TGIMM2012 2

August 8

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Friday, August 8

MATTHEW 16:24-28

Improving your spiritual life.

Prayerthoughts

a. Many have called Jesus’s words here to be the secret to the spiritual life: “deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Is there one of these areas where I need to put some more effort?

b. We can get wrapped up in the things of this life without the Lord (“saves” his life) or we can choose to lose our life for the Lord’s sake, that is, give ourselves to the Lord more and more in our living. Do I see evidence in my life that I am choosing correctly?

c. “Profit to gain the whole world…” Am I too anxious to have material things?

d. The Son of Man will repay according to conduct. If the Lord would judge me on what I did yesterday, would it be a good reward?

e. Jesus mentions death. Am I too anxious about my death? Why?

f. My prayerthoughts

Today I will read Deuteronomy 4:32-40 and write an important thought from it.

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Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

GOD’S THINKING

+ The closing line of today’s Gospel gives cause for some concern

- but we have to remember that the thought of the early Church and the human Jesus was that the second coming was near

+ The closing line of yesterday’s regular Gospel was a statement that we should listen to: talking to Peter, Jesus says

You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.

+ It is a good meditation to contrast our thinking with God’s thinking

- what is God’s thinking?

- well, as described by Jesus today, God’s thinking would consist of three things, all three of which should be part of our meditation in life

1 – denying oneself—selfishness has no part of God’s way

- there must be very little concern for how much we ourselves will get out of any venture, and specifically, little profit in the form of power and money: he says:

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?

2 – the cross is part of God’s thinking—there will be pain and suffering, driving that point home to Peter, calling him Satan when he misunderstood it

3 – we must have a guide who is a religious guide: he says:

Follow me.

- it implies knowing Jesus well enough so that his thoughts become our thoughts

- knowing what God has done, as the book of Deuteronomy calls us to in the first reading

+ And what is our thinking?

- you really don’t have to go very far to find that out

- all we have to do is go to our television sets, and see what advertisements tell us are really important

- those advertisements are a far cry from giving up self, taking up the cross and following Jesus

+ You and I are counter-cultural as Christians

- our vocation is different from the rest of the world’s

- and we should meditate on it often.

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MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones" -- final session

A FULFILLED LIFE

In the final session of the movie, intent on stopping the evil of Count Dooku, the heroes Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker were captured and led into a coliseum-type enclosure to be killed by ferocious animals. There seemingly was no escape. Even though Obi-Wan and Anakin had the powers connected with being Jedi Knights, it seemed that their enchanted lives were about to come to an end. They were willing to die for the cause of right.

Although Jesus had the greatest respect for life here on earth, especially seen in his care for the sick and ill, he counseled a certain detachment from life. As great as this life is, there may come a time when a person has to give up this life for the sake of something greater. “Whoever loses his life for my sake,” Jesus says, “will find it.” Life here on this earth, Jesus says, is expendable when one is seeking a greater good. In Jesus’s understanding, what might be called a “fulfilled life” must be the goal of a person here on earth. That fulfilled life is awaiting the believer in the eternal life with God.

The heroes of the movie “Star Wars: Episode II—Attack Of The Clones” were willing to give up their lives for the fulfilled life of achieving what was right, namely defending the world against evil. Their earthly lives were important to them, but they were not as important as the ideal of working against evil.

Our lives on this earth are important. We labor intently to keep those lives healthy and happy, and indeed we should. But Jesus points out, and we have many examples that direct us, even from the movies, that our lives here are expendable. It is the fulfilled life that we should seek, the life that comes from denying oneself, taking up the cross of the renunciation of too much pleasure, and following the directives of Jesus Christ. Such a life is what we have to work for, and if we have to give up our earthly lives in the process, so be it. Eternal life awaits us, an eternal life of happiness.

THOUGHT

What is your understanding of a “fulfilled life”?

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son pointed out to us that our lives here on earth must be improved, and that our goal and guide is not so much what this life can give us, but the fulfilled life of heaven. Help us be willing to purify ourselves, so that we can help our lives here on earth and to live forever with you in heaven. Be with us, we pray.

Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike