A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 6, n. 27)
9th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – June 1, 2008
“These Words of Mine …”
BIBLE READINGS
Dt 11:18, 26-28, 32 // Rom 3:21-25, 28 // Mt 7:21-27
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
This Sunday’s Old Testament reading (Dt 11:18, 26-28, 32) is from the Book of Deuteronomy, the book purported to be the words spoken by Moses to the Israelites on the plains of Moab, at the end of their 40 years of journeying in the wilderness. God’s Chosen People were experiencing a momentous moment in their history for they were about to cross the river Jordan and enter the promised, but unfamiliar land “flowing with milk and honey”. The words of Moses were meant to provide them with hope for the future, a vision of abundant blessings and a pattern of life pleasing to God.
The biblical scholar Leslie Hoppe comments: “Moses wants Israel to decide its future. He states the alternatives very clearly. The people can choose to be blessed, or they can choose to be cursed. Blessing is, of course, contingent upon Israel’s obedience to the law. The detailed stipulations of that law are about to be presented to the people. Moses advises his audience that their acceptance of a life guided by the law is the only way they can expect the blessings promised to their ancestors. The law, then, is not simply a legal code to pattern Israel’s behavior; it is the key to the fullness of life that awaits Israel on the other side of the Jordan River.”
The law of God was his gracious gift to the Chosen People he loves and wished to form in his ways. The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent explains: “In the first part of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses explains at length the meaning and importance of the law. It was first and foremost a love-inspired gift of God who wanted to form his people. His law was a seal upon the covenant, guaranteeing its permanence and solidity, while at the same time constantly reminding the people of the duty of fidelity. By obeying the law, the people of God would gradually form themselves and build themselves up; they were responsible, therefore, for what they were and would be. This people whom God loved was thus obliged constantly to choose, and it would be blessed or cursed by God, depending on the choice it made. The central choice demanded was, of course, fidelity to the one God and rejection of every other god. In a second stage, the choice was to follow the way of the Lord.”
The law of God, explicated in various commandments-statutes transmitted by Moses, demanded a serious, total and unconditional response. Thus, Moses exhorted the people: “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead” (Dt 11:18). The commands of God ought to be received by the people and should be embraced intimately with an integral love involving their “heart and soul”. Their obedience to the divine law in a spirit of fidelity would involve transformation from within. According to the advice of Moses, they were to bind the commands to their wrist and forehead. Harold Buetow remarks: “We are not sure whether this was purely figurative, to symbolize thinking correctly and doing right actions, but later interpretation resulted in the phylacteries, as they are called, being tied by leather straps to the left arm and forehead. The phylacteries were little boxes that contained sacred texts, especially the Shema (Dt 6:4), the great Jewish prayer which Jesus cited as part of the greatest commandment in the Law.”
Outward symbols must correspond to inner reality. Indeed, it is not enough to bind the text of God’s commands to one’s forehead and wrist without truthful thinking and without doing the right actions willed by God. It is hypocritical to receive God’s instructions without putting them into practice. Pious practices and confession with the lips are laudable, but are not enough; total obedience to the will of God and right actions are necessary.
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mt 7:21-27), Jesus reiterates the exhortation of Moses to God’s Chosen People to take “these words of mine into your heart and soul”. Using the powerful image of a solid foundation, Jesus told his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven … Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock” (v. 21, 24-25).
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 4, assert: “It is not enough to proclaim in words that God is God, that Jesus is the Lord, that we are his disciples. We must act in such a way that on Judgment Day we may be recognized by the one to whom we claim to belong. We must build our lives on the rock of the word, put into practice … The law is not a dead letter, a set of rules with which we must comply. It marks out the road that leads to life. Since the coming of Christ, he is the Way we must follow. By listening to his teachings we have the revelation of the Father’s will. By acting as he did, we have the certitude of acting according to truth. There is no other law than he, no other access to life. He is the object of faith and the warranty of hope.”
The following story of Jo Dee Baker from Slidell, Louisiana, whose lovely house and beautiful garden were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, tells of a community of believers whose efficacious faith is founded on a solid foundation (cf. “Angels on the Move” in GUIDEPOSTS, Large Print Edition, March 2006, p. 5-9). Both Jo, the victim of a natural calamity, and the caregivers from the Baptist Church illustrate how wonderful and marvelous is a faith that is put into practice.
My beautiful yard was a mess of uprooted trees and debris; the salt water had burned the grass a sickly brown. My lovely white picket fence lay on its side, and shingles from my roof littered the ground like fallen leaves. Inside, slimy mud covered the floors, and water from the storm surge had tossed all my furniture upside down. The walls were caked black with mildew. Practically everything I owned was ruined. How could I ever come back from this? How could anyone? (…)
So many people needed help, and help was spread thin. “Lord”, I prayed , “I need some divine intervention here.” The next day, I pulled up to my house just as a man with a pickup truck was slowly passing by. He stopped, rolled down the window and leaned out. “Do you need any help?” he shouted. I laughed halfheartedly. “Help? I need an army,” I said. “I’m Brother Johnny from First Baptist Church of Pontchatoula.” He wrote down my name, address and number. “We’ll be in touch, Ma’am.” Then he drove off. But after two weeks I still hadn’t heard from him. One Monday morning, lugging another bag of my ruined treasures to the curb, I stared down the street at the mountains of trash and destroyed homes. “So many people have lost so much,” I thought. Just then, my cell phone rang. Service was still spotty, but the voice on the other end was loud and clear. “Hello, it’s Brother Johnny. I’ve got some people who want to volunteer to help you. They’ll be calling you.” That was it. He hung up. Then the phone rang again. “Jo Dee? This is Jimmy Brown. I’m from the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Rives, Tennessee. We need to know what you need, exactly.” Where to begin? I told him about the mildewed floors, the torn up roof. “Don’t worry, Ma’am. We’ll be there. See you next Tuesday morning.”
I left my sister’s for Slidell early that Tuesday, not knowing what to expect. I doubted even an army of volunteers could make my house beautiful again. I rounded the corner and saw my house. My eyes grew wide. More than a dozen men and women were hard at work. There were people up on the roof, patching the holes, putting on new shingles. In the yard, a few men and women were sweeping up the scattered branches, broken glass and garbage. A loud buzz drew my attention. I turned to see a man cutting down a pine tree split by the storm. A group filed out of my house carrying moldy slabs of sheetrock and warped floorboards. Others were hammering new window frames into place. At the curb, two women with sponges and buckets of soapy water washed some of the possessions I thought were too grimy to save. I walked through my front door as if walking through a dream. A tall man came up to me and extended his hand. “Hello, Jo Dee,” he said. “I’m Jimmy Brown.” I pushed his hand away and wrapped my arms around him. This called for a hug. A big one. I squeezed tight and let tears fall. I hadn’t really cried since Katrina hit. Now I let it all go.
Nineteen people had traveled all the way from Tennessee just to help little old me. They spent three days cleaning the rot and grime and putting on my new roof. Two weeks after they left, about 40 more, from an association of 45 churches, came to finish the job! They ripped out and replaced the flooring, repainted the house, put in new shelves and cabinets, installed a stove and a water heater. By the time they were done, the house looked better than ever!
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
What are our choices in life? What is our response to this fundamental choice: “I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord … a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God” (Dt 11:26-28)?
What is our response to Jesus’ exhortation: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Mt 7:24)?
Is our faith solidly built on the word of God? Is it efficacious and operative? How do we translate our faith into action?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
give us the wisdom of the Holy Spirit
that we may make the right choice
and tread the path that leads to abundant blessings.
Help us to embrace your benevolent commands
with our heart and soul
and to submit ourselves to Jesus,
the Way that leads to life-giving truths.
Assist us to trust fully
in the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grant that our faith may be translated into charitable actions.
When the rains of temptations fall
and the floods of evil come,
let us not despair nor be distressed,
but rather, make us deeply aware that Jesus Christ,
your Son and the Word of life,
is our refuge and our true foundation.
He is our rock of strength, 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.
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Mt 7:24).
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Meditate on our fundamental choice as children of God, as a community of believers and as Christian disciples. Endeavor to translate your faith into charitable action on behalf of a person in need.
ACTION PLAN: To help us experience more deeply the importance of our fundamental choice for Christ, 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. 26): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
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