Every Tuesday, 7PM-8PM. This meeting is a lecture/Q&A format. It is free.
House Rules/Notes…
1. Our meeting/classes are In-Person at St. John Neumann Catholic Church 11900 Lawyers Road, Reston, VA 20191 https://saintjn.org/ (usually held downstairs in Room 5), or ONLINE via Zoom (see #2).
2. To sign up for Zoom notifications and to receive the Meeting Recaps, go to www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy and join us! The Zoom Logon is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952.
3. After each meeting, I send out Meeting Recaps of what we discussed. Please remember these recaps are unedited and without the pictures. The edited version with pictures will be posted before the next class on the Website – www.CatholicCatacombs.org. Taylor will notify everyone at that time and provide a link.
4. Questions encouraged. If you have questions, we ask that you keep them on topic and brief. You can ask in the chat box during the class, or email through Meetup.com, or email me at ron@hallagan.net afterwards.
5. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between religions and between Christian denominations, and we agree to be respectful at all times. Protestants especially are our friends and brothers-in-Christ; in fact, I personally owe part of my return to the faith to them!
6. 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.
7. Catholic Prayer & Fellowship. Are you interested in praying the rosary, etc. with other Catholics during the week? Follow fellow member Jason Goldberg at https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/. Daily/weekly prayer is saintly!
8. “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 Jesus better than any show I have ever seen. Highly recommended.
9. 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!
Bible Study Format: Each week of the month has a repeating topic, as noted below.
Each meeting: 5 min greet, prayer, 10-15 min Catholic topic, 40-45 min main topic.
Week 1: Gospel Week
Week 2: Bible Week (Gen to Rev): We are in The Book of JUDGES.
Week 3: Survey Topics Voted on by Members:
4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Book of Revelation 6) Fathers, Heresies, and Church Councils
Week 4: Member Questions:
1. What is “conscience?” To answer this we must also define our soul, free will, and our passions, and how these relate to each other.
2. Purgatory. How do I live my Christian faith at work when my faith is not accepted there?
3. How do I live my Christian faith at work when my faith is not accepted there?
4. What should our response be to those who ask us about priestly sex abuse?
5. What about the atheist who leads a good life? Can I be a person be good apart from God?
6. Miracles since the NT
7. Was King David good or bad? Was Emperor Constantine good or bad? Was he a Christian? What is a prophet?
8. Why does God allow suffering?
9. What is Tradition? Is Tradition equal to Scripture in importance? (2Thes2:15)
Today’s Agenda
1. Apologetics: What is a spiritual mystery?
2. Sunday Solemnity of the Ascension 5.12 Acts 1:1-12 and Mark 16:15-20
3. Gospel #2: John 3:7-15 “You must be born from above.”
Opening Prayer
Gratitude
1. Thank you for becoming one of us; for walking in our shoes and showing us how to live, love, and forgive one another.
2. Thank you, Father, for loving us into existence and for taking us back after we abandoned You.
3. Thank you for taking our sins to the cross and opening the gates of Heaven to all who seek Your friendship and forgiveness.
4. Thank you for remaining with us in so many ways to help us complete our journey – in your Word, in our prayers, in the Sacraments (especially the Eucharist), and in the Holy Spirit.
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. Amen.
Upcoming major holy days in the Liturgy of the Church
May 9 – The Mystery of the Ascension of Jesus Christ May 19 - Pentecost
Quote of the Week:
“Grace does not violate our nature but perfects it.” – Thomas Aquinas
Review Survey. Going forward, we will meet in person at SJN the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month. Zoom meetings will continue EVERY TUESDAY.
Apologetics and Exegesis Terms
“I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand.”
Exegesis is the study/interpretation of the Word of God. If Jesus IS the Word of God, then you might also say that exegesis is the study/interpretation of Jesus. In a way, then, Jesus is also the exegesis of the Father! A more down to earth definition: exegesis is the study and interpretation of the Word of God (Scripture). It is what we do every week. You are all exegetes.
Catholic Apologetics– apologetics means to defend a belief, so Catholic Apologetics is the art of defending the Catholic faith using reason, tradition, and Scripture.
Exegesis – the study and interpretation of Scripture. It’s what we do here every week. You are all exegetes!
What is meant by “Mystery”?
In Christianity, there are certain events where infinite concepts must be translated as best they can into finite words for our finite minds, and these are called mysteries. Examples would be the Incarnation, the Trinity, and the Ascension.
However, it is important to note the difference between infinite-spiritual mysteries and worldly-finite mysteries.
We normally think of mystery as an unsolved riddle, or unproven conjecture. All the pieces are there, we just don’t know them yet, such as in a detective novel. Or in science: we may not understand quite how black holes in the universe work, but we know that we will eventually. All the material components (energy, gravity, space, time, unknown…) are there. These are examples of finite-material mysteries. Infinite/spiritual/faith mysteries are a different problem, because of their infinite-ness.
The 5th definition listed in Dictionary.com nails it: “Any truth that is unknowable except by divine revelation.”
The second part – “that is unknowable except by divine revelation” – implies that human reason and logic aren’t even what brought this mystery to our attention. The Incarnation was brought to our attention through the Annunciation by Gabriel to Mary. Dying on the cross as an act of love for our forgiveness was forced upon us, against almost every reasonable bone in our body. Christ’s glorified body had to be witnessed by many disciples to be believed. Same with the Ascension, let alone what the Ascension really means. And who in their right mind would have invented the Trinity, 3 distinct persons but ONE, as a condition for being Christian.
We only came to know these things because God revealed them to us. The second part is understanding it once it has been revealed! How do you explain the Trinity? The name “Trinity” was invented as just one of those efforts to be able to converse about it. That’s because it is an eternal and infinite concept that is above our finite pay grade. We put it in the best finite, human terms we can, which is also what we do with the Eucharist, BTW.
The fact is that no matter how well we may or not be able to explain it or understand it, we won’t completely grasp its full meaning, or full glory, in this finite lifetime. But once we enter into the infinite, we will!
As Einstein noted more accurately than perhaps he intended, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”
In conclusion, a faith mystery involves a truth that we become aware of by God’s revelation, not human reasoning; and which we will not be able to understand, or appreciate fully, until we enter the next life.
Gospel #1 – Solemnity of the Ascension (May 9)
Context: Jesus’ resurrection and appearance to the Apostles is recorded in detail in Luke 23:36-48, John 20:19-23. He appeared privately to Peter and also to James who became the first Christian bishop of Jerusalem; then to more than 500 disciples at one time (1 Cor 15:5-7). In the Gospel of Mark, he also commissions them to perform miracles in his name.
This Thursday and Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. You may have noticed that we profess our faith in this mystery when we say in the Nicene Creed: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. To say seated at God’s right hand has both figurative and real implications. Figurative, because God doesn’t have a right hand, but “seating at the right hand” signifies the inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom prophesied by Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man (Dan 7:14). The real implication to this wording is that Christ’s ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’s humanity into The Trinity. Jesus Christ, as the head of the Church, precedes us into the Kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may one day follow Him there.
“I go to prepare a place for you… so that where I am you may be also.” John 14:3
Moreover, Jesus taking his humanity with him – wounds and all – signifies that he continues to intercede for us for the rest of human time. His sacrifice for our sins is both once and for all, and forever more.
Mark 16:17-20
15-16 Jesus said to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Baptism is necessary for salvation! God will save whomever He wants, but the Church has been given no other way to bring mankind to salvation other than through the Sacrament of Baptism. (CCC1257)
17-18 These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Each of these “signs” are recorded in the Book of Acts, including Paul’s experience with a snake (Acts 28:3-6).
19-20 So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
The Ascension opens the way for us to follow Jesus. As another passage from the letter to the Hebrews explains:
“We have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Heb 10:19–20).
Q: What does “confidence to enter the sanctuary” refer to?
The temple curtain that separated the Chosen People from God (in the Holy of Holies/Ark of the Covenant). When Jesus died, recall the temple curtain was torn in two.
Although symbols like this are good because they can intellectually point us to realities, the realities themselves are much better! All our symbolic descriptions of the Ascensions are kind of like road signs that point us to Heaven, but the reality of the Ascension is more like the car that takes us there!
Gospel #2: John 10:11-18
The 4th Sunday of Easter (two weeks ago) is called Good Shepherd Sunday’ in the reading (John 10:11-18), Jesus tells his audience that he is the Good Shepherd. We would all agree he certainly is that, but Jesus is also saying something very challenging – something provocative enough to get him killed.
The Gospel of the Good Shepherd is the climax of a three-chapter-long confrontation between Jesus and Jewish leaders.
It started with Jesus teaching in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles. In the course of the showdown, he compares himself to “living waters” and calls himself “the light of the world.” He twice references his own divinity saying, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” and “I and the Father are One.”
He doesn’t just teach astonishing things, he also does astonishing things: They bring him the adulteress right there in the Temple grounds, and Jesus takes the confrontation and turns it against the Jewish leaders.
It all comes to a head as Chapter 10 begins, and Jesus explains to the Jewish leaders who he is, in the words of today’s Gospel: “I am the Good Shepherd.”
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.This command I have received from my Father.”
When Jesus says he’s the good shepherd, we might picture the smiling shepherd that leaves the 99 behind and brings the one back on his shoulders, rejoicing, perhaps whistling some happy tune. However, that’s not what the Jewish leaders pictured. They pictured God Himself coming to shepherd his people, the way it was described by the prophet Ezekiel — one of the three great prophets, along with Isaiah and Jeremiah.
You see, Jesus wasn’t calling himself a friendly farmhand. By claiming the words of the prophets, he was saying he is God Himself coming as promised to gather the nations to himself.
This challenged them for three reasons – and it ought to challenge us similarly.
First, Jesus describes himself as the true friend of the people, and other leaders as imposters. He says:
“I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf comes and scatters them.”
What the Jewish leaders heard were strong echoes of Ezekiel, saying “Woe to the shepherds of Israel” for ignoring the sheep such that “they were scattered for lack of a shepherd and became food for all the wild beasts.”
We should also take the cue that we shouldn’t give ourselves to leaders other than Christ; political leaders, corporate leaders, and cultural leaders will only disappoint us.
Next, Jesus makes himself God. He says:
“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”
In fact, as the Jewish leaders knew from Ezekiel, God didn’t just promise a new human shepherd. He said, “I myself will pasture my sheep.” Jesus was somehow claiming that he was God himself arriving at last.
That has dramatic consequences in our lives also. If Jesus and the Father are one, and we are meant to know Jesus as the Father knows the Son, then Jesus — the God-man who died for us — has to take the very first place in our life, pushing other considerations aside.
Third, Jesus makes himself their judge and extends salvation to the whole world.
In addition to calling the Temple leaders “thieves and robbers” Jesus said:
“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
The Jewish leaders knew that God’s plan for salvation did not exclude all non-Jewish people. For one, it already made room for non-Jews such as the righteous Job, the prostitute Rahab, the widow of Sidon, and the Syrian commander, Naaman— and it stretched all the way from proto-priest Melchizedek at the time of Abraham (2000 BC) to King Cyrus at the end of the Babylonian Exile 430 BC). But also Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke of a New Covenant coming, when the kingdom would be opened up to all the nations. And now, here was Jesus proclaiming to be the Good Shepherd, the Bread of eternal life, and the light to the nations.
Gospel #3? Surrender and Cooperation
What does Jesus mean when he tells Nicodemus, "You must be born from above" and compares it to the wind?
John 3:7b-15 Jesus said to Nicodemus: “‘You must be born from above.’
The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Q: What is Jesus talking about?
The Holy Spirit. Even though the Holy Spirit wasn’t identified as a person until later in the New Testament the Jews fully understood the power of the Spirit of God. The next evolution of the Jewish faith, once Jesus repaired man’s breach with God, was the Spirit of God coming to us, into us.
Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can this happen?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Q: All these things relate to the Spirit. The question is, how should we relate to the Spirit?
If you think about it, the Christian life is more like using a sailboat than a jet ski. A jet ski generates its own power, and its driver traverses the water however he likes. But a sailboat defers to the direction and power of the wind. The sailor is successful to the degree that he cooperates with the free movement of the wind.
And so it is with us: our “success” in the Christian life depends on our openness to the wind of the Spirit guiding and empowering us. When we are “born of the Spirit” in Baptism, we receive the grace to move through life like that sailboat (John 3:8). It’s that grace that teaches us to cooperate with the Spirit.
Q: Who can think of another analogy?
The pilot-copilot relationship. I used to treat God as my copilot. Eventually, I learned to become the co-pilot, although this learning process never ends!
A slow dance, where the HS has the lead. This helps when you are dealing with things “in the moment.”
Closing Prayer
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered;let those who hate him flee before him! …But let the righteous be joyful;let them exult before God;let them be jubilant with joy!Sing to God, sing praises to his name;lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds;his name is the Lord, exult before him!–Psalm 68:1, 3–4,
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,
Blessed art though 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.
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