#Jesus death satisfied God the Father

[thinkingonscripture]

Propitiation for Sins

Jesus’ death on the cross was a satisfactory sacrifice to God which completely paid the price for our sin. We owed a debt to God that we could never pay, and Jesus paid that debt in full when He died on the cross and bore the punishment that rightfully belonged to us. In Romans, Paul states that we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put…

[fkapommel]

I believe that it is thematically necessary for griddlehark full lyctorhood, or on Harrowhark Christ

Together, Harrow and Gideon complete the symbolism of Christ. You have the obvious Christographic imagery in the start and end of Gideon's life: she is a "virgin" birth, a genetic product of God without any sexual interaction between her mother and father; she was concieved in order to die, specifically to be sacrificed to save the souls - in a literal and metaphorical sense - of the innocent, i.e. non-necros; and she died ultimately by her own choice, dying with the use of pentrative weapons.

But Harrow is literally the "child of man" - she is the cumulation of a generation, not one but many, the many made one. Harrow resembles young Jesus debating and educating the priests of the Temple, already knowing more about the arts of the spirit, of life and death, than his teachers as an infant. Both are prodigies of their craft. She is literally and figurarively carrying her cross all of HtN, the sword physically resembles a cross and is a burden of both her and Gideon's sins. And Harrow, in her soup making era, pulled off the Eucharist, transforming Mithraeum family dinner night into sacrifical, (not metaphysical) cannibalism night. Though both G & H have lain entombed and miraculously resurected, it was Harrow that descended into Hell to interact with the dead (more on this when ATN reveals what she did in Hell).

In one way, this creates friction, a literary rivalry, between the two characters. Who is more Jesus-like? Who is more central to the narrative? I argue that its in merging them that we see a clearer narrative reflection of the scriptural material of both the physical book series and the religio-imperalist model Jod based his empire on. This meta-textual symbolism HAS to be incorporated within the narrative itself given the device of lyctohood, wherein two souls literally meld to become inseperable and indistinguishable. By becoming full lyctors (and seperately i suspect that theyll become perfect lyctor numero dos), the Christographic symbolism embodied by both Gideon and Harrow will become literal and plot relevant, and solidify their lyctorhood not just as a narrative goalpost, a "hell yea" moment for the reader, or a completion of the main narrative conflict of their constant division. Their merging via the Eightfold Path will be semi-prophetic and imbued with religious significance as they both represent a halved Christ.

Gideon and Harrow HAVE to become full/perfect lyctors not just to release the symphonic tension of their constant coming togethers and going aparts, but to complete the image of a divided messiah.

Tldr: yes gideon is jesus, but harrow is jesus too and together they make Double Jesus. Jesus pt. 2 WILL become canon via full or perfect lyctorization!!!

Edit: I do NOT think ATN will /end/ with lyctor!griddlehark; thats just not in character for either of them, nor would that provide a morally satisfying end that is in contrast to Jod's ethos. I believe they will uncover the process and either temporarily inhabit full/perfect lyctorhood, find a way to balance their soul melange equally, or sever their soul bond completely (worst option!) Them uncovering the truth to lyctorhood, however, is necessary to resolve (meta)narrative tension.

[404-found]

Blameless Before the Judge

John 18:10–11

[10] Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) [11] So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” (ESV)

Luke 22:49–51

[49] And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” [50] And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. [51] But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. (ESV)

Jesus in all of his love, grace, and mercy healed him.

Why?

To be a nice guy? Sure! But I believe it goes even deeper.

As you read earlier Malchus was a servant of the high priest. It was a capital crime to harm a servant of the high priest in any form! Let alone lobbing an ear off. Peter would have been executed by law. However, when Jesus restored his ear he erased all evidence that Peter had ever transgressed. So if Malchus would have went before the council and accused Peter of the crime there was absolutely no evidence that Peter ever committed the crime.

That's what Jesus did for us. Ultimately we chose to sin against Him, to rebel against Him, to disobey Him, to in a sense substitute ourselves as god, attempting the de-goding of God, living our life by our own standards, and bringing ourselves glory instead of Him. Because we've done that, we've willingly separated ourselves from God, not wanting to relate to God, but to be god ourselves. In doing that, we've put ourselves under the judgment of God instead of the grace and mercy of God.

Even though we've done all of this, that God lovingly came into human history as the man Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. He was born of a virgin, without the affects of generational sin, and lived a life without sin, even though he was tempted in every way you and I are. Even though Jesus lived a sinless life, he willingly went to the cross to die a sinners death, and in doing so substituted Himself for us, the sinless One for the sinful ones. Our first parents in the garden substituted themselves for God, just as we would have, and do, and at the cross Jesus reversed that substitution and substituted Himself for sinners. So when Jesus went to the cross He willingly took upon Him the sin of those who would come to trust in Him. That means that Jesus Christ, God who was a man, died in our place for our sins, satisfying the justice of God toward sin and securing the grace and mercy of God for those who believe in Him. Jesus dead body was then put in a tomb, and for three days he was buried. But on the third day Jesus rose from the grave, proving his authority over sin, death, hell, Satan and demons. When we believe and are reborn in Jesus Christ we are washed clean by his blood. Jesus sacrifice takes away all evidence that we ever transgressed. And it doesn't matter who accuses or what evidence they say they have. When we stand before a holy judge who's a holy God and he looks at us he will see Jesus whose blood we have been cleansed by.

Jesus lived a life we could not live (a sinless life), He died a death we should have died (a sinner's death), He rose to give us a life we could never have otherwise (resurrected life), and He alone is the way, the truth and the life – the only way to God.

John 8:10–11

[10] Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” [11] She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]] (ESV)

[vladr2566]

It's finally here well part one of the fic!! This is my first fiction so please go easy on me lol and ik this first part is short pleas bare with me my computer had bugged out and I lost all the parts so I'm starting back at square one

⚠️⚠️⚠️CW WARNING: SMUT GORE STRONG LANGUAGE AGE GAP Mention OF ABUSE AND ASSULT DEATH MENTION OF SA AND CANNIBALISM CULTS AND HEAVY TOPICS OF RELIGIOUS ABUSE! AND UNPROTECTED SEX (mostly in later parts) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED Reader is 23 and slayer is at least 500 years old(basied on what i googled and the events of eternal)⚠️⚠️⚠️

Fem!reader x doom slayer

Hell's little rabbit part 1

Hell's little Rabbit

Part 1

You don't know how or when it happened but the cult of God had gotten their hands on you, they found you interesting, your rabbit ears, your rabbit tail, your rabbit feet. They never saw a human rabbit hybrid, well a hybrid in general. They kept you locked up in a dark damp cell in the abandoned jail they called home on this demon infested earth. They worshiped God who had abandoned them long ago, before the demons attacked.

Their leader, Peter, would take care of you. He would visit daily and give you food and water and in return you had to give yourself to him or he would beat you till you complied. He would preach on how yiu were special and was ment to dave them. You hated him, wanted him dead even but last time you tried to kill Peter he had broken your arm. His wives didn't like you because you were his favorite, they called you freak and whore, other times they would sneak in and beat you.

Today was a special day, the day of sacrifice, and you were the chosen one. You were kept alive for 13 years just for this, to be sacrifice to the demons so the cult could be blessed by the God they believed in. It was rainy today the first rain in years. Peter ties your arms on a cross and kissed you on last time, you grimace and spat in his face which earned yiu a harsh slap across the face.

He turns to his people and spoke, "Childern of God! Today we gather here today to feed the beast that plague us, and our way of living! Let us bow our heads in prayer and let us pray to our lord and savor Jesus Christian , and the one almighty God!"

They lowered their head as Peter leads them in prayer, "OH heavenly father who art tho in heaven! Please let this sacrifice keep the demon at bay for another 13 years, thank you for letting us find this girl when we did! She was 10 years old and lost, she was just a child when we took her in and now she is a woman! Still pure because she served me, her husband, very well! May her sacrifice keep us safe and my her soul join you in heaven! I know she is different from the others but may her rabbit genetics satisfy the demons! Amen!"

"Amen!" The others said in unison. The days passed as Peter and the other higher ups for the cult watch and waited for the demons. You were weak and exhausted, barely hanging on. The heat and the weather doing its toll on your body.

It's now been a week and nothing, it was scary quite. Then there was screams, you couldn't care you was ready to die. After an hour or so the screaming stops, you heard heavy footsteps approach but was too weak to lift your head. You felt a strong hand lift your head and you see a man or thing in green armor. He cut your hands free and you fell into his arms, that's all you remembered before passing out.

You woke up in a bed, how long has it been? Hours? Days? Weeks? You weren't sure but you sure knew you were hungry, you looked around the room you were now in. It confused and scared you, you had no clue where you was but something caught your eye. You get up and hobbled over to the small table in the corner and grabbed the sandwich that was left, your hunger overpowered your thoughts and you scarfed down the small meal.

You then looked at yourself in the mirror and saw you were bandaged up and somewhat clean. Your ears perked up as you heard footsteps and walked in a robot? You grabbed the plate from the table and get ready to throw it.

"Who are you and where am i?!" You demanded

"Hello, I am Vega the on board AI. The slayer brought you in after he had found you on earth. How are you feeling miss, need anything?" He asked

You shake your head no and slightly relaxed.

"No thank you..."

"If you need anything let me know miss, this room has a bathroom so if you want you can shower." And with that Vega left. You made your way to the bathroom and saw some clean clothes, fresh bandages, and some soaps as well as shampoo and conditioner.

You smiled and took the first shower you had in years, you washed off the dirt and old blood and then spent a lot of time on washing your matted hair. One your done you get out and then cut your hair short so it's easier to manage.

You could hear the same heavy footsteps out In the hall so you got dressed and left the room. You peaked out and saw the large man in green armor your savoir. You quietly followed him but he disappeared into his room. You wanted to thank him but how?

[lv3buzzz]

SONG RECS FOR @noctilucaa

w moods

this is honestly no pressure to listen to them all 😭

i just yap w song titles lmaooo

also all my x ray spex recs are valid cus i am the no 1 x ray spex listener on airbuds (i love them)

sobbing my eyes out oh god

~ paper bag - fiona apple

~ waiting room ~ phoebe bridgers

~ your best american girl ~ mitski

~ asleep - the smiths

~ tears over beers - modern baseball

~ brother - gerard way

~ young and doomed - frank iero

~ guilt tripping - frank iero

~ you are my sunshine - frank iero

~ disasterology - ptv

i miss who i used to be

~ sullen girl - fiona apple

~ are you satisfied - MARINA

~ everyone - mitski

~ i know the end - phoebe bridgers

~ all i want is nothing - frank iero

yeah its cool ill be okay

~ joyriding - frank iero

~ all that ive got - the used

~ dear percocet, i dont think we should see eachother anymore- frank iero

fuck this

~ no fun club - frank iero

~ i cant do anything - x ray spex

~ yall want a single - korn

~ break stuff - limp bizkit

~ brackish - kittie

~ garbage man - hole

~ im a mess - frank iero

~ jesus of suburbia - green day (yes the full nine minutes. deal w it 😛)

~ child psychology - black box recorder

fuck you

~ get gone - fiona apple

~ good god - korn

~ father - front bottoms

~ down with the sickness - disturbed

~ good sister - bad sister - hole

~ family jewels - MARINA

~ fantastic bastards - death spells

~ veins! veins!! veins!!! - frank iero

punk/ angry w politics

ik the sex pistols are heavily mainstream so might not be ‘punk’ but they pioneered the scene in the 70s and are style icons

theres more but itll be too much 😛

~ plasic bag - x ray spex

~ carnival - bikini kill

~ rebel girl - bikini kill

~ god save the queen - sex pistols

~ anarchy in the uk - sex pistols

~ holidays in the sun - sex pistols

~ pretty vacant- sex pistols

~ identity - x ray spex

~ nervouse breakdown- black flag

~ ‘merican - descendents

~ blood stains - original version - agent orange

life can be good sometimes

~ when the sun hits - slowdive

~ 1979 - smashing pumpkins

~ malibu - hole

~ half a person - the smiths (dont listen to the lyrics theyre sad but its upbeat and you can dance to it and be whimsical)

~ heaven tonight - hole

~ inbetween days - the cure (i fucking love this song

~ today - the smashing pumpkins

~ lovesong - the cure

~ so real - jeff buckley

yearning/pining?!

~ why cant i be you? - the cure

~ forget her - jeff buckley

~ michelle - sir chloe

~ 8th grade - pencey prep (heavily recommend that whole album)

~ i want the one i cant have - the smiths

~ looking out for you - joy again (pulling out the 2021 songs 🙏)

~ mad as rabbits - p!atd

~ beach bones - more amor, ryan ross (<33 RYAN RODSOKDDODIFUCU)

~ at the library - green day

[annkous]

So. Lesson 23, huh. How are you all Mammon lovers holding up?

We start right where we last left it off in lesson 22 : in the Celestial Realm about to be run over by Mammon who's apparently riding a pegasus chariot (that's SO COOL THOUGH I WANT TO SEE IT IN A CARD). He crashes the thing and before anyone can get into proper introductions, Mammon hears Michael's looking for him and runs away to hide, dragging both you and Little D with him.

They keep teasing us with Michael lol but ANYWAYS. After the scare you can hug him or pinch his cheek, and also show how happy you are that he's smiling. I found it really cute.

You can ask Mammon about his deal with Michael, then he says this.

They will be the death of me I swear to god.

Mammon, convinced you're two angels (??????), asks you to go with him so that can vouch for him to Lucifer so he takes Mammon under his wing. Sure, why not?

Mammon really adored Lucifer before they became brothers and wanted Luci to be the one who supervised him, but Mammon tells you that Lucifer keeps shutting his idea down and tells him he should stay with Michael instead.

Ah, good ol' Lucifer, doing "what I think is best for people without properly talking to them". He folds quickly, though, and basically tells Mammon that he will agree to talk to Michael about it if he manages to bring to Lucifer one rose from Simeon's garden before sundown. So off we go again.

We find Simeon in said pretty garden, reading a book. However, he says that said book is a book of prophecies, and the fucker just drops this line when Mammon asks him if he's learned anything.

Thanks, now I feel like crying.

Simeon does say he's probably destined to meet you again and that he will probably lose his wings, but that it's all up to interpretation, so he's not completely sure if he got his future correctly. Oh man.

Mammon decides to ask Simeon about taking one rose, but Simeon outright says no because the roses are from Father (gulp), so they're really important. Mammon desperately tells him that it's just one rose so Lucifer finally accepts his request, that he will do anything, and Simeon almost caves, but then asks Mammon if he'd ever considered how Simeon would feel after having to give away one of the important roses he'd grown from their Father.

Mammon doesn't want to hurt Simeon, but he doesn't want to give up on his dream either. In the end, Simeon decides to finally give him the rose.

We can ask Simeon about the roses being important to him, and he says "Yes, they are, but Mammon is just as important." I need A SECOND.

Mission success. With the rose in hand, the trio goes back to Lucifer, who's surprised Mammon has managed to get the rose in the end.

He looks satisfied, though, and tells Mammon that the reason Simeon gave him the rose was because of Mammon's determination, his grip on his dreams and what he truly wants...

which is also connected to his greed.

Lucifer tells Mammon said sin can hurt those around him, and that even if then he's still determined to hold on to the hopes and desires in his heart...

Mammon's memory ends there. For now, we don't know what Lucifer said next.

The first one right in the gut. Jesus.

But I have to say this talk with Mammon is one of my favourite parts thus far:

MANNNNNNNNNNNNNN

also-

I really like the options we were given. He's got time to learn, and he's already kind, too.

SWEATS VERY NERVOUSLY.

But wait, we're not done yet, because this is when he finally remembers what was that Lucifer told him in the end.

HEY. HEY MAN. YOU CAN'T JUST HIT ME LIKE THAT. FUCK.

I wondered a lot back then in og Obey Me why was Mammon his favourite plus his most trusted brother, considering all we saw most of the time was their bickering or Lucifer chasing after an "irresponsible" Mammon. Sure, they had their moments, but nothing it's impacting me harder than their moments here in Nightbringer. I'm so glad we get to see them so close. It warms my heart a lot, because I did think Mammon deserved better treatment. I'm really happy they're showing how important he is to Lucifer and all of his siblings, plus how he's just... Mammon, not an idiot that gets hung from the ceiling or someone who bursts in when mc's having a moment with someone else. He's just Mammon, the Avatar of Greed.

When we wake up in Mammon's room after this, the new title is "Holding on to Hope." Whew man.

He gives you a hug first thing to make sure he's really back, too. He's the absolute best.

He feels really bad he put you through his outburst, too, and wants to make it up to you.

Sounds like a perfect way to settle things, honestly. WE GOT OUR FIRST PACT.

FINALLY. MAMMON HAD TO BE THE FIRST, OBVIOUSLY.

The final part of the lesson is about how Mammon is back to his usual level of greediness (and also really peppy and is pissing Belphegor off lol). Lucifer thanks you too, and you tell him that part of Mammon's recovery is thanks to his words back in the Celestial Realm. They all go back to normal, with Satan summoning something at breakfast because Mammon pissed him off and Lucifer having to intervene pffft.

Also, they mention this off handedly, but it soon becomes relevant: Asmo is missing from breakfast. It made me go "uh oh. He's next, isn't he."

Pan to the next scene:

Yup, he's next.

I actually had to go and look up the order of the pacts we make with the demon brothers in the og game because I wasn't sure if Asmo was second. I thought since Mammon was first that they were going to follow the same pact order, but it seems like it's not. In the og game Mammon was first, then Leviathan, Beel, Asmo, Satan, Belphie and lastly Lucifer. But here it seems Asmo is going to be second.

It breaks my heart a bit because in lesson 22 Asmo was terrified of ending up just like Mammon when he was fully consumed by his Greed aaaaa. We've already had a trip to the Celestial Realm with Asmo though, so I wonder if they're going to do the same thing as Mammon (showing the reason he chose to join Lucifer) or do something else entirely. We have to wait until next Friday to see it.

The extra scene takes place a bit after both Mammon and you wake up, leaving him to rest a bit while you go meet the rest of the brothers to give them an update. Simeon goes down memory lane about all the times Mammon had tried to get Lucifer's attention, including one time he went to grab a crystal lily for Luci, got himself lost and Lucifer had to go and fetch him. Another time he blew the kitchen up trying to cook dinner for Lucifer's birthday lmfao and when Lucifer's about to join in the fun of telling Mammon's old stories, Mammon bursts in and begs him to stop HAHAH

Okay this part was really cute www I love them.

After finishing the lesson you get a video call too! AGAIN! This time is just Mammon and you (before Levi and Beel join in), with Mammon begging you to keep quiet about the hug he gave you. It's short and funny. I wish I could add more than 30 pictures so I could show you Levi's 3d face here, because it had me cracking up lmfao

The hard mode scene takes place in Mammon's room as he's wondering if you two have really made a pact after all, because he feels no different and you should have a bit of his powers. As if on cue, you get a message that you've won the lottery and Satan pops in to give you money as thanks of giving him his wallet back a few days prior.

You use the stay command too, and Mammon comments that it's stronger now. That's a good sign that you're getting your powers back!

I'm really curious to see what it'll happen with Asmo ;u; and who the next brother will be, since it seems to be random (unless I'm missing something. It's not birth order, nor previous pact order either....). We shouldn't forget about that prophecy book, either. I don't trust any off-hand mentions in this game lmao.

Oh, and the German titles for the cards in normal mode this round are: Slothful Sieben for Belphie, and then it switches to different titles for the others. Great Acht for Diavolo, Confident Neun for Barbatos and Sacred Zehn for Luke. Simeon and Solomon are the only ones missing, then come the other three undateables (I think).

That's all for this week!

Edit: LESSON 24!!

[geminiagentgreen]

I once wanted to just blatantly identify as "reformed Presbyterian", but I've gone through no official channels to make that happen and thus just felt stupid. Nevertheless, I figured I'd share my beliefs:

There is One God.

The Trinity is not three separate gods, but the recognition of God as the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.

The Word became flesh and His name is Jesus Christ. He was with God since before the beginning of all things.

The Holy Spirit is not earned, but received.

Christ died for my sins, taking on the role of sin - not becoming my sin - to satisfy the wrath of the Father for love's sake.

Those the Father loves, He predestined.

I do have free will, but it does not compete with the Lord's will, nor does God stop His plans so that mine may succeed.

Christ died, but death could not hold Him, and three days later He came back to life.

He ascended and resides now at His Father's right hand.

Hell is real, it's going to be horrible, and no one can't get out once they're in.

A loving God is a just God.

Scripture is the Word of God, not the work of man and any of his best intentions. It is enough.

In Christ alone my hope is found.

I was dead to my sins before He rescued me.

My words aren't the most articulate, and I do absolutely need to get better memorized with my bible. God is good, Jesus loves you, reject your sins and turn toward Jesus's arms.

[hiswordsarekisses]

“You’ve got to hand it to the chief priests and Pharisees: They did their best. They did their level best to keep Jesus in his tomb.

After successfully overseeing his execution, they remembered that he had not only predicted his death but also spoken of some kind of resurrection.

Wanting to make sure his disciples didn’t manufacture a way of sneaking his body out of the tomb, they asked Pilate to guarantee the situation.

“Order the tomb to be made secure until the third day,” they demanded, “lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:64).

Pilate reminded them they already had access to troops they could assign to the task.

The soldiers who guarded the temple could also guard the tomb. “Go, make it as secure as you can,” he told them (27:65).

“As secure as you can”

…could almost have been words of prophecy.

“So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard” (27:66).

And I can’t help but wonder:

Did the angels laugh?

Did the angels laugh aloud when they saw these religious leaders satisfied that a stone and a seal and a couple of soldiers could in any way thwart the purposes of God?

Did they laugh in disbelief that these little beings thought they could stymie the Creator’s plan to save a people to himself?

Did they laugh at the arrogance of it even as they wept at the sorrow of it?

They knew then what we know now, that even the best efforts to seal the tomb would be as futile as posting men on a beach with orders to stem the tide.

The best efforts to keep that tomb closed would be as senseless as tying a rope to a rocket and telling a child to keep it tethered to the ground.

The best efforts to keep Jesus in the grave would be as effective as telling an ant to wrestle an elephant to the ground and make him beg for mercy.

Never in all of human history had man attempted something so daft, so senseless, so utterly impossible. Never in all of human history was man so obviously destined to fail.

Man was destined to fail because God had spoken. . .

. . .and God’s word cannot be broken, it cannot be negated, it cannot be invalidated.

The Father had said that His Holy One would not see corruption and the Son had said they would all see “the sign of Jonah.”

There was no version of reality in which Jesus’ body would remain in the tomb to decompose - and no possibility he would remain there any longer than Jonah had been in the belly of the great fish.

God had spoken and it would come to pass, despite the most valiant efforts of the chief priests and Pharisees.

It is a wonder and a blessing to know that God has spoken equally clearly about the resurrection of his people.

It is as unthinkable that we will remain eternally in the tomb as it was for Jesus and as impossible that our bodies will remain forever in the dust as his, for God has promised that “the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

He puts us under divine obligation to encourage one another with these words and with this beautiful reality.

Because he has spoken, it is guaranteed to come to pass.

Because he has said it, it cannot fail.

Because he has proven it through Jesus, we can have every confidence that we and all those who love the Lord will rise to live forevermore.”

(Tim Challies)

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

"The sum and substance of the message of the Bible can be summarised in an argument (or syllogism) such as this:

Major Premise: The true Messiah shall be both God and man, from the seed of David. He shall be born of his heavenly Father's bosom. He shall satisfy the law. He shall offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the faithful. He shall conquer death by dying and rising again. He shall ascend into heaven. In due time he shall return for judgment.

Minor Premise: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, meets all of these requirements.

Conclusion: Therefore Jesus is the true Messiah.

In this syllogism the major premise is the scope or principal burden of the writings of all the prophets. The minor premise is contained in the writings of the evangelists and apostles." — 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 [pictured: Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 𝐴 𝐹𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝐹𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦]

[dramascoop]

The Chosen: Season 4 Episode 1 Recap | The Drama Scoop

While Mary is pregnant in The Chosen Season 4 Episode 1, she pays a visit to her cousin Elizabeth and they have a prophetic encounter.

The occasion of King Herod’s birthday forces Salome to perfect her dancing skills.

While having a conversation with Simon Z, Judas questions Jesus’ rejection of offerings.

Joanna tells the disciples of John the Baptist’s looming death.

Our article, “The Chosen: Season 4 Episode 1″Promises” Recap” contains major spoilers.

The Chosen: Season 4 Episode 1 Recap

Mary and Elizabeth’s prophetic encounter in The Chosen

The Chosen Season 4 Episode 1 begins with Mary, who is pregnant, visiting her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant, after receiving a word from the messenger. Mary’s voice from the door causes the baby to kick Elizabeth’s womb. Elizabeth brings Mary into her house and shares the story of the messenger’s meeting with Zecharia, who became mute due to his refusal to believe. Elizabeth names her newborn baby John to bring Israel closer to God and prepare the way for Mary’s son Jesus.

Salome’s dance rehearsal for King Herod’s birthday

In the following scene, Herodias’ daughter Salome is forced to rehearse dancing for King Herod’s birthday. Herodias is King Herod’s second wife. The teacher ensures flawless execution of the dance movements and techniques. Despite learning her dance moves, her mother still insists on practicing to avoid mistakes and ensure perfection.

Big James and John help Zebedee with anointed oil delivery

Big James and John, often known as the “Brothers of Thunder,” assist their father Zebedee in delivering anointed oil to the high priest. While Thomas is eager to meet Ramah, they cross paths with Shula and Barnaby, who are also looking for Ramah, who has recently returned from Capernaum.

Joanna’s secret meeting and marital strain in The Chosen

In the following scene, Joanna (last seen in season 3 episode 1), a secret disciple of Jesus and John the Baptist, is caught by her husband Chuza (Herod’s manager) and accused of meeting John the Baptist. Their marriage is strained due to Chuza’s affair with Cassandra.

Simon Z and Judas discuss ministry priorities

The next scene features Simon Z and Judas washing clothes while Judas discusses the ministry. Judas believes that boring chores should be delegated to others, while disciples should prioritize spreading Jesus’ message. Judas criticizes Jesus for not accepting offerings, but Simon Z reassures him of his uniqueness. He makes use of the washing of clothes to explain a new way of thinking.

Zebedee’s successful contract victory with the High Priest

Zebedee, his sons, Little James, and Tamar visit the High Priest to investigate the oil, but Tamar is denied access. The high priest then inspects the oil. Zebedee’s support from Yussif and Jairus leads to their successful contract victory.

Joanna warns John the Baptist of his death in The Chosen

Joanna sneaks out to meet John the Baptist in jail, while Salome’s dancing instructor discusses progress with Herodias. Following this, Herodias describes the aim of the dance. If Herod is satisfied, he will provide Salome with everything she wishes. Herodias wants to punish John for disrespecting her. Joanna refuses to see John the Baptist and informs him that he will be killed. John, unconcerned, tells Joanna that the road of the Lord (Jesus) has been prepared.

Thomas and Ramah’s marriage plans

The following scene features Thomas and Ramah. Thomas asks Ramah if her father agreed. However, the father disagrees since he does not embrace Jesus’ beliefs. Ramah proposes that the groom (Thomas) present the bride with a valuable thing. Thomas picks John and Jesus as witnesses, and all they have to do is exchange vows. The two become quite excited.

John the Baptist’s execution and flashback in The Chosen

Joanna skips the celebration in Judea and rushes to Capernaum to alert the disciples about John’s fate. Salome charms King Herod with her performance, and Herod agrees to grant her wish. Herod is taken aback when Salome suggests beheading John the Baptist. As John is about to be killed, we get a flashback to the circumcision ritual. Elizabeth instructs the local Rabbi to name the infant John per the messenger. Zechariah acknowledges the messenger by speaking after consenting to the name and remaining silent.

In the present day, John learns he will be beheaded on a silver wedding plate. He chuckles since he has never attended a wedding, which confuses the guards. Before being beheaded, he notices a lamb outside the window and expresses gratitude to God. When the Rabbi who baptized John meets with Jesus, he discovers that John’s prophesy has been fulfilled. Jesus shreds his robe in grief for his cousin’s death.

Disciples gather and console each other in Capernaum

In the following scene of The Chosen, the disciples gather in Capernaum, where Thomas confesses his desire to marry Ramah. While the disciples celebrate, Matthew observes Joanna, who is looking for Andrew. Joanna weeps without saying a word, and Andrew understands.

The disciples console Andrew, as John tells how he came to prepare the way for Jesus. The story concludes with Jesus being shown with a tattered robe and ash on his head, indicating his awareness of the situation.

What do you think about the beginning of The Chosen Season 4? Which was your favorite part? Did our article “The Chosen: Season 4 Episode 1 Recap” answer all your questions? Let us know in the comments below!

Thank you for diving into our latest piece on the best English drama! Your support and enthusiasm keep us inspired to bring you more exciting content. Stay tuned for more reviews and news on your favorite shows right here at The Drama Scoop. Until next time, happy watching!

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The Value of Jesus’ Death for God and Christians

Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross has both infinite and eternal value for both God the Father as well as those trust in Christ as their Savior. From the divine perspective, Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and this because He went to the cross as the Father directed (John 6:68; 12:27; cf., 26:39, 42). Jesus died in our place (Rom 5:8; 1 Cor…

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11th August >> Fr. Martin's Homilies/Reflections on Today's Mass Readings for The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) (John 6:41-51): ‘I am the bread of life’.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Gospel (Except USA) John 6:41-51 Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.

The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus said in reply, ‘Stop complaining to each other.

‘No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father. I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life.

‘I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

Gospel (USA) John 6:41–51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets:

They shall all be taught by God.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Homilies (6)

(i) Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We can all have the experience of thinking we know someone really well and then coming to realize that we didn’t really know them at all. Our way of seeing one another can be quite limited. What we see in someone can be a great deal less than what is there. What others see in us can also be much less than what is there. We can be labelled on the basis of some past experience people had of us and we are never allowed to move on from that labell.

This was the experience of Jesus in today’s gospel reading. Many people thought they knew him well, ‘Surely, this is Jesus son of Joseph? We know his father and mother’. Yet, there was much more to Jesus than being the son of Joseph and Mary; he was also the Son of God. He was the Word who was with God in the beginning, who was God, and who became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth. He may have come from his parents’ home in Nazareth, but, more fundamentally, he came down from his Father in heaven. He speaks of himself in our gospel reading as ‘the bread of life that came down from heaven’. He came from God into our world to nourish us with his presence, to feed us with his word and his teaching, and also by all that he did, by his life, death and resurrection. He came to satisfy the deepest hungers of our heart, our hunger for love and acceptance, for forgiveness, for meaning and purpose, for happiness and joy, for beauty and truth. There was so much more to Jesus than people realized. He was more than just the son of Joseph and Mary. There is always more to Jesus than we realize.

He is among us today as Bread of Life, feeding the deepest hungers of our heart. That is why he is always calling out to us to come to him. He has so much to give us, but we have to come to him if we are to receive it. Jesus says in the gospel reading that our coming to him is always in response to God our Father drawing us to him. ‘No one can come to me’, he says, ‘unless drawn by the Father who sent me’. God the Father is always drawing us to his Son and our calling is to allow ourselves to be drawn by God. When I was a child, I loved to play with a magnet and some nails, and to see how the magnet drew the nails to itself As I moved the magnet closer to the nails, they would jump towards the magnet. God draws us towards his Son in whom he is fully present. Our coming to Jesus is always in response to being drawn. We just need to surrender to God’s drawing power. God doesn’t wait for us to be morally good to draw us to his Son. God is always drawing us to his Son regardless of how we have been in the past or how we are in the present, because God knows that it is only when we come close to his Son, when we entrust ourselves to him, that we will be empowered to change for the better. God draws us to his Son so that our spirits, our hearts and minds, can be nourished by his Son who is Bread of Life for the world. The risen Lord who is God-with-us draws us to himself so that he can feed us with his loving presence. He once said, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’.

We all need the Lord to nurture us with his loving presence on the journey of life. We cannot go it alone. In the first reading, Elijah discovered that he couldn’t go it alone. He was journeying towards Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, but on the way, he lost the energy to keep going. All he wanted to do was sleep. As we journey towards the heavenly mountain of God, we too can lose heart. The struggles and disappointments of life can leave us feeling drained. When Elijah was at his lowest ebb, God sent an angel to give him the sustenance he needed to keep going until he reached his destination. God has sent us so much more than an angel to enable us to keep going when the journey becomes too much for us. God sent us his Son as Bread of Life and God is constantly at work drawing us to his Son, our risen Lord. God invites us, in the words of today’s psalm, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’. The risen Lord, in his goodness, journeys with us, and if we come to him in response to God drawing us, we will discover him to be food for the journey, not perishable food, but food that endures to eternal life. In the words of the psalm, ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’, ‘Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life’. The Lord wants to feed us with his loving presence, so that we, in turn, can be bread of life for each other, God’s angel or messenger to those who are finding life’s journey a struggle.

And/Or

(ii) Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We are all prone to discouragement from time to time. The difficult economic climate in which we live can leave us discouraged, especially when it begins to impact on us personally. Some have lost their jobs; everyone is, to some degree, in the process of belt-tightening. We can find ourselves discouraged for all kinds of other, more personal, reasons. Some relationship that we have high hopes for may not be working out for us. Sometimes we can feel very discouraged without really knowing what that is so. We are just very aware that our energy levels are low and that our enthusiasm for life is not what it used to be. We seem to be dragging ourselves along. Joy seems to elude us.

Even people of strong faith can get discouraged and disconsolate. Elijah was one of the great prophets of Israel; a strong man of God who proclaimed God’s word fearlessly and challenged the paganism of his time. Yet, in today’s first reading we find him deeply discouraged. He went into the wilderness and after a day’s journey he sat under a furze bush and wished he were dead. His prayer reflected his frame of mind, ‘Lord, I have had enough. Take my life’. The most extreme form of discouragement finds expression in people taking their own lives. We are all aware of how the suicide rate has gone up in recent years, especially among young men. Elijah was not tempted to take his own life, but he asked the Lord to take his life. The Lord responded to Elijah’s prayer, but not in the way that Elijah wanted him to. Instead of taking Elijah’s life, he gave Elijah the strength to face into life and to continue the journey. The Lord’s response to Elijah’s prayer found visible expression in the angel who provided food and drink for Elijah in the wilderness. Because Elijah had a strong relationship with the Lord, he was able to share his deep discouragement with the Lord in prayer. As people of faith, we can take our lead from Elijah. We tend to share what is deepest in us with the people who are most important to us. If we are people of faith, the Lord will be important to us, and we can share what is deepest in us with him. One of the older catechisms of the church defined prayer as the lifting up of the mind and heart to God. That remains a very good definition of prayer. In prayer we lift up our minds and hearts to God, including everything that is in our hearts and minds, and that may include discouragement, desolation, deep sadness. We pray to the Lord out of the reality, sometimes the dark reality, of our lives. The Lord does not ignore our heartfelt prayer; it may not be answered in the way we asked for it to be answered, but it will be answered. In our weakness, we will be able to draw on the Lord’s strength. In our discouragement, we will be able to draw on the Lord’s courage. In our sadness, we will be able to draw on the risen Lord’s joy. You may have noticed in that first reading that the Lord’s first response to Elijah’s prayer, the first visit of the angel, did not make much impact on Elijah. He took and food and drink, but he went back to sleep again. It took a second visit from the angel to get Elijah back up on his feet. Prayer does not work miracles over night. Even with prayer, we need to give ourselves time to respond to what the Lord is offering us.

In the first reading, God speaking through an angel says to Elijah, ‘Get up and eat’. In the gospel reading, God, speaking through Jesus, says to all of us, ‘I am the living bread … and the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world’. Jesus declares himself to be our food for the journey of life. We can turn to him in our weakness, our discouragement, our frailty, and draw from him nourishment, strength, courage, hope, joy. We know from our experience that if we go walking, if we use up physical energy, we need physical food to replenish our strength. For the journey of life with all its trials and tribulations we also need another kind of food, the spiritual food that the Lord provides. Jesus not only provides this spiritual food, he is this spiritual food; he is the living bread that has come down from heaven. The Eucharist is the privileged place where the Lord comes to us as the bread of life. It is above all in the Eucharist that the Lord says to us what was said to Elijah, ‘Get up and eat’. Today’s second reading, however, suggests that the Lord also comes to us as bread of life in and through each other. In that reading, Paul calls on us to follow Christ by loving as he has loved us. When we love others as Christ has loved us, we make Christ, the bread of life, present to others. The Lord wants to work through us to give strength to those who are weak, courage to those who are discouraged, hope to those who are despondent. When that happens, we become bread of life for each other.

And/Or

(iii) Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We all do our fair share of complaining, and sometimes with good reason. We complain about the weather a great deal. We complain about all kinds of things. If we are not careful we can find ourselves complaining about nothing in particular, just complaining. We can easily get ourselves into a very negative frame of mind. We see the problems but we see nothing else. We fail to see the bigger picture which will nearly always have brighter shades in it. Our vision can restricted to what is wrong or missing or lacking.

The gospel reading this morning opens with the Jews complaining to each other about Jesus. As far as they were concerned, he was a problem, and they could not see beyond the problem. They had always known him as the son of Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth; they knew his family and his mother. Yet, here he was claiming to be the bread that came down from heaven. They were scandalized that one of their own could make such claims for himself. Their response to Jesus was to complain about him. Complaining on its own is rarely an adequate response to anything or anyone; it is certainly not an adequate response to the person of Jesus.

In the gospel reading, Jesus calls for a very different kind of response. He speaks of this response initially as coming to him. To come to Jesus is the first step on the way to faith. In the first chapter of John’s gospel, when Jesus meets the disciples of John the Baptist for the first time he says to them, ‘Come and see’. They came, they saw, and eventually they went on to believe in him. Jesus’ call to come to him is given even to those who already believe. He calls those who believe to come closer to him so as to believe more fully, more deeply. As followers of Jesus, we spend our whole lives coming to him. We never fully arrive to him in this life; we never fully grasp him, either with our minds or with our hearts. We are always on the way towards him. No matter where we are on our faith journey, the Lord keeps calling on us to come.

Jesus declares in the gospel reading that nobody can come to him unless drawn by the Father. We cannot come to Jesus on our own; we need God’s help. The good news is that God the Father is always drawing us to his Son. When Jesus says to us, ‘Come’, we are not just left to our own devices at that point. God the Father will be working in our lives helping us to come to his Son; he will draw us to Jesus. There is always more going on in our relationship with Jesus than just our own human efforts. That should give us great encouragement because we know from our experience that our own efforts can fail us in the area of our faith as in other areas. Our coming to Jesus, our growing in our relationship with him, is not all down to us. God the Father is at work in our lives moving us towards his Son, drawing us towards Jesus. There is a momentum within us that is from God, a momentum that will lead us to Jesus if we are in any way open to it.

Jesus calls on us to come to him with a view to our feeding on him. The language of the gospel reading is very graphic. Jesus speaks of himself as the bread that comes down from heaven and calls on us to eat this bread. When we hear that kind of language we probably think instinctively of the Eucharist. Yet, it might be better not to jump to the Eucharist too quickly. The Lord invites us come to him and to feed on his presence, and in particular to feed on his word. In the Jewish Scriptures bread is often a symbol of the word of God. We may be familiar with the quotation from the Jewish Scriptures, ‘we do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’. We need physical bread, but we also need the spiritual bread of God’s word. We come to Jesus to be nourished by his word. The Father draws us to his Son to be fed by his word. The food of his word will sustain us on our journey through life, just as, in the first reading, the baked scones sustained Elijah, until he reached his destination, the mountain of God. When we keep coming to Jesus and feeding on his word, that word will shape our lives. It empowers us to live the kind of life that Saint Paul puts before us in this morning’s second reading, a life of love essentially, a life in which we love one another as Christ as loved us, forgive one another as readily as God forgives us. That, in essence, is our baptismal calling.

And/Or

(iv) Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

People of faith often say that they are angry with God when they have been hit with something that leaves them broken and drained. It might be an experience of illness which affects either themselves or a loved one, or some deep loss after the sudden death of a loved one. All sorts of dark and painful experiences can leave us feeling that God has abandoned us. We may feel that we have served God well and that God has let us down. We can barely face God in prayer. We struggle to go to church and, especially, to Mass. People of faith have always had these dark emotions towards God. Many of the psalms are prayers out of the depths of some dark experience that often reveal anger and confusion.

We find an example of such a prayer at the beginning of today’s first reading, on the lips of the great prophet, Elijah. He went into the wilderness and prayed, ‘Lord, I have had enough. Take my life’. Elijah is often portrayed in the Scriptures as the strong, fiery prophet, whose witness of God’s word made him powerful enemies. Yet, in our reading today, we find Elijah at a very vulnerable moment of his life. Everything is going against him. He is having a crisis of faith. The life has been drained out of him. All he wants to do is sleep. Even more preferable to sleep would be death. Yet, he does not keep these dark moods to himself. He speaks out of his inner darkness to God, even though it meant speaking to God in anger, expressing his deep disappointment with God. Prayer does not have to be polite. Genuine prayer is always real; it is always true to who we are. Elijah’s angry prayer kept the lines of communication to God open. In response to his heart-felt prayer, an angel of God touched him and invited him to get up and to eat. Elijah responded to this invitation, but promptly went back to sleep again. God was touching Elijah’s spirit but his mood was not going to change quickly. A further visit from one of God’s messengers, a further invitation to get up and eat, a further response from Elijah and he was finally on his feet once more and ready to face the journey that lay ahead.

We can all find ourselves in a similar situation to Elijah at some point in our lives. Life has a way of knocking the stuffing out of us, whether it is something distressing that happens to us or the way someone treats us or the sense we might have of our own personal failure. A withdrawal from life, in one form of another, can seem a tempting option. Today’s first reading reminds us that when we are in that wilderness space, we are not alone and we do not have to struggle alone. The Lord is with us, and we can turn to him even if it is in our anger and despair. If we share our darkness with the Lord, we will be opening ourselves up to the light of his sustaining love. Like Elijah, we can come to discover that his angel, his messenger, comes to us in our need, very often in the most ordinary of ways – a phone call, a visit from someone, an invitation to a meal or a cup of coffee. The Lord will not leave us alone; he will provide for us.

The Lord is especially present to us in and through the community of believers, the church. When we are at our lowest ebb, we need to put ourselves in the way of that community, even though that may be the very time when in our anger we are tempted to walk away. In the first reading, Elijah is told to get up and eat. In the gospel reading, Jesus declares himself to be the Bread of Life, the living bread come down from heaven. He wants to give us life; he is Bread broken for a broken people. He comes to us as Bread of life in and through the community of believers especially when we gather to listen to his Word and to receive the Eucharist. The power of the community of faith to sustain us in our wilderness moments is powerfully expressed through a story shared by Francis Van Thuan who was once archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City. For thirteen years he was imprisoned in North Vietnam, spending nine of those years in solitary confinement. On one occasion a copy of the New Testament was smuggled into the prison for all the Catholic prisoners. So that they could all share this gift of the Lord’s word, this Bread of Life, they ripped it into little sheets that were then distributed to everyone and each one memorized their sheet by heart. Every sunset, the prisoners took it in turn to recite aloud the part they had memorized. Van Thuan recalled that it was so moving to hear the Word of God in the silence and the darkness, recited with such strength of faith. No one could doubt the presence of the Lord in the Bread of his Word shared by this little community of believers

And/Or

(v) Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I remember reflecting together on a passage from the gospels with a little group in the Pro-Cathedral parish some years ago. We were talking about the place of the Holy Spirit in our lives. One of the women present, who was from the Pro-Cathedral parish said at one point, ‘the Holy Spirit is a great person, but you can’t discommode him’. I thought it was a great turn of phrase. I was reminded of that remark by the opening of today’s second reading, ‘Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God’. Paul goes on to spell out what not grieving the Holy Spirit entails. It means not having grudges against others, not losing our temper with them, not calling others names, not acting towards them out of spite, forgiving others as readily as God forgives us, and loving them in the way Christ loved us all by giving himself up on the cross for us. As I reflected on that reading it struck me that it makes for a rather challenging review of life.

The way of life that Paul outlines may even seem beyond us. How can we possibly love one another as Christ has loved us? Perhaps the gospel reading this Sunday points us in the direction of an answer to that question. Left to ourselves, we cannot live in the way Paul outlines. It is only through our communion with the Lord that we can live in this way. When Jesus says in the gospel reading, ‘I am the bread of life’, he is inviting us to keep nourishing ourselves through our contact with him. If we are to live the life that Paul portrays, life according to the Spirit, we need to keep nourishing ourselves spiritually through our constant coming to the Lord in faith. Having declared himself to be ‘the bread of life’, Jesus goes to say that ‘the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world’. When we hear that word ‘flesh’, we might think spontaneously of the Eucharist, calling to mind perhaps Jesus’ remark about the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood, which we find in next Sunday’s gospel reading. However, in today’s gospel reading, the ‘flesh’ of Jesus refers to his whole life. In the opening chapter of John’s gospel, we have that profound statement, ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. ‘Flesh’ there refers to the full reality of Jesus’ life, his whole story. Jesus is saying in today’s gospel reading that his flesh, his whole life, all he said and did, is bread of life, given for the life of the world. We are invited to nourish ourselves spiritually on the whole wonderful mystery of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. In nourishing ourselves spiritually on all the Lord said and did for us, we will be empowered to live in the way that Paul outlines in today’s second reading. Such life according to the Spirit is a way of life that is true to what is best in us; it is a way of life that is worthy of our dignity as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Christ.

We can sometimes think that we know the story of Jesus, that we are familiar with all that Jesus said and did. Yet, none of us ever really fully plumbs the depths of the richness that is Jesus. We can always return to his words, his deeds, his life, death and resurrection, and experience them afresh, as fresh bread for our souls. There is always more to the Lord than we realize. In the gospel reading, some of Jesus’ contemporaries thought that they knew Jesus well. ‘Surely’, they said, ‘this is Jesus son of Joseph. We know his father and mother’. It can be tempting to think that if we know someone’s parents, we know them. Yet, none of us can be fully understood on the basis of knowing our parents, or our grandparents, because we are each a unique image of God. It was true to an even greater of Jesus that he could not be fully understood on his basis of knowing his parents, because, although he was the son of Mary and Joseph, in a more fundamental sense, he was the Son of God. None of us ever knows Jesus fully; there is always more to be discovered. We can always return to the gospels, the story of his life, death and resurrection, and be nourished anew. When we go there, it is never the same meal. It is a fresh meal for our spirits every time. We can all feel a little bit like Elijah in the first reading. Elijah’s faith had been put to the test by other people’s hostility towards his message. He fled into the wilderness and asked God to take his life. Like Elijah, our own faith is often put to the test, especially in these times. There can be many reasons for discouragement. However, to give in to discouragement would be to grieve the Holy Spirit in the words of the second reading. The Lord will always provide for us, as he provided for Elijah. He says to us what he says to him, ‘Get up and eat’. He is always offering himself as the bread of life, as food for the journey, so that we can keep walking in the way of the Spirit.

And/Or

(vi) Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We are all prone to discouragement from time to time. Many of us probably found ourselves feeling discouraged during the lockdown. We were all impacted negatively by it in various ways. At times, it was just hard to keep going, especially for those who lost jobs or, even worse, loved ones to the pandemic. At any time in life, we can feel disheartened, discouraged, dispirited. Sometimes we can feel very discouraged without really knowing why. We are just very aware that our energy levels are low and that our enthusiasm for life has drained away. We seem to be dragging ourselves along. Joy seems to elude us.

Even people of strong faith can get discouraged, disconsolate. Elijah was one of the great prophets of Israel; a man of strong faith who proclaimed God’s word fearlessly, as he tackled the pagan gods of his day. Yet, in today’s first reading we find him deeply discouraged. He abandons his mission in life and heads into the wilderness. He opts out. Elijah had experienced great hostility to his mission from Jezebel, the pagan wife of the king of Israel. Her opposition discouraged him to the point where he wished he were dead. After a day’s journey into the wilderness, he lies down under a furze bush and cries out to God, ‘Lord, I have had enough. Take my life’. When we find ourselves in a dark place, we need to express how we are feeling to someone. If there is no one around we feel we can trust with our dark feelings, Elijah shows us that we can at least express how we feel to God. Elijah’s prayer was a prayer out of the depths. It was real prayer, because it was true to who Elijah was at that time. He was completely honest with God. When I was in primary school, we learned from the catechism that prayer was the lifting up of the mind and heart to God. Elijah lifted up his heart to God; he poured out the dark feelings that were in his heart before God. The Lord wants us to be ourselves when we pray. In prayer we can trust the Lord with whatever is going on in our lives. When we entrust ourselves honestly to the Lord in prayer, he will respond to our heartfelt prayer, as he responded to Elijah’s prayer.  

Initially, Elijah sought refuge from the dire situation in which he found himself by going to sleep. We can all be tempted to take to the bed when life is difficult. Yet, what ultimately enabled Elijah to keep going was not sleep, but what the first reading calls, ‘an angel of the Lord’. This was the Lord’s response to Elijah’s prayer. This messenger from the Lord touched Elijah and brought him very simple provisions, a baked scone and a jar of water. Yet, these simple resources enabled Elijah to journey on, until he reached his destination, which was the mountain of God. In response to Elijah’s prayer, the Lord provided for him in the wilderness. In our own wilderness times, the Lord will also provide for us, if we entrust ourselves to him, inviting him to give us the strength we do not have in ourselves. He will say to us what he said to Elijah, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you’. God drew close to Elijah in his hour of need. God has drawn close to each one of us and continues to do so, in a way that Elijah could never have imagined. God has drawn close to us in his Son, Jesus, who, as risen Lord, promised to be with us until the end of time. God the Father gave us his Son as food for the journey of life. That is why Jesus speaks of himself in the gospel reading as ‘the bread of life’, as ‘the living bread that comes down from heaven’. When God sent his Son into the world, he was saying to us, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you’.

We need physical food to get through the day, but we need spiritual food to get through life, and God has given us Jesus as bread of life. The whole of Jesus’ life from birth to death and resurrection, all he says and does, has the power to nourish us deeply, to keep us going when all else fails. Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us, but we can sometimes fail to appreciate this gift, to really believe that God has been so generous with us. In the gospel reading, when Jesus offered himself to people as God’s bread of life who could satisfy their deepest hunger, some people complained, asking, ‘How could this Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, have come down from heaven?’ They were asking, ‘How could someone like ourselves be the messenger of God?’ Yet, Jesus was so much more than God’s messenger. He was God in human form, Emmanuel, God with us. He was and remains the very embodiment of God’s life, who, as bread of life, stands ready to enliven us, when the shadow of death falls over us. Jesus is present to us as bread of life, especially in those wilderness places of our lives that seem devoid of life.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[fr-martin-gospel-reflections]

11th August - ‘I am the bread of life’, Reflection on the readings for Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (John 6:41-51)

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We can all have the experience of thinking we know someone really well and then coming to realize that we didn’t really know them at all. Our way of seeing one another can be quite limited. What we see in someone can be a great deal less than what is there. What others see in us can also be much less than what is there. We can be labelled on the basis of some past experience people had of us and we are never allowed to move on from that labell.

This was the experience of Jesus in today’s gospel reading. Many people thought they knew him well, ‘Surely, this is Jesus son of Joseph? We know his father and mother’. Yet, there was much more to Jesus than being the son of Joseph and Mary; he was also the Son of God. He was the Word who was with God in the beginning, who was God, and who became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth. He may have come from his parents’ home in Nazareth, but, more fundamentally, he came down from his Father in heaven. He speaks of himself in our gospel reading as ‘the bread of life that came down from heaven’. He came from God into our world to nourish us with his presence, to feed us with his word and his teaching, and also by all that he did, by his life, death and resurrection. He came to satisfy the deepest hungers of our heart, our hunger for love and acceptance, for forgiveness, for meaning and purpose, for happiness and joy, for beauty and truth. There was so much more to Jesus than people realized. He was more than just the son of Joseph and Mary. There is always more to Jesus than we realize.

He is among us today as Bread of Life, feeding the deepest hungers of our heart. That is why he is always calling out to us to come to him. He has so much to give us, but we have to come to him if we are to receive it. Jesus says in the gospel reading that our coming to him is always in response to God our Father drawing us to him. ‘No one can come to me’, he says, ‘unless drawn by the Father who sent me’. God the Father is always drawing us to his Son and our calling is to allow ourselves to be drawn by God. When I was a child, I loved to play with a magnet and some nails, and to see how the magnet drew the nails to itself As I moved the magnet closer to the nails, they would jump towards the magnet. God draws us towards his Son in whom he is fully present. Our coming to Jesus is always in response to being drawn. We just need to surrender to God’s drawing power. God doesn’t wait for us to be morally good to draw us to his Son. God is always drawing us to his Son regardless of how we have been in the past or how we are in the present, because God knows that it is only when we come close to his Son, when we entrust ourselves to him, that we will be empowered to change for the better. God draws us to his Son so that our spirits, our hearts and minds, can be nourished by his Son who is Bread of Life for the world. The risen Lord who is God-with-us draws us to himself so that he can feed us with his loving presence. He once said, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’.

We all need the Lord to nurture us with his loving presence on the journey of life. We cannot go it alone. In the first reading, Elijah discovered that he couldn’t go it alone. He was journeying towards Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, but on the way, he lost the energy to keep going. All he wanted to do was sleep. As we journey towards the heavenly mountain of God, we too can lose heart. The struggles and disappointments of life can leave us feeling drained. When Elijah was at his lowest ebb, God sent an angel to give him the sustenance he needed to keep going until he reached his destination. God has sent us so much more than an angel to enable us to keep going when the journey becomes too much for us. God sent us his Son as Bread of Life and God is constantly at work drawing us to his Son, our risen Lord. God invites us, in the words of today’s psalm, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’. The risen Lord, in his goodness, journeys with us, and if we come to him in response to God drawing us, we will discover him to be food for the journey, not perishable food, but food that endures to eternal life. In the words of the psalm, ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’, ‘Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life’. The Lord wants to feed us with his loving presence, so that we, in turn, can be bread of life for each other, God’s angel or messenger to those who are finding life’s journey a struggle.

[albertfinch]

Praying The Psalms – 23

Jesus, make me the object of your compassion as I give thanks to Your holy name and glory in Your Praise -- blessed be Your Name. (Psalm 106:46-48)

Your Word, O Lord, leads me by a straight way as your lovingkindness is everlasting for the redeemed, always delivering me out of my distresses.  (Psalm 107:1,2,6,7)

I am no longer a prisoner of misery and chains because You, O Lord, satisfy my hungry heart and soul with the goodness and power of your Word.  (Psalm 107:9,10)

I dwell in the fruitful land of my calling in Christ and plant vineyards that will yield a fruitful harvest.  (Psalm 107:35,37)

My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing praises with my soul and give thanks for the truth of Your Word.  (Psalm 108:1,3,4)

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth -- your salvation and holiness are mine.  (Psalm 108:5-7)

I advance in God's purpose for my life and am an overcomer as I forge ahead and bear fruit for Your Kingdom, O Lord.  (Psalm108:12,13)

With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord for standing at my right hand when I am needy and in the midst of unbelievers I will praise Him.  (Psalm 109:30,31)

l give thanks to the Lord Jesus with all my heart -- splendid and majestic is His finished work of the cross and His righteousness endures forever.  (Psalm 111:1,3)

Jesus has made known to His followers the power of His works, giving them a example of the power of His ministry through them. (Psalm 111:6)

Why Pray the Psalms?

If you will pray and meditate daily in the Psalms and let God's Word get in your heart, this will open a whole new gateway of encounters with the Lord, and you will become like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth fruit in their season

       Why pray the Psalm scriptures out loud? 

It is hard to think about something other than what you are talking about.  Praying out loud the scriptures solves the problem of the wandering mind.  -- spoken words speak to the soul and have the power of raising thoughts in the soul. The Psalm scriptures speak of God in the Highest manner which most fully expresses the power and presence of God.

Strong's definition for "meditate" - HAGAH (Greek) - means to imagine.  First pray the scripture out loud -- then pray the scripture back to God.  This prayer can be the prayer of thanksgiving, supplication, or praying the greatness of God and the benefits of God.

The first thing that you are to do when you are upon your knees, is to shut your eyes, and with a short silence let your soul place itself in the presence of God.

When you direct any of your petitions to Jesus let it be: thou art the radiance of thy Father's glory.  Thou art the Alpha and Omega,  The beginning and the end of all things:  Thou has destroyed the power of the devil and hast overcome death.

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

[wisdomfish]

The Substitute

God’s perfectly holy, righteous, and just character demanded that he punish sin, hence sinners, appropriately. In order for sinful human beings to avoid such eternal condemnation God expressed his loving-kindness and chose to punish a fully adequate substitute― exclusively, Jesus Christ―thus allowing sinners to receive mercy.

On the cross Jesus Christ, the willing substitute, became the object of God’s just wrath against sin making it a certainty that the redemption of man clearly came at God’s expense. And like many Christian doctrines, the atonement contains considerable divine mystery. The truth about Christ's sacrifice on the cross is inexhaustible through human reflection. Nevertheless, let's look at some biblical word pictures surrounding the "atonement," with help from Shai Linne;

Regeneration: the Holy Spirit's true work in His love to the elect, who receive new birth from above. Expiation: means God's removed my filthiness Ohe old testament type was the goat into the wilderness. Redemption: we've been freed from slavery to sin and His very own blood is the price He paid, my friend. Propitiation: means since the Lamb has died His work is finished- God's wrath is satisfied. Adoption- means God is now my Father I got the hottest Poppa and by the Spirit holler Abba. Reconciliation: means there's no more enmity God is now a friend to me, and we're no longer enemies. Justification: God declares us righteous. Sanctification: we're being made into His likeness. Glorification: that's what happens at the finish when God conforms believers perfectly to Christ's image!

God's grace is magnificent, He slayed His innocent Son- through faith and repentance we get the benefits.

What is faith? Faith is a gift from God- when we receive this we trust and treasure the person and finished work of Jesus. What is Repentance? Repentance is turning from your sin and trusting Christ as the Spirit cleanses you within. What is grace? Oh, grace is unmerited favor, our inheritance major, 'cause we cherish the Savior.

Right, and if I may quote again, we were doomed with Satan but believers get Jesus' righteousness through imputation.

What is Imputation? God takes Jesus' righteousness amount through faith he credits it into the Christian's account.

Anything else? Well, I guess this overview must suffice but none of this is possible apart from union with Christ.

And finally, once you know the ways of the Lord then the only thing that you can say is Soli Deo Gloria!

The solution to man's greatest problem, the sin that separates a person from God, is found in the perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection of the God-man, Jesus Christ. God's perfect love and justice meet together for all to see in the atonement. As the apostle, John declared:

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [1 John 4:10]

~ Samples, Kenneth Richard. ‘Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions

[tears-that-heal]

Do we seriously think we can recognize Satan by looks alone??? Media illustrates differently….

Is this him? No.

What about this one?

No.

How about this?

Definitely not.

This one?

Nope.

Maybe this one???

Not Even Close.

This image is furthest from the truth, too.

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭11‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.”

“I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings. You defiled your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire out from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All who knew you are appalled at your fate. You have come to a terrible end, and you will exist no more.””

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭28‬:‭14‬-‭19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Satan wants all of us to be hoodwinked by the images of him with horns, red skin, goat faced or etc. because we won’t take him serious and put our guard down. Giving us a false sense of security and thinking we’re in control. He knows all too well to leer us in with promises of milk & honey; prosperity and happiness or whatever we most desire. It’s all empty promises.

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus’ words to His disciples…

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

That’s exactly Satan’s ultimate desire and goal….Steal, Kill and Destroy Everything. No joke.

If Jesus hadn’t died on that Cross, Our own deaths will be eternally final. Thank you Jesus for fulfilling God’s Will, and by your innocent blood reforged our bond with our Heavenly Father. 💖

(All Images found on Pinterest)

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬