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April 18

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

April 18, Good Friday

JOHN 18:1--19:42

I give up my life for you and give you the chance of eternal life.

Prayerthoughts
a. What do I learn from what happened to Jesus (take these one at a time, spending time with each one): the arrest of Jesus, Peter’s denials, the inquiry before Annas, the trial before Pilate, the scourging of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus, the burial of Jesus.

b. What do I learn from how these people reacted to Jesus’s Passion and Death (take one at a time, spending time with each one): Judas Iscariot, the Apostles, Peter, Annas, Pilate, the soldiers who punished and crucified Jesus, Jesus’s mother Mary, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea.

c. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will read Isaiah, chapters 52 and 53 and
write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

WILLING TO GIVE

+ The message of the passion of Jesus in John’s Gospel is that Jesus was totally willing to give himself up for us

- Jesus accepts suffering because it was part of doing his Father’s will

- as John comments at the beginning of the Passion narrative: “Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him,” gave himself to those who would persecute him

- the Passion narrative of John says quite clearly that Jesus was choosing what was happening because he had a job to do, namely the redemption of the human race

+ Each evangelist had a specific reason for reporting the Lord’s life the way they did

- John presents Jesus as totally in control of what is happening, and yet he was willing to die for us---

- in the Garden of Gethsemane, he doesn’t pray to be delivered as in the other Gospels, because this hour is his whole purpose;

- when the Roman soldiers and Jewish police come to arrest him, they fall to the earth powerless as he says the divine statement: “I AM”, a phrase that is used three times in the description of what happened—it is the name of God given in the book of Exodus;

- he tells Peter to put away his sword because he wants to drink the cup that the Father has given him;

- he tells Pilate that Pilate’s understanding of a king is correct, and that the reason why he was here on earth was to bring out the truth and everyone must listen to his truth;

- Pilate seats Jesus on the judgment seat called Gabbatha because Jesus, not Pilate, is the real judge of the world;

- there is no Simon of Cyrene because John’s Jesus is in control, even carrying a heavy cross;

- Pilate’s inscription on the cross that Jesus was “King of the Jews” is in Latin, Hebrew and Greek, ALL of the languages of the world that counted at that time;

- he does not cry out on the cross: “My God, why have you forsaken me” as other Gospels because the Father is always with him, and he has allowed himself to be crucified because it is his will;

- he says “it is finished” only when he decided it was finished;

- when Jesus died, John says that he “handed over the spirit,” that is, not only dying, but literally handing over the Holy Spirit to humankind which he had promised at the Last Supper;

- he is buried, not in an unprepared manner as in the other Gospels, rather he lies amidst 100 pounds of spices, the type of burial preparation for a king

+ That “willingness to give” on behalf of others is something worth thinking about this Good Friday, I believe

- one of the best definitions of love is the willingness to give without expecting anything in return

- Jesus did that perfectly

- but that idea is very difficult for us: are we really giving to others without expecting anything in return?

- a Good Friday meditation for us involves how much we are truly giving to others

+ If we call ourselves Christian, we simply must be willing to give of ourselves

- as Jesus did for us.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Avatar: The Way of Water"--final session

TOGETHER

The Gospel

JOHN 19:25-27

JOHN 19:25-27

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

Gospelthink: I gave my mother Mary to the disciple and to you as "mother."

The theme of "family" dominates the final session of the movie "Avatar: The Way of Water." Not only is it the refrain throughout the movie that the Sully's are "family," but it is the means that the RDA and in particular avatar Quaritch use in order to trap Jake and his wife Neytiri. Included in the family is the Tulkun Payakan whom Lo'ak befriends. (A Tulkun is an intelligent and pacifistic whale-like species whom the Metkayina consider spiritual brethren.) Quaritch and the RDA go after the Tulkuns to extract a serum that stops human aging, and at the same time kills the animal. The Sully children are captured, thus bringing Quaritch and the RDA to fight against the Metkayina whose people Sully has joined. A spectacular water battle ensued and in the end one of Sully's children, Neteyam, was killed, but Quaritch and the rest of the RDA are expelled from Pandora. Also, Quaritch is saved by his biological son "Spider," although "Spider" chooses to stay with the Sully family with whom he had a family bond. Jake is prepared to leave the Metkayina, but their leader formally accepts them into their people.

It is interesting to try to get into the mind of the human Jesus as he hung upon the cross. Close to him as he breathed his last here on earth were a group of people who more or less represented his immediate family. They were his relatives, including his mother, and the Beloved Disciple, whom Scripture scholars say is the perfect disciple who may or may not have been one of the Twelve. When Jesus gave his mother to the Beloved Disciple, he set up a new family of believers who would take his memory and message to the world.

Therefore, the thought of family, more or less, begins the Christian era. That idea of family has been prominent throughout the ages and continues to be the central idea as people join the Christian movement. Followers of Jesus come from their home families and together form the family of God as they seek the Lord.

In the movie "Avatar: The Way of Water," the Sully family including their own and those they adopted like "Spider", looked on themselves as a special group of people. They not only protected one another, but they tried to get in the minds of each other, thus making their relationship truly special.

The ideal of a good family is blessed, then, from the very beginning of the Christian heritage. It implies that Christians having come from a family and joining the Christian family, has certain obligations. Obviously, truly Christian families will not involve "fighting for each other" as the Sully family did in the movie, but a Christian family will work on the "glue" that holds such a family together.

The glue stems from the teachings of Jesus and thus the New Testament becomes the Christian guide book. If the followers of Jesus manage to allow that teaching to govern their consciences, the world of truly Christian families will be the best it can be.

PRAYER
Good and gracious God, as you formed families in your own lifetime, I have families that I am part of here on your earth. Give us the grace to follow your guidelines as we are members of those families. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: A good family following the guidelines of Jesus's teachings is the ideal of every family.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What does this session of the movie teach young people?
2. What are the characteristics of the "perfect disciple"?
3. In your opinion, are the majority of families in your area "good families"? Yes or no and why?
4. What virtues, that is, "glue," that Jesus gave Christians are necessary for every family?
5. What does the movie "Avatar: The Way of Water" teach young people?