November 23

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Saturday, November 23

LUKE 20:27-40
Our God is a God of the living who takes care of us who are living.

Prayerthoughts
a. Quoting Deuteronomy 25:5, the Sadducees speak against the resurrection of the dead. Obviously, I believe in life that is eternal. Do I think of my death in such a way as to prepare well for it?

b. The religious leaders speak in a “flippant” way about marriage. If I am married, is my relationship with my spouse a good one? How can it be improved? If I am not married, am I treating everyone with the respect they deserve?

c. Jesus doesn't ridicule the Sadducees even though they were ridiculing Him. He simply answered them and told them the truth. When people ridicule me or do not pay attention to me, do I show signs of revenge?

d. Jesus says that we will be like angels. In your opinion, what does that mean and why?

e. Jesus reminds his inquirers that God IS and that God will ALWAYS be. In what areas do I see God most at work in my life and in the world? (This is the task of the meditation.)

f. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will carry out letter e.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

LIFE, PART 1 AND 2

+ The resurrection of the dead is one of the ideas coming from the Gospel today

- it gives rise to our Christian belief of eternal life

- Jesus takes to task the Sadducees and arguing from the book of Exodus, one of the first five books, and therefore part of Scripture that the Sadducees did believe in,

- shows that the book of Exodus acknowledges a belief in the resurrection of the dead

- since Moses called Yahweh the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who have already obviously died

- and Yahweh, God, must be a God of the living according to Exodus

- then their forefathers are alive, and therefore there must be a resurrection of the dead

+ We all believe this doctrine of the resurrection of the dead

- we profess it every time we pray the Creed

- what it should do for us is to give us a little better understanding of life itself

- life here and now should be different because of our belief in the life hereafter

- we will live with the idea of a future

- that there is more to come

+ One of our problems is what might be called a preoccupation with the present

- when we are preoccupied with the present, for example, it does not allow us to understand death and tragedy at all

- in fact, many have turned off religion because they don’t understand such things as tragedies, and so forth

- if we are only concentrating on the present, death really does not make sense

- but if we really believe in the resurrection of the dead, death is only a passageway to further life, what might be called life, part 2

- when we are preoccupied with the present, we don’t allow much time for preparation for life, part 2

- our “mind-set” is with the things of this life, part 1

- we don’t want to alter our behavior and follow Jesus’ way to have eternal life because if we do, we will have less fun here

+ Our God is a God of the living

- the God who gives us the breath of life, as the Book of Revelation references as it talks of the end times

- a God who gives us only life

- because of God, we cannot not live

- our life right now is part 1 that must be spent in some type of preparation for part 2 of life,

- and if it is,

- earthly death becomes a passageway

- and life part 2 will be happiness forever with God.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Interstellar" -- final session

WHAT CAUSED THIS?

The Gospel

LUKE 12:54-56

Jesus also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that it is going to rain, and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot--and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

Gospelthink: You are able to read signs for nature. Why are you not able to see that you must repent?

A thought that continually surfaces throughout the movie "Interstellar" is the thought that there was something that has caused all of this. It was part of the very first moments when "ghosts" seem to exist in the Cooper home. It was present with questions of "Who chose me" and the like as Cooper was led back to NASA. It was on the astronauts' minds as they experienced up close and personal what "worm-holes" were and what they did. It was especially clear as Coop's computer "friend" TARS tells him about his being sent back to him by fifth dimensional beings to lead Coop to his now older daughter Murph in order to allow Murph to solve the gravity equation. It all seemed to be part of a plan that eventually led to the completion of Part A to have a temporary location for Earth leading now to Part B. Part B was the re-location of Earth that he and his fellow astronaut Amelia Brand would actually begin. The answer which is given without saying it in the film is that some Higher Being was directing all of it.

How vast our universe is and what it consists of now that we have ways of measuring these things are completely incredible. We cannot even envision what they mean and what we have discovered yet. It makes even a movie like "Interstellar" actually make sense in light of the things that we now know.

In Jesus' time, there was very little knowledge of the universe as such, but Jesus alluded to it in a general way during one of his sermons. He wanted to lead the people to see that there is so much more to the spiritual life than merely following a law or just "hoping" that things could be better. Look at the universe, he says, study the patterns that you are familiar with--you can easily see that knowing some things about that universe can help you as you live. Applying the teaching to the spiritual life, as you study what is happening in your personal lives, you can easily determine what you should be doing in order to live better.

For Jesus, of course, the presence of a Higher Being--his Father in heaven--was an automatic. Of course, it is the Higher Being who is directing the wind and the rain and the whole world. For the Christian, it is likewise a fact. We may not be able to completely understand it yet, but we know it is true. God made our world and everything in it, and its magnificence is nothing more than the statement of how wonderful our Creator is. Many people are not ready to accept the fact but even they must marvel at the intricacy of the universe as they study it.

What should all of this do for the Christian? Belief in the Higher Being, God, is a "given" for us. Maybe our application of the fact should lead us to a greater care of the environment in which we reside. Or as Jesus taught--maybe knowledge of the universe is a means to make us recognize how we know that we can be better by studying ourselves a little closer.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, you are our Higher Being, as Your Son acknowledged you--His Father. May we continue to marvel at this universe that you have created, and learn more about ourselves as we study that universe. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Studying our universe can easily lead to a belief in a Higher Being.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 78 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie was most striking to you? Why?
2 The signs that Jesus gave were obviously rudimentary for understanding the universe. The fact that God is responsible is not mentioned here. In general, do Christian people consider God's presence as they study the universe today? Yes or no and why?
3. Analysis: As you study the world as a whole right now, do you think that many Christians are correct in saying that it is not a good world, and we should change? Yes or no and why?
4. The presenter may want to give some facts about what we know about the universe right now.
5. St. Thomas Aquinas gave 5 "proofs for the existence of God":
          - proof by motion: it is necessary to arrive at a First Mover which is set in motion by no other; this we understand to be God.
        - proof by causality: every cause and effect can be traced so that there is a beginning; the Something that started it must be a Being who owes power to bring about such an effect to no one; this is God, the first efficient cause.
        - proof by contingency: there must exist some being which differs from contingent beings by possessing existence in its own right: it simply has existence; we call that being God.
         - proof by degrees of perfection: since all things have a limited degree of perfection, it clearly cannot be the source of all that particular perfection; therefore it is a received perfection; we call the possessor of that inexhaustible and infinite perfection, God.
         - proof by design: any object, no matter how useful, does not have the power to think or to plan, and therefore could not have designed itself; outside intelligence must have planned it; if that intelligence is limited, it was given intelligence by another and so forth, one must ultimately admit the existence of a Being whose intelligence was not acquired from another; we call that intelligence God.
Which of these proofs are most convincing for you? Why?
6. How can we respect the environment better than we are?
7. Scene analysis: the nitrogen levels on the earth are getting worse. If you knew that the end was relatively near as in the movie, how would you behave?
8. Scene analysis: the Endurance crew go to Mann's planet and Mann tries to kill Cooper in order to save himself. Do you believe that humankind in general is this selfish? Yes or no and why?
9. Scene analysis: Cooper tricks Brand into allowing her to be the one who will make it to Edmond's planet while he goes into the black hole. This is an act of martyrdom since he probably would die and Brand would live, at least for a while. Who are some modern day martyrs that you are familiar with?
10. Scene analysis: Murph completes the gravity equation with Cooper's help. There are no doubt many discoveries that we have not made yet because we do not know enough. Do you feel that God wants us to acquire more and more knowledge as we are at the present time? Yes or no and why?
11. Scene analysis: Earth's population has been moved to the space stations (thus Plan A actually did happen), and in time will be sent to Edmund's planet with Cooper and Brand setting it up. If you were in charge of setting up a new life for people, what would be the first three rules that you would enact?
12. What does the movie "Interstellar" teach young people?