A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 9, n. 23)
2nd Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy Sunday, Year A – May 1, 2011 *
“In His Great Mercy”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 2:42-47 // I Pt 1:3-9 // Jn 20:19-31
(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 Easter event continues to cast its life-giving glow on the community of faith. Today’s Gospel reading (Jn 20:19-31) describes the Easter apparitions “on the evening of the first day of the week” and “a week later”. In each of these apparitions of the Risen Lord is a manifestation of divine mercy. On the evening of the first day of the week, the Risen Lord blessed his disciples with peace and breathed upon them the Easter gift of the Holy Spirit. A week later, Jesus appeared again in the room where they were gathered to pursue the “doubting Thomas” with divine mercy and love.
Harold Buetow remarks: “Jesus accommodated himself to Thomas’ doubts by inviting him to examine his hands and his side. Through the suspenseful contrasts of fear and peace, doubt and faith, and seeing and believing, the climactic moment arrived when Thomas came to believe as strongly as he had disbelieved. Overcome, Thomas the doubter, the one slow to believe, was given the outstanding grace by the Risen Lord to turn unbelief on its head, to make the most complete affirmation of Christ’s nature to be found in the Gospels, and to proclaim the truth of Christ for all generations to come. Using two older Covenant titles of God, he exclaimed, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Thomas applied them to Jesus. In that moment of the triumph of faith over unbelief, Jesus remembered each of us with his beatitude, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed’.”
The First Reading (Acts2:42-47) is an apostolic idyll. It describes the beautiful characteristics of the early Christian community born from the aftermath of Easter. It was a faithful Church, devoted to the teaching of the apostles; a communal Church, where members shared their possessions and cared for the needy; a worshipping Church devoted to the breaking of the bread and prayers; and a happy Church joyfully praising God and enjoying the goodwill of the people. The community of faith experienced the power and presence of the Risen Lord in the Eucharist, in the many wonders and signs that were done through the apostles and in the constant increase of new members. Indeed, the early Church was growing vibrantly through divine mercy.
The Second Reading (I Pt 1:3-9) is an ode to divine mercy: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead …” (v. 3). We rejoice in the salvation and new life given by God and we owe the grace of our rebirth to the resurrection of Jesus our Lord. Our spiritual rebirth as Christians fills us with living hope for the rich blessing that God keeps for us in heaven. The power of God’s merciful love keeps us secure in this hope of salvation. Moreover, the heavenly inheritance to be revealed on the last day helps us to persevere through difficulties in our journey as Christian disciples.
The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent comments: “Because we are advancing toward the goal, present trials cannot deaden our sense of joy; no crisis, however serious, can lessen the interior joy of the community and of the individual Christian who knows by faith the treasure that is already his. The faith, however, must be of a high order; it must have a quality that is tested by the trials he must yet endure for a while. The joy that springs from faith – the faith that believes without seeing, faith in the person of Christ who died but has risen and is now living in the Church – should transform the Christian and his entire life, for, as the end of the pericope says, As the outcome of your faith, you obtain the salvation of your souls.”
Today – Divine Mercy Sunday – is the beatification of Pope John Paul II, the apostle of divine mercy. His life and ministry exemplified the total trust and the spirit of thanksgiving that we need to render to God, whose great mercy gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. Pope John Paul II’s sacrificial service and patient endurance in illness showed us the meaning of “grace and yet suffering” as well as “grace through suffering”. Above all, he witnessed to the world the saving power of divine mercy.
The following are excerpts from Pope John Paul II’s Testament, which he wrote on March 3, 1979 and then integrated with subsequent additions (cf. “A Life Entrusted to the Mercy of God” in L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, January 19, 2011, p. 8-9).
Totus Tuus ego sum: In the name of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen. “Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Mt 24:42) – these words remind me of the last call that will come at whatever time the Lord desires. I want to follow Him and I want all that is part of my earthly life to prepare me for this moment. I do not know when it will come but I place this moment, like all other things, in the hands of the Mother of my Master: Totus Tuus. In these same motherly hands I leave everything and everyone with whom my life and vocation have brought me into contact. In these Hands I above all leave the Church, and also my Nation and all humankind. I thank everyone. I ask forgiveness of everyone. I also ask for prayers, so that God’s Mercy may prove greater than my own weakness and unworthiness.
I express the most profound trust that, in spite of all my weakness, the Lord will grant me every grace necessary to face, in accordance with His will, any task, test or suffering that He sees fit to ask of His servant during his life. I am also confident that He will never let me fail through some attitude I may have: words, deeds or omissions, in obligations to this holy Petrine See. (…)
The Resurrection of Christ is an eloquent, decisive sign of the departure from this world for rebirth in the other, future world … Today, I would like to add just this: that everyone keep the prospect of death in mind and be ready to go before the Lord and Judge – and at the same time Redeemer and Father. So I keep this continuously in my mind, entrusting that decisive moment to the Mother of Christ and of the Church – to the Mother of my hope.
The times we are living in are unspeakably difficult and disturbing. The Church’s journey has also become difficult and stressful, a characteristic proof of these times – both for the Faithful and for Pastors. In some Countries (as, for example, those I read about during the spiritual exercises), the Church finds herself in a period of persecution no less evil than the persecutions of the early centuries, indeed worse, because of the degree of ruthlessness and hatred. Sanguis martyrum – semen christianorum – “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians” (Tertullian). And in addition to this, so many innocent people disappear, even in the Country in which we live …
I would like once again to entrust myself entirely to the Lord’s grace. He Himself will decide when and how I am to end my earthly life and my pastoral ministry. In life and in death I am Totus Tuus through Mary Immaculate. I hope, in already accepting my death now, that Christ will give me the grace I need for the final Passover, that is, my Pasch.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
In our life as Christian believers in today’s world, do we make an effort to reflect the apostolic idyll of a faithful, communal, worshipping and happy Church?
Are we responsive to signs and actions of divine mercy in our life and around us?
Do we endeavor to give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose mercy gave us new birth to a living hope by rising Christ from the dead? How do we witness in our life “grace yet suffering” and “grace through suffering”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father and gracious God,
you are font of living hope and mercy.
You gave us new life
by raising Jesus Christ from the dead.
The power of your divine mercy sustains us
in our journey toward our heavenly inheritance.
Be with us as we experience “grace yet suffering”
as well as “grace through suffering”.
Touch us with the healing power of Easter.
Grant that we may experience deeply
the love and mercy which the Risen Lord continues to offer us.
Let each one of us confess to Jesus Savior,
“My Lord and my God!”
We adore you and glorify you,
now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
Leader: O Blessed Trinity,
we thank you for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II
and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care,
the glory of the cross of Christ,
and the splendor of the Holy Spirit
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd
and has shown us that holiness
is the necessary means of ordinary Christian life
and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession and according to your will,
the graces we implore,
hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints.
You are worthy of glory, honor and praise,
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.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (cf. I Pt 1:3)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy any time this day or these days. By your concern for the poor and needy, allow the healing power of divine mercy to touch their hearts and offer them a “living hope”.
ACTION PLAN: That we may experience deeply the power of divine mercy, 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, # 23).
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