A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 23)
5th Sunday of Easter, Year C – May 6, 2007
“What God Had Done With Them …”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 14:21-27 // Rev 21:1-5a // Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35
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 found Barbara Coyle’s article, “Franciscan Groups Partner with Jamaican Parishes” in St. Anthony Messenger (March 2007, p. 40-45) very interesting. I really enjoyed her report on the life-changing experience of the 13 American students from Roger Bacon High School in their seven-day visit to Jamaica. The nine seniors and four juniors visited the patients in the infirmary and fed the sick; they painted houses, tutored high-school-aged students and repaired fencing; they delivered food to the homebound; and they spent quality time with the poor, giving them comfort and hope. Indeed, God’s transforming grace was at work in them and in those they served. The students had experienced the profound character of the universal Church as deeply involved in everyday struggles of people living in poverty. In their Jamaican mission, the enterprising students from Roger Bacon School in Cincinnati, Ohio had felt the power of Easter and came in contact with the beauty of Christian love translated into life. Indeed, God had done marvels in their young lives.
The enthusiastic experience of these high school students in Jamaica gives us an idea of the warmth and excitement that the apostles, Paul and Barnabas, must have felt when they returned to Antioch in Syria. They told the people of the church gathered there about all that God had done with them and how he opened the way for the Gentiles to believe in Christ, the Crucified and Risen Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles that we hear in this Sunday’s liturgy (Acts 14:21-27) is the heartwarming evidence of a Church that is alive and growing and of the ever-increasing community of Christian believers being confirmed in faith and ministry.
Harold Buetow comments: “Today’s reading reports that Paul and Barnabas, by the end of their first missionary journey of preaching a new power of good – the power of Easter – let loose in the world, had strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith (v. 22). Their very successful journey established Christianity in Cyprus, Pisidia, Lyconia, and Pamphilia to present day Cyprus and Turkey – a journey more difficult for them than spanning the world by jet in a number of hours today. They learned that it was God’s will to open the Church to the Gentiles. The people saw the necessity of Christian fellowship, and to that end with prayer and fasting they appointed presbyters in each church (v. 23). For all that they did, the Apostles never took the credit, but reported what God had done with them (v. 27). Through the traveling missionaries, God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, thus offering hope for the future.”
What a transformation since the Easter event! The apostles were boldly proclaiming the Good News not only to the Jews, but also to peoples of various nations and cultures. The apostles were channels through which God’s loving plan of salvation was being brought to fulfillment for his greater glory. The apostles’ preaching had grown to a mighty expanse, animated by the incredible power of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love and the Easter gift. God had blessed the missionary efforts of Paul and Barnabas with success and it was he who had opened the door of faith to the receptive Gentiles, by the power of the Spirit of the Risen Lord and through the instrumentality of the apostles. Under the guidance of the same Spirit, the apostles appointed elders and set up structures and institutions to make the Christian communities viable even after their departure.
The pastoral solicitude of the apostles for the communities of faith they had founded is an expression of the deep love they had for Jesus, the Risen Lord and Good Shepherd. On the evening before his paschal sacrifice, Jesus left his disciples a new testament: “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you are my disciples: your love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). Jesus’ love for us is the absolute standard for the love we must bear for each other. To love according to the Christian way is to love unconditionally, without restrictions. The mark of Christian identity is to love to the point of ultimate sacrifice just like Jesus Christ, who loved us to the end.
The Dutch biblical scholar, Ansfried Hulsbosch asserts: “God reveals himself to us in love, and this love is creative. Because love evokes an answer or is itself an answer, Christians who love one another on earth are the creators of each other, because they reveal God to each other. Especially is the love of our enemies a creative love. The spring of this love lies in God, the invisible. He has made his love visible in Christ … The love of Christ for humanity is the revelation of the love of God for humanity. It is the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 8:39). Therefore, if we will to encounter the love of God, then we shall only be able to reach this love in its revelation in Christ, in the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge."
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What insights can you glean from the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas? How would you characterize the work of evangelization they carried out to various peoples and cultures? What trials and difficulties did they experience in their proclamation of the Good News? How did Paul and Barnabas confirm the faith of the disciples? How did they install elders in each church? What is the role of prayer and fasting in the rite of installation of elders?
B. How did the apostles Paul and Barnabas feel about the missionary tasks they had accomplished? What did they report to the congregation in Antioch? What role did they attribute to God in their work of evangelization? What were the marvels God had done through these apostles?
C. What is Christ’s ultimate testament? Why is the love of Christ the absolute identity of Christian discipleship? What do we do to make the love of Christ real and effective in our lives? Is our love of Christ and neighbor total and sacrificial, universal and without restrictions? Do we try to reveal in our daily life the love of Christ, the Risen Lord, for the world?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
through the work of your apostles Paul and Barnabas
in proclaiming the Good News of your Son’s death and resurrection,
the power of Easter has been unleashed in the Gentile world.
Help us to be ardent missionaries in today’s world.
May we energize with Easter joy the aching hearts
of those who are in darkness and are seeking the light of truth.
Grant us the grace to be faithful to the apostolic witnessing
and continue to proclaim the marvels
you had accomplished in Christ Jesus and in his apostles.
You live and reign 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.
“They related all that God had helped them accomplish and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:27)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the community of believers may proclaim and witness more effectively the power, joy and beauty of the Easter mystery in today’s world. Pray also that those ordained to guide and shepherd the Christian communities may have the grace to carry out their ministry to the full and in accordance with God’s saving will. Endeavor to share the Good News, especially to the poor and marginalized, and to those who are seeking the light of truth.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us grasp more intimately the task and challenge of apostolic witnessing, 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. 23): 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