may 21

May 21
[media presentation below] GospelThink Wednesday, May 21, Easter Weekday JOHN 15:1-8 I am the vine and you are the branches. Prayerthoughts a. The image that Jesus uses implies some type of sacrifice. As I study my life right now, what should I work on to make it better? b. Jesus’ words have already “cleansed” the apostles and us. Am I spending enough time with the Gospel to understand what the Lord means in the Gospel? What can I do today? c. What is the best way that I have to “remain in Christ”? d. What are the fruits that I should show for being a branch on Jesus’ vine? e. Do I often choose to think of myself as being responsible for good things and not the Lord? How can I change this thinking? f. Jesus uses a scare tactic in his words. If I do not listen to His word, I will allow evil to enter into my life. What are the principal evils that I should think about in my life? g. The Lord will answer my prayers if I remain in Him. The Lord always answers my prayers according to His will. In my life right now, what should I pray for the most? h. My prayerthoughts…. Today, I will spend some time thinking about the evils of our world, and praying for the victims.
Some Thoughts on the Liturgy LIVING “IN” JESUS + One of the foundational Christian thoughts is given in the Gospel today, one of the guides to Christian living—Jesus saying that we must live and remain “in” him - what does living “in” Jesus consist of? + There are a number of ideas that can come as a result - working with this specific liturgy, 1 – living in Jesus does not take away dissension—we hear that in the 1st reading - but working with that dissension must be part of it—discussing as the apostles did - as we live in our day to day situation, there will be many things that we don’t agree with, that could cause “dissension” - some of them, we can do nothing about, and so we simply pray for the situation, do our best to live with it - but some of them, we can do something about - but as we do something about it, we have to remember that there are opinions other than ours - and so we must be willing to talk things out, as the Apostles were, - willing to admit someone else’s opinion - because of the fact that we are human beings, we will disagree - to disagree well is the Christian element that must be added 2 -- living in Jesus implies being able to be pruned and trimmed - being pliable in the Lord’s hands - that is, being open to the Holy Spirit’s direction - working with the Holy Spirit with the idea that “God and we” can accomplish great things in the Christian scheme of things - and at the same time allowing the Lord’s Gospel direction and guide to actually gear our own lives toward what Jesus evidently wants in the Scriptures - pruning and trimming ourselves in the process 3 – living in Jesus implies actually “working” with the Lord, bearing fruit - going out into the world we live in—our own little worlds—and doing the work of the Lord - that is living with prayer, good example, kindness, forgiveness etc—that is, all the virtues of the kingdom that Jesus preached + “Living in” Jesus means a number of things - today we have considered the ideas of being able to work with dissension, being pliable by shaping ourselves to Jesus’ directives, and actually doing the work of the Lord as we go about our day-to-day living.
MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: "Rogue One" -- beginning session ADDRESSING THE EVIL

The Gospel

MARK 11:15-18

MARK 11:15-18

They came to Jerusalem and, on entering the temple area Jesus began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “It is written: my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, but you have made it a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.

Gospelthink: I became angry that the people did not understand what the house of God was. Have I sufficiently understood the importance of God in our world?

The Death Star which the Imperial forces were developing was about finished. A man by the name of Galen Erso was responsible for it and summoned by the Empire, he watched his wife be killed but his daughter Jyn escaped. He is taken by the forces to finish the Death Star. Friendly to the Rebel forces, however he built a way to destroy the Death Star deep within its core. After Jyn grew to be a rebel leader, she and an her eventual friend Cassian Andor together with other rebel leaders went out on their own to discover the plans that Jyn's father had as he built the Death Star with the way to destroy it.

The chief priests and scribes of Jesus' time were not evil people as such. They were religious leaders who suddenly were challenged by a man whom they considered uneducated, but at the same time was very popular. Jesus told them to think about their involvement in religious matters and to change some of their thinking. Specifically, the religious leaders allowed the temple area to be a place of profit for the people who were supplying the animals for sacrifice. Jesus considered it to be an evil, perhaps even an incredible evil because work for profit might go work directly against prayer.

There are certainly instances of incredible evil in the world that you and I live in. They are not nearly as devastating as the Death Star of the Imperial forces in the movie "Rogue One," but there is little doubt that comparable evil exists in our world. Some people consider the nuclear weapons that we possess to be the incredible evil of our day. Jyn and the rebel leaders in the movie could not stand by and do nothing in face of the evil of the Death Star.

Generally speaking we cannot do much to eradicate the incredible evils that exist because we are not in a position to do it. But we can study the evils that do exist in our own little worlds, and resolve to do something about them. These are the evils that people cause, and often even committed Christians cause in one way or another. In fact, we may be responsible for the evils, for example, such as spreading prejudice and hatred that will influence our children forever, or evils that destroy family happiness.

Our world is a giant temple in the sense that God has made it. It could be that we are desecrating that temple by the evils that we allow to exist in it.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, Your Son wanted the temple of His day to be a true house of prayer. Therefore when He experienced evil within it, He reacted strongly. Give us the grace to treat our temple, our world, with the sacredness You desire. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: We must do what we can to overcome incredible evil.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 63 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. In your opinion, is there anything comparable to the "money changers" in our Churches?
3. In general, do you feel that most Christians treat God's house with respect? Yes or no and why?
4. Do you think that the war between the rebel forces and the Empire was a "just" war? Yes or no and why; See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 2310-2317.
5. Do you believe that there are truly evil people in our world? Yes or no and why?
6. In your opinion, are the nations of the world doing enough to control nuclear weapons? Yes or no and why?
7. What is the greatest evil that exists in the world and why?
8. Do you believe that we treat our temple, our world, with the respect it deserves? Yes or no and why?
9. How do you define "The Force" in the movie?
10. Scene analysis: The Empire tests the Death Star by destroying a planet. In your opinion, does this type of destruction influence the young movie-goers mind? Yes or no and why?

LIVING “IN” JESUS