Two weeks off

Due to Vacation Bible School this week and Independence Day next week, we will take two weeks off from Men's Bible Study. Next meeting is on July 12.

Philippians 3

A few questions to consider for Thursday morning in Philippians chapter 3:

1. Would you be more nervous standing next to a 3rd grader or next to the President of the United States?
2. After you have helped serve meals to the homeless, does it make you more or less inclined to do so again?
3. Where in the gospels does Jesus refer to a set of people as dogs?
4. What things do you consider as positives, as "gains," but which are really negative when compared to the Lord?
5. Did St. Thomas Aquinas ever get to this point, where he forgot about all his good work behind him and stretched forward to the prize?
6. Is it impossible to live the life of a great saint?

Let's dig into chapter 3 with a few of these questions.

Findings from Philippians

We are about halfway through our study of Philippians. Here are some of the remarks that the men have contributed:

1. How does it make God the Father’s plan more powerful that Jesus assumed the condition of a slave?
   1. Len: The Father shows us a clear example.
   2. Bob: Others bargain with God the Father, but Jesus did not bargain. Moses bargained.
   3. Ken: Abraham bargained for Sodom and Gomorrah.
   4. Dave: Peter tried to bargain at the rate of 70 × 7
   5. Bob: No bargaining shows no doubt in Jesus -- unconditional.
   6. Len: Forming the Church is better this way without grumbling and factions.
2. In how many instances in the gospels did Jesus live out this humbling, submitting himself in some way, for the love of God the Father?
   1. Len: Jesus cooked them a meal after the resurrection.
   2. Al: In the temple, at age 12, a humble, ordinary family kerfuffle.
   3. Len: After the transfiguration, Jesus told the Twelve not to blab about it.
   4. Dave: Jesus kept his mouth shut for 30 years.
   5. Len: In the synagogue in Nazareth, they were up in arms because of Jesus' humble family.
   The incarnation and human birth of the Messiah in the first place was an act of humility.
3. Is there any humility in the Eucharist?
   1. Bob: Without humility, there can be no love.
   2. Len: Jesus made his "life form" to take on the appearance of bread and wine.
   3. Bob: The Eucharist is humility; you have to humble yourself, for instance, by going to confession.
   4. Dave: Receiving communion is an act of humility.
   5. Ken: Jesus humbled himself to provide the Eucharist: the humility of a true king.
   6. Dave: Jesus did it for love of us.
   7. Dave: The priest is an instrument of humility when he recites the prayers.
   The Church teaches us that the efficacy of the sacrament of the altar comes not from the priest but from Jesus himself, and this is true for all of the sacraments:

   CCC 1073: The liturgy is also a participation in Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

More questions from Philippians Ch. 2

We will dig deeper into the meaning of Phil. 2:5-11, using a few more questions:

1. Do you have to strive and build up an argument to establish that you are in fact a human being?
2. What group of humans are subject to this predicament, that other humans must strive and build up an argument to establish that the individuals in that subgroup are in fact human beings, and that still other humans do not accept this argument?
3. Are there beings that are fully human and other beings only a fraction human?
4. Do we claim that, like the Greeks claimed about their gods, that God the Father is a little bit larger or greater than God the Son?
5. Does humility reside in the strong chains of a humbled slave, or does it exist elsewhere?
6. Is there any humility in the Eucharist?

Let's begin with these questions on Thursday morning, and thereby gaze deeply into the perfect law of freedom.

Concerning Philippians 2

We began studying through the epistle to the Philippians last week, so here are some more study questions concerning chapter 2:

1. Is St. Paul unsure if there is actually encouragement in Christ?
2. Does Jesus really have a true human soul or is it just a fictional concept?
3. How does it make God the Father’s plan more powerful that Jesus assumed the condition of a slave?
4. Is it the act of a true king to assume the condition of a slave?
5. Think carefully: In how many instances in the gospels did Jesus live out this humbling, submitting himself in some way, for the love of God the Father?

Let's start tomorrow with these queries... and we are just getting started, because this section of the epistle is LOADED.