TGIMMdivegernce1

September 24

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Wednesday, September 24

LUKE 9:1-6
I send you to help those around you.

Prayerthoughts
a. Obviously, I cannot heal the sick or cast out demons, but I can show concern. Do I show signs of personal concern—a card, a visit, etc.—to the people that I know who are ill?

b. Jesus wanted his Apostles to travel “lite” because he did not want material things to hold back the message that they were to preach. As I live in the world, are there material things that are holding me back from God’s presence?

c. Jesus realizes that the Apostles will face rejection, and rather than talk against those who rejected them or threaten them, he tells them simply to shake the dust from their feet, or in other words, just leave and go to the next situation. Often I cannot do that—I would rather seek out some type of revenge. What is the area in my life where I am most prone to revenge?

d. How do I proclaim the message of good news in the places where I live?

e. What is the most important message that should be proclaimed to our present world?

f. My prayerthoughts...

Today, I will read Ezra 9:5-9 and write an important thought from it.

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Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

MATERIAL GOODS AND THE CHRISTIAN

+ As Jesus sends his Apostles into the ministry to do the things that he wanted them to do, namely,

- preach the Kingdom of God/reign of God and heal

- he gave them a directive concerning material goods

- that is, that they should take nothing for their journey

- which basically says that they have to depend on God’s providence to help them as they went along

- God’s providence that was shown to Ezra and the Israelites in their time delivering them into the hands of good kings of Persia

+ The application for our spiritual lives revolves around how much we have, or our material things, as we go about our lives as Christians

- it is a common application that comes from the Scriptures

- why should we take nothing extra for our journey in life, that is, spend little time with those material things

- Jesus implies that if the disciples were overly worried about how much they had, the job he gave them would not get done

- if they were worried too much about compensation for what they did, the chances are that they wouldn’t teach as well as they could

- and so, Jesus says, depend on God instead of material things

+ The goal that we should have with material goods is this:

- that we never allow them to keep us back from doing the things of God

- as Christians we are all called to be missionaries in a sense, as Jesus called his disciples

- to proclaim the reign of God by preaching with our lives -- thoughts, words and actions

- for us, it means that we do the best that we can to keep God part of our lives,

- and to heal as best that we can,

- that is, that we try our best to make the situations of our lives good ones,

- ones that are nourishing to everyone who is part of them

- and at the same time depend on God to help us in everything that we do

- knowing that if we spend too much time on material goods, we could miss our calling to be Christian.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Divirgent" -- beginning session
WHO WE ARE

The Gospel

MATTHEW 26:63b-65a

Then the high priest said to Jesus, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed!”

Gospelthink: I say exactly who I am. I know who the Lord is, but do I carry the answer into everything I do?

The movie "Divergent" takes place in Chicago in the future. A war has brought about the destruction of the United States, and all that remains are the people who have congregated in the once-upon-a-time metropolis. To bring about good order from the chaos of differences, the society has been divided into five independent factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave) and Erudite (the intellectual). The remaining population are the Factionless, people who have no status, the "poor" of the society. The story is that of Beatrice Prior who was born into Abnegation. She discovered through the universal test given to every young person that she was Divergent, capable of being in several factions, and therefore a possible threat to the system. She had to recognize who she was and choose to live with the choice.

Jesus knew who he was, and therefore what he had to do. The high priest who questioned him understood exactly Jesus' answer to his question of who Jesus was, and therefore wanted to have him executed. Quoting the Psalms and the Book of Daniel, Jesus identified himself to be the Messiah, the Promised One, and therefore he knew that his task was to redeem humankind, even those who were then persecuting him.

Beatrice Prior or "Tris" in the movie "Divergent" had to determine who she was. She had discovered that she could have been of the faction Abnegation or Erudite or Dauntless, and therefore Divergent, and a possible threat to the strict separation of the classes. As she chose to be Dauntless, she managed to maintain her selfless love of others from Abnegation and her knowledge of human nature from Erudite. She was able to choose well what she wanted her future to be, even as she realized that others had to be important in her life.

It is a fundamental and important lesson to learn: every one of us must choose who we want to be in the life that we are given. We are given a certain set of circumstances, a certain set of "preparation years" during which we have been formed in one way or another. There must come a time when we see what we were, and then what we can be for the future.

Jesus was able to identify what his life-calling was as he told the religious leaders exactly who he was. "Tris" was able to identify who she was as she came to understand her future role in the city. In a similar way, when we know who we are, we have a knowledge of what our future should be as well.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, You have given each of us our own personalities. Give us the grace to truly understand who we are so that we can freely choose to be what You want us to be. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: In order to choose a good life, it is important that we know who we are.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 67 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. What is your understanding of the Messiah? See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 436-440.
3. True blasphemy, the act of showing contempt for God, was punished by execution. Where do you sense true blasphemy in our world today?
4. What is your understanding of "redemption"? See Catechism, numbers 613-614.
5. When is the best time in a person's life to determine what their future should be?
6. If you could choose which faction in the movie you belonged to, which one would you choose and why?
7. What does it mean to "think independently"?
8. In general, what are human beings' worst fears?