Week Four

Prayer Before Study and Reflection

COME, HOLY SPIRIT

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the Hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the Fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be recreated
–And You will renew the face of the earth, (Ps 104:30).
Let us pray:
O God, Who did instruct the hearts of Your faithful people by the Light of Your Holy Spirit, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for Week Four:

Eternal rest

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Required Reading
Compendium Questions 79-135

Suggested Reading:

Catechism of the Catholic Church 422-682

Formulas of Catholic Doctrine

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12):

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Reflection Questions:

1.  The response to question 80 of the Compendium states: “From the very beginning the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Jesus Christ in order to lead all to faith in him. Even today, from the loving knowledge of Christ there springs up in the believer the desire to evangelize and catechize”. As you grow in your knowledge of Christ through this course and your life experience how has your desire to evangelize and catechize changed?

2. The name “Jesus” refers to what the Son of God does – he saves people from their sins. “He did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God’s sons and causes all forms of human bondage.” (CCC 549) Given the reality of Jesus’ Passion how might this effect the way you view your battle with temptation and sins?

3. In reference to question 85 the Catechism tells us that “The Word became flesh to (1) make us “partakers of the divine nature“…so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, we might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”⁸⁰ “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.” Please share your reflections.

4. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh: true God and true man. “In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity.” (CCC 470) “His humanity appeared as “sacrament”, that is, the sign and instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he brings: what was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine sonship and redemptive mission” (CCC 515). In Jesus, then, we see what divinity/God looks like in human nature. We share in his God’s own divinity by grace, particularly the sacraments. So, what are the ways you reflect God’s life/ divinity in your life (human nature)?

5. Share your reflections on the following: St. Irenaeus says, “Being obedient [Mary] became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert. . .: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.”¹⁴² Comparing her with Eve, they call Mary “the Mother of the living” and frequently claim: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.” (CCC 494)

6. What do we mean when we say Mary is Mother of God?

7. According to St. Augustine, “Mary is more blessed because she embraces faith in Christ than because she conceives the flesh of Christ.” What are your thoughts?

8. During the greater part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, a life in the community. From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus was “obedient” to his parents and that he “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.” (CCC531). “The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life” (CCC 533) Recalling that Jesus is God and man what lessons can you draw from this for your own life?

9. Jesus’ invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching. Through his parables he invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he also asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not enough, deeds are required”. (CCC 546). Reflect and respond.

10.  In regards to assigning responsibility for the Crucifixion of Jesus the Roman Catechism states powerfully: “We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him”.  In a spirit of prayer and reflection, share your response.

11.  Share your reflections on the fact that Jesus freely laid down his life for our sa;vation. As the Catechism says: “By embracing in his human heart the Father’s love for men, Jesus “loved them to the end”, for “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”

12.  Reflection on the second coming and the Antichrist: “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.” (CCC 675-676)