A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 1)
First Sunday of Advent, Year B – November 27, 2005
“Rend the Heavens and Come Down!”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7 // I Cor 1:3-9 // Mk 13:33-37
(N.B. This new series of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY presents a biblico-liturgical study of the Old Testament reading of each Sunday Mass to serve as background for a better understanding of the Gospel proclaimed in the liturgy. For a biblico-liturgical study of the Gospel for each Sunday, we request you to go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US.)
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
Today we begin a new liturgical year, a complex of celebrations by which the Church annually celebrates the mystery of Christ. Through the liturgical year, God’s gift of sacred time, the community of believers who listen to the saving Word and are nourished by the Eucharist and the other sacraments, become more and more immersed into the life of Christ, and through him, into the life of the Blessed Trinity. Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is the building block of the liturgical year. It is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly to listen to the Word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the passion, resurrection and glorification of our Lord Jesus and steeped in his saving mystery in view of life-transformation.
The liturgy of the Advent season, which begins the liturgical year, is replete with Christian hope and laden with grace. This Church season is essentially to keep hope in the future definitive coming of the saving God. The hope that the season of Advent generates entails, however, accountability for the present moment. Every moment has an eternal significance and we are therefore held accountable for it. Christians live in the time between the now of Jesus’ victory over sin and death and the not-yet of his return in glory. The challenge of the Advent season is to see how we live creatively and dutifully as God’s children in this in-between time. According to the Gospel reading of this Sunday (Mk 13:33-37), our Advent expectation for the coming of Christ must be marked by a spirit of preparedness and a state of readiness in preparation for the end time.
Against the backdrop of the Old Testament reading (Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7), the Advent expectation of the Church is enriched by past experiences of mercy and redemption. The Lord’s coming is redemptive for those who trust in him. For the people of hope, the Advent invocation that comes forth from their lips is “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Is 63:19b). Today’s passage from the prophet Isaiah depicts the thoughts that he gave to his dispirited people around the end of their exile in Babylon and echoes the need for a Redeemer on account of the human race’s sinfulness. Harold Buetow comments: “The passage opens and closes by addressing the Lord our father (vv. 63:16; 64:7), a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt, when God had called Israel his son, his first born (Ex 4:22). Because in this life we are all exiles, we make Isaiah’s prayer our own. No matter what one may see of sin in oneself and be disappointed, there is always encouragement: God rescues and saves – but he does rescue and save. Even if you have hit bottom, there is the encouragement that there is no place to go but up. When Isaiah saw themselves hit bottom in ruins, he pleaded for God to tear the heavens open and come down (v. 19); the people of that time thought of the skies as a solid, plastic-like transparent vault, which would need breaking through for God to come to earth. At the same time, Isaiah’s prayer (64:2-7) intended to be recited by all the people, confessed their guilt and admitted that God was right to have permitted the Exile as a punishment for sin. God has not heaped a heavy burden of sorrow upon sinners; he has simply allowed sinners to wallow in their own responsible guilt.”
The people who have been chastised and purified by God in the crucible of the Exile-experience, notwithstanding their pain and suffering, were able to hold on to their hope. The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly reflects: “What is the source of this hope? How, in the face of crises, frustrations, and disappointments can it have such power? The reason is an equally strong faith in the past, a belief in what God has already done to prove his love. The reasoning is that, if he has done so much already, how much more must he have in store for us! Thus, in Advent hope and faith are expressed equally; we can hope because we believe.” For Christians, their hope is centered on the second coming of Jesus Christ in glory. Eugene Maly continues: “If we really do believe what God has done in Jesus Christ, and if we really hope in his coming, we must strive to be prepared. Thus Advent will be a season of joyful expectation – and that is what it must be.” Harold Buetow concurs: “Our waiting for Jesus is not a despair-filled tension. So we live by faith, walk in hope, and are renewed in love so that, when the last scene of drama of our life unfolds and Jesus comes to be our judge, we shall not merely know him, but come to him as a friend.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Sr. Maria Carolina L. De Jesus, PDDM
The image of the lone aircraft that glided silently and directly into the World Trade Center that Tuesday of September 11, 2001 sent shivers down my spine and shocked many people who were watching that horrific and terrorist attack. What we saw in our television screen was very real and not just a creation of Hollywood studios. This awful tragedy that killed thousands of innocent lives and left many injured and missing will be etched forever in our memory. In the days that followed, we waited, waited for the news of our relatives, friends and loved ones who might be there laying beneath tons of rubble. We asked the questions … how many went to work that morning? How many boarded that flight and how many were in that scene not knowing the awful horror that would happen to them? Would there be a space of forgiveness for those who did this villainous act?
During this season of waiting, Jesus encourages us all to be watchful and alert for we know not when the time will come. Nobody knows when the Master of the house is coming. The Gospel speaks of events that, in our way of looking, span an eschatological sense of time. The prophetic message is “Repent the Kingdom of God is at hand!” Turn to God and accept God’s mercy while there is still time. We do not know when or how long will it take before it happens, but one thing is certain: we do not know the day or hour and we do not want to be caught sleeping when it happens suddenly. As in the words of Isaiah, “would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways!”
Keep watch! Advent is a time of watchfulness and preparation. Keeping watch can mean being vigilant to the opportunities of God’s coming. There are different moments when God can come in our lives. He may come as a sick friend who needs our help. He may come as a poor person knocking at our doors. He may be our parent who longs to see us and gather us as a family. These are moments of opportunities for God to come. These are important moments of watchfulness. Advent allows us to remember the first coming of God. It is a celebration of his incarnation. It is also a season when we wait in vigilance for his second coming at the end of time. It is a preparation that keeps our minds and hearts focus on his presence. It calls us to keep our minds and hearts purified with joyful expectation. It is a time of renewal since “we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean men, all our deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves and our guilt carries us away like the wind” (Is 64:4-5). There is nothing more precious to God that to give him the gift of ourselves, who are ever watchful and ready for his coming; a heart that is wrapped up in a spirit of humility and purity.
More than being alert and watchful, Advent is a season of love. It alerts us to glorify God’s loving presence in us. God’s love for humanity in all its sinfulness and fears should be the basis of our own conversion. God embraces us untiringly with all our faults and failures. He continually invites us to come home with him whenever we lose our way. By renewing our hope and intensifying our love, God comes through us in all its glory. The root of our watchful conversion should always be God’s loving presence in our hearts. Prepare a place for him. Watch out for Jesus! Meet him in the home of renewed hearts.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What are the feelings, sentiments and realizations that well up from deep within us as we begin the new liturgical year? How do we come to grips with the quality of “newness” that comes to us from the Lord in this hope-filled history of ours?
B. In the Advent expectation that prepares the Church for Christ’s definitive coming at the end-time and his various comings in daily life, what is the source of our hope? How, in the face of crises, frustrations and disappointments can our hope have an intense power?
C. Is our waiting for the Lord’s coming free from despair-filled tension? Do we live by faith, walk in hope, and are renewed in love so that in our final encounter with the Lord Jesus we come to him as his faithful servant and intimate friend?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(From Psalm 80)
Leader: O shepherd of Israel, hearken;
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power, and come to save us.
Assembly: Lord, make us turn to you;
let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Leader: Once again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see;
take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Assembly: Lord, make us turn to you;
let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Leader: May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
Assembly: Lord, make us turn to you;
let us see your face and we shall be saved.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Is 63:19b)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Try to create an inner space of silence within you and pray through the week as Advent mantra, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” Commit yourself to hasten the coming of God’s kingdom by exercising corporal mercy for the poor and needy.
A. ACTION PLAN: To help us begin the liturgical year in a spirit of receptivity to God’s grace and in order to give homage to Jesus Christ, the redeeming Lord who came, who comes and will come gloriously at the end-time, 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. 2, n. 1): 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