A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 9, n. 2)
2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A – December 5, 2010 *
“That We Might Have Hope”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 11:1-10 // Rom 15:4-9 // Mt 3:1-12
(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 new liturgical year calls us to a fresh beginning. Advent is fascinating - a beautiful season of the Church year. In it we experience transforming newness. Through the liturgy of the second Sunday of Advent, we are invited to tread the path of conversion – the just path that leads to hope and the heavenly kingdom that is the goal of Advent expectation. We therefore listen attentively to the word of God “that we might have hope” and that the divine reign of justice and peace might come upon us.
The Old Testament reading (Is 11:1-10) depicts Isaiah’s idyll of the messianic kingdom. To a distressed people languishing in exile, the prophet offered words of comfort and hope: “On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse … The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him … He shall judge the poor with justice … On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out.” The prophet Isaiah encouraged them with a vision of a Spirit-filled ruler whose power is at the service of justice. A descendant of David, this future ideal king would bring peace and harmony to all. He would summon all nations into a covenant love-relationship with God. The fascinating image of animal enemies living together in peace is a powerful presage of the world as God would have it – marked with serenity, harmony and the fullness of joy.
The message of this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mt 3:1-12) is intimately connected with the hope-stirring voice of the prophet Isaiah. We believe that his messianic prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, our long awaited Savior. John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ, confessed: “The one who is coming after me is mightier than I. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
The forceful image of a rampaging John the Baptist warning about “the wrath to come” and the burning of “the chaff with unquenchable fire” complements Isaiah’s idyllic vision of the messianic kingdom. The biblical scholar Eugene Maly remarks: “Isaiah and the Baptizer are really not working at odds with one another. The first is looking at the final enduring results of his coming, while the second has his eyes on the preparation that is needed. The way had to be made ready; the straight path has to be cleared that the One who is to come can come. This aspect of Advent can be conducive to reducing friction in a community. If each member can work at removing the obnoxious, the offensive, the insensitive from his or her life, that chaff will be burned and the way made ready. The Christ is worthy of the best in all of us. That was the Baptizer’s conviction.”
This Sunday’s Second Reading (Rom 15:4-9) invites us to focus on the person of Christ – who has come, who continues to come and will come definitively in his glory at the end time – as the source and realization of our Advent hope. The Scriptures are filled with instructions and patient encouragement “that we might have hope”. But in order to realize personally this hope of saving glory in Christ, we are to live in harmony with one another and thus glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us. We are to imitate Christ whose life of service on behalf of the Jews fulfilled the covenant promises. The saving Christ enabled even the Gentiles to praise God for his great mercy.
The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent asserts: “He who makes possible the conversion of the world and of man is the Messiah upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests … Despite external appearances, we are already living through faith, in this golden age which has already begun. But appearances are our problem! How can we see the golden age in a world that is adrift, a world in which virtue and vice are so mingled? We can only respond by pointing to the fact that the Good News is being preached to the poor, the blind see, and the dead rise – since the Church accomplishes all these miracles in the spiritual order. The outlook of faith and a hope grounded in faith – these alone can enable us to see the presence of the golden age in the beginnings. Advent is the season of Christian optimism.”
In this Advent season let us resolve to walk on the just path. Following Saint Paul’s exhortation, let us welcome one another and be kind to one another, in imitation of Jesus Christ, the hope and object of our Advent expectation.
The following story, circulated through the Internet, gives us a glimpse of a human act of kindness that builds hope. We do hope and pray that many acts of kindness will flourish in the world. Let them be a sign of the messianic age that is already here, but yet to grow in fullness.
December 30, 2009 was one of the worst days of Elsie Clark’s life, until she met Dean Germeyer. The 79-year-old Canadian grandmother was on her way home to Winnipeg, Manitoba when she missed her flight out of Dallas-Fort Worth after an airport employee left her at the wrong terminal for hours. Clark, who had a bad hip that leaves her wheelchair-bound when traveling, was put on another flight, connecting in Chicago, which was then delayed due to bad weather.
While Clark, who was visibly shaken, waited to takeoff, she worried about what was going to happen if she missed her flight out of Chicago. After contemplating having to spend the night on an airport bench due to her fixed income, she decided to strike a conversation with a man seated nearby.
“I wanted to talk to somebody to get my mind off things for a little while”, Clark told the Chicago Tribune on January 6th: “So, I said, ‘Sir, do you mind telling me what you do because I’ve always admired shiny shoes.’”
Germeyer, who runs a technology consulting group in Chicago, was more than happy to oblige. Their conversation grew, and while Clark told him about her life, Germeyer began to think about what he could do to help.
“There was a connection between Elsie and myself”, Germeyer told the Chicago Tribune. “She wasn’t asking for anything at all.”
Germeyer sprang into action, arranging for a flight attendant to meet Clark with a wheelchair upon their arrival in Chicago, hoping to get her to her gate but it was too late. The airline gave Clark a voucher for a nearby hotel room but Germeyer didn’t think it was enough.
Aggravated by the situation, Germeyer decided to take matters into his own hands. He called his wife to arrange an extra place setting at the dinner table, and brought Clark home. After dinner, he took Clark on a brief city tour, put her up in a hotel suite just off Michigan Avenue, and arranged for a car to take her back to the airport the next day.
“He even gave me a new toothbrush and toothpaste”, Clark told the Chicago Tribune. “I just sat down when I got to the hotel and I cried and cried and cried. Everything he did for me was just so beautiful.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
Do we allow Isaiah’s messianic vision of peace and harmony to give beauty and strength to our weary souls and to inspire us to work for the full advent of the heavenly kingdom upon earth?
Are we ready to tread the just path and heed John the Baptist’s proclamation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”?
In this Advent season, do we let ourselves be nourished by the hope-instilling message of the Sacred Scriptures and to follow Paul’s exhortation to welcome one another in the spirit of Christ whose life-service was offered for all?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving God,
we thank you for the prophet Isaiah’s message of hope.
We cherish the vision of peace and harmony
in which animal enemies live in peace.
We delight in the image of the shoot
blossoming from the stump of Jesse.
Above all, we thank you for fulfilling the messianic promises
in the person of Jesus Christ
and in his saving paschal event.
The Risen Lord will come again in glory at the end time.
Grant that we may always be ready
for his various comings in our daily life
so that we may be received into the heavenly kingdom.
Unite us with Christ Savior
that all nations may give you thanks and praise.
May Christ be all in all
and restore all things in him.
May we cherish the divine Word
and be filled with hope.
Raise us as signs of hope for others.
Together with all those who yearn for harmony and peace,
with those who hope in you and desire to walk in your ways,
we proclaim,
“Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus, our just path!”
Assembly: “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus, our just path!”
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“By the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope …” (cf. Rom 15:4a)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray that the many people who are troubled morally, spiritually and materially may hope in God, find solution to their problems and experience the gift of peace. By your loving concern and charitable service, be an instrument of hope for them. With the grace of God, enable them to welcome the advent of Christ, our just path.
ACTION PLAN: That we may experience more intensely the advent of Christ our just path and be filled with hope, 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, # 2).
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