A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 40)
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – August 27, 2006
“Decide Today!”
BIBLE READINGS
Jos 24:11, 15-17, 18 // Eph 5:21-32 // Jn 6:60-69
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
Sr. Mary Aurora and I were surfing the channels during a break in the TV news and hit the popular show, “America Has Talents”. A family musical group called “Celtic Air” performed delightfully a lively Irish jig, and with virtuoso skills, also played musical instruments. Since I felt that those talented family members were sure winners, I was perplexed when an unimpressed judge gave his verdict. He challenged the lead performers in the family to axe their parents and the youngest family member if they wished to have a shot at the one million dollar prize. The youngest sister’s limpid eyes brimmed with tears. The parents were shaken, though they bravely tried to keep their dignity and composure. The eldest son explained that, like in other music groups with back up performers, their parents and kid sister were their back up. The exigent judge was adamant. They would have to decide to drop their parents and sister from the group, or else, lose the million dollars. The family heroically decided to stay together. Another judge was more sympathetic. He concurred with the family’s decision to stay together. He wisely commented that breaking up the family is not worth the million dollars.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading (Jn 6:60-69) is about making a radical decision. When many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him on account of his hard saying, Jesus challenged his disciples: Do you also want to leave? On behalf of the Twelve, Peter reiterated with faith their fundamental option and core decision for Christ: Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God. Indeed, Christian discipleship is a decisive response of loyalty and a plunge of commitment into the person of Jesus the Eucharistic Master – the Holy One of God - who gives himself to us as the bread of the Word and in his flesh and blood, in the sacramental form of bread and wine.
The faith decision and avowal of absolute trust in Jesus Christ made by Peter and the Twelve Apostles – the foundational components of the Church, the new Israel and the new people of God, acquires greater depth and perspective against the backdrop of the decisive choice made by Joshua and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Harold Buetow comments: “Behind Peter’s declaration of faith were the twelve apostles, just as behind Joshua’s situation of choice in today’s First Reading were the Twelve Tribes of Israel at the ancient shrine of Shechem. Joshua had succeeded Moses in the Israelites’ painful journey out of slavery. Arrived in the Promised Land, the Israelites renewed their covenant with God and re-established their identity as God’s people. Joshua and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, like Peter and the apostles later, hear God revealing Himself in the darkness of their journey, and saw the dawn’s light of a new freedom. Joshua and his people stood up and were counted; despite past failings, they grew; they demonstrated Israel’s sense of total dedication and loyalty to Yahweh. They would serve Him and Him alone.”
The call to a core decision and faith commitment made by Jesus in his Eucharistic discourse to the Jews after the multiplication of the loaves and the challenge to covenantal fidelity addressed by Joshua to the Israelites to keep the other gods beyond the river, to keep the people away from foreign gods, and to trust Yahweh totally and completely – the Lord who brought them out of slavery from Egypt and performed saving marvels before their eyes – are directed to us anew, especially in the sacrament of the Eucharist. All Christian disciples, in the here and now, are interrogated on the personal meaning of the Eucharist for each of them and summoned to make a radical choice for Christ.
The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent asserts: “We too are faced with a choice. When we celebrate the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of the new covenant, we are forced to choose and to say, with the faithful disciples, To whom shall we go? Or, with the Israelites, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord. Every sharing in the Eucharist implies such a decision, for each time that the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she renews her covenant with the Lord, protests her faith in him, and draws the faithful with her in her act of unconditional fidelity.”
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5, conclude: “All participants in the Eucharistic celebration feel personally and directly challenged … All are led to become lucidly aware of the thought of their hearts, to ask themselves, not so much what they know about the Eucharist, but what sense it has truly and practically in their daily lives. Finally they are led to question themselves on their faith in Jesus Christ risen, living bread, who has given his flesh for the salvation of the world and poured out his blood for the salvation of all human beings. Really, the Eucharist is the sacrament of faith, the source and summit of the Christian life, nourishment for the Christian community who go to the Father with Christ, foretaste of the heavenly banquet.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Virgilio T.J. Suerte Felipe
Artesia, CA-U.S.A.
Today’s Sunday Gospel is the last part of the four-part series on the Bread of Life Discourse in John, chapter 6. Here, John’s focus has shifted from the general audience to the followers of Jesus. This is significant because both the first reading (Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b) and the Gospel (John 6:60-69) put God’s people and Jesus’ disciples in a deciding moment. Joshua addresses the people of Israel: “Decide today whom you will serve.” In the Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples: “Do you also want to leave?”
Thus, biblically, exegetes say that the Bread of Life Discourse in John, particularly today’s Gospel, is not about the Eucharist! The texts clearly point out that the imagery of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood functions as a metaphor for believing in Jesus’ words. He says: “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” And Peter professes the faith: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
This does not mean, however, that liturgical or sacramental interpretation is ruled out. Reflecting on the Gospel pericope, I see the inseparable connection between faith in Jesus’ words and the reality of his presence in the Eucharist – the essential link between Word and Sacrament. Faith in Jesus’ words is a prerequisite for the bread and wine to become Christ’s Body and Blood. More importantly, it is through the powerful words of Jesus that real conversion takes place. This is true in the Eucharist and this is true in our own life as well.
Furthermore, faith in the words of Jesus is the very basis upon which we call the Eucharist the Mystery of Faith and the Mystery of Light.
The Eucharist is the Mystery of Faith because “in the Eucharist the glory of Christ remains veiled. The Eucharist is pre-eminently a mysterium fidei” (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine, 7 October 7 2004, no. 11). Just as Jesus’ divinity was hidden in his humanity, so his glorious Body and Blood are concealed in the bread and wine. Human reason alone is incapable of grasping this divine truth, but enlightened by faith it can. To quote from Paul VI’s Encyclical Mysterium fidei:
That the true body of Christ and his true blood are in the sacrament that “cannot be detected by sense,” as St. Thomas says, “but only by faith, which rests on divine authority. Hence on Luke 22:19: ‘This is my body which will be given up for you,’ St. Cyril says: ‘Do not entertain doubts on the truth of this; rather take the Savior’s words with faith, for since he is truth, he does not lie’.” (Paul VI, Encyclical Mysterium fidei, 3 September 1965, no. 18).
Therefore, it is by believing in Jesus’ words as revealed in the Scriptures that the divine “secret” is revealed. He says, “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55). Although his listeners could not accept this because of their lack of faith, Peter, representing the Church, expresses the faith: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).
The Eucharist as a Mystery of Light can be explained by going back to the account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. While they were walking, the risen Lord joined the two disciples. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (Lk 24:27). After making their hearts “burning” within them as he spoke and “opened the scriptures” (Lk 24:32), “he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Lk 24: 35). Thus Pope John Paul II said:
The Eucharist is light above all because at every Mass the liturgy of the Word precedes the liturgy of the Eucharist in the unity of the two “tables”, the table of the Word and the table of the Bread (Mane Nobiscum Domine, no. 12)
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. How does the response of the tribes of Israel at Shechem to serve the Lord God and their resolution not to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods inspire us in our own vocation to dedicate ourselves to the Lord our God?
B. Do we decide today for the Lord? Do we endeavor to intensify our covenant commitment to Yahweh, the faithful One? Do we resolve as God’s people to live within the parameters of a nuptial covenant that keeps us in union with God? Do we give ourselves to “anamnesis”, which enables us to recall God’s marvelous saving works on our behalf?
C. Do we realize that we are a “Eucharistic people” nourished by Christ’s bread of the Word and his “flesh and blood” given to us in the sacramental form of bread and wine? At the Eucharist do we renew our covenant with the Eucharistic Master, avow our faith in him and make an act of unconditional fidelity in him? As a people of the Eucharist, do we declare with Peter: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Jesus, Divine Master, our Eucharistic Lord, you are the living Bread and the Bread giver. Your words are spirit and life. Like Joshua and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, we wish to renew our covenantal fidelity with your loving Father as our Lord God and Liberator. Like Peter and the Twelve Apostles, the foundation stones of the new Israel – the Church – we desire to renew our commitment to you in the Eucharist – the sacrament of the new covenant. As we share in the assembly of Christian disciples the bread of eternal life and the cup of salvation, we commemorate your death and resurrection and commit our whole life to you. Make this people nourished by you decisive in our choice for you. By the grace of your most holy Eucharist, enable us and encourage us to decide today to love and serve you alone. You are our Eucharistic Master, 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.
“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:68-69)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: As we celebrate the Eucharist this Sunday, let us renew our covenant with the Lord Jesus, declare our faith in him and resolve to serve him with unconditional fidelity. Endeavor to help others to “decide today” for the Lord, whose words are spirit and life.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate more deeply and thank the Lord God for his Real Presence – a presence par excellence - in the gift of his Bread and Blood in the Eucharist, 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. 40): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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Website: WWW.PDDM.US