Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study & Apologetics
Catholic Catacombs Website: www.CatholicCatacombs.org
Every Tuesday, 7PM-8PM. This meeting is a lecture/Q&A format. It is free.
House Rules/Notes…
Our meeting/classes are In-Person the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at St. John Neumann Catholic Church 11900 Lawyers Road, Reston, VA 20191 https://saintjn.org/ (usually held downstairs in Room 5), but they are ONLINE EVERY TUESDAY on Zoom.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
“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.
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 min Apologetics, 15 min Gospel, 30 min main topic.
Week 1: Gospel Week
Week 2: Bible Week (Gen to Rev): We are in The Book of First Kings.
Week 3: Survey Topics Voted on by Members:
x 1) Great Women in the Bible 2) Book of Revelation 3) Fathers, Heresies, Church Councils 4) Modern Miracles
Week 4: Apologetics and Member Requests:
How do I live my Christian faith at work when my faith is not accepted there?
What should our response be to those who ask us about priestly sex abuse?
What about the atheist who leads a good life? Can I be a person be good apart from God?
Miracles since the NT
Was King David good or bad? Was Emperor Constantine good or bad? Was he a Christian? What is a prophet?
Why does God allow suffering?
What is Tradition? Is Tradition equal to Scripture in importance? (2Thes2:15)
Each meeting: 5 min greet/prayer, 10 min Catholic topic, 15 min Gospel, 30 min weekly topic.
Reader?
Upcoming major holy days:
August 15 – Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Opening Prayer
Gratitude
Thank you, Father, for loving us into existence and for taking us back after we abandoned You.
Thank you for becoming one of us; for walking in our shoes to show us how to live, love, and forgive one another.
Thank you for taking our sins to the cross and opening the gates of Heaven to all who seek Your friendship and forgiveness.
Thank you for humbling yourself to come after us personally, until we could humble ourselves to come after you.
Thank you for all the difficulties in my life, for blessings of wisdom and growth come out of adversity.
As you taught us to pray together…
Our Father
Today’s Agenda
Quote of the Week:
“I do not seek to understand so that I may believe;
rather, I believe so that I may expand my understanding.” – St. Augustine
Apologetics and Exegesis Terms
Exegesis is the study/interpretation of the Word of God. On Tuesday nights, we are all exegetes!
Catholic Apologetics– apologetics means to defend a belief, so Catholic Apologetics is the art of defending the Catholic faith using reason, apostolic tradition, and Scripture.
This Week: Give us this day our daily bread.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
“Give us this day our daily bread…” – Why is the word “day” repeated?
“This day”: What else is there besides this day? The present day is all there ever is. Every day is “this day.” Therefore, we are asking God to be in our lives every day. The Fall of Man comes from separation from God. Separation cannot happen if we invite Him into our day every day. For Christians, the Lord’s Prayer replaced the “Shema” – three times each day.
“Daily”: the Greek word is epiousios and can be translated as daily; necessary; future; always; and supernatural. Do you see an eternal-ness to these? THIS DAY and is being stretched into eternity.
This is also why the Church celebrates the Mass (Eucharist) daily.
“Bread”: there are three levels of meaning to bread, each one moving up the ladder of importance.
“Bread” in life refers to nourishment in general, so we should certainly pray for the things we need to survive, and especially for those in the world who do not have what they need to survive.
“Breaking bread” historically was about meals with others – meals of sharing friendship were “communion meals.” Communion means sharing. At the Mass, we are breaking bread with our fellow Christians – communion with the rest of the Body of Christ.
The highest reason is that we are Breaking Bread with God through Jesus Christ. It is communion with the Trinity. In Mt 28:20, Jesus said he would “be with us for the rest of time.” Jesus “incarnated” himself into the bread and wine so to be with us not only spiritually but physically for the rest of time.
Where is the placement of the Lord’s Prayer in the Mass?
Just before Communion. The Our Father is considered a “Communion Prayer.”
Where in the Old Testament do we see a daily dependance on bread – and the Lord?
The Israelites during the Exodus depend on the manna from Heaven for 40 years in the desert. God was teaching them to break from their past attachments (400 years in Egypt) and learn to depend on Him only. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus reinforces this call to depend on God every day. Manna was for physical freedom; Jesus’ bread is for eternal freedom.
Does Jesus compare himself to the manna from Heaven?
“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” – John 6:48-51
When does Jesus “actualize” these statements?
The consecration of the bread and wine at the Last Supper… called Eucharistia, is Greek for “thanksgiving.”
On Easter day, the resurrected Jesus walks to Emmaus with the discouraged disciples who don’t recognize him. He teaches them how all the Scriptures spoke about him and then finally they “recognized him in the breaking of the bread” as he disappeared (Luke 24:30-31). Do you think this wasn’t intentional by Jesus? What he accomplished was the first Easter Mass: The breaking open of the Scriptures and then the “Breaking of the Bread.”
Gospel #1, Reading for July 7 – Mark 6:1-6: Jesus Gets a Warm Cold Homecoming!
Context: We left off in Mark chapter 5 last week where Jesus healed the woman with a 12-year hemorrhage and raised Jarius’ daughter. Jesus and his disciples then head to Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown. This will be a lesson Jesus uses to point to what will be unfolding (or culminating) in the days to come.
Mark 6:1-6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Their amazement about Jesus’ words instantly turns into disbelief and accusation. Why do they respond this way?
They appear to be angry that the one who they consider an ordinary man and their equal has dared to put himself above them.
It is interesting they refer to him as “son of Mary” since that was not Jewish custom, which would be to call him the son of his father, even if Joseph had passed. Perhaps they know that Joseph was not the biological father.
One passage refers to Jesus as the brother of James, Joses, etc. Did Jesus have brothers?
The Semitic usage of the term ‘brother’ does not only apply to children of the same parents but to nephews, nieces,
cousins, half-brothers, and half-sisters. Tradition since the time of the Apostles has held that Mary remained a virgin, which was not challenged until 1500 years later by some Protestants because her continued virginity isn’t explicitly stated in the Bible.
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place…” Who is Jesus comparing himself to?
His reference isn’t referring exclusively to Nazareth, but to all of Israel. Jesus is acknowledging his rejection by many of his own people, and pointing to what will soon happen elsewhere, especially in Jerusalem. This was not unlike many of the people sent by God throughout the Old Testament. Some prophets who were rejected and martyred by God’s chosen people: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and John the Baptist, to name a few.
“He was not able to perform any mighty deeds there…” Is this a lack of capability on Jesus’ part?
No. Jesus power to heal was intentionally tied to the faith of the person receiving it. Jesus’ healing wasn’t for show, it was always to point to the importance of having faith.
Gospel #2 – Gospel of LOVE
Reading: John 15:1-8: Love
Context: The Gospel of John is sometimes called the Gospel of Love, for God is love. In his Gospel, we see Jesus emphasizing three ways of understanding love. First, we see the Trinitarian love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is where love originates. Second, we see God’s love towards humanity, offering forgiveness/salvation through Jesus Christ laying down his life for us. Third, Jesus calls us to imitate the Trinity by loving God – the source of our love – and then extending this same love to others. God is love and therefore love is the foundation of our existence and the path to Heaven.
The translation of Godly love into Greek is ἀγάπη (Agapē). Interestingly, there are five types of love in Greek:
Eros – physical attraction/sexual love
Phila – deep friendship
Nomos – submissive love (loyalty, patriotism, laws)
Storge/Filial – parent-child love, family
Agape – voluntary, self-sacrificial love. Mentioned more than 200 times in the New Testament, Agape love is how God loves, and it is the source of all goodness. All the other forms of love are elevated when combined with Agape.
Knowledge can only take us so far. To go beyond the limits of material knowledge, one needs love. Just think of other human beings. We can study them like physical animals and measure their responses, but can this really tell us what’s going on in the other person? No, not until we apply Agape love can we step outside ourselves and begin to step into the other person’s “world” – their history, their successes, their trials and errors, their affectations, and their sufferings. Agape love has the power to open these doors, and we can apply it to anything we do – our thoughts, our actions, our work, and our relationships – even science. Science is studying the glory of God’s creation, which is also a study of God’s knowledge – a journey of exciting love.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as atonement for our sins.
Sin is the opposite of love, the separation from God. Atonement means “at-one-ment” – to make one again.
The greatest lesson Christ taught us is that the only thing that can overcome death on the material level is the love of God. At the same time, God’s love must meet our best efforts at love; no matter much we fall, Christ’s love will complete whatever we are missing. But we must give something to connect with – our own love that reaches out to Him and others.
Discussion with inmate
Sometimes it’s better to discuss love in real life situations. Following is a discussion about love with an inmate I am currently mentoring at the Fairfax Adult Detention Center. Interestingly, his name is Moses Pak.
Moses is a 35-year-old Korean American, well-spoken, IT guy who is in jail for violating a protective order on his soon-to-be ex-wife … 3 times. He could be in jail for up to one year.
As I usually do, I asked him if he wanted to improve his chances for not coming back to jail in the future. He said of course.
I asked him why he kept violating the court order, and he said because he loves his wife. He said she doesn’t realize that all he wants is what’s best for the both of them. He is willing to do whatever it takes to fix their problems.
Ron – How do you know for sure you love her?
Moses – Because I have never had such feelings like this for anyone else.
I acknowledged that feelings can be strong, but that love is more than feelings. I asked if he could tell me what love was.
Moses – Hmm… if it’s not feelings, maybe not.
Ron – Well, here are a few things love is not: Love is not ice cream, it’s not fancy cars, it’s not sex, and it’s not our feelings.
Moses – How come it’s not our feelings? Isn’t “feeling in love” everything?
Ron – No, feelings are more about “attraction.” Sure, attraction helps, and attraction usually gets people started, but feelings and emotions come and go, all you need to prove that is a bad day. In fact, if love was just feelings, then nobody would love very long. Real love is much deeper than that. And it sounds to me like you might want to figure this out before you go visiting her again the next time you get out. No point in wasting time violating court orders again if you don’t truly love her.
Moses – Wow, I’ll have to think about that. Since we’re on the topic, I should probably mention there’s a couple other problems in our relationship. Can I tell them to you?
R – If you want, sure.
Moses – When we got married, we were both Christians but not very active, or at least I wasn’t, and I thought she wasn’t.
R – If I may ask, which Christian denomination?
Moses – You know, Protestant. I was raised Presbyterian, but I never heard of hers. It’s called the World Mission Society Church of God – have you heard of them?
R – No, not off the top of my head, but go on.
Moses – Well it’s pretty weird. After we got married, we had to attend her services all the time and then I had to convert. I didn’t really feel right about it, but I did it for her. They say that the Second Coming of Christ has already taken place and that’s who started their church. And I think they believe that Mary has come back too, and she’s alive right now and in their church. Can you check this thing out? It kind of sounds like a cult to me.
R – I’ll check it out. What was the 2nd thing you wanted to tell me?
Moses – Oh yeah. I think my wife was sleeping around. I’m willing to forgive her, but apparently that’s not good enough.
R – She doesn’t want your forgiveness?
Moses – No. And in case you are wondering, I did not cheat on her.
R – Okay, we’ll talk again next week. In the meanwhile, you need to think about what we talked about – the meaning of love.
When we met the following week, I explained that I checked out the World Mission Society Church of God and it indeed seemed to be a cult and certainly not Christian, for several reasons:
It was started in 1964 in S. Korea, so it’s a new religion.
The man who founded considers himself the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ Second Coming will be at the end of time, not 1964.
The woman whom you thought was Mary is actually the wife of the Church founder. She is still alive and they worship her as a deity - another god - which makes this religion polytheist. Christianity is monotheist.
They justify their founding on the reinstitution of the Passover, which they say the Apostles “lost.” However, the Passover was not lost, it was “fulfilled” by Jesus at the Last Supper. The “Passover of the Old Covenant” was based on endless animal sacrifices for their sins. The “Passover of the New, Eternal Covenant” is based Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of Himself, so that no animal sacrifices would be necessary ever again.
Moses – Thanks, I knew it couldn’t be right, and I think she could tell my heart wasn’t in it. I think that was part of our problem. I think she wanted someone who was truly part of her and her family’s religion.
R – Wouldn’t you have learned about these things while you were dating?
Moses – Well, we got married pretty quickly, so there wasn’t much dating.
R – Well, for what it’s worth, I told my kids they should date someone for at least a year so that they really get to know someone. People hide their true selves pretty good – and that’s normal – but it takes a good year for all the masks to come off and people to show their real selves. At least now you know for the next time.
Moses – Yeah, good to know.
R – Did you give some thought to the meaning of love?
Moses – Sure did. Love is the willingness to putting the other person first.
R – Very good, where’d you learn that?
Moses – I asked the guys in my cell block and when the guy two cells down said that I knew it was the right answer.
R – Congratulations for recognizing it. It is also “willing the good of the other,” which Jesus says applies to everyone. Anyway, this is a good start. Knowing this is the first step.
Moses – What do you man first step?
R – Knowing to put the other person first is good, but knowing something isn’t the same as doing it. Even the devil knows that God is love, but the devil refuses to “do love.” So the next question is, are you willing to put the other person first – and yourself second – all the time?
Moses – How is love putting myself second all the time? That doesn’t sound very gratifying.
R – Well, let me reverse the question. Would you like it if your wife put you first all the time?
Moses – I’d love it. Oh, I see.
R – Moses, the key to an ideal marriage is when you are both willing to put the other one first. Real love is always self-giving. That’s the beginning of love.
Moses – Nobody ever told me that. Why is that just the “beginning” of love?
R – Because we aren’t perfect. There will be lots of mistakes, and you need to learn to laugh together and work them out. It’s like growing a garden together. A garden takes tilling and ongoing watering, weeding, and pruning, but then the garden gives you fruitfulness and beauty back. If you stop, the garden starts to be taken over by weeds and slowly dies.
Moses – Ok, that’s starting to make sense. But see, I know for sure now that I love her because I want the garden, I want her to be first, I do want her to be happy. The reason I want to see her again is to explain how much I love her, and that she needs to get away from that cult for her own good. I want us to be happy together, I want to have a family together, I want to worship the same God together!
R – Ok, Moses, take a deep breath. (Pause.) Here’s the problem that I see. Are you aware of how many times you said “I” in all the things you just said?
Moses – … no
R – Your desire for her happiness is strong, but these are strong feelings. Everything you said you want to happen is still wrapped around you. You didn’t say one thing about how your wife felt.
Moses – Oh man, shit.
R – Many people haven’t learned this, so you are not alone, and also this is a lot to take in. But here’s another way to think about it: We all have this big world or universe going on in our minds – all our life’s activities, our work, our relationships, our likes and dislikes, our worries, and so on – and who is at the center of this big, amazing universe in our minds?
Moses – we are.
R – Yes. But here’s the thing – everyone around us has their own big universes going on in their minds, right? So, you see, your wife has a big universe going on in her mind, just like yours. Do you happen to know what’s going on in her universe?
Moses – Not really. Actually, no, I don’t have any idea.
R – Well, the fact that you recognize that is a big step. The good news is that God gave us a spiritual mind and access to His love so that we can step outside our universe and see what other people are seeing and feeling. So what’s true love? True love is when you try to enter her universe to see what things look like from her perspective. Only then are we able to truly put the other person first.
Moses – I’m not feeling good about this. I’ve got a lot of work to do, don’t I.
R – We all do. But first I have some tough-love truth that I think you need to hear. Do you want to hear it?
Moses – yeah, are you kidding?
R – I don’t know your wife, but it sounds to me from what you’ve told me that when you do step inside her world, you might see that she doesn’t have the same feelings that you have for her. As you said, she got the court to grant her a protective order against you, and she also had you arrested.
Moses – Yeah, she sure did.
R – So if that’s the case, then she isn’t sharing the same feelings as you. Now, if you really love her and want to put her first, then wouldn’t that mean giving her what she wants?
Moses – You mean to leave her alone? Yeah, I guess so.
R – And if you refuse to leave her alone, then doesn’t that mean you don’t love her since you are not willing to put her first?
Moses – Damn, you’re telling me I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
R – The only thing being damned is your insistence on seeing her against her will. But is that a bad thing? Your strong attraction to her – which she doesn’t want – is enslaving you, isn’t it?
Moses – Ha. Maybe, that’s one way of putting it.
R – Moses, don’t you see that what you are really doing is setting her free. And not only that, but in making this difficult decision, you are taking the first step to setting yourself free.
Moses – I have a lot of thinking to do. I’m sad, man. Do you have any suggestions?
R – You’ve been doing a good job praying, so my first suggestion is make sure you continue! You might also read Psalm 22. It’s about Jesus hanging on the cross when everything seems to be going downhill, but then things get a whole lot better by the end. That’s kind of how it is when we decide to leave one life behind and start a new one.
Moses – Ok, I will. Will I see you next week?
R – Of course.
Closing Prayer
Prayer of Mother Teresa
People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
In the end, it was between you and God, anyway.
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.
Amen!
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