TGIMMheaven1

August 21

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Friday, August 21

MATTHEW 22:34-40
You are to love your God, and you are to love your neighbor.

Prayerthoughts
a. They “tested” him. No doubt, it was done with malice. In my conversations with others about others, do I speak with "malice"?

b. Jesus is giving me His two commandments of love. Is it clear that my love of God is a strong part of my life?

c. As I listen to Jesus say that I must love my neighbor as myself, is there anyone that I am excluding from that love right now? What can I do about it?

d. What are the three or four “guides” to my life right now, that is, what are the major reasons that I have for doing the things that I do. Where is the virtue of “love of God and others” in that list?

e. My prayerthoughts…

Today I will read Ezekiel 37:1-14 and write an important thought from it.

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Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

HOPE AND LOVE

+ The first reading is one of the more striking visions of Ezekiel

- it is his mission to the exiles, namely, that the divine spirit will vitalize the Israelite bones that have been crushed by Babylon

- a tremendous statement of hope for a people exiled and who saw little hope

+ It is the divine spirit that does the bringing back to life, that is, the divine spirit who will lead them home

- namely, God

- the Pharisees of Jesus’s time knew this vision of Ezekiel, believed what God had done

- and felt compelled, in the spirit of Moses, to establish things again with a number of laws

- and as they dealt with that law, they always wanted to find a central law, a summary law

- and so quite naturally—even though with a little malice (they wanted to trick him to say the wrong thing)—they asked another rabbi, Jesus, about that law

+ Jesus answers with the traditional Shema which was and still is part of every Jewish service: Hear O Israel, The Lord……

- but then, he goes into the book of Leviticus to get a minor law, changes its meaning somewhat to include everyone, namely love of neighbor, and places it on the same level as love of God

- saying in effect that the law—as important as it is (and in Matthew’s Gospel, it is treated with respect)—the law depends on love

+ A two-fold easy application for us as we try to develop our spiritual lives

1 – hope—the image of the dry bones coming to life

- this is God at work in our lives: God will work things out

- we must develop that trust more with the understanding that God will work things out, even if it may not be what we want

2 – love—Jesus’s statement of His law

- a complete retreat can be spent on the questions: how well am I showing my love of God

- and how am I loving my fellow men and women

+ Hope and love are two tremendously important virtues for the spiritual life.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Heaven is for Real" -- beginning session

RECOGNIZING GOD'S PRESENCE

The Gospel

LUKE 13:20-21

Again [Jesus] said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed [in] with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

Gospelthink: I use the image of leaven to tell you that the Kingdom that I taught should be part of everything. Do I put the message of Jesus into everything I do?

Based on a true story and on a book by the same name, "Heaven is For Real" is the story of four-year old Colton Burpo who during emergency surgery had an out of body experience of heaven. Colton's father, Todd, the local Methodist minister, and mother Sonja discovered that Colton knew things that he could not have known before. He claimed he knew them by his interaction with Jesus and heaven. The first part of the movie describes the joys and travails of a growing family living in a small town with hardly any money. Then, they were further challenged with circumstances that caused even this religious family with wonder about what God had planned for them. When Colton began to talk of his experience, something that Todd and his wife could not understand, and what happened became known around the area, most did not believe what Colton believed. Even Todd's livelihood of being a pastor was jeopardized.

Jesus used the image of yeast a couple of times in his discourses. He used it in a positive and a negative way. Here, he uses it in a positive way, giving his thought as to what the Kingdom should do for humankind. In terms of day to day living, and the Kingdom that he was preaching, the image carries the idea that the life of the Kingdom should permeate everything that happens in a believer's life.

Thinking of the image in terms of the early life of the Burpo family in rural Nebraska in the movie "Heaven is For Real," the father Todd, a Christian minister was well aware that everything had to be defined with the thought of the Kingdom. Therefore everything--his own sickness, his lack of money, his wonder whether he was doing a good job and the like--all fit into the pattern. He could accept that, but when it came to his son's illness and possibility of death, he was not sure that he understood, and he began to waiver in his faith.

It is the age-old question of bad things happening to good people, or to be more honest, bad things happening at all. The Christian readily accepts the answer that God allows those things to happen because of the free will of humankind and the "normal" reaction of our earth to the environment, but it is a different matter to live out. Christians can talk with relative ease about the difficult things that happen in life, but when they happen to them and their families, then the doctrines often do not make any sense.

God is in charge of our world. The yeast of God's Kingdom is part of everything that happens, no matter how difficult it is to comprehend. The Christian must approach life from such a perspective, recognizing how the love of God is always present no matter what.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, we believe with all of our hearts that you are involved in the things that happen in our individual lives. Give us the grace to understand Your will especially with those things that we do not totally understand. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme:The Christian believer accepts the fact that God is involved in our lives, even those moments when we do not like the consequences.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 46 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie was most striking to you? Why?
2. According to Scripture scholars, "three measures" is an enormous amount of flour, and therefore the parable is a slight exaggeration pointing to the greatness of the Lord's Kingdom. In your opinion, why did Jesus use exaggeration?
3. Project: explain how yeast works, and apply it to the understanding of Jesus's Kingdom.
4. What is your understanding of the Kingdom of Jesus? [See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 2816-2821.]
5. In general, do you believe the literature produced about "near death experiences"? Yes or no and why?
6. What are some images of "yeast" used in a negative way?
7. It is extremely difficult to accept what we consider to be bad for people to be God's Will. How would you explain to another that God works with things that are bad?
8. What would you do if a friend of yours suddenly stopped "believing" because of some evil that came into his/her life?
9. Project: the presenter may want to refer to the young girl in Lithuania (Akiane Kramarik) and her story. See www.akiane.com.
10. Analysis: Todd is obviously a very Christian man, giving to others, even though he himself needs money. In general, do you believe that Christians behave this well in our world? Yes or no and why?
11. Analysis: in your opinion, do "miracles" happen in our world? Yes or no and why?
12. Analysis: how would you react if you had a four-year old son who told you of his "visit to Heaven"? Why?
13. Analysis: do you think what Colton heard about nothing to fear on earth is correct? Yes or no and why?
14. Dialogue analysis: the psychologist asks of Todd: "Are you wondering about your own faith?" Analyze her question and how you think Todd would have answered it..