4th SUNDAY OF LENT
LECTIO DIVINA
HOLY READING – PRAYING WITH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES.
Sunday, March 14 th, 2010, is the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C. The Readings are: Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3 and 11-32.
Or a choice of the Year A Readings where a Parish is active in the Christian Initiation Process: 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41.
For those who pray the Divine Office, the Psalter takes Week 4
In the Liturgy this week:
March 17: St. Patrick – Solemnity.
March 19: St. Joseph – Solemnity.
In the Australian Church:
March 16: The Archdiocese of Sydney remembers the Anniversary of the death of Cardinal James Freedom in 1991.
March 17: Adelaide , Ballarat, Bathurst, Hobart, Lismore and Melbourne: PATRONAL FEAST.
March 18: The Diocese of Broken Bay remembers the death of its first Bishop, Patrick Murphy, in 2007.
March 19: The Diocese of Rockhampton celebrates its Patronal Feast.
March 20: The Archdiocese of Brisbane celebrates the Anniversary of the Episcopal Ordination of the Most Rev. John Bathersby in 1986.
Our Social Justice Calendar notes that:
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day. Theme: OUR MONEY, OUR RIGHTS.
March 19: U.S. and Allies invaded Iraq in 2003.
March 20: World Day of Planetary Consciousness – Equinox.
Lectio: Read the first Sacred Text , from the Book of Joshua, chapter 5, verses 9-12.
If you find yourself distracted in any way, read the text again.
Take time for silence and space – let the Word take hold of your heart – let the Holy Spirit work within you.
Meditatio: Understanding the text so that we can immerse ourselves in it, and make our response to it.
The first fact to note is: I have taken the “shame” of Egypt away from you. “Shame” means “reproach” and has a two-fold usage in the Old Testament. Here it means that the “up until now” disgrace found in a Nation has become the occasion for taunting the oppressed. The situation referred to is that of EXILE in EGYPT. The second fact to note is “they pitched camp and celebrated the Passover. Since there is no mention of a Lamb, they were probably celebrating the older form of the Passover described in Exodus 23:15; and 34:18. The Passover was combined with the Sacrifice of a Lamb at a later date.
The third fact is that the manna stops falling, and they begin to live from the fruits of the land. They have arrived in the Promised Land. (cf. Jerome biblical Commentary 7:24 for further detail – but remember that we are engaged in Lectio Divina, not an assignment on the Text.
With this background, re-read the text and ponder on it, as long as the Holy Spirit leads you to do so.
I share my response in Evangelizatio No. 1.
Lectio: Read the Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday.
The response is: TASTE AND SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD.
Psalm 33 is a psalm of praise, and a psalm of awe before God. St. John Fisher, Martyr of the English Reformation, prayed the words of verse 6a: “Look towards Him and be radiant.” And so the Psalm is a song for martyrs. And it is also a song for “the martyrdoms of every day life, whether volunteered or simply accepted.” (adapted from the commentary in our Monastic Psalters).
I share my response in Evangelizatio No. 2.
Lectio: Read the text from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 17-21.
Read it again.
Ponder – be still – take time for the seed of God’s word to find a home in your heart.
Meditatio: How do we understand it, in order to respond to it?
“For anyone who is in Christ…” In case we think we know what this means, it is not about Christ and the individual. We are informed that it means “anyone who belongs to the believing community which is Christ.” We are referred to 1 Corinthians 6:15, 8:12 and 12:12 for confirmation of this reality.
And the rest of the text? It means that “radical change takes place through the lived acceptance of the standard of humanity represented by Christ.” (cf. JBC 50:25).
I share my response in Evangelizatio No. 3.
Lectio: The Gospel Verse: The text is taken from the Gospel of Luke, 15:18. I WILL RISE AND GO TO MY FATHER AND TELL HIM: FATHER I HAVE SINNED AGAINST HEAVEN AND AGAINST YOU.
Lectio: Read the Gospel text from Luke 15:1-3, and 11-32.
Read it slowly and reflectively, and maybe a second time. Try to read aloud rather than with the mind. Listen to the text as you read.
Stand back. Be still. Ponder… allow this text to find a home within your heart once again.
Meditatio: What is it about?
I am choosing not to analyze this Gospel story. It is so familiar to all of us. And we are probably tired of analyzing it, or finding who we are amongst the characters mentioned: the father, the wayward son, the elder son. We are tired of being told we have elder-son syndrome. We all have it at some stage of our lives. “What about me? I’ve been here for you, and you welcome this wretch home and throw a party into the bargain!” It goes on in most families. So, I am choosing a different approach to this Gospel text. It is a reflection from “The Wound of Love” by a Carthusian Monk: Every morning, let us plunge our very being, and our day, into the river of love which flows from the Father to the Son through the Holy Spirit, to return from the Son to the Father in a blaze of love. In the evening, I give my being to the Father. I yield my life to the Father. I entrust myself to Him in the repose of the seventh day. Every night I die in faith, possessing only my poverty and my trust, the peace of a hope which knows no calculation and seeks no assurance. Is not the Father there, the Father whose love espies me, even though I am far away? He runs to throw Himself on my shoulder and cover me with kisses. ‘But Father, I have sinned!’ ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe…put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.’
So, let us go forth, flowers for a day, ‘from beginnings to beginnings, through beginnings which never end.’ ( St. Gregory of Nyssa).
EVANGELIZATIO: My lived response to the texts with which the Church exhorts me to pray. St. James says “Be doers of the Word.” And the Book of Deuteronomy tells us that the Word of God is in our hands to do it.
- I know that at times in my life, the manna falls and is always there. At other times God calls me to live from the fruits of Grace which is given to me. I am reminded again of the quotation: “When you look back and see only one set of footprints, it was then that I was carrying you.” And two sets of footprints mean that Jesus is with me – we are walking together. And this “truth” (walking with Jesus) is my strength.
- I am always called by the words of verse 6a which St. John Fisher prayed on the scaffold before his death. And I am jolted by another line of Scripture: “When they looked up, they saw no one, only Jesus.” (The Transfiguration of the Lord). No one – only Jesus! And the Psalm calls me to “look towards Him and be radiant.” I want to do this. Some days I need help to lift my head up. And that’s where prayer for one another in our different needs is so important. The power of prayer for another! I always know when someone is praying for me.
- The “believing community” is what leaps out at me. I belong to a believing community. I am surrounded by others who belong to the believing community. I can’t do it alone. There is no “alone” because of the Incarnation. Christ became human and is in the face of humanity all around me, and in so many guises. But what happens when I’m stressed and overtired? I can’t do it. A friend of mine, a woman of prayer, Sr. Stan of Dublin shares in her Book, “Stillness Through My Prayers”: I give of my best when I am at my best. The more life exhausts, drains, stresses, the less I give. Unnatural rhythms overshadow me. Sr. Stan has great wisdom. Even when we can avoid stress, some of us seek it out…is this a bad habit? Even when there is nothing to worry about, some of us worry ALL THE TIME, because we are used to it, and we don’t know the way out. Jesus is the Way out. Unnatural rhythms referred to by Sr. Stan are those which make us drive ourselves again and again and again, until we are screaming at one another, throwing tantrums, getting every single think out of perspective. Let us watch those unnatural rhythms: ALL WORK and NO REST. Mostly work and very little rest!
LET US REMEMBER : LECTIO DIVINA IS PRAYER WITH THE SACRED SCRIPTUES. LECTIO DIVINA TRANSLATES AS HOLY READING. IT IS A WAY OF LIFE – READING, UNDERSTANDING, RESPONDING, PONDERING, LIVING FROM THE HEART OF THE WORD OF GOD WITH ALL ITS CHALLENGES TO CONVERSION.
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