A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 8, n. 34)
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – July 18, 2010 *
“Responding to God’s Hospitality”
BIBLE READINGS
Gn 18:1-10a // Col 1:24-28 // Lk 10:38-42
(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
We continue our journey of “christification” as we gather together in the Sunday liturgy to celebrate the mystery of salvation centered on Jesus Christ. Like Mary of Bethany who welcomed Jesus Master by sitting beside him at his feet listening to him speak, we too are called to open our hearts anew to Christ and the power of his word. Like Mary, we too are being invited to relish and feast on his life-giving word.
Graziano and Nancy Marcheschi remark: “Mary assumes a disciple’s posture at Jesus’ feet, something women simply did not do. And while we are only told that Martha welcomed Jesus, we are shown how Mary did it – by listening. Luke’s emphasis is clear: true hospitality assumes the attitude of a disciple and eagerly listens to the word of the Lord. This is Luke’s primary concern, not a condemnation of Martha’s culinary zeal … Jesus chastises Martha not for what she does, but for how she does it: anxious and worried. His repetition of her name signals affection and possible amusement at her consternation. His tone must not condemn her behavior, but invite her to remember why and for whom she labors, so that she can listen even in her busyness.”
In light of the Second Reading (Col 1:24-28), we may consider hospitality from a profound perspective: as God’s benevolent stance on our behalf. We are called to be hospitable persons because God is primordially hospitable. He is our gracious Lord – generous and kind, welcoming and open-hearted. God, who visited Abraham and set on course salvation history, offered us the utmost hospitality when he spoke the word of God, Jesus Christ, the mystery hidden for ages but now revealed to his holy ones. Like Paul, we are called to respond to this loving divine initiative by welcoming the word of God into our life. We are summoned to proclaim and witness to all peoples, nations and cultures the rich and glorious message of our redemption in Christ.
Harold Buetow comments: “Today’s portion of the glorious letter to the Colossians reveals the special and unique insight that the kind of generosity given in hospitality finds its heroic fulfillment in suffering for others. But how can the letter’s author claim that he was completing what’s lacking in Christ’s suffering (v. 24)? Was Jesus’ sacrifice somehow insufficient? No, but by God’s own will the Redeemer’s work of salvation is not yet complete: Jesus wants his followers to continue his work by sharing in his afflictions, thus building up his body in every age. We need to realize that we can do something for the salvation of the entire world. That is the root of the communion of saints. It is Jesus who teaches today’s lessons: that the one thing necessary in our lives is love, that we can show it in both action and contemplation, that it expresses itself in outgoing hospitality. Throughout, little things mean a lot.”
An example of a Christian disciple who responded fully to the saving initiative of the gracious and hospitable God is the great Jesuit missionary to China, Fr. Matteo Ricci. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Ricci is “a unique case of a felicitous synthesis between the proclamation of the Gospel and the dialogue with the culture of the people to whom he brought it”. Fr. Ricci’s hospitable stance and spirit of openness helped him to become one of the most sterling figures in the Church’s ministry of evangelization. The following excellent article, which deals with Matteo Ricci’s cross-cultural mission to China, helps us to perceive the sacrifice, generosity and creativity that the proclamation of the mystery of Christ entails (cf. Jeremy Clark, “When West Met East” in AMERICA, May 10, 2010, p. 13-16).
May 11 marks the 400th anniversary of the death in Beijing of the legendary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). The Italian-born Jesuit priest arrived in Macau in 1582, moved to the city of Zhaoqing in the southern province of Guangdong the following year and spent the remaining 27 years of his life in China actively engaged in cross-cultural exchange. So successful was Ricci in immersing himself and the Gospel fully into Chinese culture, that he is almost as well known in China as he is in the rest of the world. In China he is known as Li Madou, which was both his Chinese name and ultimately his identity as the wise man from the West. For the many elsewhere who remember him, Ricci stands as a pioneer of sophisticated and sympathetic East-West engagement. (…)
Ricci’s amazing linguistic abilities fast made the fate of the mission synonymous with his exploits. His endeavors in the early years became the main means by which the church spread throughout the country. Ricci focused on reaching the imperial capital and moved ever northward, opening communities in Shaozhou in late 1589, Nonchang in 1595 and Beijing in 1601. The Jesuits also established a presence in Shanghai in 1608. Ricci’s activities, varied and impressive, testify to his genius. Once he mastered enough spoken and written Chinese to communicate freely (no easy task even today), he tried his hand at whatever could help him develop relationships with the scholar officials. Early on, the Jesuits thought such connections were the most prudent and effective means of promoting and protecting the young church. In pursuit of his evangelical goal, Ricci produced works in the field of horology, hydraulics, optics, observational astronomy, surveying, music, geography and geometry. And this list does not exhaust his exploits.
Among other things, Ricci became famous in China for a large-scale world map that he first constructed in 1584 (which has been on view during 2010 at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.); a book on friendship, written in 1595, which drew freely on a classic by the scholar Epictetus; and a treatise on mnemonics written in 1596. Ricci impressed dinner and conversation companions with his phenomenal memory, recalling after a single reviewing everything from lines of high poetry to manufactured doggerel. In China, where people took pride in their ability to quote readily from Chinese classics, a memory method that made such things easier was highly valued.
Ricci worked with one of the leaders of the early Chinese Christians, the Ming dynasty statesman Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), and together they translated Euclidean geometry into Chinese. This task was made all the more difficult because concepts like parallel lines and acute angles, for example, had no Chinese words. Ever creative, Ricci and his companion simply invented terms for them. So apt were their choices that contemporary Chinese mathematicians still consider these words unsurpassable.
Ricci was a true Renaissance man, representing the breadth of the humanistic learning undertaken by Jesuits at their colleges throughout Europe at that time. He was a man of the cloth as well, who regularly engaged in translating language dictionaries for the use of other missionaries and composing prayer books, apologetic works and catechisms for the Chinese neophytes. Arguably, the most well known of Ricci’s books about Christianity was The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. While his books became widely read, their most important contribution was the encouragement they gave everyone from scholars to simple peasants to engage in conversations about the Gospel and Jesus, the Lord of Heaven.
Following Valignano’s directives, Ricci and his Jesuit companions wore Chinese clothing, wrote and spoke Chinese, ate Chinese food and lived in Chinese houses (often they bought houses cheaply because they were thought to be “haunted”). Rarely did one or other of them return to Europe. They became Chinese in all things in order to win China for Christ. Although the early years of the mission were marked by difficulty and struggle, Ricci and his companions laid a sure foundation. By the time of Ricci’s death, there were perhaps 2,500 Christians in China. On his deathbed Ricci said, “I am leaving you before an open door which leads to great merits, but not without great effort and many dangers.”
Over the centuries Ricci’s work has been described as an ascent to Beijing, and apostolate through books, an early instance of inculturation and an example of cross-cultural exchange. His remarkable feats of scholarship were achieved in the face of shipwreck, home invasion, violence, persecution and daily travails of being a stranger in a strange land (especially in the early years). Perhaps the best way to think about Ricci’s decades in China, and to hold together his joy of scholarship and his capacity to endure the thousand sacrifices of living far from all that was once dear to him, is to see his ministry as one of friendship.
For all Ricci’s academic and personal talents, his pre-eminent, enduring gift was a capacity to delight in the company of others … Ricci is considered a giant on whose shoulders subsequent generations stand. In many ways this is right and just, given his inspirational role in promoting both the cause of Chinese culture and Chinese Catholicism. A more appropriate image, however, is to picture Ricci seated at a round table, sharing the hospitality of his friends, sipping tea, and talking of many things in order to talk of one thing: God present among us from East to West.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
How does the episode of the visit of God to the patriarch Abraham impact you? How does the spirit of hospitality of Abraham impress you?
Like Martha, do we sometimes feel “anxious and worried about many things”? How do we put our priorities in order? Do we endeavor to take Mary’s stance of discipleship – of truly welcoming Jesus Master by listening and feasting on his life-giving Word?
Do we recognize in the divine saving plan an expression of the Father’s gracious hospitality and benevolent desire to welcome us? Do we respond fully to God’s hospitality and saving will by assuming the sacrifices that the proclamation of the saving “mystery” of Christ entails?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, you are loving and kind.
You are a welcoming and forgiving God.
Your gracious hospitality was radically manifested
when you spoke your benevolent Word, Jesus Christ.
He is the saving mystery hidden for ages,
but now revealed to his holy ones.
In the saving plan accomplished by Christ,
we have been redeemed.
Christians we have become by your grace.
We are now called to proclaim this saving mystery
to all peoples, nations and cultures.
Help us to respond fully to your great love and exquisite hospitality
by generously assuming the sacrifices and sufferings
of being disciples-apostles in Jesus Christ.
It is he whom we proclaim
with the strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
We feast on your living Word, our hope for glory.
We love you, Father!
We thank you for your hospitality.
We give you praise for your goodness,
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.
“It is Christ in you, the hope for glory. It is he whom we proclaim.” (Col 1:27b-28a)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray that we may truly be a welcoming Church. By the way we treat the weak among us – the unborn, those dealing with disability and terminal illness, the poor and marginalized – let us allow God’s hospitality to flow like a comforting balm in today’s wounded world.
ACTION PLAN: That we may have the grace to be transformed into a welcoming people and marked with God’s hospitality, 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, # 34).
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