A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 21)
3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C – April 22, 2007
“We Are Easter Witnesses …”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 5:27b-32, 40b-41 // Rev 5:11-14 // Jn 21:1-19
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
As an Easter people, our Christian faith is very much linked to ministry and witnessing. A limpid example of an Easter witness for Christ is Mother Marianne Cope (1838-1918) who went to Molokai in Hawaii on November 13, 1888 to help Fr. Damien DeVeuster minister to the lepers. A member of the Sisters of St. Francis, she and her companions served the outcasts of Molokai, described as “the most dreary place one could ever imagine”. Here is an account by the writer Jill Boughton (cf. “Count It All Joy for the Sake of Love: The Journey of Mother Marianne Cope” in THE WORD AMONG US, February 2007, p. 44-45).
According to Mother Marianne, their mission was “to make life as pleasant and comfortable as possible” for the outcasts who had been sent to Molokai to die. She brought beauty as well as order into the settlement, planting fragrant flowers under her sisters’ windows and sewing colorful garments for the girls. With her landscaping skills, she worked to transform the barrenness and bring a sign of hope.
Besides the challenges of caring for the sick and all their needs, Mother Marianne was responsible for schools and hospitals and their workers on three other islands. She had to be submissive to her religious superiors, who were often distant and uninformed; to keep detailed records; and to placate the Board of Health, the royal family, and government officials. Yet in all her dealings, her sisters described her as “kind” but “firm.” There were never enough workers, and some who thought the work would be romantic left after a short time. Some opposed Mother Marianne and tried to stir up discontent among the sisters, but she remained patient and tried to pastor each one individually without jeopardizing the work.
Mother Marianne also had to be patient with the limitations of her own health. Around the turn of the century, she was up all night spitting blood; the sisters learned of her distress only when they gathered her laundry. Toward the end of her long life, she also experienced heart and kidney failure and was confined to a wheelchair. True to character, however, Mother Marianne remained cheerful and attentive to others even in her final illness. She wouldn’t let Sr. Leopoldina keep vigil at her bedside: “If you cannot rest nights, how can you do justice in your work with the lepers?” although she was unable to eat, she insisted on being wheeled to the dining room to join her sisters.
Marianne Cope died on August 9, 1918, surrounded by praying sisters. On her coffin, the lepers she loved used white flowers to spell out one simple word: “Mother.” It spoke volumes about how they had experienced her loving care for them.
Beatified by Pope John Paul II, Mother Marianne’s cheerful self-sacrifice is an inspiring witness of the unending love and power of the Risen Lord Jesus. Like the apostle Peter who had received the pastoral mission to feel and care for his sheep, she received a call to a special ministry and had lived a life of courageous witnessing and heroic service to God’s sheep.
The Gospel reading of this Sunday of Easter (Jn 21:1-19) describes the Easter apparition of the Risen Lord to his apostles at Lake Tiberias in Galilee. The narrative begins in an atmosphere of darkness and bleakness, of weary and fruitless toil. But then there was the excitement of recognition: “It is the Lord!” The Easter encounter of the apostles with the Lord Jesus by the waters included the meaning-filled episodes of the miraculous catch of fish, the meal of bread and fish prepared for them at the shore, and Peter’s call to pastoral service. These episodes were “signs” meant to deepen the disciples’ faith.
The miraculous and abundant catch of fish was a “sign” of the universal character of the Church and the multitude of believers that would be gathered as a Christian community through apostolic witnessing. The presence of the Risen Lord and his Easter gift of the Holy Spirit would bring success to the missionary endeavor of the “fishers of men” to bring the joy of redemption to all peoples of the earth and to various cultures. The “sign” of the breakfast of bread and broiled fish prepared by Jesus on the shore of Lake Tiberias was an announcement of the Eucharist that the Christian community would celebrate as an actualized memorial of Christ’s death and rising to life. The action of Jesus taking the bread and giving it to his apostle by the shore and in like manner the fish evokes the earlier Eucharistic action of Jesus feeding the hungry crowd with bread and fish, on the edge of Lake Tiberias, during his public ministry in Galilee (cf. Jn 6:1-15) The bread that Jesus gives is himself – the bread of life – and the fish broiled on charcoal that he gives is a symbol of him – the Christ who suffered in the fire of tribulation and passion in order to save us. The threefold protestation of love that the Risen Lord elicited from Peter was a “sign” of the pastoral ministry and heroic witnessing that Peter and the apostolic community would carry out with sacrificial love for God’s sheep, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The first reading of this Sunday (Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41) deepens the meaning that could be gleaned from the Gospel. It shows how the reality of the “signs” depicted in the Easter apparition at the seashore of Tiberias was being fulfilled. By the courageous witnessing of Peter and the apostles, the community of believers - nourished by the Eucharist - was being formed. Converts to the faith were being made and the resurrection experience continued to make a radical effect on the people who were hearing the Good News. Indeed, the “sign” of the Church, the “sign” of the Eucharistic community, and the “sign” of pastoral love continued to be actualized in time and space through the acts of the apostles and the faith-community brought about by their witnessing. The apostles proclaimed fearlessly the core of the Gospel message. They tenderly cared for God’s flock by nourishing them with the bread of the Word. They lovingly tended the sheep by extending to the sick and suffering the compassionate healing touch of God. They laid down their life for the sheep that had been neglected and abused by the false shepherds. Indeed, in the task of Gospel proclamation, the apostles were incurring the ire and resentment of the threatened Jewish religious leaders. The Sanhedrin officials strongly reprimanded the apostles they had arrested and had them flogged. But according to Luke’s account: “They left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake for the name” (Acts 5:41).
Indeed, the Church of the Risen Lord is founded on the apostolic witnessing. And the task of witnessing continues in the life of Christian believers today. According to the authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 3: “Today is the time of witness and preaching from which no one and nothing can turn us: We must obey God rather than men. This is the time of toil, when one sometimes works at full night with no result. Nevertheless, the Lord is present on the shore. If he intervenes, one will be astounded at the size of the catch. One will see, at the dawn of the new day, the great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue … standing before the throne and the Lamb … (Rev 7:9) This is the time when only one thing matters: to follow Christ, each according to his or her vocation. In the Church, there must be no other emulation than that of the love of God and of his Christ, of communal charity.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Why did Peter and the other apostles sail off from the shores of Lake Tiberias to fish? What is the significance of this action? What must have been the effect on them of their fruitless toil? How did the apparition of the Risen Lord upon the lakeshore impact them? What insights and feelings are evoked in us by the excitement and awed recognition shown by Peter and John, and their companions? What is the meaning of the meal of bread and fish prepared by Jesus as breakfast for his apostles? What is the implication of Peter’s threefold protestation of love for the Risen Lord and what does this threefold avowal of love entail?
B. In what manner did Peter and the apostles carry out their witnessing before the people and the Sanhedrin? What was the content of the Gospel message preached by them? What role did the Holy Spirit play in the Easter witnessing? What enabled the apostles to rejoice in the midst of persecution and suffering? How did Peter and the apostles minister to the needs of God’s flock entrusted to their care?
C. Why is the Church of today founded on the apostolic witnessing? Why is the reality of the “here and now” important and what is its challenge for the community of believers? Are we today’s heroic apostolic witnesses? Do we seek to follow Christ, the Risen Lord all the way? Are we totally receptive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, his Easter gift to the Church? Are we credible “signs” of the richness and bounty of the universal Church, of the Eucharistic community in continual paschal celebration, and of the Risen Lord’s pastoral love and care for his sheepfold?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: O Risen Lord, you revealed yourself anew to Peter, John and the other apostles as they struggled in the bleak waters of Lake Tiberias, disheartened by a night of fruitless toil. At daybreak, you stood at the shore calling out to them and challenging them to cast the net again on the other side of the boat. In obedience to your command, they cast the net and hauled a great load of fish. In the miraculous catch, they recognized you as the Lord Jesus – the one who had ordained them to be fishers of men. They also recognized you as the life-giving Lord in the “Eucharistic” meal of bread and fish you have graciously hosted at the lakeshore. They recognized you, furthermore, as the sacrificial life-giving Lord in your command to feed the flock and tend the sheep. By the waters of Lake Tiberias, the original site of their vocation as disciples-apostles, you have inspired Peter to avow his love threefold and commit himself anew to follow you totally to your paschal destiny. By the gift of your Holy Spirit, Peter and the apostles became courageous witnesses of your death and rising, proclaiming you as the saving Lord - the source of repentance and forgiveness of sins.
As we contemplate this Easter mystery, grant us the grace to recognize you, alive and present to us in the “death and rising” events of daily life. Make us courageous witnesses of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit and anoint us for a greater service to your suffering people and the needy flock entrusted to our care.
We adore you, we love you, and we commit ourselves to serve and give witness to 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.
“We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given us to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:32)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the Christian disciples of today would be able to recognize keenly and deeply the presence and action of the Risen Lord at work in their daily lives. Pray that they may have the grace of courageous witnessing of the paschal events of Christ’s death and resurrection. An action of charity and self-giving on behalf of God’s needy flock is a necessary part of Easter witnessing. Endeavor to bring the power of the Risen Lord upon various situations that need healing, comfort, peace and joy.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us participate more intimately in the Easter joy of our glorified Lord Jesus Christ and to help us become courageous witnesses of the power of his resurrection, 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. 21): 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