A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (#25)
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C – May 16, 2004
“The Holy Spirit Will Teach You”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 // Rev 21:10-14, 22-23 // Jn 14:23-29
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
This is a heartwarming story about an Italian couple, members of the Institute of the Holy Family, founded by Blessed James Alberione. The members of this Pauline secular Institute are vowed to a life of consecration as married couples. Every day, this Italian couple would pray the Rosary together. It was one of their intense moments of spiritual communion. One day, the husband was diagnosed with a vicious cancer. The devout couple humbly offered everything to God and trustingly submitted themselves to the divine will. Since the husband’s days were numbered, the couple tried to prepare for his departure. They made sure that they would be present to each other even when he died. When the good husband passed away, the faithful wife continued to pray the rosary with him everyday by means of the taped voice he had left behind. For the loving widow, praying with the taped rosary was a form of presence in his physical absence. The spiritual communion of the couple endured and their nuptial love intensified by a “new” presence.
The Italian couple’s wonderful tale of enduring love and continual presence echoes the powerful message contained in today’s Gospel reading, that is, the love of Christ living on in the Church through the power of the Spirit. Jesus Christ, as the glorified Risen Lord, continues to live on, in the here and now of the Church, as a “new” presence. Indeed, this reading (Jn 14: 23-29) is a suitable preparation for the forthcoming feast of the Lord’s Ascension for it speaks of love and its enduring presence through the Holy Spirit, in the context of the Son’s return to the Father. As part of the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, the Gospel passage depicts the paschal movement of Christ’s return to the bosom of God and the consequent sending of the Holy Spirit, who guarantees that his words will remain and bear abundant fruit in the lives of his disciples.
Today’s Gospel proclamation underlines the nature of Christ’s testament of love, which we have reflected upon in last Sunday’s liturgy (Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35). The evangelist John records the words of Jesus to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me” (Jn 15:23-24). Jesus speaks of love, the pivotal Christian virtue, and links it with being true to his word. To love the Lord and to keep his word are the same, for is he not the Word of God? Moreover, to receive his word is to receive the Father and the Son, since abiding with the word of the Lord testifies to the reality of divine presence. Indeed, the specifically Christian dimension of love is the intimate communion and indwelling of the Father and the Son with the disciples. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 3, enthuse: “No one could ever have imagined such intimacy with the Father and his Son: both of them dwelling in each of us! Jesus spent only a little time among us, but in that time he taught us the Father’s word and passed on to us the assurance of his love, as well as the knowledge of how to respond to it.”
Abiding with the Word of God, with its consequent communion in the love of the Father and the Son, is made possible when the Holy Spirit comes into the hearts of Christ’s disciples. That is why, Jesus Master, in his farewell discourse, made this astounding promise: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn 14:26). According to the editors of the Jerusalem Bible: “In place of the departed Christ, the faithful will have the Spirit. He is the parakletos, who intercedes with the Father, and whose voice is heard in human courts. He is the Spirit of truth, leading men and women to the very fullness of truth, teaching them to understand the mystery of Christ – his fulfillment of the scriptures, the meaning of his words, of his actions, and of his signs, all hitherto obscure to the disciples.”
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 3, give us a beautiful insight on the role of the Holy Spirit as teacher of the community of believers and as “the memory of the Church”. According to them: “There are countless instances in the Gospels and the apostolic writings where the Spirit brought to mind a scripture text or one of Jesus’ sayings. In their light, the meaning of Jesus’ deeds, the events of his life, his other sayings, what happens in the Church and what it determines to do appears in full light. Thus, the Holy Spirit is ever today the memory of the Church, not that it always repeats what was said and learned before, but because it teaches us to act in conformity with Scripture and the Lord’s teaching in our time. The Spirit is the heart and soul of the Church’s living tradition. It pushes it forward, giving it the courage and audacity needed to confront new situations, to seek and find bold solutions, drawing on its memory of the living Word.”
The Divine Master then links the promised coming of the Holy Spirit with a peace blessing: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (Jn 14:27-28). “SHALOM!” “PEACE!” This customary Jewish greeting and farewell evokes the perfect happiness and the deliverance that the Messiah would bring. It is the perfect benediction and farewell blessing that Jesus could give to his disciples at the brink of his ultimate Passover. The peace that he bequeaths to his disciples is the spiritual serenity and certainty that comes from harmony and profound communion with God and his saving will. Aelred Rosser writes: “The peace that Jesus leaves with his disciples (and with us) is not the peace that the world gives … We know that peace is more than the absence of war or controversy. The peace that Jesus gives is more profound and fundamental than that. It brings the assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. When our faith truly believes that ultimate victory over suffering is inevitable, then we can be full of peace in a way that a worldly view of suffering cannot know. This is the peace that enables us to live optimistically, to withstand the blows life brings, to be courageous in the face of fear and sorrow, and to live our lives with the healthiest form of detachment.”
Furthermore, the leave-taking of Jesus is associated with a call to rejoicing: “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I” (Jn 14:28). Those who truly love Jesus would experience that his “homecoming” into the bosom of the Father is a cause for rejoicing. Christ’s return to the Father, who sent him, with the saving mission brought to completion, is a glorious moment and font of joy for his disciples. The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly, comments: “That return marks the completion of his saving activity as the God-man. The Father, who is greater in the sense that he initiated the whole of saving history, can now complete that history. And we are part of it. The love, the Spirit, and the peace that Jesus promised belong to us and are truly ours in the measure that we let them be.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Is our love for Jesus strong enough to enable us to act upon his word?
B. Do we believe that we belong to a “Paraclete community” where the Holy Spirit teaches and reminds us with the words and wisdom of the Risen Lord, and makes him fully present to us?
C. What do we do with the benediction of “peace” that the Divine Master bequeaths to us?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Adapted from Commission Francophone Cistercienne, Tropaires des dimanches, Le Livre d’Heures d’En-Calcat, Dourgne: 1980, p. 42)
Leader: Now I am going away.
I am going to the Father.
He will send you the Creator Spirit.
To you I will return.
The Spirit of wisdom rouses your hearts:
Rise up! People of Easter!
Rise up! Take courage!
Assembly: Rise up! People of Easter!
Rise up! Take courage!
Leader: In vain do the masons labor
if the Spirit does not build the house!
Assembly: Rise up! People of Easter!
Rise up! Take courage!
Leader: In vain are words chanted
if the Spirit does not dwell in the memory.
Assembly: Rise up! People of Easter!
Rise up! Take courage!
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (Jn 14:26)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray over the important elements delineated in this Sunday’s Gospel reading: love, Holy Spirit, peace and the Son’s return to the Father.
B. ACTION PLAN: Today, after praying for the power of the Holy Spirit, bring the peace of Christ to a person or any human situation and community in need of it.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US