A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 45)
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – October 1, 2006
“Would That It Be Bestowed On All!”
BIBLE READINGS
Num 11:25-29 // Jas 5:1-6 // Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
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
When I went back to the Philippines for a visit last year, I was delighted to see that the young boys and girls we had trained as ushers and usherettes to serve at the Sunday liturgy in our convent in Antipolo have grown up. Some of them now attend college. The senior ones wisely suggested that a new group be trained to take the place of those who have new commitments. We made an appeal at the Sunday Mass for boys and girls, ten to eighteen years old, to join a training program and carry out the ministry of ushers and usherettes at our convent. More than twenty young people responded to the invitation. While preparing the formation program, it occurred to me that the incumbent ushers and usherettes would be the best facilitators and trainers for this ministry. After having given them some guidelines on the content and the dynamics of the course, the “senior” ushers and usherettes conducted the liturgy training with enthusiasm, confidence and great expertise. Their language was simple and clear. The mode of imparting the information was excellent and effective. They were able to sustain the great interest of the candidates from the beginning to the end – a tremendous feat indeed! While I stayed in the background, quietly preparing snacks for the candidates and their marvelous energetic “liturgy instructors”, I was filled with praise and thanksgiving for the wonderful creative spirit the Lord has poured upon us through these young “prophets”. I beamed with a teacher’s pride and joy. Would that God’s power of love and spirit of service be bestowed on all!
This Sunday’s Old Testament reading is a wonderful statement of the inclusiveness of the spirit of God. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5, comment: “Among the stories that enliven the Exodus history, the one we read today is among the most colorful. Replete with meaning, it shows that religious structures in no way limit the initiatives of God’s freedom. Far from being offended by divine liberality, as if it detracted from the right of certain privileged persons, we must, on the contrary, rejoice and wish that all may be granted the same graces (Num 11:25-29) … God told Moses to choose seventy elders as helpers in the task of leading the people. Moses was to gather them at the meeting tent for their investiture. So it was done, and God took some of the spirit that was on Moses to distribute it to his helpers. And immediately they entered into a frenzy. Now two men – Eldad and Medad – who had not gone to the meeting tent, although they were part of the gathering of elders, began to prophesy in the camp where they had remained. When Joshua, who from his youth had been Moses’ aid, heard this, he said, Moses, my lord, stop them, probably because he feared his master’s authority would be jeopardized. Such words betray a practical misunderstanding of God’s freedom, of the nature and finality of his gifts. These gifts are ways and means for being of service to the community, and not personal prerogatives jealously guarded. God does not impoverish anyone by spreading his gifts among many. Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”
Decrying elitism and evincing the great wisdom of a true leader, Moses did not resent the “new prophets” and was not jealous of their gifts. He then magnanimously expressed his profound wish that all the people of the Lord might be prophets and hoped selflessly that the spirit of the Lord be bestowed on them all. Christian tradition would see Moses’ prayer fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. According to the authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5: “No sacred precincts can imprison God’s spirit. Everyone must humbly ask to receive his or her share of it … This gift of the Spirit is lavishly poured out over the earth. No religious barrier can hold in check its diffusion. Only sin is an obstacle in its way. Whoever faithfully keeps God’s law receives it in abundance.”
The Old Testament reading serves as precedent and as a wonderful parallel to the Gospel episode of someone, not belonging to the intimate circle of Jesus’ disciples, driving out demons in his name (Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48). The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent comments: “John asks a question, prompted by his wonder and concern that someone who does not belong to the group should be casting out demons. The answer Jesus gives is important, because it can and should deepen the disciples’ understanding of their own group. Jesus is telling them that there can be people outside the group who believe in him and can perform exorcisms in his name. There is no reason for hindering such a man … Jesus is trying to broaden the outlook of his disciples, who may be tempted to seal themselves off as a closed group and to maintain in a spirit of jealousy what they consider to be the exclusive prerogative of the community.”
Fr. Nocent delineates the relevance of this Sunday’s readings: “The teaching given today is by no means irrelevant and should stir us to reflection in several areas. The readings teach us to be open and to reject all forms of clericalism and ecclesiastical triumphalism. These temptations are real both for the Church at large and for those in the Church who hold authority and exercise power. A further point is that while the priesthood of Christ is communicated in forms that are essentially and not only accidentally different, nonetheless all the baptized are in some sense prophets. Consequently, just as we must not turn the Church in on herself and deny that great things can be done outside of her, neither must those who have received a higher and more important degree of priesthood prevent the faithful from exercising the priesthood that is properly theirs, even though they should exercise it under the control and authority of the hierarchical priesthood.”
Ever the Divine Master and Teacher, Jesus continues the spiritual formation of his disciples on the way to the cross. As he endeavors to widen their vision and enable them to see the reality that no one can monopolize the gift of the Spirit, he intensifies the radical demands of Christian discipleship. Using hyperbole, Jesus warns that anything that causes sin should be removed. The point is not self-mutilation, but total commitment and dedication to God. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5, conclude: “Physical mutilations do not free us from malice and evil desires that come from the heart and lead all to sins (cf. Mk 7:21-23). These are the things to be pitilessly eradicated, deep amputations more painful than the loss of a limb or an eye. The meekness of Jesus and his sternness, his open-mindedness and the rigor of his demands are not opposed to one another. It is always one and the same Lord who speaks. The coherence of his teaching apears when we look at him, him whose zeal for the good and whose love for his own cannot admit any sort of compromise.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Dr. Rachel Quinto
Member: Holy Family Institute
Fresno, CA– U.S.A.
It is a universal human experience to be instinctively territorial, not only of material things but of anything that can be labeled as “mine”. To share one’s goods is not an automatic altruistic act. The cost of using a copyright item or the penalty for violations in copyright laws in the U.S.A. is directly proportional to the monetary value of the item. Even “intellectual property” with no monetary value requires acknowledgement of the owner.
Jesus tells me in this Gospel reading that the Kingdom of God, the realm of the Holy Spirit, operates at a different level. No one can claim absolute ownership for a good deed or a good outcome because, in truth, all good is inspired by God, sustained by God and is brought to completion by God. Accordingly and in appropriate circumstances, the goodness of God should be shared as freely as it is received by those to whom God chose to dispense it. Jesus teaches the disciples (and me) that, before God, there are no great or small acts. To God, appearances do not matter much because he sees the heart. Within my human make-up is the potential for evil, despite all external good acts. It is absolutely necessary to be vigilant so that my motivation for doing good is to please God alone.
In this Sunday Gospel reading, Jesus gives me the Christian directive in how service to others should be pursued, so that my “good” deeds do not take me unknowingly to the place I do not want to be. What is required is a heart filled with charity, of loving God above all else and loving others in God. It is of no avail to have one’s “goods” of sight and limbs, if they keep one separated from the beginning and end of all good – the heart of our Trinitarian God.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. How does the open-minded attitude of Moses and his ability to see the action of the Spirit of the Lord at work even in those who were not at the “meeting tent” and thus, not directly within his supervision affect us? How does this lesson of non-exclusivity impinge on us? Do we recognize God’s prophetic spirit in our midst? Do we realize that the activity of God is universal, inclusive and unbounded?
B. How do we respond to Jesus’ example of tolerance, non-exclusivity and universalism? Do we give thanks and praise that others who do not belong explicitly to the Christian community also carry out good deeds in the spirit of our saving Lord Jesus Christ?
C. How do we uphold the unconditional value of the Kingdom of God? Are we willing to live by the cost of Christian discipleship? Do we prefer nothing to the love of Christ? Are we willing to undergo the sacrifice of spiritual “self-mutilation” and self-abnegation and thus reject whatever it is that causes us to sin? Are we willing to submit ourselves completely to the power of God?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. Commission Francophone Cistercienne, Tropaires des dimanches, 119)
Leader: Free like the wind, the Spirit blows unpredictable.
From your cenacles, it carries the name of Jesus Christ.
Do not quench the fire just ignited: it must set the world aflame!
Assembly: Lord, call forth prophets!
Leader: I shall make your sons and daughters speak.
The old will have dreams and the young visions.
On the poor and humiliated I am going to pour out my Spirit.
Assembly: Lord, call forth prophets!
Leader: If you are insulted for the name of Christ rejoice:
on you rests the Spirit of glory.
Assembly: Lord, call forth prophets!
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” (Num 11:29)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the Church be preserved from temptations of elitism, clericalism, parochialism and exclusivity, and that it be inclusive, universal and welcoming in its relationship with the peoples of the world. Endeavor to promote all aspects of Church ministry and contribute to the ecumenical movement and inter-religious dialogue.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate more deeply the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the all-inclusive Divine Master who demands our total trust and commitment, 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. 45): 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