Thursday, August 9, 2012
Evening One
Suggested Reflection Questions for Evening One:
Jesus promised in Matthew 16:
"I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
and in Matthew 28: 20
"And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of time."
Was there any evidence that Christ kept His promise to be with the apostles always when he ascended?
How was Christ with the apostles at the end of their lives? With the thousands and thousands of martyrs during the first three hundred years of mostly persecution?
How did the Holy Spirit guide the Church during its formation?
What evidence do you see today that the Holy Spirit continues and protects what she accomplished in the first decades of the Church’s existence?
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I learned that the original texts of the gospels were translated or written directly into the Greek language, a language that was an ideal for expressing nuances of the words of Christ. The excellence of God's choice of Greek for Christian Scripture is apparent when I think of how even today we turn to the original Greek word to unwrap the exact meaning of a gospel verse.
ReplyDeleteFantastic job, Deacon Tim! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHere is an excerpt from St. Justin Martyr's First Apology. (touched on during the 1st night presentation) A description of how Christians of the 2nd century practiced their(our) faith. If you've not read or heard this before, please take a moment and give it a read. With all the 'changes' that we've endured throughout history, it's clear to see that the more we change the more we stay the same... staying the course in the stormy sea, so to speak.
Justin Martyr's Description of Sunday Meeting
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then, when the reader has ceased, the president [probably meaning "the one who is presiding," rather than being an official title] verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.
Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying, "Amen." And there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
And they who are well-to-do and willing give what each thinks fit. What is collected is deposited with the president, who helps the orphans, widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in need, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us—in a word takes care of all who are in need.
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly. because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world. Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For he was crucified on the day before that of Saturn [i.e., the day before Saturday]; and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to his apostles and disciples, he taught them these things [what's contained in the rest of his defense of the faith], which we have submitted to you also for your consideration (First Apology 67).
The complete text can be found here...
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm
What treasures we have always been blessed with!
Mike
I had seen this and other passages like this before in liturgy-related articles but I never realized until this course that they were written to the emperor to persuade him that Christians posed no danger to the security of the empire. Thanks for sharing this, Mike.
DeleteThank you Tim for your hard work. I never realized that the Gospel texts were originally written in Greek and later translated to Latin. It helps me reinforce the Greek and Latin base words I teach to my 7th graders. I had a few questions pop into my head during the lecture and I jotted them down.
ReplyDeleteI teach Greek Mythology and we study the Greek gods. I have always wanted to know how the world went from a polytheistic world to a monotheistic world and how long did it take?
Also, How did we go from Judaism to Catholicism or even Christianity if Jesus was Jewish?
Finally, In the Catholic faith, 3 is a very important number. Why then were there 12 apostles? Could there have been more? less?
Thanks for the post, Jackie.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on your first question, while the West believes in one God because the Jews, Muslims and Christians believe in one God, the rest of the world is still often polytheistic. For instance the Hindus have many gods, and Hinduism is alive and well all over the world. But the West and Middle East are largely monotheistic because of the three religions I mentioned.
To comment on your second question, the transition from Judaism to Christianity was already happening in the book of Acts at the Council of Jerusalem when Paul convinced James and Peter that Gentiles shouldn't have to become Jews to be Christian. Over the centuries Christians who practiced the empire's and later Christendom's official religion persecuted Jews for the death of Christ. It has never been easy being Jewish in the Christian West since the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem in 70 CE.
Three is the numerical number of the Trinity. Twelve is a number representing totality. There were 12 sons of Jacob, twelve tribes of Israel, apostles, 12 baskets of bread at the feast of the 500, etc. The book of Revelation weaves the number 12 into the scripture many times. For instance 12 times 12 times 1,000 is 144,000, the number of the redeemed in the book of Revelation.
Other significant numbers are
Four, the number of nature/the seasons.
Seven, the perfect number, the signature of totality.
Eight, the number of regeneration and Baptism.
Nine, the number of mysteries.
There are more, but you get the idea.