A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 47)
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – October 15, 2006
“A Wisdom-Filled Choice”
BIBLE READINGS
Wis 7:7-11 // Heb 4:12-13 // Mk 10:17-30
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 read the newspaper account of the slayings of five schoolchildren of an Amish community at Lancaster County in Pennsylvania by a profoundly disturbed gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, who committed suicide during the attack, I grieved deeply. I have always regarded the Amish community with fascination. Greatly impressed by their serenity and peacefulness and enthralled by their life of simplicity, I complained almost angrily, “They do not deserve such brutality.” The violence inflicted on innocent young girls and the hurt it brought to the Amish community are absolutely senseless and deplorable. Next day’s news report, however, moved me to tears and brought me consolation (cf. Fresno Bee, page 1 of the October 5, 2006 issue).
In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civil leaders for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims’ loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman’s family or threatened to sue. But that’s not the Amish way. As they struggle with the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in this Lancaster County village are turning the other cheek, urging forgiveness of the killer and quietly accepting what comes their way as God’s will. “They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent … and they know that they will join them in death,” said Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher and expert on children in Amish society. “The hurt is very great,” Huntington said. “But they don’t balance the hurt with hate.” In the aftermath of Monday’s violence, the Amish are looking inward, relying on themselves and their faith, just as they have for centuries.
The Amish community’s choice to be peaceable and forgiving in the face of such tragedy and injustice is a gift of God - an act of grace. The spirit of God’s wisdom enabled them to endure injury with a forgiving heart and to reach out to the family of the gunman who had killed their beloved children. Indeed their wisdom-filled choice configured them more and more to God’s loving plan and engrafted them more intimately into it. The gift of wisdom that King Solomon prayed for and incarnated by Jesus Christ to the full has been poured out abundantly on this forgiving and peace loving Amish community.
In the Old Testament reading (Wis 7:7-11), which is taken from a Book attributed to King Solomon, the latter narrates that he prayed and pleaded to God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon him. Although written less than a hundred years before Jesus’ time, this Book was attributed to Israel’s third king because of his legendary wisdom. Harold Buetow explains: “The Book of Wisdom was written about 100 years before Christ, in Greek-dominated Alexandria in Egypt. The Jewish community there, though large in numbers, was in danger of losing its identity because of the twin dangers of Greek philosophy and Greek morals. It was a time when Jews were abandoning their faith in great numbers – for social acceptance, or to follow worldly philosophies, or to acquire material wealth … Solomon was like other people in being not specially disposed by birth toward wisdom. But, realizing that only wisdom can bring true happiness, he prayed for wisdom rather than power, riches, health, or good looks. As a result, he became a legend: for his own time, for Jews thereafter, and for all people. Indeed, even Jesus referred to the wisdom of Solomon (Lk 11:31).”
The gift of wisdom that King Solomon prayed for is the spirit of understanding that enables God’s faithful one to discern what is essential and meaningful. Personified as a woman, wisdom is the ability to comprehend what is truly important. It is a spiritual gift to recognize proper thought and behavior and helps a person to choose what is good. According to the authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5: “This wisdom is the spirit of discernment, understanding of the heart, surety of judgment that shows with certainty what is good and what is evil. It particularly characterizes the leaders of his people to whom God had given his Spirit and the prophets. It would be given in overabundance to the Messiah in order that many might benefit by it. One day, Jesus exulted with joy upon seeing the wisdom shown by the little ones (cf. Mt 11:25-26), and he said that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who asked for it (cf. Lk 11:13).”
This Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mk 10:17-30) about the rich man who failed to pursue his initial choice of “eternal life” and was not able to make a fundamental option for the Kingdom, on account of his attachment to material goods, acquires greater depth and perspective against the backdrop of the Book of Wisdom reading. Jesus is the personification of wisdom. He perseveringly taught his disciples the truth about God and the world. Inaugurating and ushering in the Kingdom of God, Jesus Master is the most desirable “Wisdom” that exceeds the most esteemed gifts on earth: power, riches, health, and beauty. Jesus Wisdom allows us to discern, often beyond deceptive appearances, what is true, just and good. He came to reorient lives toward God’s will. Those who open up their hearts to Jesus will receive the gift of a discerning heart and will be empowered by God to make a radical choice for the Gospel. They who do not open themselves up totally to Jesus and those who refuse to receive his challenge of self-abnegation will walk away sad and despondent, just like the uncommitted rich man. They who fail to renounce themselves in order to follow Jesus, the Wisdom of God, will not be able to experience fully the joy and the glory of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, those who follow Jesus Christ faithfully are filled with divine blessings and are able to make wisdom-filled choices for God’s kingdom.
The Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard underlines the positive elements involved in the Christian challenge of renunciation and self-denial: “To follow Christ means denying one’s self, and hence it means walking the same way as Christ walked in the humble form of a servant – needy, forsaken, mocked, not loving worldliness and not loved by the worldly-minded … He who in self-abnegation renounces the world and all that is the world’s, forsakes every relationship which otherwise tempts and holds captive … He who, if it becomes necessary, certainly does not love his father or mother or sister or brother less than before, but loves Christ so much more that he may be said to hate those others: he walks absolutely alone, alone in the whole world … Eternity will not ask about what worldly possessions you left behind in the world. But it will ask you what treasure you have accumulated in heaven; how often you have won the victory over your own temper; what self-control you have exercised over yourself, or whether you have been a slave; how many times you have mastered yourself in self-denial, or whether you never have done so; how often in self-abnegation you have been willing to sacrifice for a good cause, or whether you never have been willing; how frequently in self-abnegation you have forgiven your enemy, whether indeed seven times or seventy times seven; how frequently in self-abnegation you have borne injuries patiently; what you have suffered, not for your own sake, for the sake of your own selfish purposes, but what in self-abnegation you have suffered for God’s sake.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Rev. Fr. Mario Giachino SSP
Los Angeles, CA– U.S.A.
Wealth in itself is neither bad nor sinful, but it can become a dangerous trap, especially if it becomes the main goal of our life.
The Word of God in today’s Mass enlightens us and gives real meaning to our life, as it invites us to share our earthly goods with others. What is asked of us is not, of course, a lavish giving away reducing ourselves to misery or dispossessing ourselves foolishly. Jesus simply asks the rich man who approaches him to share what he has with the poor. He does not require complete renunciation of wealth, but simply sharing it, taking into account those who are really in need. He does not say “give all to the poor”. The rich man is apparently willing to pay well for a place in heaven when he asks “what must I do to share in eternal life?” but he evidently did not consider sharing his wealth with the poor to be a wise investment, and he went away sad. Hence the words of our Lord, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
We too may be tempted to look at riches from the point of view of the rich man.
Jesus sees money and material possessions from another perspective, that is, from the point of view of heaven. He tells us that the more wealth is accumulated, the more it tends to occupy our whole outlook and all our time. It leaves little or no time for religion or friendship, much less, friendship with the poor.
The rich man went away sad. He did not appreciate the opportunity that Jesus offered him, that of gaining the treasures of the Kingdom. He returned to his worldly interests and his search for material treasures.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Do we desire to receive more fully God’s gift of wisdom? Do we thank and praise God for offering this gift to us, in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ? Do we extol wisdom above all the most esteemed goods on earth: power, riches, health and beauty?
B. Embracing the paschal destiny of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, how do we make our day-to-day decisions a reflection of the spirit of wisdom he has poured upon us? Are our choices wisdom-filled and oriented towards the loving plan of God for us?
C. In our following of Jesus Christ, are we ready to renounce “all we have” and “give to the poor”? Is our self-renunciation directed towards the pursuit of the Kingdom of God? With the grace of God and in a spirit of self-abnegation, are we able to bear injuries patiently and forgive those who have wronged us?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Adapted from Wis 9:1-6, 9-11)
Antiphon: Wisdom of God, be with me, always at work in me.
1. God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, you have made all things by your word and in your wisdom have established man to rule the creatures produced by you, to govern the world in holiness and justice, and to render judgment in integrity of heart: (Ant.)
2. Give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne, and reject me not from among your children; for I am your servant, the son of your handmaid, a man weak and short-lived and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws. (Ant.)
3. Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men, if Wisdom, who comes from you, be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem. (Ant.)
4. Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works and was present when you made the world; who understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what is conformable with your commands. (Ant.)
5. Send her forth from your holy heavens and from your glorious throne dispatch her that she may be with me and work with me, that I may know what is your pleasure. (Ant.)
6. For she knows and understands all things, and will guide me discreetly in my affairs and safeguard me by her glory. (Ant.)
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” (Wis 7:7)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray in thanksgiving for the gift of the Wisdom of God and invoke the fullness of this grace upon all Christian believers. Make a wisdom-filled decision to extend God’s forgiveness to a painful situation that needs healing. Offer your sacrifice in reparation for a violent world that yearns for peace. Share your material, and spiritual goods with the poor and the needy
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate more deeply the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Wisdom 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 (Vol. 2, n. 47): 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