Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing

January 2, 2015

Pray for Dan, Jimmy, Blue Book 14,
Fr. Joe's homily book, &
for special intentions.

New Cycle B - Guiding Light Homily Book

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                January 2, 2015

                R. Order –

                    God created an orderly world.

                    Sin upsets the order willed by God.

Romans 8: 5-9

Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things. And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace, because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot, and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God. You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

                R. Adam and Eve sinned –
                    Sin entered the world

                The New Adam and the New Eve are
                    Jesus and Mary –

                Jesus brings life into a troubled
                    world –

                    What was once harmony is now
                disharmony because of the sin of
                Adam and Eve –

                    Man rebels, his desire is
                for the flesh over God's will.

                    We see the story of this rebellion of
                Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

                R. Adam and Eve sinned – they disobeyed
                God's harmonious world. They disrupted
                the order with disorder. This sin
                is opposed to God's will.

                    God gives us rules –

                    God establishes authority –

                    Rebellious children against
                        authority are rebelling
                        against the order God wants.

                    God gives us the commandments

                    Man tries to tell what is right and
                        wrong without God –

                Rebellion moves one away from God –

                Order is as God wants things to be –

                God made man and woman and children
                    the fruit of love between a
                    man and a woman –

                This is how God made things –

                The devil wants man to call evil - good
                    and the devil wants man to call good - evil.

Genesis 3: 5

God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.'

                R. God puts parents above children –

                When a child rebels against rules
                    and authority it is disorder –
                    against God's will –

                A purpose for things in a house
                    is for some good – a rebellious
                    way is to use things for play
                    in a way that can destroy
                    things meant for some function and
                    refuse correction by rebellion,
                    anger –

                God wants children to be obedient to
                    parents, authority –
                    Thus the 4th Commandment –

                The first 3 Commandments deal with
                    the relationship between God and
                    man –

  1. I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.
  2. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.
  3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

                R. The rest of the Commandments deal with
                    relationships among men –

                The 4th Commandment is the one
                    right after the 3rd Commandment.

  4. Honor your father and your mother.

                R. In religious life, men are examples showing
                    another a more perfected way of life,
                    likened to Christ –

                St. Ignatius gives us the Spiritual Exercises –
                    (as opposed to concupiscence, giving
                    into the desires of the flesh)
                    (Jesus took flesh, but He shows us
                    the Perfect Man, He shows us
                    Perfection of the Human Nature –
                    Jesus came to show us the beauty
                    of living as a man, like
                    God wants man to be)

Excerpt from the Spirituality Handbook

    Jesus has come, then, not to destroy anything that is authentically human, but to perfect it by leading it to a graced fulfillment. This is the meaning of the Word's becoming flesh, the meaning of the Incarnation. The more God-like we become through Christ, the more human we become.

                R. Now is a great time to meditate on the
                    human nature of Christ –
                    with Christmas –
                    with the Feast of the Holy Family –

                With the Epiphany
                    A revelation –
      

Feast of the Epiphany

Isaiah 60: 1-6

Ephesians 3: 2-3a, 5-6

    You have surely heard the way in which God entrusted me with the grace he gave me for your sake; he made known to me by a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly—

This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations: that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Matthew 2: 1-12

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

And you, Bethlehem,
    in the land of Judah,
you are by no means the least
    among the leaders of Judah,
for from you will come a leader
who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, ‘Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

                R. Fr. Joe says

                    "Through Jesus, the message of God's love
                and salvation will radiate to all the world."

                Epiphany – A Revelation

Feast of the Epiphany

January 2, 2011

INTRODUCTION: Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians 587 years before Christ. Fifty years later, the Persians (people living in modern day Iran) conquered the Babylonians, and they allowed the Jews to return home. They found their city and their homeland still in shambles. Rebuilding was extremely difficult. Today's prophet, whom we hear in our first reading, tries to encourage the people and assure them Jerusalem would again be a great city. He sees Jerusalem becoming the center of spirituality and light for all the world. People would come from everywhere to visit Jerusalem and to be nourished by the spiritual light and life radiating from it. St. Matthew sees this vision fulfilled in the birth of Jesus and the coming of the magi. Through Jesus, the message of God's love and salvation will radiate to all the world.

HOMILY: Happy New Year to everyone here! There was a cartoon in a publication I get with a man and his wife sitting by their Christmas tree. He was holding a book in his lap saying to her: "It's a nice gift, but I have mixed feelings about a leather-bound collection of my New Year's resolutions from the last twenty years." (The Joyful Noiseletter, Jan. 2005)

We've all gotten a year older and there are plenty of funny stories about aging. I'll just entertain you with one so I have a little time to talk about our gospel: A man was telling his friend: "I've sure gotten old! I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees, fought diabetes and I'm half blind. I take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded and subject to blackouts. I have bouts with dementia, poor circulation, hardly feel my hands and feet anymore. Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92. Have lost all my friends. But, thank God, I still have my driver's license." (from an email) Remember this in the new year: "You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing."

Today's gospel is one of the most popular stories in the Bible and rightly so. It recognizes the essence of the gospel story that God has made himself present to us in the person of Jesus, God's only Son, God from God, light from light, true God from true God�one in being with the Father. Previously in Matthew's gospel, Matthew told us another name for Jesus would be Emmanuel, "God with us."

The revelation that Jesus was Son of God is offensive to some, a contradiction to others, but it is salvation for those who believe in Jesus. The magi are the forerunners of those who would come to believe in Jesus, the first of those people foreseen by the prophet 500 years before Christ who would come to Jerusalem seeking the light of God's glory. The magi are the first of those who would do homage to Jesus who would in a few short years be made known to all nations through the preaching of the apostles.

In the Book of Numbers (the fourth book of the Bible) there is a story of the Jews on their way to the Promised Land, under the leadership of Moses, after their liberation from their slavery in Egypt. On their way, they had to pass through the land of Moab, the area just east of the Dead Sea. The king of Moab hired a famous soothsayer from the East, a man named Balaam, to come and lay a curse on the Israelites. Balaam would have been a kind of magi, for that's what magi did. They were practiced in the occult arts: astronomers, fortunetellers and magicians with preternatural powers. It's an interesting story of how his donkey saw an angel blocking the way and the donkey refused to go on. Balaam beat his donkey and the donkey spoke to him. Then Balaam saw the angel and asked forgiveness. Eventually Balaam got to Moab and could see the Israelites from a mountain, but he couldn't curse them. Every time he tried to speak he could only speak a blessing. Among his oracles, Balaam saw a king who would come from Israel, whose royalty would be exalted. He said: "I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel." Balaam's oracle was later seen to apply to King David who would not reign until almost 300 years later (thus: "I behold him, though not now.") Later Judaism saw this as a reference to the Messiah.

The magi who visited Jesus when he was born, in seeing the star of the King of the Jews at its rising, were to "behold him, but not now." His kingship would not be proclaimed until he had hung on the cross beneath the title The King of the Jews, and had been raised up to be seated at the right hand of the Father in the resurrection.

Already we see in today's readings those who should have embraced his reign as either indifferent to him, such as the chief priests, or seriously threatened by him, such as Herod. Yet, in spite of opposition, people have always given him homage and always will, for as the angel announced to Mary, of his kingdom there will be no end. Amen.

                R. St. Ignatius tells us about attachments –

From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 
    by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p.11

21.                     SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

    Which have as their purpose the conquest of self
    and the regulation of one's life in such a way that
    no decision is made under the influence of any
    inordinate attachment

                R. Religious are to be growing more and
                    more to a greater order in their
                    lives as God wants –

                Order – to not be attached inordinately
                    to anything, any person, place
                    or thing.

                Sin means we want independence
                    of God –

                God establishes rules –

                God gives us order –

                Men, when they sin, rebel against
                    the order God wants –
                    wanting to turn right to wrong and
                    wrong to right –

                The order and harmony God wanted was
                    ruptured because of the sin
                    of Adam and Eve –

                We are accountable to God for
                    disobedience against Him –

                Because of the sin of Adam and Eve –
                    there is disorder –
                    disorder even in the elements –
                    death enters the world –
                    there is not the harmony in relationships
                        between men and women because of sin –
                    there is not harmony between
                        man and God –

                Man sees with distorted vision –

                Man thinks he can decide what is right and
                    wrong without God –

                Because of original sin
                man can seek independence of God –

                    Man shows lack of respect
                for God, his Creator.

                    God gives man a free will, but
                he is to recognize his dependence
                on God –

                R. Men are to love their wives it says
                    in the scriptures –
                    Children are the fruit of the
                        love between husband and wife –

                We have the Sacrament of Marriage because
                    it is sacred.

                In Genesis we see woman is taken
                    from the rib of man –
                    Eve was considered the Mother of the
                        living –

                    Order –

                    Man and woman

                    Male and female

                    Men and women are called to
                        a life of self-giving
                        in marriage –

                    Man leaves his home and
                        'clings' to his wife –
                        it says in the scriptures.
   

Ephesians 5:25-33

Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words, so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because we are parts of his Body. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh. This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church. To sum up: you also, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.

                R. Men and women are to work as one –
                    Marriage is to unite man and
                        woman as one –

                A religious is one who sees themselves
                    married to God –
                    they see this oneness with God –

                In marriage a woman is to be a
                    helper – Man and woman
                    work together in holy wed-lock and
                    children are fruit of that love –

                We see God the Father and
                    He is one with the Son –
                    The Holy Spirit is the love
                        of Father and Son

                Shame enters the world with sin –

                There is lust and envy
                There is pride and anger
                There is jealousy and envy
                There is gluttony –

                God created a beautiful world –

                It was an orderly world without sin –

                It was harmonious and loving
                    and peaceful

                We see the love of God for His
                    creation –
                    God gives man and woman
                        each other to love and
                        bear children –

                 There is not violence
                 There is not sickness
                 There is not war

                Order comes from living according
                    to the Divine will –

                Disorder comes from living
                    opposed to the Divine will –

                Man when he sins prefers himself
                    to God.

                Man sees distortedly –

                Man sees God with distorted vision
                Man sees others with distorted vision
                Man sees himself with distorted vision

                Abraham was tested to see if he
                    was faithful to God –
 

Genesis 17: 1-7

When Abram was ninety–nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect, and I shall grant a covenant between myself and you, and make you very numerous.’ 

    God spoke to him as follows, 'For my part, this is my covenant with you: you will become the father of many nations. And you are no longer to be called Abram; your name is to be Abraham, for I am making you father of many nations. I shall make you exceedingly fertile. I shall make you into nations, and your issue will be kings. And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

                R. We see in Blue Book 14 –

                    The Father Speaks after Clearwater –

                    We see two messages of God the Father
                        January 11, 1997 and January 18, 1997

                    We see the reference to Abraham
                        and the Transfiguration in
                        February 23, 1997 message and
                        two messages that follow.

                We see in the genealogy how the
                    sons of Abraham were blessed –

                    We see the chosen people –
                    We see the Babylonian exile –

                People obeyed and disobeyed God –
                    When they disobeyed God they
                    brought sufferings on themselves
                    throughout salvation history

                Jesus came for all people

                Jesus means Savior

                We see the transfiguration –

                We see Jesus fulfilling the dream
                    started in the garden –

                Mary is so important to the Plan –

                Jesus' flesh came through Mary –
 

Given August 9, 2000

  R. Oh, there is not one so fair as thee, my beloved Mother Mary.

     Of all the maidens that God could have chosen it was you, oh shining Star of Heaven.

     Oh Mary, Mother of us all.

     She doth appear as a wonder so fair indeed,

     A permanent sign of God's love.
      A Woman clothed in gold.
      One that glistens with the radiance of a golden tone,

     Her beauty dancing in the sunlit hours of every day.

     In morning splendor, in dancing light at noon day as the sun glistens on her rainbow glow and at night she has appeared on special dates in golden splendor and light.

     Would you quote the Scripture for Mary so fair.

     "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth." (Revelation 12: 1-2)

     Would you see her as she appeared in little villages in the 20th century, tucked in hills and out of the way places.

     If you missed these enormous signs from heaven, of one so fair, she appears there clothed in the golden sun of the day, reflecting her radiant beauty painted by the hand of the Father. She is His chosen maiden so fair.

     She appears daily, she is there by day and beneath the black shadows of night, she does not slumber, but calls to her children of light to come through her golden doorway and let the light of Christ shine in their souls.

     She appears one so fair, by day and sometimes by night clothed in radiance and golden, her garment hemmed with glistening sunlight. She once appeared to a few and her visits fleeting in remotest places, she remains a Woman Clothed with the Sun, the sun dancing on her garments of rainbow color on a busy, busy corner for all to see, in the state of the sun, sunny Florida. She is a Woman painted by the brush of God.

     And do you know the wonder of one who calls the children far and wide, to hear the voice of her Son, Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.

     Mary, the heavenly maiden, to call them home to His Heart.

     Oh, of one so fair, do we not boast and praise our God and thank Him for such a wonder.

     Oh, to Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, we cry, help us to do what you asked for at Fatima and help us in our mission of telling the world of your Son's desire to spread His Movement so men will be Shepherds of Christ.

                R. Mary is full of grace
  

                R. Mary was conceived without sin –

                Mary was always a Virgin –

                Joseph is the Patron of
                    the Universal Church –

                Joseph shows us what it is
                    to be part of God's family –
                 

                R. Do you remember about the
                    suffering that Mary faced –
                    if a man found his wife
                    cheating she could be
                    stoned to death –

                Joseph found Mary with child

                Mary is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit –

                Mary was obedient to the Father's will –

                We see in the scriptures that
                    Elizabeth conceived in her
                    old age and
                    we see the doubt and fear of
                    Zachariah and he lost
                    his voice

                    We can't have "wishy-washy"
                        faith and be a real leader
                        for God –

                We must obey God's rules –

                We see that the Kingdom of God is a
                    Kingdom of love –
                    Love is the rule of this Kingdom
                    We see Jesus the King –
                    We see His Sacred Heart as a great
                        symbol of His love –

                    We see the Immaculate Heart as a
                        great symbol of Mary's
                        Motherly love for us,
                        for the Church

                God is with us –

                Christmas tells us – God is
                    with us –

                "I will be with you, that is my promise"

                Jesus is God - with us –
                    "came, our savior, to save
                    us from our sins –

                Jesus is the Bread of Life –

                Bethlehem means "house of bread"

                Jesus gives us the Eucharist –
                    we have the paten and chalice

                Jesus is in the tabernacle
                Jesus nourishes us –

                The new manger is the
                    vessels at Mass –
                    chalice, paten

                Jesus walks with us –

                Jesus comes to the human race –

                This is the Kingdom of love

                This is to be a world of love –

                There is to be obedience to God the Father

                January 11, 1997 click

                January 18, 1997 click

                Jesus is God

                Jesus is with us!

                We see Jesus gives us baptism –

                We see Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament

                Moses parted the Red Sea –

1 Kings 8: 27

Yet will God really live with human beings on earth? Why, the heavens, the highest of the heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple built by me!

                R. Jesus is the way, the truth and the
                    life –

                We study how Jesus taught us –

                Jesus gave us parables and
                    miracles to teach us –

                Jesus gave us the Bread of Life –
                    the Scriptures
                    the Eucharist

                We see how the devil attacks
                    authority –
                    The devil wants rule where
                        Jesus places authority –

                Jesus has called the 13ths to
                    come and pray for the world –

                Jesus called the 5th because of the
                    5 blasphemies against Mary
                    and 5 wounds of Jesus –

                Jesus called us now for 20 years
                    to pray –

                The devil wants to block these
                    retreats –
                    block the 5ths –
                    block the 13ths

                Mary usually appears during
                    the Florida retreat and
                    she brings us a life –
                    changing grace from God.

                Jesus had enemies –

                Jesus had people who wanted to
                    kill Him –

                Jesus said you will be hated
                    for My sake –

                R. Some of our greatest enemies
                    can be people in our
                    household –

                Look at how Judas betrayed
                    Jesus –

                Judas was secretive behind
                    Jesus' back –

                Judas thought he knew more
                    than Jesus –
                    Judas was greedy
                    Judas was seeking power
                        over Jesus –
                        (seeking dominance for
                            dominance sake)
                    Judas betrayed Jesus –

                God calls us to a family – to work
                    together

                God calls religious to a community
                    to work to promote the
                    Kingdom of Love - in obedience –

                God has called us to live and work
                    as one for promoting
                    this Kingdom of love –

                God gives authority
                God works in structure and
                    obedience –

                Peter was corrected because
                    he was to have a humble,
                    obedient heart –
                    God had the plan for Peter –

                Peter was docile –

                God chose Peter as the first Pope
  

Matthew 16: 13-19
Peter's profession of faith;
his pre-eminence

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is? And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?' Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'

                R. God has a way of getting our
                    attention, if we don't
                    bring down our own
                    problems for willfulness
                    and disobedience

                Abraham shows us his trust
                    and obedience to God –

                All belongs to God –

                Our children belong to God –

                We see this with this scripture
                    of Abraham –

                Children are a privilege we
                    receive from God –
                    we don't own them to
                    do with what we want!

                Isaac had wood for the
                    sacrifice –
                    We see Christ, the sacrifice,
                        carry the cross –

                R. Jesus is the lamb –
                    led to the slaughter
 

Look, my servant will prosper,
will grow great, will rise to great heights.

As many people were aghast at him—
he was so inhumanly disfigured
that he no longer looked like a man—
so many nations will be astonished
and kings will stay tight–lipped
   before him,
seeing what had never been told them,
learning what they had not heard before.

Who has given credence
    to what we have heard?
And who has seen in it
   a revelation of Yahweh’s arm?
Like a sapling he grew up before him,
like a root in arid ground.
He had no form or charm to attract us,
no beauty to win our hearts;
he was despised, the lowest of men,
a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering,
one from whom, as it were,
   we averted our gaze,
despised, for whom we had no regard.
Yet ours were the sufferings
    he was bearing,
ours the sorrows he was carrying,
while we thought of him
   as someone being punished
and struck with affliction by God;
whereas he was being wounded
    for our rebellions,
crushed because of our guilt;
the punishment reconciling us fell on him,
and we have been healed by his bruises.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each taking his own way,
and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion
of all of us to bear on him.
Ill–treated and afflicted,
he never opened his mouth,
like a lamb led to the slaughter–house,
like a sheep dumb before its shearers
he never opened his mouth.

Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken.
Which of his contemporaries
    was concerned
at his having been cut off
    from the land of the living,
at his having been struck dead
    for his people’s rebellion?
He was given a grave with the wicked,
and his tomb is with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
had spoken no deceit.

It was Yahweh’s good pleasure
    to crush him with pain;
if he gives his life as a sin offering,
he will see his offspring
    and prolong his life,
and through him
    Yahweh’s good pleasure will be done.

After the ordeal he has endured,
he will see the light and be content.
By his knowledge, the upright one,
   my servant will justify many
by taking their guilt on himself.

Hence I shall give him a portion
    with the many,
and he will share the booty
    with the mighty,
for having exposed himself to death
and for being counted
   as one of the rebellious,
whereas he was bearing the sin of many
and interceding for the rebellious.

                R. Jesus is the Lamb of God –

                We say at Mass
 

                R. We see Isaac and they make
                    an altar –

                Abraham is willing to sacrifice
                    his son –

Genesis 22: 1-2, 9-13, 15-18

It happened some time later that God put Abraham to the test. "Abraham, Abraham!" he called. "Here I am," he replied. God said, "Take your son, your only son, your beloved Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, where you are to offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall point out to you.

When they arrived at the place which God had indicated to him, Abraham built an altar there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son and put him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven. "Abraham, Abraham!" he said. "Here I am," he replied. Do not raise your hand against the boy," the angel said. "Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your own beloved son." Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

The angel of Yahweh called Abraham a second time from heaven. "I swear by my own self, Yahweh declares, that because you have done this, because you have not refused me your own beloved son, I will shower blessings on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will gain possession of the gates of their enemies. All nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed my command.

 

                R. Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice
                    for our sins –

                    February 23, 1997 click

                    February 27, 1997 click

                    February 28, 1997 click

                Abraham was tested

                Children are a privilege –
                    they belong to God –

                We see parents die –
                    children still live –

                We see Abraham and Sarah –
                    Sarah died first

                Parents and children are not
                    the same age!

                Children are fruit from God –
                    they belong to God for
                    His purpose.

                Abraham died –

                Isaac had a wife –

                We see salvation history.

                We see how they married and
                    had children in the Old Testament
                    and how children carried out the
                    Plan of God –

                Jesus came from the House of David.
   

               R.  Mary is the New Eve

                Jesus, the New Adam –

                The Church we see coming from
                    the pierced side of Christ –
                    water a symbol of baptism
                    blood a symbol of the Eucharist.

                Despite the sin of Adam and Eve –
                    God does not abandon the
                        human race –

                All have original sin in the
                    human race, except
                    Mary was conceived without sin.

                Jesus is the Son of God –

                In baptism original sin is
                    washed away, but we
                    still have the affects
                    of original sin –

                Tendencies toward
                    pride, greed, envy, wrath,
                    lust, gluttony, and sloth

                We have distorted vision –

                    We see God
                        others
                        ourselves – distortedly

                We are called to live to be good.

                That is the pay-off –

                We are to be good –

                We don't need an ulterior
                    motive for being good.

                God gives us a sharing in
                    His life in baptism –

                God gives us the Eucharist
                    to feed this life

                Jesus gives us His Body and Blood
                    in the Mass –

                God created man in His image and
                    likeness –
 

                R. We see the cleansing of the
                    human race at the time
                    of Noah –

                We see the great flood!

                Sin gets worse and we see the
                    flood –

Genesis 7: 11-24

    In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, and on the seventeenth day of the month, that very day all the springs of the great deep burst through, and the sluices of heaven opened. And heavy rain fell on earth for forty days and forty nights.

    That very day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth boarded the ark, with Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons, and with them every species of wild animal, every species of cattle, every species of creeping things that creep along the ground, every species of bird, everything that flies, everything with wings. One pair of all that was alive and had the breath of life boarded the ark with Noah, and those that went aboard were a male and female of all that was alive, as God had commanded him. 
    Then Yahweh shut him in.

The flood lasted forty days on earth. The waters swelled, lifting the ark until it floated off the ground. The waters rose, swelling higher above the ground, and the ark drifted away over the waters. The waters rose higher and higher above the ground until all the highest mountains under the whole of heaven were submerged. The waters reached their peak fifteen cubits above the submerged mountains. And all living things that stirred on earth perished; birds, cattle, wild animals, all the creatures swarming over the earth, and all human beings. Everything with the least breath of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land, died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out, people, animals, creeping things and birds; they were wiped off the earth and only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters maintained their level on earth for a hundred and fifty days.

    God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons, ‘I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.’ 

    ‘And this’, God said, ‘is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.’ 

    ‘That’, God told Noah, ‘is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.’

                        Excerpt from January 18, 1997

                        God the Father: 

... I tell you all to read the accounts concerning Noah. Nowhere in history has God been offended as He is this day by this sinful world. You will suffer a fate for the offenses against God. ...

Genesis 6: 7

And Yahweh said, ‘I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created–human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven–for I regret having made them.’

                R. We see God's love for the human
                    race in saving Noah and
                    his family and the animals –

                We see we are to be good,
                    just to be good –
                    not for an ulterior motive –

                People who end up in hell –
                    chose that path –  

                R. Sin is seeking independence
                    of God –
                    to want one's own will
                    opposed to God's will –
   

                R. Remember the Tower of Babel
                    Man can make himself a god –
                    Man can worship himself
                    Me - Me - Me approach

                A city divided against itself
                    will not stand

                God never breaks His Covenant

                God's handprint is in creation –

                We can go to heaven and have
                    eternal bliss if we love
                    and serve God –

                In heaven there is eternal bliss

                We can go to hell if we
                    rebel mortally against
                    God and won't
                    repent –

                Hell is the absence of God
                Hell is the absence of love

                Shepherds of Christ is to help
                    bring this Kingdom of love

                The Reign of the Two Hearts

                R. A person sinning justifies why his
                    sin is okay –
                    distorted vision

                Grace moves us to God, concupiscence toward sin –

                A person sinning
                    loses personal responsibility
                        for their actions

                We are accountable and responsible
                    for our actions opposing
                    God

                SIN UPSETS THE
                    ORDER willed By God.