Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study & Apologetics Online via Meetup/Zoom or In Person at St. John Neumann Catholic Church 11900 Lawyers Road, Reston, VA 20191 https://saintjn.org/ House rules/notes… 1. Meetup is www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy Zoom Meeting Logon info is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 2. I will send out Meeting Recaps the same night as our sessions – these are unedited versions without pictures. An edited version with pictures will be posted on our website https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/recaps before the next meeting. Taylor will notify everyone at that time. 3. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can ask in the chat box, email the Meetup group, or me at ron@hallagan.net. 4. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between religions and Christian denominations, and we agree to be respectful at all times. Specifically, Protestants are our friends and brothers in Christ; in fact, I personally owe part of my return to the faith to them! 5. No politics. It would be easy for us to self-destruct, but that’s not our goal. Our goal is to learn/understand/apply the Bible and our Catholic faith. 6. Catholic Prayer & Fellowship. Are you interested in praying with other Catholics during the week? Fellow member Jason Goldberg has started “Catholic Prayer, Fellowship, and Spirituality Meetup.” Sign up at: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/. 7. “The Chosen” TV series. All of us seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is not always easy. It can help if we have seen and heard Him. The Chosen captures the real Jesus as close as any show I have ever seen. Just watch the first two with Mary Magdalene and you will see what I mean. 8. RSVP Reminder: Please RSVP whether you are attending the meeting or just reading the Recaps afterwards. The more RSVPs, the more Meetup will give exposure to “Catholic Bible Study” – a good thing! Consider it your way of evangelizing! Please RSVP when you get the Meetup invite weekly. Our Bible Study Format: 5 min greeting/prayers, 10-15 min Catholic topic, 40-45 min on the main topic from weekly List below: Week 1: Mar 7 - Gospel Week: Sermon on the Mount, cont’d Week 2: Mar 14 – Bible Week (Gen àRev): We are in EXODUS, the 2nd book of Moses. Week 3: Mar 21 – Survey Topics Voted on by Members: We are currently beginning Christian Comparisons/World Religions.
Ö 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables Ö 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons/World Religions 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) World Religions 6) Book of Revelation 7) Major Heresies and Church Councils Week 4: Mar 21 – Member Questions – finish Comparative Religions 1. You said Gen 1-3 (Creation/The Fall of Man) is at least partly allegory. How do you think things actually happened? Deepest mysteries of the universe! 2. The History of the Mass going back to Cain & Abel, all leading to the sublime meaning of the Eucharist. 3. Can you review origin and meaning of the 12 statements of belief in the Creed? 4. “Who am I?” It seems we all ask this question at some point in our lives. Some ask it all the time. How do you answer this? 5. Are Charity and Love synonymous? How are they different? What are the 4 highest forms of Charity? 6. a) Why did Jesus have to die? b) Why did Jesus say, “Father, why hath thou forsaken me?” 7. How many Gospels have the story of Jesus’ calming the storm? Are they the same story? 8. Why was God full of vengeance and violence in the OT? Or was that simply an interpretation by those of that time? Next major upcoming events in the Church Lent – Wed, Feb 22 – Thurs April 6 Triduum – Friday, Apr 7–Sun Apr 9 Easter – April 9 Handout for newcomers and Week 4 Survey Opening Prayer As the prophet Micah wrote, “O people! The LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Our prayer is that we, too, learn to be open and walk humbly with You. May the Holy Spirit guide us as we learn from your famous sermon tonight. And as You taught us to pray: Our Father Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily Bread; And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us all. Amen. Catholic Catacombs Website: https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/recaps
Lenten reflection… “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” God said the first sentence at the Fall of Man in Genesis 3. Jesus said the second part as he began is earthly mission to give us back our immortality as God had intended it. The ashes on our forehead are like a temporary tattoo to impress upon us that we are still in the 6th Day, not the 7th. Q: What’s the meaning of the 6th and 7th Days? The number of days of Creation in Genesis Chapter One are……. SIX. Throughout the “six days,” creation unfolds. Like an opera piece, the story builds up to a crescendo, reaching an apex on the sixth day. Even within the sixth day itself there was an “ascending” of life to more and more complexity, which then concludes with humans. Then God said: Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creatures that crawl along the ground, and beasts of the earth. And so it happened. God saw that it was good. Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts, and every creature that crawls upon the earth. So God created mankind in his own mage, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:24-27
Q: We came into being along with the animals, but the “ascendency” of creation concluded with humans. Why? It was certainly nothing we did, so we can’t be arrogant about it. It’s only because God decided to make us in his image and likeness. As it states in verse 2:7, God breathed his spirit into us. In doing so, He gave humans a spiritual nature, which makes us “like” God and the angels. Q: What spiritual attributes might we credit to our being “like God”? 1) Immortal souls. Our souls contain who we are – our material self and spiritual self – which are united and one. This includes our minds’ accelerated capacity for reason, especially abstract reasoning: our awareness of absolute truth, of a higher being, of justice, fairness, and wickedness. Our souls also include our consciences, the arena where good and evil (or our egos) compete for our attention – and also where we meet the HS, if we choose to invite Him in. 2) Free will. The capacity and freedom to choose right or wrong, good or bad, love or hate. The freedom to respond to God’s invitation to enter a relationship and reclaim our immortality in Heaven. Q: Where does the 7th Day come into play? Just as the six days of creation ascend to the climax of material creation, all of material creation ascends to the 7th Day, God’s kingdom. Note that it doesn’t say anything was created on the 7th Day. It was just the day God rests (ceased activity). The 7th Day was already there. Q: Did God stop there on the 7th Day for Himself? No, He stopped there for us, as though to wait for us. Why? Because one can only enter by their own free will. Another name for 7th Day is the Sabbath; and as Jesus told the Pharisees, the Sabbath was made for man, not God.
Q: In Biblical numerology, who remembers what the meaning of SEVEN is? Seven means perfect, complete, fulfillment, which is put in Scripture because it is being directed to us. Human perfection, completion, and fulfillment refer to our destiny. It lies in the 7th Day. This is what humans were created for. Said another way, the 6th Day is not our home. Our home is in the 7th Day. Suddenly, everything we do here is preparation for where we are heading next. We are heading home. Speaking of which, has anyone ever felt 100% at home in this life, like we belong here? Has anyone noticed that out of the 8 million+ species on earth, we are the only ones who are never satisfied with our nature, with who we are? The birds and fish and bears and trees all seem perfectly content doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. They are all fulfilling their own nature! What is wrong with us? If I were to ask, “What is it that we are supposed to be doing?” I would venture that most people wouldn’t have a clue. What we do seem to know is that we are not satisfied in the here and now, which is to say always. Does any human want to stay exactly as they are for the rest of their lives? No. We have nothing but problems, and even if we don’t have problems, we still want more, or better, or different; we want to be taller, faster, smarter, healthier, better looking, and more hilarious than everyone else. Often, we’ll take anything but what we have now. Why is that? Because living out our lives as animals isn’t our destiny. Once God gave us a spiritual nature (a higher nature) then the 6th Day is no longer our home. You might say it’s our temporary “animal home,” but that’s akin to what boot camp is to being in the military, or what our education years are to preparing us for the rest of life. Our higher selves now share in God’s nature, not the world’s nature. This is what Jesus means when he said Christians are in the world, not of the world.
Interestingly, we already have one foot in 7th Day. You can tell this because we have God’s attributes imprinted all over us, starting with the idea perfection. We all desire perfection, but who has ever experienced it? Isn’t it interesting that humans have this idea of perfection even though no such thing exists in human history? Example: we want perfect justice, do we not? Has anyone ever seen perfect justice? No, and we not only want it, we will protest if we don’t get it, and maybe even burn and kill for it (whether or not it’s true – merely the “thought” that justice is due to us). Similarly, do we not aspire to attain perfect love? Has it ever existed on this planet outside of Jesus? And what about perfect bodies? And to live forever? We seem to be as clear about wanting perfection as we are clear that it is forever out of our reach. These are not rational desires, unless we are spiritually wired to seek perfection (the 7th Day). CS Lewis had a good quote on this: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.” Those who reject God still can’t help but seek perfection, just in all the wrong places. We simply cannot fill this need with material things. Even atheistic political theory seeks “Utopia” (man-made, of course.) If we can learn to manage our 6th Day lives and experiences by the light of 7th Day wisdom (i.e., love, compassion, equanimity, service, forgiveness), then things in this world will begin to look a whole lot more manageable. BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POINT – DUST! In Gen 3 when the first humans chose against God, then, as God had warned, they would die (become mortal). By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” The good news is that God decided to give us another chance, even though we didn’t deserve it, even though we didn’t ask for it, and even though the angels didn’t get this. God would give us one mortal lifetime to come back to Him.
“We are dust and to dust we shall return.”
As I mentioned, the Lenten ashes we get on our foreheads are like a temporary tattoo to impress upon us that we are still in the 6th Day, still in this temporary animal kingdom, not God’s kingdom, yet. The SIXTH day is where Satan wants to keep us. He wants us to stay distracted at any cost – and even successful – whatever it takes to help us forget about the 7th Day. This is one of the reasons the devil gets the number 666 – the 6th Day is the day of the beast.
This 6th Day is but finite stepping-stones to the 7th Day, the Kingdom of God. They are stones of selflessness and love.
Surely, we can practice this for a few weeks, can we not? Surely, we realize that that these are the “perfect” building blocks for the perfect kind of place we all want to be in, right?
Suggestion: During Lent, one thing we should try to give up is our ego’s self-consciousness worrying about what other people are thinking about us. The truth is that they aren’t thinking about us, anyway. Just like us, they are all thinking that everyone else is thinking about them. So, we should stop make-believing we are at the center of things and try putting others in the center for a few weeks.
“Whoever wishes to follow me must deny themselves…” – Luke 9:23 Grace Bonuses are received for each of the actions above, because each is another way that we “deny ourselves.” Lenten Prayer Sources https://mycatholic.life/lent-prayers-reflections/ https://equippinggodlywomen.com/faith/daily-lenten-prayers-for-spiritual-renewal/(40 prayers for 40 days) www.masstimes.org
The very first 11 verses of the Sermon on the Mount are the 8 Beatitudes, which we covered last month. Now we will continue with the most famous sermon delivered by Jesus while on earth.
Sermon on the Mount, cont’d (Matthew 5-7) Mountains in Scripture are the site of Theophanies. What is a theophany? (Greek: theo = God + phany = appear). In Exodus, Moses went up Mt. Sinai to meet God, and then came down the mountain to deliver the 10 Commandments to the people. Recall this time that Jesus has taken the people up the mountain with him to deliver his sermon. The imagery here was not lost on the apostles or early fathers of the Church. Matthew 5 1-11 The Beatitudes – the basics of the new commandments (last month) 13-16 Salt and Light – we are the salt of the earth, and light to the nations 17-20 Every iota of the OT will be fulfilled (perfected) 21-26 Murder vs anger 27-30 Adultery vs lust – subjectification of sex, objectification of others 31-32 Divorce – the goal of marriage The Six Antitheses 33-36 Oaths vs yes/no “You have heard, but I say…” 38-42 Retaliation: eye for an eye vs turn the other cheek 43-48 Love your enemies
Q: What is the meaning of Jesus calling his disciples the “salt of the earth”?
Cultural – note that the flavoring function salt is not to overcome, but to bring out the flavor of the food it is put on. By having God/Christ in our lives, we don’t disappear; rather, the best of who we are is brought out.
Practical – just as salt preserves foods from decay, Christ preserves our lives in this life and especially beyond.
Religious – the partaking of salt by those seated at table was an ancient symbol of friendship and alliance. Unlike any other time or any other god, God/Yahweh shared sacrifices with his people as a sign of friendship & alliance. That’s why it was called the “salt of the covenant.” Similarly, the good news of the Gospel is the salt of humanity – friendship, alliance, preservation, and bringing out the best in humanity.
Q: Why did Jesus warn about salt losing its flavor?
It is our faith in Christ/Gospel and our good deeds that make us the salt of the earth. If you lose faith or have no good deeds, you are good for nothing because salt that imparts no flavor is useless, it’s not salt.
Q: What does Jesus mean by telling his disciples we are the “Light of the World”?
Salt that loses its flavor is useless; so is a lamp under a basket. Christ is the light of the world, and if we have faith and do good deeds, we will be a light unto the world also, because we are glorifying him.
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” –Jn 8:12
Q: If Christians are asked to be the light of the world, isn’t that a contradiction since Jesus is the light of the world?
Certainly not. The Christian does not generate his own light. It is Christ within us that gives us light.
17-20 Every iota of the OT will be fulfilled (perfected).
First century Jews questioned whether Jesus intended to override or abolish the teachings of The Law and The Prophets (= the OT). Quite the contrary, he says he came to complete them. (elevate/perfect)
Iota comes from the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, meaning not even the smallest thing will escape completion.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Mt. 5:20
Q: The scribes and Pharisees prided themselves on their righteousness and rigid adherence to the “Law.” How then must our righteousness exceed theirs in order to enter Heaven?
The scribes and Pharisees had gone too far in defining the letter of the Law and the rules of the Law, rather than the spirit of love that was behind them. Think of laws we may pass to protect people, and let’s say that over the years the people enforcing the laws forgot all about who they were protecting, but they increased enforcement such that any small violation could result in a prison sentence. Rules are always supposed to be a means to a greater end, not an end in themselves.
Jesus was calling them out on this and calling all of us to a deeper, inner holiness that accomplishes the love God intended.
Examples of this come in the next “Six Antitheses” … “You have heard… but I say…”
1. Murder vs anger
2. Adultery vs lust – subjectification of sex, objectification of others
3. Divorce – the goal of marriage
4. Oaths vs yes/no
5. Retaliation: eye for an eye vs turn the other cheek
6. Love your enemies
And, of course, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." – Mt 5:48
But, wait! How can we to be perfect if we just got done talking about how we can never be perfect?
To be continued…
Closing Prayer
Dear Lord
Tonight we studied your elevated commandments delivered at the Sermon on the Mount –
The Magna Carta of the entire Bible.
May we learn to incorporate your teachings into our daily lives
For we know that in doing so we are become children of God
And will inherit your Kingdom on the last day.
To assist us in this journey,
We are going to enlist the help and prayers of your very own mother!
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
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