Housecleaning
1. You may have noticed that our meeting subject matter changes on the Meetup site. That’s because I’ve received complaints that the topic listed didn’t seem accurate all the time, and that is true! So I update them weekly depending on where we are and what we’ve covered.
2. The notes/recaps from our meetings will be posted on our Catholic Catacombs website usually within 24 hours. Please visit https://catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/blog where you will also find the previous Bible Study notes.
3. The reason Jesus became human is so that we could relate to God easier. The Chosen does a very good job of it. Although 2nd season has ended, it’s a good time to catch up. Both seasons can be watched at https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7
Year B (Mark), 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Lead us not into Temptation and Deliver us from Evil (Mt 6:9-13) Bread of Life Discourse #1 (John 6:41-51)
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 also ask for your blessings on every here tonight. Please Lord, bless our lives, our work, our families, our friends, our health, and most of all, our relationship with you. Lord, assist us with our studies tonight: The petitions “lead us not into temptation” and “deliver us from evil” and John’s Gospel reading on Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse. We don’t pretend these are easy topics but we know you can help us simplify the truth in them. Lord, we pray for the Church – the entire Body of Christ – for our holiness, our wisdom, and our humble servanthood – from Pope Francis and the magisterium and the half million priests and ministers who have committed their lives to You, to our 2 billion Christian brethren, and to the remaining 6 billion who are searching for truth and goodness in their own ways – may they find You! And may extra blessings be poured out upon all your followers in China, India, Pakistan, Laos, and other countries that persecute our brothers and sisters in the faith. Please help them, comfort them, protect them, and keep them strong. 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
7:10-7:30
Q: Does God lead us into temptation?
As the Apostle James says, absolutely not. "Let no one say, 'I am tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted and he himself tempts no one." - James 1:13.
Q: What does “lead us not into temptation” mean?
First, here are other acceptable translations of this petition:
“Lead us not into temptation” “Let us not be led into temptation” “Lead us through our temptation” “Lead us away from temptation” “Subject us not to testing,” “Subject us not to the final test.”
Second, the word “temptation” also translates as “trial” or “being put to the test,” and it includes suffering. Think of persecutions, pain and agony of body or spirit, suffering injustice, and the loss of loved ones. These present serious trials for humans every day.
Even our Lord prayed, "If it be possible, let this cup pass away from me" - Mt.26:39. This was to show that he, too, was being tested.
Third, although “lead us not into temptation” can be - and often is - used to help us with the daily temptations in our lives (overeating, overdrinking, selfishness, envy, greed, lust, or anger), the petition is primarily focused on temptations or trials that seek to test, or weaken, our faith. Does not suffering – more than just about anything – challenge our faith? Indeed, we see it happening all the time. They say that there are only a few absolute common denominators all humans share. What are they? Death, taxes, and suffering. Suffering – all kinds of suffering – is the biggie.
Q: Why is understanding that temptation primarily has to do with faith so important?
Because faith is needed for heaven. Faith is relationship. Relationship starts with communication – i.e., prayer.
The importance of this petition is understanding that all our temptations and tests and trials seek only one goal: to have us forget God, to blame God, to justify to ourselves that we can do this life thing all by ourselves. Little by little, these “illusions” of failure or independence pull us away from God, just as the Serpent did in the story of Eden. It wants us to forget that God is the source of love, goodness, and heaven. You can have it all without Him!
When you think of it, no matter how successful, or advanced, humankind becomes, the fallen equation doesn’t change. There is as much pride, hatred, selfishness, and potential for destroying ourselves as there ever was… but we’re enlightened, right? Meanwhile, the enlightened world tells us that God is just fiction; that He just robs us of our time and our enjoyment of life – so why do we even bother with him?
Yes, we can smugly look down on the first humans who fell by their pride; but their pride is no different than ours. Our temptations and trials may look different, but that’s only because we have a 21st century wardrobe.
The good news is that if you keep God in your life – which starts with prayers like this one – then you can’t get lost. As Paul once told the Corinthians:
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” - 1Cor 10:13
Q: Do we pray to deliver us from Evil or the Evil One?
Pope Benedict says some translations leave open whether “evil” or “the evil one” is meant; but, he adds, the two are inextricably linked. Satan – the serpent in Genesis and dragon in Revelations – entices humans quite easily by simply appealing to their pride, nowadays known as our egos.
Some see the devil as more of an anthropomorphic embodiment of evil. I did also for many years after atheism. But then I realized that it you want to understand your enemy, you better figure out how smart they are or they will beat you. Once I viewed Satan and his fallen angels as true spiritual entities, I was able to understand evil in the world much better. Therefore, it may be helpful to see devils or demons as real. (It’s kind of bizarre how the world tends to believe in evil demons more than God and good angels, which perhaps just tells us how effective the devil’s marketing department is.) It is also worth mentioning that Jesus speaks of them as real beings.
So, Evil or Evil One? Take your pick. The important thing to know is that Evil is your final roadblock to heaven, so it makes sense to pray “Lord, clear the way please, so I don’t stumble in the final stretch!”
Cyprian (250 AD), a bishop who truly had to endure the “final test” in his martyrdom, had a memorable way of putting this petition: “When we say ‘Deliver us from evil,’ then there is nothing further left for us to ask for.”
“Deliver us from Evil” is the finish line of the entire prayer in that it brings our life’s journey to a successful conclusion; or better yet, full circle back to the beginning – back to our Father in Heaven.
Q: Some may wonder: How ready and willing will God be to finish the task of saving us? Is it really worth all his trouble?
The answer is clear: Would God have bothered to come here personally and do what He did if he didn’t want to finish this with us?
As the Apostle Paul explained to the Jews facing persecution in Rome:
“If God is for us, who is against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:31–39).
The only thing that can stop us is ourselves. And the only way to do that is to cut off our relationship with God. So, at least pray the prayer he gave us!
Context: Last week, Jesus disappears after feeding the 5000 because he senses they want to make him king and he’s not interested. He has a tougher job to accomplish – not just the saving of Israel but the whole world.
There are clearly scribes in the crowd because they are asking scripturally-educated questions. And, no doubt the crowds are excited to hear Jesus' responses because nobody can answer the scribes and Pharisees quite like he does.
Jesus goal in John 6 is twofold: First is to reveal who he is, his divinity. The second is to begin setting the stage for the meaning of the Last Supper, which is also difficult because it hasn’t happened yet. The reason Jesus does it in this order is because without believing who he is, how can they believe anything else he’s about to tell them?
The Last Supper involves his sacrifice – his body and blood – also called the Eucharist, which hasn’t happened y et, but which is essential to closing out the Old Covenant (Old Testament) and the key to humanity’s freedom.
Q: The crowds continue to go after him and when they find him, Jesus warns them because what are they seeking?
Perishable food and a worldly kingdom – things of this world, not Jesus’ message about God’s kingdom. Mammon.
So then they ask him - what is it you want us to do? What does God want us to do?
Jesus tells them that God wants them to believe in the Son of Man whom He sent to save them.
Even though he has done many healings and miracles, they still ask him what signs he can do so that they can believe, pointing out that Moses gave their ancestors bread from heaven to eat.
Jesus replies that it wasn’t Moses who gave them bread from heaven … it was God his Father – and still their ancestors died. But the bread that God is sending them now will give life to the world, so that they will not die.
They respond, “Give us this bread always!”
Jesus uses the scribes’ own manna reference as the springboard for his next revelation. Again, Jesus is laying the groundwork for the Eucharist. When Jesus calls this bread “true bread,” he does not mean that the manna in the desert or the Bread of the Presence was false bread. They were merely signs that pointed forward to the coming of the Messiah and the New Covenant consummated at the Last Supper with the Eucharist.
This is where we ended last week. The reason we are reviewing it again is because by breaking Chapter 6 into 3 different readings, we run the risk of losing the flow and logic of Jesus' revelations, which is kind of important because we are tackling a very difficult subject.
Gospel Reading - John 6:41-51
The Jews began to grumble about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered them saying, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life. 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 that one may eat of 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 for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Q: No matter how many healings or miracles Jesus does, it never seems enough. We also know Jesus is the “new Moses.” There’s a connection between these two issues and what Moses had to deal with among the Jews in the desert. What is it?
The grumbling! The desert Israelites grumbled because God giving them manna from heaven, water from rocks, and splitting the Red Sea so they could escape the Egyptian army wasn’t enough. Likewise, the Jews complain that Jesus hasn’t given them enough signs, even though he’s healed hundreds of people, stopped a storm on the Sea of Galilee, and fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and two fish.
Q: What is the meaning of “I AM the bread that came down from heaven”?
The meaning is he is divine! Remember, the Jews don’t know about the Trinity yet, so they can only grasp that he means he is somehow related to God! I don’t think we appreciate the difficult task the Son of Man had to accomplish here, all while carefully keeping his own execution at bay until the right time.
Q: What does Jesus mean when he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him”?
Faith is a gift from God, it is not earned.
Q: The question was asked tonight why God would hold back faith from anyone, or not “draw them”?
Good question. First, faith. God does not hold faith back – He makes it available to all humans. But because we have free-will, our faith begins as an act of the will. It’s kind of like love. Love is a verb before it can become a noun. For instance, take a relationship. The more love you put into a relationship, the more love you are likely to get out of it. If you put no love/effort into the relationship, then you are a loser and will get nothing out of it. Faith works similarly – it is an action we must willingly take. Faith begins in act the seeking. If we are not really interested in seeking God, then we will not be drawn to Him. Perhaps someone is more drawn to evil. If so, you could say evil draws him, right? Whose fault is that – evil or his own? If I say that I am not drawn to the Father, is that the Father’s fault or my own? It’s my own, especially when one considers what keeps us from wanting to seek God: most commonly it is our “self” – our ego, our pride, our need for control, mammon). Until we desire more out of life than our pride or this world can offer us, then we will not be drawn to the Father.
Although today’s reading ends at Verse 51, I added Verse 52 to show you the initial reaction from his audience so you wouldn’t feel alone. V51, which ends with “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” is kind of daunting, and his audience pushes back on this because it kind of sounds like cannibalism, which of course is against all Jewish teaching.
Jesus’ audience don’t like what they hear
But does Jesus back off? Does he soften the message? Does he explain to his disciples later that he was only speaking metaphorically or symbolically? No. As we will see in the last part of John 6, Jesus does just the opposite. At the risk of losing his disciples, he doubles down, repeats it, and in fact draws a line in the sand. Because Jesus is so adamant about this, it behooves us to understand why.
By saying, “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” notice Jesus has woven together both bread and flesh. Somehow, together, these will somehow lead us to the eternal Promised Land. But how, and why?
Q: What possible kind of preparation from the Old Testament could his audience have for this discussion?
The Passover. The night of the first Passover, the Jews were instructed to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, cook it, and eat it. This is where the eating of the flesh comes from. But why?
Q: What is the meaning of sacrifice?
Comes from “sacred”= holy + facere = to make. To make oneself holy. When you give up things so your son/daughter can go to college, you didn’t know you were doing a holy thing, did you. Selflessness is a holy act.
Q: Why did they EAT the lamb sacrifice?
Because God wants to share in their experience of forgiveness and renewal.
Nevertheless, these animal sacrifices made by the Jews were never enough, because they only represented a shadow of man’s sinfulness; consequently these sacrifices needed to be repeated often. Sacrifices were conducted at the Temple 2-3x/day, every day!
Q: What was done with the blood?
The night of the first Passover, they were instructed to put the blood of the lamb on their door posts. In those days – and for that matter today also – blood represents life. In the Jewish sacrifices, the “life” of the animal was being transferred to the people. Why? Because sin destroys us. Blood meant life. So when the 10th plague came that last night to Egypt, death passed over the houses that had the blood of the lamb on their doors.
Q: How does this relate to Jesus blood, particularly at the Last Supper when he holds up the cup and says, “This is my blood, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins”?
Same thing. Jesus blood (life) is being given to us. He is sacrificing himself to give his life to us.
Q: How does the lamb of the Passover relate to Jesus?
At the Passover, sacrificing an unblemished lamb was needed for the forgiveness of sins. Now, what did John the Baptist say when he saw Jesus approaching him while he was baptizing in the Jordan?
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” - John 1:29.
Jesus was the unblemished (sinless/perfect) “lamb.” What’s amazing about this is that God has volunteered to do this as the solution to our problem: to granting us forgiveness while still maintaining perfect justice. What God does that? Who would invent such a thing?
Q: Why is Jesus compared to a lamb?
Because the first Passover, which sacrificed an unblemished lamb was to be replaced permanently by the new Passover (Easter), after which no more sacrifices would ever be needed again. The “lamb” made the connection, and the fulfillment, unmistakable.
Only one sacrifice could be so great as to grant eternal forgiveness and yet satisfy justice for all the sins of mankind: a “God-becoming a man sacrifice.”
Q: Did we forget about the bread? What about the bread??
It all comes together in the bread!
The historical biblical usage of bread meant not only sustenance but fellowship. One broke bread with another when there was an agreement between nations, tribes, between families, or in marriage agreements.
Then there was the daily manna appearing in the desert that sustained the Jews for 40 years, teaching them faith (dependence on God – a verb). God also instructed them to maintain bread in the Tabernacle that contained the Ark of the Covenant. This was called the “Bread of the Presence” and was maintained from the time of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai in 1400 BC to the time of Christ.
The title “Bread of the Presence” (sometimes translated as “Show Bread” or “Face (of God) Bread”) defied explanation, except to remind the Jews of the manna that God gave them. The fulfillment of this “Bread of the Presence” is finally fulfilled at the Last Supper when Jesus holds up the bread and says, “This is my body.” His presence!
One can only wonder how the Apostles during John 6 must have felt when Jesus announced repeatedly that everyone was expected to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus ingeniously solves this at the Last Supper by transforming his sacrifice (body and blood) into the Bread and Wine. What he was earlier calling the “true bread from heaven” is now fulfilled in the true Bread of His Presence.
Everything in the OT is fulfilled. The sacrifice that was needed for our eternal forgiveness is embodied in this last act of Jesus Christ as a human; for perfect justice requires a human pay for human sins.
The result is a Trinitarian gift from Jesus Christ, of himself; a gift that keeps on giving in the Eucharist. Just before ascending into heaven when Jesus said, “I will be with you until the end of time,” he was not kidding, nor was he speaking metaphorically. He is with all humans in the Eucharist almost anywhere in the world every day.
Q: Lastly, for those who still wonder: Is the Eucharist his actual human body and blood from when he was here?
No, it is his “glorified” body and blood. It’s no less a miracle than his Incarnation. In fact, that’s just how it is.
This is from Pope Saint John Paul II:
“A beautiful text of the Second Vatican Council reminds us of it: ‘Christ left to his followers a pledge of this hope and food for the journey in the sacrament of faith, in which natural elements, the fruits of man’s cultivation, are changed into his glorified Body and Blood, as a supper of brotherly fellowship and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet’” (Gaudium et spes, n. 38, Pope Saint John Paul II).
Let us also recall what Jesus told the Pharisees at the Temple:
“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” – Mt. 9:13.
I believe Jesus accomplished exactly that.
Closing Prayer
Eucharistia: Thank you, Lord, I am grateful for your saving presence in my life.
Kenosis: Lord, I will try to empty myself as you did, to be present to others.
Metanoia: Today, every moment, I yoke my mind, my heart, and my soul to You.
Maranatha: Come, Lord, enter, and make your home with me.
O Divine Wisdom and eternal Word of the Father,
I humbly ask you, by your grace,
to purge all harmful and unprofitable words from my mind and lips,
so that my mouth may never open but to the benefit of others, and to your praise and honor. Amen.
Hail Mary
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.
And Taylor’s closing devotion…
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