A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 3)
3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C – December 17, 2006
“The Lord Is In Your Midst …”
BIBLE READINGS
Zep 3:14-18a // Phil 4:4-7 // Lk 3:10-18
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 have never imagined that the small peaceful town where I was born, near the slopes of Mayon volcano in the Philippines, would ever be in the international news. My hometown, Guinobatan, is one of the worst hit areas by the tropical storm Durian and the devastation it suffered is almost “apocalyptic”. At its height, with 165 mph winds and a five-hour deluge, the storm dislodged tons of debris that cascaded down the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Walls of mud and boulders destroyed nearly every standing structure in their path. Official figures showed 526 dead, 1,000 injured and 740 missing, but the extent of the calamity exceeds the official tally or human imagination. My brother who lives on another island wrote to me his personal impression.
Although I have been to Guinobatan several times recently, tonight as I was watching the live TV Broadcast in front of the Guinobatan Municipal Hall, I was trying to look for something that is familiar to me in the footage. There is nothing that I can relate to in the past, nor anything that will give me the feeling of deja vu. Not even the Municipal Hall with its bold signboard. What I saw was total desolation and pictures of human grief. I kept wondering where the Guinobatan where I grew up went. And I kept wondering if any of those bloated bodies lined up on the concrete floor, for lack of space, is not one of our kin … I just can’t help but foolishly wonder aloud why the town was being singled out by nature or fate.
As I was receiving reports of the devastation, and more impressively from the personal accounts of my relatives who were in the deluge, I was also struggling to make sense of the bible readings assigned for Gaudete Sunday, especially the First Reading (Zep 3:14-18a). For those people whose wounds are so raw, whose grief is too bitter and whose loss is exceedingly real, Zephaniah’s Ode to Joy seems callous, incongruous and senseless. I even complained, “How on earth could I make a Lectio Divina on this passage?” The grace of God, however, did not abandon me. Slowly, slowly a sense of understanding came to me as I prayed and meditated on that catastrophic event in the light of the transforming Word of God. Indeed, delving more deeply into the book of the prophet Zephaniah and the Gospel message, I came to realize with renewed conviction that God is present in this paschal situation, transforming death and sadness into salvation and redemption – and that sadness does not have the ultimate word, but joy in the Lord.
Zephaniah, who prophesied under King Josiah of Judah, is both the prophet of the “day of wrath” and the harbinger of the promise of salvation. His foreboding of doom (cf. Zep 1:15: “a day of wrath, that day, a day of distress and agony, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and darkness …”) merely underlines the consoling message that God is in our midst – to bring salvation out of a painful situation. In this Sunday’s passage from the enigmatic prophet Zephaniah is an ardent appeal to trust in the mighty Lord who is “in our midst”. He courageously invites a presently distressed people to rejoice in a situation in which joy seems utterly impossible. Zephaniah’s climactic message of hope reinforces the clarion call of the Church on this Advent season to rejoice always in the Lord. The indomitable joy of a believer and the faith community is founded on the conviction that our future is secured by God and promoted by human endeavor and response.
The priest Harold Buetow remarks: “Life is full of both sadness and joy. Both can be opportunities for growth, and joy can overcome sadness … Today’s liturgy is the Church’s ode to joy and, while shot through with sadness, as was last Sunday’s, it is full of examples of the triumph of joy … Today’s first reading contains essentially the same message: optimism over pessimism, joy over sadness. The book of Zephaniah was written in the age of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.), when Assyrian gods were being worshiped even in Jerusalem, which was polluted by the presence of pagan shrines everywhere, even in the Temple area. Although most of Zephaniah is gloomy, here he presented hope, to reside in the remnant of Jews that would remain faithful. The city and the people are to rejoice because the Lord is coming to renew them. Twice he states that, despite the sad things that are happening, God is in their midst. That contributes to the mood of excitement, expectancy, and joy throughout this passage. God is in the midst of our sad events, too … If we see all that in perspective, then, as Zephaniah says, God will rejoice over us with gladness and renew us in his love.”
Against the backdrop of Zephaniah’s ode to joy and the exceedingly too familiar situations of pain and calamity in today’s world, we perceive better the mission fulfilled by John the Baptist as he prepares in the wilderness the way of the Lord (cf. Lk 3:10-18). He exhorted people to do what is just and he preached good news to the people. The Christian disciples of today are called, not only to rejoice in the Lord Jesus, but also to preach the good news and to bring about the advent of his kingdom of justice and peace on earth, especially to those who are in deep distress, sadness and extreme need. In order to help the distressed people of today to respond to the imperative call for rejoicing, we must be instruments of God’s joy through our commitment to effective charity. The challenge of the living Word, especially on this Gaudete Sunday, is for us to be a people of joy and to be instruments of joy for others.
Harold Buetow concludes: “We most often find joy in all the loving things we do for others in this or any other season: in the helpfulness we extend to those in pain; in the thoughtfulness we give to the deprived, especially the hungry, the homeless, and the elderly; in the understanding we give to those who are bereaved; and in our overall efforts to make our lives together more loving … Joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is one of the marks of being a faithful Christian. If we truly believe that the Good News is really good news, we must be a people of joy!”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Rev. Fr. Edwin Limpiado, CSS
Holy Cross Parish
Sacramento, CA-U.S.A.
Rejoicing in the Lord is the message of the third Sunday of Advent – Gaudete Sunday. It is indeed the time to rejoice for the Lord’s coming is at hand.
John the Baptist cries out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths.” He shows us the kind of preparation we need to do in order to be ready to meet the Lord, the Prince of Peace.
John’s preaching focuses on the baptism of repentance – a conversion of one’s heart. Just as the desert is a place of silence and peace, our hearts must be converted into a desert of peace and quiet – free from anything that could hinder us from hearing and seeing God.
In today’s gospel, John the Baptist gives us concrete examples of how we can truly achieve a joyful encounter with the Lord in the peace and quiet of our human heart. A real encounter with the Lord is not something cerebral; it has to be translated into action to bear fruit. We have to make every effort to make it a reality and to make it happen in our daily life. John encourages us
(1) to share what we have with those who do not have and to avoid greed;
(2) to promote justice and to avoid taking advantage of others;
(3) and to be contented with what we have and avoid coveting what rightfully belongs to another person.
Many of us are unhappy in life simply because we fail to appreciate what we have and just be contented with the gifts and talents God has given us. Our desire to have more money, prestige and power has brought forth misery, anxiety and general discontent. We have started to disregard the gifts we have and covet what others have, thus leading us to lose our inner peace and quiet.
Today, John the Baptist exhorts us to eliminate from our hearts whatever impedes us from welcoming Jesus, namely, selfishness, greed, individualism, discrimination, and other vicious thoughts that we cultivate in our hearts.
As we walk in our Advent journey, let us then transform our hearts of “stone” into hearts of “flesh”. The evil desires, bad thoughts and ill feelings that once thrived will be completely uprooted and a new “natural” heart will start to grow where love, justice and peace will flourish.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What effect does the natural and man-made calamity create in us? Does it move us to despair or does it strengthen in us the resolve to trust in the Lord? Do we believe that the Lord, our God, is in our midst as a mighty Savior?
B. Do I hear and recognize the ode to joy above the earth’s lamentation? Do we trust that God will rejoice over us with gladness for he is a victorious warrior over all forms of sadness and misery? Do we rejoice in the reality that he is ever present to us and that he renews us in his love?
C. Do we welcome with joyful expectation the advent of Jesus, the font of joy, in our personal life and in the life of the Church? Do we resolve to commit ourselves to be a people of joy and to be promoters of joy in today’s anguished and distressed world?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Let us pray this Advent for joy and hope in the coming Lord.
(Pause for silent prayer.)
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
ever faithful to your promises
and ever close to your Church:
the earth rejoices in hope of the Savior’s coming
and looks forward with longing
to his return at the end of time.
Prepare our hearts and remove the sadness
that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope
which his presence will bestow.
He is Lord 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.
“The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love. ” (Zep 3:17)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray for those who have experienced and are experiencing terrible loss, pain and calamity. Pray that the joy in the Lord may come to them even in their painful and distressed situations. Be an instrument of joy and consolation for them. Offer your moral, spiritual and material help to the victims of natural and man-made calamities.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate more deeply the implication of the advent of Jesus who calls us to experience true “joy in the Lord”, 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. 3): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US