A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 50)
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – November 8, 2009 *
“Totally Yours … Totus Tuus”
BIBLE READINGS
I Kgs 17:10-16 // Heb 9:24-28 // Mk 12:38-44
(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
We are almost at the end of the liturgical year. Through the sacred liturgy, the Church helps the Christian disciples to be thankful for the divine compassion and the providence bestowed on us every moment of our life. Likewise, the bible readings of this Sunday inspire the worshipping members to respond to God with a generous and total love. As we are completing the Church’s year of grace 2009, it is fitting to meditate upon the totus tuus quality of God’s relationship with us, as well as, the totus tuus character of the response he demands from us.
The biblical scholar Eugene Maly comments: “Totus tuus … “totally yours” … Such total self-giving is characteristic of biblical religion. It is not to be understood as a purely human initiative. Rather, it is the expected response to the redemptive love of God. It is he who loves first. Then empowered by that love, we can love God and neighbor in turn…God’s initial love is always a presupposition. Our lives are, or should be, one large thank you to a loving God. And the thank you must be expressed wholeheartedly. The Gospel reading exhibits this theme. The widow who gave her two small copper coins gave all that she had to live on. This was her version of totus tuus to God. Because it was that, it was worth much more than the huge donations of the wealthy … The Old Testament reading was chosen for obvious reasons. A widow is asked to sacrifice the last bit of food she has. This is surely another form of totus tuus addressed to God and to the prophet Elijah … Here, too, we have a display of the divine totus tuus in the form of a miraculous provision of flour and oil until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth. Thus the Elijah story caps the total gift of the widow with a total gift from God. But the emphasis, as in the Gospel story, is on the completeness of the human gift … Christ has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sins once and for all by his sacrifice. Jesus is the Father’s totus tuus to us. When we respond, it must also be in the once and for all spirit of totus tuus. In Christianity, God has given his all once and for all. We are asked to respond in the same way … That is why we say right here and now to God: Totus tuus, Lord”.
The following enchanting narrative from the pen of the celebrated Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore makes palpable the sadness and misgiving we feel when we refuse to give our all – our everything - to the Lord, who demands it from us.
I had gone, begging from door to door, on the road to the village, when your golden chariot appeared in the distance, and I was wondering who was this king of all kings! My hopes rose and I was thinking, The bad days are over, and I was already expecting spontaneous alms and riches scattered all over in the dust. The chariot stopped where I stood. Your eyes rested on me and you got down with a smile. Suddenly, you extended your right hand and said, “What do you have to give me?” Ah! What royal game was this, to beg from the beggar! I was at a loss and perplexed; finally, I slowly took from my bag a very small kernel of wheat and gave it to you. But how great was my surprise when, at day’s end, emptying my bag on the ground, I found a very small grain of gold in the heap of poor grains of wheat. I bitterly wept and thought, Would that I had had the courage to give everything I hold!”
This Sunday’s Second Reading (Heb 9:24-28) is very significant for it underlines the courage and generosity of Jesus in giving his totus tuus to the Lord. The total offering of the poor widow witnessed by Jesus (Mk 12:38-44) evokes Christ’s total, sacrificial gift of himself for the forgiveness of our sin and the redemption of all. The annual religious ritual of the high priest in Jerusalem temple on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was inadequate to bring reconciliation. Instead, it was Christ’s totus tuus on the cross and his complete surrender to the divine saving plan that brought about total reconciliation with God.
Harold Buetow explicates: “Jesus did not offer sacrifices daily or annually, but once. That sacrifice was the total self-giving of his life. He took away the sins of all people by taking those sins upon himself. The blood of the sacrifice was his own – ineffably more effective by reason of his worth than the previous sacrifices of animals. Rather than entering the sanctuary of the Temple, which was only a man-made construction, he entered heaven itself that he might now appear before God on our behalf.” Moreover, at the parousia or second coming, Jesus Christ will gather and bring to full salvation those who wait for the advent of his kingdom.
In this Year for Priests, we avow that our priests of today continue to make present in the “here and now” Christ’s totus tuus to the Father. They endeavor to incarnate Christ’s sacrificial gift of himself on behalf of God’s universal people. An example of a priest whose life is a totus tuus is Father Yan Mangun, whose total self-giving is extolled by seventh-grader Gina Escandon in her prize winning essay, “God’s Representative” (cf. MARYKNOLL Magazine, May/June 2009, p. 33-34), which we report below.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. Over 250 million people live there. Most of them are Muslim, and only 3 percent of them are Roman Catholic. My name is Gina Escandon and, along with my family, I was an expatriate in Indonesia for almost eight years. My parents wanted me and my brother to grow up going to Mass every Sunday. But living in Indonesia made it kind of hard to do so. Thanks to Father Yan Mangun, it was made possible.
Excuse me. I think I should introduce Father Yan to you. Father Yan Mangun is part of the Dayak people. The Dayaks are a native group of Borneo. Prior to their conversion to Christianity, they were headhunters and believers of animism. Father Yan was very proud to be the first Dayak ordained as a Catholic priest. Being a Christian in a majority Muslim country is difficult and at times dangerous. It was a struggle for Father Yan and other Indonesians to live as proud Catholics. Father Yan set an example for the Indonesian Catholics as well as the international community of Catholics of what living our faith as followers of Christ truly means. For many years before he retired, Father served as a chaplain in the Indonesian Navy, where he learned English. Once he retired, he came to live and work among the very poor in a parish in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
We expats used to attend his Masses in a nice open-air church building. But during that time, there were bombings going on in Indonesia. Some of the extreme Muslims who believe that Indonesia should be 100 percent Muslim were bombing Catholic churches. Many innocent Indonesian Catholics were killed, some even on Christmas Day. It was because of this that we started holding our Masses on the secure compound in which we live. It was thanks to Father Yan that we had our own little parish so far from our home countries. Our new parish being made up of Catholics from around the world was really a “catholic” church. We had members from the United States, Australia, Ireland, Nigeria, Malaysia, Holland, Colombia, Canada, New Zealand and many more countries than you can imagine. The weekly offering that was collected from his international parish was more than his local parish collected in a year. Father Yan would use all the money to help his Indonesian parishioners.
Father Yan, or Pak Yan, as he was called in Indonesian, was a very humble man. He had holes in his shoes, but if you give him money to get new ones, he would just give the money to someone who needed it more. I am so blessed that I have had Father Yan in my life. If it weren’t for him, I would not have made my First Communion until I moved back to America when I was in fifth grade. I would not have been able to go to church every Sunday and understand what was being said. He heard God calling him above everything, and he answered. That’s why Father Yan Mangun is a witness to Christ.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
1. What was the totus tuus or total self-giving rendered by the Phoenician widow of Zarephath? What was the divine totus tuus on her behalf?
2. Why is the donation of the poor widow in the Jerusalem temple most valuable and significant? How does her offering evoke Christ’s total gift of himself?
3. In what does Christ’s totus tuus to the Father consist? Why is Christ himself the Father’s totus tuus gift to us?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
we thank you for creating us in your image,
for redeeming us in your Son,
and for sanctifying us through the power of your life-giving Spirit.
Jesus Christ is your totus tuus gift to us.
On the cross of sacrifice,
he was the Priest and Victim par excellence.
By his passion and death on the cross,
you revealed your unmitigated love and compassionate care for us.
Dear Lord God,
we love you.
Like the widow of Zarephath
who offered to the prophet Elijah
the last piece of bread to nourish her and her hungry son,
nourish us by the bread of your promise.
Like the widow who offered her last two coins at the Jerusalem temple,
let us learn to give all and everything – our totus tuus –
and be sustained by faith in your providence.
Bless us, loving God.
United with Jesus, the eternal Priest and perfect victim,
make our entire life a totus tuus gift to you,
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.
“But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice.” (Heb 9:26b)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray that our response to God’s compassionate love may be total, generous and wholehearted. By your personal dedication and service to the poor and needy, avow to God the totus tuus character of your love for him and your neighbors.
B. ACTION PLAN: To enable us to offer to Jesus our totus tuus love response, 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. 50).
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