BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 8)

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B - January 19, 2003

 

Bible READINGS

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

I . BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

“Responding to the Word”

 Marion Bond West, an inspirational writer and mother of hyperactive twins was in the kitchen frying chicken for dinner one busy day. As she stirred the chicken pieces sizzling in the pan, she heard an inner voice commanding her: “Go, look for your boys!” Astounded, she paused and finally concluded, “I must be imagining things”. But the inner voice came back with insistence: “Go, look for your boys!” Reluctantly, she switched off the stove and, leaving the chicken pieces soaking in the oil, went to look for her highly energetic young twins. When she reached the laundry room, she almost fainted. One little boy was crouched inside the electric dryer with an astronaut’s helmet on his head. The twin brother was ready to blast him off as in a rocket ship. Marion’s ability to listen and respond to the inner voice paid off.

After focusing on the mystery of the Lord’s incarnation during the Christmas-Epiphany season, we now enter into the ordinary season of the liturgical year. In today’s liturgy, the Church invites us to delve into the meaning of the call and response to the Word of God. We hear in the first reading (I Sm 3:3b-10, 19), the moving example of God’s call of the young boy, Samuel, who was serving in the temple of the Lord. There is humor in the boy’s running back and forth to the old priest Eli, with his eager, “Here I am, you called me.” The narrator succinctly explained the situation: “At that time Samuel was not familiar with the Lord, because the Lord had not revealed to him anything yet” (v.7). After the third time, the priest, Eli, perceived that the voice was coming from the Lord. He then taught the young boy how to listen and respond to the summoning voice. In his limpid innocence and energetic readiness, the young Samuel becomes for us a model of receptivity and openness to the voice of God. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” was his response to the Lord who came and revealed his presence to him. The text of the first reading skips verses 11-18. These verses, however, are necessary for a better understanding of the concluding verse: “Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect” (v.19). The omitted passage narrates the Lord’s message of indictment to the house of Eli and Samuel’s unpleasant role of communicating this painful message to Eli, who humbly resigned to God’s justice by saying: “He is the Lord; let him do what he thinks is good” (v.18). Indeed, the young boy, Samuel, would grow up to be an honest and truthful prophet. He would always proclaim the voice of the Lord courageously and never leave it unheeded. In this light, today’s concluding verse about Samuel, “not allowing any word of the Lord to be without effect” (v.19), evokes the powerful proclamation of Yahweh in last Sunday’s first reading: “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it” (cf. Is 55:11). Indeed, the word of the Lord – God’s dabar – is dynamic and efficacious. It demands a personal response of which Samuel’s committed response is a model.

The Gospel reading (Jn 1:35-42) is taken from John whose gospel prologue contains the marvelous declaration: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14). The Incarnate Word Jesus Christ is also the “Lamb of God” pointed out by the precursor John the Baptist to two of his disciples. Indeed, the title “Lamb of God” sets in our hearts images of the sacrificial lamb, the suffering Servant in whom Yahweh is well pleased, and the Good Shepherd. Typically, Jesus Christ initiates the dialogue of discipleship: “What are you looking for?” The response of Andrew and his companion is not totally an answer, but a question pregnant with meaning: “Where are you staying?” According to the Benedictine writer, Demetrius Dumm: “They are certainly not asking for his address. Their question means, ‘Where can we find you and learn from you about our true home?’ Jesus says in reply, ‘Come and see.’ He does not give a pat answer; he offers instead an invitation to walk with him and to learn what living in hope means, what the journey means – to learn of its pain but also of its joy, and most of all of its happy ending, its true homecoming.” Indeed, the positive and ready response of the disciples to the Incarnate Word’s invitation is extremely inspiring: “They went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him.” As the Word made flesh dwelt among us and stayed with us through his eternal healing presence, so the first disciples remained with Jesus, the incarnate Word and divine Teacher.

Having experienced the life-giving intimacy and power of Jesus, the Word of life, the disciple Andrew became a sharer of the Word. His inevitable response is to find someone else to share the joy of his personal encounter with the Messiah. His mission of sharing the Word bore fruit. According to Basil of Seleucia: “Andrew was the first to become an apostle … Taking Peter with him, Andrew brought his brother to the Lord, thus making him his fellow-disciple. This was Andrew’s first achievement: he increased the number of apostles by bringing Peter to Christ, so that Christ might find in him the disciples’ leader.”

The Christian response to the Word can be better understood by looking into the message of Paul to the community of believers in Corinth (cf. II Cor 6:13c-15a,17-20). Paul vehemently reminds the Corinthians that their bodies are members of Christ. Adrian Nocent remarks: “Paul is vividly aware of man’s destiny; he knows that we do not belong to ourselves, that our bodies are for the Lord, and that our true life is in eternity. For these reasons, we must preserve the integrity of our bodies. We do not belong to ourselves, because our calling has made us temples of the Spirit, and our baptism has incorporated us into Christ.” Indeed, the baptized Christian’s life of intimate discipleship and union with Christ involves profound moral obligations and demands a lifestyle in total coherence with his saving Word. The body of Christ cannot be adulterated or prostituted.

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

bullet A. When Samuel opened the doors of the temple in the morning light, after his eventful nocturnal encounter with the voice of God, he was enacting the bursting forth of the Word of the Lord to the people of Israel. Do we allow the Word of God to burst like sunshine into our life? What is our response?
bullet B. What is my personal response to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of the Father, the most beautiful Word spoken to us by God? How do I share the life-giving Word?
bullet C. Do I live out my life in coherence with the Word of God that I proclaim? Have I adulterated or diluted the demands of Christian discipleship?

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD 

(Prayer composed by the Servant of God, Fr. James Alberione, to be beatified by Pope John Paul II on April, 27, 2003.) 

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Leader: You are the Incarnate Word, the only-begotten Son and splendor of the Father, born of Mary. I adore you present in me. I thank you, sole Master and Truth, for having deigned to come to me, ignorant and sinful as I am. With Mary I offer you to the Father: through you, with you, in you, may there be eternal praise, thanksgiving and supplication for peace to all people,
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Assembly: Enlighten my mind; make me a docile disciple of the Church; make mine a life of faith. Give me an understanding of the Scriptures. Make me your ardent apostle. Let the light of your Gospel shine to the farthest bounds of the world. Amen.

IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD

The following sacred text is a living word to nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.  

“They went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him …” (Jn 1: 39)

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

bullet ACTION PLAN A:

Compose a personal prayer based on the Lord’s invitation: “Come and see.”

bullet ACTION PLAN B:

Please invite three persons to visit the PDDM WEB site “BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA Approach to the Sunday Liturgy” as a way of spreading the power of the Word of God.

 

Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM

SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 or (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US

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