Cont'd Commentary "Word On Fire" 2
Episode Four "Our Tainted Natures Solitary Boast"
1. Eve. the mother of all the living
2. Mary The Mother of God
3. Mary and Zion
4. John Cares for MaryMother of God
5. The Immaculate Conception
6 The Assumption of the Virgin
7. Mother of the Church
8. Mother of the New Covenant
1. Eve. the mother of all the living!
Why did God prohibit Adam and Eve from eating fruit from the tree of Good and Evil?
It was all about Love! When a couple find each other attractive to one and other, they use their reason, power of perception and analysis in order to access one and other. The relationship will only come to life if they surrender to one and other. We call this "falling in love". God wanted Adam and Eve to use a full range of intellect and moral energy to freely choose him and finally to surrender his love. They had the freedom to do anything that they wanted to do except to eat the fruit for the tree of good and evil. God did not want the expose to evil. But the choice was one of discernment. God wanted Adam and Eve and us to surrender to his love for us. We are call to fall in love with God. The old Baltimore Catechism said "We were born to Know, Love and Serve God and to be happy with him in heaven. " The message is the same today.
2. Mary, the mother of God!
The Annunciation
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and announced "Hail favored one! The Lord is with you" The 14 or 15 year old Jewish girl was afraid and puzzled. For you have found favor with God. Behold you will conceive in you womb and bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus" Luke 1: 30-31 .... The Spirit will come upon you and. the Most High will overshadow you. Your child will be called holy, the Son of God. Mary’s responded in simplicity "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel of the Lord departed. March 25 is the feast day of the Annunciation.
3. Mary and Zion
Mary is the sum of Israel. She is the new Israel, the daughter Abraham. She is Israel at it’s best! In salvation history Mary is the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. She is the fulfillment of the Arc of the Covenant.
Chartres Cathedral, France is dedicated to Our Lady. The floor plan of the structure is her dwelling place in the shape of her body, with significant meanings.
May is the model of courage and simplicity. She was the first disciple of Christ. From the beginning of her life, she submitted to the will of God. Do unto me according to your word. Do with me what ever you want!
4. John Cares for Mary, the Mother of God
e to his mother saying to John;" Behold your Mother and to Mary; Mother; Behold your son". From that day on John took her into his house. In Asia Minor, it is believed that Mary and John lived in Ephesus for the rest of their lives. On hill overlooking the Aegean Sea is the house that is believed to be where Mary lived.
In 431 AD, the a great Council met in the Cathedral of Ephesus and after much debate it was determined that Jesus was the Son of God, then Mary should be called the "The Mother of God". The citizens if Ephesus who loved Mary so much celebrated with great enthusiasm. For centuries Artemis, the great mother goddess statue stood outside of the city of Ephesus and was considered a wonder of the ancient world. The council was declaring that Mary was greater than Artemis was and that she had the privilege through grace of bringing into the world the God who would save the world.
5. The Immaculate Conception
The doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary were formally declared in recent years (the first in 1854 in 1950) Pope Pius IX in 1854 declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, through a special grace was preserved free from original sin from the first moment of her conception. Four year later at Lourdes, France, the Blessed Mother appeared to a little girl named Bernadette Soubirous, When she ask the beautiful lady what her name was, she replied; "I am the Immaculate Conception".
6. Assumption of Mary
Pope Pius XII declared the dogma of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in 1950. The Assumption of Mary body and soul being heaven means that the Blessed Mother was "translated," in the totality of her being from this dimensional system to a higher one for we use the symbolically evocative term "heaven". Mary is not so much somewhere else as somehow else and this helps to explain when we can speak of her especially in the heavenly state, interceding, helping us and praying for us.
7. Mother of the Church
Mary Queen of the Saints, support Jesus mission even today. When Jesus entrusted Mary to John (Behold your Mother); Jesus in a real sense, was entrusting Mary to all those who would be friends of Jesus down through the ages. The Blessed Mother’s basis task is always to draw people into a deeper fellowship with her son. She does this in usually in quiet, hidden ways, responding to prayer and interceding for the church, but sometimes she does so in a remarkable manner, breakings into our world strikingly and visibly. To name a few more well known are Lourdes, Fatima and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Relate the story.
8. Mother of the New Covenant
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6811
Episode 5 Peter and Paul and The Missionary Adventure
1 The Indispensable Men
2 Peter
3
4 Paul
5 Conversion and Mission
6 Resurrection
7,8 Participation in Christ
1. 2. 3. Peter
The head of the twelve apostles. Bishops are required to travel to Rome to St. Peter’s Basilica to pray at the tomb of Peter. The twelve apostles represent the twelve tribes of Israel. Simon, son of John, called Peter was a fisherman by trade. He lived in Capernaum. He was an honest, but brash and flawed man. Much like fisherman of today.
He dropped everything to follow Jesus. Peter loved Jesus very deeply. Scripture tells of the time Peter saw Jesus walking on water. When Peter saw this, he asks Jesus if he could join him in the boat and did for a while. When the waves started to get a little rough, Peter’s faith wavered a little and he began to sink. At Christ prediction scripture, also records the fact that Peter denied Christ 3 times prior to his crucifixion. After Jesus' resurrection, Peter saw Jesus and he was naked. He hurried to cover himself as if he felt shame. Like Adam, Peter covered himself in front of Jesus because he had sinned. Jesus ask Peter three times, "Do you love me Simon Peter"? On the third time as before, Peter replied of course, Lord "I Love You". Each time Jesus said, "Feed My Sheep".
In Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks the apostles, who men say that I am.
Simon Peter answered; you are Christ, Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus said, it is not from man that you know this, but from the gift of my Father.
Jesus said, I will call you Peter, the rock.
If we look closely at these events in Peter’s life, in some ways we can see ourselves when we stumble and sin. We should also follow his example of repentance in telling our Lord we are sorry.
4. Paul
Paul was from a mixed culture being Jewish and Greek and at some point became a Roman citizen. He was educated and knew Hebrew scripture very well, studying under a leading rabbi Gamaliel. He became very zealous in in persecuting Christians. He looked with approval at the martyrdom of Stephen, the first of the apostles to die in this manner.
5. The Conversion and Mission
While traveling through Damascus, Paul saw a light from the sky flashed all around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" He asked, who are you sir? "The reply came, Jesus, whom you are persecuting." (Acts 9: 3-5) Saul was knock to the ground with invisible grace, stripped of his sword and shut his eyes. Blind and helpless, Saul was led into Damascus. After a few days, a Christian disciple named Ananias baptized him. When Ananias laid hands on Saul, "things like scales fell from his eyes and were able to see. He went away at once into Arabia and then back to Damascus. Three years later, he ventured back to Jerusalem to visit with Peter and the other pillars of the church.
He was trying to understand what had happened to him and how to reconcile his encounter with Jesus and the traditions of Israel, which he loved. He finally realized his mission was to declare this to everyone, that Jew and Gentile alike had found a new king. Paul felt commissioned by Christ himself to be the bearer of this message. He
traveled the world spreading the message that the Kingdom of God was at hand.
6. The Resurrection
Paul’s next stop on his missionary journey was Athens and on the Hill of Mars, (the Areopagus) the public forum just below the Acropolis and the Parthenon, provided the occasion to preach on the foundation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Paul drew the philosophers attention to the Unknown God, the subject of his proclamation. The true God, he tells them is the maker of heaven and earth in its entirety and rose Jesus physically from the dead. This God would judge the world with justice. Human hands out of silver or gold did not make him. The resurrection of Jesus was the validation of his messianic claim and therefore the ground for Paul’s declaration that Christ is Kyrios (Lord, Master) of the world. This was scandalous to Jews. It annoyed everyone.
7. & 8. Participation In Christ
Paul is convinced that the risen Jesus - the bearer of God’s promises and is the rightful king of the world. Paul now says, "enter into Christ" who is himself the embodiment and fulfillment of the law. Paul says; "Trust in Christ", who through his crucifixion became the new and definitive sacrifice. He saw that in Christ Jesus, faithful Yahweh has finally met faithful Israel. We trust in Jesus Christ, relying on the power of the cross and resurrection, and we there by enter in the force field, the space of justification, the first step is faith. In a word, upon faith we are invited to embrace the love that follows. Love is what God is. Love is the willing the good of the other. To love is to leap out of ourselves and live for someone else. "Paul says love is patient, love is kind. Heaven is the state of being in which everything that is not love has been burned away. And that is why "faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love"
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Episode 6 "The Mystical Union of Christ and the Church"
1 - The Church - Christ Mystical Body
2 - The Church - Christ Mystical Body
3 - Ekklesia
4 - The Church Is One
5 - The Church Is Holy
6 - The Church is Catholic
7 - The Church is Apostolic
8 - What is the Mission of the Church
1.&2. The Church - The Mystical Body of Christ
The Eucharist is the center of the Mystical Body of Christ.
The church is the Body of Jesus Christ - a living Mystical Organism consisting of all its members guided by the Magisterium of the church. There are many members with different talents (Vine and Branches).
3. EKKLESIA - "To Call out from".
Abraham called the people of Israel to be gathered to God. The gathering of people by Christ formed the Church. Church, like a ship, remains a safe haven.
Supreme Devine Magnate- God
Gathered a people
Formed a Church
Noah let life out to transform the world. RE: Pope Paul II - What you have learned spread for the transfiguration of the world.
4. The Church is ONE
God is One, One Body, One Spirit
(3 Persons in One God)
"Father that they be one as you and I are one." All that is true in nature is one in God. Jesus is One- Includes all religions, cultures, etc., - there is some good in most churches. Church has the power to draw all that is God to "itself". God Unifies all to all as One.
5. The Church is Holy - The source of the church's holiness is God himself. Christ life and death freed all members from sin. And the Holy Spirit gives the Church its life. One - acknowledge One God One faith One Baptism
The Church is Holy because Christ is Holy!
The Mystical Body of Christ is Church, therefore Holy; Makes people holy, Is the New Jerusalem, Living Water, Spotless Bride of Christ.
Like Earthen Vessels - mankind is weak and sinful.
God gives us graces, love, mercy and forgiveness and his only Son so that we can be forgiven of sin.
6. The Church is Catholic -
Catholic - Greek word meaning "According to the Whole". Universal - the New Israel to all nations. At Pentecost, 50 days after the Resurrection, the apostles in the Holy Spirit went out and preached to all in there own tongues. Universal: it speaks to all people at all times. The Church proclaims the entire faith and provides the means of salvation to everyone.
Pope John Paul II gathered youth from around the world for "World Youth Day" as One Family, to celebrate their Catholicity in Manila; a gathering of historical size.
7. The Church is Apostolic -
Built on the teaching of the apostles, the Church teaches the truth infallibly (without error). Christ governs the Church through Peter and the other Apostles, whose successors are the pope and the bishops. The pope has complete power in the care of souls. The duties of the bishops are to teach the faith, to celebrate, worship and to guide the churches as true pastors. Bishops and priests are called to the ministerial priesthood. Lay people who are not Deacons are followers of Christ and are to obey Christ teaching and bring the good news to all those around them.
Apostle means "to serve". The first apostle shaped and formed the Church from the living experiences with Christ, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our Faith can be traced back to Peter and Paul and the other original apostles. All priests are ordained by a Bishop; who are descendants of first 12 apostles. The Church is given to us by Christ divinity - Resurrection - Inspired by the Holy Spirit/
What is the Church? Church gathers all nature; all creations to itself around Christ.
The word church means "gathering". The Church is an assembly of
those whom Jesus calls together to form the People of God. As head of
the Church Christ pours out the Holy Spirit on its members. The Spirit
enlivens and makes holy the Church. In this way nourished with the
Body of Christ, becomes the Body of Christ. Scriptures tells us in one
body there is many members and functions. They are united, yet very
different. This unity exists around the world. Because of Christ’s great
love for his people, the Church is often called the Bride of Christ. Unity
among catholics comes from Christ. He is the head of the Church. The
Church lives through him and in him.
8. What is the mission of the Church?
"Jesus is the head, the Holy Spirit is the blood, a Light to all nations; The New Eden"! The mission of the Church is to spread the Gospel throughout the World. Christ commanded the first disciples to preach the Good News everywhere. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
Infallibility of the Pope: Knows who Jesus is! By tradition and is the living voice of authority. Like an umpire - with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes all calls on faith in morals without error. Doctrine of the Church is developed over time. They unfold like a tree!
Episode 7 "The Mystery of Liturgy and the Eucharist "
1,2 - Intro
3 - Communion with the Lord
4 - The Gathering
5 - The Telling of the Stories
6 - The Offering
7 - Excursis - On the Real Presence
8 - Communion and Sunday
1. & 2. Intro & Communion with the Lord - In the Liturgy, we do it for its own sake. It is an orderly sequence of worship. Mass is a heavenly Liturgy. In the Mass, God’s order is preserved. Vatican II said, the Liturgy of the Mass is the source and summit of Christian Life. Praising God gives us an inner harmony, communion with the Lord!
3. The Gathering - The coming together by Catholics of all nations and cultures as the Mystical Body of Christ to worship at the sacrificial altar of Jesus Christ. As children of God, we sing the praises and glory of God together. The gathering includes all members of the Church from all over the world.
A. We begin with the "Sign of the Cross", which belongs to the Trinity of God. It is the sign of our faith. By this sign, we gather into the divine life of Christ. We pray not to God, by in God. As we continue, we greet the Lord as the celebrant says: "The Lord is with you", at which we reply, "And with your spirit". We call to mind our sins; we express our sorrow at the "Lord Have Mercy". We need forgiveness. Then, with the "Gloria", we give praise and glorify the Lord for his mercy and goodness. This is the formula for a Happy Life and Peace. Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will.
4. The Telling of the Stories
Why do we tell the stories of the Old and New Testament? To put us in the moment of the time in customs and languages. We enter into the realm of the time that was. We hear of creation, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles.
The Liturgy of the Word At Mass, we hear two reading either from the Old Testament and/or Epistles or from one from the four Gospels. In the Homily, the preacher speaks to us acting in the person of the mind of Christ spirit, using his own style expressing the word of God.
The Apostles or Nicene Creed follows the homily. Our profession of faith: In part we say": "God from God, Light from Light, True God form True God, Begotten, not made, Consubstantial with the Father", One in being, fully sharing divinity with the Father! . This is significant, because if He were not one in the Father, He would not have been any different from many other movements of his time.
The Prayers of the Faithful We pray for ourselves and all of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ. We are a living organism that acts out of our own identity to and for one and other.
5. The Offering Gifts of bread and wine are presented as an offering by members of the congregation. Fruits of human labor are offered back to God. At His command, we are preparing for a meal where we sit down with Christ to share a meal. We sing songs and give praise to God.
The Eucharist We offer the bread and wine up to the Father and call upon the Holy Spirit to take our gifts and to change them in substance from ordinary bread and wine into the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus. By this action, we give glory to God. This is the New and Eternal Covenant for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is truly present to us!
6. Excursus of the Real Presence
The detailed discussion and explanation of the real presence of the precious body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Scripture in many passages supports this. "Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you will not have eternal life ". In order to have eternal life you must eat my body and drink my blood. How does this happen? By the POWER OF HIS WORDS. Christ himself said these words. He raised people from the dead, chased out demons, cleansed lepers, multiplied loafs and fish, just to name a few examples of the power His Word.
The Eucharist is not a symbol, by is really the body and blood from ordinary bread and wine. We call this, transubstantiation when the substance of the bread and wine is changed into the actual precious body and blood of Christ.
7. The Communion and Sending
At the closing of the Eucharistic prayer, we is really present under the forms of bread and wine, is offered as a living sacrifice to the Father.
The priest prays, "Through him and with him and in him, O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours for ever and ever". At this moment, the Catholic priest is truly the holy of holies. In ancient times, the Jewish priest would sacrifice an animal to Yahweh on behalf of all of the people. At the climax of Mass, the Catholic priest offers the Father not the blood of an animal, but the actual blood of Christ. The Priest and Ministers come down carrying Christ body in the Host and His blood in the chalices offering it as food and drink for the people. After the congregation has received communion and given thanks, they are blessed and sent forth.
The liturgy is the privileged communion with the Lord; it is the source and summit of Christian life. Therefore, those who participate in it never leave unchanged, they never go back the same way they came.