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Posts Tagged ‘Sacrifice’
Discussion Guide is here Jer 31:31-34, Heb 5:7-9, Jn 12:20-33
During Lent, parishes with people preparing for the sacraments at Easter have special readings helping them understand the identity of Jesus and the meaning of their baptism. These readings and reflection are available for download here:Yr B RCIA
Reflection Questions.
• To enter into a covenant is like entering into a ‘marriage commitment and relationship’. A special bond is created. Have you ever had an experience of feeling God is ‘taking you by the hand and leading you’? Break the relationship with God – Suffering. God seeking you out and speaking to your ‘heart’? Life does not necessarily become easier but perspectives are transformed and whatever happens there is a sense of God with us; nothing can separate us from Gods love. What has been your covenant journey with God?
• The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews is like a personal inside view of Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane as he struggles to accept the consequence of obedience and
doing God’s will. What do you pray, cry, shout to God about? Have you tried it?
• Jesus’ journey involved obedience and suffering, but it also became a vehicle for him being ‘made perfect’. What suffering is hard for you at the moment? What is the wisdom you are learning from it? Because of your journey have you been able to be a source of comfort and hope for others? • In the Gospel of John, the ʻhourʼ that Jesus talks about is the moment where everything will be revealed on the cross. In all of history, it will be the ʻhourʼ when God is revealed as doing something to ʻforgiveʼ and ʻsaveʼ humanity. Love triumphs over violence. The drama of evil and goodness is played out. In the greek text, the phrase being ʻlifted upʼ is a word to describe a coach being ʻliftedʼ up onto peopleʼs shoulders to signify victory. Do you see the ʻhourʼ of Jesus on the cross as Ugly? Glorious?
Victorious? All three?
• Greeks (outsiders from Judaism) arrive wanting to ʻsee Jesusʼ. This causes Jesus to say the ʻhourʼ has
come for him to be revealed to the whole world. Would people who are not Christian see enough evidence in your life to know you are Christian? Would they experience you as friendly and welcoming enough to ask for help to ʻfind and see Jesusʼ?
• Three times in the Gospel of John the voice of God speaks clearly to Jesus and those near-by. It gives Jesus courage and confidence in his identity and purpose to walk a very difficult path. Have you asked for, received a clear sense of your calling and purpose from God? Will you enter the sacrificial and obedient lifestyle of ʻthe hourʼ? What ʻdeathʼ is God inviting you to live so as to bear fruit for the world?
• What is one action that you will do to ‘livetheword’ this week?
web: www.livingtheword.org.nz e-mail: contact@livingtheword.org.nz. Livingtheword weekly download and resources were created by Fr Frank Bird sm, and are made available by Bev McDonald, Facilitator, Marist Laity NZ www.maristlaitynz.org
Download Feast of the Dedication of Lateran Bascilica.
Reflection Questions
- The celebration today marks the oldest of the major churches in Rome and the Church which belongs to the ‘Bishop of Rome’ (many people may think it is St Peters). Today we have an opportunity to reflect on the significance and meaning of ‘Church’ as a building and also as a ‘people’.
- The Prophet Ezekiel was also a Priest and was in the first group of Israelites to be taken away from their homeland and put in exile in Babylon. This passage is a prophecy and a reminder from God just how special the ‘Temple’ and ‘Jersualem’ and its people are in the world. Jersualem becomes an image of God’s people. The Temple becomes an image of the Parish / Church today. What does it mean for the ‘church’ to be like life-giving water flowing out into the world, making everything ‘fresh’, and the fruit and leaves produced being ‘medicinal’ for the world?
- St Paul has a deep experience of linking the temple to each disciple. We have become the ‘meeting place’ where people can experience God. Do you know God dwells in you? Do you know the ‘temple of God, which you are, is holy’? One of the first public actions by Jesus in the Gospel of John is to ‘cleanse’ the temple. ‘My Fathers house’ is said 27 times in the Gospel of John. It was an expectation of the Messiah that when he comes he would ‘cleanse the temple’ and restore it to become really and truly a proper house of God. Jesus sees sheep and cattle and money changers turn the ‘house of God’ into a market. When you look at the Church, what do you see? What upsets you? What would you like to ‘cleanse’?
- Some scholars share that the actions of Jesus are very significant. Jesus does this action at the time of the ‘passover’. He replaces the ‘temple’ with his own ‘body’. On the second Passover he replaces the ‘passover’ with the ‘bread of life’ (John 6). On the third Passover Jesus sacrifices his body on the cross, instead of the Passover lamb in the temple to be the ‘sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world’. If the temple was the place to ‘meet God’, can you recognise how we now meet and become one with God in the Eucharist celebrated at Mass? Is the building special or the celebration that takes place within it more special?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download: 20th Sunday Yr C
Reflection Questions
- Jeremiah did not have an enjoyable experience as a prophet. He lived in a time when he saw the ‘gap’ between God’s way and the way the King and Religious Leaders were leading the people. For many years he spoke challenging words of change but without success. In the end he reached the conclusion that it would be ok if the ‘Court’ and ‘Temple’ were demolished so that God would have an opportunity to ‘start again’! People became upset and today Jeremiah ends up ‘in the mud’ of a large empty water tank. Have you recently heard an invitation or idea that deeply challenged you to change? What was your response? Why do prophets often experience rejection?
- Imagine the experience of Jeremiah standing ‘in the mud’. Waiting. Crying. Faithful. Confused. And then Ebed-melech from the court arrives. Can you apply this image to your life journey now? Who could be ‘Ebed-melech’ reaching out to help you? What do we learn about God from this experience?
- The Letter to the Hebrews teaches Jewish people the meaning of Jesus life and sacrifice. Jesus followers are called to live in close imitation to him. Is there anything you are doing in your life that Jesus would not do? How could you ‘run the race….’?
- Jesus continues to teach his disciples about the deep changes required to become a ‘follower’. Fire ‘purifies’ objects, melts away any impurities. Cleanses and reduces metals back to an original state. To set the earth on fire seems to be a more painful experience than ‘giving the earth a wash’. A fire is more severe and deep. Have you ever asked Jesus for this ‘baptism’ of fire – the Spirit – to come upon you? Do you desire this baptism? Bring this desire into a time of prayer.
- Jesus is often portrayed as someone bringing peace and reconciliation. But the cost of transforming the world is great. Archbishop Oscar Romero said: the world is established in disorder which makes the mere proclamation of the good news a subversive act’. What do you think this quote means?
- Jewish people considered the relationship of care and respect between parents and children to be the greatest value to uphold. Nothing else should topple this value. Jesus inserts a seed of fire into the social structure of his time. Disciples will eventually be confronted with a choice: will you choose the relationship with Jesus to be the most important relationship of your life no matter what? This experience has often been called ‘costly discipleship’. Do you have a costly discipleship story? Could you inspire someone by sharing it or write it in a journal to claim it more deeply as a life lesson for yourself?
- In early christianity, Jewish people who became christian were ‘kicked out’ of the family home and not allowed to worship in the temple. They began to experience a new family of care and community, living together, sharing everything in common, feeding the hungry. They truly began to live a ‘different life’. The first christians in Antioch were called the people of ‘the way’. Does your ‘way’ reflect the life of Jesus?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download 29th Sunday Yr B
Reflection Questions
- The Prophet Isaiah is with God’s people in Exile in Babylon. He makes a prophecy of a great leader who will not be like any leader ever known: God will allow his life to be crushed which will ‘ransom’ and ‘justify’ (make right) all people. Verses like this in Isaiah form the ‘4 songs of the suffering servant’. Christians understand these texts as teaching us about Jesus’ suffering. Have you experienced anyone willing to ‘suffer’ for you? Can you think of any story where someone restored friendship with another at great ‘cost’? What happened? How does this help you make sense of Jesus’ suffering for you?
- The Letter to the Hebrews continues to explain how Jesus’ death and resurrection has replaced the Jewish High Priest in the Temple. Instead of ‘walking through the curtain’ which separated people in the Temple from the sacred place of the ‘Holy of Holies’ – God’s presence – Jesus’ death allows him to ‘pass into heaven’. Instead of the High Priest sprinkling blood on the ‘Mercy Seat’ inside the Holy of Holies to bring forgiveness, Jesus on the cross has become the ‘throne of grace’ – the new revelation of God’s Mercy. Where do you go to, look at, feel, the mercy and forgiveness of God? Consider praying this week with a crucifix or at church in front of the tabernacle – to ‘find grace’.
- Jesus has just finished his third prediction of his suffering and death (Mk 10,32). The immediate request of James and John for ‘positions of power’ reveal they do not understand what Jesus’ death means. The ‘indignation’ of the others reveals they were all secretly seeking power and glory. The Kingdom of God and the Messiah to make it happen is still thought of as a strong political and military figure, and a triumphant banquet and honors given when the victory is won. And like other ‘rulers’, power will then be exercised as ‘authority over’ them. Such a mindset will breed continual violence. How do you view violence and war. Do you secretly wish leaders would use ‘power over’ others? Do you think the way of ‘non-violence’ works?
- ‘Drink the cup’ and ‘baptism’ are phrases full of meaning. The Father of the house would fill the cup of each member of the home. It was descriptive of God the Father giving out the plan / lot which was assigned for each person. It symbolised ‘God’s will’. Baptism was not so much a water baptism as an immersion into the will of God – often involving some struggle and pain. Jesus is sharing with disciples the cup (job) is to set people free from the grip of sin and bondage and satan. This is a task which will involve hardship and suffering. What does ‘drink the cup’ and ‘baptism’ mean for your life? Now? Does it ‘cost’ you anything?
- Jesus teaches about leadership. He uses some colorful images. Servant / Slave – humble service at a meal rather than a position of glory and being ‘waited on hand and foot’. Ransom – in Jewish culture a person in debt or enslaved could be ‘ransomed’ back. Like a special family object in a pawn shop that is to be recovered and returned to the family. In religious worship it was also understood as an ‘atonement’ (at-one-ment) offering to bring forgiveness and a re-union with God. How do you understand and exercise leadership? Have you ever actively said NO to Power. Pride. Greed?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download Feast of Corpus Christi
Reflection Questions
- The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) began as a response to increased devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the 12th Century. This led to a desire to ‘see’, Jesus in the consecrated elements. In 1220 in Paris the practice of elevating the host began.
- A Covenant was a binding agreement and promise between two parties. Moses conducts a ‘sacrifice’ which seals the bond between God and Israel. Blood = life. Life = God. Everyone sprinkled now participates in a relationship and keeps the ‘agreement’: the 10 commandments. Being sprinkled with ‘blood’ was a very significant event. How would you make a life-long bond and commitment today? Can you connect the sprinkling of blood, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the blood of the covenant in the eucharist?
- The New Testament Letter to the Hebrews explores the Book of Numbers and Leviticus and helps us understand Jesus as fulfilling and replacing the role of the High Priest in the Temple. The Feast of the Atonement (at-one-ment described in Lev 16) involved God forgiving sins through the action of blood being rubbed on the Mercy Seat in the most holy of holies, the tabernacle. Life represented by Blood rubs out Death represented by Sin. As well as blood bringing forgiveness, the ashes of a sacrifice were sprinkled onto water and it became ‘waters of purification’ for blessing and making people ‘clean’. Can you see the links to Holy Water as we enter the Church? Our Bodies receiving the blood of Christ in the chalice? The Cross of Jesus is in the Cup? How could you prepare yourself to make this a deeply special experience?
- The Jewish Passover involved a special meal with meat of a lamb (sacrifice), bread (remembering both unleavened bread and the quick escape from Egypt and the manna from heaven while in the desert) and cups of wine (the 3rd cup remembered passing through the red sea from Egypt into the desert). Jesus now changes the words and actions and institutes a new sacred meal. He speaks interpretative words upon the bread and wine to teach us his meaning. He longer looks backward in history, but forward to the next day of his death on the cross. The unrisen bread will now become his body broken on the cross. The 3rd cup of wine will become his blood poured out establishing a new covenant. Do you see the beauty and eternal significance of the celebration of Mass? Do you have any questions to ask that would help you grow in faith and understanding? Who could you ask?
- Receiving Jesus in Holy Communion can become ‘easy’ and ‘ordinary’. The Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus highlights the importance of the Mass in our lives. Do you accept the invitation to be in a ‘covenant’ and intimate relationship with God? Will you seek to maintain union in prayer and action during the week? Will you agree to ‘participate’ in the building of the Kingdom of God of peace and justice? Are you willing to imitate Christ; to live for God and love all people to the extent that your body is broken and your blood poured out? Can you see a deeper invitation as you receive Jesus?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download 6th Sunday Easter Yr B
Reflection Questions
- Peter entering the home of Cornelius (A Roman Centurion / Soldier) is an incredibly important moment in the early Church. It sets in motion the whole christian mission to non-jews – to the untouchables, the pagans, the ‘greeks’. God wants to include everyone. Who do I consider an ‘outsider’ to the Church? Why? How could I be more inclusive? In my family? My church?
- Acts 10 reveals the early struggle to be open and welcoming. The Holy Spirit spoke in dreams and visions to inspire and move the Church and disciples. Consider the words of St Peter: ‘Get up, I myself am a human being’ and ‘God shows no partiality’. What has happened within Peter? What invitation and challenge do you notice for your own journey?
- Both Peter and Cornelius are spoken to in prayer. Thankfully they responded obediently. What have you heard in prayer and life lately? Have you been obedient in livingtheword? What are some obstacles you have encountered?
- John repeats the word love 9 times in his letter and 9 times in the Gospel. In John’s community they were fighting with gnostics who didn’t think christian behaviour was important. John reinforces the idea that love actually ‘looks like something’. Christian love is to love all others as God has loved us in Christ. Consider how God has initiated the relationship of love with us . Dying as an expiation (offering) to show us the forgiveness of our sins and the extent of God’s love. Do you initiate love or merely respond to love? Does your love change depending on a response? How does your love-style witness to christian love?
- God wants disciples to ‘bear fruit’. Yet fruitfulness requires attachment to the vine / trunk. The fruitfulness of joy and peace and love develops from ‘friendship with’ the Father. Friendships grow and develop in responding to needs and requests. Hence Jesus invites us to ask so the Father can give and be glorified. Would you describe your relationship with God as a ‘friend’? What is your attitude toward intercessory prayer? Ask or text your friends what they need and pray specifically for them. Don’t be afraid to ask God for signs so that God may receive ‘glory’. He gives plenty in the Acts of the Apostles!
- When asked to describe the love to which believers are called, St Augustine replied: “It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It hs the eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the signs and sorrow of others. That is what love looks like.”
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download: Good Friday
Having read the Passion of Jesus from the Gospel of John, consider reading what it means and why Jesus is now given the title ‘the Lamb of God’. Click here to download ‘Lamb of God’