A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 34)
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – July 18, 2004
“Receive Christ in His Word”
Gen 18:1-10a // Col 1:24-28 // Lk 10:38-42
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
One thing I have in common with Sr. Mary Adelle, a charming elderly Sister born in a small scenic town close to Naples, Italy is a love for pasta. One day as we were enjoying a delicious, hot serving of spaghetti cooked “al dente” and topped with dense rich tomato sauce and grated Parmesan cheese, she narrated to me the following modern version of the story of Martha and Mary (cf. Lk 10:38-42)
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. A plate of pasta and a glass of wine will do.”
Jesus, in the course of his paschal journey to Jerusalem, stopped to take a rest in the home of Martha and Mary, who received him with solicitude and hospitality. He is the Good Samaritan par excellence and the ultimate neighbor deserving the love and care of these remarkable friends. Martha’s type of hospitality, however, was full of anxiety and her intense concern was misdirected. Aelred Rosser comments: “Martha was more concerned with the serving than with the one served. Imagine a similar situation: You are privileged to have a famous writer in your home to discuss her latest book over dinner. As host, you are so concerned that everything be done right that you end up spending most of the meal in the kitchen. What a pity! You’ve missed the author’s words of wisdom – which were, after all, the purpose of the gathering. The meal was only the scenery, not the script.”
Hence, Martha’s misguided hospitality provoked a good-natured reproach from Jesus. He was cautioning her not to be anxious. It was a vital piece of advice that would often spring forth from Jesus’ lips as he warned his followers not to be encumbered with useless anxieties and overwhelming earthly cares as they journey with him through the cross toward Easter glory. Martha’s endeavor to prepare a perfect reception and her meticulous concern for the “details of hospitality” detracted her from what was essential and primordial: listening to Jesus who comes to us with his life-giving Word.
The liturgical scholar, Adrian Nocent comments: “Receiving Christ requires, first and foremost, hearing him and having the soul of a disciple. The Christian is not forced to choose between acting and contemplating. The point is rather that he must first of all listen and receive Christ with interior peace and simplicity. Any reproach of Martha is for her anxiety, not for her zealous activity in receiving Jesus. One thing is necessary. What is this one thing? In the context of the proclamation of the Gospel and given the attitude of Mary who listens to the Lord, the one thing needed is evidently God’s word. Everything else is secondary when compared to this listening to God’s word.”
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 6, point out what true hospitality of Jesus implies and how this is related to the Christian exigency of love of one’s neighbor. They explain: “The entire Bible – Old and New Testaments – extols in countless ways the virtue of hospitality. In the guest that we welcome, it is always, in some way, God who visits us and who, through the guest, may bring us a message. The Gospels attest that at various times Jesus explicitly and solemnly declared that it is he himself that one receives in the weak, the poor, the afflicted, and also in his messengers. We will be judged according to what we have done or have failed to do with respect to those who need our welcome and assistance. We can exclude no one, since the neighbor is the one to whom we make ourselves present. The ready and active reception of a neighbor cannot, however, dispense with the need to receive the Word and open ourselves to the mystery of the coming of the Lord. It would become a deception if it is distracted from what is essential, from the only thing required: the reception of God’s gift to us of himself, of his Word, which allows us to recognize him in our neighbor.”
In the context of the total paschal event in which Jesus became the Bread broken and shared for the life of the world, we can perceive that the true Host in Luke’s story is Jesus Christ himself. He was breaking the bread of the living Word for Mary, whose spiritual hunger was being satisfied as she peacefully sat beside the Lord at his feet, listening to him speak. Generous and hospitable, the true Lord of the banquet was gently inviting the hardworking Martha to sort out her priorities and examine her manifold concerns. Jesus was inviting her to set aside the anxieties of a fretful hostess bent on preparing a perfect meal. Rather, he was challenging Martha to render the utmost hospitality that a disciple could offer, the one that her dear sister, Mary, had lavished upon him. Indeed, Mary of Bethany, an image of a true disciple, chose the better part, rather, the primary one, which is to listen to the saving word of God in order to act upon it.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Are we hospitable? Why or why not?
B. In what ways are we Martha? In what ways are we Mary?
C. Is our Christian discipleship characterized with receptivity and true listening to the word of God?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Adapted from a prayer composed by Blessed Alberione for the religious congregation, SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER (= PIAE DISCIPULA DIVINI MAGISTRI.)
Leader: Come, Jesus Master,
deign to accept the hospitality
we offer you in our heart.
We want to prepare for you
the comfort and the reparation,
which you found in Bethany,
with your two loving disciples, Martha and Mary.
In the joy of welcoming you,
we pray that you may grant to us in our contemplative life
that intimacy which Mary enjoyed,
and the acceptance of our active life
in the spirit of the faithful and hard-working Martha.
Cherish and sanctify us,
as you loved and sanctified the family of Bethany.
In the friendly hospitality of that house
you spent your last days on earth,
preparing for us the gifts of the Eucharist,
of the priesthood,
of your own life.
Jesus Master, Way and Truth, and Life,
grant that we may correspond to this great love
by sanctifying our apostolic services
for the glory of God and the salvation of humanity.
You live and reign forever and ever.
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.
“Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Lk 10:42)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Imagine that you are Martha – busy, fretful, full of concerns. Pray to the Lord and express to him your manifold concerns and anxieties. Shift the image. Imagine that you are Mary, who sits beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Feel that inner peace and serenity, and the deep contentment of having chosen the best part. Thank the Lord for the gift of himself and his life-giving Word. Ask the Lord for the grace to translate the Word you have received into your daily living.
B. ACTION PLAN: Invite three friends to visit the PDDM Website: WWW.PDDM.ORG // WWW.PDDM.US for the pastoral tool, “Breaking the Bread of the Word” as a way of helping them grow in contemplative action and prayer.
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