A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 39)
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – August 26, 2007
“Gathered From All The Nations”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 66:18-21 // Heb 12:5-7, 11-13 // Lk 13:22-30
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
When I was a student in Rome, I wanted to participate in the Pope’s Easter Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. One day I was given the chance. Together with one PDDM Sister who had worked many years as a missionary abroad and was in her native Italy for a visit, I headed off very early to the Vatican for the Eucharistic celebration to be presided by Pope John Paul II. That Easter Sunday was drenched with early spring rain and was quite chilly. We waited for about two hours sitting patiently and praying silently as the gentle drops of rain fell upon us like an Easter benediction. The pilgrims gathered at St. Peter’s Square were from all over the world. They were from different races, cultures and nations. They were serene and peaceful, wrapped in a raincoat or protected by an umbrella, and quite undeterred by the rain. As I surveyed that delightful throng of peoples from all nations, I was overwhelmed with fascination. The prophet Isaiah’s glorious vision of the gathering of peoples in Jerusalem (Is 66:18-21) was being fulfilled there and then in the assembly of Christian believers, the Church - the “new city” Jerusalem. Moreover, immersed in that beautiful mosaic of peoples, cultures and tongues, I was savoring the truth that Jesus revealed concerning universal salvation: “And people will come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south and will recline at the table of the kingdom of God” (Lk 13:29). When Pope John Paul started the Mass, the rain had abated. Gathered around the Eucharistic table, the pilgrims from all nations rejoiced in the joy of the Risen Lord, who underwent the rigors of the paschal destiny of his suffering and death, in order to bring about the salvation of all peoples and the entire creation. At the end of the Easter Mass, the Holy Father extended his Easter greetings to the nations of the world in more than one hundred languages. That Easter experience of “universal salvation” and the intense “catholic” character of the Church was a precious moment to cherish. It was for me a source of abounding delight.
This Sunday’s Old Testament reading (Is 66:18-21), the finale of Isaiah’s prophecy, depicts his vision of “the gathering of nations of every language” on the holy mountain, Jerusalem, and underlines the missionary vocation of the redeemed “to proclaim the glory of the Lord among the nations”. In poetic language, the prophet Isaiah makes it very clear how encompassing and all-inclusive is God’s saving plan. The vocation of Israel is to broaden its horizons and realize that God wills all people to be saved, and not just the Jews. The biblical scholar Eugene Maly comments: “Through suffering God was revealing himself. His revelation was remarkable. He would bring together all the nations and tongues. It was not just Israel that he wanted to share in his blessings. It was all peoples … The universalism of salvation had not been stressed much before this. Israel was powerfully caught up in the wonder of her own election by God and understandably so. But she had to learn that it was an election of service for others, not an election based on merit for self-fulfillment.” In the divine plan of salvation, messengers will be sent to nations that do not yet know the Lord. The messengers of God will proclaim his glory to distant lands – to all directions surrounding Jerusalem: to Tarshish in southern Spain, to Put and Lud in northern Africa, to Tubal near the Black Seas, to Mosoch in Asia Minor, and to Javan in the Greek Ionian Islands. In effect, the message of salvation needs to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.
Moreover, the prophet Isaiah declares that peoples of all nations will journey to Jerusalem, using every possible means of transportation: “on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries”. Indeed, there is a cultic dimension to this pilgrimage. Peoples from all nations would be presented as “an offering to the Lord” just as “the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the Lord in clean vessels”. All peoples will offer a pure sacrifice pleasing to God. The corporate worship of earth’s peoples is a sign of the ultimate unity willed by God. Isaiah then climaxes his universal mission with a tremendous statement about the Gentiles taking their place in the priesthood: “Some of those I will take as priests and Levites, says the Lord” (Is 66:21).
The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent remarks: “How can we avoid seeing in these texts an image of the Church, which Vatican Council II speaks of as a sign lifted up among the nations (in an allusion to Is 11:12) and a sign under which the scattered children of God may be gathered together (cf. Jn 11:52)? The vision of the prophet is to be found again in the Apocalypse: an immense throng from every nation, race, people, and tongue, all standing before the throne and his Lamb (Apoc 7:9). The Church of our day must live by this vision; it is this vision that explains her missionary activity. She is a sign of Christ, who, being lifted up from the earth, draws to himself God’s scattered children.”
The plan of universal salvation depicted in the vision of the prophet Isaiah acquires greater urgency and takes on a deeper challenge in this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Lk 13:22-30). The salvation of all peoples is God’s grandiose plan, but it is exigent and expedient that we get involved in the process of entering God’s kingdom. In order to be saved, we should pass through the “narrow gate”. Indeed, God’s offer of saving grace demands our personal response and best efforts. Moreover, our response to the saving grace cannot be postponed indefinitely for when the Master has arisen, he would eventually “lock” the door or the gate. Indeed, we need to seize the opportunity of the present moment lest we develop such a thick crust of insensitivity to grace. In Jesus’ parable of this Sunday about the narrow gate, the locked door and the messianic banquet, we are being reminded that the good God issues invitations and that nobody is excluded from the banquet except those who exclude themselves. Moreover, the universal plan of salvation of our loving God is intimately connected with the paschal sacrifice of Christ who passed through “the narrow door” of his passion and death. Just as the salvation of all peoples has been realized by Christ’s sacrificial love, our personal salvation can be achieved by our intimate participation in the paschal mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eugene Maly elucidates on the relationship between Christ’s paschal suffering and the divine plan of universal salvation: “Jesus is altogether in accord with that message of universalism. The Gospel reading contains his statement that people will come from all the ends of the earth to partake of the messianic banquet in the kingdom of God. The reading had begun with the question of one who had asked whether salvation was for the few. It concludes with the statement of universal salvation. But we must recall the larger context of Luke’s Gospel in which this reading is found. It is part of his journey narrative in which Jesus is presented as on his way to Jerusalem. The opening verse reminds us of that when it states that he went through towns and villages on his way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, of course, was to be the scene of Jesus’ glorification when he was taken up to heaven (Lk 24:51). But that glorification was necessarily preceded by suffering and death. He had first to suffer and be rejected by his own generation (Lk 17:25). Just as Jesus’ personal glory was attained through suffering, so was God’s whole plan to be realized in the same way, as Israel had discovered. Jesus was well aware of this when he spoke of all nations sharing in the Kingdom. The realization of that plan would not be automatically achieved. And so we have the history of the Church. It is marked by the presence of Christ, by the sacraments, by all the noble efforts of sainted men and women. But it is also marked by struggle and persecution, by misunderstanding and rejection. It is a history that leads, however, to the salvation of all nations.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Rev. Fr. Boniface Perera
St. Peter’s Church. Lemoore, Fresno, CA-U.S.A.
Today’s Gospel theme is very much in relation to last Sunday’s Gospel. St. Luke presents Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem. Knowing that He will be rejected and crucified, Jesus still continues aiming towards Jerusalem. Someone asks, “Will only few people be saved?” As always, Jesus makes use of the opportunity to share a message of salvation. It is interesting that He speaks of a “narrow gate” but wide open. The gate will be narrow as it is challenging and not just every one will enter it. But at the same time, Jesus says that every one is invited and no one is barred because of color or race. As a repeated theme, Jesus also tells us that we need to be ready and awake and to work for it. While eternal life is open to every one, we have a part to play and it is challenging too. Today’s Gospel also makes us look back on ourselves, with self-criticism, not to be self-righteous like the Pharisees. Just knowing Jesus, or being a member of the Church would not be enough. “We ate and drank in your company.” If one did not have an intimate relationship and was not faithful, the Master would say, “I do not know you” when one knocks at the door, trying to enter. There would be others, judged otherwise as not worthy to enter, who would enter. Those expecting to enter will be left outside where there would be “wailing and grinding of teeth”. We are reminded not to judge others, but to look into our own way of life so as to change for the better and be better prepared.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What are the various images of universality depicted in the vision of Isaiah? How do these images impact you? What is the meaning of the mission “to bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations as an offering to the Lord”? How is this mission realized today?
B. What is the Divine Master’s teaching on who will be saved and how do we get to be saved? What is the meaning of his exhortation, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate”? What is the challenge for us of the “locked gate” or the “locked door”?
C. Are we grateful to God for the gift of universal salvation and for Jesus Christ who made the salvation of all peoples possible? How is the divine plan of salvation connected with Christ’s paschal mystery and our own participation in his paschal destiny? Are we ready to suffer and undergo the discipline of renunciation for our personal salvation and the redemption of all peoples? How is our spirituality and mission marked by paschal sacrifice?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. Commission Francophone Cistercienne, Tropaires des dimanches, Dourgne, le Livre d’Heures d’En-Calcat, 1980, “Temps ordinaire, 21e Dimanche C, p. 105 // Days of the Lord: The Liturgical Year, vol. 6, Colegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1991, p. 182)
Leader: Come not alone to the feast of the kingdom; along your way, cry out the news: “The promise is a bread given to be shared: God urges you to enter into one dwelling-place and gathers you in love.”
Assembly: Jesus, hope of humanity, make us witnesses of your salvation.
Leader: I have come to bring fire on the earth. I want it to spread and to burn.
Assembly: Jesus, hope of humanity, make us witnesses of your salvation.
Leader: I have come that all might have life and have it to the full.
Assembly: Jesus, hope of humanity, make us witnesses of your salvation.
Leader: I have come to seek those who are lost, not as Judge but as Savior.
Assembly: Jesus, hope of humanity, make us witnesses of your salvation.
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 people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at the table of the kingdom of God.” (Lk 13:29)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that God’s offer of salvation be received fully and find a fitting response among peoples of all races, cultures and tongues. Pray for all missionaries who promote the divine message of salvation to all parts of the earth and to all creation. Participate and contribute to the work of evangelization with whatever means possible and in the best way you can.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us respond fully and participate more intimately in the divine plan of universal salvation, 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. 39): 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