rise1

August 4

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Tuesday, August 4

MATTHEW 15:1-2,10-14

Blind Guides

Prayerthoughts

a. Most of the time the Pharisees and scribes found fault with Jesus without trying to understand him. In my life right now, are there some people that I automatically find fault with?

b. Jesus points out that “traditions” sometimes change. Are there some personal traditions that I have held on to that no longer make any rational sense?

c. “What comes out of the mouth.” I should look at the words that I spoke, say yesterday, and see if I could have been a bit kinder than I was.

d. Am I willing to speak the truth even though it may upset some people? Am I honest inthe words that I have spoken?

e. My words, actions and thoughts should all be “planted” by God. As I study my life, what has not been planted by God?

f. There are some people who are blind to God’s actions in their lives. Sometimes I question how God is acting in my life. What are some times in which I questioned how God was acting? Perhaps a prayer of faith in God for those times should be spoken at this time.

g. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will read Jeremiah 30:1-2,12-15,18-22 and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

STUDYING THE BLIND GUIDES

+ Jesus could not tolerate people who were supposed to be doing something, said that they were doing it, but really weren’t

- the name he used for them was “blind guides”

- people who were assigned to lead others, but did not know how to get there themselves

- it is a good meditation to consider what they were doing wrong

- because once we understand that, we can avoid it, or do something different

+ First of all, they were missing the point of what law was all about

- they followed a law that spoke of externals—washing hands and pots and pans, etc.

- Jesus points out that externals are not what you should be worried about

- it is the internal: “what comes out of the mouth is what defiles” people

- we have to be worried about what is happening in our minds, internally, and control that a little more so that what we say will be more Godly

+ Secondly, they should have been people who had God as their foundation

- they should have been people who totally believed what Jeremiah reminded the Israelites about, namely that they were choosing God because God had chosen them

- because as Jesus points out:

Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

- the foundation that the Pharisees and scribes had chosen was not “of God”

- it was their own doing, and since it was their own doing, they were blind, leading people who were likewise blind: “blind guides of the blind”

- which is the worst of all possible scenarios because not only do people not know where they are going, but their leaders are lost as well

+ As I say, it is important for us to look at the things that the Pharisees and the scribes were not doing because we can choose the opposite for our own spiritual growth:

- 1) we have to work with the internal

- what is in our mind—is it guided by the thoughts of Jesus so that what comes out of our mouths will be holy words guided by holy thoughts

- 2) our foundation must be God in everything that we do

- our foundation is not what we want or what we will get out of a situation

- selfishness has no place in our spiritual growth

- because when selfishness is present, we are blind to what should be

+ We need to listen closely to our promise as reiterated by Jeremiah today:

- we will be people of the Lord

- and if we are, God will be our God, leading us the proper way.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "The Rise of Skywalker" -- beginning session

CONVERSION IS NECESSARY FOR A GOOD LIFE

The Gospel

LUKE 22:54-62

After arresting [Jesus] they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest; Peter was following at a distance. They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat down with them. When a maid saw him seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said, "This man too was with him." But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him." A short while later someone else saw him and said, "You too are one of them"; but Peter answered, "My friend, I am not." About an hour later, still another insisted, "Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he also is a Galilean." But Peter said, "My friend, I do not know what you are talking about." Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." He went out and began to weep bitterly.

Gospelthink: Peter knowing that he had done something wrong, made the choice to admit the wrong and do something about it. As I study my life, are there some areas in which I need conversion?

If there is anything that the epic "Star Wars" has taught, it is that there will always be conversion examples to help our world. The conversion of Anakin Skywalker better known as Darth Vader, was one such help to humankind, and here giving rise to the final act of the epic, "The Rise of Skywalker", we encounter the conversion of Kylo Ren. Ren found Palpatine on the planet Exegol and Palpatine told Ren to find and kill Rey who was continuing her Jedi training under Princess Leia. Eventually Ren and Rey fought, and distracted by the Force and the voice of Leia, his mother, Rey kills Ren. Using the Force again, Rey healed Ren, and after being visited by his father Han Solo, Ren throws away his light saber and becomes once again Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia. Later when Rey was facing Palpatine and both Palpatine and Rey had died by lightning, Ben used the Force to revive Rey at the cost of his own life. The Force had led Kylo Ren to give up evil and allow the Resistance to win the battle for life.

We make decisions all the time. Some of those decisions amount to no change in the way we live; however, some affect us much later in life. At times, decisions are good, and we have no desire to change what they have brought about, but at other times, we realize that the decisions we made were not so good, and we must change the consequences. Consider two different sets of decisions: one from the Christian Scriptures when Peter chose to deny Jesus; another from a story told by the movie "The Rise of Skywalker" in the person of Kylo Ren. In both instances, the people involved discover that they have made wrong decisions, and then must do something about them.

Peter realized that his human nature was so weak that he had done the very thing that he said he would not do. He knew that he would have to make major adjustments in his life. He had broken a promise, and now he had to adjust his future life. He was completely disappointed in himself, but he did not despair, although he was close to it. Kylo Ren was the son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, two of the "good guys" of the epic known as "Star Wars." He was Force-sensitive and had chosen the dark side of the Force. He wanted the power of ruling the whole galaxy and was blinded by that power. But he finally understood what he had chosen.

Both Peter and Kylo Ren made the step to turn their lives around. Peter, after weeping bitterly about what he had done, corrected the mistake and became a true leader in the Christian world. Kylo Ren after an important moment of realization from recalling what his father would have said to him, saw what he could do for Rey, a person who was trying to do good. He gave away his life by giving that life to Rey so that she could be led by the Force to bring about peace to the galaxy.

The important lesson to learn in both situations is a lesson for life itself: sometimes we make mistakes: we are flawed human beings. Then, once we understand what we have done, we must admit those mistakes, and face them. Facing them means admitting them to ourselves and then acting in such a way that we "make up" for those mistakes as much as we can.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, we are not always correct in what we do or say. As Peter in the Gospels, help us understand the mistakes that we have made, and give us the grace to do something about them. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: The conversion of Kylo Ren is proof that there will always be conversion stories to help our world.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 66 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. What are the most important decisions a young person makes in her/his life?
3. What can be done by the person to insure that those decisions are good ones?
4. How can we help people who are close to despair?
5. In your opinion, are the people who lead countries interested only in power? Yes or no and how can you tell?
6. In real life, what are some "conversions" that you know of?
7. What is the best way to bring about a conversion in your own life?