A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 15)
First Sunday of Lent, Year B – March 5, 2006
“The Rainbow of God’s Covenant”
BIBLE READINGS
Gn 9:8-15 // 1 Pt 3:18-22 // Mk 1:12-15
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, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
In its February 2006 issue, GUIDEPOSTS magazine continues its inspiring report on the heroes of super-hurricane Katrina – ordinary people who did extraordinary things (cf. p. 54-60). Among the heroes mentioned is Bob Ford, from Brandon, Mississippi (just outside Jackson, and about 200 miles north of New Orleans and the worst of the devastation). He is a caterer with plenty of leftovers the night Katrina hit. GUIDEPOSTS senior editor, Stephen Berg narrates (cf. p. 60):
In the face of the storm, hardly anyone showed up to the gospel concert he’d cooked for. So Bob and his wife, Jocelyn, took turkey legs and corn on the cob to a shelter in Jackson that was housing 1,200 evacuees. All those people made an impression on Bob. “I told myself, ‘I’m in this for the long haul’.” Bob, his wife, their two teenagers and an employee returned the next day. They kept cooking even after the power went out. When provisions ran low, Bob found a reporter so he could get on the local TV news to ask for help. Dozens volunteered. Standard fare from relief organizations was doughnuts and drink boxes. The Ford crew got up every day at 5:00 A.M. to make eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and, of course, grits for crowds as large as 1,700. “A hot meal is important to folks in distress,” Bob believes. Bob himself was not untouched by Katrina. His house was smacked by a tree. Still, it didn’t stop him from setting up a wedding feast for a couple who had planned to get married in New Orleans. “We have to focus on what God wants us to do,” says Bob.
Bob and the other laudable heroes of the Katrina aftermath, with their compassionate acts of mercy, have sketched anew across the horizon of human history the beautiful rainbow of God’s benevolent will to bring forth life in the midst of destruction. The rainbow of God’s covenant love is made present, here and now, through the loving works of people who make the reality of neighborly love and compassion triumph over death dealing situations. Indeed, the life-giving power that manifested itself through the flood and destruction wrought by hurricane Katrina evokes the divine miracle of life and the covenant love that reigned over the cosmic flood at the time of Noah, as narrated in the Book of Genesis (cf. chapters 5-9).
At the beginning of the season of Lent, in which the clarion call to a more intimate covenantal relationship resounds, the Old Testament reading (Gn 9:8-15) proclaimed in this Sunday liturgy speaks of God’s covenant with Noah when the latter was delivered from the flood. The basic content of this inchoative covenant is God’s merciful permission to continue the history of humankind. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 2, comment: “When Noah and his family and the animals leave the ark to take possession of the land, God concludes a covenant with them. This covenant comes after a period when sin had become universal; therefore it is a covenant of mercy and forgiveness that sets in relief God’s goodness, undiminished by numberless human sins. It is a cosmic covenant that reaches every living creature that was with you: all the birds and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. It is a covenant by which God himself guarantees the permanence of life on earth, no matter what may happen through human fault … This first explicit covenant will undergo developments throughout salvation history. With Abraham, it will become the election of a people chosen to keep and transmit divine blessings and promises constantly repeated in wider and wider perspectives. Finally, Christ will come, in whom and through whom the covenant will embrace all humans of all races and peoples.”
God’s primeval covenant with Noah includes a sign of his intent to bring forth life and to continue to care for the earth and its inhabitants - the bow hanging in the sky. The ancient pagans believed in a divine bow used to inflict punishment on man. However, hanging upon the clouds unused and in a peaceable way, the spectacle of the grandiose bow arching majestically in the sky signifies divine appeasement and reconciliation. Arched over the immense horizon, the beautiful rainbow with its iridescent colors becomes a powerful symbol of God holding himself back from destroying his work. The fascinating and consoling sign of the rainbow manifests the Father’s benevolent plan of reconciliation with his beloved creation. Susan Myers remarks: “Ancient Israel must have looked to the heavens after rains and understood the rainbow in the sky to be a link between God and the earth. It is an appropriate symbol for covenant, for the promise of unconditional love, acceptance and care. The beauty of the rainbow appearing after a rain also suggests the association of covenant with water. Christian baptism is, indeed, a supreme covenant with God.”
The Gospel reading of this first Sunday of Lent (Mk 1:12-15) depicts Jesus, the Servant-Son of Yahweh, as victorious over temptation and totally faithful to the baptismal covenant that was ratified between him and the Father at River Jordan. Anointed by the Spirit and led to a victorious struggle against Satan in the wilderness, Jesus proved his uncompromising fidelity to the covenant or pact of love with the Father to proclaim the Gospel and to be at the service of the divine saving will. The totality of his life of ministry and perfect servitude on the cross would make of Jesus the new Adam, the head of a new humanity. As the Noah of the end time, he would save the believers in the ark of the Church through the waters of baptism.
In Jesus Christ’s paschal sacrifice on the cross, the loving Father sketches gloriously across the horizon of history and the expanse of creation the definitive rainbow of salvation and his ultimate sacrament of reconciliation. Through his Son-Servant Jesus Christ, God’s loving design for the entire humanity and creation is radically revealed and brought to perfection. In this season of Lent, the baptized Christians who are immersed into the life-giving paschal destiny of Christ are called to contemplate and to spread out by their means the beautiful, radiant rainbow of God’s covenant love – the enchanting and colorful rainbow of his covenant of reconciliation.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Mk 1:12-15
By Rev. Paul Griesgraber
St. Andrew Parish, Pasadena, CA – USA
After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit drove him into a place of intense preparation. Two opposing kingdoms were to meet: the kingdom of God’s love and the kingdom of the world that was bound up and dominated by Satan.
The Spirit drove Jesus to a place to “work out” and to be readied for taking on the world’s evil tyrant. Jesus’ mission was to defeat the evil forces in order to free the world for living God’s ways of true love and freedom. He needed to prepare for this.
Sometimes we don’t think that Jesus was truly human as well as divine. We forget that “He grew in wisdom, age and grace before God and man.” Because he was human, he needed to build up and get ready for the confrontations that lay ahead. So, the Spirit of God led Jesus to a desert place to hear his Father more deeply and to follow the Spirit in every way, big and small. In the desert, he trained to live “on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
The Spirit wants us to feed on the Eucharist that is the source and summit of Christian life. We need to receive deeply. We are to be formed and be trained, inside and out, by every word of God. We are to join Jesus in bringing forth his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Do we believe in faith that when floodwaters of evil and destruction reach high, the Father’s rainbow of reconciliation and covenant love arches on the horizon of our human history to console and strengthen us?
B. Do we experience the intensity and recognize the immensity of God’s covenant love? Do we acknowledge that the magnanimity of God’s love encompasses his entire creation? What are our endeavors to promote the integration of creation?
C. How do we carry out the Father’s saving will to spread by our means the rainbow of his covenant of reconciliation? What are some of our Lenten practices to promote this?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: O Lord Jesus Christ, faithful to your baptismal covenant and totally consecrated to the Father’s saving will:
Assembly: Help us to spread the rainbow of the Father’s covenant of love.
Leader: O Lord Jesus Christ, from your side opened like a fountain came out blood and water, which was the price of salvation.
Assembly: Help us to spread the rainbow of the Father’s covenant of reconciliation.
Leader: O Lord Jesus Christ, the Noah of the end time who saves believers in the ark of the Church through the waters of baptism:
Assembly: Help us to spread the rainbow of the Father’s care and compassion.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“When the bow appears in the cloud, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.” (Gn 9:15a).
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the power of God’s covenant love may prevail amidst the troubled waters and death dealing situations of today’s world. In this season of Lent, by your prayer, fasting and almsgiving, endeavor to paint anew in the horizon of human history God’s beautiful rainbow of mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation.
B. ACTION PLAN: To celebrate the Father’s covenant of love, ratified in his Son Jesus Christ – the Noah of 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. 14): 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
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Website: WWW.PDDM.US