Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Strength and Comfort of the Grace of God — “How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seen times?” This is the question that Peter asks Jesus which inspires the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. The liberality with which Jesus forgave sin and received sinners demonstrated the kind of grace that Peter had never seen in any other teacher. Jesus’ answer drives the disciples to understand that the grace of God in Christ is even greater than we can imagine. In the parable, the kingdom of God’s grace is represented by forgiveness for a debt that is impossible for the servant to ever repay. Our sin is an impossible debt before God. But in Christ it has been forgiven! If, therefore, we refuse forgiveness to a brother (who owes us far less than we have been forgiven by God) we deny the grace of God and reject the forgiveness that we ourselves have received from Christ. God’s grace in Christ is our only strength and comfort. When Jesus Teaches on Marriage and Divorce, we are to understand that it is the strength and comfort of God’s forgiving grace in Christ that alone makes it possible for us to be faithful in marriage. It is God’s grace that is on display when Jesus Blesses the Children. They could do nothing to receive His blessing but were given the blessing of forgiveness and life with Jesus as a pure gift. The kingdom of God must be received as a gift by all of us, or it cannot be received at all. The “gift character” of the Christian faith is something that the Rich Young Ruler could not grasp because he trusted in his own works for salvation. The one thing he lacked was repentant faith in Christ that trusted in Him alone for salvation. The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is a parable of pure grace as illustrated in the various “workers in the vineyard” who are all “paid” exactly the same wage. Since Christ has paid the debt of salvation for each of us, it can only be received as a gift. In Jesus Predicts His Passion a Third Time, we learn that it is the atonement for sin by Christ upon the cross that is the foundation for the grace of God. Christ died in sacrificial love for us. His atonement won forgiveness for all our sin, and it is this forgiving grace of God in Christ that is at the center of all Christian theology and our only strength and comfort in life and in death.CP2307300

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me” – When Jesus speaks these words to the disciples, He calls them and us to live the baptismal life. The cross always means death. When we become a Christian, we die to our sinful self in the call to “contrition and repentance that the new man might come forth and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” Our lives, as baptized Christians, are patterned after Christ’s life of death and resurrection. In the Transfiguration we not only see the deity of Christ shining through His humanity, but we also see the glory that waits us all in the resurrection. St. James the Elder, Apostle is celebrated this Tuesday. He is the first of the Twelve to be martyred for His faith. The reading from Acts 11 highlights his martyrdom, but also God’s providence that spared Peter until another day. The call to follow Jesus resulted in James’ literal martyrdom, but by it he gave witness to the suffering and death of Jesus for our salvation. When a Boy Is Healed after the Transfiguration, we see the violence that is often associated with the miracle of faith. The old nature must die; the new nature must rise. But in the end, there is peace. Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection more frequently as He draws near to Jerusalem to suffer. The disciples would later remember these words which would be a source of strength as well as a catechesis on what is at the center of all Apostolic doctrine. Finally, we see in the question In Who Is the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus sets forth a dependent child as the picture of what it is to be a Christian. His most severe condemnation is for anyone who would cause one of His little ones who believe in Him to stumble. It would be better if they had never been born. God’s love and desire to save is the motivation for going to an impenitent brother in If Your Brother Sins. Ultimately such encounters are to serve the sole purpose of bringing about repentance and restoring those who have gone astray from the faith.CP230723

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Jesus Is the Great “I AM”—The Christ, the Son of the Living God—This week’s Bible narratives from the Gospel according to St. Matthew show forth the divinity of Jesus. The confession of the Church is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. As Jesus Walks on the Water, the disciples are afraid and think that He is a ghost. Jesus reply is poorly translated in most English Bibles. Instead of the typical translation, “It is I” Jesus actually said, “I AM”— the name God gave Moses at the burning bush. Jesus demonstrated that He is the Son of God, the great “I AM” not only with His words, but also by the miracle of walking on the water. In this miracle, the raging seas are under His feet proclaiming Him the Lord and Savior from divine judgment, sin, and death. In Out of Man’s Heart Proceed Evil Thoughts, Jesus teaches us the all-pervasive nature of the corruption of sin we inherited from Adam. In a Canaanite Woman Trusts Jesus’ Word, we see the miracle of faith that the Word of the Gospel produced in a Gentile woman whose daughter was demon-possessed. Though her experiences spoke against her with the false message that Jesus was not for her and that He did not care, she held fast to the promise of the Gospel spoken to Abraham, namely that Abraham’s Seed was the Savior of all nations. Jesus commends her faith because her faith was exclusively in Him and the promise of salvation in Jesus’ name. In the Feeding of the 4,000, the second of Jesus’ great feeding miracles, we again see that Jesus is the bread of life, but not for the Jews only (the feeding of the 5,000), but also for all nations (the feeding of the 4,000). In this miracle it is the third day (an allusion to the resurrection). There are seven loaves (the number for the Lord and the seven nations that had surrounded Israel). The number 4 is associated with “the four-winds” or “the four corners” of the earth, signifying that the Gospel will go out into all the world to draw all sinners to the feast of salvation. In the Pharisees and Sadducees Seek a Sign, Jesus warns the disciples concerning their “works-righteous doctrine” and lays out for us that the only “sign” that will be given to prove that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the sign of Jonah, namely, Jesus’ death and resurrection. In the Confession of Peter and His Rebuke, we learn that the confession that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God” is not only the foundation of the Church’s confession, but it is also why Peter is rebuked by Jesus when He denies that Jesus’ suffering and death is at the center of that confession.CP230716

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven — What are parables? Are they stories or illustrations that make the complex easier to understand? Not necessarily. Even Jesus’ disciples had difficulty understanding the parables. “Why do You speak to them in parables?” they asked Jesus. To this Jesus replied, “because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” The parables of Jesus so often describe the grace of God in the Gospel of Christ which is otherwise hidden from those who do not believe. Even Christians can have a difficult time understanding the parables. Parables are intended to help us ponder the mysteries of God’s grace in Christ which is very different from the world’s way of thinking. This helps to explain why parables often take strange twists and turns that are unexpected, like a sower who sows seed all over the place and not just on the good soil. The Parable of the Tares and the Wheat teaches us that believers and unbelievers will coexist in the world until the Judgment, and that the identity of the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the wicked one is often hidden and will not be revealed until the end of the age. In the Parables of the Kingdom, the mustard seed is Christ planted in this world by the Gospel—it is a Word that looks to be the most insignificant word in all the earth, yet He produces a mighty congregation of believers. The Gospel of Christ is like leaven that spreads faith in Christ often imperceptibly. Redemption in Christ is taught by the man who buys the entire field in order to obtain the treasure, or the merchant that pays the ultimate price to obtain the pearl. Our value is in the price that Christ paid for our redemption. The Parable of the Dragnet teaches us that on the Last Day the angels of God will gather together all people, separating unbelievers from believers, and casting unbelievers into hell. This week concludes with events in Jesus’ ministry that both follow and illustrate the kingdom parables. In John the Baptist Is Beheaded we see the depths of human depravity among those who reject the call to repentance and violently oppose the Gospel. In the Feeding of the 5,000 Jesus shows Himself to be the bread of life and the One who will provide His ministers with all that they need to feed the sheep with manna from heaven. CP230709

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Faith in the Midst of Unbelief — This week’s biblical narratives from Matthew and Luke illustrate the dramatic contrast between faith in Christ and unbelief. The week begins with the story of the Visitation in which Mary, newly pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth who is six months pregnant with John the Baptist. Both women are filled with the Holy Spirit and joyful penitent faith in the Lord. Mary’s famous greeting, the Magnificat, confesses her total devotion to the Lord, her Savior. Elizabeth’s prophecy, “Blessed are you among women…” and the infant John leaping for joy in her womb, highlight not only the presence of faith in Christ, but also the joy and peace that such faith brings to sinners. In contrast, the ongoing stories from Matthew begin with Jesus’ call out of unbelief to faith, in Jesus Preaches Repentance and Faith. The woes spoken to Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum warn of the impending doom for those who reject Jesus. Yet the Gospel teaches that the sinner who is burdened and heavy laden finds his comfort and rest in Jesus’ mercy. In Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus teaches the self-righteous Pharisees that true rest is found in what He does for sinners, rather than in what sinners do for God. Jesus desires to give God’s mercy and not to receive our sacrifices. In Jesus Heals on the Sabbath, He not only teaches that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, but that God’s divine service of goodness and mercy to us is the source of true Sabbath rest. The unbelief and hardness of heart toward Jesus is on display in the accusation levelled against Jesus that He cast out demons by the power of Satan rather than by the power of God. But Jesus’ reply, a House Divided Cannot Stand, teaches us that it is by the Spirit of God that Jesus delivers from the power of Satan and establishes God’s kingdom of grace. To use the Words of the Catechism, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel…” Where is true faith found? According to Jesus, a Tree is Known by its Fruit, and the fruit of true repentance and faith is in the words of a sincere confession of sin and faith in God’s mercy. The week concludes with the Parable of the Sower and the Seed in which Jesus teaches us that the miracle of faith is made possible by the Word of God alone which He, the faithful Sower, plants in the soil of our hearts.CP230702