Lectio Divina

by Fr Jean Celestin Ngoma

 

Prayer for stillness

 

Lord,

inspire us to read your Scriptures

and to meditate upon them day and night.

We beg you to give us a real understanding of what we need,

that we in turn may put its precepts into practice.

Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless,

unless rooted in your graceful love.

So we ask that the words of the Scriptures

may also be not just signs on a page,

but channels of grace into our hearts.

Source: Origen (ca. 185-254)

 

 

1. Lectio (Read)

 

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”  So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going towards the tomb.  Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.  Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;  for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.  Then the disciples went back to their homes.

St John 20:1-10, ESVUK

 

Silence

 

I rejoice in God’s revelation for the gift of this good news: “The tomb is empty, my Saviour and my Lord is alive”

 

 

2. Meditatio (Reflect)

 

The first words of the passage “Now on the first day of the week” remind me of the beauty of God’s creation and regeneration in Christ. It echoes the story of the creation of light in the book of Genesis. Christ’s redemptive event today renews the world with the same creative and regenerative light by which God creates the world.

The tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

Pause

 

I let myself be guided by the movement and progression of the story of creation in the Bible.  This contemplation of God's miraculous work in creation reaches its fulfilment with Jesus’ resurrection.  The new creation that Jesus inwardly imparted in my soul, body, and mind ushered in me a spiritual way of understanding the Holy Scriptures and the world around me. Its gifts are not only signs on a page but channels of grace into our hearts (Origen).

The tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

I contemplate Mary Magdalene and the disciples’ experience of the empty tomb. Peter and other disciples seems to be submerged and overwhelmed by the report of the empty tomb. St Luke puts it more explicitly saying: “they were wondering about this” (Luke 24:4) and were frightened (cf. Luke 24:5) by the event.  Mary Magdalene put an impossible demand on the disciples: to believe without seeing!  To move from what is factual and rational to that which is spiritual (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:46).  It was quite embarrassing and counter-cultural for them as Jewish natives to believe a woman's words and to what is beyond reason.

Why did they not believe women?

Why were women’s words labelled as nonsense?

Simply put, it is because the disciples of Jesus, me as well, are sometimes captive of the world around us.

This tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

Pause

 

I meditate upon the empty tombs of the disciples and my darkness as well: my pure and impure motives.

But the tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

Pause

 

I contemplate Mary Magdelene, Simon Peter, and the other disciples making their way to the tomb. This time, they are running together as companions in the “Sequela Christi”(following Christ), the disciples' childish and vain ambition of who is the greatest or who should we believe most has disappeared.  The overwhelming news of the resurrection makes the disciples and Mary Magdelene run together even if the message sounded as nonsense to them.  Running here denotes human effort both communal and individual.

The tomb was empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

 

3. Oratorio (Ask and Pray)

 

Faith in the resurrection means to believe in divine realities that we do not see but inwardly are engraved in our heart.  The disciples did not see the resurrected body of our Lord Jesus at the tomb because it was empty.

They first “saw the signs” of the resurrection and not the resurrection per se.  Our Lord Jesus allowed them to visualise and contemplate them “…the linen cloths lying there,  and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself” (cf. John 20:6-7). They did not believe in those signs but believed their direct representation: Our Lord is risen!  Those divine signs were so real and their meaning was globally understood and agreed upon among the first witnesses of the Resurrection.

The tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

Pause

 

Lord Jesus, make me believe in You and not be held captive by the claims of this world.

Why am I directing and wasting my energies on things that do not bring new life to me? (Repentance)

 

Pause

 

What is happening around the world and in the Church pinpoints that we are either still “in the beginning” or "in the end"":  ‘It's still dark’, Lord!  

Humanity has still to repent or to grow in the footsteps of the Risen Lord, to inwardly take the path of light ushered in by the Resurrection of Your Son.

The tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

 

4. Contemplatio (Yield and Pray)

 

I actively begin to think about limit situations where I have experienced a kind of resurrection in my life and where God was involved in it.

I rejoice in God's goodness, noticing his presence throughout last week, receiving forgiveness for what has gone wrong.

The tomb is empty, and my Saviour and my Lord is alive.

 

Silence

 

Let me now become receptive to God’s protection, joining with the ancient praise of all God's people in the words of Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

 

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