Sunday Preparation

The Bible and Morality – Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct

This is the title of a document was published by the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 2008. It presents a survey of both Old and New Testament, focusing on the moral teaching of divine revelation. The overarching theme is “divine gift and human response”. Read the entire whole document here.

1. The Gift of Creation (in the first chapters of Genesis and the Psalms)
   1. The moral responsibilities of human beings created in the image of God.
2. The Gift of the Covenant in the in the Old Testament, and the implied norms for human conduct.
   1. The Covenant with Noah and with all flesh
   2. The Covenant with Abraham, and the Gift of the Promised Land
   3. The Covenant with Moses, the Ten Commandments and the Legislative Codes.
3. The Moral Teaching of the Prophets and the Wisdom literature.
4. The New Covenant in Jesus Christ as God’s Final Gift and its Moral Implications.
   1. The Coming of God’s Kingdom.
   2. Jesus’ Preaching of The Kingdom of God in the Synoptic Gospels.
      1. The Beatitudes.
   3. The Moral Teaching of John’s Gospel
   4. The Moral Teaching in Paul’s letters
   5. The Moral teaching in other New Testament Epistles
   6. Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant
   7. The Demands and Gifts of the New Covenant.
5. The Moral Implications of the Eucharist.
6. God’s Forgiveness, reflecting on both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
7. The realized Kingdom, the final goal of human striving.
8. Biblical Criteria for Moral Reflection.
   1. Conformity with the Biblical view of Human Nature
   2. Conformity with the Example of Jesus.

The class meets on Wednesdays, 7:15 PM to 8:45PM, via Zoom or phone.
Email Jim Hynes or call 919-928-2157 to participate.

 

A new weekly Bible Study to help parishioners prepare for a fruitful celebration of the Sunday Eucharist by studying prayerfully the Sunday Scriptures. This program will also draw on documents from Bishops, Popes and the Vatican on interpreting the Scriptures. It will focus upon “The Kerygma”, that is, the proclamation of the story of Jesus which leads people to conversion of heart and Intentional Discipleship.

Each meeting will include a 'Lectio Divina' on one of the readings, letting the Scriptures speak to our hearts,  and direct us in ways both spiritual and pastoral. It will also introduce week by week various different methods of studying the Scriptures, as taught in the following Magisterial documents, and to practice applying them to the Sunday Scriptures: 

• Dei Verbum                                                      Vatican II                                                          1963
• The Historicity of the Gospels                     Pontifical Biblical Commission                    1964
• The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church                                                      PBC         1993
• The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible          PBC          2002
• The Bible and Morality                                  Pontifical Biblical Commission                     2008
• Verbum Domini                                              Pope Benedict XVI                                           2010
• Preaching the Mystery of Faith                   US Conference of Catholic Bishops             2012
• Homiletic Directory                                       Congregation for Divine Worship                  2015

Participants will use 'At Home With the Word' which contains the Readings for every Sunday of the year. Copies available for $7.00

In-person classes are suspended until further notice. However, people may participate through Zoom on Wednesday at 7:15 PM. Email Jim Hynes if you wish to participate.

August 6, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9 (Jesus is Transfigured)

'Sunday Connection' Scripture Commentary.
RCL/Benziger Gospel Reflections

Catechism Connection

554 - The Transfiguration
444 - The Father designates Jesus his "beloved son"

Find these references in the Online E-Book of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the Gospel story of the Transfiguration of Jesus, Peter, James and John are given a glimpse of the future - of Jesus, resurrected and glorified. However, his glory would be achieved only through his suffering and death.
 
This is the lesson for us today: we cannot think of the Resurrection, and the blessings it brings, without thinking about the cross which comes first, and the suffering it involves.
 
We can learn something about what this story means from where it comes in the Gospel. Just before the Transfiguration, Jesus is asking his disciples who people say that that he is - the incident at Ceaserea Philippi. In this story Peter half understands, and half fails to understand, who Jesus is, and which road he must travel, and how a disciple must follow the same path.
 
So this incident is part of the education of the disciples, in the meaning of the two most important questions in the Gospels: who is Jesus, and what does it mean to follow him? It is significant who appears with Jesus: Moses and Elijah - this told the disciples and also tells us something about who Jesus is. Moses represents the Law in the Old Testament, and Elijah represents the Prophets. The whole of the Old Testament is symbolically present with Jesus, and it shows that Jesus is at least the equal of Moses and Elijah, and he is thus the "New Testament".
 
To make this even clearer, we hear the voice of God from the cloud, saying, "This is my son, the beloved. Listen to him," the same words we heard at Jesus' baptism.
 
Once again, Peter only half understands what is going on. He says how wonderful it is to be there, basking in the glory. He wants to stay and put up three tents, which recall the Tent of Meeting in Exodus, where the people of Israel met with God on their pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Peter wants to hang on to the moment and not go back down the mountain to ordinary life again. But he must let go. The important lesson is that there is no short cut to peace and glory, not for Jesus, and not for any of his disciples either.
 
As Jesus said to Peter earlier, he must first suffer and be killed, and then enter into glory, and his disciples too must take up the cross and follow him. Today, we have seen the glory, for a short while. But when Jesus and his disciples come down from the mountain they go straight into a bitter conflict with the authorities, and this is the beginning of the road to Calvary.
 
We also have the same path to follow. In this world, we have persecutions and sufferings if we follow Jesus, but we can be assured of the Transfiguration into glory and new life at the end.

August 9, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33 (Jesus Calms the Storm)

Girardian Lectionary
'Sunday Connection' Scripture Commentary
RCL/Benziger Gospel Reflections

Question of the Week (Adults): When have you doubted God's loving care for you?

Question of the Week (Children): What helps you keep trying even when you are afraid?

Catechism Connection

448 - Jesus' title of "Lord"

Find these references in the Online E-Book of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Saints This Week

August 9 Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)
August 10 Saint Lawrence patron of Cooks, the Poor
August 11 Saint Clare patron of Eye disorders, Television
August 13 Saints Pontian and Hippolytus, martyrs
August 14 Saint Maximilian Kolbe, martyr, patron of drug addicts
August 15 Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary 

YEAR A -  Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

The First Reading is one of the best known incidents in the story of the prophet Elijah. He is fleeing for his life from his persecutors, and hides in a cave. The Lord tells him to go outside, for the Lord will be passing by. What follows is a 'Theophany', that is, a revelation of appearance of God. Another vivid example of a Theophany in the Old Testamant is the story of Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus 3.  In ancient times people saw divinity as frightening and a deadly threat. However, when Elijah experiences God, it is not in the destructive elements of wind, earthquake or fire, but in a gentle breeze.

Unfortunately in the Lectionary we hear only a tiny part of this story. To get a sense of the full story, read from 1 Kings 18:16-40, then 1 Kings 19:1-18, to hear of the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, then the conversation between the Lord and Elijah. There is an excellent commentary on this by Fr. James Alison, in which he points out that in this episode Elijah discovers that God is not to be found in any religious violence, and is entirely different from the pagan gods like Baal, whom he is confronting..    

This reading is chosen to be a suitable preamble to the Gospel, in which the disciples also are threatened by the deadly forces of nature. They cry out in terror, and Jesus goes to them and calms the storm and restores the disciples to safety and peace. As with the Feeding of the Five Thousand story last week, we tend to focus upon the miraculous elements of this story – Jesus walking upon the water – but overlook something of greater significance. There is a resonance in this story of the first moments of creation, in Genesis 1:1-2, where God brings peace to the primeval chaos of the world. Remember that in Judaism, and in Christianity too, God is a God of order and not of chaos, of healing and not of destruction.  Therefore both the First Reading and the Gospel highlight questions of order and chaos in creation. Is God to be found in the tempest? No, in its ending, because God is a God of order, not of chaos.

The Psalm today gives us the origin of language often used in Catholic Social Teaching. Many parishes or Dioceses have a “Justice and Peace Group”. The two are closely associated because of the language in this Psalm,

Kindness and truth shall meet;
Justice and Peace shall kiss [or ‘embrace’]

Therefore right order in creation and in human society are related to each other, and related to justice and peace. God is the origin and giver of both. The vision of the Kingdom of God is a situation where there is proper order between God, creation and people. Therefore hence issues of justice, peace, ecology and faith are all integrated.

Finally, the reading from Romans today is very important in understanding the proper relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Paul is very distressed that the Jewish people have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah. However, he says of them,

Theirs is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; theirs the patriarchs and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ. (Rom 9:4-5)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes this (CCC 839-840) and states

839   When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, “the first to hear the Word of God.” The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ”; “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”

840   And when one considers the future, God’s People of the Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah, whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.

For this reason the Catholic Church has no formal mission to the Jews, for they already belong to the irrevocable covenant which God made with them. Jewish Converts to Catholicism are always welcome, but there is no explicit Catholic mission to the Jewish people.  

August 15, 2020

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56 (The Annunciation)

Girardian Lectionary
'Sunday Connection' Scripture Commentary

Question of the Week (Adults): How does your beleif in eternal life affect your daily life? 

Question of the Week (Children): What does it mean to have hope?

Catechism Connection

966 - The Assumption of Mary

See the Online E-Book of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

August 15th - Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady

Today we celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven. What is the meaning of this Feast today? The Assumption is not recorded in Scripture, but is rather a matter of “Oral Tradition” which is to say that the story was handed on by word of mouth from one generation of Christians to the next.

This tradition of the Assumption of Mary differs between the Western Church and the Church in the East. The Western tradition is that Mary did not die, (because “the wages of sin is death” and she did not sin) but was assumed bodily into heaven at the end of her life on earth. The Eastern tradition is that she died and was three days in a tomb, following the pattern of Jesus’ own life, and rose and was then assumed into heaven. This tradition they call the “Dormition”, and the tomb in which it is said Mary was buried is in Ephesus, which is where Mary went to live with the Apostle John after Jesus ascended to heaven.

The Readings for today, as always, are carefully selected by the Church to bring out the full meaning of the Feast. The First Reading from the Book of Revelation is full of strange allegorical language. It is not easy to be sure what all the symbols stand for, but most Scripture commentators agree that “The Woman” stands for Israel and the Twelve Stars are either (or probably both) the Twelve Tribes of Israel or the Twelve Apostles. The Child, born of Israel, is the infant Church, and the Dragon is the Roman Empire which was then persecuting the Church. Rome is symbolized by the Seven Heads of the Dragon, representing the Seven Hills of the city of Rome. The Reading is talking about God’s protection of the Church during a period of persecution. People will often also read this symbolic language as referring to Mary and Jesus. The symbolic language of the Scriptures has many layers of meaning.

The Second Reading talks of the Resurrection, Christ first, then others “in their proper order”. This is how the Church sees the Assumption of Mary, as the next to rise after Christ, and a symbol – and a reaffirmation – of the eternal life and resurrection promised to all humanity.

The key phrase in the Gospel is “blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled”. It is Mary's faith which is recognised, symbolised and rewarded in the Assumption. We too, therefore, are called to believe more fully in God’s promises, and look for their fulfillment in our own lives. 

Saint John Paul II comments on the Feast of the Assumption

The liturgy celebrates with solemnity the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into heaven. This is a day of hope and of light, because all men and women, pilgrims on the earth, are able to foresee in Mary the “destiny of glory” that awaits them.

On this day, we contemplate the Handmaid of the Lord in paradise, encircled in regal radiance, where even in her glorified body she has gone be­fore us. We look to her a sign of sure hope. Indeed, in Mary, God’s promise to the humble and righteous is fulfilled: evil and death will not have the last word….

However dark the shadows that sometimes gather on the horizon and however incomprehensible certain events may appear to be in human history, we must never lose trust and peace. Today’s feast invites us to entrust ourselves to Mary assumed into heaven who, like a shining star from heaven, directs our daily journey on earth.

~ St. John Paul II, Angelus, August 15, 2003

Scripture Resources for Catechists

• Opening the Word from FORMED online
• Seasonal Resources from Be My Disciples
• Cycle A, B and C Resources - from Loyola Press (2018-19 is Year C, The Gospel of Luke)
• Advent and Christmas Lectionary Meditations - Fr. James Alison
• Girardian Lectionary - comments and exegesis on the Sunday Scriptures
• Lesson Strategies from Be My Disciples
• Sunday Connection for this week from Loyola Press
• Finding God - the Online Catechists Helper from Loyola Press (log in required)
• Sunday Homilies - from St Andrew's
• Midweek Reflection (signup) - From Liturgical Publications
• The Text This Week - Lectionary, Scripture Study, Worship Links and Resources 
• Audio of Daily Mass Readings - from the USCCB
• Video Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings - from the USCCB