FRAMEWORK 1: JESUS CHRIST: GOD’S REVELATION TO THE WORLD
SEARCHING FOR GOD
As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and see the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,
“Where is your God?” -Psalm 42:2-3
CHAPTER 1 - SEARCHING FOR GOD
True Happiness
“Happy the people so blessed; happy the people whose God is the Lord.” (Ps 144:15)
But, what is happiness?
God: The Source of True Happiness
WE ALL WANT TO BE HAPPY! Because WE WERE MADE TO BE HAPPY!
“True happiness is found . . . In God alone, the source of every good and of all love” (CCC, 1723).
Without God, true happiness is fleeting, if achievable at all.
Famous Men
John D. Rockefeller
Andrew Carnegie
Otto Von Bismark
What these men discovered is that money and power cannot buy true happiness
Neither can…
Possessions
Popularity
Physical beauty
Athletic skill
Intellectual achievement
Psalm 144:15 - “Happy the people so blessed; happy the people whose God is the Lord”
Point of verse – only God can make us truly happy since God created us and made us with longing souls that only he can satisfy.
God: The Source of True Happiness
Our hearts are restless until they find rest and satisfaction in God our Creator.
We all want to be joyful, content and satisfied.
We associate happy people with cheerful dispositions – why do so many seem so miserable?
Catechism Questions: Who made me? / How was I made?
CCC #1723: “True happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement – however beneficial it may be – such as science, technology and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love.”
The human mind looks at the Creator’s awesome universe and contemplates the Divine Artist who made it.
God speaks to us through the human heart which is not satisfied until coming in to union with their Maker.
Our human faculties make us capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God termed natural revelation
To keep us from confusion in discovering him, God speaks directly to us through Divine Revelation.
The Restless Human Heart
Nothing in this life can make us fully content or perfectly happy.
Why is this?
God gave us a hunger for happiness!
Only God can fulfill this hunger because he placed it in us!
St. Augustine: “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God.” (CCC 27)
No good thing – pleasure, fame or possessions – can make you perfectly, fully happy. Only God can.
Questioning Minds: Just like your heart yearns for love and happiness, you are searching for truth about human existence.
Like every thinking person ever made, you want to know what is the meaning of life.
Being made in God’s image endows us with the abilities to choose and to think.
We Are Religious by Nature
In spite of the prevalence of irreligion and secularism, most people still belong to an organized religion.
Humans have always searched for God and they have always given expression to their quest through their beliefs and behavior.
Countless religions through the ages have produced prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth to express belief in a divine being who created them and the universe.
Most people are religious… belong to an organized religion.
Scholars believe that the word religion is related to the Latin word meaning “reconnecting to the divine” or “binding to God.”
Religions that believe in one (mono) God (theos) are monotheistic – Christianity, Judaism and Islam
Religions that believe there are many (poly) goddesses and gods are called polytheistic – Hinduism
Buddhism holds there is sole ultimate reality in the universe not a personal god.
Prevalence today to be irreligious or secular.
A person who does not believe in God is known as an atheist.
Secular humanism claims that people do not need God to live in the world to reach satisfaction. The person is the center of the universe.
Similar to atheism from the Greek word for “don’t know” is agnosticism – people “decide not to decide” God’s existence.
Knowing God through Natural Revelation
Something does not come out of nothing!
Contemplating Creation
Because we are created in God’s image, we are endowed with intelligence.
Look at the world around us.
Where did all these beautiful things come from if not from the beautiful One who made them?
The Church teaches that human intelligence can discover God.
Contemplating the Human Person
Our lives have meaning!
Beauty / Truth / Moral goodness / Personal Conscience / Justice / Love / Intelligence
“Converging and convincing arguments” of God’s existence
Through our God-given intelligence, we have the capacity to come to know there is a good and loving God.
FIVE PROOFS OF God’s Existence (according to St. Thomas Aquinas):
Unmoved mover – God started everything in motion – “First Mover”
First cause – nothing causes itself – cause that is eternal and started the universe off.
Everything comes from something – eternal being “God” who always existed and brought other beings into existence - ”Cosmological Argument”
Supreme model – of goodness, truth, and beauty is the perfect being we call God
Grand Designer – makes the well ordered universe possible
What Is Divine Revelation?
It is only through God’s willingness to reveal himself that human beings get a fuller idea of who he is.
God’s free gift of self-communication by which he makes known his divine plan
God tells us who he really is through the events of Salvation History
God invites us to live in covenant with him
The greatest sign of God’s love was the sending of his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior from sin and death
Faith: Our Response to Divine Revelation
Faith is the virtue that allows us to respond “yes” to God’s invitation to believe in and follow him.
Knowing God through Divine Revelation
Human language and human reason cannot fully describe God or really know what God is like.
God is truly a mystery!
That is why God does not leave us to our own limited knowledge. He gives us Divine Revelation.
Salvation History
n God’s creation of the world begins Salvation History (the account of God’s saving activity for humankind).
n God intended from the very beginning to invite humans to live in intimate union with him.
n God remains faithful to us despite our sinfulness.
God’s Covenants with Humankind: Handing Down Divine Revelation
Sacred Tradition
The word tradition means “handing down.”
The Apostles preached the Gospel to all nations.
They chose men to succeed them (bishops headed by the Bishop of Rome).
Sacred Scripture
The word bible means “books.”
Jesus gave the Apostles the authority to interpret the divinely inspired Scriptures.
This teaching authority is known as the Magisterium.
St. Peter:
IMPETUOUS
BRAVE
HEADSTRONG
COMPASSIONATE
HEROIC
BORN LEADER
“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the key of the kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”
(Mt 16: 18-19).
CHAPTER 2 - INTRODUCTION TO SACRED SCRIPTURE
Sacred Scripture & Bible
Sacred = holy
Scripture = writing
Bible = books
Journey:
As human beings we search for a happiness that is satisfied only in and by God.
Our lives are like a journey home to God.
What do we need when we begin a journey?
How will we know which way to go? What to do? What to see?
Who or what might serve as a guide on the way?
Who will act as our host at the journey’s end?
The Game of Life
CITIUS
ALTIUS
FORTIUS
We participate in the journey of life, hoping to be all that God intends for us: the best people we can be.
The Olympic motto -- "Citius, Altius, Fortius" -- means "swifter, higher, stronger" when translated from Latin and embodies the goals of the world's best athletes. Humans are quite extraordinary in what they can accomplish.
How to Locate and Read Bible References
Jn 1:1-18
1. Jn—abbreviated title of the book
2. First number—chapter number; verse number follows the colon (:)
3. Hyphen (-) indicates several chapters or verses
4. Semicolon (;) separates two references; comma (,) separates two verses in the same chapter
The Bible Is the Inspired Word of God
The Church teaches that: God is the author of the Bible,
the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the sacred books, and
the Sacred Scriptures teach the Truth.
What Is Inspiration?
God is the author of the Bible—he used the human authors as his instrument to convey Divine Revelation to us.
The end product:
THE INERRANT WORD OF GOD
How to Read the Bible
We must pay attention to what the human authors wished to say and to what God wanted to reveal through their words.
Vatican II: Scripture “must be read in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.”
Vatican II on Sacred Scripture
Note the content and unity of the whole Scripture
“Read the Scriptures within ‘the living Tradition of the whole Church’”
Pay attention to the “analogy of faith”
Literary Forms
Identifying the correct literary genre is vitally important in scriptural interpretation.
This helps to determine the literal sense of the biblical text.
Historical Book
Prophecy
Poetry
Letters
Genealogies
Miracles stories
Parables
Different Readings of the Bible
How to Understand the Bible
Literal Sense
What the author intended by the words he wrote
Spiritual Sense
Looks to the deeper meaning of various scriptural passages as part of God’s overall plan of Salvation
The Senses: In Summary
Literal sense: teaches history; what the words say in a historical context
Allegorical sense: teaches what you should believe; what the words means in the larger context of Salvation History
Moral sense: teaches what you should do regarding how to live your life
Anagogical sense: teaches where you are going; building up the virtue of hope while leading us to Heaven
Biblical Translations:
Protestant
King James Version
New Revised Standard Version
Revised English Bible
New International Version
Catholic
Douay—Rheims Version
New American Bible
New Jerusalem Bible
Importance of the Bible for Catholics
Scripture readings are integral to every Mass and all the sacraments.
Scripture is also at the heart of the Liturgy of the Hours—the public prayer of the Church.
Modern Approaches for Studying Sacred Scripture
The Catholic Church teaches us to read Sacred Scripture prayerfully and interpret it critically.
The Magisterium authentically interprets the Word of God with the help of biblical scholars.
Types of “Criticisms” - (not to be understood as a negative word)
Historical Criticism—tries to determine the historical context of the biblical text
Source Criticism—helps to discover where the biblical authors got their material
Form Criticism—involves studying small units of biblical texts to attempt to determine how each book took shape during oral tradition before being written down
Redaction Criticism—how the various editors put together their sources and arranged them the way they did
St. Jerome - TRANSLATOR OF THE BIBLE FROM ITS ORIGINAL LANGUAGES
IMPORTANT CHURCH FATHER
USED HIS PEN TO WRITE FIERCE LETTERS TO HIS OPPONENTS
ST. AUGUSTINE SAID OF HIM, “WHAT JEROME IS IGNORANT OF, NO MAN HAS EVER KNOWN”
CHAPTER 3 - SURVEYING THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
Best Seller
The Bible was first printed in 1454
The Bible is always at the top of any best-seller’s list
Formation of the Old Testament
Before the actual writing took place, there was a period of oral traditions that came from the experiences the people had with God and with each other.
Many historians believe the Chosen People began to preserve their stories during the reign of King Solomon (950 BC).
Many editors were involved, resulting in many OT books being compilations.
The Old Testament Canon
The Council of Trent accepted all the books in the Septuagint as part of the Old Testament canon.
Protestant Reformers accepted the official list of Hebrew Scriptures accepted by rabbis in AD 90.
The Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) was common during Jesus’ day.
Jewish scholars omitted the seven books written in Greek from the Septuagint.
Survey of the Old Testament Books
Pentateuch
The Historical Books
How God remained faithful to the covenant; how the Israelites struggled to live by its terms
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 and 2 Samuel
1 and 2 Kings
1 and 2 Chronicles
Ezra and Nehemiah
Tobit, Judith, and Esther
1 and 2 Maccabees
Most scholars believe that four different oral traditions went into writing the foundational Pentateuch:
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Survey of the Old Testament Books
The Wisdom Books
Prophetic Books
The biblical prophets were a messengers from God.
Worship the one, true God
Accept God’s love and mercy
Be just, especially to the poor
Know that God will ultimately triumph
How God works in our everyday lives
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Wisdom
Sirach
Classifying the Prophets
MAJOR PROPHETS:
Isaiah / Jeremiah / Ezekiel / Daniel
MINOR PROPHETS:
Hosea / Joel / Amos / Obadiah / Jonah / Micah / Nahum / Habakkuk / Zephaniah / Haggai / Zechariah / Malachi
The Writing of the New Testament
Stage 1: The Historical Jesus
Jesus lived a typical life of a Jewish boy
Began his public ministry c. 28 AD
Taught, healed, and proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God
Crucified by Pontius Pilate c. 30 AD