A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 6, n. 44)
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – September 28, 2008
“The Lord’s Way Is Just”
BIBLE READINGS
Ez 18:25-28 // Phil 2:1-11 // Mt 21:28-32
(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 liturgy of last Sunday underlines the reality that our ways, which are utterly limited and imperfect, are not God’s ways and that the divine mercy and compassion transcend the human measure of reward and punishment. This Sunday’s liturgy helps us to contemplate that the Lord’s way is just and beyond reproach. It also invites us to focus on the need to mend our sinful ways and to reinforce our personal options for our almighty and loving God.
The Old Testament reading (Ez 18:25-28) sheds light on the frustration and bitterness of the people in Israel who were relentlessly suffering from the onslaughts and domination of the Babylonians. Experiencing disaster upon disaster, the people cried out in confusion: “Whose fault is it?” Some of the more cynical may have repeated a proverb about children paying for their parents’ misdeeds: “Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children’s teeth are on edge” (Ez 18:1). Indeed, some of them were blaming others and even God for their misfortune. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God declared that his way is just and that each one is personally accountable for his or her actions.
The biblical scholar Toni Craven comments: “Ezekiel passionately argues that each generation is responsible for its actions. He declares that the judgment of God falls only upon the sinner. The present generation is in no better or worse position before God on account of the sins of the previous generations. God will not destroy Israel for past sins, only for present sins. Each generation receives life or death according to its own actions. If the wicked should now turn from their evil ways, God would forgive them, and the present generation would live. The prophet appeals to the people to turn back to God, declaring that God takes no pleasure in anyone’s death.”
Against the beautiful backdrop of the Ezekiel reading, which is an appeal to the house of Israel for conversion and a call to return to God that they may live, the Gospel parable of the sons (Mt 21:28-32) illustrates the life-giving implication of obeying God after an initial refusal to do his will. The “no-no” of the repentant son happily became a “yes-yes” stance. The parable also underlines the gravity of negating our personal choice for the Father and rejecting his will. The “yes-yes” attitude of the righteous son lamentably became a rejection and a disappointing refusal of the Father’s will. Indeed, conversion is always possible and the danger of infidelity is also a stark reality.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 4, explicate: “The Lord does not remain indifferent to the good or the evil done by humans. But as long as they are capable of making a free choice, God gives them this possibility. The persons who have sinned are not saddled forever with their record of convictions. The evil ones are not labeled once and for all. God believes in the sinners’ amendment … Such is God who never despairs of anyone … But by the same token, it is a serious warning for the just. It will do them no good to produce certificates of good behavior acquired yesterday or recently. They must persevere in the practice of justice and remain humble … All of us must be converted again and again. God’s patience and mercy are the basis of our hope and an appeal to our responsibility. Far from finding the Lord’s conduct strange, we sing its praise. For, if God can – and wants to – forget our rebellions, the sins of our youth, then his love never forgets us.”
The conversion of Wilton Wynn, a former TIME journalist, was being passed through the Internet in March 2006 when Pope John Paul II was dying. This very touching account illustrates the life-giving choice of a person to enter into a deeper relationship with God. Wynn’s resolution to deepen his “yes-yes” stance for God was inspired by Pope John Paul II.
After years of covering Pope John Paul II up close and personal, now retired TIME magazine Vatican correspondent Wilton Wynn converted to Catholicism. The reporter says it was all due to the Pope – who became his friend. Wynn, 84 – the same age as the Pope and once a non-practicing Baptist – recalled that when Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978 he was covering Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat, but he said he had a feeling that the new Pope “would be a real newsmaker … so I abandoned Sadat in favor of John Paul”, he told USA TODAY. (…)
The two became close and during their travels he discovered the Pope was reading his work. After he co-wrote a TIME cover story on the Pope’s visit to England’s Canterbury Cathedral in 1982, the Pope stopped by Wynn’s seat on the papal plane. “He reached out and took both of my hands and said, “You are a good journalist”. Wynn told the newspaper USA TODAY, “I felt like I’d won the Pulitzer Prize.”
In the late summer of 1985, before he retired for health reasons, Wynn took one last trip with the Pope to Liechtenstein. He recalled that the meeting rooms were so small that the reporters divided into teams called “pools” and shared their notes. “I wasn’t in the pool, so I went back to the hotel room to have a siesta. The phone rang. It was one of my colleagues saying, “Wilt, the Pope wants to see you.” I said, ‘Oh sure, and President Reagan called me this morning. And Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev a while ago. Now, the Pope.’ And I hung up and tried to get back to sleep.” Then he said his photographer came banging on the door saying, “Wilt, the Pope wants to see you.”
When Wynn saw the Pope he learned that John Paul II had stopped between meetings to give him a blessing for his retirement. “That was one of those times I just broke down. I wept. I can’t even remember what I said. I was overwhelmed.” Soon after, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls asked Wynn if he wanted to dine with the Pontiff. According to USA TODAY, Navarro-Valls had worked alongside Wynn as a correspondent and was aware that Wynn was thinking about becoming a Roman Catholic. That fall they had dinner together.
Wynn narrates: “The Pope came into the dining room wearing nothing but a white cassock, no headdress, no belt and he apologized to me for being so informal. The Pope had a few spoonfuls of his soup, and then pushed it aside, absorbed in the conversation. He was just so intense. I could see he was determined to make sure he was understood … He didn’t talk about my becoming a Catholic. He didn’t even ask what religion I was.” Wynn says he was bothered by the church’s opposition to certain kinds of lab research with human material, like embryonic stem sell research. “He said it is all based on the transcendent value of the human person. No human being must ever be treated as an object. That person is created in God’s image and therefore has infinite value.” Wynn says, adding that he left the dinner a changed man: “After dinner with the Pope, I said, ‘I believe’. I don’t care if it looks crazy or irrational. You don’t have to try to enforce this on anybody else, but you accept it and you do it, or you don’t.”
In April 1987, Wynn and his wife, Leila, a Protestant, joined the church together and a few days later, John Paul invited them to a Mass in his private chapel in the Vatican.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
Do we impeach the way of God and consider it unjust? What is our reaction to God’s declaration that his way is just and that it is our way that is unfair? What is our response to the divine call to conversion and his invitation to turn away from wickedness?
What is our basic stance in relation to God? What do we do when we fail in our fidelity? Do we follow the example of the repentant son who mends his way and decisively turns to God to embrace his saving will?
Do we endeavor to make our daily choices in life more consistent with the will of God? Are we aware that personal responsibility and the fundamental choice for God are life-giving for us and can inspire others to commit themselves to God?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: O loving God,
we impute our guilt to you and to others.
Forgive us for our ways are foolish and wicked.
Help us to realize that your way is just
and that your design for us is benevolent and kind.
Like the repentant son,
may our disobedient stance
be transformed into submission
and total surrender to your saving will.
We love you, dear Father.
In your beloved Son-Servant
you have mended our wicked ways
and taught us the paths that lead to eternal life.
Bless us in the name of Jesus,
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.
“Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?” (Ez 18:25b)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray for those who are deeply experiencing the need for conversion that they may fully respond to that grace. By your words, actions and deeds help the people of today to make responsible choices for God and to enlighten them in their moral decisions.
ACTION PLAN: That we may perceive and appreciate the challenge of making personal choices for the Lord, 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, # 44).
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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Website: WWW.PDDM.US