St. Michael’s RCIA

The Lord is Kind and Merciful

Third Sunday of Lent

Wed., March 14, 2007
***Session also included presentation of the Creed***

 

 

On first two Sundays of Lent, focus is on important events in life of Christ:

Ø      First Sunday - Temptation in the desert

Ø      Second Sunday - Transfiguration on the mountaintop

 

Next three Sundays, each year cycle (A-B-C) has its own theme. This year is Year C, so:

Ø      Third Sunday (this week’s topic) – Penance and reconciliation (our merciful and forgiving God patiently calls us to conversion)

Ø      Fourth Sunday – Experience of reconciliation (as expressed in the story of the Prodigal Son)

Ø      Fifth Sunday – New life made possible by God’s forgiveness (as shown in Christ’s words to the woman caught in adultery)

 

Jesus’s call to repentance was central to his preaching and his ministry. “Good news” of that call is that we have a God who does forgive, who welcomes our repentance and sends us a savior to offer personally the gift of reconciliation.

 

 

This week’s readings:

Ø      Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Our God, who is filled with compassion and who has acted in the history of people time and again, now wishes to come down to rescue his people and will remain with them for all generations. When we begin to recognize and know God and come face-to-face with the Great Mystery, we’re drawn to it – to Him – the way Moses was drawn to the burning bush.

 

Ø      1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Paul makes an important point about spiritual realities in the Exodus event prefiguring our Christian experience. Passage through the Red Sea foreshadows baptism, and “manna” can be seen as a type of Eucharist.

Yet God’s hand in leading the Israelites from Egypt did not keep the Israelites from being “struck down in the desert” because of their sinfulness.

By bringing this up to the Corinthians, Paul is reminding them that despite the salvation they have received/experiences in the sacraments, they must undergo constant conversion lest they perish like the Israelites of old. Doing away with the presumption that the sacraments – especially baptism and Eucharist – guaranteed salvation regardless of behavior. We’re on a constant, lifelong journey to the promised land of heaven.

 

Ø      Luke 13:1-9
Gospel story of the fig tree is important in two ways:
1. Stresses urgency of repentance
2. Shows the patience of God as he calls us to conversion

 

The Lord is Kind and Merciful: God’s Nature Revealed

 

Catholicism believes that something of God’s nature has been revealed to us through:

  1. God’s actions in history as chronicled in the pages of Sacred Scripture; His faithfulness to the promises first made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saving their “descendents” from slavery and bondage
  2. Jesus Christ, the full revelation of a God who is merciful and forgiving. The only Son of God, the Savior, epitomizes divine mercy and kindness

 

The loving God is always ready to forgive even though time and again the “covenant” is broken. He keeps up His end of His covenant with us, but we continually break ours.

Through Jesus our Lord and Savior, our Father in heaven bound Himself even more closely to the human family by a bond that can be never be broken. (John 3:16.)

 

God’s healing mercy gathers us together as the Church, forgives us our sins, and brings us salvation and faith.

 

If you imagine ourselves and God holding opposite ends of the string, every time we sin (break our end of the covenant) the string is cut. But God lets us tie the string back together again. Each time the string is cut, it gets shorter and shorter, pulling us closer to the Lord.

 

 

**CCC 198-421: I believe in God the Father.

CC for Adults: Chapters 5 (I believe in God) and 6 (man and woman in the beginning)**

 

“I believe in God the Father…”

 

  1. God is Holy Mystery. A truth to be revered. It is a reality too rich to be fully grasped by our minds. He is present yet remains hidden, and He has revealed Himself to us throughout the history of our salvation, marked by many loving deeds, faith and forgiveness and ultimately experienced through his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
  2. The Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit includes three truths of faith.
    1. The Trinity is one. Each of the persons is fully God. They are a unity of persons in one divine nature.
    2. The divine persons are distinct from each other – each fully God, but three identifiable persons.
    3. The divine persons are seen in relation to each other. The distinction of each is understood only in reference to the others.
  3. Creator of Heaven and Earth
    1. God created the world out of His wisdom and love, not the result of complete chance or randomness.
    2. God made the universe out of nothing. The world is not a part of God or made from pre-existing substance. But the world depends on God for its existence; creation is sustained in existence by God’s providence.
    3. Creation reflects God’s goodness and wisdom.

 

Divine providence

 

God has absolute sovereignty over all that he has made and guides His creation to the divine plan of his will. He guides creation and humanity to the fullness of His truth, goodness and beauty.

 

So, then, why does evil exist? God did not create a perfect world. As intelligent and free creatures, both angels and humans must make their way to their ultimate destinations by using their intellect and will to make free choices. The choice is to love God or love something else (moral evils). God permits moral evil in part out of respect for the gift of freedom. But God’s response to moral evil is an even greater act of love through sending His Son who offers His life to bring us closer to God.

 

Man and woman in the beginning

 

Created in God’s image:

Ø      God’s image is a dynamic source of inner spiritual energy drawing our minds and hearts toward truth and love and to God Himself, the source of all truth and love.

Ø      God’s image includes other specific qualities: Capable of self-knowledge and of entering into communion with other persons through self-giving.

The fall:

Ø      Original sin: We, as heirs to Adam and Eve, experience the effects of original sin in our daily lives. This explains why it is so difficult to always do good and always do exactly what we should.

Ø      Original sin is a deprivation, a loss of the original holiness and righteousness with which our first parents were created

Ø      It leaves us in a world that is subject to suffering and death, as well as an environment in which the accumulated sin and failings of others disturb peace and order.

Ø      It underlies all other sins and causes our own natural powers of knowing and loving to be wounded. We are subject to ignorance, which makes it difficult for us to know the truth, and for some, even to believe that truth exists. We also endure suffering and death and have a disorder in our appetites and an inclination to sin (concupiscence). And because sin alienates us from each other, it weakens our ability to live fully Christ’s commandment of love for one another.

Ø      Sin = an abuse of the freedom that God has given to all created persons. It is not a weakness we can overcome on our own. It is a condition from which we need to be saved by Christ Jesus, our savior. And the Lord’s kindness and mercy make this possible.

 

 

QUESTIONS: Class had many questions on the presence of evil and why bad things happen, as well as about the sacrament of reconciliation. Father Ed and others explained the process of the sacrament of reconciliation and what to expect, both at the Holy Week reconciliation service (Tuesday evening of Holy Week) and going forward. The questions about the presence of evil – such as, “Why would God let someone get cancer?” – are not easily answered and refer back to the notes above about God not creating a perfect world. Father Ed also talked about our own human faults – bad decisions often cause bad consequences. He also talked about it being unexplainable, how we have to turn it over to God and pray that He helps us see and understand. To truly believe in God we must also believe in him during hard times. The questions continued at Sunday’s dismissal catechesis, and Michael Fetsko had an interesting perspective: There are certain aspects of our faith that relate to the “Divine Mystery.” Things that our minds aren’t capable of grasping. These kinds of tragic events which seem so senseless to us on this Earth are related to this.