A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy

 

 

BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 34)

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – July 19, 2009

 

“He Gathers the Flock”

 

BIBLE READINGS

Jer 23:1-6 // Eph 2:13-18 // Mk 6:30-34

 

 

 

(N.B. Series 7 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 B from the perspective of the Second Reading. For other reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year B, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 1 & 4.)

 

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

 

This Sunday’s liturgy presents God’s compassionate act in shepherding his sheep. In the Old Testament reading (Jer 23:1-6), we are heartened by his intent to gather the dispersed flock. Chastising the false shepherds of Israel for their negligence and lack of care, God promised to send a Shepherd-King who would truly care for his flock. The Royal Messiah – the “righteous shoot” from the clan of David - who would gather God’s flock and care for them was embodied in Jesus Christ, the ultimate Shepherd.

 

Today’s Gospel episode (Mk 6:30-34) enables us to ponder and appreciate the sterling quality and the loving care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Accompanied by his disciples whom he invited for some well-deserved rest after grueling apostolic work, Jesus was heading off by boat for a place of solitude and rest. The people, hungering for his word and yearning for his care, saw them leave and pursued them. From everywhere, they ran ahead by land and reached the place before them. When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd. His heart was filled with pity for they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them.

 

The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent comments: “Teaching is the first and foremost task of Jesus the Shepherd … In fact, what Jesus teaches is precisely that God is Father and that he loves men and wants to save them … It is by teaching the sheep that Jesus gathers them together … He teaches with authority and confirms the teaching received from the Father by miracles. His teaching is filled with power and creates a new people. Slowly they form a united flock on which Jesus bestows his love and from which he prepares future shepherds.”

 

In today’s Second Reading (Eph 2:13-18), we hear again of the redemptive and unifying work of Jesus. He brought peace and reconciliation and made the Jews and Gentiles one people. He united people of all races and brought them back to God through his paschal mystery and in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the pastoral ministry to the people of Israel and especially through his sacrificial act on the cross by which he accomplished the fullness of his service as Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ led the dispersed flock back to God the Father.

 

Adrian Nocent asserts: “We had gone astray, but now we are led by a Shepherd who has given his life for us. We have become a single people and have access to the Father in the one Spirit … The Lord stands before us who have gone astray and need a guide: he stands before the peoples of our time as they seek for some unity in their lives. Each individual wants unity within himself; human groups seek for unity; the peoples of the earth are looking for common ways of thinking and for common life. There is only one hope of succeeding in this manifold quest for unity, and that is to find unity in Christ, who as Shepherd has shed his blood in order to bring peoples of the world together in unity and peace.”

 

The life-giving sacrifice of the Good Shepherd on the cross is in accord with the divine plan “to restore all things”. Every Christian disciple, by virtue of baptismal consecration and configuration to Jesus Shepherd-King has a duty to seek peace and to work for reconciliation in our fragmented world. As Christians, we have tremendous responsibility to promote unity within us and to bring healing to our wounded society and our deeply afflicted world. God resounds the call to incarnate in our lives the pastoral mission of Jesus. Our loving God the Father entrusts us with the ministry to shepherd his flock and challenges us to “restore all things in Christ”, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

R.W. Dellinger’s article, “GRYD: A More Comprehensive Anti-Gang Strategy” in THE TIDINGS, Southern California’s Catholic Weekly, is very inspiring (cf. p. 4 of the July 10, 2009 issue). It illustrates the laudable effort of today’s concerned and responsible citizens to eliminate violence and crimes in our society. Capt. Mark Olvera, of the Los Angeles Police Department, and Father Stan Bosch are examples of those who continue the pastoral mission of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in the here and now.

 

With more than 400 street gangs and 40,000 gang members – resulting in some of the nation’s worst youth-on-youth violence – the City of the Angels has the dubious distinction of being the gang capital of the U.S.A. Through the police department, Los Angeles has long tried to arrest and suppress its way out of this deadly urban dilemma. (…)

 

LAPD Capt. Mark Olvera – a classical Flamenco guitarist who, with wife Sylvia and sons Garrett, 17, and Joseph, 15, comprise the music ministry for the Saturday vigil Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Lincoln Heights – is on the front lines of the city’s new anti-gang strategy. The outwardly calm commander of what is euphemistically called “Shootin’ Newton”, part of which has been designated a gang-reduction GRYD (Gang Reduction and Youth Development) zone, is sitting at a round table in his back office of the grey-stone station on Central Avenue at 34th Street, right across from St. Patrick Church. Three paintings hang from the back wall, including an expensive Japanese watercolor. On top of a glass-front bookcase, an army of knick-knacks stand guard. An acoustic guitar rests nearby in a corner. The 52-year-old policeman born and raised in East L.A. explains that his wife, who decorated his office, wanted to make it as comfortable as possible as he was going to spend so much time there working – often 12-hour days that stretch from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Most Saturdays, after the evening Mass, he comes in to catch up on paperwork.

 

“It’s probably not written down anywhere, but the main thing with GRYD and its gang interventionists is to stop the retaliations. Once there’s a shooting, stop pay-backs by being on the scene. That’s the first goal,” Capt. Olvera explains. “The second goal is to let us know where there are hot spots so we can deploy for them. “But at the same time, the interventionists should be working to: ‘OK, let’s be preventive. Let’s make sure there is no shooting to begin with.’ And that’s where Father Stan Bosch (GRYD supervisor for both the Newton and 77th division areas, who is a Trinitarian priest as well as a trained psychotherapist) comes in with his counseling and wraparound services. He deals with the healing part at the scene and then after counseling families and gang members. “There’s also the reentry part – Who’s coming out of the probation camps?” he adds. “We can work with the probation and then connect the youths to services and Father Stan right away to get them out of harm’s way.” (…)

 

Still, Olvera admits that GRYD, which has only been in operation in the Newton area since April 1, is a work in progress. He and his staff are examining different ways of doing things and making changes based on what works. There’s one factor, however, that has really helped the team make inroads with certain gangs so far – Father Bosch’s connection with gang members through a shared Catholic faith. “The power of the symbolism of a Catholic priest working with these kids meant a lot,” he says. “I think we can really do things with that in terms of dealing with the violence. “Also, it’s a matter of tolerance,” the LAPD commander adds. To those who think it’s OK for a gang member to be killed, he replies, “That’s not the Christian way. None of these killings is OK. And that’s what we have to change. I think with GRYD we’re on the verge of changing that attitude.”

 

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

 

  1. What was the content of God’s indictment of the false shepherds of Israel? What was the consoling message that accompanied the indictment? In what ways have we been false shepherds to the people around us? In what ways can we be true shepherds and minister on their behalf?

 

  1. How did the compassion of Jesus upon the crowd impact you? Do you try to imitate Jesus, the Good Shepherd by your words and deeds? How do you embody the loving care of Jesus for today’s “sheep without a shepherd”?

 

  1. Why is Jesus Christ our peace and the font of unity, bringing people from all nations into one? Do we endeavor to be a source of peace and unity ourselves? Do we participate in Jesus’ pastoral task to gather together God’s flock and to “restore all things” in him?

 

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD

 

Leader: Loving Father,

your Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd

who fed your people with the bread of the Word,

nourishing them with hope

and assuring them of your unconditional love for them.

By his blood on the cross,

Jesus became the ultimate Shepherd

gathering the sheep into one flock.

Through the pastoral mission of Jesus,

the Good News of salvation became a reality.

O loving and gracious God,

we thank you for the gift of Jesus, the Good Shepherd!

It is through him that all of us,

peoples from all races and nations,

are able to come to your presence,

in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We praise you and love 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.

 

“You have been brought near by the sacrificial death of Christ.” (Eph 2:13)

 

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

 

  1. ACTION PLAN: Pray for those who work more directly in bringing the life-giving care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd to the homeless, the sick and terminally ill, the victims of violence, war and hatred, etc. Let us offer special prayers for the GRYD (Gang Reduction and Youth Development) program in Los Angeles and similar programs that are directed to those who are like “sheep without a shepherd”. In your own way, endeavor to bring to the people around you the caring love of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

  2. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate the goodness of God as Shepherd and the sacrificial love of his Son Jesus, the Good Shepherd, 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: A Weekly Pastoral Tool (Year B, vol. 5, n. 34).

 

Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang  PDDM

 

 

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