The Chosen https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7 – highly recommended (Episode 7 Wed night)
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time And Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Have Trespassed Against Us 7:10-7:25 Genesis 1-4 7:25-7:40 The Mission of the Twelve Mark 6:7-13 7:40-8:00 Intentions Opening Prayer 7:05-7:10 Lord, you promised that when two or three of us are gathered in your name, you are there, Well, we are here – multiples of 2 or 3, asking your blessings to be poured out upon those whom have asked for your healing tonight. We would also like to ask for your blessings on each and every of us here tonight: Please Lord, bless our lives, bless our families, bless our friends, bless our health, bless our work, And, most of all, bless our relationship with you. Finally, Lord, we are meeting tonight over You! Please help us discern the meaning you intend for us, how they should intersect our lives, and how we can be transformed by your wisdom bit by bit to become more like You. We ask these things through your Son, Jesus Christ. 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 have trespassed against us. Lead us through all our trials and temptations And deliver us from evil. Amen
Q: What is metanoia?
Greek: meta (change/altered) + noia (mental perception); to change one’s mind-purpose-direction; a profound transformation of the heart; a spiritual conversion; repentance (sufficient regret to cause a change in one’s life; turn around).
Q: What does Jesus say everywhere when he begins his teaching?
Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
And Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Have Trespassed Against Us 7:10-7:25
The root of any discussion about forgiveness is justice. Only when an injustice is committed by us or against us does forgiveness have a potential role to play.
I bring this up first because the consequences of justice are more about the next life than this life. The acts of justice or injustice play out in this life, but only some of the consequences do. We can see this by just looking around us. People get away with murder – literally and metaphorically – every day, right? Where’s the justice? It may happen still yet in this world, but more often than not it won’t.
That’s because, as I said, the consequences of justice are more about the next life than this life. The acts of justice or injustice play out in this life, but only some of the consequences do.
Q: What’s the reason? Is it because the idea of justice is a false notion?
The first reason is free-will, and the second reason is that justice is a spiritual concept, not a material one. Let me explain.
1. Free-will needs time for it to breathe. If justice was immediate, like gravity, then every lie, every uncontrolled anger, every hurtful wish we had against someone, every lustful thought about someone else’s spouse, every envious thought towards someone who had something we didn’t, every single selfish act, would bring down the hammer of justice on us. Would there be any humans left in earth, or would they have been assigned to Satan by now?
2. Justice is a spiritual concept and therefore it has spiritual parameters. In other words, the consequences of justice or injustice don’t all play out here, in this life. In fact, most consequences don’t.
Q: Do you want proof that justice is spiritual?
If you look around nature you won’t find justice. Justice simply isn’t a consideration in the animal world, nor in the plant world, nor on the moon. It isn’t part of nature. It also doesn’t come from humans when you consider the fact that humans are the ones looking for it all the time. If anything, humans are responsible for all the injustices in the world.
The only reason humans possess the knowledge of justice, and the desire for justice, is because it is part of our spiritual nature that God breathed into us (Gen2:7). When Genesis says we were made in the image and likeness of God, that’s what this means – we inherited some of the spiritual characteristics of God, such as Justice, Love, Beauty, Reason, Truth, Wisdom, Gratitude, Humility, Perfection, and Freedom, to name a few. We have them all imperfectly, but we want them perfectly, don’t we? (They are like God’s calling cards. If you want to have more of them, or understand them more, you have to go to Him.)
Btw, another test of their spiritual nature is they act opposite of finite nature. Take love. In our finite world, resources expire – they run out; everything degrades or dies. For example, if we have money, it is limited and will run out, so we have to protect it. The same is true for everything physical, including our health and physical lives. Love, however doesn’t operate this way. It never runs out – it’s infinite. How do we get more of it? By giving it away. Yet if we try to hold onto it too tightly or selfishly, we will lose it. Do you see how spiritual laws operate completely different than our material laws?
Okay, since justice is spiritual you can now understand my other point, which is that justice has spiritual, or eternal, consequences. This is the reason Jesus makes such a big deal about repentance and forgiveness – and also Judgement Day. Sin and forgiveness don’t have as many consequences here as they do in the hereafter.
Injustice has consequences or else there is no justice
Why are we talking about this? Because in order to talk about forgiveness, we need to understand what is being forgiven.
Like justice, there are two aspects to sin – the spiritual and the physical – and therefore there the same two aspects of forgiveness.
- The spiritual aspect of sin is the injustice of it, a spiritual offense which causes a tear in the eternal fabric of justice.
- The physical aspect of sin is the damage that was done to others in this lifetime.
This idea isn’t really so strange when you consider that when we go before a judge in our own worldly justice system, the court tries to determine if the accused has any remorse for the harm he did. If not, the sentence will be worse. Secondly, they deal with the damage that was done, which must also be rectified. Do you see the same two aspects at work – the intent-remorse (spiritual) and rectifying the damage (physical)? Man didn’t come up with this understanding all by himself. We are merely emulating what we inherited from God, and these are our best efforts to try and achieve the perfect justice that is ingrained in our spiritual natures. Both must be dealt with.
Q: What would be the value of someone seeking to repair the damage they had done without feeling any regret for what they did?
Meaningless
Q: What would be the value of a person feeling regret for what they did, but who put forth no effort to repair the damage they caused?
Better than the previous one, but incomplete!
Q: When we go to confession, which component of our injustice is being forgiven?
One can get both aspects of sin forgiven, but it is truly tied to the sincerity of the repentance. Forgiving the eternal/spiritual consequences presupposes our heartfelt regret with the firm intention of amending our behavior. If it is sincere, the grace we receive is deliverance from our guilt (penance is just part of the healing and focus to start over). However, if our repentance was not sincere, then the forgiveness is nullified.
The 2nd part of our sincerity is repairing the damage that was done (if possible). It is good to discuss this with the priest or a spiritual advisor, because sometimes our efforts can cause more damage. In these cases, there are other things we can do to compensate for the damage.
Since God paid for our forgiveness, you would think more people would be taking him up on His offer. Yet it is surprising how relatively few people do. One reason may be because it is hard to admit our mistakes. Humans in general prefer to dig in their heels, obfuscate, and talk out both sides of their mouths rather than coming right out and admitting they were wrong.
What God would like us to learn is that it is easy to admit our wrongs – the more immediately the better. Even if we felt we were right, there’s a more humble way to diffuse the argument... Other person: “Robert, I think you were wrong about this.” Me: “John, you may have a point there. This is what I was thinking…” How hard was that? If Robert was right, it will be much easier fort Bob to come around. If Bob doesn’t, then he never was anyway. At times we did turn out to be wrong, then much face has been saved and we can move on to whatever we have to learn from it. If we involve God in the process, He guarantees we will gain wisdom. Best of all, it’s a new kind of freedom when we get good at this.
Bible Study from Genesis to Revelations 7:25-7:40 Recap of Genesis 1-4 Here are a few of the key points we reviewed in Genesis Chapters 1-3. They are available in more detail in the Catholic Catacombs Light website https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/blog. Chapter One – 1st Creation Story Gen 1 describes the universe being created in 6 days. Man/human is the summit of God’s physical creation, made the same day as the animals/beasts (6th Day) but given a spirit like the angels, which makes man in the image and likeness of God. Although man was made the same day as the beasts (he shares their nature), he shares the nature of God and the angels and is destined for the 7th Day (Chap 2). The Trinity is present is several ways: 1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1) 2. “The earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.” (Gen 1:2) 3. “And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light...” The Word of God (Jesus Christ) – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him all things were made. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (Jn 1:1, 2, 14) 4. “Then God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen 1:26) Elohim – God plural. God made everything good (Gen 1:31). Chapter Two – 2nd Creation Story - Creation is complete. God rests on the 7th Day, blesses it, and makes it holy. The 7th Day is for man and represents heaven. Man is created in the 6th Day but invited into the 7th Day. With his spiritual nature, he has one foot in both, so to speak. - The Garden of Eden is described. Creation of man is told again – he is created out of the dirt of the earth. A reminder of humility. - God instructs Adam not to eat of the one tree (The Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil). - Woman is created out of man – not out of the dirt or a different creation. The two were one and now they are two. Equality. - Then man and woman become united (married) to form one again. (Gen 2:24) The Trinitarian call – love is unity. Chapter Three – The Fall - The serpent and the women are at the forbidden tree. The serpent promises she and Adam will be like God, and that God is hiding this. - Eve eats of the tree, Adam does also. The both immediately realize what they did (“their eyes were opened”) and they hid. - God finds them and asks what them what happened. A chance to come clean. However, nobody tells the truth. Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. The serpent smiles – he now has company. (Misery loves company.) - They are expelled from the Garden to prevent them from eating from the Tree of Life. They will now suffer the physical difficulties of nature and of childbirth. Sin/evil follows them into the world. - However, God does not abandon them to Satan. Instead, God promises someday that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. The Jews called this the first Messianic prophecy. Christians call this the “Protoevangelicum” (the first Gospel/good news). - The Tree of (eternal) Life will become available to humans again, but at a cost too high for humans. The cross becomes the Tree of Life. Mary, the new Eve, is the woman whose seed (Jesus) will crush the serpent. Summary of The Fall of Man. The serpent is a very cunning, dishonest salesman. The serpent’s description of the forbidden fruit reflects Eve’s ambition. Humanity chooses Self. God gave humans a spiritual nature, which included free-will. We chose Self over God. In doing so, we threw our lot with the devil and walked away from our relationship with God. Q: How is it fair that they chose for us? God keeps telling us that humans were created to be one people. It is our own determined “individuality” (shares the same root as “divide”) that prevents our brotherhood-sisterhood. Just like Adam & Eve become one in marriage, and a family is one, and any team worth its salt is one, an orchestra is one, a country of people that helps each other is one, humanity is one, too – just like our parent-creator the Trinity is One. If we say to heck with those other people, then we aren’t there yet. For most of us who still think that’s unfair, well guess what? Now we get our chance! Q: What did Jesus Christ accomplish regarding the Fall of Man? He reversed it. Now we are in the driver’s seat. We have this one lifetime to make better decisions than Adam & Eve’s. The story of Adam & Eve is the story of how humans were given their spiritual awareness and free-will, and then they (we) used our power to choose ourselves over God – independence from God over dependence on God. We continue to have a taste of God/perfection/heaven, because we are still made in the image/likeness of God, albeit like a broken mirror. The Fall explains how easily we are enticed to be like gods, which includes wanting to right all the time and wanting as much control as we can get over everyone and everything. Yet, God tells us there’s another way and explains that our spiritual powers were never intended to be used independently (dysfunctionally), but in partnership with Him (functionally). Independence is separation. Dependence is partnership/union/love. Therefore, the tree represents everything that humans want in order to build up the Self as independent gods. The apple represents the fool’s gold choices we must pass up every day. It’s Self or God, leave the apple alone. Q: When God comes here personally, he goes to great pains to show us the antidote. What is it? Humility and love. Two sides of the same coin.
Q: What are the three temptations of Eve that will define humanity thereafter? They match Jesus’ 3 temptations in the desert.
1) Good for food – physical desire (this will be good for my body)
2) Delight to the eyes – possessions (good for me to have)
3) It will make me wise like God – pride/egoism (What is God hiding? It doesn’t matter because we will soon know what He knows. We won’t need Him.)
Recap of Chapter Four – Cain & Abel
- Outside the Garden, Adam & Eve learn what labor (work) is.
- They have two children, first Cain, then Abel. Cain is a farmer, Abel is a shepherd.
- Both Cain and Abel give offerings to God, but Cain’s is not from the heart.
- Cain sees that God receives Abel’s offering with more favor than his own, and he becomes jealous.
- Cain lures Able out into the field where he kills him.
- God asks Cain where his brother is. Again, an opportunity for Cain to come clean.
- Can responds with, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
- Cain is punished – nothing will grow for him again.
- Cain leaves for the land of Nod and generations of bad people come from him. The world is falling fast between Cain and Noah.
Adam & Eve have another child: Seth – will carry forward the prophecy of one day crushing the head of the serpent.
The Mission of the Twelve (the future Church) – Mark 6:7-13
Context: We have just left Nazareth where Jesus was rejected (last week). Our reading ended with, “and they went around the surrounding villages preaching,” so we are still in Galilee.
Jesus healing and preaching in villages around Galilee.
We are likely into the second year of Jesus’ mission. The first task of the apostles was to “be with him.” During this time, they witnessed how he preached with parables, how he performed miracles, and how he remained calm/serene in response to opposition.
The second task of the apostles is to be sent out, which is what today’s reading is about.
The word apostle in Greek (apostolos) means “one who is sent out.”
The apostles must have been shaking in their sandals at Jesus’ request to go out and do what he did!
The reading also says, “Jesus began to send them out two by two.” This does not mean that he sent them all at once. Notice it says, “Jesus began to send them out.” He likely coached them individually or in pairs and sent them out as they were ready.
Q: As the apostles begin to go out, we get our first view of the first “evangelists.” What does evangelism mean?
The Greek “evangelion” means “preaching good tidings, good news” (preaching the Gospel). So an evangelist is one who preaches the Gospel. In more modern times, the term “evangelist” was taken on by Protestants and pursued with great zeal.
The First Mission of the Twelve – Mark 6:7-13
Calling the Twelve to him, Jesus began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff — no food, no sack, no money in their belts – and to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them, “When you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And whosoever will not receive you or refuses to hear to you, leave there and shake off the dust on your feet in testimony against them.”
So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Q: What were they allowed to take with them and not take with them?
They could take three items: a staff (walking stick), sandals, and anointing oil.
They were forbidden to take food, money, or a change of clothes. They were to rely on God.
Q: Why did Jesus send them out in twos?
First, two is the smallest number of a community of believers.
Second, it is easy for one missionary to become lonely or discouraged and the mutual support of two is often very helpful.
Third, in Jewish law two witnesses are required to make a claim, and their testimony to the Gospel was no small claim.
Q: What authority did Jesus give them on the mission? What are they to preach and why?
He gave them the power to cast out demons, to heal the sick, and to call people to repentance in preparation for the Kingdom
of Jesus Christ that will be inaugurated on Resurrection Sunday.
Basically, Jesus is giving them the authority to preach in the same way as John the Baptist. Jesus will elevate their preaching
as time progresses, especially in the 40 days following his Resurrection.
Q: Why did he tell them when they enter a house, stay there until you leave from there?
He doesn’t want them thinking about finding better accommodation, and he doesn’t want to cause jealousy within a community by having villagers compete in offering them hospitality.
Q: For those who rejected them or refused to hear them, why did he say to shake the dust off their feet in testimony against them?
First, to welcome Jesus’ Apostles is to welcome Jesus, and to refuse to listen to them is to refuse to hear Jesus. If the Apostles were not wanted and people refused to listen to the Word of God, they were choosing to remain pagan
Second, to shake the dust off one’s feet was something Jews did whenever leaving pagan territory and reentering the Holy Land. and the Apostles were not to hang around and argue but move on. He knew their might be a tendency to argue or get angry, and Jesus wanted to be clear about not doing this.
Q: The reading concludes with “they anointed with oil any who were sick and cured them.” What is the significance of this?
The Church anoints the sick with oil and petitions God to heal people just as the Apostles did. (Sacrament of Anointing)
Q: “So they went off and preached repentance.” There’s that word ‘repentance’ again. What does repent mean?
The Greek word is Metanoia: to change one’s mind, heart, direction – away from sin/self/world and toward God/love/forgiveness. Jesus is bringing the Kingdom to us and we have to actually turn and walk towards it, make it our priority, our center, our “lens” through which we see our lives and the world.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for loving us into existence
and for coming back for us every time humans turn their backs on you.
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming here to walk in our shoes
To feel what we feel, to see what we see, and to show us the way;
Thank you for paying for our forgiveness
for leaving yourself behind
and for sending your Holy Spirit to help us the rest of the way home.
Holy Spirit, fill every space inside of us. Leave no room for Satan or our selfishness to act.
In all our encounters, help us to see you with your eyes, hear with your ears, and speak with your words.
Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are 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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