A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 46)
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – October 11, 2009 *
“The Ability To Discern”
BIBLE READINGS
Wis 7:7-11 // Heb 4:12-13 // Mk 10:12-30
(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 reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year B based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 1. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 4.)
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
This Sunday’s liturgy invites us to make a fundamental option for the incomparable treasure that is the Kingdom of God. It surpasses all earthly goods and relativizes all else in life. Confronted by the spirit of wisdom – a wholly transcendent quality of discernment that is from God – we are being challenged today to make intelligent decisions for life. Moved by the word of God, we are inspired to follow his saving will and devote ourselves to the coming of his Reign.
The young Solomon in the Old Testament reading (cf. Wis 7:7-11) deemed riches nothing in comparison to wisdom. In the springtime of his reign as Judah’s king, he made a laudable decision to please God. In comparison to Solomon, the rich young man in today’s Gospel failed in his fundamental choice (cf. Mk 19:12-30). He went away sad. He had a heavy heart after refusing to accept the challenge of Jesus. The sad young man chose to be shackled by material possessions. His hierarchy of values was unfortunate. His lamentable, anomalous choices needed thus to be ordered, rectified and converted.
Jesus Christ is the incarnate wisdom. He is the divine word personified – the word of God made flesh - to enlighten our core decisions in life. This Sunday’s Second Reading (Heb 4:12-13) gives wonderful insights on the word of God and underlines its efficacy and formidable capacity of discernment. God’s living and effective word penetrates to the innermost part of a person and forces him/her to come to grips with what really matters. It scours our entire being, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and reveals the deep truth about God’s love and our gracious destiny. Likewise, the life-giving word of God – the font of salvation Jesus - is as incisive as a two-edged sword in its power of judgment.
The 12th century Christian writer Baudouin de Ford remarks: “Yes, this Word is living, living in the heart of the Father, in the mouths of those who proclaim it, in the hearts of those who believe and love … When God’s words are heard, they pierce the believers’ hearts as the sharp arrows of the warrior (cf. Ps 120:4). They penetrate and remain in the heart’s innermost depths. This Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, more cutting than any force or power, more subtle than all the finesse of human genius, more pointed than every learned thrust of human discourse.”
I had a chance to shake hands with Mother Theresa of Calcutta when she went to an orphanage in Cebu, Philippines in 1976 and listen to the powerful words that came forth from her heart. She is an example of a full recipient of God’s grace of wisdom, of the Kingdom value and of the power of the word of God that “discerns reflections and thoughts of the heart”. The following excerpt from a discourse that she gave in 1994 to the political and religious leaders from across the United States for the National Prayer Breakfast, which included President Bill Clinton, the First Lady Hilary Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, illustrates the power of the word of God and that Mother Theresa was indeed an instrument of the living and efficacious divine word that discerns and judges (cf. “Breakfast with a Champion” in Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart, ed. Jeff Cavins, et. al. West Chester: Ascension Press, 2004, p. 227-234).
Let us thank God for the opportunity he has given us today to have come here to pray together. We have come here especially to pray for peace, joy, and love. We are reminded that Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor. He had told us what the good news is when he said, “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.” He came not to give the peace of the world, which is only that we don’t bother each other. He came to give peace of heart which comes from loving, from doing good to others. (…)
Jesus died on the Cross because that is what it took for him to do good for us – to save us from our selfishness and sin. He gave up everything to do the Father’s will, to show us that we too must be willing to give everything to do God’s will, to love one another as he loves each of us.
St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don’t love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? Jesus makes himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and he says, “You did it to me.”
I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home where they kept all the old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them into an institution and, maybe, forgotten them. I saw that in that home these old people had everything: good food, a comfortable place, television, everything. But everyone was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on his face. I turned to Sister and I asked, “Why do these people, who have every comfort here – why are they looking toward the door? Why are they not smiling?” (I am so used to seeing smiles on our people. Even the dying ones smile.) And Sister said, “This is the way it is, nearly every day. They are expecting – they are hoping – that a son or daughter will come to visit them.” See, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty. Maybe in our family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried. Are we willing to give until it hurts, in order to be with our families? Or do we put our own interests first?
I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given to drugs. And I tried to find out why. Why is it like that, when those in the West have so many more things than those in the East? And the answer was, “Because there is no one in the family to receive them.” Our children depend on us for everything: their health, their nutrition, their security, their coming to know and love God. For all of this, they look to us with trust, hope and expectation. But often father and mother are so busy that they have no time for their children, or perhaps they are not even married, or have given up on their marriage. So the children go to the streets, and get involved in drugs, or other things. We are talking of love of the child, which is where love and peace must begin.
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love but kills her own child to solve her problems. And by the abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere: “Let us bring the child back.” The child is God’s gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things – to love and be loved. This is the only way that our world can survive, because our children are the only hope for the future. As other people are called to God, only their children can take their places. But what does God say to us? He says, “Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of his hand; that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God from conception, and is called by God to love and be loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never forget us.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
1. Do I truly value the divine gift of wisdom? Do I consider riches nothing in comparison to wisdom? How do I pursue and relish the wisdom of God?
2. How does this Sunday’s Gospel episode concerning Jesus’ challenge to the rich young man affect me? Am I willing to renounce earth’s goods for the sake of the kingdom of God? How do I give witness to my fundamental choice for Jesus Christ?
3. Do I truly welcome the word of God that is living and effective, able to discern and reveal reflections and thoughts of the heart? Do I allow myself to be challenged and appraised by the word that penetrates, judges and heals?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
we thank you for the gift of wisdom,
which enables us to have true knowledge of your love
and reveals our glorious destiny in you.
We thank you for your living and efficacious word.
It helps us to come to grips with ourselves
and inspires us to make core decisions in view of eternal life.
We thank you for the challenge of Jesus Christ,
the wisdom from on high personified and the divine word made flesh.
Help us to respond with wisdom to Christ’s call
to embrace radically the Kingdom value.
Make us totally receptive
to the power of your living word at work in our hearts,
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.
“Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the living word of God may continue to be proclaimed and incarnated in today’s world. By your acts of charity and commitment to truth, allow the people of our fragmented world to experience healing and integration, love and salvation.
B. ACTION PLAN: To enable us to be receptive to the challenges of the living word of God, 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. 46).
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