A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 9, n. 13)
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – February 20, 2011 *
“The Demands of Holiness”
BIBLE READINGS
Lv 19:1-2, 17-18 // I Cor 3:16-23 // Mt 5:38-48
(N.B. Series 9 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 Second Reading. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year C based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 3. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 6.)
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
The living Word proclaimed in today’s liturgy continues to challenge the faith community about the demands of Christian discipleship. The message of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount echoes with greater intensity and transforming power. Today’s Gospel reading (Mt 5:38-48) contains the Divine Master’s radical teaching on holiness, expressed in non-resistance to injury and magnanimous love even of enemies.
Harold Buetow comments: “Jesus teaches largeness of heart and mind: holiness … Jesus’ law is that for such-and-such injury, we are to return such-and-such blessing … With it a new world has begun … Our love for our enemies – those we do not like or who do not like us – is not of the heart but of the will. Therefore to love them need not be an emotional experience, but must be a decision to commit ourselves to serve the best interests of all other people … We see that the apex of God’s kind of perfection is compassion, a willingness to suffer for others. Those who love in such an unconditional and non-selective way are true children of the God of limitless love … In our dealings with other people, both friends and enemies, we are to be magnanimous: large-minded, wide open, generous – and holy.”
The Old Testament reading (Lv 19:1-2, 17-18) reinforces Jesus’ call to holiness that is linked to love of neighbors. True holiness demands that we be holy as God is holy by loving our neighbors in his “magnanimous” way. Listening to the voice of the Lord, we thus realize what holiness entails: overcoming hatred, wholesome fraternal correction, taking no revenge, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Indeed, the merciful God gently guides his chosen people on the path of holiness.
Adrian Nocent explains: “In this passage from the Book of Leviticus, an attempt is probably being made to establish proper social relations between members of the same clan … When all is said and done, we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The point of this saying is not that we are to cultivate similar emotions, but that we are to acknowledge our neighbor’s rights just as we want others to acknowledge ours, to respect others as we want others to respect us. The person who wishes to obey the Lord must be involved with his neighbor and must recognize the bonds that unite him to others.”
In today’s Second Reading (I Cor 3:16-23), Saint Paul motivates the faltering Corinthian community to follow their Christian call to holiness: “For the temple of God, which you are, is holy … You belong to Christ, and Christ to God.” We are “holy” because we belong to Christ, and through him, to God. Our vocation to holiness moves us to overcome trials, divisions and difficulties within the community. Holiness integrates the life of believers by focusing it on Jesus Christ and enabling it to rise above the vanity and wisdom of today’s world.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 4, remark: “We must know and remember that the Christian community is the temple of God where the Holy Spirit dwells if we want to correctly understand and rightly live as brothers and sisters, with each one shouldering his or her responsibilities in the community … The ecclesial community is already in the bud what it will become at the end of time. It should be viewed in the context of the ultimate fulfillment of all things referred to by Paul when he says, you to Christ and Christ to God. (…) Paul places in God the source of unity in the community, of wisdom, and of the practical conduct – the spirituality – that flows from that source.”
The following story gives insight into the meaning of Christian holiness and the service of love and social responsibility it entails (cf. Tammy Justice, “Sister” in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings, ed. Jack Canfield, et. al. Cos Cob: Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, Llc, 2009, p. 1981-182).
I don’t remember her name and would not recognize her if I were to pass her on the street. I don’t know if she is still living, as she was already elderly when I was a ten-year-old child some thirty years ago. But I do remember the kindness bestowed upon a group of underprivileged children by a stranger and the difference it has made in the life of one of those children. Me.
I remember the first time I saw her standing in the doorway of our small apartment. She was a petite, elderly woman who wore a long skirt, long wool coat and what I thought at the time was a hat reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties with its circular brim that lay flat against the head.
I could not hear what was being said as my stepfather, a man who liked no one, listened to her plead her case with such determination that I knew it had to be something she found of great importance. I was not told what was to happen that following Sunday.
A half hour before she arrived that Sunday, I was told to dress in my best clothes for I was going to church. She smiled brightly as I got into her car, the car of a complete stranger. I did not even know her name, but here I was, along with four others I recognized from our low-income neighborhood, on our way to church.
As we pulled into the parking lot, I remember how beautiful the old stone building was with its tall steeple and stained glass windows. The service seemed long, and not accustomed to the rituals of the Catholic Church, I felt out of place. But even as a child, I held a strong belief in God and felt at peace within those walls.
Once the service had ended, I expected to be taken home, but instead we headed in the opposite direction. We were taken to a small apartment with meager furnishings that portrayed a simple, unspoiled lifestyle. Two tables were set up with large boxes containing puzzles. As she made us hot chocolate, we were instructed to begin working the puzzles. It was a quiet time, free from the turmoil and constant criticism we would encounter when we returned home. And the soft words spoken by the woman we came to know only as “Sister” (I think she may have been a nun at one time) were a welcome comfort.
I came to look forward to Sundays. To hot chocolate, to puzzles that remained where we had left off the week before, and to the love I felt whenever Sister smiled at me.
Once our 1,000-piece puzzles had been completed, Sister no longer came to pick us up on Sundays. I was told she was ill and no longer able to travel. However, I wondered if perhaps it was time for her to “rescue” the next group of children. To give them hope that kindness still exists and can be found within those we call strangers.
I am forty-four years old now and have made it a point to show kindness to strangers when given the chance. I am told I am crazy and too trusting, but I know God will watch over me. I know Sister may not move amongst us now, but I hope she smiles when she sees that her efforts to reach out to those less fortunate continue in those whose lives she touched in that special way.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
Do I endeavor to be holy as God is holy? Do I strive to love my neighbor as myself?
Do I renounce personal revenge? In place of vengeance, do I “choose” to love my enemies? Do I respond fully to the Christian call to holiness?
Do I believe that I am part of God’s holy temple? Do I respect the dignity of the temple of God and promote the holiness of the community of faith? Do I allow myself to be inspired by the reality that we belong to Christ, and Christ to God?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving God,
you are exceedingly holy.
You are full of power and glory
and perfect in your love.
Thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus Christ.
He showed us the way of holiness
by his passion and death on the cross.
Through his self-giving,
we realize that Christian holiness demands compassion.
It challenges us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Help us not to inflict injury for injury,
but rather to respond to injury
with forgiveness and magnanimity.
Give us the strength to love unconditionally
and to embrace with welcoming arms even our enemies.
Teach us to recognize more deeply
the holiness of the temple of the body of Christ
and avow its beauty and dignity.
Open our eyes to the demands of discipleship
and to respond to the daily challenges of our call to holiness.
In our work for the heavenly kingdom,
let us draw courage from the truth
that we belong to Christ
and that Christ belongs to 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.
“The temple of God, which you are, is holy … All belongs to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.” (cf. I Cor 3:17b, 23)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray that the Christian call to holiness may be fully expressed in the service of love to our neighbors. By an act of kindness and compassion to a needy person or a lonely stranger, or by a forgiving stance to an injury suffered personally, enable the Gospel of saving love to spread.
ACTION PLAN: That we may experience deeply the holiness of God and that we may have the grace to participate fully in the divine holiness, 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: A Weekly Pastoral Tool (Year A, vol. 7, # 13).
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