Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study & Apologetics House rules/notes… 1. Online via Meetup/Zoom or In Person at St. John Neumann Catholic Church 11900 Lawyers Road, Reston, VA 20191 https://saintjn.org/ 2. Meetup is www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy Zoom Meeting Logon info is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. 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! 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 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/. 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! Catholic Catacombs Website: https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website 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 EXODUS, the 2nd book of Moses. Week 3: Survey Topics Voted on by Members:
x 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables x 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven x 3) Comparative Religions
4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Book of Revelation 6) Major Heresies and Church Councils
Week 4: Member Questions:
1. Please provide an intro or overview of the OT books.
2. Indulgences – origin, types, how they work, how to get them
3. What’s the difference between Charity and Love? What are the highest forms of charity?
4. Can you provide a brief review of the origin/meaning of the (12) statements in the Creed?
5. Why does God seem full of vengeance or violence in the OT? Is this a misinterpretation?
6. Can we do a Christian Meditation one evening?
7. Angels – who are they, what do they do, and do we really have guardian angels?
8. Please explain exorcisms. Do they happen, are they real?
Exegesis Terms
Apostacy/apostatize – to turn away from one’s religious beliefs.
Apologetics – origin Greek; means to defend one’s beliefs.
Catholic apologetics– to defend the Catholic faith using reason, tradition, and Scripture.
Eschatology – the study of the end times: death, heaven, hell, purgatory, judgment day.
Exegesis – the study and interpretation of Scripture (it’s what we do here every week; you are all “exegetes”).
Man – generic for mankind, humanity.
God the Father/He/Him – scriptural tradition as God is not a gender; God does set the gold standard for fatherhood.
Preternatural – means “outside the natural”; refers to the preternatural grace Adam & Eve had before the Fall.
Opening Prayer
Dear Lord, we thank you for everyone gathered here today
and ask that you surround us with your powerful, life-changing presence.
Be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Fill our hearts with your love and fill our words and conversations with truth and grace.
We ask all of these things in praise and adoration of You...
And as Jesus 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.
Amen.
Major liturgical events in the Church: none. Note: Sept 8 is part of Labor Day weekend, so no class Sept 8.
Question from last week: Can a Protestant receive Catholic confession and absolution? Yes, if properly baptized.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Assumption of Mary was held by the Church from the beginning of Christianity. It wasn’t until after the Protestant Reformation that this was challenged. I say “after” because the first Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, never questioned the Assumption of Mary:
“For Martin Luther, Mary's Assumption was an understood fact, as his homily of 1522 indicates, in spite of the fact that Mary's Assumption is not expressly reported in Sacred Scripture. For the Protestant reformer, there was no reason to doubt about the Assumption of the Virgin into heavenly glory. "Indeed, no Christian doubts that the most worthy Mother of the Lord lives with her beloved Son in heavenly joy." (Marienlexikon, vol 3, 200)
To understand the Assumption, we need to understand Mary's role in four key areas:
1. Her role in stopping Satan (Gen 3:15)
2. Her Immaculate Conception (Luke 1:28)
3. Her role as the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant (Luke 1:41-45)
4. Her role in Revelations 11-12, which shows her not only as Queen of Heaven but also a Warrior Queen.
#1. Who knows where in the Bible points to Mary’s role in stopping Satan?
Gen 3:15. This is God talking to serpent/Satan after Adam and Eve eat from the tree:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers. He will crush your head, and you strike his heel. – Gen 3:15
The Jews considered this verse the first Messianic prophecy, as do the Christians who call it the “protoevangelium,” or “first Gospel.”
The first part – “you and the woman” – is referring to the serpent/Satan and Eve; the second part refers to Mary – the “new Eve” and her seed, Jesus, who Paul calls the “new Adam” (1 Cor 15:22).
Whereas Eve said “no” to God, Mary says “yes” when Gabriel appears to her: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
Mary is called the “new Eve” because she ushered in a new age for humanity by accepting to be the mother of Jesus, who reversed the Fall of Man and opened the gates of Heaven.
#2) Mary’s Immaculate Conception
We did a whole class on this, and you can read the notes on our website anytime but suffice to say here that the Immaculate Conception means Mary was born without the effects of the Fall of Man, which was the loss of sanctifying grace (called the “Original Sin”). The loss of this grace is why they had to leave Eden, and why the gates of Heaven were closed until Christ came. Jesus restored us to sanctifying grace through the Holy Spirit at Baptism.
God, knowing for all eternity that Mary would bear the 2nd Person of the Trinity decided that her womb should not stained by Original Sin; therefore she was given sanctifying grace at her own conception.
Besides the pure reason and logic of this, it was the statement made by the Angel Gabriel in Luke 1:26-28 that led to the Church’s understanding that Mary was born without Original Sin, in preparation to receive the God-child in her.
"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28).
The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. This term used is in the past perfect tense, meaning she was already full of sanctifying grace when the Gabriel came to her. That is what we refer to as Mary’s “Immaculate Conception,” which has been held and taught by the early Church fathers since the first century.
One reason why the Immaculate Conception is relevant to the Assumption is because of the first condition of man after the fall – that we would die and return to dust. Since Mary was not subject to the conditions of the Fall, it is logical that her body would be raised uncorrupted by death.
#3) Mary’s role as the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant
As you may know, God instructed Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark were the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, bread/manna, and eventually the staff of Aaron, representing priestly authority. All three represented the “covenant” – the Commandments (word of God), the bread (dependence on God), and the priestly offerings for sin and forgiveness.
On top of the ark was called the “mercy seat” where God “sat,” with two Cherubim on either end. There was nothing physical to see on the seat since God was not a physical image and thus there should be no “image” there.
The Jews took this Ark with them wherever they went through their 40 years in the desert and even into battle once they entered the Promised Land, because it had the power frighten and conquer enemies (based on the faith and obedience of the Jews).
After David had just become king, he was returning from battle carrying the Ark to the hill country of Judah (eventually Jerusalem). David’s relationship with God was such that he danced with great joy ahead of the procession that was bringing the Ark, singing, “How is it that the Lord, our God, has come to me?” - 2Samuel 6, 1-10.
David again assembled all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand in number. They transported the ark of God on a new cart and took it from the house of Abinadab on the hill (in Judah). Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the cart, while David and all the house of Israel danced before the LORD with all their might, with singing, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, and cymbals… and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. – excerpts from 2 Sam 6:1-10, 1 Chronicles 13
The Ark of the Covenant was considered the most sacred and important possession of all Israel from the time of Moses onward, because it was contained the Word of God and the presence of God.
Why is Mary the fulfillment of the true Ark of the Covenant?
Just as the Ark contained the words of God – the Ten Commandments, Mary contained Jesus, the actual Word of God, not just stone tablets.
The Ark also contained the manna/bread from Heaven. Mary contained Jesus, the true bread from Heaven (John 6).
The Ark contained the staff of Aaron, representing priestly authority over the people’s sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus was the ultimate priestly authority who sacrificed himself for all our sins, once and for all.
Are there further Scriptural reasons for Mary being the Ark of the Covenant?
Yes. Let’s compare Mary visiting Elizabeth after the Annunciation by Gabriel (Luke 1:41-45) to David’s Ark experiences in 2 Samuel. After Mary agrees to carry the Lord, Gabriel tells Mary her elderly cousin, Elizabeth, is already in her six month of pregnancy, for nothing is impossible for God.
· In 2 Samuel, David heads into the Judean hill country with the Ark of the Covenant. Now Mary – the true Ark of the Covenant – heads into the hill country of Judah, which is where Elizabeth lived.
· In Samuel, David dances and leaps for joy in front of the Ark. When Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice, the baby in her womb (John the Baptist) leaps for joy – in front of the Ark of Mary!
· David says, “How has the Ark of the Lord come to me? “ Elizabeth announces, “How is it that the mother of our Lord has come to me?”
· In 2 Samuel, the Ark remains in the hill country for 3 months. Mary stays with Elizabeth’s for approximately 3 months.
So far, we have Mary as the new Eve who’s seed (Jesus) will crush the head of Satan. We have Mary born without Original Sin to bear the Christ Child, which means her body ought not see corruption (dust). We have Mary as the fulfillment of the true Ark of the Covenant, as her womb carries the Jesus the New Covenant.
Now let’s move to Revelations.
#4) Mary’s role in Revelations 11-14 as not only Queen of Heaven but also Warrior Queen.
John’s vision at the end of Rev. 11 begins with the Ark of the Covenant being revealed inside the Heavenly Temple.
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant.
And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
It is astounding first of all that John sees the Ark of the Covenant in the Heavenly Temple (it has been missing since the Babylonian Exile). The lightning and thunder point to something great happening, which is John’s next vision replacing the Ark with a woman giving birth.
Who is giving birth to whom?
Mary giving birth to Jesus. Her being clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet indicates her bodily transcendency. The crown indicates queenship.
Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”
Who is the dragon?
The dragon is Lucifer/Satan.
What does it mean that his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky?
This refers to the fallen angels that followed Satan’s fall.
Why does Satan confront the woman?
Satan confronts the woman “so he could eat the child as soon as it was born.” Satan’s goal since the Fall of Man is to abort the work of the Messiah and kill him.
Did Satan intend to kill the Jesus before his birth?
Yes. Herod sent his men to kill all boys in Bethlehem under the age of two. However, Joseph dreamed a vision telling him depart immediately for Egypt.
“…while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had prepared a place for her to be looked after for twelve hundred sixty days.”
A war breaks out in Heaven between Michael and his angels fighting the dragon and his fallen angels. Remember the Ark – the most sacred presence in the history of Israel, now surpassed by Mary – is once again in the midst of the battle.
In the end, they win…
“By the blood of the Lamb…” Rev 12:11
Which means Jesus has made it to the cross.
Can you see the prophecy of the war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve playing out? When Satan fails, he uses the high priest Caiaphas to manipulate the Roman governor, Pilate, to crucify Jesus as a last resort. But the cross was God’s plan of using Satan to help Jesus fulfill his divine plan.
Although Jesus has conquered evil and death in the eternal realm, the battle for human souls continues here on earth because we have free will and must make our choices. Satan and his fallen angels are still active for the time being – until Judgment Day.
That also means Mary’s role as helper and advocate continues to this day – as her countless appearances such as Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe have shown – and some have given her the title Warrior Queen. However, remember that God does not fight with human weapons. He fights with the opposite weapons.
The Protestants say Mary represents the Church, and indeed she does, which why you see the Church, the Body of Christ, all of us, pray for her intercession continuously.
How else might John be qualified to speak about Mary in this way?
On the cross, Jesus gives his mother to John to care for her. Mary not only finishes out her years with John but traditions says she remained a source of love and encouragement for the apostles.
John’s vision also takes place after the death of Mary.
Mary’s job is not complete upon her death. Her soul did not go alone to Heaven to await Judgement Day; she went body and soul, and so she appears to us this way. The Church continues to employ the Ark of Mary against the forces of darkness.
The Assumption – specifics...
The doctrine of the Assumption says that at the end of her life on earth Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven, just as Enoch, Elijah, and perhaps others had been before her. It’s also necessary to keep in mind what the Assumption is not. Some people think Catholics believe Mary "ascended" into heaven. That’s incorrect. Christ, by his own power, ascended into heaven. Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven by God. She didn’t do it under her own power.
The Church has never formally defined whether she died or not, and the integrity of the doctrine of the Assumption would not be impaired if she did not in fact die, but the almost universal consensus is that she did die. Pope Pius XII, in Munificentissimus Deus (1950), defined that Mary, "after the completion of her earthly life" (note the silence regarding her death), "was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven."
It is agreed upon that Mary ended her life in either in Jerusalem or Ephesus. However, neither those cities nor any other claimed her remains, though there are claims about possessing her temporary tomb. And why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there weren’t any bones to claim, and people knew it. Here was Mary, certainly the most highly regarded saint who ever lived, but we have no record of her bodily remains being venerated anywhere.
As I mentioned earlier, since Mary was “saved” at birth and did not have the effects of the Fall, it makes sense that her body ought not decompose on earth. If we can acknowledge that Enoch (Gen 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) were taken up bodily by God, then it should not be difficult to think that Jesus Christ would do the same for his own mother who brought him into the world, raised him, and was at his side through his death and resurrection.
Why is the Assumption itself not explicitly written into Scripture?
First, and most obvious, is that Mary was probably still alive when most of the NT was being written. The best estimate for her death is in the AD 60s, possibly in Jerusalem but more likely in Ephesus, where John resided.
Second, I would give you the same reason that Mary herself would give you: that is, the Gospel is about her son, not her. Everything Mary ever did during and after her life was point to her son.
Who recalls Mary’s last recorded words in the Gospels?
At the wedding at Cana: “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you” (John 2:5).
We also have extant writings of about what the early Christians believed. One is St. Epiphanius, the great bishop and defender of orthodoxy, who in 350 AD gives us key insights into the antiquity of the Assumption.
There are a number of stories about Mary’s end of her life on earth, some saying she was taken up bodily while still alive, some saying she was taken up just after dying. The Church claims no certainty about which specifics may be more accurate than another. Below is one example of early writings from the Eastern Church that tells of Mary's passing from this life to the next. The text, more commonly known as Transitus (passing on, crossing over) Mariae, tells of Mary's homegoing in some detail:
Fra Angelico’s Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin
In the presence of the apostles gathered around her bed, also in the presence of her divine Son and many angels, Mary died and her soul, rose to heaven, accompanied by Christ and the angels. Her body was buried by the disciples. Difficulties developed among certain of the Jews who wished to dispose of her body. Various types of miracles occurred to convince them to honor Mary's body. On the third day, Christ returned, and Mary was reunited with her body. Accompanied by singing angels, Christ brought Mary to paradise.
As we have noted, Mary's story does not end with her Assumption. After entering heaven, Mary remained active in the service of her Son for the life of the Church. Many Christians believe that she has manifested her concern in visible appearances and miraculous cures. Some of these events are commemorated in the Church’s liturgical calendar (e.g., Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11, Protection of Mary on October 1).
Q: If the blood of the Lamb has conquered evil and the devil, why are we still fighting evil and the devil?
The eternal war is over, the temporal one is not because we still have free will. Like our first parents, now it’s our turn to decide whether to follow God or not, although we have all the help and forgiveness we could ask for. Every morning, God’s train leaves our bedside and we decide to get on it or not. We continue to get on it, and one day it will arrive in Heaven, as promised.
The Transfiguration of the Lord
You may recall reading or hearing the Transfiguration story at the beginning of Lent. That is accurate because it is part of the Lenten journey. However, the Transfiguration has its own feast day – Aug 6 every year. It is an important even in Christian salvation history for several reasons, two of them being the revealing of the divinity of Jesus and the revealing of the Trinity.
Location of the Mountain of Transfiguration
The gospel accounts do not indicate the location of the mountain Jesus took Peter, James, and John. There are two possibilities: Mt. Tabor, 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee, and Mt. Hermon near Caesarea Philippi, 40 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. There are good arguments for both, but early church tradition always places the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, as documented by Christian historian Eusebius of Caesarea in the 3rd century and the St. Jerome in the 4th Century. By the 5th century, churches and monasteries were already being built atop the hill. During the Byzantine period, Christians from all over began making pilgrimages to Mount Tabor to remember the miracle.
Mount Tabor isn’t a very big mountain at 1,886 feet. However, it stands alone in the area and was considered very strategic “high ground” throughout the centuries. The mountain is located at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, eleven miles west of the Sea of Galilee.
Setting for the Transfiguration
The Transfiguration is in Mt 17. In Chapter 16, Jesus is beginning the final year of his 3 ½ year ministry. He has now shared with the Apostles that he must suffer greatly at the hands of the Jewish and Roman leaders, be killed, and rise on the third day. They did not grasp the meaning of “rise on the third day” – they already assumed all souls rose from the dead. So, imagine where this left them: they are no longer going to be part the great earthly saving of Israel. After leaving everything behind 3 years ago to follow Jesus, now he is talking about being tortured and killed. This is not only a destabilizing jolt to their senses, but now there’s the onset of fear – what will happen to them? What are they supposed to do? What can they possibly do without Him?
In establishing the setting for what happens next, it may be worthwhile to consider what Jesus taught at the end of Chapter 16. Jesus is teaching that he came to place God back in the #1 position in human lives, for if we place the world as #1, then you are choosing wrong, now and eternally.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.” – Mt 16:26-28
People often wonder what this last statement means, but in the next chapter, Jesus takes “some” (Peter, James, and John) up the Mountain of Transfiguration. Jesus is not only intending to give them encouragement because of the bad news he gave them by allowing them to see that there’s a bigger end game going on, but he’s going to let them see the Son of Man in his true glory.
Transfiguration Readings
Q: The reading begins, “After six days…”. What is this in reference to?
Exodus 24:15-16 – “… on the seventh day God called Moses from the midst of the cloud.”
Q: Why up a mountain?
Moses went up the mountain (Mt. Sinai) to receive the Ten Commandments from God.
Q: Why did Jesus only take three (Peter, James, and John). Any similarities with Exodus?
Moses also took three with him – Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu. Btw, the latter two were brothers also (sons of Aaron).
Q: What did they talk about?
We need to refer to the version in Luke 9:30-31, “… and they spoke of the exodus he (Jesus) was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.” A New Exodus was at hand. The Mosaic Covenant was about to be completed, updated, and elevated!
Q: What “New Exodus” was being planned?
The old Exodus was freedom from slavery to the Egyptians. The new Exodus was freedom from slavery to sin - which kept us out of heaven.
Q: Did Peter, James, or John ever comment on this later?
Yes, see 2 Peter 1:16-18 (2nd reading above)
Q: Why did Jesus tell them not to tell anyone?
The Transfiguration was a chance for the Apostles to have a glimpse of the end-game, and it was beautiful, which is why Peter didn’t want to leave the mountain. If they were to tell the Jews and others that the Mosaic Covenant was coming to an end, and that Jesus would be the new Covenant as part of his death and resurrection, they would have had them executed for blasphemy. Better to let it unfold as Jesus planned, when he rose from the dead and could walk among them again.
Q: Why Moses and Elijah?
Many say because they represented the Law and the prophets (the Jewish bible).
BUT the CCC #2583 adds a more fascinating reason. It recalls two times in the OT where two major figures were shown the shadow of God but they could not see his face:
Neither Moses nor Elijah are allowed to see the face of God. But they are allowed to see his back/shadow.
These two famous OT figures – Moses and Elijah – came the closest to seeing the face of God.
Now Moses and Elijah are allowed to see the face of God – His human face.
Closing Prayer
O Virgin most prudent, whither goest thou, bright as the morn? All beautiful and sweet art thou, O Daughter of Zion, fair as the moon, elect as the sun.
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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