awonder1

November 20

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Thursday, November 20

LUKE 19:41-44
I wept because of what would happen to Jerusalem.

Prayerthoughts
a. Jesus weeps over what he foresaw would happen to Jerusalem. There are tragedies around our world. I should pray for the people involved, and maybe donate to help those places.

b. The peace that Jesus gives will not be part of Jerusalem's future. How I am contributing to peace in the area around me?

c. The evangelist has the advantage of knowing what actually happened in Jerusalem since he was writing after it happened. In the world right now, what are the most important happenings, and how does a true disciple of Jesus look at them?

d. The prediction that Jesus gives is not a pretty one. I should view the tragedies in the world with the thought that God will always give the grace to those who are suffering.

e. Are there people in my own area who are suffering in some way. What can I personally do to help them?

f. My prayerthoughts...

Today, I will read 1 Maccabees 2:15-29 and write an important thouht from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

MAKING FOR PEACE

+ Jesus knew all about pain

- he was suffering from the mental pain of people not wholly accepting the Kingdom that he was preaching

- he would suffer greatly in the very near future as we study the time-frame of Luke’s Gospel today

- suffering both mentally with the Agony in the Garden and physically with his passion and death

- and therefore he could understand the pain of another

- and as he came upon Jerusalem, he knew that the people of the city were going to suffer greatly

- because there was to be great destruction which came in 70 AD

+ As he laments the destruction that is yet to come

- Jesus uses a statement that would be good to meditate on:

If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes

- what makes for peace in our days

- for the inhabitants of Jerusalem as Jesus thought of their future, that which would make for peace would be a recognition of what they should have been doing with their spiritual lives—“you did not recognize” Jesus says

+ But what makes for peace in our days—right now, in the twenty-first century

- studying the readings today, perhaps, two things we can dwell on

1 – from the first reading, the first book of Maccabees

- disregarding the conclusion to what Mattathias did—since Jesus changed the law of killing—maybe we concentrate on the zeal of Mattathias

- in order to make for peace in our lives, we have to have a true love, a zeal for it

2 – from the Gospel

- that which would make for peace for us would be some thought of our future

- what should we be doing with our lives; how should we be conducting ourselves in light of the Gospels of Jesus

- we know what we want our spiritual future to be

- it is up to us to bring it about a little better than we are perhaps

+ There are many things that make for peace for us

- they center around truly accepting the Lord into our lives.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Wonder Woman" -- beginning session

...UNLESS YOU DO IT

The Gospel

JOHN 18:10-12

[After Jesus was arrested,] Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus, bound him, and brought him to Annas.

Gospelthink: Peter wanted to defend me, but I told him that this was something I had to do. Do I consider my redemption as important as Jesus did for me?

Diana, Princess of Themyscira, daughter of Queen Hippolyta, later known as Wonder Woman was raised on the island of the Amazonian warrior women who were created by Zeus to protect humankind. The god of war, Ares, Zeus' son had to retreat from his father when he lost favor with his father but was prepared to return to cause war. Queen Hippolyta allowed her sister Antiope to train Diana as a rigorous warrior. In 1918, Diana rescued American pilot Captain Steve Trevor when his plane crashed off the Themyscira coast. A German ship pursuing Trevor invaded the island, attacking the warrior women. In the process, Antiope sacrificed herself saving Diana. Trevor was then interrogated by the Amazons, and revealed that he was a spy for the American forces. Both Diana and Trevor begged the Amazons to allow them to work against the evil which was called World War I. Diana looked at her role as a person who had to destroy the god of war; Trevor wanted to stop the war, and especially Isabel Maru who was producing a deadlier farm of mustard gas to destroy the Allied forces.

John's Gospel presents an entirely different way of viewing the life of Jesus than the other evangelists. In John's Gospel, Jesus is looking forward to his Passion and Death because that is what he is called to do. So he tells Peter to put away his sword, and then most importantly says his direct statement: "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?" In other words, he is saying that he must accept the challenge he is about to accomplish because it is exactly what the Father wants.

In much the same way, Diana and Steve Trevor in the movie "Wonder Woman" look at their roles in settling World War I. Diana wants to conquer the god of war, and Steve wants to take the journal he discovered to the Allied Forces so they could stop the German army. Both are adamant, saying that they must do what they are ordained to do because no one else can do what they can do.

In our lives, generally speaking, the world will not depend on us to save it in any way. But we do exist in our own little worlds. Each of us can do something to improve the quality of humankind. Author Charles Allen put it into these words: "Remember that you are truly needed. There is at least one important work to do done that will not be done unless you do it."

What it is that we do is up to each one of us. As we study our own worlds, what can we do to bring about what my little world needs most of all? Can we accept the challenge as Jesus did? As Diana and Steve Trevor did?

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son has taught us that we can accomplish things that very few can accomplish, especially in our locales with our personalities. Help us discover what we can do to improve humankind. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Sometimes in life, we discover that we must do something that no one else is doing.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. Find one other place in John's Gospel in which it is clear that Jesus is doing exactly what the Father has given him to do.
3. Some scholars see in Jesus's statement to put away the sword as a sign that he does not approve of violence. What is your feeling about their opinion?
4. Analysis: Diana--"I used to want to save the world, this beautiful place.But I knew so little then. It is a land of beauty and wonder, worth cherishing in every way. But the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness simmering within. And mankind? Mankind is another story altogether." What is most striking about the quote? Why?
5. Analysis: as you study the world wars (I and II), was there good reason for your country to enter them? Yes or no and why?
6. Do you believe that there is something good that only you can do in the world in which you live? Yes or no and why?
7. What is most needed in the locale in which you live? Why?