A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 17)
5th Sunday of Lent, Year C – March 25, 2007
“I Am Doing Something New …”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 43:16-21 // Phil 3:8-14 // Jn 8:1-11
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 read a story in an inspirational magazine about a lady who had terribly wronged her best friend, a classmate in college. She had a crush on a handsome football player who eventually became her best friend’s husband. One summer the couple invited her to their beach house for a week’s vacation. Her secret feelings for the blond and good-looking athlete never changed and were not attenuated by the passing of years. One afternoon, her friend went down town for an errand and she was left alone with the secret love of her life in that cozy beach house. The “inevitable” happened. Without really willing or planning it, she spent an adulterous moment with her best friend’s husband. When it was all over, she was overwhelmed with remorse and unbearable guilt. She terminated her vacation prematurely and avoided further contact with the couple. When her friend’s husband died, she felt an irresistible urge to attend the funeral. Her friend had a heart-to-heart talk with her. She revealed that she knew what happened. Since she continued to love her husband and to treasure the friendship with her erring friend, she had forgiven each of them from the heart. The gift of forgiveness explicitly given by a kind and merciful best friend wiped out the terrible anguish and acute guilt that plagued her brutally and unremittingly. The forgiven adulterous woman felt renewed and became whole again. The refreshing balm of forgiveness made her a “new creation”.
The Gospel story of this fifth Sunday of Lent, almost at the threshold of Holy Week, dramatically demonstrates the renewing quality of divine mercy and the magnanimous extent of divine forgiveness. Concerning the real message of this passage, the Benedictine liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent remarks: “The point being made is that the Lord’s mercy is inexhaustible and that he does not condemn men but wants them to live, though they must repent if they are to do so. As soon as man repents, God renews him and restores him to his true dignity. We can see this happening in the case of the adulterous woman. Once she has repented, she regains her dignity as a woman whom no one is now willing to condemn and who is determined hence forth to lead a new life.”
Adrian Nocent continues to underline the renewing and recreating quality of Christian forgiveness and repentance: “The Christian who had sinned but then repented has no past any longer. Once converted, he is a new man in a new world and is able to engage in the activity proper to the redeemed: the praise of God. Our conversion and return to our dignity as sons of God is the greatest of God’s wonderful deeds. Therefore he leads us out of captivity, as he did his people of old … The hope of every Christian originates in the new life that is given him with the risen Christ. As soon as we seek Christ in faith, we who are sinners regain our original dignity. All things become new for us, and we come to know a God who, in his Son, summons us to resurrection.”
Actualized and offered to us in Christ Jesus, the grace of merciful forgiveness with its healing, renewing and recreating quality springs forth like living water from the loving heart of God. The new way of forgiveness can be seen against the backdrop of the benevolent plan of God who wills to create something new. The Old Testament reading (Is 43:16-21) gives us a fantastic background of the renewing action of God in salvation history. God, the creator of the universe, expressed his magnanimous saving power in the marvels of Exodus, wherein he created a new nation – Israel, his covenant people. The marvels of the Exodus event in Egypt when God opened “a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters” would be replicated in a new Exodus when God would lead his suffering people out of the Babylonian captivity. The prophet Isaiah was proclaiming a new Exodus of the people in exile, a return to the promised land under God’s power. The prophet resounded the word of Yahweh: “Thus says the Lord, I am about to do a new thing … I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert … I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.”
God continues to be active in salvation history and his benevolent actions on our behalf regale us with the gift of newness – of new creation. The radically new saving act that God would accomplish was the paschal sacrifice of his Son wherein Christ’s passion and death lead to his resurrection and glorification, and our salvation and sanctification. Through our Lord Savior Jesus Christ, who leads us on a definitive exodus of return to our Father, we – the new people of God - receive the living water to drink, the Spirit of new life. According to Lawrence Mick, “For Christians, Jesus’ exodus through death to resurrection is the radically new thing that God accomplished. God continues to work in our time and on our behalf … Just as God raised Jesus to new life, so God works among us to give us a share in the resurrection, a sharing in the new life of Christ.”
The newness of God’s story goes on. We relish the refreshing quality of newness each time we tread the path of conversion and choose the way of love, service and forgiveness. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 2, conclude: “To be converted is to turn with joy and trust to the Father, always ready to receive us; to the mercy of God, always offered, revealed by Christ in words and actions. To be converted is to start on the road of righteousness that does not come from us, but from the faith in Christ, in whom God will recognize us as righteous, whatever our sins may be, even if the whole world condemns us. Through Christ, God makes us a new creation.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION (Jn 8:1-11)
By Mark De Castro
Member: Holy Family Institute
Fresno, CA – U.S.A.
There are many occurrences in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ presented to us in the Gospel that guide us towards His Kingdom in Heaven. We have to reflect on these readings thoughtfully and put them into our hearts to reap the benefits of our faith – eternal happiness with God. The Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent is surely one of these instances.
Jesus said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Many of us recognize that we are sinners and only the love and mercy of God would give us salvation. These words of our Lord will and must prompt us to examine our conscience. Because we are imperfect, our actions could be sinful to God and hurtful to others. We are broken and have to pick-up the pieces with an examination of conscience many times daily and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation as often as necessary.
You may have heard someone say, “Do not judge me.” But “judging” is part of our defense mechanism to avoid sin. Our life experience, the values we acquired from our parents, from school, from church, are tools we can use to judge our actions and the actions of others. When we examine our conscience, we are actually judging ourselves. And with the right tools (our life experiences and values), we can correct the wrong we did. I myself have judged others, hoping that the tools I have will help me not to commit the same mistakes done by others.
It is also true that there are many who are becoming immune to sinfulness. The quality of the mass media is forming our mindset that evil actions are the norm and are acceptable. This is becoming the culture of our society. We are constantly exposed to violent video games especially targeting children, to sexually and violently explicit music, movies and TV programming for all to hear and see, and to immorally biased news releases in the name of free speech. Studies showed that our brain can be conditioned to these constant inputs and eventually they become the guiding values for our actions. We must be vigilant by the daily examination of conscience not to be trapped in this abyss.
“Who among us is without sin?” Only with the grace from God are we to become sin-free and pure. So, let us always pray for God’s grace and receive His Sacraments.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What are the saving events delineated by the prophet Isaiah in this Sunday’s Old Testament reading? What is the meaning of God’s promise to do “something new”? How does God’s promise of newness impact us? Are we open to receive the divine offer of newness and “new creation” in our daily life?
B. Do we perceive Christ’s paschal event as the definitive exodus? Why is this the “radical newness”? What is the recreating and renewing effect of the way of merciful love taught to us by Jesus Christ? Are we open to receive Christ’s new way of forgiveness? Do we respond to the Christian vocation and destiny as a “new creation”? Do we slake our thirst at the font of living water and allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit of new life?
C. How does the plight of the adulterous woman used by the scribes and Pharisees to trap Jesus affect us? What gift of newness did the woman receive from Jesus? How is her life an “exodus” event? Like the woman who had received the forgiving love of Jesus, are we willing to be the objects of his compassion and mercy? Are we ready to respond to the exhortation of Jesus, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more”? Are we willing to relive the newness of God’s saving story and his forgiving love in our daily lives? Do we dare to be instruments of God’s recreating and renewing love in today’s world?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
the Exodus event in Egypt liberated a people in bondage
and transformed them into a new people covenanted to you.
When you led the same people out of Babylonian captivity,
you renewed in them the saving wonders of the old Exodus.
In the paschal mystery of your Son’s passion, death and resurrection,
we have experienced the true and definitive Exodus
and tasted the radical newness of salvation.
Our Lord Jesus Christ introduced us to the new way of forgiveness,
which had healed, restored and recreated the life of the adulterous woman.
Help us to relive the quality of newness in your Son’s forgiving love
and may we respond fully to our vocation and destiny
as your “new creation” in Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever.
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.
“Thus says the Lord, I am about to do a new thing … I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert … I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.” (Is 43:19-21)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that, in this Lenten season and at the threshold of the Holy Week, people may be sensitive and responsive to the gift of newness that God offers us through the paschal mystery of his Son Jesus Christ. By your self-giving, forgiving love, sacrifice and ministry, especially to the poor and marginalized, endeavor to be instruments of God’s recreating and renewing love in the Church and in the world today.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us to be more open to the gift of radical newness that God offers us in our Savior Jesus, 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. 17): 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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Website: WWW.PDDM.US