A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 6, n. 9)
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – January 27, 2008
“The Great Light”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 8:23-9:3 // I Cor 1:10-13, 17 // Mt 4:12-23
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 Gospel passage (Mt 14:12-23) about Jesus’ public ministry that began in “Galilee of the Gentiles” is a summary presentation of “the dawning of the ages” – the messianic realization of the time of salvation. In a few power-packed verses, the evangelist Matthew sketched the gradual unfolding and realization of the messianic plan. The arrest of John the Baptist (v. 12) signaled the beginning of the new Covenant to be ratified in Jesus’ blood. Jesus’ proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom to the “Galilee of the Gentiles” depicted him as the realization of Isaiah’s prophecy about the “great light” to the nations (v. 16). His call of the first disciples by the lake of Capernaum (v. 18-22) began the time of the Church, the community of Christian disciples. The first healings he wrought confirmed the efficacious and transforming salvation he brings as the longed-for Messiah. Indeed, Jesus’ inaugural ministry in Galilee, the crossroad of pagan cultures and commerce, prefigured his universal mission and the mission of the Church to be the light of salvation.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading, which should be read against the backdrop of the Old Testament reading (Is 8:23-9:3), underlines that Jesus is the radical fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of hope addressed to the people of Israel in the aftermath of the Assyrian invasion and devastation. The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly comments: “About 732 B.C. the Assyrian conqueror, Tigleth-Pileser, had devastated the upper territory of Israel, the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali . But Isaiah the prophet knew that God would not forget his people and so confidently predicted that a restoration was to come. Darkness would give way to light, sorrow to rejoicing. The future jubilation is compared with two of the greatest occasions of joy for the people of the ancient Near East. One is seasonal, the time of harvesting (which can have another symbolic meaning in the light of the Gospel reading). The other is episodic, the time of sharing the spoils of victory in war. Isaiah probably foresaw this moment of joy coming on the occasion of the birth of a royal child (who is described in the verses following our reading). He would bring victory and peace. But Isaiah, or his disciples who recorded the oracle, would have seen a still more perfect fulfillment in the end-time. For them history was always pregnant with a richness of meaning because it was God’s history. What Isaiah could have foreseen only dimly, Matthew was able to identify clearly. Jesus, who began his ministry in a town that was in the territory mentioned by the prophet, must be the great light and source of joy predicted long ago. Matthew, of course, could never have written that in the time of Jesus’ early ministry, but in the light of his Easter faith he had no doubt about Jesus. So the prophecy is fulfilled in the very appearance of Jesus in the land, proclaiming the gospel.”
The call of the first disciples (Peter and Andrew; James and John) was part of the prophetic fulfillment of the “great light” dispelling the gloom of darkness. Jesus – the “great light” – was offering the gift of ministry to the fishermen by the lake: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). In effect, he was inviting them to share in his mission of radiating the life-giving light of God. He was summoning them to follow him who is the light of life and to abide by his light. They were being called to share intimately in his life and messianic mission of being light to the nations. The response of the fishermen was immediate and decisive. They left their nets, boats and relations to follow Christ. Through the miracle of vocation to ministry, these disciples were rendered capable of being fishers of men and of spreading the light of Christ to the world.
We too are called to participate fully in the radiance of Jesus Christ and to spread the light of his Gospel. The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent remarks: “The light of the Good News ia always being offered to us, for the work of evangelization goes on. But we are not simply to observe the work or to be recipient of it – we are to share in it. The prophecy read today and the Gospel pericope are addressed to us in order to stir us to action. In fact, Christ stirs us to action at two levels. There is the inner spiritual movement incumbent upon us: the kingdom is at hand, proclaimed to us by the light we received at our baptism, and we must therefore unwearyingly carry on the work of our own conversion. But we must also leave all things and follow Christ in order to share with him the task of preaching the gospel. The gospel is demanding, for we must take steps that are costly to our weak nature if we are to see the light and accept it. And yet the extension of the kingdom depends in part on us. The Church is already established, of course, and its supporting pillars are the apostles. But each of us is called to work for the expansion of the Church and the spreading of the Good News. The sacrifices required of us in the pursuit of this goal may be hard ones. The apostles, the first ones whom Christ called, responded without hesitation.”
In the November 2007 issue of MARYKNOLL magazine is an article about the Maryknoll nun, Sr. Bernie Lynch whose vocation story inspired others to serve (cf. Margaret Gaughan, “Bernie, Still A Nun”, p. 33-35). The pictures of Sr. Bernie as a postulant doing garden work, as a novice at prayer and at play, and as a newly professed Sister bathing a baby in Chinatown and aboard a ship heading for her assignment in Peru are some of the most impressive pictures I have ever seen expressing grace, beauty and joy in the Lord. Responding to the “great light” Jesus Christ, Sr. Bernie became a light giver and has inspired others to be light givers.
Whatever happened to Bernie the nun? Bernie, the subject of the popular 1956 book “Bernie Becomes a Nun”, is still a nun. “I get e-mails and letters from people who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, telling me that “Bernie Becomes a Nun” was part of their required reading in the eighth grade,” says Maryknoll Sister Bernadette Lynch, the Brooklyn, N.Y. native whose journey to the convent comes alive in the pages. “Many Sisters say the book inspired them to enter the convent.” Lynch, who served in Latin America for almost 40 years and is now a member of the Maryknoll Sisters mission awareness team that visits U.S. schools and parishes, says she regarded her role in the making of the renowned book as “part of my mission assignment.” The book, she explains, started out as an article in Cosmopolitan magazine. The author, Maryknoll Sister Maria Del Rey Danforth, wanted to present religious life – not just Maryknoll, but any Catholic religious order – as an attractive option for young women through the story of someone their age who embraced it. She teamed up with photographer George Barris and they looked for a young Sister to follow as she re-enacted her path to the convent. “I was chosen because I fit the criteria: they needed someone who had both parents living, was not an only child (I had two sisters) and whose home was within 50 miles of Maryknoll, “ says Lynch, omitting the fact that she was also photogenic. Lynch who at age 19 had joined Maryknoll in 1949, was doing her practice teaching in New York City when the project with Danforth and Barris began in 1954. To accommodate her teaching schedule, most of the photos were taken during summer vacation and school breaks … The Cosmopolitan article was so well received that Farrar, Straus and Cudahy Publishers of New York expanded it into a book, which hit bookstores at about the time Lynch left for her first overseas assignment in Peru. She began teaching grade school and doing parish catechetical instruction in the cities of Lima and Arequipa, and later moved to the highlands to work with indigenous women. In 1978 she helped open a house of prayer in Peru’s Juli Prelature, where she served for 13 years. “My faith journey was deepening and I wanted to share prayer with people,” the 77-year-old missioner explains … Lynch left Peru in the early 1990s to respond to a growing need for missioners to work with people with HIV/AIDS, serving first in El Salvador and then in Guatemala. In her current work of mission education and promotion, she is again a storyteller. Now, however, she tells the stories of others. They are people she met during her years in overseas mission …”These people are missioners,” Lynch tells U.S. audiences. “You don’t have to be a nun or a priest to be a missioner. We are called to be missioners in our own way.” Much has changed in religious life and in all of life since Bernie became a nun, but the effervescent Sister with the winning smile is committed to the same mission: making God’s love visible and inspiring others to do the same.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
Have you experienced deep gloom and darkness in your life and suffered intense anguish of body and spirit? What do you do when confronted with distressing and painful situations? Do you reach out to God and cry for help? Do you open up to him and receive his message of hope?
2 What was the response of the Israelites to Isaiah’s prophecy: “Anguish has taken wing; dispelled is darkness; for there is no gloom where but now there was distress. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone” (Is 8:23; 9:2)? Do you believe that this prophecy of hope is addressed personally to you today? What is your response to this exhortation?
3 Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the radical fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the “great light” that brings salvation? Do you allow the light of Christ to dispel the darkness and gloom in you heart? Do you respond positively to his call to participate in his saving mission as the light of the world? What do you do to spread the Gospel and facilitate the people’s response to Christ, “the light to the nations”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, we thank you for the message of hope that you address to us today. Your beloved Son Jesus – the “great light” - is your most precious gift of hope to us. We thank you, Father, for in his saving love and healing ministry, the anguish of our body and spirit flees away and the darkness of our doubt is brightened by faith. The radiance of his Gospel dispels the gloom of despair caused by the evil and violence inflicted on the helpless and innocent of our world. We thank you for the miracle of vocation to messianic ministry and the grace of faithful response to that call. We thank you for the prompt and radical response of Peter and Andrew, James and John to the call addressed to them by Jesus, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Their intimate participation in the saving love of Jesus transformed them into bearers of light and torchbearers of faith. O dear Father! Let the light of Christ shine upon us with greater radiance. Fill us with the warmth of his compassion and the flame of his apostolic zeal. May we replicate again and again, in the here and now of today’s troubled world, the saving event that happened in the Galilee of the Gentiles, when the people of gloom had seen a great light: “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.” We adore you; we bless you; we thank you and serve you, 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.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.” (Is 9:2)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Meditate on the miracle of the light dispelling darkness and on the miracle of vocation to ministry as part of God’s manifestation of benevolence and graciousness to his children. In any way you can and especially in your service to the poor, the sick and the lonely, participate in Christ’s mission as a “great light” dispelling the gloom of death and sin.
ACTION PLAN: To help us experience more deeply the radiance and joy of the “great light” Jesus 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. 9): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
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