A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 47)
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – October 18, 2009 *
“The Service of the Great High Priest”
BIBLE READINGS
Is 53:10-11 // Heb 4:14-16 // Mk 10:35-45
(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
The Bible readings of this Sunday give us a beautiful insight into the meaning and grandeur of the divine saving plan. The Old Testament reading (Is 53:10-11), from the “Fourth Song of the Suffering Servant”, strongly underlines the redemptive quality of his sufferings. The Gospel reading (Mk 10:35-45) helps us contemplate the “Suffering Servant” personified in Jesus Christ – the Son of God who gave his life as a ransom for many. The passion of Christ for the world was poignant, intense and life giving. By his death on the cross, Jesus rescued God’s beloved people from the powers of sin. His life of servitude to the loving Father was a constant struggle to ransom God’s people from Satan’s snare and the clutches of death. The efficacious ministry of the Servant Jesus, the Son of Man, consisted in giving his life as a ransom for many.
The liturgical scholar Adrian Nocent explicates: “Jesus refuses to play the political game that is expected of him, for he refuses to let his mission be interpreted as a political restoration of a nation. Moreover, he refuses to let his mission and powers be co-opted for a political miracle that would bypass the responsibility of men and their free will. He refuses also to let men rest in an easy security in relation to God and to employ magic in their dealings with him. He demands, instead, true love of neighbor, forgiveness of others, humble charity, hidden prayer, and unostentatious charity. In all these ways, Jesus disappoints and shocks others, and his death will be the outcome of his persistence in his ways … If we go back to the words gave his life as a ransom for many, we can see better what they mean and we can without difficulty overlook the commercial overtones of a swap or exchange that the words would normally carry. In this context the words are an imaged way of expressing the reality of the love that the Father and the Son have for the world they want to save. The Son has been sent into the world, and he dies in consequence of a deliberate attitude of obedient self-surrender that has been his throughout his earthly life. In his death he forgives us all, and in his resurrection he brings us all to unity with him. Thus he frees us all for eternal life.”
In the Second Reading (Heb 4:14-16), the author of the Letter to the Hebrews depicts the ministry of the glorified High Priest, the Servant-Messiah Jesus Christ, as that of leading his brothers and sisters to the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace. By his paschal mystery and by intimately sharing our human situation, but not succumbing to sin, Jesus enabled God’s alienated people to have access to the throne of grace in the highest heaven. Indeed, the service of the great High Priest was a ministry of compassionate mediation and reconciliation, of mercy and unity, of hope and encouragement.
Mary Ehle comments on the Second Reading: “In contrast to last Sunday’s reading which served as a warning to Christians, this Sunday’s reading serves as a source of kindhearted encouragement … By presenting Jesus as the great high priest who is able to understand our weakness because he shares fully in our humanity – although without sin – and who passed through the heavens to God’s throne, the author identifies Jesus as the mediator between heaven and earth – one with us in all things but sin and one with God in his divinity, thus one able to unite us with God. The throne of grace, which we can approach with confidence because of Jesus the high priest, is God’s throne but also Jesus’ throne because he has forever existed as one with God. Our Christian hope for eternal life resides in this confidence we are able to have through Jesus the high priest enthroned with the Father as God.”
As Christian disciples we are called to be servants in the Servant-Son Jesus Christ. He claims our confession and he is worthy of our love and faith. We have been made slaves in Jesus Christ, in terms of service and commitment to the Father’s plan of salvation. The following article illustrates the beautiful ministry of mediation of Rita, Papa Mike and other concerned persons at Fresno’s Poverello House (cf. Mike McGarvin, “Lost and Found” in POVERELLO NEWS, August 2009, p.3-4). Their act of charity manifests the service of hope and reconciliation of the Servant-Son Jesus Christ, the great High Priest.
For several years, we periodically heard from a woman in Arizona named Rita. She was looking for her brother, who was homeless due to mental illness. She had heard that he had been seen in the Fresno area. Very dutifully, we would take down the information, and then post a note on our bulletin board advising the brother, whose name was Robert, to call his sister. We would then search our mail list that we keep for our homeless clients, in hopes of running across his name, but were never able to find the elusive Robert.
After several of these calls, we had given up on Rita ever finding the brother. From the description of his condition, we were, quite frankly, afraid that he might never be found or would end up dead. We get many calls from desperate relatives who want to locate a missing father, brother, son or sister who has been lost to the streets; there is seldom a happy ending to the story. We hadn’t heard from Rita in a long time. Then, last April, we received a check and a letter from her. The letter contained something unexpected:
Dear Poverello Staff,
My wholehearted thanks for keeping “an eye out” for my lost brother, Robert _______, who was last seen some seven years ago in the Fresno area. I had asked a few times over the years if you had seen him. Well. It happened in February. He contacted me and was surprised and glad that someone was even looking for him. Another thing that Mike (McGarvin) might like to know is that Robert’s attitude mirrored the feelings Mike mentioned in April’s Poverello News. It was “as if you are surprising him by showing a tiny little kindness …” (…) Thank you for all you do.
Although we had thought this poor woman would never talk to her brother again, she didn’t give up hope. Faith and perseverance are sustaining virtues, and Rita possesses both in abundance. This was a great example of someone hoping against hope, and being rewarded in the end. Family members with loved ones on the streets often surrendered the idea of things ever being “normal” again. However, the agony of doubt and the unknown is nevertheless hard to endure. Simply being able to communicate with that cherished person, to know that he is still alive in spite of being homeless, is something these relatives treasure. It’s one reason we do all that we can to reunite homeless people with loved ones who are searching for them.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
1. How does the figure of the Suffering Servant depicted by the prophet Isaiah impinge on you? What lessons do you glean from the humble stance and patience of the Suffering Servant? Do you believe in the redemptive character of suffering?
2. Do you give thanks to God for the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, who came to give his life as a ransom for many? Do you trust in the Servant’s unmitigated love, which impelled him to embrace his paschal mystery, so that he may ransom us from the powers of sin and the clutches of death?
3. Do we regard with faith, hope and confidence Jesus, the great High Priest, who immersed himself in our weakness and took on our human nature, except sin? Are we willing to journey with Jesus Christ, through his paschal mystery, to relish the presence of God in the “highest heaven” and receive abounding mercy from the “throne of grace”?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
we thank you for the gift of your Servant-Son, Jesus Christ.
He embraced our weakness
and took our human nature, except sin.
He knew us through and through
and loves us fully.
His service of hope on the cross is our strength
and his ministry as eternal High Priest life giving.
By his paschal mystery,
he brought peace, reconciliation and healing.
As true mediator, he entered the highest heaven.
Together with Jesus Priest,
we thus approach your throne of mercy and grace.
We praise you, our compassionate Father,
and love you deeply.
We resolve to serve you faithfully
for we are your servants-slaves in Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God forever and ever.
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.
“So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” (Heb 4:16)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that the service of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest, may live on in the Church and in the world today. By your daily acts of service and charity and by your patience in suffering, enable the people around you to realize how greatly redemptive is the passion of Christ for the world.
B. ACTION PLAN: To enable us to contemplate the great saving act of Jesus, the Servant-Son and the great High Priest, 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. 47).
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