A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 23)
3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B – April 30, 2006
“God Raised Him …”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 // I Jn 2:1-5a // Lk 24:35-48
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 First 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
The following missioner tale is very fitting for the Easter season (cf. MARYKNOLL Magazine, April 2006, p. 39). It underlines the vibrant missionary energy that should animate God’s redeemed “Alleluia” people.
While celebrating Mass with a group of children, Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa asked: “What is the most important thing in this church?” After some silence, a young girl raised her hand and said, “The exit sign.” Taken aback, he asked her to explain. She replied, “Well, aren’t we supposed to take what we learn in church out into the world?”
Today’s First Reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19) contains another Easter kerygma or proclamation by an apostle and illustrates the vibrant, missionary energy of the first Easter witnesses. What they have experienced from the Easter event they shared with the people of all the nations. Today’s episode from the Acts of the Apostles reports Peter’s forceful address to the astonished crowd gathered at the Portico of Solomon in the Jerusalem Temple after a healing miracle. Peter and John were going up to the Temple when a man crippled from birth was brought to the entrance so that he could beg from the people coming in. Peter and John made eye contact with the beggar. Peter addressed the lame beggar: “I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!” (Acts 3:6). The cripple jumped up, stood, and began to walk. The cured lame man then went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God. Everyone came running towards them in great excitement. When Peter saw the excited, marveling crowd, he addressed the Good News to them: how God vindicated and raised to life Jesus his Servant, the Holy and Righteous One whom they have handed over to death.
The biblical scholar, Justin Taylor, comments on Peter’s Easter proclamation: “By calling Jesus the servant of God, Peter identifies him with the servant of the Lord who is the subject of several striking poems in the book of Isaiah. The servant was chosen by God to carry out a mission of deliverance. He was to set free the people of God who were held captive in Babylon, but his mission was to extend also to all peoples held captive in darkness. He would be humiliated and afflicted, but God would vindicate him. The first believers saw Jesus as fulfilling the mission and destiny of this mysterious figure in the Old Testament. Above all, by his death and resurrection, Jesus fulfilled the prediction that the servant would suffer and die on account of the sins of others, but God would raise him up and exalt him. Jesus the servant is the Holy One because he is the prophet, the one consecrated from the womb and sent into the world with the saving words of God … So despite all that has happened, the servant of God is alive – his disciples are witnesses to that and Peter testifies to the resurrection of the Just One by restoring in his name the cripple of the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Jesus is ready to fulfill the mission for which he was chosen and sanctified by God: to deliver all human beings from the powers of evil that dominate the world.”
Indeed, the healing of the lame man “in the name of Jesus” is a powerful sign of God’s vindication of his Servant Jesus. In the Easter miracle of healing at the Temple, God was affirming that he had raised Jesus from the dead and was honoring his name. Eugene Maly remarks: “God’s curing of the crippled man in Jesus’ name was one more act of saving grace that had begun with his call of patriarchs. In a sense, every time there is an act of saving grace, as here, a new and climactic bursting forth of God’s love takes place. Faith in Jesus’ name brought him into the healing stream of God’s history.”
The discourse of Peter to the wondering crowd includes an appeal to conversion and faith: “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away” (Acts 3:19). Peter appeals to his listeners to repent and turn to God in order to obtain forgiveness of sins. True conversion is a turning to Jesus and a total surrender to him - the “author of life” - the one who leads to eternal life by sacrificing and imparting his own life. In response to the healing and renewing character of the Easter event, Christian disciples are to go out joyfully into the whole world to impart the joyful news that the Risen Lord is victorious over sin and death. As an Easter people they are to witness credibly that his healing power can make us whole again despite our human weakness, brokenness, pain and sadness. Indeed, the glorified Jesus is the “leader to life”. He continually strengthens his disciples, in every time and space, with the miracle of Easter. Together with him, we go into the whole world proclaiming the life-transforming Good News that God has glorified his servant Jesus.
The address of Peter, however, carries a tinge of reproach to those who have put the “author of life” to death, though understandably, out of ignorance. It is also a cogent reminder to each one of us. According to the author of the Days of the Lord, vol. 3: “Peter’s apostrophe must make us look at ourselves, making us humble through our recognition of our part in the sin of a violent world where the just continue to be rejected and killed, as was the Just Man. We tend to make others – ‘one’, ‘they’ – bear the blame for faults and sins committed by a society, a community, or a church to which we belong, for better or for worse! Yet no one is cursed with an eternal malediction. How could it be otherwise for the Jewish people considering their relationship to the merciful God who is faithful to his promises? So Peter’s invective ends with a vibrant call: Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away! This call is addressed to everyone and particularly today to Christians assembled to celebrate the Lord’s Passover. This is why we turn toward God to beg his forgiveness and at the same time to sing our song of thanks.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Sr. Mary Alba Scellato PDDM
PDDM Community, Fresno, CA-U.S.A.
On this Sunday of Easter, we want to re-create the atmosphere that was in the room where the eleven Apostles and the rest of the company assembled. There was a sense of comfort in being together. They were immersed in the thought of what had happened to Jesus. There was a strong feeling of His loss and the sense of His presence.
In that close union of mind and heart, we join them in prayer: “Father in heaven, Author of all truth, you have given us through your Son the revelation of your Being and of your love for us. This truth is a source of comfort and happiness. Help us to believe firmly in the Risen Jesus and experience His presence. We trust and believe in you, God our Father!”
Today’s Gospel narrates an Easter episode: “The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Lk 24:35). We recall that two of them had gone to the village of Emmaus. As they were on the way they continued to share among themselves about the events that had happened to Jesus. The great questions were: The women didn’t find His body; who came to take it? Where could it be? How could we find it? They heard that the sepulcher was empty and that the women had seen a vision of Angels declaring to them that he was alive.
These were some topics of their conversations. A stranger tried to keep up with them. At a certain point he got closer, inquiring what they were talking about. They halted in distress and told him all the details of their agonizing story. As we know, He approached them as a stranger, but He knew them all more than they could ever imagine. He answered them in some strong terms. “What little sense you have! How slow you are to believe!” Then he spoke to them about all that the prophets had said and reminded them what was written in the scriptures about the Messiah. In their conversation with this “stranger”, they came to have a wider understanding of who Jesus was. They were affirming all that he was saying and experiencing a new inner vision.
They arrived at the place, but the stranger acted as if he were going further. They not only invited him, but pressed him: “Stay with us. It is already dark.” The evening was coming and it was late, but some author says that the reason why they pressed Him to remain was the strong urge for company. The light of his profound knowledge, the love and concern of this person gave them new vision. Jesus made himself as one of them. He did enter and sat at table … pronounced the blessing. Here is the most important point of the day! God knows our needs. The Gospel narrates that their eyes were opened. Jesus had affirmed that He would remain with us until the end of time. When He sat at table in Emmaus, He celebrated the first Mass after the Resurrection. This consecrated bread is His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity that remains and is with us until the end of time!
Our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, in the year 2001, wrote his Apostolic Letter on the Eucharist. The title he gave was exactly the words of the first disciples: Mane Nobiscum Domine – “Remain with us Lord!” The liturgy makes us aware that Jesus in the Mass finds the way to fulfill His promise: “I will remain with you until the end of the world.” We shall thank the Lord as long as we live!
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. How does the Easter proclamation of Peter to the crowd impinge on us? What meaning and challenge does it offer to us personally and as a community? What is our response to the Easter kerygma?
B. Do we feel responsibility for the suffering and death that Christ endured? Do we recognize our part in the sin of a violent world where the just continue to be rejected and killed, as was Jesus, the Just Man?
C. Are we always open and receptive to the beauty and healing power of Easter? Like Peter and the other apostles, are we credible witnesses of the paschal mystery of Christ and of the great love of God who vindicated and glorified him?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
you are the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers,
and the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Your Servant-Son Jesus Christ was handed over to his death,
but you vindicated him by raising him to life.
The Holy and Righteous One is now for us
a font of love, mercy and forgiveness.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the author of life,
we pray for the healing of a sinful world
that is crippled by prejudice and injustice.
In the name of Jesus who leads us to eternal life,
we pray for those who suffer the pain of extreme poverty
and the violence of hatred and war
that they may experience your justice
and the bounty, peace and joy of the Easter mystery.
Almighty and merciful God,
may we always feel the saving power of the Risen Lord in our daily life
so that, filled with the energy of the Easter event,
we may go out into the world
and restore joy to a broken world,
in the name of Jesus,
who lives and reigns forever and ever.
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 author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:15)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray in reparation for the various acts of violence committed against the just and the innocent. Offer acts of thanksgiving for the vindicating power of the almighty God in saving them from the unjust. Proclaim the Easter event of Christ’s death and resurrection into the challenging world of your daily life by word, example and deed, especially on behalf of the suffering innocent and the victims of violence and injustice.
B. ACTION PLAN: To deepen our participation in the joy of the Risen Lord, the Holy and Righteous One, and to help us participate more deeply in his service of leading people to eternal life, 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. 23): 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