tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3900820293673843002023-11-15T09:56:45.078-08:00Bible Verse Reflections and CommentaryIn sticking to the title I intend providing Bible Verse Reflections and Bible Commentaries to make God's Word come alive that little bit more. The aim is for us all to understand, meditate, reflect, gain greater insight and own the living Word in our heart. Much of what is posted here are transcriptions from sermons and talks given by people such as Fr Robert Barron, Scott Hahn, Tim Gray and others.Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.comBlogger206125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-6568031990892419112016-05-02T07:15:00.003-07:002016-05-02T07:23:06.838-07:00The Resurrection - A Summary of the Facts<div style="margin: 0;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">To come up with an informed opinion suggests you are knowledgeable about a topic and therefore are somewhat an authority.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">To be properly understood, the Bible must be read from within the Church, in the same way a book about surgery to be properly understood must be read from within the medical community. (or, legislation from with the legal community).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Anyway, I hope you can agree with me that we can deduce from the Gospels the following facts:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Among other things:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• Jesus was actually dead </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·</span><span style="font-family: "symbol";"> </span>Jesus was taken from the Cross ONLY because the Jews didn’t want dead bodies (even of criminals who have been executed by the Romans) on Crosses on the Sabbath (Gospel of John). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>The Empty Tomb</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·</span><span style="font-family: "symbol";"> </span>The women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• The women saw angels, who told them Jesus wasn’t there. (The Bible does describe angels as appearing as 'men')</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• The women went to tell the apostles, who initially didn’t believe them. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">(Any book back in those days that uses women as witnesses - let alone the shock of using women at the first witnesses - shouldn't/wouldn't/couldn't have been promoted, unless.....)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• Peter and the beloved disciple rushed to see the tomb and found it empty.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>Post Resurrection Appearances</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Mary Magdalen, in particular, had an encounter with the risen Christ.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• So did the disciples on the road to Emmaus.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• So did Peter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">• So did all the apostles except Thomas (who would have one later).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This does point to Jesus had risen from the dead!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Not to mention that Jewish persecutor named Saul (Paul). He had nothing to gain by believing the empty tomb story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The <b>Catechism of the Catholic Church</b> does not hide from the facts either and explains it thus:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> 640 . . . <i>The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise.</i></span></span><b></b><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-52328026293459435182016-05-02T06:38:00.002-07:002016-05-02T06:38:57.959-07:00The Seven Last Words of Christ<h1 class="entry-title">
The Seven Last Words of Christ: Reflections for Holy Week</h1>
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<strong>The Seven Last Words of Christ</strong></h2>
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<strong>Reflections for Holy Week</strong></h2>
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<strong>Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts</strong></div>
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Note: You may download this resource at no cost, for personal use or for use in a Christian ministry, as long as you are not publishing it for sale. All I ask is that you acknowledge the source of this material: <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/</a>. For all other uses, please contact me at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">markblog@markdroberts.com</a>. Thank you.</div>
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<strong>The First Word:<br /> “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”<br /> (Luke 23:34)</strong></h3>
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Copyright © 2007, Linda E. S. Roberts. For permission to use this picture, please contact Mark.</div>
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<strong>Reflection</strong><br />
It makes sense that the first word of Jesus from the cross is a word of forgiveness. That’s the point of the cross, after all. Jesus is dying so that we might be forgiven for our sins, so that we might be reconciled to God for eternity.<br />
But the forgiveness of God through Christ doesn’t come only to those who don’t know what they are doing when they sin. In the mercy of God, we receive his forgiveness even when we do what we know to be wrong. God chooses to wipe away our sins, not because we have some convenient excuse, and not because we have tried hard to make up for them, but because he is a God of amazing grace, with mercies that are new every morning.<br />
As we read the words, “Father, forgive them,” may we understand that we too are forgiven through Christ. As John writes in his first letter, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9). Because Christ died on the cross for us, we are cleansed from all wickedness, from every last sin. We are united with God the Father as his beloved children. We are free to approach his throne of grace with our needs and concerns. God “has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Ps 103:13). What great news!<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection</strong><br />
Do you really believe God has forgiven your sins? Do you take time on a regular basis to confess your sins so that you might enjoy the freedom of forgiveness? Do you need to experience God’s forgiveness in a fresh way today?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
Gracious Lord Jesus, it’s easy for me to speak of your forgiveness, even to ask for it and to thank you for it. But do I really believe I’m forgiven? Do I experience the freedom that comes from the assurance that you have cleansed me from my sins? Or do I live as if I’m “semi-forgiven”? Even though I’ve put my faith in you and confessed my sins, do I live as sin still has power over me? Do I try to prove myself to you, as if I might be able to earn more forgiveness?<br />
Dear Lord, though I believe at one level that you have forgiven me, this amazing truth needs to penetrate my heart in new ways. Help me to know with fresh conviction that I am fully and finally forgiven, not because of anything I have done, but because of what you have done for me.<br />
May I live today as a forgiven person, opening my heart to you, choosing not to sin because the power of sin has been broken by your salvation.<br />
All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, for your matchless forgiveness! Amen.<br />
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<strong><br /> The Second Word:<br /> “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”<br /> (Luke 23:43)</strong></h3>
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<strong>Reflection</strong><br />
As Jesus hung on the cross, he was mocked by the leaders and the soldiers. One of the criminals being crucified with him added his own measure of scorn. But the other crucified criminal sensed that Jesus was being treated unjustly. After speaking up for Jesus, he cried out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (v. 42).<br />
Jesus responded to this criminal, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43). The word <em>paradise</em>, from the Greek word <em>paradeisos</em>, which meant “garden,” was used in the Greek Old Testament as a word for the Garden of Eden. In Judaism of the time of Jesus it was associated with heaven, and also with the future when God would restore all things to the perfection of the Garden. Paradise was sometimes thought to be the place where righteous people went after death. This seems to be the way Jesus uses <em>paradise</em> in this passage.<br />
Thus we have encountered one of the most astounding and encouraging verses in all of Scripture. Jesus promised that the criminal would be with him in paradise. Yet the text of Luke gives us no reason to believe this man had been a follower of Jesus, or even a believer in him in any well-developed sense. He might have felt sorry for his sins, but he did not obviously repent. Rather, the criminal’s cry to be remembered seems more like a desperate, last-gasp effort.<br />
Though we should make every effort to have right theology, and though we should live our lives each day as disciples of Jesus, in the end, our relationship with him comes down to simple trust. “Jesus, remember me,” we cry. And Jesus, embodying the mercy of God, says to us, “You will be with me in paradise.” We are welcome there not because we have right theology, and not because we are living rightly, but because God is merciful and we have put our trust in Jesus.<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection </strong><br />
Have you staked your life on Jesus? Have you put your ultimate trust in him? Do you know that, when your time comes, you will be with him in paradise?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
Dear Lord Jesus, how I wonder at your grace and mercy! When we cry out to you, you hear us. When we ask you to remember us when you come into your kingdom, you offer the promise of paradise. Your mercy, dear Lord, exceeds anything we might imagine. It embraces us, encourages us, heals us.<br />
O Lord, though my situation is so different from the criminal who cried out to you, I am nevertheless quite like him. Today I live, trusting you and you alone. My life, but now and in the world to come, is in your hands. And so I pray:<br />
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom! Jesus, remember me today as I seek to live within your kingdom! Amen.<br />
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<strong><br /> The Third Word:<br /> “Dear woman, here is your son.”<br /> (John 19:26)</strong></h3>
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<strong>Reflection</strong><br />
As Jesus was dying, his mother was among those who had remained with him. Most of the male disciples had fled, with the exception of one whom the Fourth Gospel calls “the disciple he loved.” We can’t be exactly sure of the identity of this beloved disciple, though many interpreters believe he is John, who is also the one behind the writing of this Gospel.<br />
No matter who the beloved disciple was, it’s clear that Jesus was forging a relationship between this disciple and his mother, one in which the disciple would take care of Mary financially and in other ways. Jesus wanted to make sure she would be in good hands after his death.<br />
The presence of Mary at the cross adds both humanity and horror to the scene. We are reminded that Jesus was a real human being, a man who had once been a boy who had once been carried in the womb of his mother. Even as he was dying on the cross as the Savior of the world, Jesus was also a son, a role he didn’t neglect in his last moments.<br />
When we think of the crucifixion of Jesus from the perspective of his mother, our horror increases dramatically. The death of a child is one of the most painful of all parental experiences. To watch one’s beloved child experience the extreme torture of crucifixion must have been unimaginably terrible. We’re reminded of the prophecy of Simeon shortly after Jesus’ birth, when he said to Mary: “And a sword will pierce your very soul” (Luke 2:35).<br />
This scene helps us not to glorify or spiritualize the crucifixion of Jesus. He was a real man, true flesh and blood, a son of a mother, dying with unbearable agony. His suffering was altogether real, and he took it on for you and for me.<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection </strong><br />
What does Mary’s presence at the cross evoke in you? Why do you think was it necessary for Jesus to suffer physical pain as he died?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
Lord Jesus, the presence of your mother at the cross engages my heart. You are no longer only the Savior dying for the sins of the world. You are also a fully human man, a son with a mother.<br />
O Lord, how can I begin to thank you for what you suffered? My words fall short. My thoughts seem superficial and vague. Nevertheless, I offer my sincere gratitude for your suffering. Thank you for bearing my sin on the cross. I give you my praise, my love, my heart . . . all that I am, because you have given me all that you are.<br />
All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, fully God and fully human, Savior of the world . . . my Savior! Amen.<br />
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<strong><br /> The Fourth Word:<br /> “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”<br /> (Mark 15:34)</strong></h3>
<a class="ext-link" data-wpel-target="_blank" href="http://wp.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/files/2011/04/stations-serra-11-jesus-nailed-7.jpg" rel="external nofollow" title=""><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-479" height="521" src="http://wp.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/files/2011/04/stations-serra-11-jesus-nailed-7.jpg" width="504" /></a><br />
<strong>Reflection</strong><br />
As Jesus was dying on the cross, he echoed the beginning of Psalm 22, which reads:<br />
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My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?<br /> Why are you so far away when I groan for help?<br /> Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.<br /> Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. (vv. 1-2)</blockquote>
In the words of the psalmist Jesus found a way to express the cry of his heart: Why had God abandoned him? Why did his Father turn his back on Jesus in his moment of greatest agony?<br />
This side of heaven, we will never fully know what Jesus was experiencing in this moment. Was he asking this question because, in the mystery of his incarnational suffering, he didn’t know why God had abandoned him? Or was his cry not so much a question as an expression of profound agony? Or was it both?<br />
What we do know is that Jesus entered into the Hell of separation from God. The Father abandoned him because Jesus took upon himself the penalty for our sins. In that excruciating moment, he experienced something far more horrible than physical pain. The beloved Son of God knew what it was like to be rejected by the Father. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (NIV).<br />
I can write these words. I can say, truly, that the Father abandoned the Son for our sake, for the salvation of the world. But can I really grasp the mystery and the majesty of this truth? Hardly. As Martin Luther once said, “God forsaking God. Who can understand it?” Yet even my miniscule grasp of this reality calls me to confession, to humility, to worship, to adoration.<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection</strong><br />
Have you taken time to consider that Jesus was abandoned by the Father so that you might not be? What does this “word” from the cross mean to you?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
O Lord Jesus, though I will never fully grasp the wonder and horror of your abandonment by the Father, every time I read this “word,” I am overwhelmed with gratitude. How can I ever thank you for what you suffered for me? What can I do but to offer myself to you in gratitude and praise? Thank you, dear Lord, for what you suffered. Thank you for taking my place. Thank you for being forsaken by the Father so that I might never be.<br />
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When I survey the wondrous cross,<br /> On which the Prince of glory died,<br /> My richest gain I count but loss,<br /> And pour contempt on all my pride.<br />
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,<br /> Save in the death of Christ my God;<br /> All the vain things that charm me most,<br /> I sacrifice them to his blood.<br />
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,<br /> Sorrow and love flow mingled down;<br /> Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,<br /> Or thorns compose so rich a crown.<br />
Were the whole realm of nature mine,<br /> That were a present far too small;<br /> Love so amazing, so divine,<br /> Demands my soul, my life, my all.<br />
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Isaac Watts (1707)</blockquote>
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<strong><br /> The Fifth Word:<br /> “I am thirsty.”<br /> (John 19:28)</strong></h3>
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<strong>Reflection</strong><br />
No doubt Jesus experienced extreme thirst while being crucified. He would have lost a substantial quantity of bodily fluid, both blood and sweat, through what he had endured even prior to crucifixion. Thus his statement, “I am thirsty” was, on the most obvious level, a request for something to drink. In response the soldiers gave Jesus “sour wine” (v. 29), a cheap beverage common among lower class people in the time of Jesus.<br />
John notes that Jesus said “I am thirsty,” not only as a statement of physical reality, but also in order to fulfill the Scripture. Though there is no specific reference in the text of the Gospel, it’s likely that John was thinking of Psalm 69, which includes this passage:<br />
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Their insults have broken my heart,<br /> and I am in despair.<br /> If only one person would show some pity;<br /> if only one would turn and comfort me.<br /> But instead, they give me poison for food;<br /> they offer me sour wine for my thirst.<br /> (vv. 20-21)</blockquote>
As he suffered, Jesus embodied the pain of the people of Israel, that which had been captured in the Psalms. Jesus was suffering for the sin of Israel, even as he was taking upon himself the sin of the world.<br />
As I reflect on Jesus’ statement, “I am thirsty,” I keep thinking of my own thirst. It’s nothing like that of Jesus. Rather, I am thirsty for him. My soul yearns for the living water that Jesus supplies (John 4:10; 7:38-39). I rejoice in the fact that he suffered physical thirst on the cross – and so much more – so that my thirst for the water of life might be quenched.<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection</strong><br />
How do you respond to Jesus’ statement “I am thirsty”? What does this statement suggest to you about Jesus? About yourself?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
O Lord, once again I thank you for what you suffered on the cross. Besides extraordinary pain, you also experienced extreme thirst. All of this was part and parcel of your taking on our humanity so that you might take away our sin.<br />
Dear Lord, in your words “I am thirsty” I hear the cry of my own heart. I too am thirsty, Lord, not for physical drink. I don’t need sour wine. Rather, I need the new wine of your kingdom to flood my soul. I need to be refreshed by your living water. I yearn for your Spirit to fill me once again.<br />
I am thirsty, Lord, for you. Amen.<br />
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<strong><br /> The Sixth Word:<br /> “It is finished!”<br /> (John 19:30)</strong></h3>
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<strong>Reflection</strong><br />
I never saw a more difficult film to watch than Mel Gibson’s <em>The Passion of the Christ</em>. For most of that movie I wanted to avert my eyes. It was horrible to watch even a cinematic version of a crucifixion. And it was beyond comprehension to think that this actually happened to somebody, and not just anybody, but my Lord and Savior. I had studied the crucifixion before, and knew in my head what Jesus experienced. But seeing a visual presentation of his suffering was almost more than I could bear. When <em>The Passion of the Christ </em>was over, I felt palpable relief. Thank goodness it was finished.<br />
When Jesus said “It is finished,” surely he was expressing relief that his suffering was over. “It is finished” meant, in part, “This is finally done!” But the Greek verb translated as “It is finished” (<em>tetelestai</em>) means more than just this. Eugene Peterson captures the full sense of the verb in <em>The Message</em>: “It’s done . . . complete.” Jesus had accomplished his mission. He had announced and inaugurated the kingdom of God. He had revealed the love and grace of God. And he had embodied that love and grace by dying for the sin of the world, thus opening up the way for all to live under the reign of God.<br />
Because Jesus finished his work of salvation, you and I don’t need to add to it. In fact, we can’t. He accomplished what we never could, taking our sin upon himself and giving us his life in return. Jesus finished that for which he had been sent, and we are the beneficiaries of his unique effort. Because of what he finished, you and I are never “finished.” We have hope for this life and for the next. We know that nothing can separate us from God’s love. One day what God has begun in us will also be finished, by his grace. Until that day, we live in the confidence of Jesus’ cry of victory: “It is finished!”<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection </strong><br />
Do you live as if Jesus finished the work of salvation? To you have confidence that God will finish that which he has begun in you?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
How can I ever find words to express my gratitude to you, dear Lord Jesus? You did it. You finished that for which you had been sent, faithful in life, faithful in death. You accomplished that which no other person could do, taking the sin of the world upon your sinless shoulders . . . taking my sin so that I might receive your forgiveness and new life.<br />
All praise be to you, gracious Lord, for finishing the work of salvation. All praise be to you, dear Jesus, for saving me! Alleluia! Amen.<br />
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<strong><br /> The Seventh Word:<br /> “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!”<br /> (Luke 23:46)</strong></h3>
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<strong>R</strong><strong>eflection</strong><br />
Two of the last seven “words” of Jesus were quotations from the Psalms. Earlier Jesus had Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” to express his anguish. Later he borrowed from Psalm 31, which comes to us from Luke as “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands.”<br />
On an obvious level, Jesus was putting his post mortem future in the hands of his Heavenly Father. It was as if he was saying, “Whatever happens to me after I die is your responsibility, Father.”<br />
But when we look carefully at the Psalm Jesus quoted, we see more than what at first meets our eyes. Psalm 31 begins with a cry for divine help:<br />
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O LORD, I have come to you for protection;<br /> don’t let me be disgraced.<br /> Save me, for you do what is right. (v. 1)</blockquote>
But then it mixes asking for God’s deliverance with a confession of God’s strength and faithfulness:<br />
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I entrust my spirit into your hand.<br /> Rescue me, LORD, for you are a faithful God. (v. 5)</blockquote>
By the end, Psalm 31 offers praise of God’s salvation:<br />
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Praise the LORD,<br /> for he has shown me the wonders of his unfailing love.<br /> He kept me safe when my city was under attack. (v. 21)</blockquote>
By quoting a portion of Psalm 31, therefore, Jesus not only entrusted his future to his Father, but also implied that he would be delivered and exonerated. No, God would not deliver him from death by crucifixion. But beyond this horrific death lay something marvelous. “I entrust my spirit into your hands” points back to the familiar suffering of David in Psalm 31, and forward to the resurrection.<br />
<strong>Questions for Reflection </strong><br />
Have you put your life and, indeed, your life beyond this life, in God’s hands? How do you experience God’s salvation through Christ in your life today?<br />
<strong>Prayer</strong><br />
Gracious Lord, even as you once entrusted your spirit into the hands of the Father, so I give my life to you. I trust you, and you alone to be my Savior. I submit to your sovereignty over my life, and seek to live for your glory alone. Here I am, Lord, available to you, both now and in the future.<br />
How good it is to know, dear Lord, that the cross was not the end for you. As you entrusted your spirit into the Father’s hands, you did so in anticipation of what was to come. So we reflect upon your death, not in despair, but in hope. With Good Friday behind us, Easter Sunday is on the horizon. Amen.<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-33742661162816318802016-05-02T06:29:00.000-07:002016-05-02T06:36:59.915-07:00The Seven Last Words - a personal reflection<div style="margin: 0;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">By Mary </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">DeTurris</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Poust</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://webmail.landgate.wa.gov.au/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=WAZNxhE2ZOlIGDkg9tduDIGxGPMqRDRrA3YGn5nUifyeBmptjXLTCGgAdAB0AHAAOgAvAC8AdwB3AHcALgBvAHMAdgBkAGEAaQBsAHkAdABhAGsAZQAuAGMAbwBtAC8A&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.osvdailytake.com%2f" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial";">http://www.osvdailytake.com/</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><i>This is my reflection on the Seven Last Words that I have posted on my own </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><i>blog</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><i>, </i></span><a href="https://webmail.landgate.wa.gov.au/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=QbENL_s3K0TxWGe3s6vNsjuroNHEYXwd212v9yPJpZmeBmptjXLTCGgAdAB0AHAAOgAvAC8AbgBvAHQAcwB0AHIAaQBjAHQAbAB5AHMAcABpAHIAaQB0AHUAYQBsAC4AYgBsAG8AZwBzAHAAbwB0AC4AYwBvAG0ALwA.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fnotstrictlyspiritual.blogspot.com%2f" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>Not Strictly Spiritual</i></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><i>, on previous Good Fridays. I thought I would share it with you today:</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>Father forgive them, they know not what they do...</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">We see Jesus on the cross today and hear him forgiving his persecutors, forgiving us. It is a powerful scene, but it is more than just a scene out of our faith history. Jesus’ way is supposed to be our way. Forgive, forgive, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">forgive</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">, even in the face of the most unreasonable suffering and injustice. Are we willing to forgive as Jesus did?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>Today you will be with me in </b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>Paradise</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>.</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /> The “good thief” has always been a </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">favorite</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> of mine. Imagine in your last dying moment that you utter a few kind words and are assured by Jesus himself that you will be in heaven with him that day. It would be nice to assume that in that situation I would have taken the path of belief, like the good thief, but there is a much bigger part of me that probably would have been like the unrepentant thief, expecting mercy and miracles despite faithlessness.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>Woman, behold your son...</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /> At </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">last a comfort</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> in the midst of all this misery. God gives us a mother for all time. He reminds us that his mother is our mother, who, with a mother’s unconditional love, will open her arms to us when we are desperate, when we are hurting, when we are searching for peace and a way back to the Father. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Despair, despair.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> If Jesus can feel despair, what hope is there for me? Then again, Jesus’ moment of despair reminds me of his humanness and that gives me hope even in this dark moment. God became man, walked on earth, suffered torture and death beyond our comprehension. My God is fully human and fully divine. My God knows what it means to live this earthly life, and so my God knows my small sufferings and heartaches and will not turn His back on me.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>I thirst.</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /> The wretched physical anguish of the Crucifixion is coming to bear. It is almost too much for us to take. Jesus, water poured out for the world, thirsts. And yet in the midst of this suffering, we remember Jesus’ words to the woman at the well, the woman to whom he first revealed his identity: “...whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.” (John 4:14)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>It is finished.</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Jesus has completed his mission of redemption. Darkness descends, the earth shakes, the temple curtain tears in two. We see Jesus’ anguish near its end. We should be reduced to trembling at the enormity of his suffering, his gift to us. Unlike his followers who were plunged into fear and despair at this moment, we have the benefit of hindsight. We know what is coming. We know that his Crucifixion was cause for our salvation. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">His death a victory.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> His earthly end our eternal beginning. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><b>Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><br /> Jesus is going back to the Father, back to where he started before time began, but he will not leave us orphans. We patiently wait to celebrate his Resurrection, to rejoice in our unearned windfall. We wait, pray, watch, listen -- hopeful, trusting, faithful. We begin our vigil now, waiting for the darkness to turn to light.</span></span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-66633256711493712242016-05-02T06:28:00.000-07:002016-05-02T06:55:53.322-07:00The Seven Last Words of Jesus<div class="yiv9964892291MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462195193088_3307">
<b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462195193088_3306"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462195193088_3305" style="color: #7030a0;">The Seven Last Words of Jesus</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">Scripture Luke 23</span></b></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462195193088_3303">From the time our saviour was nailed to the cross to the moment He breathed His last, Jesus uttered seven sentences from the cross in what has become known as His Seven Last Words.</span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462195193088_3301">If I had a chance and I was on my deathbed to tell those I loved most, those I perhaps I was giving my life for, the thing I wanted them to get, the testament I wanted to leave them, this is it right here.</span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462195193088_3319">Our Lords last will and testament is a magnificent treasure given not only to those who stood beneath the Cross but to us also.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">The First Word:<br /> “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” (Luke 23:34)</span></b></div>
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Father forgive them, forgive who?</div>
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The Jews who cried out crucify him that is who.</div>
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The Roman Governor Pilate who gave into the lies and blackmail and condemned Jesus to death.</div>
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The Romans soldiers forgive them, the ones who scourged him and mocked him and beat him and drove a Crown of Thorns into His head and nailed Him to the Cross.</div>
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Forgive them Father.</div>
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And Father forgive us, for our sins together with the sins of the entire world was why your son is your son came and died. </div>
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Our sins put Him on the Cross. </div>
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Sin nailed Him to the cross and love held him there.</div>
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St Paul wrote “<span lang="EN-US">None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8)</span></div>
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<strong><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;">The Second Word:</span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;"><br /><strong>“I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)</strong></span></div>
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How incredible. </div>
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Who could make such a statement?</div>
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If I said that to someone “today you will be with me in paradise” , they might say right back what makes you think you will be in paradise?</div>
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Only God can know the future of the soul.</div>
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What good did the repentant thing to do?</div>
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He believed and he knew he was a sinner and cast himself into the arms of mercy.</div>
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If there is anyone who teaches us that it is not too late to come to Jesus, it is the thief on the cross.</div>
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It is never too late.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">The Fourth Word:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;"><strong>“My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)</strong></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
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What our Lord does here is beautiful<br />
Jesus wants to trigger the memory of his people Israel<br />
Jesus practically recited Psalm 22 the song of King David<br />
It is King David's lament over the future of his people<br />
It is a prayer of an innocent man a man who is faithful<br />
Who suffers because of his faithfulness<br />
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Jesus is saying to Israel "Remember I am King David's son<br />
I am the son of David<br />
I am the true king of Israel.<br />
It's me<br />
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It was the son of David who would come to be the Messiah<br />
Every Jew knows that, if they know their faith<br />
The Messiah had to be the son of David<br />
That is why I am reciting David's prayer<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-size: small;">The Fifth Word:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0; font-size: small;"><strong>“I thirst” (John 19:28)</strong></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the cross Jesus said I thirst</span></span></div>
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Every single thing uses is done on the cross is to fulfil prophecy<br />
Jesus was hanging on the cross for hours<br />
But that is not why you said I am thirst <br />
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Jesus was hoping that Israel would recall another Psalm - Psalm 69<br />
David wrote and for my first they gave me vinegar to drink</div>
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<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">The Seventh Word:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #7030a0;"><b>“Into thy hand I commend my spirit</b><b>” (Luke 23:46)</b></span> </div>
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Even with his last breath Jesus quoted Psalm 31<br />
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Some say it is from this Psalm that we get the Jewish bedtime prayer<br />
Now we say <i>"Here I lay me down to sleep I pray to God my soul to keep"</i><br />
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How many clues do you need?</div>
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<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">Source</span></b>: Gospel of Luke Bible Study - <a href="http://www.ewtn.com.au/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=7119&T1=rosalind" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Reason For Our Hope</a> by Rosalind Moss – EWTN<br />
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I don't think I have transcribed it all. Sorry</div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-44398628064691573822015-11-26T17:46:00.003-08:002015-11-26T17:46:36.354-08:00Who are these two disciples on the road to Emmaus<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Luke’s story of this new beginning focuses on
a walk, not in a garden but along a road that two disciples of Jesus take from
Jerusalem to their hometown of Emmaus. Jesus joins them on the way, “but their
eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Lk 24:16). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus inquires about their discussion, and
they are incredulous that he is unaware of the dramatic events in Jerusalem
during the Passover, how the chief priests had handed Jesus over to be
crucified. Their conclusion comes with a note of despair. “But we had hoped
that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Lk 24:21).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus exclaims, “O foolish ones, and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that
the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:25-26).
Then Jesus walks them through a Scripture study of salvation history, starting
with Genesis (Moses) and all the way through Israel’s Scriptures to the
prophets (Lk 24:27).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As evening approaches, they arrive in Emmaus.
Jesus appears to be going further, but they beg him to stay, and while at
table, Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them (Lk
24:30). This is precisely the same description given when Jesus takes the bread
at the Last Supper. The disciples’ eyes are opened, and they recognize Jesus in
the breaking of the bread (Lk 4:31, 35).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Once the bread is broken and he is
recognized, Jesus disappears. Jesus promised to be present in the breaking of
the bread, and now that the bread has been broken with his priestly hands, he
is with them, and they no longer need his bodily presence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who are these two disciples, so privileged
with Jesus’ presence on the very evening of the resurrection? Luke tells us the
name of only one of the two disciples, Cleopas; so who is with Cleopas? The
answer is simple but easily missed. Who would Cleopas go home with, other than
his wife? According to John’s gospel, we know that “Mary the wife of Clopas”
followed Jesus and was in Jerusalem for the Passover. Indeed, she was with Mary
the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:25).
John’s spelling of Clopas follows the Semitic spelling, whereas Luke,
naturally, uses the Greek spelling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Since Clopas/Cleopas was a rare name, and
Cleopas is a disciple of Jesus, it is hard to imagine that there is a wife of
Cleopas who also is in Jerusalem for Passover, and is a disciple, and is not
related to the very Cleopas Luke names. Translators have often assumed both
disciples are men, thus translating Jesus’ admonishment in Luke 24:25 as “O
foolish men,” when in the Greek it does not mention men at all, but should be
read “O foolish ones!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At the first creation, God walked in the
garden amidst a man, Adam, and his wife, Eve. Now, on the first day of the new
creation, Jesus walks with a married couple. This couple has lost all hope, and
yet by walking with Jesus, their hearts come back alive. When the first couple
in Genesis ate the first meal (from the forbidden fruit), “then the eyes of
both were opened” (Gn 3:7); as Jesus breaks open the bread at table with the
couple from Emmaus, “their eyes were opened” (Lk 24:31). The eyes of the
original couple are opened to shame and guilt, whereas the new couple that
Jesus walks with to Emmaus have their eyes opened to the resurrected Lord in the
Eucharist. The old creation begins with a married couple falling from grace,
whereas the new creation begins with Jesus blessing a married couple by
breaking open the Scriptures and the bread, where they recognize him in both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Source: Walking With God – A Journey Through
The Bible<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-60925700977709969422015-11-03T22:06:00.000-08:002015-11-03T22:06:17.300-08:00No One Puts New Wine Into Old Wineskins<div class="MsoPlainText">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">Scripture Mark 2:22<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
[22] And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he
does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the
skins; but new wine is for fresh skins."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">Comment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Like all of Scripture there are a number of ways of
looking at this.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->How it relates to Jesus <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->how it relates to your own life and <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->how it relates to heaven and the end times.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Primarily we are talking about this new movement -
Christians. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
It cannot be contained within the parameters of the old.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
And the reason for that is that new wine expands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
New wineskins are the gut of the animal and are pliable
and expandable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
If you put this new movement of Jesus that is exploding
onto the scene and expanding through the whole world, if you try to contain it
within the parameters of the Old Law and the parameters of the Temple and the
parameters of old Testament sacrifice and the priesthood it will burst it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
The Old is not able to contain the New.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0;">Source: Jeff Cavins (as guest on Catholic Answers Live radio)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-37906595044485462482015-10-29T22:33:00.001-07:002015-10-29T22:33:34.083-07:00Jesus Heals The Leper<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Scripture
Mark 1:39-45<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[<b>39</b>] And he went throughout all Galilee,
preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. <br />
[<b>40</b>] And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him,
"If you will, you can make me clean." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[<b>41</b>] Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand
and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." <br />
[<b>42</b>] And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. <br />
[<b>43</b>] And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, <br />
[<b>44</b>] and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go,
show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded,
for a proof to the people." <br />
[<b>45</b>] But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread
the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the
country; and people came to him from every quarter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Comment</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Would you
expect to see a leper in a village in ancient Israel?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">No, because
they were social outcasts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">They were
exiled and could not go to the Temple.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Lepers are
supposed to stay away from crowds and cry out unclean and make themselves
distant so they don’t infect anybody else with their disease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The fact that
this leper is with Jesus is a surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Word gets out
that Jesus is near. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The leper may
have known of what Elisha did – how this prophet healed the servant Naaman who
had leprosy. (2 Kings 5)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One of the
most surprising scenes in this story is where Jesus reaching out to touch the
leper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">For a Jew, to
touch a leper would mean you would be made unclean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When somebody
who is unclean touches somebody who is clean, the clean person in turn becomes
unclean ritually speaking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now we see
something different at work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A dramatic
reversal occurs here with Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When the
leper touches Jesus they become clean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Something
very important is going on in the second part of this story as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There is a
second reversal in this story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jesus wanted
this healing to be kept quiet but what is the result of people hearing about
the healing of the leper?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jesus and the
leper have traded places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The leper was
the outcast. He couldn’t go into the village.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He was the
one who couldn’t associate with people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He was on the
outside in the margins, exiled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now the exile
encounters Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now Christ
becomes the one exiled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He becomes
the outcast and the leper becomes the one who can enter the village.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jesus has
taken his place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Mark tells us
that Jesus wants to take our place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He wants to
take our shame, our pain , our sin and bring us back into community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">To restore us
back to the Father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Source</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">: <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=6715&">Tim
Gray</a> – audio Bible Study – The Gospel of Mark<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-21570428143018738902015-10-29T22:32:00.000-07:002015-11-02T16:56:42.089-08:00Ritual Laws in Leviticus<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Scripture – Luke 8:43-44<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years and could not
be healed by any one, came up behind him, and touched the fringe of his
garment; and immediately her flow of blood ceased. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Comment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Some
atheists try to mock our faith by quoting Leviticus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Some
of their claims include “why can’t I own a slave or sell my daughter or eat
shellfish” in order to suggest that we can pick and choose what in the Bible we
should abide by.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">*************<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Background:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Touching lepers, corpses and menstruating women, especially, was
thought to defile a person and make that person, too, ritually unclean. More
generally, the Jews, especially the Pharisees, believed that they were defiled
by any contact at all with a broad category of people defined as "sinners."
<br />
<br />
To explain what Jesus is doing in these healings of word and touch, Matthew
employs a formula citation from Isaiah (see <a href="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew8.htm#v17">Matthew 8:17</a>;
<a href="http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/isaiah/isaiah53.htm">Isaiah 53:4</a>). </span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Source</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">:
Reading the Old Testament in the New- The Gospel of Matthew – lesson extract – </span><b><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.salvationhistory.com/">http://www.salvationhistory.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">*************<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
recently came across an audio sermon which dealt with this topic quite well<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Fr
Barron elaborates on the event in Luke 8:43-44 or Matthew 9:20-22, as follows.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Everything
they expected was reversed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus
didn’t become unclean, she became clean<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">By
healing her physically, Jesus effectively restores her to full participation in
the community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He
is healing her at every possible level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
is more important?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus
thereby implicitly puts an end to the ritual code of the Book of Leviticus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">By
reversing the expectation of Leviticus that He be unclean, He is implying the
identity of the New Israel (which is the Church) would not be brought about
through ritual behaviours but by precisely through contact with Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ancient
Israel believed that by following the prescriptions in the Book of Leviticus
and many others they would discover who they were.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus
is saying it is not in relation to the Book of Leviticus, it is in relation to
Me that you will know who you are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Source</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">: Fr Robert Barron -
Word on Fire audio sermon July 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-26915504532433862002015-10-29T22:31:00.001-07:002015-10-29T22:31:08.489-07:00Becoming Fit For Worship<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: purple; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Scripture Mark 1:42-44 - Becoming Fit For Worship<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made
clean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And he (Jesus) sternly charged him, and sent him away
at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go,
show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded,
for a proof to the people." </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: purple; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Comment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Now
from the time I was a kid passages like this one, the healing of a leper, in
the Gospel of Mark had been interpreted along these lines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">There aren’t many lepers around today but
there are a lot of people that we treat as lepers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">People who are social outcasts and pariahs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus is welcoming and inclusive toward the
leper and so we should be welcoming and inclusive toward the lepers
“symbolically speaking” in our society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Now
I have got nothing particularly against that way of reading the passage but I
have heard that homily so many times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
am also pretty sure that is not what a first century Jew would have been thinking
about as he read this account in the Gospels or meditated on the Book of
Leviticus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
did it mean for someone in that time?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Leprosy
frightened people in ancient times as contagious and mysterious diseases
frightened people up until the modern period. But more than this, it rendered
somebody unclean, ritually unclean and therefore incapable of engaging in the
act of worship. It is not accidental by the way that the person doing the examining
the patient in ancient Israel would be a priest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Book of Leviticus deals with the issue of leprosy. In chapter 13 we see these
elaborate instructions on how a priest should examine someone to determine
whether he or she had leprosy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Why
the priest? Well he was the person who was monitoring the whole process of
Israelite worship, including the question of who could or couldn’t participate
in the Temple worship. So that is the focus it seems to me of this whole
question of leprosy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Now
flash forward to Jesus time. We have seen that one of the principle tasks of
the Messiah of Israel was to gather the scattered tribes. To call together as
one all those who had been scattered by exile, by warfare, by sin, by their own
rebellion against God. The Messiah would call Israel together because only a
gathered Israel could fulfil its mission of in turn gathering the tribes of the
world, to what? The true worship of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Another
task of the Messiah was to cleanse the Temple. To make Jerusalem again a place
of rightly ordered praise and we see when Jesus comes into the city at the
climax of His life He does precisely that. He interrupts the false worship in
the Temple and He seeks to establish right praise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Now
in light of this it is very instructive to revisit many of the healings of
Jesus. Think of the woman with the haemorrhage who had been sick for many years
and finally reaches out and touches Jesus tassel and is cured. She isn’t simply
complaining about her physical malady. The haemorrhage rendered her ritually
unclean and hence unable to worship. Think of the woman who is bent over for
many years and Jesus allows her to stand up straight. You see standing up
straight was the attitude of worship. Bent over she was unable to give God
proper praise. Think of the man in Marks gospel with the withered hand. It was
the same problem, someone who is so physically deformed was ritually unclean
and so the same is true of the leper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Everyone
knew the restrictions laid out in the Book of Leviticus. When this man begs
Jesus for a cure he is not simply concerned about his medical condition. He was
an Israelite in exile from the Temple. Hence, he was a very apt symbol of the
general condition of scattered exiled wandering Israel. In curing him, Jesus
was symbolically speaking gathering the tribes and bringing them back to the
worship of the true God. He wasn’t just the marginalised in a generic sense, he
was Israel incapable of right worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">That
is why Jesus says to the man after He cures him, “Go, show yourself to the
priest”. In other words, go back to the temple from which you have been for so
long exiled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Go
back to the place of right worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
am now going to propose that symbolically speaking the leper stands here, not
so much for the socially ostracised, but for those of us who have wandered away
from right worship. Those of us who are no longer able or willing to worship
the true God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
is so important about worship?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">To
worship is to order the whole of ones life toward the living God, and in doing
so become interiorly and exteriorly rightly ordered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">When
you worship the true God, you have ordered all the powers in you toward the
true God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
become the person you are meant to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mind,
will, imagination, body, energies, passions, everything in you ordered to God
now become rightly ordered to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">More
to it, when all of us worship the true God together, we become among ourselves
rightly ordered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We
come together around the common praise of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">To
worship is to signal to oneself what ones life is finally about. When you
worship you know what you are about, what you are for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Worship
is nothing that God needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">God
doesn’t need our praise, but it is very much something that we need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Saint
Augustine said “We can uncover the nature of a society very easily by asking
this one simple question, “What do the people in the society worship?””<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He
said, in his great text The City of God, where he examined the Roman culture of
his own time. He said that Rome had fallen precisely because it had worshipped
the wrong god’s. God’s who were vain and petty and violent. So the people
became vain and petty and violent. We become unto like what we worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Paul
Tillich said the key to understanding a person is to uncover his ultimate
concern, which is another way of saying what he worships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
do you worship?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">If
it is not the living God, you have wandered into the land of exile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
have become, in fact, unclean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We
become disordered if we worship pleasure, money, power, honour. The things held
up by the culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
might say, “the Mass is tedious and boring. It doesn’t speak to me, that is why
I stay away from it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">So
what! The Mass is not to entertain you, it is meant to order you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
is meant to straighten you out. It is meant to cleanse and purify you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Mass is the place where Jesus even now continues to gather the Tribes around
Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Mass is the place where even now the Temple is cleansed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Mass is the place where we become rightly ordered in the presence of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Keep
that in mind as you meditate upon this man who is now before the Lord and asks
to be cleansed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
God bless you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: purple; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Source</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">:
<a href="http://www.wordonfire.org/"><span style="color: windowtext;">Fr Robert
Barron</span></a> – sermon Becoming Fit For Worship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-33988446581815548492014-01-19T19:17:00.002-08:002014-01-19T19:19:20.388-08:00The birth of Christ - Stable and Signs, <div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://fatherfladerblog.com/2013/12/24/the-birth-of-christ/"><span style="color: #7030a0;">The birth of Christ</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></u></b><!-- .entry-header --></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We
have all read many times that Our Lord was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid
in a manger, and we may have wondered exactly what these are. I post here an
answer to some questions on the birth of Christ, which contains a number of
very interesting observations from Pope Benedict.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
take advantage of the occasion to wish you and your loved ones a very happy and
holy Christmas and a New Year filled with God’s blessings.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I
have three questions on the birth of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Why
do we say he was born in a stable when the Bible doesn’t make any mention of
this? <o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
are swaddling clothes? <o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
what exactly was the sign announced by the angel of a child wrapped in
swaddling clothes lying in a manger?</span><o:p></o:p></h2>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></strong></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></strong></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The birth of Christ has a number of extraordinary aspects and your
questions touch on some of these. The first is that the Son of God, the King of
Kings, was born in such humble surroundings. Surely God in the flesh should
have been born in a palace, a castle, or at least a dignified inn. And he
should have been laid in a bed or a cot, not in a manger, a feeding trough for
animals.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></h3>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But
God’s ways are not man’s ways, and God clearly wanted it to be that way in
order to teach us something. From the humble circumstances of Christ’s birth we
learn, in the words of the <i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i>, that “To
become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom.
For this, we must humble ourselves and become little” (<i>CCC </i>526).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And
from the poverty of the stable we learn that the possession of material wealth,
with all its attending comforts, is not as important as the possession of God.
Mary and Joseph, while poor in the material sense, were truly rich in having
the very Son of God, the King of Kings, in their family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A
Stable?<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Returning
to your questions, why does Christian tradition, and even the Catechism, say
that “Jesus was born in a humble stable” (<i>CCC </i>525) when nowhere in the
Scriptures do we find any explicit mention of it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Indeed,
St Matthew limits himself to saying that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea”
and, significantly, when he tells of the arrival of the magi he says that
“going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother” (<i>Mt </i>2:1,
10). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
reference to a house can be explained by the possibility that after the birth
in a stable, Mary and Joseph were finally able to find a house in which they
lived at least until the presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem forty
days after his birth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">St
Luke doesn’t mention a stable either but he does say that after Jesus’ birth
Mary wrapped him in swaddling cloths “and laid him in a manger, because there
was no place for them in the inn” (<i>Lk </i>2:7). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Since
a manger is a feeding trough for animals it has always been assumed that Jesus
was born in some sort of stable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
Manger<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Pope
Benedict XVI, in his book <i>Jesus of Nazareth – The Infancy Narratives</i>,
comments on the significance of the manger: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“The
manger is the place where animals find their food. But now, lying in the
manger, is he who called himself the true bread come down from heaven, the true
nourishment that we need in order to be fully ourselves. This is the food that
gives us true life, eternal life. Thus the manger becomes a reference to the
table of God, to which we are invited so as to receive the bread of God” (p.
68). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We
might add that the name Bethlehem means precisely “house of bread”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Presence
of Animals<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But
why do we associate the birth of Christ with the actual presence of animals, in
particular an ox and an ass? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Pope
Benedict XVI, acknowledging that the Gospel makes no mention of animals,
writes: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“But
prayerful reflection, reading Old and New Testaments in the light of one
another, filled this lacuna at a very early stage by pointing to <i>Is </i>1:3:
‘The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not
know, my people does not understand” (<i>ibid., </i>p. 69).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Swaddling
Cloths<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And
what are swaddling cloths? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In
ancient times, as often seen in icons of the nativity scene, the newborn child
was customarily wrapped round and round with a narrow band of cloth like a
mummy. It was thought this would help the limbs to grow straight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Pope
Benedict comments: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“The
child stiffly wrapped in bandages is seen as prefiguring the hour of his death:
from the outset, he is the sacrificial victim… The manger, then, was seen as a
kind of altar” (<i>ibid., </i>p. 68). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
swaddling cloths can be seen too as a reference to Christ’s kingship and his
descent from King Solomon, the son of King David. Solomon, in the book of
Wisdom, writes: “I was nursed with care in swaddling cloths. For no king has
had a different beginning of existence; there is for all mankind one entrance
into life, and a common departure” (<i>Wis </i>7:4-6).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A Sign<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Finally,
why did the angel say to the shepherds, “And this will be a sign for you: you
will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (<i>Lk </i>2:12).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Certainly
a baby lying in a manger would be a sign, since this was most uncommon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But
probably, since the angel mentioned the swaddling cloths specifically, this too
must have been part of the sign.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So
there is much symbolism and much to be learned from these simple aspects of
Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Source:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> <a href="http://fatherfladerblog.com/2013/12/"><span style="color: blue;">http://fatherfladerblog.com/2013/12/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-41281717509522804212014-01-19T18:51:00.001-08:002014-01-19T18:51:36.123-08:00Can You Spot Yourself at the Manger
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span style="color: purple; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Scripture Luke 2:12</span></b><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe
wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: purple; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Comment: Can You Spot Yourself at the Manger</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
Of all the scripture passages that resist interpretation, the infancy
narratives must lead the charge.<br />
<br />
Somehow we manage to sidestep addressing why the obligatory donkey, ox and
camels creep into the scene while they remain obstinately absent from the
Gospels accounts. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As for the number of wise ones, the place of birth and questions
of whether there was any flight to Egypt, these are all swept aside as we
decide where to place the drummer boy.<br />
<br />
Yet maybe there is an invitation here to embrace the beauty and simplicity of
the nativity scene. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Which of the characters depicts us as we prepare for Christmas?<br />
<br />
<b>Are you a Joseph, feeling the weight of responsibility? </b><br />
Perhaps you are bewildered by the way events have changed so
dramatically during the year. Are you looking for security for those you serve,
yet experiencing knock backs and closed doors? Have you settled for something
other than what you hoped for despite good planning?<br />
<br />
<b>Do you feel like the humble donkey? </b><br />
Have you patiently carried the precious gift of God’s
community on a long journey this year? Have you finally arrived, feeling worn
out yet at the same time fulfilled, knowing that soon your efforts will be
rewarded? Maybe you are a bit like the ox, and circumstances have been thrust
upon you.<br />
<br />
Suddenly your community has encountered something holy at a time and in a way
you could never have anticipated. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Has it been a year of asking searching questions of yourself and
others?<br />
<br />
<b>Like the wise ones, have you found yourself on a journey of discovery, searching
for enlightenment? </b><br />
Perhaps, at times you have taken the wrong advice, as when
the wise ones turned to King Herod. Are you eager to share your gifts with the
Lord? The innkeeper and Herod are both notably absent from the nativity scene.<br />
<br />
<b>Like the innkeeper, have we needed to shut the door, overcome by the amount
of need out there? </b><br />
Or have we shunted new initiatives into some back room, only
to have them blossom without any real effort from ourselves? Have we locked
Jesus away fearful of what he is calling to birth in our own heart? With King
Herod, have we felt threatened by something new? Have we been guilty of
stifling a fledgling dream because we perceive it may undermine our own agenda?<br />
<br />
Have we confused the truth seekers, the wise ones, giving them mixed messages
out of our own insecurity?<br />
<br />
<b>Are we a shepherd, transfixed with the wonder of what is happening in our
midst? </b><br />
Do we feel unworthy of all the attention or clumsy in our
efforts to serve?<br />
<br />
<b>Or perhaps we are an angel, confidently sharing the Good News to all that we
meet.</b><br />
<br />
<b>And then there is the Mary in us, patiently awaiting the birth of Christ who
has already found a home in our heart. </b><br />
Are we eager to bring forth the Word to our needy world,
despite the darkness of our surrounds, the perceived inappropriateness of the
setting? Do we live in joyful expectation, quietly confident that God’s promise
will be fulfilled?<br />
<br />
Perhaps we are a little of all these characters.<br />
The star beckons, what will we find on our arrival?<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: purple; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Source:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> 11 December 2012 | Adult Faith News - Fr John Frauenfelder</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-20604535273264906522013-03-11T21:12:00.000-07:002013-03-11T21:12:11.759-07:00The Prodigal Son<strong>Scripture Luke 15:20-24</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry.<br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
The prodigal son came home empty-handed. <br />
He had no trophies to show his father, no achievements with which to earn his praise, his welcome and his love. <br />
<br />
He was a failure, worse – he was a sinner.<br />
<br />
He deserved to be punished and he knew it.<br />
<br />
Yet punishment was the last thing he needed. To punish him would be like pouring water on a dying fire. <br />
What happened?<br />
<br />
When his father saw his lost son coming towards him, his heart went out to him, and the next minute they were in each others arms.<br />
<br />
It is an extraordinary experience to be loved in one’s sinfulness. <br />
Such love is like a breeze to a dying fire, or rain to a parched ground. <br />
<br />
Those who have experienced this kind of love know something about the heart of God.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies by Flor McCarthy SDB</strong><br />
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-38265264415281696322013-03-11T21:09:00.002-07:002013-03-11T22:24:34.926-07:00The Prodigal SonThe Prodigal Son<br />
<br />
<br />
Multiple commentary provided for this parable.<br />
Insights divided into 4 parts <br />
<br />
• Luke 15:1-3, 10-12<br />
• Luke 15:12-16<br />
• Luke 15:17-24<br />
<strong>•</strong> Luke 15:25-32<br />
<br />
<strong>PART 1</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Scripture Luke 15:1-3, 10-12</strong><br />
<br />
[1] Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. <br />
[2] And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." <br />
[3] So he told them this parable: <br />
[10] Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." <br />
[11] And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; <br />
[12] and the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
We are drawn into the story. Why should this be so?<br />
I think it speaks so eloquently of who God is and how we get into right relationship to Him.<br />
<br />
Who is God?<br />
How do we get into a right relationship to Him?<br />
<br />
It is important to attend to the opening lines of this passage.<br />
We hear that tax collectors and sinners were drawing close to Jesus and that Pharisees and scribes were complaining about this.<br />
<br />
Keep those two groups in mind.<br />
<br />
Jesus had a magnetic power, especially for those who felt excluded from the love of God. <br />
But He also stirred up resentment, precisely by the very graciousness of His style. <br />
The parable is a portrait of Jesus and of these two groups. <br />
In other words it is a portrait of Divine Love and two typical responses to it. <br />
The response of the sinner and of the self righteously religious.<br />
<br />
Lets look at the younger son, who symbolises the sinner.<br />
<br />
The one in open rebellion against God. the younger son egregiously insults his father. <br />
How? By demanding his inheritance immediately. <br />
Maybe it doesn't strike us as so negative boy it would have struck a first century listener to the story. <br />
In asking for his inheritance now, the son is basically telling his father "I wish you were dead". <br />
You get your inheritance when the father dies, but to ask for it right now is basically to say I wish you were dead. <br />
Can you hardly imagine a worse way to insult your father than that?<br />
<br />
Well that father, oblivious to the insult, gives the son exactly what he wants.<br />
The spiritual symbolism here is quite exact.<br />
<br />
Many of us want the gifts of God. <br />
We want existence, life , success, health, love but without a relationship to the giver. <br />
<br />
We want those gifts but on our terms. <br />
We want to make them our own possession. <br />
That is why it is so powerful when the younger son says give me my share of the inheritance coming to me. <br />
The Greek work for inheritance means" substance" in a more philosophical way, but it also means money. <br />
The money that I can have and put in my pocket. <br />
You see what he is doing - he is taking the gift of the father and turning it into his own possession. <br />
Give me my share coming to me. Three times he says me, me, me. <br />
<br />
But see this will never work spiritually.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Fr Robert Barron www.wordonfire.org</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
In effect, the father impoverishes himself. <br />
Notably, the son has not told his father what he is going to do with it. <br />
Ostensibly, one could think that the son was looking to simply take responsibility of the family’s goods he would one day receive. <br />
(Though, given the fact that son has basically declared the death of his father, his next actions are not at all surprising). <br />
Yet, instead of sticking around and managing the family estate he has been entrusted with, he takes off with it!<br />
<br />
<strong>Dr Michael Barber</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>PART 2</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Scripture Luke 15:12-16</strong><br />
<br />
and the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
These gifts come from a giver. They come from a transcendent source. When we wander away from that source, refusing to acknowledge the source, the gifts dry up.<br />
<br />
The divine life only exists in gift form. God is the one who gives and that is precisely why the younger son wanders into a distant country (the cora macra) but in the Greek it means the great emptiness. That is exactly where you wander when you wander away from the source.<br />
<br />
We hear that he squandered his wealth. <br />
You see, the goods that you have from God when they are divorced from any relationship to the source they will dry up. <br />
That is basic principle of spiritual physics.<br />
<br />
When you grab the gifts from God, when you divorce them from the source, they will dry up.<br />
<br />
Next we read, a severe famine struck that country. He hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him out to tend the swine. <br />
What an insult for a Jew by the way. He longed to eat his fill on the pods on which the swine fed. In other words he become himself a pig.<br />
But no one gave him anything.<br />
How beautiful.<br />
<br />
He is in the Cora Macra - the great empty place. More to it, a famine breaks out. <br />
That is spiritual language about how we dry up and become lifeless when divorced from God. <br />
In fact we become less than human. <br />
One of the keys friends, is that little line at the end of this section – “but no one gave him anything”. <br />
<br />
What land has he wandered into? <br />
<br />
The land of calculation, of contract, of tit for tat. <br />
I'll give you something, you give me something back. <br />
<br />
But it is not the land of graciousness, of gratuitousness. Ahh that is where his father lives. That is his fathers country.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Fr Robert Barron www.wordonfire.org</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Not only does he abandon the family, he squanders what he received from his father on debauchery - i.e., “loose living” (Luke 15:13) and harlots (Luke 15:30). <br />
It is interesting that here sexual immorality is linked with the lack of responsibility to family, but here we need to resist an interesting tangent.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, the son finds himself without any money in a foreign land. <br />
To make matters, there’s a famine. <br />
He ends up with nothing. <br />
<br />
He joins himself to one of the citizens of the country he is in (Luke 15:15) and ends up feeding his swine (Luke 15:16) - which were of course known as unclean animals (Lev 11:7; Deut 14:8; 1 Macc 1:47; b. B. Qam. 82b). <br />
<br />
Even the food of the pigs looks good to him (cf. Luke 15:16). <br />
The man has, in a sense, been reduced to the level of the swine - he is among them, one of the “unclean”. <br />
<br />
By working for a foreigner, who in all likelihood does not honor the Sabbath command given to Israel, he is essentially completely cut off from his God, his family and reduced to servitude.<br />
It is important to point out that when the famine comes “no one gave him anything” (Luke 15:16). <br />
<br />
In fact, the only person who ever gave him anything was his father - the very person he has rejected. <br />
<br />
The son opted for the people in this distant land over him, but now that he has run out of money, they have kicked him to the side of the road - or at least, to serve alongside the pigs.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Dr Michael Barber</strong><br />
<br />
http://www.salvationhistory.com/blog/the_prodigal_son_new_life_sacramental_imagery/<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>PART 3</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Scripture Luke 15:17-24</strong><br />
<br />
But when he came to himself he said, `How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants."' <br />
<br />
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry.<br />
<br />
Comment (3 insights)<br />
<br />
The Father is not a blood-thirsty tyrant whose wrath is appeased by the suffering of Jesus. <br />
<br />
He is the loving Father in the story of the Prodigal Son who respects his son’s freedom too much to force him to stay, or to send a posse after him once his sins led him to the brink of despair.<br />
<br />
The Prodigal Son walked away in arrogance. He would himself have to travel the road back in humility.<br />
<br />
Adam, Eve and all of us walked away in pride. We, their sons and daughters, would have to walk back in humility. <br />
Trouble was, we couldn’t, so deeply had we been wounded by sin. <br />
So God became man and walked the road for us, though it turned out to be the way of the cross. <br />
<br />
Perfect humility. <br />
Perfect love. <br />
Perfect suffering. <br />
<br />
Relentless and undeterred by every conceivable stumbling block and snare that hell could put in its way. <br />
That is what redeemed us and paid the debt of our sins.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
At this point we hear that the man “comes to himself” (eis heauton erchosthai). Here Jesus uses an idiom that is found in non-biblical literature. The phrase here does not quite mean “repentance”. In sum, the man has simply “come to his senses” by realizing that his fathers’ servants are better treated than he is. <br />
<br />
He therefore comes up with a plan. <br />
He will go back and beg his father to take him back, not as a son but as one of his hired hands.<br />
<br />
We should note this dichotomy between sonship and servanthood, because, as we shall see, it is key in the story. <br />
The son realizes that he has renounced his sonship. <br />
But even the servants of his father are better than he is in his present state.<br />
<br />
You Can Go Home Again<br />
He thus comes up with a good spiel, which he hopes will allow him to return to his father’s house. He plans to go to his father and say: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18–19). He sets off for home.<br />
His father, however, sees his son “while he was yet at a distance” (Luke 15:20). <br />
<br />
It seems the father has been looking off into the horizon. <br />
The sense one gets is that he was looking, just waiting, to see his son return. <br />
One is reminded of the story in Tobit: “Now Anna sat looking intently down the road for her son. And she caught sight of him coming, and said to his father, ‘Behold, your son is coming, and so is the man who went with him!’” (Tob 11:5–6).<br />
<br />
His father’s joy at seeing his son returning is immediately apparent. His acceptance of his son precedes his son’s request for reconciliation - a reminder that we do not need to somehow impress our heavenly Father in order to turn his attention towards us. God is always waiting for us to return to him - He loves us far more than we could ever ask him to love us!<br />
<br />
In fact, the son isn’t even able to complete the carefully rehearsed speech he has prepared for his father. He says, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:21). Yet before he can finish the last lines of his prepared speech (i.e., “treat me as one of your hired servants”), his father exclaims, “‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found’” (Luke 15:22–24).<br />
<br />
The son is not welcomed back into the family because of his own clever speech - in fact, the father takes him back even before he can fully get through it. <br />
This is a reminder that salvation is a grace. As St. Paul says, “. . . no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3).<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Dr Michael Barber</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Having hit bottom, he decides to return home. And so it goes, and this is good news with many sinners. <br />
Maybe many people listening (reading) this right now are finding them in this place. <br />
You think you have entered the high life but divorced from God you have dried up. <br />
Maybe you have been down that road for a long time, the path of self indulgence. <br />
<br />
Perhaps you have reached bottom like the prodigal son. <br />
<br />
Talk to anybody who is in a serious addition to sex, money, drugs, power and that is exactly the land where they have wandered into and they will inevitably hit bottom.<br />
<br />
Notice too please, the young man has to decide to return. <br />
God is love, right through. God is gracious love, that's true but this God, because He is gracious love always respects our freedom. <br />
You see without freedom our lives wouldn't really be ours. <br />
God doesn't want puppets. He wants friends.<br />
It is decisive. It is absolutely indispensable in this process.<br />
<br />
You have got to muster the freedom, the courage, the energy to turn back. <br />
But here is the thing. <br />
Grace floods in, the moment this happens.<br />
<br />
Because all this time the father has been waiting and watching and the moment he sees his son he runs. <br />
<br />
How embarrassing that was. An older man in this Jewish culture would sit. People would come to him. For the old man to run was embarrassing. <br />
<br />
So our God full of grace. He embraces this young man. <br />
He puts a ring on his finger and a robe on him. <br />
God is lavishing his love. <br />
He wants to bring us back into the circle of His grace and this grace is above all joyful. <br />
It involves celebration. <br />
<br />
"I have come to bring you joy and that your joy might be complete" That is what Jesus says and that is the attitude of the Father. <br />
He gives and gives and gives. <br />
All he wants if for us to receive that grace and then become ourselves a conduit of it. <br />
<br />
That is what God wants.<br />
<br />
Source: Fr Robert Barron <a href="http://www.wordonfire.org/">www.wordonfire.org</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>PART 4</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Scripture Luke 15:25-32</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
"Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, `Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, `Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him, `Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'" <br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Comment </strong><br />
<br />
Now we get to the older son. Upon hearing that his brother has returned, the elder son refuses to go into the feast and welcome his brother back. His speech to his father is revealing: “‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’” (Luke 15:29–30).<br />
<br />
Notice that elder son describes his relationship with his father in terms of a servant—he, in effect, does not relate to him as a son but as a slave. He “serves”, and “obeys his father’s commandments”. Moreover, the reason for his service is not love but self-interest; he resents his father for not giving him anything. In a sense, the elder son, like the younger son, renounces his sonship for slavery. <br />
<br />
He even refuses to identify his brother as his brother (i.e., “this son of yours”) - he cuts himself off from the family. He does not want to feast with his family but with “my friends”.<br />
<br />
The father however refuses to cut his son off― ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. <br />
<br />
It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” Just as the father is eager to reconcile with the younger brother, so too he continues to reach out in love to his other son, reminding him of his place in his house. <br />
<br />
The elder son may cease to identify himself as a member of the family; the father, however, never ceases to call him “son”.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Dr Michael Barber</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.salvationhistory.com/blog/the_prodigal_son_new_life_sacramental_imagery/">http://www.salvationhistory.com/blog/the_prodigal_son_new_life_sacramental_imagery/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
But as the party gets underway, the older brother we hear is out in the field. <br />
<br />
Remember now the two audiences that Jesus is addressing. <br />
This brother represents the scribes and the Pharisees. <br />
He has stayed, in one sense, close to the father. He is not like his brother who demanded his inheritance now. <br />
<br />
He is not like his brother who wandered far away but his attitude reveals that he is very far away indeed spiritually from his father. He might be close to him physically but he hasn't gotten him at all. <br />
<br />
He broods with anger and resentment at the party thrown for this wasteful brother of his.<br />
So just as the father went out to meet the younger boy, so he goes out to meet the elder. <br />
Listen to older brother speak. It gives away the whole game. <br />
<br />
Look, all these years I have served you and not once did I disobey your orders. <br />
See how little he understands his father. Slaving and obeying are not the responses of one who has fallen in love.<br />
<br />
He has not caught the fathers effervescent generosity but rather he construes their relationship as one of contract and calculation, slaving, working, obeying. <br />
<br />
This is the religious person who is no fun at all. This is the puritan. The censorious critic. The self righteous Pharisee. <br />
The one who is always sensitive to the illegitimate rewards other people are getting. The one who calculates and measures and weighs. That is the older brother.<br />
<br />
Listen now to the father. <br />
<br />
My son, you are here with me always. everything I have is yours. <br />
There is the language of grace. If only the brother can hear it. Take the gifts I want you to have. Let them surge through you and become gifts for others and then you would be ready to join in the celebration.<br />
<br />
Friends, here is the question - a good Lenten question:<br />
Which brother are you?<br />
Let this story wash over you. Move into the dynamics of the story. <br />
<br />
Identify where you are spiritually. <br />
Are you ready to enter in to the rhythm of grace?<br />
Are you ready to respond to this Father who wants nothing more than for you to be fully alive?<br />
If you are you have become a saint.<br />
<br />
God bless you.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Fr Robert Barron </strong><a href="http://www.wordonfire.org/"><strong>www.wordonfire.org</strong></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Reflection - The scandal of grace</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>Many of us, if we are honest, will admit to a feeling of empathy with the elder brother of the prodigal son (Lk 15). Here he is, the dutiful son, working hard year after year, doing all his father asks without complaint. "I never once disobeyed you." And for what? His renegade brother turns up after 'swallowing up your property with prostitutes', and is he punished? Not a bit of it. The red carpet is put out, the fatted calf killed and a huge party put on for him. 'Yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends,' he bitterly accuses his father.<br />
<br />
In Rembrandt's painting, the elder brother stands with his back to his father. You see his anger, even rage, in his stiff posture, his stern unsmiling look. No way could he join in the 'Welcome back' celebrations for this blackguard of a brother.<br />
<br />
His bitterness rises like bile and the image of the good and dutiful son cracks as resentment pours out of him. The unfairness of it. He has worked so hard all these years, sweated his life out, managed the property - and for what? When 'your son'- not, note, 'my brother'- returns after his fun and games, you, our father, welcome him with open arms.<br />
<br />
With shocking clarity we see the joyless spirit of this responsible man. Yes, he did his duty, he was the 'good' son, helping his father. And all the while, unknown perhaps even to himself, he harboured a seething resentment. How dare his feckless brother come back, even to be a servant! But worst of all, how could his father open his arms to this wretch of a son? His anger boiled over and now, maybe for the first time, he disobeyed him and refused to join in the celebration, refused to share in the joy of his father.<br />
<br />
"He welcomes sinners and eats with them" (Lk 12:2). This complaint of the upright scribes and Pharisees, dutiful keepers of the law, is what triggered off the story of the two sons and their father. The scandal of grace. The scandal of really, warmly, welcoming the sinner. No accusations. No pound of flesh. No punishment. 'Quick!' the father says to the servants. Quick. Don't delay. Don't judge. Quick - make him feel at home. Celebrate.<br />
<br />
If we feel for the elder son is it because of an unwanted suspicion that under our veneer of goodness lurks a similar pharisaic persona? Little things give us away; our lack of joy, for example when a colleague gets the promotion we felt was our due. The way we smart when others don't appreciate all we do for them. The resentment that rises up when another is the life and soul of the party while we are left slaving in the kitchen. Whinging and whining, even though it is hidden under our 'lovely' smile, we shrivel and our hearts turn to stone.<br />
<br />
Let us take a good look at the elder son this Lent. All the years he lived with this wonderful father and yet did not know him. Are we, with all our years of 'goodness' any better? How well do we know the Father? How well do we know Jesus, the beloved Son who will lead us to him? Can we believe the Father when he tells us, 'All that is mine is yours'? Will we believe him today?<br />
<br />
Source: Sister Redempta Twomey is a Columban Sister living in Ireland<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.columban.org.au/publications/the_far_east/2009/the-far-east-march-2009/reflection-the-scandal-of-grace.html">http://www.columban.org.au/publications/the_far_east/2009/the-far-east-march-2009/reflection-the-scandal-of-grace.html</a>Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-31070183539925660842013-01-24T00:14:00.000-08:002013-01-24T00:14:42.802-08:00All Religions Are NOT the Same – part 3<strong>Scripture John 18:38</strong><br />
<br />
Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" ……<br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
What do you say to people who say "all religions are equal" or "one is not any more true than the other"?<br />
"all religions are equal and all that matters is are you spiritual"<br />
<br />
This is how I approach it.<br />
<br />
I respond by asking "do you agree there is a difference between 2+2=4 and 2+2=6?"<br />
Do you agree there is a difference there?<br />
Yes, one is right and one is wrong<br />
Or at least you gotta acknowledge that they both can't be right.<br />
<br />
Put it real simple .<br />
<br />
If you look at Islam, in Sura (or Surah) 5 of the Koran, it says Jesus Christ is not the Son of God<br />
We go to the Bible and the Bible says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son."<br />
<br />
They both can't be right and they both can't be wrong.<br />
One of them has got to be right.<br />
Either He is or He isn't.<br />
<br />
The point is "It is absurd to say that faiths that present absolute polar opposites (to each other) concerning the truth (can both be right).<br />
<br />
Buddhism says there is no God, there is no (atma) soul.<br />
We say there is a God and there is a soul.<br />
Hindu's also believe there is a soul and the Buddhists don't<br />
Guess what - they both can't be right.<br />
<br />
We can go down the list.<br />
Judaism denies Jesus Christ is the Messiah.<br />
We acknowledge He is<br />
<br />
What we have to do is get beyond the nonsense like that, using simple terms and then what I like to do is turn the discussion to Jesus.<br />
<br />
Because if you are going to be a serious student of religion you cannot avoid Jesus Christ.<br />
(Even if someone makes a flippand comment like "all religions are the same - my comment)<br />
<br />
Think about it.<br />
The Hindus acknowledge Him as one of the 125,000 avatars.<br />
Muslims acknowledge Him as number 4 of the 5 Great Prophets<br />
Jews acknowledge that He claimed to be the Messiah. In the Talmud they even acknowledge He performed miracles.<br />
They acknowledge Jesus as a historical person.<br />
<br />
In Christianity of course, we claim Him to be God.<br />
We need to examine this man Jesus Christ who changed the world. <br />
<br />
He is literally the centre of time for us in the West.<br />
You need to examine this man.<br />
<br />
and when you do, as CS Lewis said it in his great book Mere Christianity, although I don't agree with the concept of mere Christianity, he makes a lot of great points. <br />
<br />
And the thing about Jesus Christ is this, from a historical perspective Jesus Christ really did live. <br />
The life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a matter of history. It is a historical fact.<br />
<br />
We have more evidence of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ than any other event in all of antiquity. In fact, I argue all other events of antiquity combined.<br />
<br />
It is attested to not just in the Gospels but by extra-biblical non Christian sources. <br />
Read Pliny the Younger and Tacitus - both Roman historians<br />
Josephus, a Jewish historian.<br />
Suetonius.<br />
You have so many different examples of non Christians.<br />
<br />
I mentioned the Talmud. <br />
Even the Jewish folk who didn't believe in Him acknowledge that he did miracles. <br />
They claim He did it by the power of the devil both in the Biblical text and in the Talmud. <br />
But folks when you examine the miracles of what Jesus did they can't be explained.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source</strong>: Tim Staples - Are all religions equal, Catholic Answers - www.catholic.com<br />
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-71174737362769953652013-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:002013-01-24T00:00:30.895-08:00All Religions Are NOT the Same – part 2<strong>Scripture Colossians 1:15-17</strong><br />
<br />
[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; <br />
[16] for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him. <br />
[17] He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
Unless we talk about God, the spiritual life doesn’t make a lick of sense.<br />
<br />
I addressed in my talk last week especially the critiques of God that are going on now in the popular culture and I offered three classical arguments for God’s existence.<br />
<br />
Ok.<br />
In the wake of that talk you might say “Well good, I think there’s a God, I believe in God”.<br />
<br />
Now what is the next step?<br />
“So what?”<br />
<br />
At the heart of our tradition is the deep conviction that God did not remain in aloof transcendence but rather God spoke a Word. <br />
<br />
He did it first by forming a people, Israel. <br />
To the priests, prophets, kings and patriarchs of Israel God spoke in varied and fragmentary ways, His Word.<br />
<br />
And then, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, in the fullness of time God gathered His whole word and spoke it entirely in this one Israelite, Yeshua from Nazareth. By the way, there is all the poetry, all the strangeness and drama of Christianity in that little phrase – God, the ground of being, the necessary reality, God who is the source of all the intelligibility of the world, the God I spoke of last week became one of us in this very particular first century Israelite - Yeshua from Nazareth. <br />
<br />
There’s the Christian faith – the Word became flesh. St Paul says Jesus is the icon of the invisible God.<br />
What’s God like? <br />
What does God want?<br />
How does God speak?<br />
<strong>Look to Jesus.</strong><br />
<br />
Jesus is a portrait of Yahweh sprung to life (N T Wright)<br />
That is why he is indispensible and central to spirituality.<br />
<br />
How do we live in relation to God?<br />
How do we respond to God’s word?<br />
What is God’s word?<br />
What is God’s intention?<br />
The answer to all those questions is - Yeshua from Nazareth, this icon of the invisible God.<br />
(to be continued)<br />
<br />
<strong>Scripture Matt 7:28-29</strong><br />
[28] And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, <br />
[29] for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment - All Religions Are NOT the Same – pt 2</strong><br />
<br />
A lot of scholarship in the last 200 years has domesticated Jesus and rendered him relatively easy to understand. <br />
<br />
You know:<br />
“He is one philosopher among many”, <br />
“He is like many of the other religious founders” <br />
“He is a religious genius”<br />
”Ethical example”<br />
<br />
Ok, that makes him easier to understand, I’ll grant you, but it misses the heart of the Gospel.<br />
At the heart of the Gospel is the presentation of a very strange figure.<br />
Connected to this is the “re- Judaizing” of Jesus.<br />
I want to Re-Judaizer Jesus and put him against that very rich, very Jewish background.<br />
<br />
How did Paul describe him?<br />
Yeshua Meshiach – Jesus the Messiah, in Paul’s Greek that becomes Iesous Christos – Jesus Christ<br />
Jesus is the anointed one, the long awaited Messiah.<br />
<br />
What did that mean for a first century Jew?<br />
What did Peter and Paul and James and John, Jews all, what did they mean when they said he is the Messiah?<br />
What do you find at the heart of all four Gospels?<br />
What do you find implicit or explicit in the whole of the New Testament?<br />
<br />
That Jesus spoke and acted in the very person of God.<br />
<br />
That is what’s distinctive about him.<br />
That is what’s strange and disturbing about him.<br />
<br />
We think at times “that people way back then they believed that God becomes human. I guess they could understand that, we find it very hard.”<br />
No. They found it just as hard as we do.<br />
<br />
But the Gospels insist upon it over and over again.<br />
<br />
Some examples chosen almost at random.<br />
<br />
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: <br />
“You have heard it said love your friends and hate your enemies, but I say love your enemies”. <br />
<br />
Ok, the content of that statement is breathtaking enough, but that’s not what they found most disturbing.<br />
It is what he said first.<br />
“You have heard it said …”<br />
You have heard it said, where?<br />
In the Torah.<br />
Well the Torah, that is the Word of God. <br />
That is the Word God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.<br />
There was no higher authority for a first century Jew than the Torah. <br />
<br />
Rabbi’s, if they claimed authority, they took it from the Rabbi that taught them and the Rabbi who taught him etc going all the way back to Moses and the Torah. There was no higher authority.<br />
<br />
And so when this Rabbi from Nazareth who says “You have heard it said in the Torah, but I say”, he is claiming authority over the Torah. <br />
Who could do that except the one who is himself the author of the Torah.<br />
<br />
Jesus said:<br />
“You have greater than the Temple here”<br />
That would have thrown them for a loop.<br />
<br />
For Jews of Jesus time that was the greatest place they could possibly imagine and the best thing they had ever seen. <br />
It was the dwelling place of God. <br />
It was the centre and focus of the entire Israelite nation.<br />
Here is this nobody Rabbi from Nazareth who says “you have got greater than the Temple here”<br />
What is he saying?<br />
“I am the privileged dwelling place of Yahweh”<br />
He is declaring a lordship over the Temple.<br />
(to be continued)<br />
<br />
<strong>Scripture Matt 16:15</strong><br />
<br />
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
Jesus didn’t ask “What do people think of my teaching?” or “What impression am I making?”.<br />
Reasonable enough questions.<br />
<br />
He asked “Who do people say that I am?”<br />
<br />
It would be hard to imagine another great religious founder asking such a question.<br />
<br />
• The Buddha wouldn’t focus on himself, and I say it to his credit. He would say “There is a way I’ve discovered and I want you to know it”.<br />
• Mohammed wouldn’t focus on himself, he would say “There is a revelation I have received and I want you to know it”.<br />
• Confucious wouldn’t say it’s about me, he would say “There is a path that I’ve found and I want you to know it”.<br />
<br />
Then there is Jesus who asks “Who do you say that I am?”<br />
<br />
The whole Gospel really hinges on this point.<br />
<br />
Jesus identity personally is what it is about, because throughout the Gospels He consistently speaks and acts in the very person of God.<br />
<br />
In the Gospel of Matthew (10:37), Jesus says “Unless you love me more than your father or mother you are not worthy of me”.<br />
<br />
You might imagine a religious teacher or religious founder saying unless you love God more than your mother and father, more than your very life or maybe unless you love my teaching more than your mother and father, but to say unless you love me than the highest goods in the world?<br />
<br />
What if I were to say to you today “Unless you love me more than your mother and father, more than your very life, you are not worthy of me.” Well you would have me removed from the room wouldn’t you. You would call security.<br />
<br />
Who could say that except the one who is in his own person the highest good.<br />
<br />
How about this?<br />
<br />
“Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away”.<br />
<br />
Suppose I grab one of my books on display and held it up and said “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away”. Well you would think I had lost my mind and gone right around the bend.<br />
<br />
Who could say it consistently and coherently except the one who is himself the eternal word of God.<br />
<br />
Here is another one.<br />
“They stand looking up at the Temple” For Jews of Jesus time that was the greatest place they could possibly imagine and the best thing they had ever seen. It was the dwelling place of God.<br />
<br />
Jesus says “You have greater than the Temple here”<br />
That would have thrown them for a loop.<br />
The Temple was the footstool of God. It was where God dwelt on Earth.<br />
It was the centre and focus of the entire Israelite nation.<br />
Here is this nobody Rabbi from Nazareth who says “you have got greater than the Temple here”<br />
What is he saying?<br />
“I am the privileged dwelling place of Yahweh”<br />
<br />
Jesus says to the paralyzed man “My son, your sins are forgiven” Right away the bystanders say “who does this man think he is, only God can forgive sins”<br />
<br />
Now here’s the point.<br />
<br />
<strong>Jesus compels a choice the way no other religious founder does. </strong><br />
Either you are with me or you are against me.<br />
You see why, if he is who he say he is then we have to give our whole life to him.<br />
<br />
<strong>If he is God then he must be the centre of our lives!</strong><br />
<br />
If he is not who he says he is then he is not a good man, he is a dangerous misguided fanatic.<br />
<br />
<strong>Jesus,</strong> more than any other figure, more than any other religious founder, <strong>compels us to make a choice</strong>.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Fr Robert Barron </strong><br />
“Who is Jesus and what makes him unique”<br />
And Spirituality2of5 -Who is Jesus Christ and How Do We Find Life in Him.mp3Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-2452702243874200042013-01-23T23:17:00.001-08:002021-02-18T05:04:54.513-08:00All Religions Are NOT the Same - Part 1<strong>Scripture John 14:16-20</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
[16] And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, <br />
[17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. <br />
[18] "I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. <br />
[19] Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. <br />
[20] In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. <br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Comment – All Religions Are NOT the Same – pt 1</strong><br />
<br />
Christianity Is Christ<br />
<br />
The founder of no other religion is absolutely essential for that religion in the same way the Christ is essential for Christianity.<br />
<br />
It is true that the founder was necessary for the founding, but the believer in a particular religion does not enter into the same kind of an encounter that a Christian enters into with Christ.<br />
<br />
It is the personal relationship to him which is decisive.<br />
<br />
Christ therefore occupies a different place in Christianity than Buddha does in Buddhism, than Confucius in Confucianism, Muhammad in Islam, and even Moses in Judaism.<br />
<br />
When you come to Christ, Christianity demands the personal intimate bond. <br />
<br />
We have to be one with him, one with him in such a way that we cannot in any way claim to be Christian unless we reflect the person, the mind, the will, the heart, and the humanity of Christ.<br />
<br />
<strong>Source: Through The Year With Fulton Sheen</strong>Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-58755686545598269722012-09-17T23:35:00.002-07:002012-09-17T23:35:43.528-07:00Surrender!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Scripture - Mark 14:35-36</span></strong></div>
<br />
<br />
And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment - Surrender!</strong><br />
<br />
Surrender!<br />
Don’t you hate that word?<br />
You should if it means I’m defeated and I give up.<br />
<br />
Surrender for a Christian means I am laying down my life for other people.<br />
That is our whole relationship with God.<br />
<br />
To lay down our life and love for Him who laid down His life and love for me.<br />
We have got the God of the universe.<br />
If someone says “I am not willing to lay down my life for Jesus”, I think are you stupid?<br />
<br />
You are going to die.<br />
We all are.<br />
<br />
You can be dust forever<br />
OR<br />
You can surrender to the God of the universe.<br />
<br />
When you surrender to Him, He surrenders to you.<br />
<br />
Everything you ever wanted or desired, He is the one who created it.<br />
So with God you have everything.<br />
Without God you have nothing.<br />
<br />
Source: <strong>Surrender! The Life Changing Power of Doing God's Will</strong> by <a href="http://www.thereasonforourhope.org/">Fr Larry Richards</a>.<br />
Text transcribed from his guest appearance on Life on the Rock <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/">www.ewtn.com</a><br />
<br />
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-51761666929947377572012-09-17T23:30:00.000-07:002012-09-17T23:30:57.716-07:00God Loves YouScripture: <br />
<br />
<br />
2 Tim 2:15<br />
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.<br />
<br />
Proverbs 13:4 <br />
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
God made you strong to protect the weak.<br />
<br />
Think of a coach.<br />
“OK, Coach, what do you want me to do?”<br />
<br />
If the coach said:<br />
<br />
“I like you just the way you are. Just show up at practice, sit there for 45 minutes and have good thoughts about the game”, you’d say “What sort of coach are you?”<br />
<br />
You want a coach to challenge you to be the best and say things like:<br />
“Be at practice everyday”<br />
“Miss practice and you won’t play in the game”<br />
“Do this, this and this”<br />
“Any whinging that you don’t want to do it, then get off the field”<br />
<br />
But when it comes to Church, we might hear “God loves you just the way you are”.<br />
<br />
<strong>God loves us the way we are, but He challenges us to not stay there. He wants us to be the best.</strong><br />
<br />
We respond best when we are challenged to be the best we can be.<br />
<br />
You can give more!<br />
<br />
Source: <strong>Surrender! The Life Changing Power of Doing God's Will</strong> by <a href="http://www.thereasonforourhope.org/">Fr Larry Richards</a>.<br />
<br />
Text transcribed from his guest appearance on Life on the Rock <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/">www.ewtn.com</a><br />
<br />
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-59695821972948061942012-09-17T23:22:00.000-07:002012-09-17T23:22:20.980-07:00Eat My Flesh<strong>Scripture John 6</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." <br />
<br />
52 The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?" <br />
<br />
60 20 Then many of his disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" <br />
<br />
63 It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh 22 is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. <br />
<br />
66 As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. <br />
<br />
67 Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment</strong><br />
<br />
The pronouncement of Jesus being the bread of life, is a critical moment and a turning point in his public mission.<br />
<br />
Jesus challenged his listeners by saying that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” <br />
<br />
That shocking statement was intended, “to disenchant the crowds and especially to push his disciples to make a choice. <br />
<br />
In truth many among them, from then, chose to no longer follow him.”<br />
<br />
<strong>Pope Benedict</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Today’s Gospel reading, from the conclusion of John 6, records how dissent from the teachings of Jesus took place in the very first century. <br />
<br />
This, revealingly, is the only instance in the Gospels of disciples leaving Jesus over a matter of doctrine.<br />
<br />
There is little doubt that St. John, in describing that tense scene, also had in mind Christians of the mid and late first century who struggled to accept the shocking words of the Lord. <br />
<br />
It is sometimes tempting to think of the early Christians as a homogenous group of loyal heroes and willing martyrs. <br />
<br />
But they, like those of us living in the twenty-first century, struggled with doubts, fears, and temptations.<br />
<br />
Fr. James T. O’Connor<br />
<br />
<a href="http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2012/08/doctrine-dissent-and-the-eucharist.html">http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2012/08/doctrine-dissent-and-the-eucharist.html</a><br />
Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-1402022790039687672012-09-17T23:19:00.000-07:002012-09-17T23:19:39.656-07:00Teaching The Faith<strong>Scripture John 6:66</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. <br />
<br />
<strong>Comment - Teaching The Faith</strong><br />
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We may pray “Yeah Lord, keep my kids in the faith”<br />
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You know one of the great struggles of good catholic parents is what happens when your kids become adults and leave the faith.<br />
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With this brings a mixture of guilt and questions like “Where did I go wrong?”, “What didn’t I see?”, “Was I not holy enough?”<br />
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Now, I want to ask you (Marcus) 5 questions and I want you to answer Yes or No.<br />
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• Is there a God?<br />
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• Was Christ God?<br />
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• Could He perform miracles?<br />
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• Was He sinless?<br />
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• Did He have a perfect understanding of human nature?<br />
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Now a follow up question.<br />
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• Could He get most people to follow Him?<br />
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And then I look at the parents and go “Who do you think you are?”<br />
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We have got to keep that reality, God himself couldn’t get the majority to follow Him.<br />
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Source: interview by Marcus Grodi with clinical psychologist <a href="http://www.drray.com/">Dr Ray Gaurendi</a> on The Journey Home <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/">www.ewtn.com</a>Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-63120723164513635782012-09-17T23:15:00.001-07:002012-09-17T23:15:39.506-07:00Preacher Jailed for Speaking Out on Marriage<strong>Scripture: Mark 6:17-18</strong><br />
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17 zFor it was Herod who had sent and seized John and abound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18 zFor John had been saying to Herod, b“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” <br />
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<strong>Comment: “Preacher Jailed for Speaking Out on Marriage” </strong><br />
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We celebrated the birth of John the Baptist on 24 June 2012, a great saint and biblical character who led a very difficult life and ministry. <br />
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In hindsight, the conflict that led to his demise and death has a strangely modern ring to it: he was jailed by Herod Antipas for speaking out on marriage (Mark 6:17-18). Specifically, John the Baptist held to the principle of one man, one woman, for life—a theology of marriage founded in Scripture (Mal. 2:13-16) and reflected in the Essene movement at Qumran and in the teachings of Our Lord (Matt 19:3-12). <br />
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This got him into trouble with the nation’s chief executive, Herod Antipas, whose own views on marriage had evolved: he had wed Herodias, his divorced ex-sister-in-law, who was also his niece. John the Baptist said the marriage was unlawful. Herod invoked executive privilege to have John arrested and detained for expressing his intolerant and partisan views on marriage in public. Eventually, Herod had him beheaded at the request of his wife Herodias’ daughter Salome, who gave a “hot” hip-hop performance for the king and his cabinet that earned her a political favor (Mark 6:14-29).<br />
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There is really nothing new under the sun. John the Baptist was a political failure but a great spiritual success, a champion of faith and fortitude who still lives and is praying for us from heaven. The readings for his feast day also provide us hope and encouragement:<br />
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Be that as it may, the “desert” also has a spiritual sense. Despite all the glorious things said about John and the remarkable events surrounding his birth, his life was not easy. It was one of self-denial and mortification. It’s true, his preaching was popular and he received public acclaim—for a while. But from a certain perspective, he was a glorious failure, a big flop. His run-in with the government ended badly and his “movement” fell apart, even if there were still a few “fans” left years later (Acts 19:1-3).<br />
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But that’s only from one perspective, an external and material one. A certain prophet from Nazareth had a much different evaluation of the success of his ministry: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Mt 11:11).<br />
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Like John, if we speak about God’s truth boldly and continue to point toward Jesus, we are going to provoke opposition in this world from those who don’t want to hear it because it doesn’t suit their agenda. It may mean the loss of income, employment, possession and life. We’ve got to maintain an eternal perspective: God has a plan for each of us that began before our birth and extends beyond our death. The goal is not visible success in this life. It’s covenant fidelity (hesed) toward the one who is greater than us, whose sandals we are not worthy to tie, but nonetheless promises to “raise us up on the last day” (John 6:40).<br />
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Source: John Bergsma - <a href="http://www.thesacredpage.com/2012/06/preacher-jailed-for-speaking-out-on.html">http://www.thesacredpage.com/2012/06/preacher-jailed-for-speaking-out-on.html</a><br />
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Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-90805040199475254152012-09-17T23:13:00.001-07:002012-09-17T23:13:12.596-07:00Surviving The FurnaceScripture Daniel 3:19-26<br />
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Then (king) Nebuchadnez'zar was full of fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he ordered certain mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their mantles, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were cast into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was strict and the furnace very hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnez'zar was astonished and rose up in haste. He said to his counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?" They answered the king, "True, O king." He answered, "But I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods." Then Nebuchadnez'zar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego, servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here!" Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego came out from the fire. <br />
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<strong>Comment – Surviving The Furnace</strong><br />
The deathcamp Auschwitz became the killing centre during WWII where the largest numbers of European Jews were murdered by the Nazis. One Christian man who died here became a martyr to the truth of evils of Nazism - a true hero for our time, a saint who lived what he preached, total love toward God and man ... <br />
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<a href="http://auschwitz.dk/Kolbe.htm">http://auschwitz.dk/Kolbe.htm</a><br />
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Maximilian Kolbe studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics. <br />
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During his time as a student, he witnessed vehement demonstrations by the Freemasons against Popes St. Pius X and Benedict XV.<br />
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In 1918, Kolbe was ordained a priest. Kolbe left Poland for Japan in 1930, spending six years there.<br />
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During the Second World War, he provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów.<br />
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On 17 February 1941, he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison. On 28 May, he was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner #16670.<br />
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At the end of July 1941, three prisoners disappeared from the camp, prompting the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker in order to deter further escape attempts. <br />
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"There is no greater love than to give up your life for your friends" (Jn 15, 13).<br />
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When one of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "My wife! My children!", Maximilian Kolbe who was not one of the 10 chosen to be executed, offered himself to die in the this man’s place. The commander of the concentration camp accepted the exchange.<br />
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In the starvation cell, he celebrated Mass each day and sang hymns with the prisoners.<br />
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Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. <br />
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After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe remained alive. (I understand it is rare to survive more than a week without water – Gary)<br />
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He was taken out of the gas chamber only to be put to death by injection.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe</a><br />
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<br />Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-50404336666696622342012-04-12T01:22:00.000-07:002012-04-12T01:23:33.561-07:00What is Significant About Christ’s Resurrection?<strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">Scripture 1 Corinthians 15:17<br /></span></strong>If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#3333ff;"><br />Comment<br /></span></strong>What is significant about Christ’s resurrection?<br />St Paul said "If Christ has not been raised our faith is in vain"<br />It couldn't be clearer.<br /><br />Without the resurrection, Christianity collapses.<br />Sadly, in recent years too many theologians and spiritual writers have tried to domesticate the resurrection.<br />"Oh, it just means that the cause of Jesus goes on"<br />"It just means now we are going to bear His presence to the world"<br />"It means that we remember Him fondly"<br />"It means that He has gone to God"<br /><br />You see, the trouble with this is that those things could be said about any great and admired figure.<br />The members of the Abraham Lincoln Society could gather and read Lincolns speeches and say "Lincolns spirit goes on"<br />or even<br />"We think Lincoln was such a good man that he must be with God"<br /><br />Well heck, if that is all it means then Christianity falls apart and Christianity devolves into one more cult of personality.<br />"We remember this hero from the past"<br /><br />The resurrection is not simply something that happens to the disciples.<br />It is something that happens to Jesus.<br /><br />His Father raises Jesus from the dead and He shows himself bodily present to His disciples after His death.<br /><br />Simply resuscitated?<br />No, the way Lazarus was or the way the daughter of Jairus was.<br />No.<br />Not simply resuscitated and returned to this world.<br /><br />But Christ is transformed.<br />He has conquered death.<br />He now lives through the power of the Father and in the dimension of God but bodily present to His disciples.<br /><br />I think that is what the resurrection means and that event took the disciples breath away. That event grabbed them by the lapels and shook them and sent them around the world with the message.<br /><br />When St Paul talks about the Good News, the Gospel, that is what he means first and foremost.<br />Jesus is bodily risen from the dead.<br /><br />Everything else in Christian life flows from it.<br /><br />If Christ has not been raised then his death is the death of a good man.<br /><br />Tragic. Sad.<br />Maybe we would write songs about it. Remember it fondly. Wasn't He a good man and done in by evil forces.<br /><br />But raised from the dead we now see that Jesus is the one who has conquered death.<br />Raised from the dead we now see that Jesus is the one who has conquered sin.<br />And if you take those things away you take Christianity away.<br /><br />That is why the resurrection is the hinge, it is the corner stone of Christian faith.<br /><br />Source: Fr Robert BarronBible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-35410788847607659492012-04-12T00:56:00.004-07:002012-04-12T01:15:41.432-07:00The Rosary<strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">Why Pray?<br /></span></strong><br />Only with those we talk to or communicate with can we build a relationship. Prayer is building a personal relationship between you and God. The Rosary allows us to enter into that relationship with God – one on one.<br /><br />The purpose of the Rosary is to help keep in memory certain major events or mysteries in the history of our salvation, and to thank and praise God for them.<br /><br />The Christian life needs prayer. Prayer is like air to a Christian<br /><br /><span style="color:#3333ff;"><strong>What is it?<br /><br /></strong></span>The word rosary comes from Latin and means a wreath of roses, the rose being one of the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. Each prayer is like a rose so in a sense our Rosary becomes a beautiful bouquet of prayers sent to heaven to Jesus through Mary.<br /><br />Also known as the Rosary of the Virgin Mary, the Rosary is a very old, very popular and very effective form of meditation. The Rosary has been around for centuries but gained resurgence when God sent Mary to earth in 1917, during the First World War, to appear to three children in Fatima, Portugal. (Note: this Church approved apparition is the only one ever to be prophesised with a specific date and time. It was reported with photographs by anti catholic newspapers O Dia and O Seculo. Not all 70,000 that were in the field that day saw the same thing but neither did those around St Paul experience the same thing on St Pauls life changing Road to Damascus journey - Acts 9:7,27) Mary’s message was to pray the Rosary for peace in the world. Great saints have called the rosary beads a ladder leading up to heaven. It has also been called a chain of hope.<br /><br />In one sense praying the Rosary is like taking a journey through the Bible, where you concentrate on one of the 4 different stages of Jesus’ life.<br /><br />Each stage:<br />1. When He was born,<br />2. His public ministry,<br />3. His suffering and death, and<br />4. His Ascension into Heaven<br />has 5 mysteries surrounding that stage.<br /><br />On this journey in pilgrimage you are joined with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, along the Way of Jesus from before He was born to after He ascended into Heaven.<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">Is it a type of Meditation?<br /></span></strong><br />Meditation is an important part of Christian spirituality. The Rosary exercises this spirituality and becomes a true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ.<br /><br />It is not the only form of meditation used within the Church, but the Rosary is one that is simple, takes about 15-20 minutes to complete (one decade or mystery takes only about 3 minutes to pray), is very Biblical, can be practised anywhere and can be practised by anyone (even non catholic Christians pray the Rosary).<br /><br />To think of it another way, one thing the Rosary does is that it stops you doing everything else. Our lives are filled with distractions – TV, music, computer, sport etc. This is our opportunity to stop and reflect for 15-20 minutes a day. It is your chance to achieve an inner peace for a short time each day and that inner peace will slowly start to change how you live the rest of the day.<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">Why the Repetition?<br /></span></strong><br />Repetition is normal. We like to say important things over and over again, such as “I love you”.<br /><br />The format and repetition of the Rosary allows us to meditate on a theme. We meditate by focusing on one point/story/theme of the life of Jesus. To get the best out of it you should be in a comfortable position and do your best to remove all distractions and noise. The repetition provides you with a background on which to build your thoughts and reflect on the life of Jesus and how you can relate to him.<br /><br />When you rush through anything you miss many things and will never get much out of it. Try watching a movie on fast forward and see if you got much out of the movie. The same goes for praying. If a person merely recites the prayers, whether vocally or silently, they’re missing the essence of the Rosary.<br /><br />If you say the prayers without meditating on the mysteries, the Rosary becomes like a body without a soul.<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">The meaning behind the Mysteries<br /><br /></span></strong>We call them mysteries because there is more to them than meets the eye. Praying these mysteries becomes a lot easier and meaningful if you have a picture of the mystery as you begin to meditate on it.<br /><br />There are different ways to “look” at these mysteries.<br /><br />One unique feature of Jesus Christ is the repeated promise in Holy Scriptures of his coming. The Messiah of Israel was proclaimed by Old Testament prophets. For example, Jesus is the new Adam, the new King David and the new Moses.<br /><br />The New Testament needs the Old Testament and so the whole Bible points to Jesus. Scripturally speaking, in each of the mysteries we can find Old Testament prophecies and prefigurements that relate to each event.<br /><br />For our own lives, we can probably find some connection too in these same mysteries, as Jesus experienced every human suffering so He knows personally what we go through.<br /><br /><strong>Some examples include:<br /></strong>Before He was born there was an attempt on his life,<br />His mother almost became a single mother,<br />His family then became refugees,<br />They were homeless when Mary was due to give birth.<br />Later in life He was betrayed by a friend,<br />He was falsely convicted,<br />His friends ran away, He felt utter abandonment and loneliness.<br />He was physically assaulted,<br />Lies were told about Him,<br />He was humiliated and mocked.<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Our God knows what it is like to suffer.<br /><br /></span>Another way to meditate on the mysteries is seeing how you can apply it to your life. For example Mary was pregnant with Jesus growing inside of her when she visited Elizabeth. Elizabeth felt different once in Mary’s presence. With Jesus inside of us, have we made someone’s day?<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">Now What?<br /></span></strong><br />This is your chance to form a good habit. Remember you don’t need to escape to a mountaintop to meditate.<br /><br />You may struggle at first but maybe this is because some of the “noise” you currently have in your life is addictive. These addictions are a form of slavery, that you can escape from for just 15 minutes a day proving to yourself that you rule and not the “noise”.<br /><br />It has been said that if you pick up the Rosary to help you to get rid of a particular sin, one of two things will happen. Either you will give up the sin or give up the Rosary.<br /><br />You will also find that many issues of the day may invade your thoughts while praying the Rosary. This is normal. As you try to still yourself, hand these issues or problems to God while in prayer and see if an answer comes to you.<br /><br />Should you expect an instant change? Probably not.<br /><br />Overtime, the aim is not to pray in a mechanical fashion where the prayer solely a prayer of the mind, but it is where we unite body and soul to make it a prayer of the mind and heart.<br /><br />You can think of it like this. When you carry the Rosary, it consists of five decades and you may think it won’t make a difference to anybody’s life. There was a boy in the Gospels who carried around five loaves and he may have done this exercise many times, whenever he saw a crowd. When he saw the crowd of 5,000 he thought at least 5 people will get some food. He, like us, thought small. In other words, all my gifting and talents, my education, who I am, plus plus plus come out to five loaves. That's it.<br /><br />But we have to do Gods maths - all of our talents and gifts equals five plus God is infinity.<br />Five times X.<br />That is what we forget.<br />We don't know the heavenly algebra.<br />That is the problem.<br />That is what the disciples had to learn and so do we.<br /><br />The Rosary is a great place to start learning.Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-390082029367384300.post-83447559679818999472012-04-01T23:33:00.001-07:002012-05-31T07:06:07.254-07:00Bethlehem - Where Heaven Meets EarthScripture<br />
<strong>Luke 2:15-16</strong>When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.<br />
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<strong>Matt 2:1-2</strong>[1] Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying,<br />
[2] "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him."<br />
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<strong>Comment</strong>Something marvellous happened in history and it happened in a cave.<br />
A cave in Bethlehem.<br />
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A place where extremes meet.<br />
It is where heaven meets earth.<br />
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God comes to make a home in the world and finds himself homeless.<br />
Religion and philosophy come together for the first time<br />
The kings and shepherds kneel down together before a manger in Bethlehem.<br />
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Men of different tastes, cultures, lands, education and aspirations all find what they are looking for in the same thing.<br />
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The shepherds find their shepherd.<br />
The kings find their king.<br />
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It is a story like no other.<br />
The coming of the man called Christ changes everything.<br />
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Source: GK Chesterton – <a ?="" href="http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=6140&T1=chesterton" t1="chesterton" title="http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=">The Everlasting Man</a>Bible Verse Reflections and Commentaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05673044274590198910noreply@blogger.com0