Eucharistic Meditations - Lectionary

The Lectionary contains the specially chosen excerpts from the Bible which are used at all liturgical celebrations be it Sunday or weekday. While the Sunday cycle follows a three-year period, the weekday cycle spans only two. Basically, the Bible contains the experiences of a nation relating on a very personal level with the Almighty God - the ups and downs are narrated with almost embarrassing candidness. Yet not all these experiences are conducive to build the faith of the peoples of all generations. And so, the Church has chosen only the key passages that foster a deep faith.

Each Sunday's readings highlight a particular aspect of our faith response to God's unbelievable invitation to share life with him in covenant. The first reading from the Old Alliance and the Gospel text are generally designed to complement each other. The Psalm after the first reading expands on the key point emphasized in the reading -a kind of prayerful meditation on the reading. The homily ideally brings out the unified message of the day.

The dynamics of the Eucharistic celebration, however, are simple: through the readings God reminds us of his persistent love, no matter how sinful or recalcitrant we have been. At the end of the readings the message emerges as we answer this question God places before us: 'Have you seen how much I love you?' The you is not just the plural you = all, nor even the 'you' of the past, but each one present at Eucharist. Once we have tasted God's personal love of us, then comes the next question: 'Now, therefore, will you obey?... place your entire life in My hands and do what I tell you? If you can, 'eternal life' is yours!' We answer this question by bringing up ourselves as gifts for God to transform them into Jesus. Especially we ask that we be like him in breaking of ourselves for others and in this way build a new earth and a new heaven where all live as one family in unity, joy and peace.

Our communion in the sacrament is with the same Jesus we encountered in the Word. Reinforced through this experience, we go out and work to build this new world based on justice and love. And in doing this, we continue writing the 'history' of God's activity among his people today. The Lectionary is supplemented by the daily newspaper and TV bulletins, by the conversation in which we share the story of our lives with one another.

The Lectionary reminds us of the presence of God working among us in the same way as of old. In every story is contained the inscription: 'the Word of the Lord!' When the Lectionary enables us to see the whole of our lives as 'the Bible continued', God writing out the sacred history of our times, then we perhaps will not need a special book: we would discern God active in our lives - we become the living, walking Lectionary for all around us!