October 11

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Saturday, October 11

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. (This is the task of the meditation.)

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 Joel 4:12-21 and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

LISTENING AND DOING

+ The close of the book of the prophet Joel is a statement of what faith in Yahweh will do for the people of Israel

- if you have faith, you can count on every blessing for all generations, he says

+ 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 the divine office, 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 is often difficult

- not only because it means further behavior change, but we often do not have the example that we should have in our own communities

- 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 in a spiritual house

+ 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 in both of the areas of listening and doing.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Black Widow" -- final session
PAIN MAKES US STRONGER

The Gospel

LUKE 24:1-11

At daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, "Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day." And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense, and they did not believe them.

Gospelthink: Jesus rose from the dead proving His divinity. Have I completely accepted the Lord if everything that I do?

Eventually, the whole initial “family” end up at the Red Room pursuing the evil General Dreykov. Dreykov and his practically undefeatable Taskmaster who was actually Anotonia, Dreykov's daughter whom Romanoff thought that she had killed were set on killing them all. Dreykov had control of literally the whole world through Black Widows who were placed all over the world. Romanoff and Yelena led the fight against Dreykov who eventually tries to escape. Yelena thought that she would die as a result of trying to overcome Dreykov, but Romanoff saved her. Eventually with the Red Dust that frees the hold Dreylov has over people, Romanoff is able to free all the Black Widows throughout the world. In the end Romanoff heads off to help the Avengers while Yelena and “parents” Shostakov and Vostokoff move on to presumably a happy life. The pain in their lives had made them all stronger.

Ever since the Scriptures have been read, Mary Magdalene has been a fascinating figure for writers. She has been portrayed in a fictitious way to have been romantically involved with Jesus, even to the point of being married to him. But the Scriptures only present her as one of the many that Jesus inspired to be better. In Mark's Gospel, she was a person who was overcome with evil, and Jesus freed her from those demons. Further, in Mark's and John's Gospels, she was the first person that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection. In Matthew and Luke's Gospel, she is one of the important people in the new way of Christianity.

Studying Mary Magdalene's life, one can conclude that somehow all of the negatives that happened in her life became a means by which she could grow. One can see that Jesus gave her the incentive to accomplish it, but Mary herself no doubt had made the decision at some time in her life that she had to change her behavior. With Jesus's help she was finally able to do it, albeit with pain, becoming a stronger person in the process.

Ultimately, if we want to grow well, every one of us must conclude at some time in our lives that we want things to be better. We know that pain has been part of our lives, even to the point of completely overpowering us, and taking complete control. There are indeed such negatives, but the psychology behind those negatives is that they can actually be aids to help us grow. They can make us stronger. We will realize that we have been hurt, and how we have been hurt, and be able to learn from the experiences. And so, as the "family" of Shostakov, Vostokoff, Romanoff and Yelena in the movie "Black Widow" discovered in their lives, "Pain makes us stronger."

The Christian addition to such a psychological fact is that God will always give us the help that we need in order to bring it about. Mary Magdalene became one of the stronger promoters of the Christian religion because Jesus gave her the power to overcome the demons that were part of her life. The Christian believer knows that God always gives us the strength that we need in order to accomplish the good things that will help us be better people.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son always had power over evil. Evil never got the better of anyone who asked for his help. Give us the grace to understand that we can overcome the pain in our lives, and with your help, actually allow those negatives to teach us the good that we can become. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: When fighting evil, one must always remember that pain makes us stronger.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 62 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. Why did the disciples not believe that Jesus rose from the dead even though he had foretold it several times?
3. In your opinion, why is Mary Magdalene so important as we consider our Christian way of life?
4. In your opinion, is it a true statement that negatives can make us stronger people?
5. In general, why do some people not want to be better in their lives?
6. Are there some situations that you know of in which negatives helped people be better than they were?
7. What does the movie "Black Widow" teach young people?