A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 35)
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – July 29, 2007
“Ask and You Will Receive”
BIBLE READINGS
Gen 18:20-32 // Col 2:12-14 // Lk 11:1-13
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
After 30 years of fruitful life healed from cancer, my father’s illness came back when he was 82 years old. The doctors at the hospital in Fremont, California informed him of the bleak diagnosis. My father wished to spend his remaining days in the Philippines, his native land. On August 1, 1997, I came over to the States to fetch him and my mother. Within two weeks, the three of us would fly to balmy Cebu Island, where my eldest brother, a medical doctor, and his family resided. I suggested that we celebrate the Anointing of the Sick before flying to the Philippines. My parents fully agreed. After conferring with their parish priest in Newark, I prepared the outline of the celebration. I asked my father which Gospel text he wanted to use for the celebration. He readily answered: “The one that says ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” The Anointing of the Sick, celebrated at the Senior Citizens’ unit where my parents lived, was very meaningful. It touched us all, especially my parents. From that sacramental celebration, my father received the grace of serenity and the warm assurance that God was in control. My parents continued their prayers for healing. But they would always add, “Let your will for us be done!” On August 14, 1997 the three of us returned to the Philippines. Two weeks later, on August 31, my father passed away surrounded by his loved ones. His trusting prayer was answered. The will of God was greatly manifested and accomplished in his life.
This Sunday’s liturgy continues the Divine Master’s teaching on discipleship. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus taught his disciples what it means to be a true “neighbor” and underlined the need to carry out compassionate acts of service for our “neighbors” in need (cf. Lk 10:25-37). In his visit to his beloved friends, Martha and Mary, he made us realize the primordial duty of listening to the Word of God, the font of strength for all our charitable deeds as “Good Samaritans” in today’s world (cf. Lk 10:38-42). In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus delineates another mark of discipleship – prayer (Lk 11:1-13). To the disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples”, the Divine Master taught the Lord’s Prayer.
In teaching us the Lord’s Prayer (v. 1-4) and in the exhortations that follow (v. 5-13), we ought not to think that we need only to have shameless persistence and an unshakable conviction in order to obtain anything we want from God. The Benedictine liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent explains: “The Lord’s Prayer corrects such an impossible theology of prayer. It tells us that what we can obtain with certainty is the sanctification of God’s name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will. We obtain forgiveness, but only on certain conditions, whose fulfillment depends on us. If God, being a Father, gives us what we ask, he is not, however, forced to answer any and every petition whatsoever; prayer is not something that works mechanically. God hears our petitions only if they are in keeping with his will and if we do our best to carry out what he wants of us for our salvation.”
Using as a contrast the parable of the reluctant, sleepy householder who was “merely” obliged to help a persistent friend in the middle of the night, Jesus delineated the incomparable benevolence and utmost goodness of the heavenly Father to whom our prayer is addressed. Aelred Rosser remarks: “God is different from the reluctant sleepy neighbor. We ask confidently because we know God is eager to give. We knock confidently because we know God is eager to open to us. And because we all know that a doting father will give his children even better things that they ask for, we can only imagine how eager the all-holy God is to favor the requests. As we progress toward maturity in prayer, we learn that the Father’s eagerness to supply our needs renders prayers of petition almost unnecessary – and prayers of thanksgiving and praise spontaneous.”
This Sunday’s Old Testament reading (Gen 18:20-32) illustrates that prayer is a profound dialogue between God and the human person. Adrian Nocent asserts: “Nothing could better show that prayer is a bold dialogue with God than this passage from the Book of Genesis, in which we see Abraham speaking with the Lord and almost straining the limits of respect in an effort to catch God, as it were, in the snare of his own goodness and his own sense of justice. The whole dialogue should be read in its entirety, for in it we see the Lord being pushed to the extreme mercy. The style and manner of proceeding are truly Semitic. The appeal to God’s honor and reputation for justice might seem to us highly disrespectful; as a matter of fact, however, it shows great confidence in God and demonstrates the friendly intimacy of God with Old Testament man. Abraham makes it clear that along with Moses, Samuel, and Jeremiah, he is one of the great spiritual men of all time, one of those whose spirit of trusting prayer is an example for every generation.”
Indeed, Abraham’s trusting prayer is efficacious. His example of audacious confidence in the Lord God who graciously dialogues with him in prayer is very inspiring. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 6, conclude: “The example of Abraham and the teaching of Jesus show that in dialogue with God, anyone of us can turn toward the Lord as toward a friend of whom we can ask anything, towards a father whose inexhaustible and complete generosity is well known … The prayer of the Christian is like that of Jesus. Far from being a flight from this world and its trials, it sets one on the road following Christ, for the glory of the Father and the coming of the kingdom. By it we obtain from his paternal generosity all that we need each day, but it also forces us to discover what we should be looking for, opening the closed doors. For through prayer, we gain the supreme gift of the Spirit that produces abundant fruit.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
“The mystery is Christ among us.”
By Rev. Fr. Mario Giachino, SSP
Los Angeles, CA-U.S.A.
“Lord, teach us how to pray.” This is a petition that we should make seriously and frequently, but not necessarily to learn new prayers, new ways to pray, or new devotions to practice. It should be rather to learn how to pray as true Christians. Praying and reciting prayer formulas are two different things.
In the first place, to pray as Christians means to raise our minds to God; and it may be when we are working or relaxing, happy or sad, even sick. Raising our mind to God is not an item that we can find for sale in the supermarket. It is a sublime activity necessary for our spiritual life. In whatever type of prayer we use, praying means concentrating our mind on God during the whole time that we spend on it.
To pray as Christians also means to turn to God in the way that Jesus taught the Apostles with the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. It means to turn to Him with absolute confidence, even when we find ourselves in situations that we cannot immediately understand. To pray as Christians means to desire that “hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come.” Jesus teaches us that, instead of asking Him to make things turn out the way we wish, we should ask that things turn out for us the way He wishes.
Praying does not mean to turn to God only to resolve our problems, although this may be the most natural thing to do. Praying as Christians means rather to ask God for “the gift of his Spirit” so as to be able to conduct ourselves in all circumstances according to his will, convinced that no one desires our welfare more than does our heavenly Father, and acting on this conviction even when we are suffering.
But praying as Jesus taught us is not always easy. Therefore we should humbly assume an attitude of complete trust in our heavenly Father. If we pray as Jesus taught us, our prayer will be heard, for Jesus has said: “Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. How does Abraham’s dialogue with God impact us? What does it mean to dialogue with him? Do we endeavor to dialogue with God intimately and trustingly as a true friend?
B. What are the various elements of the Lord’s Prayer that touch and challenge us most? Do we meditate and give value to the prayer that the Lord Jesus taught us as his disciples? Do we thank the Lord Jesus for having taught us this beautiful prayer? Do we strive to make the Lord’s Prayer a living reality in our personal lives?
C. Do we trust that the Father to whom our prayer is addressed is a benevolent and compassionate God who wills and promotes our utmost good? In response to his absolute goodness and infinite care for us, do we ask … do we seek … do we knock at his door? Do we believe that this compassionate Father is giving us the most fabulous gift – the Holy Spirit with his abounding gifts?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.
Assembly: For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever.
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.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Lk 11:9)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that today’s Christian disciples may grasp more deeply the meaning and the challenge of the Lord’s Prayer. Endeavor to bring about the sanctification of God’s name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will in the daily events of your daily life and through your loving service to your neighbors in need.
ACTION PLAN: To help us delve more deeply into the meaning and the challenge of the Lord’s Prayer, 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. 35): 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