A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 50)
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – November 11, 2007
“He Will Raise Us Up …”
BIBLE READINGS
II Mc 7:1-2, 9-14 // II Thes 2:16 – 3:5 // Lk 20:27-38
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
One of the most intense episodes in the film, “ROMERO” was the martyrdom of Lucia, a young beautiful lady who cooperated with Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador in his fight for justice for the poor. Lucia was abducted from her room at night while sleeping. She was gang raped and her tongue brutally cut off. The government henchmen brought her to the city dump to be executed. They shoved her to the ground and ordered her to kneel. Lucia defiantly rose from the dump. With dignity, she courageously faced her executioners who shot her to death. While her lifeless body crumpled upon the filthy garbage, the blood of her martyrdom fecundated the community of believers in El Salvador. The martyrdom of Bishop Romero, Lucia and many others replicates the courage of the Jewish martyrs narrated in this Sunday’s Old Testament reading (II Mc 7:1-2, 9-14) and evokes the faith they had evinced in the living God who would raise them up to eternal life.
The events narrated in this Sunday’s passage from the Second Book of Maccabees took place when Antiochus IV, a Seleucid King of Syria (175–164 B.C.), reigned over Palestine. The Seleucids were descendants of one of Alexander’s generals who had acquired the rule of Syria. Harold Buetow comments: “Antiochus decided to eliminate the Jewish mindset by introducing pagan Greek thought and ways into Palestine. Like Alexander the Great before him and other ethnic purist dictators since, he wanted one culture for his kingdom (Hellenism), one language (Greek), and one religion (the Greek pantheon). That culture included the Greek dramas, which were really liturgies offered to pagan gods and goddesses. It included the athletic games and the gymnasium; these were in the nude, which was offensive to Jewish morals. Worst of all, Antiochus blasphemously erected a statue of Olympian Zeus in the Temple itself – the worst desecration … The Jewish resistance fighters were led by a single family, the Mattathias – or, as they were called, “The Hammers”; the Maccabees. Today’s reading is part of the inspiring story of their bravery.”
Towards the end of the liturgical year when the contemplative gaze of the Christian community is directed to the end times, the Sunday liturgical assembly hears from the lips of four young martyrs their confession in the reality of resurrection. The excerpt reported in today’s reading comes from the Act of Martyrdom of a Jewish mother and her seven sons before the pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes (cf. II Mc 7:1-42). The martyrdom of each son and the mother is an epic story of courage and fidelity. Tortured, brutally mutilated, and scorched to death, the confessions of the dying sons progressively revealed an aspect of their faith in the living God - he who makes the resurrection to eternal life possible. The first brother affirmed the family’s readiness to die rather than betray the faith of their ancestors. The second brother declared their firm belief in the resurrection: “The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever” (II Mc 7:6). The third brother avowed that, though physically mutilated by their torturers, they would rise again with bodies fully restored. The fourth brother asserted that the gift of resurrection is only for the faithful. Together with the equally heroic witnessing of faith of their three younger brothers and courageous mother, these four brothers forcefully expressed their faith in the saving God who destines us for eternal life and the fullness of life.
Against this backdrop of the confession of the Jewish martyrs in the gift of resurrection, this Sunday’s liturgical assembly hears more meaningfully Jesus’ own declaration of the reality of resurrection. Engaged in a polemic by the Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, Jesus successfully refuted the hypothetical case they presented concerning a woman who married successively seven brothers. The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent explicates: “Jesus does not attempt to describe the kind of life lived by those who will rise from the dead. All that can be said is that while remaining themselves, they will also be different, and the sexual life as we know it on earth will have no place in the next life, because our bodies will be transformed. What Jesus chooses to emphasize is the fact of the resurrection … If God is not a God who gives life, and if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are forever dead, then what can it mean to say we have entered into a covenant with the God of the living? … God is the God of the living and therefore gives life.”
Indeed, it is the living God who makes the resurrection possible. Jesus Christ, like the Jewish martyrs of the Second Book of Maccabees, underwent the atrocious and painful experience of dying in order to live with God forever and to be the source of life for others. Jesus died in order to give us life – which is not a passing life, but eternal life. The Risen Lord Jesus is the living witness of resurrection. He is the means and the pledge of our own resurrection. It is very significant that it was in Jerusalem – the place of his paschal destiny – that he made the following declaration: “God is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive” (Lk 20:38). In his total submission to the divine saving plan of “through death to glory”, the Risen Lord united us with the living God and enabled us to participate in his resurrection and glorification.
According to the authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 6: “We all more or less regard death as an enigma … But we have also received the decisive testimony of the apostles: But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep (I Cor 15: 20). This certitude is the foundation of our hope in the resurrection of the dead, a hope stronger than all the objections that besiege us … Our assurance comes from the fact that death could not keep Jesus in the tomb.”
Finally, St. Athanasius (295-373) reiterated that the death and resurrection of Jesus gave foundation to the hope of our own resurrection. He asserted: “Previously, before the coming of the Savior, death was frightening for the saints themselves, and everyone wept for the dead as if they were destined for corruption. But since the Savior has risen in his body, death casts no fear: all those who believe in Christ spurn it as nothing, preferring to die rather than renounce their faith in Christ. They know very well that in dying they will not perish, but will live, and that the resurrection will make them incorruptible … They scorn death so much that they rush toward it eagerly, becoming witnesses of the victory over it won by the Savior in his resurrection.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
What are the feelings evoked in you as you listen to the martyrdom of the Jewish brothers and their mother? How did they give witness to their faith? What was the meaning and significance of their confession before the pagan king and their torturers? What is the personal meaning for you of the martyr’s avowal concerning the resurrection: “The King of the world will raise us up to live forever” (II Mc 7:2)?
2 What is the position of the Sadducees concerning the resurrection? Why did they engage Jesus in a hypothetical discussion? How did Jesus refute their position? Are there streaks of “Sadducees” in our ways of thinking today? How do we help today’s skeptics in their doubt and those who do not believe in resurrection and eternal life?
3 How does Jesus testify to the reality of resurrection? Why is Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, the pledge of our resurrection? How do we deepen our faith in him as the font of eternal life? Do we look forward to the “resurrection of the body” and life everlasting? How do these “end realities” shape and affect the way we live in the here and now?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. Preface for Christian Death I)
Leader: Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. In him, who rose from the dead, our hope of resurrection dawned. The sadness of death gives way to the bright promise of immortality. Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling in heaven.
Assembly: God of the living, in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, we are truly alive. In him may we attain the fullness of life in your eternal Kingdom, 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.
“The King of the world will raise us up to live forever.” (II Mc 7:2)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Thank the Lord for the pledge of resurrection offered to us in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for the faithful departed that they may soon be admitted into eternal joy. Bring the comfort of the faith in our future resurrection to the bereaved and to those who are experiencing painful “deaths” in their moral and spiritual life. Be an agent of “resurrection” for the poor, destitute and the suffering people in today’s world.
ACTION PLAN: To help us develop a stronger faith in Jesus, the font of eternal life and the pledge of our 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. 50): 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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