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November 5
[media presentation below] GospelThink Tuesday, November 5 LUKE 14:15-24 The Kingdom Dinner Prayerthoughts a. I obviously desire to dine in the Kingdom, that is, go to heaven. Does I think of eternal life as often as I should? b. According to Scripture scholars, these are all legitimate excuses since the wedding feast could last a couple of days. Do I make excuses so that I do not spend enough time to pursue my spiritual life? c. An excuse that I use might be the thought of spending time with something that I have purchased. Could I make more time for spiritual things by temporarily ignoring something? d. An excuse that I use might have something to do with my family. Do I love my family and all its members as I should? Do I use my family as an excuse not to pursue spiritual activities? e. Does the thought that the Lord has chosen other people “less than I am (in my selfish opinion)” upset me? Why? f. Our God is the type of God who “makes” people come to enjoy the Kingdom. Do I think of our God to be a compassionate God? g. The thought of being excluded from the Kingdom is a disturbing one. Am I disturbed enough to want to do something about it? h. My prayerthoughts… Today I will determine a time to pursue something spiritual.
Some Thoughts on the Liturgy EMPTYING OUSELVES + One of the primary directives for the spiritual life given to us in the first reading that was really a hymn of the ancient church—is a great one to study: - our attitude must be Christ’s + As we study the readings of the liturgy today, thinking of the attitude of Jesus, what can be learned? 1 – there must be an element of emptying oneself in our lives - doing away with the things and attitudes that will make us “more” than anyone else - attacking once again, as Jesus often does in the Scriptures, the thought of selfishness - we always want what we want and we must attack that desire if we are to be truly spiritual in our approach 2 – we have to know Jesus if we are to have this attitude - again, something that comes up in the Scriptures often - knowing Jesus’ ways, reading the New Testament, especially the Gospels, thinking about them from our own point of view 3 – we know that we have been called to be part of Jesus’ Kingdom, but we often excuse ourselves from it - that is—we are called to be people who are knowledgeable of God’s presence, but we excuse ourselves - God doesn’t exclude us; we do it to ourselves - we exclude ourselves by our love of the things of the world - and we may not even know that we are doing it - certainly, we have to pay attention to our livelihood and our life here on earth, but we may be doing too much of it - we use our involvement in the world as our excuse not to respond to the call of God - and thus, we exclude ourselves from that call - and in Jesus words, it is a “final” exclusion - not one of the originally invited will taste a morsel, he says 4 – the people who make up the Kingdom of Jesus are people who are “outcasts” - not exclusively the people who can be categorized as poor, crippled, blind and lame - but the people who have made themselves nothing - people who have successfully emptied themselves - and therefore we are called to be in that process + Adopting the attitude of Jesus is not easy - but it is the only way of discovering the way to the Kingdom that Jesus spoke of.

MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: "The Batman" -- beginning session GOOD INFLUENCE

The Gospel

MATTHEW 13:24-30

Jesus proposed another parable to them. "The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.""

Gospelthink: The Lord gives us the parable of the wheat and weeds. Have I learned to avoid the weeds-evil in my life?

Reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne known as Batman together with Gotham City Lieutenant James Gordon discovered the evil that the Riddler had brought about together with the likewise evil person, Penguin. He had killed the mayor, city commissioner, and finally district attorney Gil Colson. When he killed Colson, the Riddler or his real name Edward Nashton, had set up bombs around Gotham City. As Batman and Gordon worked to fight both the Penguin and the Riddler, they worked with Selina Kyle who helped solve the problems. Most of the city's important people were involved with the evil element that the Riddler stood for. Eventually, the evil was only temporarily conquered and the good people of the city including Batman were involved in the rescue effort to save the city and the good mayor Bella Real.

Jesus warned his disciples that in the arena of life, there are wheat and weeds.The wheat are the citizens of the kingdom that Jesus was preaching. The weeds are the followers of the evil one. Jesus's story concentrated on whether we are wheat or weeds, that is a citizen of Jesus's kingdom or followers of the evil one. And one of Jesus's scare tactics was that we should be citizens of the kingdom because if we are following the evil one, we will be "gathered for burning," that is, go to hell.

There is evil present in almost every action movie, and certainly in "The Batman." It is eminently clear from the very beginning of the movie that there were many evil people in Gotham City, perhaps even more than any other Batman movie. It seemed more than even Batman could handle, and indeed at the end of the movie, all Batman could do was help people recover from the evil.

But it is also clear in the movie that there are many good people in Gotham City. They could fight the evil elements and win some battles, even if it seemed that their victories were only temporary compared with semi-permanent evil defeats.

Good and evil. The age old problem that was evident from the first creation of man and woman. What can be done about it? We will never be able to wipe the evil completely from the face of our earth, but perhaps there is a solution. It was suggested at one time that Jesus really ended his story this way: "When harvest time came, the Master found that as the wheat and weeds grew together, the wheat had begun to change the weeds and the weeds actually began to act like the wheat. At harvest time there were very few weeds to burn.

One of the hopes of the movie is that the very presence of people like the Batman and Lieutenant Gordon could influence the weeds of this world and make them to change.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, we want to be part of the wheat of this world, the good people who perhaps can influence others toward the good. But our human natures often keep us from following what You want of us. We absolutely need your grace. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: There will always be good people, but unfortunately, there will always be evil.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 83 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie was most striking to you? Why?
2. What are some evils in the world, and what can you do about them?
3. In your opinion in our world right now, what percentage of people are wheat--good and what percentage are weeds-evil?
4. In general, do you feel that movies present more evil than there really is? Yes or no and why?
5. In general, do evil people influence others to be evil? Likewise in general, do good people, people like the Batman and Lieutenant Gordon influence others to be good?
6. In general, who are the strongest influence on peoples' lives? Why?