TGIMMJune6

June 6

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Friday, June 6

JOHN 21:15-19

I wanted to make sure that Peter would continue to love me and follow me.

Prayerthoughts

a. Consider Jesus turning to you directly saying, “Do you love me more than anything else in your life?” What is my response?

b. Jesus tells Peter to feed his people, signifying Peter’s vocation. In what ways do I feed the people that I meet during my day?

c. Consider that the Lord is saying to us that “Yes, you have said that you love me, but I need more proof.” What should I do today that proves beyond doubt that I love the Lord?

d. The reference is to Peter’s death and the difficulties with it. Of course, there will be difficulties when it comes to my own death. I prepare for it by continually asking for the Lord’s help to have a “good death,” that is, to “glorify God.”

e. Perhaps the most “out of place” words in Scripture are the Lord’s directive to Peter to follow him. He had up to that point followed the Lord already. When the Lord tells us to follow him, we have and have tried. But we can do better.

f. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will read Acts of the Apostles, chapter 25 and write
an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

TRULY FOLLOWING JESUS

+ The closing words of Jesus during this scene in John’s Gospel seem to be out of place in the Scriptures:

- after a significant amount of time of interaction between Jesus and the Apostles

- after a likewise significant amount of time of Jesus instructing the Apostles concerning his kingdom, and the approach to it

- after a friendship that had fostered during that time,

- Jesus says to Peter:

Follow me.

- it would seem that Peter had followed him already

- but as one studies the passage, it becomes clear what John the evangelist and Jesus wanted Peter to understand

+ During Peter’s preparation to lead the Apostles and the new Church, he had denied Jesus

- he had said that he would follow him till the end, and he didn’t

- and so Jesus asks him the three times that most probably correspond to Peter’s denial

- the question itself is important

- not: do you believe that I am the Messiah

- or do you accept the office of chief shepherd even though you will die, a fact reflected in this passage of Scripture as well

- or will you be the example that the early Church will need

- but very simply: do you love, and do you love me

- there are two nuances in the question that should be studied for the Christian:

- 1 – loving implies accepting the doctrine of Jesus and especially what he stood for, namely love, unconditionally

- 2 – and “me” – it also implies a willingness to make Jesus the center of one’s life, which implies a relationship with him in prayer and studying his words

+ Both of these nuances are significant in the following of Jesus

- there must be a real desire on our parts to accept Jesus’ doctrine—unconditionally, that is, especially the difficult parts of it

- doctrines such as love and forgiveness of others, even enemies

- and secondly, there must be an acceptance of Jesus to be the center of our lives, that is, Lord and Savior

- the way Paul did in Rome in the Acts reading

- an acceptance that is shown in a real prayer life and in reading his words in the Gospels

+ Only after we have agreed to accept Jesus’ teaching and have allowed it to affect our words and actions can we say that we are truly following Jesus as a spiritual person.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Song: What Was I Made For (Billie Eilish)

HOW TO BE HAPPY

The Gospel

JOHN 1:2-5

JOHN 1:1-5

The Word was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Gospelthink: Every one of us was created by God and therefore we have life to enjoy.

“I used to float, now I just fall down. I used to know, but I’m not sure now. What was I made for? Takin’ a drive, I was an ideal, looked so alive, turns out I’m not real. I don’t know how to feel, but I wanna try. Someday I might. Think I forgot how to be happy, something I’m not, but something I can be, something I’m made for.”

At the very beginning of the first Baltimore catechism that was approved by the Church for the English-speaking world, the question is asked “Why did God make you?” And the suggested answer to be memorized was “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.” It is significant that the catechism uses the word “happy” because in the creation account of human beings in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, being “happy” would be the result of our creation by the Life/Light.

The topic of Billie Eilish’s song “What Was I Made For?” is that of happiness, saying that being happy was what she was made for. Of course, the context of the song is that the person in the song wanted to be “real,” as opposed to Barbie in the movie “Barbie” who was not real. For her, once she was real, she could be happy.

Of course, Billie Eilish and the movie did not define “happy” in a spiritual context, but if understood as an overall description, being “happy” means a spiritual happiness together with a happiness in life here on earth. In the Christian understanding of things, being happy is an all-embracing term. Since by the very fact that we were created by the Life/Light, we are meant to be happy.

Billie Eilish sings of Barbie who struggled to be happy by being real. In that real life which we live every day, it is often a struggle to be happy. Even though we have it so much better than any other age, it is not easy to grow up in the world of today. There are far too many things that make life difficult, and being happy in the light of them is often very challenging.

But Billie Eilish’s desire as sung in her song is still the hope of everyone of us. We have the wherewithal to be happy. First, we are created which in itself should lead to happiness. Secondly, we are destined to be happy with God forever. And thirdly, even though some of the challenges of this world can direct us away from happiness, there are situations in that same created world that can easily help us to be happy, even happy forever.

Perhaps our task as real human beings in this created world is to be as happy as we will be forever with God in the next world.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, you have created us to be happy here on earth and in the world to come when we spend it forever with you. Give us the grace to realize what it means to be happy, especially here on earth. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: We were created to be happy with God in this world and in the next.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What does the song “What Was I Made For” teach young people?

2. Phrase study: “I forgot to be happy.” When do most people “forget to be happy”?

3. Do you agree that we were made to be happy?

4. The meditation says that it is not easy to grow up in today’s world. What are the most difficult parts of our lives today?

5. The meditation says that we have the wherewithal to be happy in today’s world. What can make us happy in today’s world?

6. That which will make us the most happy is to enjoy the presence of God as we live both here and hereafter. What keeps us from the presence of God as we live in our lives here on earth?