tgimmthemar1

February 22
[media presentation below] GospelThink Sunday, February 22, First Sunday of Lent MATTHEW 4:1-11 Temptation Prayerthoughts a. It was the “Spirit” that led Jesus into the desert. God is very much part of everything that we do. Do I spend time realizing that God is always with me, no matter what happens? b. Jesus was tempted, just as I am tempted. It is a consolation to know that the human Jesus suffered because of human frailty just as I do. c. Jesus fasted. Part of the call to spirituality of the Hebrew people, and now Christian people is to see value in depriving ourselves of things that we could legitimately enjoy. Do I fast, but at the same time, realize that I must follow the rules of the Church for fasting, that is not fasting too much? d. The first temptation was about “pleasure” in the sense of satisfying self. Here Matthew tells us that Jesus refuses to use his power for his own benefit and accepts whatever God wills. e. Do I truly try to see God’s Will in everything that happens to me? f. The devil tells Jesus to worship him. Is it true that sometimes we “worship” the devil in the form of created things too much, things like television or social media? g. The devil tempts Jesus to the sin of “presumption,” that of assuming that God will help us without doing anything ourselves. Am I too lazy in my pursuit of the spiritual life? h. Jesus quotes Scripture to the devil in the temptations. Do I read Scripture as much as I could in my daily life? i. My prayerthoughts… Today, I will read Romans 5:12,17-19 and write an important thought from it.
Some Thoughts on the Liturgy THE PROACTIVE CHRISTIAN + I’m often struck by the similarity between the ways to be effective in business and the ways to be effective as Christians - I’ve mentioned before the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey - he says that the first habit of highly effective people, is to be proactive - which he defines as the ability to choose responses to whatever happens to us, based on our strong values - when we are proactive, we control and transform our circumstances - the opposite of being proactive is being reactive, where we are controlled by our circumstances + Jesus treats the temptations of the devil in a proactive way: - he chooses what to do as a response - he doesn’t let any of the temptations control him - and he gains control over circumstances by using strong values as a guide + No matter what spiritual reading that we do, the authors always speak of temptations and sin with the action as being proactive, that it taking control of the situation with the values of Christianity - some thoughts along that line: ~ as we think of sin, we are in battle between the “flesh” and the “spirit” - on Ash Wednesday, I referred to the fact that many spiritual commentators say that we are in a battle between allowing God to be our guide or selfishness to be our guide - one of the thoughts of Lent is that we have to allow God to be our guide at all times and control our flesh, our bodies - that is, make us understand that there is a battle between what we want—selfishness—and what God wants - and too often the “flesh” wins out, and our job as we strive to be better is to determine when we are letting “flesh” win the battle ~ another thought: temptations to sin help us see what is right and wrong *- God allows certain temptations in our lives to make us discern* was is right and what is wrong - the Lord allows temptations in order to know ourselves better and see the evil inclinations that everyone of us has - God will not let us to be tempted beyond our strength, and with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, so that we may be able to endure it - we have the power to overcome any problem of sinfulness in our lives - that is an important part of understanding temptation ~ and a fundamental thought in all of this: we can conquer sin and temptation only through prayer - as Jesus was doing at the time of his formal temptations as recorded in the Gospel - he was at prayer - that in itself is significant— - evil, the devil does not like us to pray, and therefore temptation will be present - and what about our prayer: should it be better than it is? - formal prayer: Mass every Sunday, prayer before meals, the rosary from time to time, the Sacrament of Confession, during Lent, whatever - especially mental prayer: my favorite spiritual directive--10-15 minutes every day in which we take the Gospels and ask the Lord about what we should be doing with our lives + A phrase in English that we use captures the idea of the way to work with temptations and sin in a proactive way - it is the idea of being “one up” on evil - that is to give ourselves to God in such a way that we develop strong values in our lives - and take control of what we do in light of those values + A couple years ago, as I taught a class, a young man came to class with a T-shirt on—bright, and very clear letters spelling out two words—“Not Guilty” - one can easily read what was not written by the young man: it goes something like this: “whatever the situation you might think or hear about, I am not guilty” - what the shirt reminded me of was the opposite of what the shirt said:** - the fact is that everyone of us is guilty—because we are human—and the way to overcome the guilt is to be proactive, to work on a future which we can control by accepting first the strong values of Christianity.

MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: "The Martian" -- beginning session WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

The Gospel

MATTHEW 25:19-30

[Jesus continued his story of the talents.] "After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now, then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Gospelthink: With my story I am telling you to use the talents you have. Am I using the talents that God has given to me?

In the movie "The Martian," Astronaut Mark Watney was one of the crew of the Ares III manned mission to Mars when the crew had to abort the mission because of an overpowering dust storm. Mark was accidentally hit by debris, and because his suit malfunctioned was believed to be dead. His crew had to escape the storm, leaving Mark behind. Actually, he was alive, and he found that he had to function with only the talents that he had until he could team up with his crew again in the next mission to Mars about four years into the future. He found that with the talents that he possessed along with the material in his possession he would be able to survive, and he set about preparing to live with what he had available.

Jesus's parable of the talents is a parable of using the gifts that we have. In Jesus' day, a talent was a form of money, but our modern English definition of talent makes for a good meditation. It is clear from his story that the Lord wants us to use any gifts, money or otherwise, that we have been given. Some of us have a number of gifts, some of us have very few. It is not important how many we have or whether they are the result of our skill or not. The important thing is that we use them. Our God understands that we have limits to our abilities, but God wants us to honestly use the abilities that we have.

Mark Watney wanted to live even though he realized that he had a significant amount of time to spend alone on the planet Mars. He said to himself early on that he would not die. He was determined to carry out the promise to himself. He knew that he had certain talents as a botanist, and he understood the science connected with being part of the astronaut program. In a remarkable way, he used the talents that he possessed as well as the science connected with his chosen vocation.

Some of us actually have the intelligence of Mark Watney, even possessing many of the same talents, having trained to be what we are capable of becoming. Some of us are far removed from such intelligence, but each of us has some talent, some ability to do something good for our own lives and for the world.

Jesus' conclusion to his story is not that we have to have a super intelligence or desire to accomplish great things. He wants us to realize that each of us have something that we can do. We are called to develop whatever talents we have for ourselves as well as for the people around us.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, You have given each of us some talent, some ability as we grow here on earth. Please give us the grace to always develop our potential for ourselves and for others. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: We must always use the talents that we have been given.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 62 minutes)
1. What scene during this session is most striking and why?
2. In the Gospel, what do you think Jesus means by "great responsibilities" in his story?
3. The person who did nothing with his one talent is condemned to the darkness outside. What do you think Jesus means?
4. Text analysis: "To everyone who has more will be given, and he will grow rich." Why do you think Jesus uses this thought in his story?
5. What is your opinion about the space program in your country at the present time? Is it good or bad, that is, helpful to humankind? Yes or no and why?
6. What is best way to overcome despair?
7. What are the principal reasons why people do not live up to their potential?
8. Scene analysis: Was Commander Lewis' decision to abort the mission a good one? Yes or no and why?
9. Analysis: Was it a good decision not to inform the Hermes crew about Watney being alive? Yes or no and why.
10. Analysis: Watney and NASA discover the way to communicate. Communication is of course imperative in such a situation. In general, do you believe that people communicate well with each other? Yes or no and why?