A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 8, n. 26)
Pentecost, Year C – May 23, 2010 *
“God’s Children Led by the Spirit”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 2:1-11 // Rom 8:8-17 // Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26
(N.B. Series 8 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 C from the perspective of the Second Reading. For reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year C based on the Gospel reading, please scroll up to the “ARCHIVES” above and open Series 2. For reflections based on the Old Testament reading, open Series 5.)
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
Pentecost is the crowning finale of Easter time. Originally it was a Jewish festival that celebrated both the grain harvest and the first covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. Christian Pentecost celebrates the “new” harvest of the Spirit – that is, the gathering of peoples from all nations who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It also celebrates the gift of the “new” covenant ratified in the paschal sacrifice of Christ, who loved us to the end. Moreover, while the Jewish Pentecost commemorates the gift of the Mosaic Law, the “new” Pentecost – the culmination of the Easter events – commemorates the gift of the new Law - the Spirit of love – the Holy Spirit outpoured for the gathering of the Church of God.
Aelred Rosser remarks: “The coming of the Spirit can not be limited to a particular moment in history. It is a constant and dynamic reality … The God who gave the Law now gives far more – the Divine Spirit itself, the very self of God. And that Spirit is given not to a chosen few – it fills the entire world.”
The Second Reading (Rom 8:8-17) underlines the transforming and awesome power of the Spirit. The Spirit of the Father and the Son is the moving force in the life of the baptized. The Holy Spirit unites us to Christ the Son and enables us to enter into an intimate child relationship with God the Father. Having received this Spirit of adoption, we should act fittingly as children of God. Moreover, we are heirs of glory with Christ to the extent that we suffer, die and rise with him.
The biblical scholar John Pilch comments on the Christian life led by the Spirit: “The liberator is the Spirit, which is nothing else but the power or force of the risen Jesus present upon earth. The believer comes into contact with this force by living in union with Christ Jesus, a union already begun in baptism. The Spirit brings a vitality that the Mosaic Law never could … A very important result of being subject to the Spirit is that one becomes a true child of God … This Spirit says we are dear to God; we are his very own children. Further, not only does the Spirit make this child relationship with God possible, but the same Spirit gives each of us the power to recognize it, that is, to say ‘Abba, Father’. Yet lest anyone get too carried away with all this good news, Paul reminds the readers that we must suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with him. Suffering, of course, simply can not compare with the glory or intimate share in God’s life, which is the destiny of each believer.”
The following story gives us a glimpse of what it means to live by the Spirit and embrace the way of love he inspires in us. To live by the Spirit of love enables us to be deeply related with one another and in a very meaningful way. We have heard of many stories of people who learned to love by doing good things and of people who learned to do good things by loving. Dr. Bloomfield’s story is an example (cf. Harold Bloomfield, M.D., “The Two-Hundredth Hug” in A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, ed. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Deerfield Beach: Health Communications, Inc., 1995, p. 14-15).
My father’s skin was jaundiced as he lay hooked up to monitors and intravenous tubes in the intensive care unit of the hospital. Normally a well-built man, he had lost more than 30 pounds. My father’s illness had been diagnosed as cancer of the pancreas, one of the most malignant forms of the disease. The doctors were doing what they could but told us that he had only three to six months to live. Cancer of the pancreas does not lend itself to radiation therapy or chemotherapy, so they could offer little hope.
A few days later, when my father was sitting up in bed, I approached him and said, “Dad, I feel deeply for what’s happened to you. It’s helped me to look at the ways I’ve kept my distance and to feel how much I really love you.” I leaned over to give him a hug, but his shoulders and arms became tense. “C’mon, Dad, I really want to give you a hug.” For a moment he looked shocked. Showing affection was not our usual way of relating. I asked him to sit up some more so I could get my arms around him. Then I tried again. This time, however, he was even more tense. I could feel the old resentment starting to build up, and I began to think, “I don’t need this. If you want to die and leave me with the same coldness as always, go right ahead.”
For years I had used every instance of my father’s resistance and rigidness to blame him, to resent him and to say to myself, “See, he doesn’t care.” This time, however, I thought again and realized the hug was for my benefit as well as my father’s. I wanted to express how much I cared for him no matter how hard it was for him to let me in. My father had always been very Germanic and duty-oriented; in his childhood, his parents must have taught him how to shut off his feelings in order to be a man.
Letting go of my long-held desire to blame him for our distance, I was actually looking forward to that challenge of giving him more love. I said, “C’mon, Dad, put your arms around me.” I leaned up close to him at the edge of the bed with his arms around me. “Now squeeze. That’s it. Now again, squeeze. Very good! In a sense I was showing my father how to hug, and as he squeezed, something happened. For an instant, a feeling of “I love you” bubbled through. For years our greeting had been a cold and formal handshake that said, “Hello, how are you?” Now, both he and I waited for that momentary closeness to happen again. Yet, just at the moment when he would begin to enjoy the feeling of love, something would tighten in his upper torso and our hug would become awkward and strange. It took months before his rigidness gave way and he was able to let the emotions inside him pass through his arms to encircle me.
It was up to me to be the source of many hugs before my father initiated a hug on his own. I was not blaming him, but supporting him; after all, he was changing the habits of an entire lifetime – and that takes time. I knew we were succeeding because more and more we were relating out of care and affection. Around the two-hundredth hug, he spontaneously said out loud, for the first time I could ever recall, “I love you.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
Do we allow the Spirit of truth to guide us on the way of love and teach us to keep the Father’s life-giving word?
Do we rejoice and continue to marvel at the miracle of the Christian Pentecost? Are we receptive to the ongoing dynamism of that event in our daily life?
Are we deeply aware that through the Holy Spirit, the principle of Christian vitality, we have been made children of God at baptism and are destined to share in Christ’s glory – to the extent that we suffer with him?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving God, our heavenly Father,
we thank you for the Pentecost event,
the crowning finale of the glorious Eastertide.
We thank you for the Holy Spirit,
commended to you by Jesus as he died on the cross.
The Risen Lord breathed the same Spirit on his disciples
as his gift on Easter day.
We thank you for the marvelous manifestation of the Holy Spirit
at the “new” Pentecost,
which gave birth to the Church.
We bless you for the fruitful harvest of believers
from all nations and peoples of the earth.
Loving Father,
the Spirit of love is always present and at work in our midst.
We bless you for the “new” Pentecost,
which is an ongoing, dynamic reality
that transcends time and space.
To the children of God,
every moment is “Pentecost”;
every place is filled with the presence of the Risen Lord;
the entire cosmos is imbued with divine creativity;
and all this through the transforming power of the renewing Spirit.
Help us to be attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Let him guide us on the path of love and the ways of peace.
Help us to live by the Spirit.
He unites us deeply to Jesus Christ in his paschal suffering
that we may be co-heirs with him in his heavenly glory.
We offer to you, O powerful Father, our untiring prayer of jubilation:
“Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.”
We praise you with the Son and the Holy Spirit,
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.
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Rom 8:14)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray that Christian disciples may truly be aware and responsive to the ongoing, dynamic reality and miracle of Pentecost. By your works of charity and kindness, of justice and peace, allow the people around you to experience anew the marvels of the “new” Pentecost.
ACTION PLAN: That we may experience more intensely the Pentecost event in our life, 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 C, vol. 6, # 26).
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