A BRIEF RECAP OF OUR 1ST SESSION FEB 6
Our framework in studying the Bible will not be historical criticism or speculative theories, as important as they might be, but rather our Apostolic Catholic Faith. This Faith in studying the inspired word will help to illuminate the icon of Jesus Christ. Our twin themes: God's Covenants and God's Promises in Scripture. Our method will be typology; that is, the Old pointing to or foreshadowing the New. Examples: the old Adam and the new Adam; the Passover and Last Supper/Calvary. The opening letter of the first word of Genesis in the original Hebrew means "a house." From this house of God comes the story of God's love for all of us. Every word and story in the Bible have their origin with this letter. The translation of "In the beginning " in the Greek Septuagint and in John's Gospel are identical. This is no coincidence because the Two Testaments are inseparable.
 

SUMMARY OF SESSION II FEB 27
God finds us irresistible. The source of that statement can be found throughout the Scriptures, both O.T. and N.T. From the prophet Jeremiah: " I shall be your God and You shall be My people." From the first letter of John: "It's not that we have loved God but rather that He has first loved us." The covenants that God has given as a gift to us are a clear manifestation of this love. A biblical covenant is a relationship of love that God has initiated with His people and which is given for our salvation. The first covenant was given to Adam and Eve culminating with the Sabbath. Because using their free will they rejected God's love, they endured the curse of being cast out of the garden but not before God promises a Savior. In Genesis 3:15, we find the proto-evangelium, that is, the first Good News when it tells us that a woman will bear a son who will crush the serpent's head. God our Lover cannot wait to repair what they have damaged. This is Covenant/Promise number one.
 

But why did Jesus have to suffer so much to repair the damage done by our first parents?

Sin is so evil that only the God- Man could destroy it and He did this by “becoming sin” for us. His great spiritual suffering was to carry all our sins on His back. His physical suffering would always be a physical reminder for us. That’s why we have crucifixes. He assumes our deepest fears caused by sin and these are fear of pain, of suffering, and of death. In Numbers 21: 4-9 we read about how the Lord instructed Moses to raise a bronze serpent on a pole and for the people to look at it. God asked the people to gaze upon their greatest fear ---that is the serpent that was attacking and killing the Israelites--- and trust in the mercy of God to deliver them. Jesus refers to this when He says “If I be lifted up I will gather all into myself.” Jn 3:14-16. When He is lifted up on the Cross He asks us to look at His battered and bloody body and see the face of pain, of suffering, and of death. At that moment He asks us to trust in His mercy to deliver us from sin and death. He suffered these enormous torments to show us that suffering done for the Will of God is purging and salvific.

God’s covenantal relationship with us, His people, reaches its climax in Christ’s Death and Resurrection.
 

SUMMARY OF SESSION IV MARCH 20
Consequence of Original sin: More sin. Cain slays Abel as a result of ENVY. The Lord tells Cain that "sin is couching at your door." As a result of his unrepentant soul, he is banished and marked on his forehead showing his alienation from God.

Sin and wickedness continue to pervade the earth so the Lord sends the Great Flood but not before choosing another "mediator," Noah, with a special covenant. The Lord, our eternal LOVER, never tires of renewing His love through His covenants. The sign of this second covenant is the rainbow.

Continuing on the eternal plan for our Redemption and Salvation, God now chooses Abram to move from his familiar surroundings and go to the land of Canaan. God in our lives takes us from what is familiar so that we might be a participant in His plan. So Abram became the father of the chosen people, but not before the GREAT TEST, the sacrifice of Isaac. Abram accepts the Lord's request and is made a man of righteousness because of his faith. The sign of Abraham's covenant is circumcision.

In the sacrifice of Isaac we see the Face of Jesus. Isaac is asked to carry the wood for the fire on his back and so he becomes a type (symbol) of Jesus Christ carrying the Wood (CROSS) on His back. Isaac has an obedient silence throughout and Christ is silent before His shearers in obedience to His Father's Will; but while Isaac is spared, our heavenly Father does not spare His own Son so that God's covenantal love can pierce our hearts and souls. The story of Abraham and Isaac foreshadows the story of our redemption by Christ on Calvary.
 

Moses as a baby sought by Pharaoh/ Christ the New and Permanent Moses as a baby sought by Herod. Israel is God's first born/ Christ is God's only first born Son. Israel passes though the waters of freedom/ Christ in the waters of the Jordan. Moses and Jesus both 40 days in the desert. Moses goes up the mountain to RECEIVE from God/ Christ goes up the Mount of Beatitudes to GIVE because He is God. Moses offers himself to take away the penalty because of Israel's sin with the golden calf/ Christ offers Himself on the CROSS. Moses appoints 12 chiefs of 12 tribes and 70 elders/ Christ appoints 12 apostles on the 12 thrones and 70 disciples.

PASSOVER/LAST SUPPER/EUCHARIST
Blood on the lintels/ BLOOD ON THE CROSS. Blood of a lamb/ BLOOD OF THE LAMB. Flee from pharaoh/ FLEE FROM SATAN AND SIN. Unleavened bread for the journey/ EUCHARIST FOR THE JOURNEY. Serpent on a pole/ CHRIST ON THE CROSS. A blessing to the descendants of Abraham/ AN ETERNAL BLESSING TO ALL. The Mosaic Covenant/ THE NEW AND FINAL COVENANT IN CHRIST'S BLOOD Enter the Promised Land/ ENTER SALVATION WITH THE BLESSED TRINITY.

And how do we see the Face of Jesus in the foregoing? He "became a curse for us, was made like sin for us" so that we might be saved; Who, though HE was in the form of God, ....He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave,....He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. And this brings us back to the meaning of Covenant: It is a relationship of love that God initiates for our salvation.

 

The world seems to give freedom but gives, instead, incarceration; Christ seems to give incarceration but gives, instead, true freedom.

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
The good thief seeks not a place but a relationship. He seeks, without knowing it, the covenant, the relationship of love that God initiates for our salvation. He sees the face of goodness, of mercy and compassion and he is moved toward the savior. The good thief is each of us; sinners like him, repentant like him, receivers of God’s compassionate covenant like him. There is hope until the very end. It is the suffering love of the God-man that can restore the relationship. The good thief’s repentance is far outdone by God’s generosity.

'Was it not necessary
that the Messiah
should suffer
these things
and enter into His glory?’

Then beginning with Moses
and all the prophets,
He interpreted to them
what referred to Him
in all the scriptures.
Lk 24:26-27

“Woman, behold your son; son, behold your mother.”
Leave it to the evangelist and apostle John to see the face of Jesus in this gift. Of course, he took her in and took care of her, but, of course, there is more to this passage. Mary is given to John and by extension to all of us. John was the symbol of all of Christ’s followers who would be blessed by the suffering mother at the foot of the cross. She, more than anyone, had a clear vision of the face of her son. An early father of the church, Irenaus, said “the knot of Eve’s  disobedience was untied by the obedient suffering of Mary.” More than any other human intercessor, Mary enters into Christ’s Passion, sees his face and brings many thieves to repentance. How can a mother do otherwise?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
His cry of desolation is echoed in the cry of all suffering human beings. This cry is meant for our redemption and salvation. When we suffer so much that we can no longer pray, our cry of desolation becomes a prayer because it is united with Christ on the cross. When Christ kisses the suffering person from the cross some of his blood flows on the face of the suffering human.

“I thirst.”
As important as his physical need for water is, and it is obviously extreme, the early fathers believed that the gospel of John is calling for something more. Christ’s real thirst is for souls, yours and mine. Because of his burning love for souls he sends forth from his side water - a symbol of baptism and rebirth, and blood - a symbol of the Eucharist. The face of Jesus is pure compassion and unlimited generosity. His thirst gives us baptism and the Eucharist and his thirst won't be quenched until we turn to him and give him our all.

“It is finished.”
What is finished? The work his Father gave him. And what is this work? To establish a new covenant of love for all human beings through his life, suffering, death, and resurrection. The Latin translates this word as “consummatum est”: the work is consummated in a marital relationship of love by his obedient death. This obedience destroys the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
This is the opposite of Adam’s fall. Where Adam and Eve attempted to steal their souls from God, Christ restores true freedom by reversing everything. Jesus was always in the presence of his Father, and he asks us to follow him by gazing upon his face. And he gives us a special aid to stay in the Father’s presence, and the aid is the Eucharist. When the Eucharist is given to a dying person it is called viaticum which is Latin, meaning that He is with us in our final journey. It is by meditating on the seven last words  that the face of Jesus comes into focus and by his grace we learn to say: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

We began a few months ago with the first word of the Bible, the Hebrew word beresht (in the beginning), which in the Greek of St. John becomes en arkay (in the beginning). The connection we make is that the act of creation by God the Father is effected by God the Son. That’s why the gospel of John begins: “in the beginning was the word....” He goes on to say “that through Him all things were made and nothing was made without Him.” God’s great covenant with men and women begins with the loving creation by God.

In today’s discussion we begin with the Hebrew word ruach which becomes in the New Testament, especially in the gospel of Luke, the pneuma. Ruach means God’s breath or life or Spirit or wind, and pneuma in the Greek conveys the same idea. Since Luke is considered the evangelist of the Holy Spirit as evidenced in his gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, we shall use him almost exclusively in this discussion.

1. The spirit of God sweeps (hovers) over the waters in the act of creation. Gen 1
The Holy Spirit is constantly present in all divine activity, both physical and spiritual.

2. The spirit of God comes upon Mary. Lk 1:35
As soon as Mary gives her consent the Spirit overshadows her and God the Son is conceived in her womb. It is the powerful love of God the Holy Spirit that begins the new and final covenant with the human race. It is clearly no coincidence that just before the consecration of the mass, the priest celebrant brings his hands in a downward motion and implores the Holy Spirit to effect in the bread what the same spirit did in Mary’s womb.

3. Simeon. The good news is transmitted though the Holy Spirit. Lk 2: 25-27

4. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert. Lk 4:1
The Son of God as the incarnate Word is led to an area of temptation to show us that God alone is Lord of the universe; not food, or possessions, or power.

5. Jesus in the temple. Lk 4: 18
Moved by the Holy Spirit our Lord shows that he is the one Isaiah refers to as liberating captives.

6. Jesus praises the Father. Lk 10:21
Within the bosom of the blessed Trinity, scripture and tradition tell us, is an eternal act of love and praise.

7. Jesus is raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. Gal: 4:6
Our redemption is made whole by the power of the Holy Spirit.

8. Baptized with the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:5
We become a new creation by water and the Holy Spirit. It is the breath of the Holy Spirit when enables us to see and receive the love of God. We are a covenanted people.

9. Descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the apostles in the upper room. Acts 2: 1-13.
The Holy Spirit comes because he is promised by Christ and because Mary is present. The Holy Spirit finds her irresistible.

10. The power of the Holy Spirit impels the apostles to spread the good news.
At the tower of Babel in the Old Testament, the people all spoke the same language but could no longer communicate because of their enormous pride. They were worshiping an idol. At Pentecost Jews from all over the known world were present hearing the gospel message in their various languages. Idol worship and sin fracture language and communication; the love of God poured out by the Holy Spirit creates the unity and healing of language and communication.

11. The Holy Spirit is a gift to the church for her members.
The Holy Spirit completes the act of creation begun by the Father and continued by the Son. The Holy Spirit will be with Christ’s mystical body the church and all of us until the end of time. Our covenant cake is ready for all of us.

Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your spirit and renew the face of the earth.