October 10

[media presentation below

GospelThink

Saturday, October 10

LUKE 11:27-28

Listen carefully to all of my words.

Prayerthoughts
a. This incident speaks directly of the importance of mothers in our world. Whether I am a woman or man, am I considerate of women who have brought children into our world? Perhaps a prayer for all mothers is important right now.

b. Whether I am a woman or man, I should take the time to pray for the mothers who are experiencing a difficult time with their spouse or children. If I see mothers with young children today, I should be especially kind to them.

c. The lady in the crowd was praising Jesus. A song of praise of God from the Psalms might be in order here.

d. Jesus words remind me of listening to the word of God. How well do I concentrate on the words of Scripture or the Mass when I attend.

e. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will read Galatians 3:22-29 and write
an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

LISTENING AND DOING

+ Throughout the letter to the Galatians which has been the first reading during this week and into next

- Paul the Apostle “attacks” the law of Moses

- he didn’t have anything against the Law that he knew very well as a Pharisee

- the Law just didn’t go far enough in his mind

- it was the precursor to Jesus’s law

- when Jesus came with his doctrine of the Kingdom, the law was no longer necessary

- and that is what Paul is saying throughout the letter

- here Paul speaks of the Law of Moses being the occasion of the promise of eternal life that God will give us

- before Jesus, he says, there was only the Law of Moses as a disciplinarian

- now, we have faith that has made us one with Jesus

- and that faith gives the promise of eternal life

+ The Gospel addresses the idea of what faith consists of

- according to Jesus: primarily two things:

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.

- hearing and observing, that is, listening and doing

-all of the directives of Scripture—the virtues of the Kingdom—are brought about by listening to what they are, and carrying them out as best we can

+ Listening itself is both easy and difficult

- it is easy in the sense that we all can listen to the word of God

- we have it as part of everything that we do—here at Mass, in all of our prayers

- the difficult part is “pouring over it”, that is, studying it with respect to our own individual lives

- we all have our own personalities, our own likes and dislikes, and Scripture as we read it and think about it, applies directly to us in one way or another

- and we don’t like to think of it in light of that

- because it means that we may have to change some of our thinking—which is one of the most difficult things in the world to do

+ And the idea of faith requires us to observe the word of God that we listen to

- that too is often difficult

- because there are some things lined up against it

- first of all, Christian people may not be doing it

- Christian people in the world often have really not accepted the word of God and therefore are not carrying it out

- we see that all the time in the people who divorce, those who are constantly giving into revenge, and those who want to destroy peace

- we often simply don’t have good examples of the Christian life in the world

- secondly, although we see many examples of holiness, we also see examples of non-holiness

- disobedience, not getting along with others, talking about others in a negative way, violations of poverty, things that simply ought not to be

+ Our job as spiritual people is that of carrying out the faith in as perfect a way as possible

- that means that we have to do well both of the areas of listening and doing

- and move ourselves to do what should be

- in particular those two difficult areas:

- listening in such a way that it truly involves me and what I should do,

- and following through, carrying out what we should be doing.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Moneyball" -- final session

THE WAY TO MEAN SOMETHING

The Gospel

MARK 1:14-15

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Gospelthink: My task of preaching was to repent and believe in me. Am I living my life in that way now?

Baseball people usually think in terms of winning, and in particular winning "the last game of the season," that is, winning the "World Series." Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics in 2002, was interested in that, of course, but he was interested in more. Influenced by his own life as a baseball player and by his particular situation of family--a divorce and a 12-year old daughter whom he dearly loved--he knew there was something else. As he told his protege Peter Brand in the movie "Moneyball," he wanted his life and contribution to "mean something." He wanted to make what he was doing something better than it was before he entered into it. He accomplished it in baseball.

Paul the Apostle defined the "kingdom of God" to be a place of "righteousness, peace and joy" (Romans 14:17) and therefore a place much better than the world in which we dwell. The gospel is the "good news" which proclaims such a kingdom according to Jesus. In short, Jesus wanted the world to be better than it was. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom was his way of doing it.

Billy Beane in the movie "Moneyball" was not interested so much in the outside world as he was in the baseball world, but his desire was the same. He wanted to make baseball better. Billy explained to Peter Brand: "I'm not in it for the record. That's when people get hurt. But if we win on our budget, with this team, we'll have changed the game. And that's what I want. I want it to mean something." For Billy "meaning something" was the same thing as accomplishing something better. With Peter Brand's help, he was able to do it.

Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets once said that "My hope is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here." Such was the attitude of Jesus as he began the process of redemption. It was likewise the attitude of Billy Beane as he worked in the sport of baseball. If we accept the Christian way of life, it is exactly what you and I are called to do as we live our daily lives.

Our personal worlds can be so much better than they are now. We can work for the kingdom of God to come into our lives, and thus "mean something" for our world. If we work at making our lives "mean something," we can accomplish amazing things. And make the whole world better than when we got here.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son redeemed our world, and thus made the world a better place. Give us the grace to accept his redemption completely into our lives so that we can make our world a little better than it is. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Our desire in life should be to change things for the better.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 63 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. Outline the presentation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition on the kingdom of God. See numbers 2816-2821.
3. Why do Christians call the Gospels "good news"?
4. Most Christian say that they "believe in the Gospel." In your opinion, do most people completely believe in the Gospel? Yes or no and why?
4. What is your understanding of "repent"?
5. If there is one thing that could be done by someone to make the world better, what would it be?
6. With your knowledge of baseball, what is something that could make the game better?
7. Scene analysis: Beane talks to David Justice about being a leader on the team. What is necessary to be a good leader of a group of men or women?
8. Scene analysis: Beane talks to Brand about the strength of his belief: "Do you believe in this or not?" What is necessary before one can say that he/she really believes in something?
9. Analysis: the Athletics win twenty in a row, the American League record. Why is winning so important in a sport?
10. Scene analysis: The media says that the reason for the success is the "manager." Beane does nothing to say otherwise. Is there ever a time when it is necessary to tell the truth, and accept personal praise? Yes or no and why?
11. Scene analysis: Beane usually does not attend a game, probably out of superstition, something very prominent in baseball. Why do people, especially baseball players, fall into superstitious practices? In your opinion, does doing the same thing all the time really help a player?
12. Scene analysis: Despite all the success, the Athletics lose in the first round of the post-season, and actually have not won the World Series yet. Analyze this fact together with the fact that they won twenty in a row. Did Beane's and Brand's method fail? Yes or no and why?
13. Scene analysis: Beane passes up the opportunity to be the Red Sox general manager. In your opinion, why did he make the decision?
14. Scene analysis: Brand shows Beane the video about the person hitting a home run and not even realizing it. What did he want to accomplish by showing it to Beane?
15. What does the movie "Moneyball" teach young people?