A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 34)
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – July 16, 2006 *****
“He Sent Them Out …”
BIBLE READINGS
Am 7:12-15 // Eph 1:3-14 // Mk 6:7-13
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
Rhoel Gallardo, a member of the Claretian missionary congregation, and Raul Ventigan, a member of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM), a missionary congregation founded in Belgium, were our students at Maryhill School of Theology. After his ordination, Fr. Rhoel was sent to work in the predominantly Muslim populated Basilan Island, in southern Philippines, where he died a martyr’s death. The dreaded Abu Sayaf Islamic rebel group kidnapped and tortured him, and eventually shot him. Fr. Rhoel would not obey the sadistic and wickedly insane commands of the kidnappers to rape the women catechists who were captured with him. He courageously defied their mockery and brutality by turning to God in prayer. Fr. Raul was a young medical doctor when he entered the seminary. As part of his missionary training, he worked for four years in Haiti. He then returned to the Philippines to finish the last year of his group’s theology program. After ordination, he was sent back to Haiti, his mission land. His medical expertise was a great help in his pastoral ministry to the poor and the sick. A few months after his return to Haiti, he died in his sleep. Fr. Rhoel and Fr. Raul - two young Filipino missionaries sent out by our Lord Jesus to minister to his people – exemplified God’s gift of missionary vocation to the Church and to the world.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mk 6:7-13) underlines that it is Jesus who chooses and sends out prophets and apostles to continue his saving work in the world. The missionary and prophetic vocation is God’s initiative. Together with the sending out for the saving work comes the delegation of authority and power. Indeed, the Lord God who calls and sends gives astounding grace to the one called and sent out.
The liturgy scholar Adrian Nocent comments: “The lesson being taught us on this Sunday is clear. The apostles are chosen, but so we are all chosen, and the choice in every instance is a manifestation of God’s merciful love. He chooses us for his own glory and predestines us to be his children. He also chooses us for the great mission that he initiates and that consists in uniting the world under the headship of Christ. To proclaim the gospel is to proclaim the kingdom, that is, the unification of the world under one Head, Jesus, for the glorification of the Father. No one is worthy of undertaking such a work; God chooses those whom he wishes, independently of their preparation, and even takes them away from the place of their habitual labors.”
The Old Testament reading (Am 7:12-15) reinforces the reality that an apostolic and prophetic vocation originates from God alone. Amos was a prophet through God’s personal intervention. A shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees, the prophet Amos, from the village of Tekoa – some ten miles south of Jerusalem – in the southern kingdom of Judah, was called by God to prophesy in the more economically prosperous Israel, the northern kingdom of the Hebrew people, during the time of “the schism of Israel” in the eighth century B.C. The name “Amos” means “burden” and the name “Tekoa” probably means, “to sound the ram’s horn”. Carrying a burden of destruction, his prophetic message was sounded loud across the northern kingdom and reverberated long afterward in Jerusalem. Preaching at Bethel, the elite spiritual center of the northern kingdom, Amos caused intense disturbance and annoyance when he inveighed against the immorality, sacred prostitution, social injustice at the shrine and the detestable corruption of Israel’s political and religious institutions. The priest Amaziah of the Bethel temple, who saw him as a threat to the unity and integrity of the Israel kingdom, tried to evict him: “Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying, but never again prophesy in Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple” (Am 7:12-13).
The response of Amos to the greatly outraged Amaziah gives us a glimpse of the vocation and mission of a prophet as one called directly by God and sent out to declare the divine message: “The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel” (Am 7:15). Amos denied that he was a member of a band of prophets who earned their living by foretelling oracles or visions. He did not belong to a group of “professionals”, but was chosen from obscurity and commissioned by God himself for a special task. Summoned by God to speak, it was his absolute responsibility to declare the divine word of appeal and judgment to the people of Israel.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5, remark: “Amos cannot prevent himself from being a prophet. Nothing and no one can cause him to elude his mission … Prophets are troublesome people. One is often tempted to reject them, to tell them to shut up. But they will not be intimidated … This is fortunate for us, because the coming of a prophet is always a grace; it attests to the faithfulness and love of God, who never abandons his own. He calls my people those he has charged Amos with reproving by foretelling the calamities that will strike them if they remain obstinate in their sins.”
Today’s Christian disciples are also prophets and apostles chosen and sent out by the Lord. The late Pope Paul VI here underlines the divine origin of our prophetic and apostolic calling as Church and its impelling necessity: “The Church owes its origin to the preaching of the gospel by Jesus and the Twelve … Once born of this apostolic mission, the Church is in turn commissioned by Jesus to go forth and preach … The Church is a continuation and extension of his presence, called above all to carry on the mission of Jesus and his work of evangelization without ceasing. Never can the Christian community be shut in on itself. Nourished by fervent prayer, the hearing of the word and the teaching of the apostles, the exercise of brotherly love and the breaking of bread, its inner life cannot attain its full vigor unless it becomes a witness, gaining favor with the people and converting souls by preaching and proclaiming the Good News.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Rev. Fr. Mario Giachino SSP
SSP Community, Los Angeles, CA-U.S.A.
In today’s gospel it seems that Jesus removes himself a little from his regular program of announcing the Good News (Gospel) and sends the Apostles to extend and confirm his teachings. As associates of his mission, they pass through towns and villages with authority to proclaim as prophets the Good News of the Kingdom.
Just as in former times God spoke through the prophets, now he speaks through the Apostles of his Son, with clear and simple human words, so that all can understand the message of salvation.
These fishermen of Galilee, like the ancient prophet Amos and others, are, humanly speaking, not very well prepared for their mission. But for God it is not necessary that they have a mastery of words or brilliant minds, or that they come from noble and powerful families. Free of the burden of unnecessary material goods, they more easily let Jesus speak through their words and actions. This however does not mean that they will be well received. The Kingdom of God is not realized according to merely human resources. Their mission may very possibly meet indifference and rejection. But, regardless of the outcome, these men who are chosen and sent by the Son of God must continue to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
We Christians are called to continue that mission today. Our words may be poor and inadequate, but our conduct as children of God must announce that Heaven is within the reach of all.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What lessons do we glean from the experience of the prophet Amos concerning our vocation and mission as Christian apostles and prophets? Is our response to God’s call and mandate as obedient as that of the prophet Amos? How do we react to opposition, trials and difficulties?
B. What do we learn from Jesus’ missionary discourse concerning our apostolic vocation and the life style of his disciples sent on a mission? Are we ready to work with bare essentials and to rely on the hospitality of the people to whom we are sent to proclaim the Good News? Are we limpid and authentic in our witnessing? Do we believe that with the call and mandate comes the grace of God?
C. Do we believe that the Church is a continuation and an extension of the saving presence of Jesus, the One sent by the Father? How do we promote personally and as a community the Church’s mission of evangelization? As Church, do we feel the basic need to always listen to the Gospel message in order to be continually converted and renewed by it, and thus proclaim to others the Gospel appeal and challenge with greater vigor, power and zeal?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. Days of the Lord, vol. 5, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1993, p. 145-146)
Leader: Your call thrust them on the ways and byways.
Bearers of your word, without any support than your love,
they speak your joy to those who receive them.
Assembly: Marvels of your grace!
You entrust God’s secrets to humans.
Leader: Messengers of the good news,
they announce peace to the ends of the world.
The forgiveness they proclaim on earth,
God accomplishes in heaven.
Assembly: Happy the people who welcome your emissaries.
Happy the people whose God you are.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.” (Mk 6:7)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the apostles and prophets of today may believe fully in the power of grace that comes with their apostolic and prophetic calling. Today, thank the Lord in a special way for the gift of the missionary and prophetic vocation given to the entire Church. Day by day, put into practice our Christian mandate to proclaim the Good News of salvation to the peoples of all the earth, starting with those people around us and close to us.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help appreciate more deeply our apostolic and prophetic calling in Jesus and draw out its challenges and implications, 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. 34): 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