A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday and Weekday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 11, n. 8)
WEEK 2 IN ORDINARY TIME: January 20-26, 2013 ***
(N.B. The pastoral tool 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 three perspectives. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 2. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 5. For reflections based on the Second Reading, open Series 8. Please go to Series 10 and Series 11 for the back issues of the Weekday Lectio.
Below is a LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY - WEEKDAY LITURGY: January 20-26, 2013. The weekday reflections are based on the First Reading. For the weekday reflections based on the Gospel Reading, please open Series 10.)
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January 20, 2012: SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Changed Water into Wine”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 62:1-5 // I Cor 12:4-11 // Jn 2:1-11
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
When I heard the news, I shuddered at the senselessness of what had happened. A wedding feast was held in the town near our convent. The bridegroom’s family, which, in the Filipino tradition, is usually the one responsible for the expenses of the wedding, provided what was necessary for the feast. But there were so many guests (and uninvited guests) that the food and drink ran out. The bride’s relatives taunted the bridegroom for not having provided enough. The bridegroom “lost face” and was overwhelmed with shame (“hiya”). In the evening, they found him hanging from a tree. The bridegroom killed himself. What was meant to be a joyful event became a tragedy.
In light of this story, which took place in an Oriental context, it is easy to imagine how unfortunate and critical the situation was at Cana when the wine was running out. Harold Buetow comments: “To run out of wine at a wedding was more of a humiliation for the couple than it would be today. For one thing, hospitality in the East was a sacred duty; for another, running out of wine would show poor planning, or – worse - the couple’s lack of prosperity, which would mean the absence of God’s blessing.” In this distressing situation, Jesus Christ dramatically manifested the compassion and the saving power of God by changing water into wine, thus prefiguring the abundant joy and intense happiness of the messianic age that he would bring. At the wedding of Cana, there was a renewed epiphany of God’s love and mercy through the miraculous intervention of his beloved Servant - Son, fully consecrated to the realization of the divine redemptive plan.
The miracle performed by Jesus at the wedding in Cana has a profound paschal and eucharistic significance. According to the evangelist John: “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him” (Jn 2:11). In the biblical world, a “sign” is the initial manifestation of the reality to which it points. The “sign” of water being changed into wine at the Cana wedding feast foretells the way in which Jesus would fulfill his messianic mission, namely, by shedding his blood on the cross, and the glory it would bring.
Indeed, the victorious paschal sign of Cana continues in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The 5th century musician, Romanus the Melodist, remarks: “When Christ changed the water into wine by his power, the crowd rejoiced, delighting in the taste of this wine. Today, it is at the banquet of the Church that we are all seated, for the wine is changed into the blood of Christ, and we drink it with blessed joy, glorifying the great bridegroom … for the true bridegroom is the son of Mary, the Word for all eternity, who has taken the form of a slave and who created all in his wisdom.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
How does the “sign of Cana” impinge on our faith? Do we see in it the renewed epiphany of God’s love and the revelation of the glory of Christ in the totality of his death and exaltation? When we are experiencing the poverty of having “no more wine” of gladness in our life, what do we do? Do we turn to Christ, the source of Eucharistic wine and messianic joy?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Lord Jesus, Bridegroom of the Church,
at the wedding of Cana you changed water into wine
and gave us a “sign” of your paschal glory.
Look kindly on our poverty
and be mindful of our cry,
“We have no wine!”
Fill us with the sparkling wine of joy
that comes from your self-sacrificing love.
Increase in us the resolve
to share in the banquet of the kingdom
of a new world, a new wine, a new love.
We love you and adore you.
We thank you for the Eucharist
of joy-giving wine and life-giving bread.
You live and reign, forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“The headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine.” (Jn 2:9)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
When the priest elevates the consecrated wine at Mass, make a conscious act of adoration and be mindful of what St. Ephraim proclaimed: “All earthly joys come together in wine; all of salvation is joined in the mystery of his blood.” Pray for engaged couples participating in pre-Cana formative activities and those who will be married today.
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January 21, 2013: MONDAY – SAINT AGNES, virgin, martyr
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Learned Obedience from What He Suffered”
BIBLE READINGS
Heb 5:1-10 // Mk 2:18-22
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Today’s passage from the letter to the Hebrews gives us a beautiful insight into the priestly character of Christ’s sufferings. This reading helps us to appreciate the life-giving meaning of the Servant-Son’s obedient stance. It inspires us to a spirit of conversion and thankfulness for the infinite goodness and eternal salvation that flow forth from his priestly sacrifice on the cross. This remarkable text expresses the paschal glorification of Christ with new depth because its shows its connection to priestly mediation.
The Jesuit biblical scholar Albert Vanhoye, the foremost authority on the letter to the Hebrews, comments: “For Christ the path leading to the priesthood was a path of humility and suffering, a path of effective solidarity with human weakness. His priestly office consisted of prayer and supplications emerging from a situation of distress, and they were accompanied by a loud cry and tears. In this way Christ’s whole passion is presented as a priestly action that assumes human anguish in the presence of death and transforms it into an offering of prayer. This prayer was offered to God with reverent submission. Jesus did not pretend to impose his own will on God; instead, he let his Father choose the best solution. This is the reason why he was heard. The divine solution did not consist in preserving him from death; it transformed his sufferings and death into the instrument of definitive victory over evil and over death itself. Distorted by sin, human nature had to learn obedience so that it could forever be reintroduced into God’s intimacy. Since Christ was a Son he did not need this painful learning for himself, yet he accepted it because of his generous solidarity with us. Thus he became the perfect man, fully worthy of being accepted and even enthroned at God’s right hand, and he did that for the sake of all since perfection was the fruit of his complete solidarity with us.”
The following excerpt illustrates the sacrificial aspect in the life of the Vietnamese Archbishop Van Thuan, a prisoner in various Communist prisons for thirteen years, nine of them in solitary confinement (cf. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, Testimony of Hope, Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2000, p. 77-80).
During the first months of my imprisonment, I found myself in the most Catholic part of the city of Nha Trang where I had been a bishop for eight years. From my cell, I could hear the bells of my cathedral ringing day and night, and throughout the whole day those of the parishes and religious communities nearby. I would have preferred to be in the mountains so that I would not have had to hear them.
In the silence of the night, I heard the sound of the ocean waves of the Pacific, which I used to watch from my office window. No one knew where to find me, though the prison was only a few kilometers away from my own house. Absurd life!
As I have already mentioned, on the evening of December 1, 1976, I was taken from the prison of Thu Duc. I was to embark on the ship of Hai Phong. That evening as all the prisoners waited to set sail, we were told to sit down on the ground in the dark. At a distance of only 3 kilometers, I could see the lights of the city of Saigon, the center of the diocese of which I had been named coadjutor on April 24, 1975. I knew my journey would take me far away. The pain this caused me was agonizing. I thought of the Apostle Paul at Miletus, when he gathered the elders of Ephesus knowing that he would never see them again. And yet, I could not gather my own! I could not comfort them or give them any advice. Within myself I said goodbye to all of them, and especially to my dear elderly Archbishop Phaolo Nguyen Van Binh, with a broken heart at the thought of never seeing him again.
I experienced a profound pastoral suffering in all of this, but I can testify that the Father did not abandon me and that he gave me strength.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
How do we imitate the obedient stance and the priestly sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we strive to love Christ more intimately; he who is the source of eternal salvation?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Father,
we thank you for the gift of the New Covenant,
sealed in the blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
His “reverent submission” to your saving will
earned for us our eternal salvation.
Help us to be intimately united
with the priestly sacrifice of your Servant-Son on the cross
and thus share in his ultimate victory over death and sin.
By his redemptive passion
and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit,
transform the suffering and anguish
that we encounter in our daily life
into the joy of eternal life.
May we always live as your true children,
now and forever.
Amen
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” (Heb 5:8)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
By your charitable deeds and acts of justice, allow the priestly sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ to bear “abundant fruits” of healing in today’s world.
***
January 22, 2013: TUESDAY – WEEKDAY (2)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Anchors Our Hope”
Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
BIBLE READINGS
Heb 6:10-20 // Mk 2:23-28
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
The author of the letter to the Hebrews is aware of the danger of apostasy in the Christian community. His stern warning is meant to preserve the members from becoming sluggish and his energetic encouragement is to help them persevere in the faith. Their zeal for works of charity should be matched by their perseverance in their Christian vocation, which is based on hope. Just as the patriarch Abraham was given the twofold support of a promise of numerous descendants and an oath to fulfill it, so the Christians benefit from this twofold support: the promise of eternal inheritance and the divine oath that guarantees the priesthood of Christ. The Christian hope is steadfastly anchored in what Christ has done in the eternal order by his priestly sacrifice.
Archbishop Van Thuan gives us an inspiring account of how a little fish brought him hope during the time of his imprisonment (cf. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, Testimony of Hope, Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2000, p. 155-156).
I was in isolation in Hanoi when one day, a policewoman brought me a small fish for me to cook. As soon as I saw the wrappings, I immediately felt a start of joy, but I was careful not to show this externally. My happiness was not because of the fish, but because of the pages of the newspaper in which it was wrapped: two pages of the L’Osservatore Romano. At that time, when the Vatican newspaper arrived at the post office in Hanoi, it was often confiscated and sold at the market as paper. Those two pages had been used to wrap the little fish. Calmly, without bringing attention to myself, I washed those sheets of paper to remove the smell, and then dried them in the sun and preserved them as a relic.
For me, in that unbroken regime of isolation, those pages were a sign of communion with Rome, with Peter, with the Church, and an embrace from Rome. I would not have been able to survive without an awareness of being part of the Church.
Today we live in a world that rejects the values of the civilization of life, of love, and of the truth; our hope is in the Church, Image of the Trinity.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we trust in God’s promise of eternal life and do we rely on his oath that guarantees Christ’s priesthood on our behalf? Is our hope firmly anchored in Jesus Christ?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Loving Father,
we thank you for the promise of eternal salvation
and for the oath that assures us of Christ’s priesthood on our behalf.
Let us hold fast to the hope that lies before us.
Our hope of salvation is steadfastly anchored
in Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest.
Through him, with him and in him,
we give you glory and praise,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“Hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul.” (Heb 6:18-19)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
By word and deed, offer a testimony of hope to those who are overwhelmed with trials, sufferings, and despair. Be ready to listen and to welcome them tenderly.
***
January 23, 2013: WEDNESDAY – WEEKDAY (2); SAINT VINCENT, deacon, martyr
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Is a Priest Forever Like Melchizedek”
BIBLE READINGS
Heb 7:1-3, 15-17 // Mk 3:1-6
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
The author of the letter to the Hebrews helps us to contemplate the meaning of the priesthood of Christ. The author presents Christ’s priesthood in terms of its resemblance to that of Melchizedek in the book of Genesis. Melchizedek, a king of Salem and a priest of the Most High, blessed Abraham who was coming victoriously from a battle. Abraham gave tithes to him. The fact that Melchizedek is depicted as having no genealogy and no record of birth or death makes him an appropriate image of the “eternal” Priest Jesus Christ. The figure of Melchizedek points to the Son of God who is infinitely superior and eternal. The name “Melchizedek” means righteousness and his title “king of Salem” means “king of peace”. His name and title evoke the blessings of justice and peace that Christ the Priest-Messiah would bring. He lives forever to intercede for us before God.
Msgr. Bernardo Antonini, a professed member of the JESUS PRIEST INSTITUTE, a branch of the Pauline Family founded by Blessed James Alberione, lived his priesthood under the guiding hand of the eternal High Priest Jesus Christ. The following biography prepared by the Society of St. Paul (SSP) underlines the glory of his priesthood.
Msgr. Bernardo Antonini was born in Cimego, Italy, on October 20, 1932, two years before his parents went to live in the Diocese of Verona. He entered the Verona Seminary and was ordained on June 26, 1955.
He was assigned to parish ministry at first but soon his gifts of mind were recognized and he took his Degree in Modern Languages at Catholic University and his Licentiate in Theology two years later. Meanwhile he had begun to teach in the Diocesan Junior Seminary until 1972. He was awarded his License in Sacred Scripture by the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1975 and subsequently taught that subject for more than ten years meanwhile being Prefect of Young Priests, Director of Ongoing Clergy Formation and of the Center for Religious Formation in his Diocese.
Little did he know, however, what Divine Providence had in store for him. In 1977 he entered the JESUS PRIEST INSTITUTE where he met the Delegate Director, Fr. Lamera and shared with him his dreams of further apostolic initiatives. Under Fr. Lamera’s direction he remained strongly attached to his Diocese but also began to form his heart on the heart of Saint Paul and to understand better the urgency of bringing the Gospel to people everywhere with modern means. He also continued and increased his life-long devotion to Mary and was notable for his particular fidelity to the Holy Father.
His studies in modern languages had enabled him to acquire a good knowledge of Russian and, when Gorbachov began gradually to create more openness in Russian society toward the end of the eighties, he was released by his Bishop for his missionary work and went to Moscow on July 2, 1989, first working with the Apostolic Nuntio, and then with Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the “Metropolitan” (or major Church figure in an area outside the normal Church confines).
From that time onwards his zeal had every opportunity to express itself. He was appointed Founder and Rector of the first Russian Seminary which he named, not surprisingly “Regina Apostolorum” – Queen of Apostles. He also taught Sacred Scripture, was a tireless preacher, and directed the local Catholic newspaper “Svet Evangelia” – “The Light of the Gospel”. During the Jubilee Year 2000, he was responsible for all the local initiatives: arranging pilgrimages, pastoral animation programs, Spiritual Exercises, Jubilee literature, organization of inter-religious dialogue and much more.
But he wished to work in poorer and deprived Churches and so, on August 16, 2001, he transferred, with the permission of his Bishop, to be Vice-Rector of the local Seminary and Episcopal Vicar in Kazakhstan. But the end of his totally-committed life was near. On the Saturday before Palm Sunday he complained of a “stomachache” and some friends suggested he return to Italy for a check-up. However, he had just sent one of the priests to Italy for that purpose and he replied: “It’s not feasible to have two priests absent from the Diocese during Holy Week. Don’t worry. I will get over it.”
Tuesday of Holy Week saw him concelebrating with the Bishop at the Mass for the Blessing of Oils. In the evening he retired to his room. Next morning he was not in church (he was usually there before anyone else) and someone went to knock at his door. It was open. Inside he was still sitting upright at his desk as if working. He had written his last line and said his last word. After seventy utterly dedicated years in the Lord’s service he had gone to celebrate Easter in Paradise!
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we value the gift of Jesus the eternal High Priest? Do we value the gift of the ordained priesthood? What do we do to help the ordained priests to be more efficacious in their ministry?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
God our Father,
we thank you for the gift of Jesus,
the eternal High Priest.
He lives forever to intercede for us.
His priestly intercession
continues in a special way
in his ordained priests.
Help us to love and care for your priests.
Teach us to live fully
the dignity and the value
of our common priesthood.
You live and reign,
forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 7:17)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Pray for the priests and for priestly vocations. See what you can do to help priests in their ministry and those who are experiencing various difficulties.
***
January 24, 2013: THURSDAY – SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES, bishop, doctor of the Church
(N.B. “Dies Natalis” of Blessed Timothy Giaccardo who offered his life for the PDDM)
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Offered Sacrifice Once-for-All”
BIBLE READINGS
Heb 7:25-8:6 // Mk 3:7-12
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
Together with the author of the letter to the Hebrews we focus our contemplative gaze upon Jesus, the eternal High Priest, whose once-for-all sacrifice upon the cross is infinitely efficacious. The saving sacrifice that he offered was his own self. Jesus is able, now and always, to save those who come to God through him. Jesus lives forever to plead with God for us all. Jesus, the holy Priest who offers the perfect sacrifice, is the “mediator” of the New Covenant. His perfect sacrifice on the cross has been the means of union between God and man. It has taken away sin – the barrier to that union – and has made possible our new and everlasting covenant with the compassionate and merciful God.
The sacrificial dimension of the Christian priesthood is illustrated anew in the life of Blessed Timothy Giaccardo, whose “dies natalis” (“birth into eternal life”) we commemorate today. Here is an excerpt from a brief biography prepared by the Society of St. Paul.
Fr. Giaccardo, the first priest of the Society of St. Paul, made Perpetual Vows on June 30, 1920, and took the name “Timothy” in religion in honor of St. Paul’s beloved disciple. Aware of his special devotion to the Pope, Fr. Alberione sent Fr. Timothy to Rome in January of 1926. There he founded the first St. Paul House outside Alba, in the area known as “St. Paul’s Vineyard” near the Basilica-of St. Paul outside-the-Walls.
He came back to Alba ten years later, in 1936, to be superior of the House there. He remained until 1946, during which time he was responsible for the many additions to the interior of the church Fr. Alberione had built. He was also actively engaged in the regular apostolate and priestly ministry in the Diocese.
He was appointed Vicar General of the Society of St. Paul in 1946 and went to reside in Rome. There, in a demonstration of remarkable fidelity to Fr. Alberione, he gave his considerable talents to the work of developing all the Pauline Congregations. He guided and sustained them as, one by one, they came into being, ensuring that each had a profound spirituality and an understanding of the special type of apostolate to which each one was called.
Meanwhile he personally practiced what he preached: a constant unrelenting effort to correct his defects and reach spiritual maturity. So successful was this effort that he attained the practice of perfect charity to the point of offering his life so that the Pauline Congregation Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (PDDM) would be recognized by the Church. The Lord accepted his offering and granted his request. He was stricken with leukemia and died in a short time, on Saturday, January 24, 1948. By no coincidence, this was the feast of St. Timothy and the Vigil of the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.
His funeral took place in the Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-Walls on January 26 in the presence of a large number of clergy, civil authorities and people. His remains now lie in a place of honor in the Shrine of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Rome, not too far from the first House he founded there. (…) On May 13, 1989, the Pope, John Paul II, signed the Decree approving the miracle that decided that the Beatification of Fr. Giaccardo would take place on October 22, 1989, Mission Sunday.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
In the joys and sufferings of our daily life, do we associate ourselves with the once-for-all sacrifice that Jesus the eternal High Priest offered on the cross? Do we trust in the power of Christ’s ministry of intercession for us in heaven?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
O loving Father,
we give you glory and praise
for your beloved Son Jesus, the eternal High Priest.
His sacrifice on the cross won for us our salvation.
He lives forever to make intercession for us.
He is the mediator of the New Covenant sealed in his blood.
Help us to live out his priestly sacrifice
in the joys and sufferings of our daily life.
Through him, with him, and in him,
we give you glory and praise,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“He offered one sacrifice, once and for all, when he offered himself.” (Heb 7:27)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Unite your sufferings, pains, difficulties and trials with the priestly sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And in union with his priestly intercession in heaven, pray for those who suffer in any way.
***
January 25, 2013: FRIDAY – THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL, THE APOSTLE
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Called Paul to Be the Apostle to the Gentiles”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22 // Mk 16:15-18
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
The feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul provides wonderful insights into his spiritual journey. Paul’s spiritual journey was a spiritual experience that produced a transformation and impelled him to assume a mission of evangelization. The converted Paul thus became an apostle of Christ to the nations. On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus had a profound, dynamic spiritual experience. It was God’s initiative, grace, and compassion that brought about Paul’s encounter with the Risen Lord. It was an experience of light – of revelation – of who Christ really is for Paul. Christ revealed himself not as an enemy, but as a personal Savior. Moreover, on the road to Damascus, it was revealed that Jesus of Nazareth lives on in his Body, the Church – the suffering Church. It was a knocked-down experience that left Paul vulnerable, defenseless and open to grace. He could not help but welcome the loving initiative of God. Saint Paul is a model for us of total receptivity and openness to grace.
The mystical and transforming experience of Saint Paul is replicated in the lives of many people through time and space. From the atomic ashes of Nagasaki came forth a mystic: Takashi Nagai, M.D. (1908-1951). Here is an excerpt from the book, “The City of Silence” about his life (cf. p. 110-113).
Dr. Nagai himself collapsed on September 26, 1945 and lay close to death; his recovery, on October 5, was considered miraculous. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the ruins of Urakami and built a small, crude shack as a home for his family: himself, his two children, and his mother-in-law. Eventually, a group of Nagasaki carpenters built him a pilgrim hut next to the shack, and he named it Nyokodo, “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
It was in that hut that the doctor became a poet, the scientist was transformed into a mystic, and the man who loved the silence and privacy of his research laboratory gave his waning strength to sustain others. His simple hut became a monastic cell in which he contemplated God and the bomb, a man of action who, through sickness and pain, practiced unceasing prayer. It was there that he was given grace to understand the redemptive nature of suffering, that even profound losses could be seen and accepted as a part of God’s loving Providence. (…)
Despite his progressively worsening health and the need to insure financial support for his children, Dr. Nagai assumed a greater role as a public figure. The popularity of his books resulted in a widespread correspondence, and he received numerous visitors, both the famous (Helen Keller and Emperor Hirohito) and unknown, ordinary citizens. The Bells of Nagasaki was made into a popular movie, and the song of the same title became Nagasaki’s unofficial city theme song. In addition to his books, he wrote countless newspaper and journal articles and gave large sums of money to help rebuild the institutions of Christian Urakami. None of this acclaim deflected from his serene acceptance of voluntary poverty or the constancy of his devotion to God, his children, and the people of vanquished Japan.
Dr. Nagai received both secular and religious honors: in 1949 he became the first Christian to be honored as a National Hero of Japan because of his work toward the spiritual restoration of the country. In 1949, he received a rosary from Pope Pius XII, and it was gripped in his hand when he died on May 1, 1951. Twenty thousand mourners filled the cathedral to mourn his death, forming a three-mile procession to the graveyard where his ashes were enshrined. His tombstone bears the simple, eloquent epitaph from Luke: “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we see the mystical experience as an important element in the conversion of Saint Paul and in our own personal conversion?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
(cf. Opening Prayer, Mass of the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul)
God our Father,
you taught the gospel to all the world
through the preaching of Paul your apostle.
May we who celebrate his conversion to the faith
follow him in bearing witness to your truth.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“You will be his witness before all.” (Mk 16:15-18)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
As we celebrate today the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, resolve to be more open to the grace of his presence, especially in the Letters of Saint Paul, and to find ways to make people interested in them.
***
January 26, 2013: SATURDAY – SAINTS TIMOTHY AND TITUS, bishops
“JESUS SAVIOR: He Gives Us the Courage of Faith”
BIBLE READINGS
II Tm 1:1-8 or Ti 1:1-5 // Lk 10:1-9
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
In today’s reading Saint Paul underlines the obligations of Christian faith. Paul was martyred at Rome in the year 67. His second letter to Timothy represented his last will and testament. Paul exhorts the young pastor Timothy to exercise serving faith. The “gift of God” that Timothy received at ordination implies dutiful service to the faith community. Paul reminds Timothy that the divine gift received through “imposition of hands” needs to be continually exercised and rekindled for the common good. Timothy is likewise called to an enduring faith. Timothy needs to give witness to our Lord. He must endure sufferings for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.
Harold Buetow comments: “Faith is never definitively acquired; it must unceaselessly be reanimated … Today’s advice to Timothy begins by reminding him – and us – to stir into flame the gifts God had given. Because Timothy is young and heresies and other dangers great, he must keep his courage high. He is given a version of the message of Habakkuk: Bear hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God. In your efforts, be strong, in order to have the power to cope; be loving, especially for the sake of those with whom you will deal; and be wise – with saintliness keeping control in the face of temptations to panic. (…) Faith, the greatest force in the world, is the richest deposit possible, and the most sacred of trusts. Paul had entrusted his work and his life to God. While a criminal in a Roman jail, treated at best indifferently by his barbarous keepers, he did not change his faith, or his loyalty and steadfastness to God’s plans for him. Why? Because it was inconceivable to him that God, whom he had come to know intimately, would let him down. God’s message to Habakkuk and Paul and the apostles is just as important to us now as ever in history.”
The following inspiring article illustrates what it means to remain “in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus” and how a Christian disciple could exercise a serving faith and an enduring faith in today’s world (cf. David Aquije, “The Bicycle Disciple” in MARYKNOLL, April 2010, p. 24-31). Fr. McCahill manifests his faith and shares this wonderful gift as he serves the sick poor in Bangladesh.
The day Maryknoll Father Robert McCahill arrived in Narail it was raining. The thin, 72-year old priest was physically exhausted and tired of looking for the place where he could begin a new phase of mission. Narail “was kind of miserable”, says the missioner, who for more than 35 years has been living in different villages of Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, with a population of 150 million in a land the size of Iowa. Narail, a small, underdeveloped village without infrastructure in the southeast of the country, seemed to the missioner like “a good place to make a mark of Christianity, not for the purpose of conversion but simply for the idea of showing what a Christian is and does.”
McCahill was one of five Maryknoll priests who arrived in Bangladesh in 1975 to begin a ministry of Christian witness. For eight years, the missioners lived together, forming a Christian fraternity in Tangail, near Dhaka, the capital. Afterward, McCahill focused his mission on traveling to the interior of the country to help people, particularly children, who were in urgent need of medical assistance. Finding a place to begin his next stay can take McCahill months of research. He has his own criteria: the place should be poor, have no other foreigners or Christians and some of the people must be willing to allow him free use of a small piece of land where he can build his own shack.
A disciple of our times, McCahill arrives alone – with only a bag with a change of clothing and the essential elements to celebrate his own Mass – in any community where he might live for the next three years. There he sits in any tea shop – “tea stalls” he calls them – where men generally congregate to drink cha, sweet tea with milk that is the national drink, the way coffee is in the United States. Noting the presence of a foreigner, the rustic shop quickly fills up with people and McCahill responds honestly to all their questions. “I am Brother Bob, a Christian missionary”, the priest from Goshen, Indiana, tells them. “I am here to serve seriously sick people who are poor.” In the predominantly Muslim nation with a large Hindu minority, the questions that McCahill receives are many: has he come to convert, how does he finance the help he offers and why had he no family? He responds that the medical help he offers depends completely on the financial donations of his extended family and not on an organization; that his purpose is to live among people who are not Christian and treat them with love, respect and brotherhood; and that his family is all of humanity. McCahill describes the three years that he lives in each town this way: “The first year many are suspicious of me. The second year trust begins to build. The third year people’s affection is felt. They say, ‘He said he only came to do good and that is what he does’.”
In Narail, a short while before finishing his three years, McCahill continues getting up very early in the morning to dedicate time for prayer and meditation before beginning his mission work. This morning in October, he leaves his shack of jute-stick walls, a dirt floor and a corrugated roof and mounts his bicycle that will carry him over windy dirt roads through the beautiful countryside of Bangladesh’s fertile farmland, where ironically millions of people live in extreme poverty. The missioner pedals some miles to the next village of Bolorampur, where he visits Mehenaz, a 3-year-old girl who suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of a poorly handled delivery by a midwife in the village. Mehenaz’ grandmother brings the girl out of her hut and puts a mat on the ground. The missioner squats down in the style of the Bangladeshis and observes and assists the grandmother with the recommended physical therapy for the child. The girl’s mother isn’t there and McCahill is happy that someone else in the family has learned the exercises.
Afterward, amid the songs of wild birds and the smell of burning firewood, McCahill again mounts his bicycle and pedals several more miles to the village of Buramara. In Buramara, McCahill visits Liza, a 2-year-old who suffered serious burns on her left arm before her first birthday. The burns were so grave that her entire hand was fused to her forearm. McCahill was able to take the girl to a hospital in Dhaka where surgeons separated her hand from the forearm. Liza wears a brace so that the hand stays straight. The missioner explains that the child needs another surgery to straighten out two fingers that are bent. Liza cries easily and McCahill thinks it is because she is still in pain, but he tries to console her and make her laugh.
That is McCahill’s ministry. He mounts his bicycle and rides miles to his destination. It doesn’t matter if the roads are full of mud during the monsoon season in this tropical Asian land, east of India, on the Bay of Bengal. He arrives in a village and looks to help people who would otherwise be disabled and burdened for a lifetime by their physical conditions. With a small camera he takes photos of their conditions: cerebral palsy, burns, muscular dystrophy, cleft lips, hernias, tumors and broken bones caused by accidents. Every week he goes to Dhaka, traveling the same as the poor, in the old buses that are part of the complicated and dangerous Bengali transportation system. At a hospital in the capital, McCahill shows the photos to doctors who make their provisional diagnosis. With this information the missioner arranges for free treatment at one of the government hospitals in the city and eventually makes the eight- or nine-hour trip again with the children and their parents. “Not a great expense”, McCahill says. “I afford them their tickets. I usually provide the medicine. It’s not a matter of money; it’s a matter of love, the heart.”
Because he lives in a poor and predominantly Muslim country, McCahill relies on only a modest budget that comes from donations from his extended family for his ministry. “If I had lots of funds at hand to use, and lived apart (in a parish), people’s attitude to me would differ”, he says, adding the people would be tempted to wheedle money out of him. “People here understand I’m using more money for their needs than I use for my own needs. No one can look at my life of service and say ‘he can only do that because he’s a rich American’.” For that reason McCahill shares the donations he receives through Maryknoll with other Christian communities that serve the poor in Bangladesh, especially communities of apostolic Sisters.
His is a life of service that he says began on Oct. 31, 1956. He was 19 years old and was interested in a career in political science. But that day as he was returning home from Seattle University, where he was studying, “I received – I can’t even describe it – an attraction to God like I had never felt before nor have needed since. The motivation I received in that moment was sufficient to keep me for life, as long as I continue to remember it.”
For years, McCahill has described his mission in a journal that he types every month on an antique Olivetti typewriter and shares with friends and family. “My mission”, he says, “is to show the love of Christ, the love of God for all people of all faiths; to be with them as a brother, to establish brotherhood by being a brother to them.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we endeavor to rekindle the gift of faith we have received at baptism and when ordained for a special service to the faith community? Do we endeavor to remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
O gracious God,
faith is your gift – your offer of eternal life.
Thank you for your goodness!
Faith is likewise our response to your saving love.
We turn to you and seek your face.
You are our benevolent Father and our redeeming God.
Let our faith response
be marked with strength of hope
and service of love.
May our Christian discipleship
be known for its serving and enduring faith.
Help us to touch a world anguishing for the Good News.
Grant us the spirit of compassion.
Let us embrace tenderly the poor and the suffering.
Enkindle our faith.
We adore you and give you praise,
now and forever.
Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the day. Please memorize it.
“Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel.” (II Tm 1:8)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
Pray that our Christian discipleship may be an authentic sign of an enduring and serving faith. Through your good deeds and humble service on behalf of the poor and marginalized and through your witness of peaceful joy, enable the people in today’s world to experience the beauty and saving grace of the Christian faith.
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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