Bible Study

This year I am teaching two classes for our PSR (CCD) program. First I am teaching regular 9^th grade PSR, and secondly I am teaching an 8^th grade bible study. I am really excited about both. For the 9^th grade we are teaching the first year of the confirmation years, and that is just very exciting. We are teaching from the total catechesis books from saint mary's press (http://www.smp.org/) In particular the books on the creed and Christian morality. It should be a very exciting year, and I will keep you updated on it throughout the year.
But this post is really about the bible study class. The first class is on the early church, and our readings are from the Gospel of John, the Acts, and 1 Corinthians. Here are some of my own observations in reading these readings.


John 20:19-23 - Here we see Christ appearing to the disciples. He appears on a Sunday in the evening, inside the locked room where they were hiding. They must have been very frightened. Just three days ago Christ had died, and now the disciples must feel hunted. They are probably terrified that they may be found out, scourged, and put to death themselves. But suddenly Jesus appears to them and he says "Peace be with you". A calm must have pervaded the room at that, because we see that Jesus shows his wounds and the disciples "Rejoiced when they saw the lord." Now That he has his disciples calmed down, he tells them that as his father has sent him, now he sends them, and he gives them the holy spirit, and tells them "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." This has got to be a pretty heavy load for the apostles. For us we read that and we think, "yeah sure, that is how it works." But we have to think back to the times that it happened. Today we are living on more than 2000 years of Christian tradition. Back then the apostles were Jews. And how exactly did a Jew get sins forgiven? Well they made a sin offering at the temple. Sure the apostles had seen and heard Christ talk about forgiving sins, but could they have imagined that they would have the power to forgive sins? It must have come as quite a shock!
Acts 1:1-5 – This is Luke's introduction to the Acts, and mostly we see that he is continuing his story from the Gospel of Luke here. But there is one more thing we see in here. We see that we were baptized in water, but WILL be baptized in the holy spirit. That is a pretty big thing as we will see.
Acts 1:6-11 – There are a few things happening here. The apostles ask if Christ is going to restore his kingdom, and; probably much to their chagrin, Christ tells them that it is not for us to "know the times or the seasons that the father has established…" What a let down this must have been. Christ tells them they will receive the holy spirit though, and they will witness "to the ends of the earth." Then he is "lifted up and a cloud took him away from their sight." The apostles must have been terribly dismayed at this loss, because we read that they are "looking intently at the sky" when two men in white garments appear and tell them that Christ will return in the same way as he left.
Acts 1:12-26 – There is a whole lot happening in here. First off apostles return to the upper room where they were staying, and this was only a Sabbaths day walk from mount Olivet. Now when I was younger this always made me wonder. What is a Sabbaths day walk? How far is that? Doing some research we find that in the Rabbinic tradition a Sabbaths day walk is about 1000 cubits. Now we are a little closer. We have some standard to measure by. Since Rome was ruling Jerusalem at the time they probably were using a roman cubit (this is my thinking anyway). So 1000 cubits would have been about 500 yards. Not very far at all. Now that the apostles are all back in Jerusalem together there are some important matters to take care of. Peter takes charge, and tells them that it is necessary that a successor to Judas must be chosen. Peter doesn't just decide this he uses scripture to prove that it must be done. About Judas he says it is written in psalms "Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it", and "May another take his office." So they do some discussion and draw lots, and the "lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles." For us as Catholics this is a pretty important verse. This is one place where we see that there not only IS apostlolic sucession, but that there MUST be apostolic succession.
Acts 2:1-11 – And the holy spirit came down upon them. We get so many gifts from the holy spirit, and it is well demonstrated here. The apostles went out to preach and "there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven" and they said to each other "how does each of us hear them in his own native language?" Of course not everyone was convinced even at this amazing sight, because we see some (presumably Jews) saying "they have had too much wine." It is not so different today. Some people are given gifts of the holy spirit and people will not necessarily scoff at them, but will deny that it is from the holy spirit. Maybe they say "ohh she has really smart parents on both sides", or "Oh yes, his father does speak several languages." We should never wonder about such things since as Christ said the holy spirit will come.
And those are just the bible readings. What a great start to the year, we have apostolic succession, gifts of the holy spirit, penance and reconciliation. It is hard to imagine but it gets even better later in the year.

Lord I am not worthy...

I have been reading a book by Scott Hahn lately. It is a bit deeper than his normal books for the laity, but it is still a great book. Letter and Spirit From Written Text to Living Word in the Liturgy talks all about how the scripture are liturgical in nature. It is an interesting read, albeit, for me at least, not as interesting as some of his other work. For instance just before this book I read his work "A Father Who Keeps His Promises." That was an incredibly interesting book about the covenents that God has made with his people throughout salvation history. It takes us from Adam and Eve all the way through to the new covenant Christ instituted. Before that was The Lambs Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth. That was breathtaking. I could not put it down.

So why is it that I am finding this book so much more difficult to really get in to? Well I think part of it is that we, as catholics, are so used to the liturgy. It has a rythym for us, we can set our internal clocks by that rythm. And maybe, just a little bit, we are not so in tune with it. It has become much like breathing for us. Essential yes, but not something we have to think about. Or even truly want to think about in some cases.

That is of course not a good thing. But I bet that well over 80% of us do not put a lot of thought into the liturgy. Think about it. When we say "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" how many people think about that, and what it really means? I know for a very long time in my life I didn't think about it. I was born catholic so I have been hearing the mass in either latin or english for a long time. I have certainly memorized all the responses, and for a long time I didn't think about them. I also didn't think about all the interconnections that the liturgy has. Sure I know that we read from the old testament, we read from the epistles, we read from the gospels. It's great, and all that. But what about the introductory rite? Did I think about that? Did I know that all my venial sins are forgiven when I go to mass? Sure probably somewhere, sometime, someone told me that, but I did not think about it.

And that was an even worse thing. Now mind you I do not kow when I had this sudden change from non-thinking attendant to thinking participant in the liturgy. But when that happened it has made the whole mass come more alive for me. Now mass is not something I have to do because if I don't it is a mortal sin, it is something I want and NEED to do, because no matter how hard I try I am still a sinner, and I am not worthy, but in the mass the lord does say the word and I am healed.