Big Sixteen

The 16th chapter of Matthew's gospel is loaded with useful, wise information. Here are a few questions to start the study of this big sixteenth chapter.

1. In Matt. 13:58, Jesus does not work many wonders when his townsmen reject his actions and teachings. Is that episode similar to the beginning of Matthew 16, where Jesus leaves them looking for the sign of Jonah?
2. Does asking for a sign tell you anything about the faith of the Pharisees and Sadducees?
3. Is there a time when Jesus has appeared or shall appear with great signs from Heaven? Why aren't signs kosher now, at this point in the walk of Jesus?
4. Jesus had just fed multitudes twice with miraculous provision of regular food. Was that a sign?
5. Would the Pharisees and Sadducees have understood what the sign of Jonah was?
6. Uh oh. In v. 5, the Twelve discover that, once again, they do not have bread. What is it with these guys that they have such bread troubles? How many bread troubles are there in this gospel, anyway?
7. Jesus figures that the multiplications of loaves should have been fresh in their minds, but they could not comprehend the meaning of it. How does Jesus' multiplication of loaves relate to the false teaching of the Pharisees and Saducees, as Jesus implies?
8. When Jesus asks the Twelve. "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" what is remarkable about what he finds? Is it a sign?
9. Does seeing a true sign with accuracy help one to become a doer of the Word?

Let's gaze into God's perfect Torah of freedom tomorrow morning and see what can be made of this business of the signs.

Feeding many with a few loaves and a few fishes

Here are a few more questions concerning this unusual miracle, the feeding of the multitude by distribution of a few fishes and a few loaves of bread.

1. Was this one of Jesus' "Make my day" kind of miracles?
2. Why did Jesus have the Twelve give out the food to the crowds?
3. Have you ever been in a crowd of five or ten thousand people? Where was it?
4. How are the ordinary items of food, regular bread and regular fish, like the body of Jesus?
5. When did the Twelve get to have some food?
6. What was it like for that little kid who actually had the loaves and fishes?
7. From Aug. 18th, another question: Why is it that Jesus
   1. teaches the Twelve about feeding the many, or actually DOES feed them,
   2. in association with the Twelve being in boats on the Sea of Galilee, even in danger on the sea?
8. Which is more important, walking on liquid H₂O water or walking toward the Messiah?

OK, let's get after it this morning with these and other questions concerning God's wisdom in the gospel of Matthew.

Hebrews 12 questions

We will study a bit of chapter 11 and then dip into chapter 12 this morning. Here are a few questions.

1. From chapter 11, what kind of miracle did the writer keep mentioning in the lives of so many of the old testament saints? There was one kind that was mentioned several times.
2. The cloud of witnesses: does anything about it change with the passage of years?
3. Name the top two witnesses in the cloud of witnesses, in your opinion. Why did you focus on those two?
4. How does the cloud of witnesses affect our conduct at prayer?
5. How does the cloud of witnesses affect our actions as we go about our day?
6. At Sunday Mass, how do our prayers and actions reflect the presence of the cloud of witnesses?
7. If someone works one of the ordinary works of mercy, even evangelization by hospitalization, does that action exist in isolation, unconnected with anyone else?

WHAT!? Those questions only cover verse 1! We might not get very far into chapter 12 this morning. :)

Make my day. Again.

It is interesting that as soon as Jesus finishes talking to the Pharisees and scribes about what is clean and why something is clean or unclean, Jesus immediately head out for the Tyre district.

Gentiles.

Pagans.

Probably bunches of herds of swine up there.

On the Unclean-O-Meter, the district of Tyre must have been about 8.9 on the Richter scale.

People dodging lightning bolts all over the place.

Yet, Jesus does a work of power for a Greek outlander, Syrophoenician by birth, a woman. He expels a demon from her daughter who is not present but in an undisclosed location somewhere else.

It looks like another "Make my day" kind of situation.

Thanks, Lord!

Father Abraham and the mountain where God provides

In this morning's meeting of Men's Bible Study, we talked at length on the meaning of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Mark 6:32-44. To get a broad grasp of this miracle of Jesus, we also dipped into Genesis for the story of Abraham on the mountain with his son Isaac. It is good to pay attention to the two central questions in each passage:

1. Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the holocaust?"
2. But they said to him, "Are we to buy two hundred days' wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?"

Abraham answers his son, "God will provide the lamb." And Jesus answers the Twelve, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see."

St. Paul wrote of Abraham,

"By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name." He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a παραβολη (symbol)."

That last word is also used by Mark and we translate it as parable.

God on that day did not provide the lamb to Abraham, and instead sent a ram, stuck in the thicket, for Abraham to see and use. Good.

But God did provide food for the crowd of 5000 men on the green grass, and we see this as prefiguring the Eucharist. The center of the Eucharist is Jesus himself, whom we know as the Lamb.

Great and wonderful are your works, Lord!

Physical contact with the Messiah

We had a long discussion throughout this morning's session about physical contact with Jesus, starting with the record in Mark 5 of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment. Then we applied it to our own lives.

A few comments from this morning

1. It is good to pray with faith like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' clothes.
   Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman)... Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."
2. It is helpful to examine your conscience and the state of faith, asking "Where would I be?"
   1. In the synagogue criticizing Jesus?
   2. Touching the hem of his garment?
   3. Back at the rear of the crowd, observing but not getting too close?
   4. Hard-headed and oblivious like the Twelve?
   We talked a long time about our own hard-headed moments, like the Twelve.
3. When Jairus' daughter became so ill, the Lord got Jairus' attention like a 2×4. We discussed some of our own 2×4 experiences from the Lord.
4. Is it possible to get closer to the Lord than just touching the hem of his clothes?
5. Throughout the morning, we referred to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, from Isaiah 11:2ff:
   1. wisdom
   2. understanding
   3. counsel
   4. fortitude
   5. knowledge
   6. piety
   7. fear of the Lord
   Even though the individuals in Mark 5 -- the man loosed of demons, the woman cured of hemorrhage, Jairus -- did not have the baptism of the Holy Spirit yet, they still displayed wisdom and fortitude and fear of the Lord.
   

No doubt, these three individuals also came to see their Savior from their hearts burning with love, the best of all the gifts.

Rembrandt, supper at Emmaus (Luke 24)

Questions for next time, Aug. 20

On August 20, we will study the miracles in Mark 5. Here are some questions to think about:

1. Was the country of the Gerasenes a part of Israel?
2. Jesus gave a specific mission to the man who had been possessed by demons. How does it resemble our mission today?
3. What did the woman say to Jesus before she touched the hem of his garment?
4. Ought we pray like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment?
5. Jairus, whose daughter was ill and died, was a ruler of a synagogue. Was Jesus treated in this synagogue like he had been treated in other synagogues, e.g., Mark 3:1-6?
6. Who was in the room with Jesus when he raised the little girl?
7. He instructs them to give the little girl something to eat. Does this remind you of a similar event in the Gospels?

We will discuss these and other questions early Thursday morning. Be ready to look into the Lord's heart.


Ruin of a synagogue in Galilee.

The unknown woman

In Mark 5 is the story of the woman who was healed by silently, clandestinely touching the hem of Jesus' garment. No words, but plenty of faith. Is this a fruitful attitude for us in 2009?

The Twelve

Mark records the entire list of the twelve apostles, starting with Simon Peter and including Judas Iscariot. We discussed the main objectives that Jesus gave them:

1. preach the message and
2. exert authority over demons to cast them out.

The Church has many monikers for this group, including a very nice one: The College of the Twelve.

It is also good to compare the Twelve to David's groups of mighty men from 2 Samuel 23:

The Three: Ishbaal son of Hachamoni, Eleazar son of Dodo the Ahohite, and Shammah son of Agee the Hararite

The Thirty, including Uriah the Hittite

It seems that these first three chapters are taken up by a lot of miracles and a lot of apostle-calling. Good.

We discussed the differences between main battle exorcism and minor exorcisms. Following Mark's gospel, the main battle exorcism is the operation of the bishop. The bishop is the ordinary one to operate the exorcism, plus the bishop can designate a priest of his diocese to the official work of exorcist. The main battle exorcism, or solemn exorcism, is a serious business which the bishop does not undertake lightly. The bishop will take care to determine if a person's troubles are from a psychological illness or not. In the case of a psychological infirmity, ordinary medical care is indicated, not solemn exorcism.

Simple exorcism is performed during the celebration of baptism, since the person to be baptized suffers the consequence of original sin. We recall this same thing during the Easter season, in our renewal of our baptismal vows, among which are rejection of the enemy and all his works.

Many adults in the RCIA also remember minor exorcisms in the form of prayers to God with the priest, deacon or catechist.

We will discuss a few more concepts under this topic next time.

Questions for next time

On July 30, we will study into Mark 3. Here are a few questions to think about:

1. Are the miracles of Jesus a sign of contradiction?
2. Jesus binds the strong man. What plunder does Jesus reclaim?
3. Where does the efficacy of repentance come from?

These and other questions will be our objectives early Thursday morning.