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: Gospel Week: Week 2: Bible Week (Gen - Rev): We are in EXODUS, the 2nd book of Moses. Week 3: Topics Requested by Members: We are currently in Comparative Religions.
Ö 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables Ö 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Comparative Religions: Protestantism,
Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism & Hinduism 4) Great Women in the Bible 6) Book of Revelation
7) Major Heresies and Church Councils
Week 4: Member Questions:
o “How do we know we are following Jesus?
o Does the path get harder or easier the closer we get to God?
o Is the peace of Christ different from peace of the world?
o Why doesn’t God just show himself?
o Jesus says in John 14:28, “The Father is greater than I.” What does this mean? I thought they were one.
o In Genesis and somewhere else, it says that God changed his mind. In another place, it says God repented that he made humans. I thought God was unchangeable. Can you explain this?
o Please provide an intro or overview of the OT books.
o Is sex good or bad?
o What’s the difference between Charity and Love? What are the highest forms of charity?
o Can you provide a brief review of the origin/meaning of the (12) statements in the Creed?
o How many Gospels have the story of Jesus’ calming the storm? They seem different. Are they the same story?
o Why does God seem full of vengeance or violence in the OT? Is this a misinterpretation?
Catholic Catacombs Website: https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/recaps
Major liturgical events in the Church – We are in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Dear Father
As we study the first earthly Exodus of our forebears, we can see the saving experience of humans repeated
As they travel from slavery to this world, through the wilderness of independence, to the life you offer to us all.
As we move on Your Sermon on the Mount, grant us understanding of Your call to be like You!
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.
“Jesus Christ is, was, and is always victorious. The war against evil has been won. The only remaining task is for us to choose sides.”
Week One is Gospel Week
The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7, continued)
We are now finishing Chapter 5 of the Sermon on the Mount.
Q: Last Gospel Week we discussed Jesus’ comment that he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to complete them. To complete the OT is one thing, but what does this have to do with us?
The Law and the Prophets doesn’t just refer to the OT, it refers to the people of God. However, we are all now the people of God. Jesus also says in John 12:47 that he didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it – to give life to it. That, too, refers to us.
So, another way of saying this is that Jesus didn’t come to abolish your life, or overpower you, or condemn you. He came to complete you. He is the “missing piece” we all long for and the only one who can make full sense of our personal history. Why would we ever look anywhere else? This answer does not lie anywhere else in this universe.
We were made for Heaven but we could not attain Heaven on our own, so God brought the gates of Heaven to us.
Matthew 5:43-48
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and unjust.
Q: What does he mean by this? Lucky for us, it means that God is allowing all of us - sinful or otherwise - to receive his blessings and help.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do the pagans not do the same?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The Pharisees would say, “Our Heavenly Father - really?” That – and suggesting we can be like God in his perfection – would have sounded like blasphemy.
That aside, didn’t Jesus come here to institute the sacrament of forgiveness because of our never-ending imperfections? And, if that wasn’t imperfect enough, we nailed him to a cross for it!
Q: So then what’s this about our being asked to be perfect?
As usual, exegesis (scriptural interpretation) requires us to investigate three things:
1) we need to take a look at the word Jesus is using,
2) we need to see how he has used it elsewhere, and
3) we need to consider the context in which he is using it.
1) The Greek word used for “perfect” – “teleioi” or “telios” – deserves attention. The meaning of telios points to the future, such as in a child becoming more like an adult, or an apprentice becoming a master of a trade. This does not preclude achieving some higher state of perfection, but that would likely be in Heaven (or perhaps if you become a saint before leaving here).
2) Now let’s take a look to see how this word is used elsewhere. Telios is used just twice in all of the Gospels, both times by Matthew. The second time is in 19:21. Remember the rich young man who tells Jesus he follows all the commandments and then asks what else he should do to enter Heaven? Jesus replied that if he wants to be telios, he should give all his possessions to the poor and follow him (be careful what you ask for!) In any event, telios/perfection is a process – a journey; however, as everything else in the Sermon on the Mount, it must become internal before any externalities are valid.
3) Lastly, what is the context of Jesus’s statement?
Love! Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies…”
Now, to ‘hate your enemy’ is not a teaching found in the Old Testament, nor is Jesus saying that it is. He is saying that this was accepted thinking among the Jews, and he said it with good reason. However, he was not trying to fault the Jews for this as much as raise them up to a higher spiritual place, closer to God.
There is a command to love one's neighbor in Leviticus 19:18 where God commands, “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Old Covenant people of God interpreted one's "neighbor" as only extending to a member of the covenant people of Yahweh, and hatred of one's enemies as natural and therefore acceptable.
Q: Jesus is teaching that this limited interpretation is no longer acceptable, and He is extending the command to love not only to pagan gentiles, but He is also including what other classification in the ranks of the "loved neighbor?"
He is extending the command to love even to the enemy and the persecutor. Blasphemy!
Q: What reason does He give for this radical redefinition of those we must love?
As children of God, Jesus calls upon us to imitate our Father in Heaven who not only loves in this way but is
the source of all love in the universe. In the same way that God does not withhold His blessings, so too must we not withhold our love.
Q: How does Jesus suggest we practice this difficult task?
“… and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.”
Notice that love is not a “feeling” – it is to will the good of another.
Q: Can we be perfect – telios – holy?
If this sounds difficult, perhaps you are forgetting that after Baptism you have a secret weapon within your soul called the Holy Spirit waiting to be called upon. Or we are forgetting that Jesus’s Trinitarian grace is waiting for us in the Eucharist. Or we are forgetting that forgiveness is free for the asking whenever we make a mistake. Forgiveness wipes the soul clean, remember?
With these tools, the telios path is very doable. And it’s the only path that leads to spiritual happiness.
Jesus is giving us a glimpse of the Kingdom…
Jesus is illuminating for us the qualities that we should try to display to one another and in doing so he is describing the very qualities that God himself displays toward us. This is also a glimpse of what eternal life will be like.
But we are not to wait until Heaven, we must start now. In fact, Jesus promises our lives will be immensely enriched starting right now.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Mt 6:33
As C.S. Lewis put it…
Q: Was Jesus the first to say something like this or was he building on something said earlier in the Old Testament?
“Be holy because I the Lord your God am holy.” – Lev 19:2
So, 3,500 years ago, God was already telling the Israelites to get holy, to get on His path. This is the true meaning of “Exodus.” Freedom from self, freedom to choose good over evil, freedom from this earth, freedom to enter Heaven.
Closing Prayer
Thank you, Father, for loving us into existence
And for giving us another chance when we fell.
Thank you for coming here personally to walk in our shoes
And show us how to live and to love.
Thank you for opening the gates of Heaven to us
And for paying our way.
Thank you for leaving yourself behind in the Eucharist and your Word
And for sending us the Holy Spirit to help us the rest of the way.
And thank you for your 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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