Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study & Apologetics 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. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can ask in the chat, email the Meetup group, or me directly at ron@hallagan.net. 3. Unedited recaps of meetings are posted via Meetup after our meeting. The final edited recap is posted within a week by Taylor on our Catholic Catacombs Light website at www.catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/recaps. Taylor will notify everyone on Meetup with the link. 4. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between religions and between Christian denominations, and 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. Prison fellowship – opportunities to volunteer one Saturday per month for 2 hours (12-2 or 2-4) serving Catholic prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail. Ask Ron (ron@hallagan.net) or Gina (gmasterson99@gmail.com) for details. Why do this? "I was in prison, and you visited me." – Matt 25:36 7. Catholic Prayer & Fellowship. Are you interested in praying with other Catholics during the week? Fellow member Jason Goldberg has started just this at “Catholic Prayer, Fellowship, and Spirituality Meetup.” Sign up at: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/ 8. I highly recommend seeing “The Chosen” TV series. We seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is not easy at first. It helps when we can relate to a person that we have seen and heard. They have captured the real Jesus as close as any film I’ve ever seen. https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7. 9. RSVP Reminder: Please RSVP whether you are attending the meeting or just reading the Recap notes afterwards. The more RSVPs, the more Meetup will give us exposure, which will draw more people to us, which is our way of evangelizing! Please RSVP when you get the Meetup invite weekly. Our Bible Study Format: 5 min prayers, 10-15 min Catholic topic, 40-45 min on the main topic from weekly List below: Week 1: Nov 1 - Gospel Week: Mt 22:37: “Love the Lord your God with all your might…” Eph 5:21-33 "Wives be subordinate to husbands." Week 2: Nov 8 – Bible Week (Gen àRev): We recently started Exodus, the 2nd book of Moses. Exodus meeting #3. Week 3: Nov 15 – Survey Topics Voted on by Members: We are currently beginning Heaven.
Ö 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) World Religions 6) Book of Revelation 7) Major Heresies and Church Councils
1. The History of the Mass going back to Cain & Abel, and the sublime meaning of the Eucharist in the present.
2. Love and Unity are two of the Holy Spirit’s Trinitarian descriptions. How are these different? How do they affect us?
3. The knowledge of God is “participatory.” Is that why nonbelievers have difficulty?
4. Are Charity and Love synonymous? How are they different? What are the 4 highest forms of Charity?
5. Do we have suffering for a reason? How do we offer up our sufferings? When should we embrace the cross vs wait for a miracle?
6. Jesus says to love God with all our might and our neighbors as ourselves. 1) What if we don’t love ourselves? 2) How do we love God? 3) How exactly do we love the people we can’t stand, or are bad people?
7. Anatomy of a sin. Degrees of separation from God vs degrees of closeness.
8. What is justice? Is it always good? Does God cause bad just things to happen? If one suffers but the results are good, is that justice?
9. Partial and Plenary Indulgences, are they supported by Scripture, current practices and history, elevator response to those saying Catholics buy them (especially in Luther’s time), and can I get them?
Church Holy Days Refresher:
Highest holy days are called Solemnities (24), followed by Feast Days, then Memorials, then Ferial Days (means free/optional). Of the 24 Solemnities, six are holy days of obligation (Mary Mother of God, the Ascension, the Assumption, All Saints Day, the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas).
Next Holy Days of Obligation
Immaculate Conception of Mary – Dec 8
Christmas – Dec 25
Opening Prayer
Thank You
Lord God in Heaven, thank you for loving us into existence.
And for giving us another chance when we chose ourselves and this world over You.
Thank you for coming here personally and walking in our shoes to show us the way.
And for taking the cross and as payment for our sins
Which enabled the Holy Spirit to come to us personally
To help us the rest of the way.
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.
Amen.
Farewell to Purgatory – I would like to leave you with two comments on Purgatory.
“Nothing unclean will enter [Heaven].” – Rev 21:27
Protestants, Sanctification, and Purgatory
Protestants are often outspoken against the doctrine of Purgatory. However, their belief in ‘sanctification’ is rather close to Catholic theology. They stop just short of completion.
Q: What is sanctification?
Sanctify means to make holy. Christians use it to describe the process of preparing to be in the presence of God – or preparing to enter Heaven.
Protestants believe that after we have been forgiven our sins and are saved, God continues to work in our lives to make us holy. This process, during which the rest of our lives we grow in God's grace and become more loving and Christ-like, is called “sanctification.” Sounds reasonable and very Catholic, no?
Like Catholics, Protestants also believe that we must become perfect – perfectly Christ-like – in order to enter into the presence of God in Heaven.
The only question is how does one get from Point A (imperfect in this life) to point B (perfect to enter into Heaven)? Experience tells us that nobody is perfectly Christ-like in this life. Therefore, when we die, something must happen to complete our sanctification so that we can enter Heaven.
Catholics believe that this stage of sanctification – or purification – is accomplished either through ongoing forgiveness (Confession) or through the gift (safety net) of Purgatory. Both of these exist by the grace of God, which means they are a free gift from God.
Protestants believe this final stage of sanctification is accomplished by the grace of God. Period.
Q: What’s the difference between the Catholic and Protestant views?
The Protestant view doesn’t believe there needs to be a “how” (i.e., Confession or Purgatory). God just does it.
It would certainly be easier for all of us if God just snapped his fingers and made us perfect that split second between death and Heaven but wishing it to be so doesn’t make it true. Furthermore, there would be no consequences for our selfish behavior in this life; once we were saved, why bother worrying about it? God does not act arbitrarily. He acts logically and purposefully.
Forgiveness
Q: Would not the first action taken by Jesus with his Apostles after his resurrection indicate something of extremely high value and importance? What was it?
“Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.' After saying this he breathed on them and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained." – John 20:21-23
His very first gift and assignment was to visit the Apostles in the Upper Room and give them the power to forgive sins. The first thing – to give away forgiveness!
Q: Notice how badly God wants to give us forgiveness. He is willing to personally suffer to pay for it, and now He just wants to give it away! What’s going on here?
1. Because of what this would do for us and to us personally, spiritually, and in the world. For a human to ASK for forgiveness, they have to humble themselves, do they not? Admit our wrongs? How big is that? If we want to grow up wise, grow up like God, we must learn humility!
2. If humans must engage God in trying to improve themselves and leave selfishness behind, then they have no choice but to start a relationship with Him. We have to work together.
This is not only what God wants – it is what we were created for! He didn’t give us godly powers just so he could forgive us. He gave them to us to help us learn how to use them! In the process, we enter into a dance with the Trinity.
The Trinity is already a dance – a symphony of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we engage in dialogue with the Father, Son, and/or HS, we enter into this dance where they become part of our daily flow of life, enriching every decision, every encounter, and every relationship. Then, when we depart from this life, we will not be strangers. We will recognize, and be recognized, by all.
Introduction to Heaven
The serious business of Heaven is joy. – C.S. Lewis
As overused as the word “joy” may sound to us, what CS Lewis says is true. I especially like the twist of irony in the expression since it seems everything in the spiritual world operates in a kind of parallel paradox to this world.
One wonders how this paradoxical relationship works with joy and happiness in Heaven.
Heaven’s elusiveness
It is interesting that we tend to have less difficulty grasping hell and purgatory than we do Heaven. Pain, suffering, and learning from our mistakes are second nature to us. But Heaven?
Although a large majority of human beings believe in Heaven, not many of us seem to be bubbling over with excitement about it. In fact, not many people seem to be thinking about it at all.
This may partly be because heaven is not easy to grasp. How do we imagine no pain, no suffering, and pure joy? How long can we hold such intangible thoughts in our mind?
Another reason may be because we’ve heard about how great Heaven is since our childhood, and it’s grown a bit stale, or clichéd. I also find that many people believe that others think the same thing they do when it comes to Heaven, but when they explain, they discover they are not alike at all.
Nowadays, people seem more interested in astrology, palm readers, or séances to summon back the dead, than in the real afterlife.
In our eagerness to believe that human relationships continue beyond the grave, people seem to have forgotten about our belief in heaven entirely.
Before we go any further, I’d like to take a few minutes and share each other thoughts about what they think Heaven will be like. I will go first, but for my turn, I will tell a short joke – but no jokes after this.
My apologies if anyone has heard it… A man dies and arrives at the pearly gates. St. Peter looks over the paperwork and frowns. “Well, Mr. Brown,” says Peter, “It appears things could go either way for you – you’re right on the fence. That being the case, we have decided to let you choose….”
The story/joke continues…
No doubt some of us have feared heaven might be a place where we play harps and sing hymns all day.
Q: Okay, who wants to go first – how do you envision heaven is like? You can put it in the chat, too.
Time & Place
I mentioned above several reasons why it is difficult to imagine Heaven, but there is another reason.
We have difficulty focusing on Heaven because we have heard many times that it is in the spiritual domain, which does not contain physical places. One can only conclude from this that heaven must just be a state of mind rather than a “place” to experience.
However, this would be a misunderstanding about this “spiritual place,” similar to our misunderstandings of “spiritual time.”
For us to understand time and place in heaven, we need to understand the “science” of time and place. Now don’t worry if you don’t follow everything, but I will make it as simple as I can. But I will be connecting God and science in a big way. So here we go!
TIME
Q: Who first defined time?
Aristotle (350 BC) is usually credited with giving us a fairly modern-sounding definition of time:
“Time is the calculable measure of motion with respect to before and afterness.”
Besides the addition of the calendar and tracking the hours of the day, Aristotle’s definition basically survived all the way until 1824 when a French scientist, Sadi Carnot, developed/proved what is called the “Second Law of Thermodynamics.”
Q: Who knows what Thermodynamics means? Or should I ask, who cares?
Thermo is Greek heat + dynamics is Greek for force/energy = the study of motion. Temperature + Matter à Motion
Example: If you heat water, the water molecules move so fast it boils. If you chill water, it stops moving à ice.
Q: I suppose if we are going to explain what the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is, do we need to say what the 1st Law is first?
The First Law is “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be altered.”
Example: When water evaporates, it doesn’t disappear, it becomes vapor. If you burn a newspaper, it doesn’t disappear into nothing. It becomes ash, smoke, and carcinogens – just other forms of matter. Matter can’t be extinguished, only transformed. That’s it!
Q: Okay, so who knows that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is?
The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that entropy (disorder) will always increase with time.
For example, things break down, right? They don’t fix themselves; they just break down (disorder!). Or things wear out (disorder). Things get dirty over time, not clean! Foods rot. Natural resources run low/out (gas, electricity…). Things grow old and die (disorder!). All matter degrades over time (nature – what happens to leaves, wood, mountains erode, etc.) – all in the direction of… disorder.
It’s called entropy.
Q: But the main goal of humans to fight entropy. Don’t we try to bring “order” to everything in our lives, whether home or at work?
Yes. And humans also create – that’s the opposite of disorder, right? Creating is a form of order. For that matter, so is beauty, and music.
Q: But aren’t “order” and “creating” the opposite of the 2nd Law?
Yes. It seems humans seek to defy the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. We seek the order, not disorder. We seek “reverse entropy,” for as long as possible.
Q: But doesn’t that make humans the opposite of nature?
Not exactly. Our bodies are subject to entropy, aren’t they?
Aha – but our soul is not. Our soul, which is who we really are, seeks order.
Q: Question of the night: Do humans always want to achieve more order?
No. Behaviors such as self-centeredness, anger, impatience, lust, envy, arrogance, greed, and hate add to entropy.
Love is unity; justice builds up; goodness saves lives. Hate and division are forms of entropy. They break down humanity.
Q: Where did we get this idea of “order?”
God. The Creation story – all 6 days – was about God bringing “order” out of disorder (chaos).
Like Father, like children/us - our souls.
What was the Fall of Man? Separation from God. Division. Self over God.
Maybe we should be thankful for how much science helps us understand God this well.
And you thought this stuff was hard!
Q: What is a miracle? How might we describe them in relation to entropy?
For instance, quieting storms, curing illnesses, multiplication of the loaves and fish, bringing the dead back to life…
Are these not forms of reverse entropy?
Q: Notice how when God acts, or Jesus performs a miracle, or saints experience miracles, what happens to our entropic nature?
It just continues along. Think of a river being our world of entropy. A miracle would be like God sticking his finger in the water. It would stop the flow of entropy for that time, while the world continues to flow around it. And when the miracle is over, the river continues as usual.
Q: Why was the Holy Spirit sent to us?
“…through Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”
Unity is the reverse of entropy. The Holy Spirit is the unity of the Trinity and of the human race, for those who choose.
Q: How would we measure time if there were no deadlines and no entropy?
When we say God is outside of time, we mean He is outside of our entropic time. In God’s time, nothing is falling apart, getting old, decaying, or dying. But, there still are sequences of events!
Time here compared to time in heaven
Okay, so now we know that our time is tied to the passage of events (before & afterness) and all events are subject to entropy.
How does this relate to time and Heaven?
Let’s list how time works for us here and then try to compare it to Heaven.
Time in this lifetime
Time is limited – it’s always running out
Time involves a sequence of events where we are trying to accomplish something (hopefully good = order)
In this process – and with the results – we always have to contend with our foe, entropy.
Time in Heaven
Time is unlimited – it never runs out. (Do we even need time if it never runs out and there are no deadlines?)
Time involves a sequence of events where we are accomplishing something good
Entropy would not be the same. There would be changing/evolving events, but either there would be no aging or death, or we would have authority over such entropy. Theologians speculate that these may be some of the powers our first parents lost in the Fall.
Entropy on earth:
Q: One may wonder whether there would be no errors or aging in Heaven, or perhaps we would be given authority over entropy.
Some say Man before the Fall had he latter!
Example of reverse entropy in heaven?
Suppose you were on a hike in Heaven and you came near a cliff and fell over:
“Okay,” you say to yourself, “that was fun. Let’s reverse this and continue on with the hike!”
Reverse entropy --> Reverse entropy -->
The same would apply to any physical situation or injury.
Q: The items under “Time in Heaven” above suggest that we will have something to do in Heaven. What could that be?
We don’t know exactly what it will be, except that it will be happy and it will be important.
Below, Jesus is explaining how important it is to be ready at all times for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. He will give that person even greater duties:
Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns; truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. – Mt 24:46-47 and Luke 12:43-44
When Jesus told the parable of the talents, he indicated that there we will have responsibilities in Heaven:
His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.
Remember, men and women were originally created to rule/reign over the old earth (Gen 1:28), which preceded the Fall of Man (before the land and work were cursed – Gen 3:17-19). This fact suggests that God reigning over the universe (and beyond) will easily include useful roles for us. More useful than here!
"If we endure, we will also reign with him." – 2 Timothy 2:12
One thing we also know is that we will have time for fellowship with others.
"But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" – 1 Corinthians 2:9
"On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined." – Isaiah 25:6
I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven…” – Matthew 8:11
Next up: Heavenly “places”
Closing Prayer
1Cor13
Heaven Father, help us tonight and tomorrow to be patient,
Not to envy, or boast, or be proud,
Never to dishonor others, nor to be self-seeking
Nor easily angered, and to keep no record of wrongs.
Help us to rejoice in the truth, to always protect, trust, hope,
and to never ever give up, but always persevere.
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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