A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy

 

 

BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 7, n. 8)

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – January 18, 2009

 

“The Vocation and Dignity of the Body”

 

BIBLE READINGS

I Sam 3:3b-10, 19 // I Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20 // Jn 1:35-42

 

 

(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 other reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year B, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 1  & 4.)

 

 

 

I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

 

The second reading proclaimed in the Masses on Sundays in Ordinary Time is taken from the New Testament epistles and the Book of Revelation. Presented in semi-continuous order, its thematic unity with the Gospel reading and the Old Testament reading is fortuitous or accidental. Though not deliberately harmonized, the second reading is extremely important for it provides us with profound insights into the relationship of the Christian believers with God and with one another. It also sheds light on the endeavors and challenges of the early Christian communities to live the Gospel and pattern their lives according to Christ’s paschal mystery. In a way, the second reading, which is about the life of the Church and has paschal undertones, will always have some kind of link with the first reading and the Gospel passage proclaimed at a Sunday Mass.

 

The Old Testament reading (I Sam 3:3b-10, 19) of this Sunday about young Samuel and the Gospel reading (Jn 1:35-42) about Andrew and the other disciple being invited by Jesus to his “home” underline the free, wholehearted response of those called. The second reading, taken from the Pauline epistle, is an exhortation to the Corinthians to live their life consistent with their vocation and dignity as “members of Christ’s body”. Joined to the Lord and made holy by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Christian disciples are to live with integrity in the midst of society’s moral depravity and in a climate of extreme sexual license.

 

The biblical scholar Richard Kugelman comments: “In Paul’s day Corinth was a bustling city with a cosmopolitan population drawn from all parts of the Roman Empire. It was a center of government and of commerce; its population included Roman officials and military, businessmen, merchants, and sailors from Greece, Italy, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and other parts of the empire. The city was also a famous sports center … Athletes from all of Greece and the empire came to compete in these contests. In a pagan world notoriously tolerant of sexual license, Corinth had a reputation for debauchery and licentiousness. In koine the verb korinthiezein, “to live like a Corinthian”, came to mean “to lead a dissolute life”, whereas the expression kore korinthe, “Corinthian girl” was a euphemism for prostitute … The founding of the church in Corinth by Paul in early AD 51 is recorded in Acts. Despite many difficulties and sufferings (cf. Acts 18:12-17) when Paul departed from the city after 18 months of apostolic activity, he left behind a flourishing community of Jewish and Gentile converts. The epistles to the Corinthians, especially the first, permit us to gaze intimately on the exuberant life of one of the earliest urban communities. Without these letters our knowledge of the spiritual movements within primitive Christianity and of the problems that tried the Apostle would be vague. They present a vivid and detailed picture of Christian life in a pagan city of the first century … The (first) epistle is Paul’s response to information about disorders in the Corinthian church communicated to him at Ephesus, by messengers from Chloe … The letter was written during Paul’s sojourn in Ephesus (AD 54-57), probably in the early spring of 57.”

 

The bad example of dissolute morals and the prevailing licentiousness in the notorious “sin city” – Corinth – continued to impinge on the young Christian community and some of the baptized committed fornication and incest. The no-nonsense spiritual father Paul – writing from Ephesus – confronted these terrible issues that were vitiating their total response to Christ and reminded them that “their bodies are members of Christ” and that they are a “temple of the Holy Spirit”. Because of their intimate union with Christ in the Spirit through baptism, they are not to adulterate themselves with sin, especially fornication and sexual abuse, but rather they must cleave to Christ who had offered his life for them. Indeed, the Christians have tremendous dignity and responsibility as members of the “body of Christ” and as a “temple of the Holy Spirit”. Everything we do must be an expression of holiness and our total consecration and belonging to God, in Jesus Christ through the indwelling of the life-giving Spirit.

 

The biblical scholar Mary Ann Getty explains: “Through baptism we have become members of Christ’s body. The image of marriage is used to express how perfect then is the union between Christ and the baptized. Sin prompts us to prostitute ourselves, giving ourselves over to the false gods of pleasure and promiscuity. Paul identifies idolatry and adultery. He refers not only to sexual sins but to any pact with evil, which desecrates the Christian committed to God (…) Therefore we no longer belong to ourselves or to sins. We have been purchased at the great price of the death of Christ who reconciled us to God.”

 

Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians to live their vocation and dignity as members of the Christian body is extremely relevant for today’s Christians called to live a life of integrity in the midst of temptations and moral fragmentation. The following account of Papa Mike, the founder of the POVERELLO HOUSE in Fresno, concerning his first girlfriend and the later one who became his wife illustrates the contrast between the life that he lived before knowing Christ and what he became after he followed Christ and was baptized in the Catholic Church (cf. PAPA MIKE, by Mike McGarvin, 2003, p. 19-20; p. 64, 68-71).

 

As I matured, I had no desire to have a girlfriend. I think that this was due to my dad’s unfaithfulness – relationships, in my mind, meant pain. This continued into high school, where I managed to make a few female friends, but I kept them at arm’s length. That changed when I met Buckwheat during my senior year. Her real name was Sally, but I nicknamed her Buckwheat. She lived in my neighborhood, and like everyone else I got hooked up with, she had a world of family problems. There was no father in her life, and her mom was pretty casual about how she raised her. I met her when she was seventeen. She claimed that she had been gang-raped when she was twelve years old. That, combined with her upbringing, apparently had an impact on her, and she was promiscuous. When we started going together, she immediately wanted the relationship to get physical, but I was very reluctant. I think I had doubts about my masculinity; I know that the things I’d seen in my dad’s basement had affected me. I don’t recall feeling any moral hesitancy, just a fear of involvement. She kept pushing the issue, and I finally relaxed and began having sex with her. Once that got started, it became the basis of our relationship. However, it took a bizarre twist. Whenever we’d get it on, she wanted more, so I began calling friends, who would come and finish things up. You’d think that I would have at least felt strange and jealous, but I didn’t. I guess I didn’t know what a normal relationship was like. (…)

 

God was transforming my life through Poverello. Joining the Catholic Church gave me a new outlook, and my life had meaning now … I’d become pretty serious about my faith then, and Poverello was the center of it all. Even though my life was more or less on track now, and I had found companionship and purpose at Poverello and in the Church, I still found myself longing for the special, intimate relationship of a marriage … I did take a step of becoming a Secular Franciscan, which would allow me to marry while still striving to follow the way of St. Francis. That’s where Mary Malsbury (from Fresno) came in … She also visited a few times in San Francisco. When she did, I gave her a kind of litmus test to see if this was really going to work out. Our “dates” up there consisted of volunteering at the Poverello. Mary was a country girl, and really pretty innocent. Poverello was the center of my life, so I wanted to see if Mary and Pov would get along. She was willing to give it a shot. Her first night turned out to be quite an experience for her. A drag queen named Gwendolyn came in. Gwendolyn approached Mary and asked her for some lipstick. I was serving coffee, and Mary came up and whispered in my ear, “That guy,” she nodded in his direction, “wants to borrow my lipstick. What do I do?” “Well,” I replied, “if Gwendolyn wants lipstick, give Gwendolyn some lipstick.” So she did. That night proved to me she was marriage material …

 

We got married at the Third Order Hall, a meeting place for secular Franciscans … Within a couple of months after our wedding, our first child, Michael, was conceived … A year after Michael was born, we did something I never thought I’d do: We moved to Fresno … Mary had come from a close-knit family, and she missed them terribly … It was a sad day for me when we left. I was leaving behind the best friends I’d ever known, people who had embraced me at my worst and loved me into sanity. I was leaving the Pov, which was the place that filled my life with purpose and meaning. Worst of all, I was leaving Father Simon, who in many ways had become like a real father to me, and Brother Kurt. I was emotionally mixed about it all. On the one hand, I was happy to be making a sacrifice for my wife, and I was excited about our new life together. On the other hand, it felt like a part of me was being torn out.



 

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

 

  1. What does the vocation story say to you personally? Did you ever hear God calling you? Did you ever say to God, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”?

 

  1. What does the experience of the two disciples in today’s Gospel reading tell you? Have you followed the Lord Jesus to the place where he dwells and stayed with him? What is it like to be with Jesus?

 

  1. What does the experience of the early Christian community in Corinth tell you? What were the challenges and difficulties they had in living out their vocation and dignity as members of “the body of Christ” and as a “temple of the Holy Spirit”?

 

 

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD

 

Leader: Loving Father,

we thank you for the life-giving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross

by which we were redeemed

and became your new covenant people.

In baptism we have been incorporated into Christ

and became living members of his holy body,

where his life-giving Spirit dwells.

Help us to be faithful to our vocation and dignity

as members of “the body of Christ”

and as a “temple of the Holy Spirit”.

In Christ and in the Spirit,

let us adore and glorify you

in the spiritual body, the Church,

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.

 

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (I Cor 6:15, 19)

 

 

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

 

  1. ACTION PLAN: Pray that today’s Christians may find true meaning in their vocation and dignity as members of Christ’s body and as temples of the Holy Spirit. In your witness of truth and integrity and in your loving service, especially to the suffering members of the Church – the victims of sexual abuse, those addicted to sexual pleasure and in need of healing and professional help, etc., let God be honored and glorified.

 

  1. ACTION PLAN: To help us live to the full our belonging into the body of Christ, 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, # 8).

 

 

Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang  PDDM

 

 

 

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