A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 8, n. 49)
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – October 31, 2010 *
“A Miracle of Mercy”
BIBLE READINGS
Wis 11:22-12:2 // II Thes 1:11-2:2 // Lk 19:1-10
(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
As the worshipping community continues to journey through the liturgical year and as we approach the end of the Ordinary Time, we begin to hear preludes on Christ’s “advent” or coming at the end time (cf. Second Reading). The focus, however, of today’s liturgy of the Word is the goodness and mercy of God, revealed fully in Jesus Christ who has come to seek and to save what was lost.
This Sunday’s Old Testament reading (Wis 11:22-12:2) - a poetic beauty – extols God who is both powerful and merciful. Graziano and Nancy Seitz Marcheschi remark: “Written in the century before the birth of Jesus, the book of Wisdom demonstrates how God’s imperishable spirit had been at work tilling the soil for the seed of the Gospel that Christ would bring. With beautiful imagery, the passage paints a portrait of a powerful, transcendent God who is also concerned and caring, overflowing with mercy and forgiveness. By revealing even more fully the loving nature of God, Jesus demonstrated that the New Testament is in continuity with the old. A statement like ‘you loathe nothing that you have made’ anticipates in spirit the saving work of Jesus. The final paragraph movingly describes God’s patience and tender mercy which, little by little, warns us of our sins so we might repent. Today’s Gospel story will powerfully illustrate the healing power of such merciful love.”
The Gospel reading (Lk 19:1-10) invites us to consider the whole-hearted response of a marginalized tax collector to the divine saving initiative, crystallized in the person of Jesus Christ. Greatly detested by the people for his exploitative trade, Zacchaeus allowed himself to be sought by the great “seeker of the lost”. His conversion through Christ is a stupendous miracle of mercy. His transformation in Christ is a wondrous result of sacrificial love. The biblical scholar Eugene Maly comments: “Zacchaeus accepted Jesus’ saving love and mercy … His grant of mercy reached the heart … Zacchaeus accepted the divine love and was saved. Divine mercy is all through the Bible … But the acceptance of that love and mercy, the recognition of what it really is, that is where the miracle lies. That God loves and forgives should need no headlines. That we accept it does.”
The Second Reading (II Thes 1:11-2:2) illustrates the ongoing pastoral care for the early Christian community. The divine mercy continues to be manifested in the loving concern of the apostle Paul for a greatly disturbed community in Thessalonica. The apostle Paul seeks to pacify the agitated hearts of those fearful of “the day of the Lord” and those troubled by false reports that the end time had come. Like Jesus the Divine Master – the Way, Truth and Life – Saint Paul diligently guides the community of believers on the path of truth and salvation
Aelred Rosser explicates: “Paul lovingly assures the Christians at Thessalonica that they have the constant support of his prayers – specifically so that every good impulse will redound to the glory of the Lord and to their own sanctification. It is the most pastoral of prayers. In the second paragraph Paul is eager to quiet their hearts with regard to rumors or mistaken notions about the return of Jesus in glory. The best position to take with regard to the end of the world is one of calm and hopeful vigilance, expressed in loving and humble service to one another.”
The following story is poignant evidence that “the miracle of mercy” continues to be alive in today’s world (cf. Marion Bond West, “A Room for Jeremy” in GUIDEPOSTS, May 2010, p. 60-64). Marion’s personal testimony enkindles our hope and encourages us not to give up. We too are called to cling to hope and to make a room in our hearts for “the lost one”.
Jeremy had lost his father, my first husband, when he was 15 years old – a vulnerable age, not that he showed it. He had seemed so strong then, forging through his grief, taking over his father’s jobs around the house, like keeping our yard perfectly weeded and mown. In his twenties, he ran his own thriving landscaping business. But in his mid-thirties, Jeremy fell apart, as if all the feelings he’d been holding back since he was a teenager erupted, a kind of emotional volcano that destroyed everything in its path – cars, apartments, relationships, his business, the successful life he had built for himself.
Now he was 41, and I was terrified that addiction and bipolar disorder had finally swallowed up the real Jeremy. I’d read the arrest report. The police had been questioning people in the neighborhood where Jeremy was hanging out. He hadn’t committed the crime they were investigating, and if he had just cooperated, he wouldn’t have ended up in jail. But he had been skipping his bipolar meds. He reacted belligerently. He said that he’d done meth, cursed the officers, charged at them. They had to chase him twice.
I hardly heard a word Jeremy said to his counselor. My mind kept going back to two nights before, when we’d picked him up from jail. Guards led him into the waiting area, limping – an old hip injury from one of his car wrecks. “It’s not my fault”, he bellowed. “I was just standing there minding my own business!” The bedraggled clothing, the dirt-encrusted hands, the wild eyes … nothing about this disturbed man resembled the Jeremy I knew, the son I loved.
“Marion, Gene”, the counselor’s no-nonsense voice brought me back to the session. “I’m very concerned for Jeremy’s life right now. He doesn’t have many more chances. I’m asking you to take him into your home for at least thirty days. He needs structure. But if he breaks even one rule, he’s out. He must get back on his bipolar medication, see a counselor regularly, go to 12-step meetings …”
I wanted to scream, Blenda, we’ve lost the battle. Can’t you see that? Didn’t she understand the terrible anguish of watching someone you love self-destruct and feeling powerless to help him? She really expected me to open myself again to that kind of pain? I glared at her as she rocked gently in her chair, waiting for our answer. Jeremy sat up straight, rubbing his hands back and forth on his jeans, not daring to look at me or Gene. “He can stay with us”, my husband Gene said. I didn’t know how he could be so calm. I didn’t trust myself to speak. I just nodded mutely. It was more resignation than consent.
When we got home, I put Jeremy in the guest room. He joined us for meals. But I kept my heart closed off. Constantly I watched him for any slip-up, any deception, even the smallest white lie. One mistake and I was ready to pounce. I was not going to get hurt again. I was not going to risk having hope again for my son. Hope had been such an empty promise.
To my amazement, the county health department promptly provided excellent counseling and the prescription medication Jeremy needed to control his bipolar disorder – all free of charge. Begrudgingly, I gave a silent prayer of thanks.
Jeremy found an AA group that met at seven in the morning. “I need this to start my day off right”, he told us. Since his driver’s license had been revoked, he got someone else in the group to pick him up and then bring him back to our house afterward. He went to those meetings six days a week. The seventh day he went to meetings of the biblically based program Celebrate Recovery. “Man, you can confess anything there”, he told us one night at supper. “No one judges or rejects you. I fit in.” He paused. “I’m going to make it this time.” There was a quietness in his tone, not his old bravado. “Sounds good”, Gene said. The smile he gave Jeremy said even more. It said, I believe you will make it.
Lord, how I wish I could believe it too, I thought. Jeremy was trying hard. He kept his room immaculate. He helped around the house without being prompted and kept asking us if there was more that he could do, even as his limp grew worse. He took his meds regularly. He went to his counseling appointments. He was committed to his recovery groups. Still, I kept thinking – almost expecting – that he would revert to his old behavior. I had seen it happen so many times already – Jeremy would get clean only to relapse and sink even lower that he had been before. And each time it felt as if he were taking a part of me with him.
Six months after Jeremy moved with us, Blenda agreed that he was ready to try living on his own again. In November, he rented a starter apartment in the nearby town of Athens. He told us about an organization there that provided medical care for people who couldn’t afford it. He had talked to someone in their office who thought that they might be able to give him hip replacement surgery, free of charge. I was certain that he had misunderstood. It just sounded too good to be true. But sure enough, just before Christmas time, Jeremy received a new hip, compliments of Mercy Health Center.
Soon, Jeremy was getting around so well that he was back doing some lawn care. His clients were so pleased with his work that they were willing to come over and pick him up. He even lined up a job at a bakery café and bought an old bike for five dollars at a yard sale so that he could get to and from work. Part of me was happy for Jeremy. But another part of me couldn’t help remembering his last apartment – a nice place that had ended up trashed after repeated drug binges. It seemed as if the more progress my son made, the more I imagined the worst.
One spring day I was driving home from shopping and passed Jeremy’s new apartment. His ancient yard-sale bike was chained to a post. That meant he was home. I decided to stop in and say hi. Or was I checking on him, always concerned that I might catch him at something? Did I just want to get the disappointment over with?
The door was unlocked. I walked in. “Hey, it’s me”, I called. The small three-room apartment was sparkling clean and fresh smelling, neater than I’d ever kept my house. Jeremy hollered from the bedroom. “Take off your shoes, Mom. I just vacuumed and mopped.” He came out to the kitchen, carrying his Bible. “Guess what? They made me a sponsor at Celebrate Recovery last night. And later this month, I get my one-year chip from AA.” He was beaming. “Check out Romans 5:5”, he said. He handed me his Bible. He had highlighted the Scripture in yellow: Hope does not disappoint.
I looked up at Jeremy. There was a sweetness in his expression, a trust that I had all but forgotten since I let go of hope. Right then the sun streamed in through the little kitchen window, and we stood there together, bathed in light. I took a deep breath and caught the faint aroma of bleach and something else, something fresh and citrusy: lemon. Hope will always smell like lemons to me. At that moment, standing there looking into my son’s clear eyes, I let myself trust in the miracle of his recovery, and whatever plan God had for Jeremy. I let hope into my life again, a hope as warm and bright as sunlight.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
What were the instances in our life when we felt most deeply that God is merciful and that he is truly a “lover of souls”?
What are the instances in our life when, like Zacchaeus we opened ourselves completely to grace – to the one who has come “to seek and to save what was lost”?
What are the instances in our life when we truly worked with God to make ourselves worthy of his calling and to give glory to him and his beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: O Lord, lover of souls,
you are very merciful.
You loathe nothing that you have made.
Teach us to be open to the grace of salvation
like the eager Messiah-pursuer, Zacchaeus..
Help us to be worthy of our calling as Christian disciples.
Grant that we may always give glory to your name and that of Jesus.
We praise you,
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.
“We always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling … that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.” (cf. II Thes 1:11-12)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Pray that God’s merciful love may be felt deeply in today’s world. By your work of active charity on behalf of “the lost”, let the Church shine as a sacrament of Christ’s presence and saving love in the here and now.
ACTION PLAN: That we may present more limpidly the healing power of our merciful God, 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, # 49).
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