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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings, Feb. 21, 2010
By Jean Denton
Catholic News Service
February 21, First Sunday of Lent
Cycle C Readings:
1) Deuteronomy 26:4-10
Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15
2) Romans 10:8-13
Gospel: Luke 4:1-13
The first time I saw an offertory procession during Mass in Haiti, I was a little amused. I guess it was the sight of a live chicken bobbing its head up and down among the amply filled baskets of squash, bananas, coconuts and other produce placed before the altar. I thought it was a special liturgical show -- a symbol of the agrarian community's gifts.
Upon subsequent visits to the impoverished Caribbean nation, I came to realize such offerings aren't symbolic gifts. They are real. Haiti is a country that fits the description in Deuteronomy of the children of Israel, oppressed for generations, who cried out to the Lord and realized that God heard their prayers and saw their toil and affliction. Moses told the people to bring baskets of the "firstfruits" of their labors and set them before God.
I returned from my most recent trip to Haiti only three days before the earthquake. (Incredibly, in its aftermath, the Haitians I know continued to believe God hears them.) On that visit to Haiti's interior central plateau, four other parishioners, our pastor and I spent a week with our longtime twin Haitian parish.
One day we trekked several miles through the rural valley that our twin church serves. Small, roughly-made houses dotted our route. Families worked in their gardens. Many had chickens, some had goats. Some passed us on the trail carrying baskets of produce on their heads.
Our Haitian friends paddled us across a large lake in a dugout canoe. Along the shore I spotted a middle-aged woman swinging a large hoe, tilling a steeply tiered garden. "That's what you call backbreaking work," one of our party remarked. The woman stopped to wave a greeting.
A few hours later we celebrated Mass with our friends. At the offertory eight women danced slowly up the aisle, balancing baskets of their land's produce on their heads. They laid it before the altar. I thought of the woman tilling on the shore.
These people acknowledged what they know well and what many of us must be reminded of: All that we have is by the providence of a loving God who sees our days, our exertions, our struggle.
The first thing we must do is thank him and return the very best of what he's given us.
QUESTIONS:
What are the firstfruits of God's providence that you can offer back to him? How will you do that this Lent?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"It is written, 'One does not live on bread alone'" (Luke 4:4).
END
Copyright © 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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