This incident happened many years ago when I was in high school. Something happened that afternoon which made me very sad and bitter. The thoughtlessness and cruel jibes of some high-school companions humiliated me and eroded my self-esteem. I left school early and took the public transportation. While on my way home, I saw St. Jude Church and felt a compelling urge to enter it. I got down from the bus and walked through the peaceful patio. The church was almost completely deserted and I started to pray, pouring out all my bitter anguish to the Lord. I gazed upon the cross with tears in my eyes. In that experience of rejection and desolation, I started to feel more closely united with the saving Lord Jesus, hanging on the cross. I resolved there and then to offer him all my humiliations and sufferings. When I left the church and headed for home, people were looking at me with wonder and interest. When I arrived home and by chance glanced at the mirror, I saw that my face was flushed with color and filled with a lovely glow. An inner beauty made me radiant and transformed. My spiritual communion with the Lord enabled me to experience a moment of “transfiguration”.
On this second Sunday of Lent, the Gospel reading speaks of the Lord’s transfiguration (Lk 9:28b-36). The transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain is a manifestation of the Lord’s utter beauty and hidden glory. It is an epiphany or revelation of Jesus’ divine identity to a select group of disciples. It is a religious experience that gave his disciples a glimpse of his exquisite character and wondrous glory as the Son of God. Harold Buetow remarks: “The disciples Peter, James, and John saw his glory (v. 12). This was not a transformation only on the surface, as with Moses when he came down from Sinai, who did not know that his face had become radiant (Ex 34:29). Jesus was resplendent with inner glory. He was being revealed – not only as a lawgiver or prophet, but as the Son of God.”
The purpose of the Lord’s transfiguration is to strengthen the faith of his disciples. The Benedictine scholar, Amiliana Lohr comments: “The Father gave Christ the resurrection and its brilliant light; he raised the servant who was faithful to him, his Son, to the height of his own glory. Throughout his journey, until the moment of his passion, the Lord was aware of the glory which awaited him at the end of it … This unshakable certainty requires no exterior sign of assurance from the Father, for its own sake; but to strengthen the faith for his apostles for the time of the passion, the glory of the resurrection is anticipated for them to see for a moment on the mountain. To the faithful, the initiates, the Lord unveils, far from the crowd, his true essence, in order to give them certainty of the undying life which no earthly death can influence. Because they believe, their belief is to be strengthened by vision … With us, as with him before he had suffered, that glory is not continuously visible; only when we have borne the conformation to Christ throughout the whole of our earthly lives, and striven always more consciously to realize it, only when we have borne our share of the pain of Christ, to the last end in our body’s death, will the full splendor of the risen and glorified Christ break out in us.”
The unwavering faith of Jesus Christ who strengthens the faith of his disciples for the paschal event of his passion, death and glory is prefigured in the story of Abraham. The faith of Abraham in the first covenant is replicated and brought to perfection by Jesus in the new and everlasting covenant. In the Old Testament, it was God who initiated an intimate, loving relationship with Abraham, who responded totally with an irrevocable faith.
The biblical scholar Eugene Maly explains: “The fifteenth chapter of Genesis is a stunning piece of religious literature … When God called Abram from the land of his fathers, he promised him a great name and many descendants (Gen 12:1-3). Now some years later Abram is still without an heir. Yet he put his faith in the Lord, who then, in what we would call a bizarre ritual, initiated a covenant with the patriarch. Let us consider the theological insights. First of all comes the divine initiative, an unvarying element in all of biblical religion. God always acts first, and always in a saving way, here in the form of a promise. Abram believes in God. This is again, always the first and expected response of the human person. It is here an act of acceptance of, and surrender to the promising God. There is no compelling reason, no persuasive argument. It is sheer faith … The bizarre ritual was actually a widely accepted form of treaty or covenant making in ancient times. The animals are split in two in order to signify the fate of those who break the covenant. The passing between the divided pieces by a smoking brazier and a flaming torch symbolizes God’s acceptance and ratification of the covenant terms. God, as it were, puts his own life on the line for his servant Abram … The divine eagerness expressed in the Abram story spills over into a reckless giving of himself, his Son, to be with us. Only one question has meaning here: do we put our faith in him?”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. How is the loving initiative and compassion of God at work in the life of the patriarch Abraham? What are the promises of God to Abraham? What is the meaning of the ancient ritual of cutting the animals in half and passing between them? What insights are evoked in us by the images and symbols contained in the story of Abraham? How does the reality of a loving God who initiates an intimate covenant relationship with our father in faith, Abraham, impact us?
B. What is Abraham’s response to the loving God and his wondrous promises of paternity and posterity? What does “putting one’s faith in God mean”? How are we inspired by the “faith of Abraham”? Do we try to imitate the total and irrevocable faith of Abraham? How?
C. What images and insights do we glean from the event of the Lord’s transfiguration? How does the faith and total surrender of Jesus to his paschal destiny affect us and shape our lives? What is the meaning and effect of the Lord’s transfiguration on his disciples? What are some of our personal experiences of “transfiguration”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. Days with the Lord, vol. 3, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1993, p. 93-94)
Leader: We have left our arduous ways in order to taste rest, near you. Lord you know we seek the Father. Teach us to pray.
Assembly: Shall we know how to watch when the flesh is weak? The desire for you sustains us in faith. Lord, we believe. You know the Father. Show us his beauty.
Leader: For an instant our eyes have glimpsed your glory. Here you are radiant with splendor. Lord, our joy, you have seen the Father. Your face is light.
Assembly: In the night of times your face was hidden. The prophets announced your coming. Lord, today, we recognize you at your Father’s voice. We must continue to endure trials. We must go with you through other nights. Lord, Son of God, lead us to the Father. Transfigure our lives.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that those whose faith is being tested may never waver, but rather be strengthened in their experiences of distress and suffering. Endeavor to see the saving mystery of the Lord’s transfiguration at work personally in you, in the life of the Church, in the reality of the world and God’s beloved creation. Be grateful and thank the Lord for the glimpses of glory he gives to us every day of our lives. In your service to the poor, the weak and the marginalized, enable them to see the compassionate face of a radiant and loving God.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us to be more open to the grace of God who reveals himself to us in the mystery of the transfiguration and in the sacraments, 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. 14): 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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