A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 9, n. 48)
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – October 23, 2011 *
“They Turned to the Loving God”
BIBLE READINGS
Ex 22:20-26 // I Thes 1:5c-10 // Mt 22:34-40
(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 A 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: A Pastoral Tool for the LECTIO
This Sunday’s liturgy strengthens us with the reality of God’s love and challenges us with the necessity of responding to that love. The Old Testament reading (Ex 22:20-26) assures us of the Lord’s compassionate stance for the needy and vulnerable. He cares for the foreigners, the widows and orphans, and the poor. He defends them because of his merciful nature as God. Just as the Lord is kind and merciful to the poor and needy among us, so must we. The God of the covenant has saved us in his everlasting love and so must we hold him above every other object and show love and concern for his people.
Jesus, in today’s Gospel reading (Mt 22:34-40), radically connects the love of God with the love of neighbor. When asked by the Pharisees which commandment in the law is the greatest, he answered: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Harold Buetow comments: “Jesus’ novelty consisted in putting both texts side by side with equal weight, rescinding all the heavy and light regulations that suffused Jewish living … But it is really only when we love God that human beings become deeply lovable … It is only in and through the proper love we bear for self and one another that we actualize our love for God.”
The Second Reading (I Thes 1:5c-10) illustrates the dynamics of love at work in the early Christian community in Thessalonica. Having experienced the saving love of Christ preached and witnessed to them by Paul and his companions, they opened their hearts to the Gospel and imitated their Christian example. Moreover, the life that they lived by the power of the Holy Spirit enabled them to spread their loving faith in God to every place. Indeed, they had turned away from false idols “to serve the living and true God” and to wait for the coming of his Son from heaven – his Son Jesus whom he raised from death and who is also our defender at the final judgment. Saint Paul was thus filled with gratitude for the extraordinary radiance of this young Church that had welcomed the saving word.
The miracle of divine love continues to be at work in today’s world. Conversion that leads us to embrace Christ Jesus in faith and to turn to the living and true God – the same saving grace that the Thessalonians had experienced in the time of Saint Paul – continues to be verified in the here and now. The following conversion and healing story circulated through the Internet illustrates this.
Nasir Siddiki Left To Die: By age 34, Nasir Siddiki, a successful businessman, had made his first million, but money meant nothing to him on his deathbed. Diagnosed with the worst case of shingles ever admitted to Toronto General Hospital, his immune system shut down and doctors left him to die.
The next morning I woke in a sterile room on the eighth floor of the hospital, my skin burning as though someone had doused me in gasoline and lit a match. I felt on fire from the inside out. My doctor arrived and looked at me in wonder. “The blisters are multiplying so fast I can literally watch them grow”, he said. “Your body isn’t fighting back.” The next morning, in addition to shingles, I had chicken pox from head to toe. I was put in strict isolation. That evening my temperature soared to 107.6 degrees – hot enough to leave my brain permanently scrambled. For days I continued to deteriorate. My nerve endings became so inflamed that a hair drifting across my skin sent shock waves of fire rippling through my body. By week’s end, I was listed in critical condition.
My Last Hope: In life, I’d been bold, self-confident, a risk taker. But facing death, I was terrified. I had no idea what might await me on the other side. I’d been raised as a Moslem in London, England, and I understood Allah was not a god who heals. My only hope was in medicine. I eventually slipped to death that the doctors didn’t know I could hear them when they examined me. “His immune system has simply shut down”, one of them said. “He’s dying”, the other confirmed. “His immune system must be compromised by AIDS.” I don’t have AIDS! I wanted to shout, but I couldn’t form the words. Then it hit me. He said I’m dying! The doctors spoke quietly to my co-worker Anita. “In a few hours he’ll be dead”, they said. “If by some miracle he lives, he’ll probably be blind in his right eye, deaf in his right ear, paralyzed in his right side and he may be severely brain damaged from the high fever.” Then they left. They left me here to die! I felt like a drowning man going down for the third time. Gathering my strength I whispered a prayer. “God, if you’re real, don’t let me die!”
In His Presence: During the darkest hour of the night, I woke and saw a man at the foot of my bed. Rays of light emanated from him, allowing me to see his outline. I couldn’t see his face; it was too bright. No one had to tell me. I knew it was Jesus. The Koran mentions Jesus. Moslems believe he existed, not as the son of God, but as a good man and a prophet. I knew this wasn’t Mohammed. I knew it wasn’t Allah. Jesus was in my room. There was no fear, only peace. “Why would you come to a Moslem when everyone else has left me to die?” I wondered. Without words, he spoke to me. “I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” That’s all he said. He didn’t mention my illness. He didn’t mention my impending death. As suddenly as he appeared, he was gone.
The next morning, the same two doctors arrived to examine me. “The blisters have stopped growing!” “We don’t know what happened, but the shingles has gone into remission!”
The following day, still in pain and covered with blisters, I was discharged from the hospital with a suitcase full of drugs. “Don’t leave home”, the doctor cautioned. “It will be months before the blisters go away, and when they do you’ll be left with white patches of skin and scars. The pain could last for years.”
Stepping outside into the morning sun, I looked like a cross between a leper and the Elephant Man. When people saw me, they crossed to the other side of the street. However, my mind was not on my looks; my thoughts were on Jesus. There was no doubt in my mind that Jesus’ presence in my room had stopped the shingles virus. Whatever else Jesus may be, I realized that in his presence miracles happened.
That fact left me with one consuming question: Is Jesus the Son of God as the Christians claim, or is he just a prophet as I was taught?
At home that evening, in spite of the drugs, the pain and itching was so severe I almost had to tie my hands. Even so, I fell into a restless sleep wondering about Jesus.
Learning to Live: The next morning, I woke early and turned on the television. Flipping through the channels, I froze when I saw the following words across the screen: Is Jesus the Son of God?
I listened intently as two men spent the entire program discussing this topic – answering all of my questions. Before the show went off the air, one of the men led the television audience in a prayer. My body was aflame with pain, but I knelt in my living room anyway. Tears streaming down my face, I repeated the prayer and invited Jesus into my heart. Immediately a voracious spiritual hunger sprang up within me. I had to know more about Jesus. In spite of my doctor’s orders to stay inside, the next day I went out and bought a Bible. First I read the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Still ravenous, I started in Genesis and read through the Bible during my sleepless nights. Meanwhile, Anita brought me books and teachings tapes explaining the Gospel. I devoured them while continuing to study the Word of God. As my understanding of faith began to grow, I dug out a picture of how I looked before the shingles. I prayed and asked God to make me look that way again.
One week after my discharge from the hospital, I woke and found my pillow covered in blisters. I must have clawed them in my sleep, I thought. I crawled out of bed and stepped into the shower. What had started on my pillow was finished in the shower. Every blister fell off my body!
Instead of being covered with patches of white and scar tissue, my skin was simply red and raw. It slowly healed, returning to its pre-shingles condition. When it did, I not only looked human, I looked like I did before I got sick, except for the scars I still carry on my chest. None of the doctor’s dire predictions came true. My eyesight was 20/20. My hearing was normal. My speech was unimpaired. I suffered no brain damage. My healing was miraculous, swift and complete. I never suffered from lingering pain or any other complication. Not only did I have the worst case of shingles ever admitted to Toronto General Hospital. I also had the most miraculous recovery.
Jesus, the God of the Christians, showed up in the hospital room of a dying Moslem and healed me. But that wasn’t the greatest miracle he performed. The transformation that occurred in my heart was even more dramatic that the one that occurred in my body.
An international teacher and evangelist, Dr. Nasir Siddiki is the founder of Wisdom Ministries (WisdomMinistries.org). He lives in Tulsa, OK, with his wife Anita and their two sons.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART: A Pastoral Tool for the MEDITATIO
Do we heed the Lord God’s command to be compassionate and to take care of the needy, the poor and the vulnerable among us? Do we imitate his merciful stance?
How do we strive to actualize in our daily life the twofold command of love of God and neighbor?
Do we welcome the loving grace which enables us to turn to God and serve him as “the true and living God”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the ORATIO
Leader: O loving God, you are living and true!
How compassionate are your ways!
You are merciful to the poor and the needy.
You are the benevolent protector of the weak and the vulnerable.
Your eternal love has saved us from slavery and oppression,
from death and destruction.
Let the grace of your saving love enable us
to be gracious and compassionate to all.
Help us to love and serve you
by embracing our needy brothers and sisters.
Grant us the grace of conversion and total configuration to you.
Teach us to share our faith and the saving word to the people of today
by the power of the Spirit.
Assist us in witnessing the love of Christ in our daily life.
May the Gospel be shared and received by all peoples and cultures.
We deeply commit ourselves to you
as we wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus at end time.
He is our defender on judgment day and our loving savior,
now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD: A Pastoral Tool for the CONTEMPLATIO
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven.” (cf. I Thes 1:9b-10a)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION: A Pastoral Tool for the ACTIO
ACTION PLAN: On this World Mission Sunday, pray for Christian missionaries that they may be imbued with greater love for God and his people in their work of evangelization. By our preferential concern for the weakest and the needy in today’s society and by our acts of justice and charity on their behalf, let us help the people around us to turn to “the living and true God” and serve him wholeheartedly.
ACTION PLAN: That we may truly be a chosen people dedicated to serve “the living and true God”, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM website (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR: A Weekly Pastoral Tool (Year A, vol. 7, # 48).
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