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Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A, March 2, 2008

A digest for the congregation: Arrange with your liturgy committee to have these brief historical introductions read to the assembly before you do each reading.

The presider may speak these before the first and second readings, and before rising for the gospel acclamation. Print this page, cut it at the blue lines, and give the introduction paragraphs to the person who will speak them.

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A, March 2, 2008
Before the first reading:

Israel's first king, Saul, was failing. The Lord sends the judge named Samuel to a small town to secretly find and anoint the next king. Samuel goes and invites the town's elders and their sons to a ritual sacrifice.
Between psalm and second reading:

The Ephesians were pagan converts. This reading is a reflection on the contrasts in their lives before and after their baptisms. The closing quotation is from an early baptismal hymn.
Before the gospel acclamation:

Early Jewish followers of Jesus began to suffer persecution and expulsion from synagogues. Saint John's gospel tried to get the indecisive converts to make their final commitment to Christ. Here John turns an early memory of a cure by Jesus into an extended teaching on conversion and its consequences.
To pay for use of the words above, please subtract an equal number of optional words from other places in the liturgy (click here for some suggestions).

First reading, 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a

The Historical Situation: For a long time, Israel had been ruled by Judges. The people wanted a king so they could be like other nations. The wise warned against this, and against other tendencies to imitate the pagan nations, but the people insisted. The Lord relented and let them name Saul as their first king. When Saul failed, the Lord prompted Samuel, the last Judge, to designate as the next king an unnamed son of one Jesse of Bethlehem. This passage is about Samuel's journey to find the Lord's chosen one, and the ritual for anointing the new king, which was the ancient way of designating a monarch. It details Samuel's notion of which son is the right one versus God's choice of the unlikely David. (David is so unlikely, he wasn't even summoned to the ceremony at first. The youngest son, he was tending sheep instead. You may recall Michaelangelo's famous statue of the young David with a lamb on his shoulder.)

Proclaiming It: Before starting the reading, pause and let the congregation settle down, finish coughing, and get silent. If the altar server is carrying the sacramentary somewhere, let him or her stop moving and distracting your listeners. This is always good practice, but especially when there's a key phrase in the first sentence of the first reading, like today's "I have chosen my king from among his [Jesse's] sons." Say this in such a way that your congregation understands that we're looking for a future king here. If they miss that, nothing that follows will make sense.

Now, tell the story. For one thing, this is the story of Samuel's continuing education in the ways of the Lord. He's already old, a retired Judge (governor, really), and he's lived through the kingship of Saul. So he has some ideas about how things should turn out. So you should make him sound a little puzzled as the Lord rejects seven apparently fit candidates for the kingship. (The one who is named is Eliab, pronounced ee LIE ab). Then, as Samuel has caught on to the Lord's plan, make him sound resolute as he insists on meeting the most unlikely youngest son.

At this time every year in Lent of Year A (of the Church's three-year cycle of Sunday readings), we proclaim the gospel passage John 9: 1-41, which you should also read, about Jesus' cure of the man born blind. The passage from 1 Samuel may be put into the calendar today because of the famous line,

"Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart,"

which resonates with the gospel passage. As you proclaim the passage, then, emphasize that line. Say it slowly and with authority; it may be the most important thing some listeners hear today. The best way to prepare to proclaim the line might be to ponder it now for a few minutes, asking how it has proven true in your own life. If you can do that, your proclamation will carry the authority that the line deserves.

A homily starter: In 2007, in another context, this author's pastor said in homily that "God's greatest fear" was that the People of God would be "just like everybody else." That's evident in 1 Samuel 8, where the people insistently ask for something that will make them like their neighbors, in spite of Judge Samuel's eloquent warnings.

Second Reading, Ephesians 5:8-14

The Historical Situation: The Christians at Ephesus had been pagans, not Jews, before their conversion to Christ. That prior status is what the author has in mind when he says "you were once in darkness." In its original context, this may have been a catechesis to help converts (and they were all converts) undertand the before/after character of the change they accepted in baptism. The expression "Therefore, it says" (verse 14) indicates a quote from a hymn from an early baptism liturgy. The whole passage extends the light-versus-darkness metaphor. It, too, seems chosen for proclamation today in view of the blindness-versus-sight theme of today's gospel.

Proclaiming It: The phrases of this passage are short and simple (unlike many we've proclaimed on recent Sundays!). So read them slowly and, as usual, try to use contrasting tones of voice when describing the deeds of light versus the deeds of darkness.

Several other commentaries on these passages. All are thoughtful, all quite readable, from the scholarly to the popular.
Links may be incomplete more than a few weeks before the "due date."
Father Frank Cleary's 2002 column from the Saint Louis Review

Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group

Father Roger Karban of Belleville, Illinois, USA, writes a newspaper column about every Sunday's readings. Here are his essays for today's passages, from: courtesy of The Evangelist, official publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York, USA.

And here's a link to his twenty-five most recent columns (which, in 2007, cover cycle C readings, not RCIA readings).

The Text This Week; links to homilies, art works, movies and other resources on the week's scripture themes Essays by six highly-qualified writers from Saint Louis University's excellent Sunday liturgy-preparation site, specifically on the Cycle A (RCIA) readings.

The Lectionary selections in the frame at the left, if any, are there for your convenience. The publishers of the page in that frame have no connection, except for membership in the one Body of Christ, with the publisher of this page. Likewise the publishers of the pages on the links above.

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Last modified: Sat Mar 17 17:28:22 EST 2007