A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 6, n. 11)
First Sunday of Lent, Year A – February 10, 2008
“Our Victory in Christ”
BIBLE READINGS
Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7 // Rom 5:12-19 // Mt 4:1-11
N.B. Series 6 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 A from the perspective of the First Reading. For another set of reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year A, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 3.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
The spiritual journey of the Christian community at the beginning of the Lenten season is marked by both sadness and optimism. This Sunday’s liturgy confronts us with the mystery of sin, as well as with the mystery of salvation and grace. While the primeval Adam and his wife Eve, mother of the living, experienced the wiles of temptation and succumbed to it (Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7), Jesus – the Son and Servant of Yahweh - was likewise tempted radically, but remained faithful to God and was victorious over sin (Mt 4:1-11).
Celia Sirois comments: “The setting for the story of the fall of the old Adam is the garden the Lord God planted in Eden. It teems with life, with various trees to satisfy every hunger of soul and body. There, Adam is established as God’s son and servant. But when tempted, he lets his trust in his Creator die in his heart. And so it happened that through one person sin entered the world. The setting of today’s Gospel, the testing of the new Adam, is the desert, that place where every hunger goes unsatisfied. There the tempter engages Jesus in conversation, as he did Eve before. But Jesus, trusting absolutely in God’s word, withstands the devil’s wiles. And so it happened that through one person, God’s true Son, sin was overcome.”
The intense struggle of Jesus in the desert against the devil’s temptations was decisively victorious and reversed the death-dealing consequences of the sin of our first parents. The faithful stance of Jesus in the wilderness against the insidious attacks anticipated the radical victory over sin and death that would be achieved by his paschal sacrifice on the cross. On this First Sunday of Lent, the Christian community is being reminded that the essential mission of Jesus is to overcome the power of sin and to make us living and active participants in his paschal struggle and glorious victory over evil.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 2, remark: “Because he was truly human, the beloved Son of the Father could not bypass the test of the desert and of temptation; temptation was the more violent as his mission was loftier and more exacting than that of any other person. But his initial victory over the devil was definitive; nothing could cause him, who had received the fullness of the Spirit, to take back the yes said to the Father.”
We – the Christian disciples of today - are called to participate intimately in the victorious struggle against temptations and sin. Harold Buetow explicates: “A river of grace had sprung up in the desert. He reversed the sin in the Garden! In the Garden, people had wanted to become God, and here God in Jesus entrusted his frail humanity to overcome humanity’s pretensions to divinity … Perhaps the worst time of all was in the Garden of Gethsemani, when the tempter tried to get him to give up the idea of the cross – that cross which in the end meant Jesus’ victory and Satan’s defeat … The temptation of Adam and Eve had been the exaltation of self. The temptations of Israel were to abandon God. The temptations of Jesus were to abuse his identity and mission. Unlike the others, Jesus used his freedom to choose the good. Temptations now assail us, in ways known best to each of us. All are based on various ways of sinning against the great commandment to love God with all our heart, soul and might … Jesus had already shown how we must overcome our root temptations: through doing penance, engaging in prayer, and giving extra attention to the word of God. We have an opportunity for all this, in addition to giving more attention to the commitment of our baptism, especially during Lent.”
The following excerpt from Anthony Bosnick’s book review of the book, “The Prisoner: An Invitation to Hope”, written by Paul Everett and published by the Paulist Press, gives us a glimpse of the dynamics of sin and grace at work in the life of Jim Townsend and how finally, he embraced hope and made a positive, definitive response to God’s offer of love and grace (cf. St. Anthony Messenger, July 2007, p. 48). Townsend is an example of one who is victorious over misery, brokenness and death-dealing situations - over despair and sin. In this Lenten season, he is an example of one who has learned to trust in the unconditional love of God and is victorious in Christ.
Bureau of Justice statistics show that well over 70 percent of U.S. prisoners return to jail within three years after their release. In light of this data, we may wonder if there is any hope that more than 2.2 million people on jail will return to society as contributing members. The story of Brother Jim Townsend, O.F.M. Capuchin, shows us that there is. His life story should give hope to all those who know and work with prisoners, including family members, who may have abandoned any thought that those caught in a life of crime can change.
Townsend knew mostly neglect and rejection as a youngster. Born in 1927, the Depression years hit his family hard, and he suffered the death of his mother while he was still a boy. While the details may differ, his background is not so very different from that of many prisoners today. Raised in an abusive household, he knew little precious love as a youngster. He ran into trouble early, ran away from home and spent time in a reform school, an orphanage and a juvenile facility – all by the time he was 14. These institutions did more punishing than reforming. Townsend finally found love and acceptance as a young man, and his life seemed to change. He married in 1947 at 20, and his wife, Alice, loved him and cared for his deep needs. Then the unthinkable happened. Only six months after their marriage, Townsend took a hunting rifle and murdered her while she was taking a bath. In the early months of pregnancy, as her body changed and her desire for sexual relationship with her husband lessened, Townsend feared that Alice too was abandoning him. In anxiety, he snapped and killed her.
Life imprisonment was the sentence, first in Pennsylvania’s Western Penitentiary and then 13 years later in Rockview, in the central part of the state. The security level at Rockview was lower than that at Western, and Townsend’s plan was to work his way to a prison job where he could drive unaccompanied in a truck through the prison gate, never to return. He did all he could to achieve that job assignment, including participating in the prison religious program. He attended religious services and worked his way into a job cleaning the chapel. All the while, his heart was stone-cold against religion. He just played a game, not believing all that hocus pocus stuff about bread and wine. To get in good with the chaplain, he even went to confession and joined the Franciscan Third Order. But something mysterious began to happen. The words the chaplain spoke, the liturgies he attended and his presence among the holy things of the chapel such as the Blessed Sacrament and the Stations of the Cross began to make an impression – even though he remained unaware of it. God, whom Townsend referred to as Mr. Slick, never gave up on him. Nor did the chaplain.
The rest of the story is one of slow growth and change. After release from prison for good behavior, Townsend developed caring relationships with others, which led to further healing as he began to trust people and realize that he wasn’t worthless and unlovable as he thought of himself. It eventually led to his vows as a Capuchin Franciscan brother. Steady and determined growth in the knowledge of God’s life and love now sustains Brother Jim.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
What message can you glean personally from the story of the Temptation and the Fall of Adam and Eve at the Garden of Eden? What is the meaning of sin according to this story? Why did Adam and Eve yield to the insidious temptation of the serpent? What are the consequences of the temptation and the fall?
What is the stance of Jesus in the face of Satan’s temptations? How did Jesus show that he is truly the Servant-Son of Yahweh? What is the role of the Spirit and fasting and prayer in Jesus’ open confrontation with the devil? What is the connection between the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and his baptism at the Jordan? Why is Jesus victorious in his struggle against the wiles of the Tempter?
What are our intense experiences of temptation? What is our stance when confronted with temptations? Do we trust in the love and protection of our caring God? How do we resist the insidious temptation to negate and resist the love of our compassionate God? Do we look to Jesus’ stance in the wilderness and derive strength from his fidelity to the Father’s saving will? What do we resolve in this year’s Lenten spiritual journey to help us participate more intimately in Christ’s victorious struggle against sin and death?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, the experience of temptation is woven into the warp and woof of our human destiny. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were tempted in the primeval garden to build their life apart from you. Thus they ceased to trust in your infinite wisdom and love. The original sin is a negation of your wisdom and love.
Your chosen people Israel were tempted again and again. They turned away from you to seek false idols that led to death and doom. They had sinned repeatedly, but you never gave up on them. You are indeed a loving, compassionate and forgiving God. In order to restore us to you, you sent your only begotten Son Jesus to save us.
Like our first parents and your Chosen People Israel, Jesus intensely experienced temptations. Satan tempted him in the wilderness to assert man’s autonomy and destiny apart from you. The Tempter tried to pervert Jesus’ identity and mission as your Servant-Son. But Jesus was victorious over temptations. The faithfulness of the Servant-Son in the wilderness anticipated his obedience to you on the cross. Jesus’ victorious struggle against Satan in the desert and throughout his public ministry reached its consummation and ultimate victory on the cross. By his stripes we were healed, and by his suffering and death Jesus gave us life.
Gracious God, in this Lenten journey, we ask for greater love and strength to overcome the wiles of temptation. We adore your mysterious saving plan. We give ourselves to you and trust you. You are our marvelous and compassionate God. Help us to surrender and to trust you especially in painful experiences of misery, alienation and brokenness. Give us the grace to let Christ live in us – in our mind, heart and will – so that in him, we may be victorious over sinful and death-dealing situations. In the love and power of Jesus, may we be faithful to our baptismal consecration. May we work with him to heal the wounds and divisions in today’s world.
We adore you, loving God. We glorify you and praise you. We invoke your saving help in the name of Jesus. We humbly resolve to love you and serve you, now and forever.
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.
“At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” (Mt 4:1)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Meditate on the meaning of the temptations of our first parents in the garden and those of Jesus in the wilderness and on the cross. Pray for those experiencing temptations and have succumbed to temptations. To help us participate more fully in Jesus’ victorious struggle against sin and evil, dedicate yourself to the classic Lenten trinomial program of PRAYER-FASTING- WORKS OF CHARITY.
ACTION PLAN: To help us experience more deeply the beatitudes of the anawim, 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. 4, n. 11): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
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SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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