Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God

"Fast Fridays" are a weekly gathering by videoconference for reminder that God is in our life -- even on a Friday evening!. We will take thirty minutes on early Friday evenings to refresh, enliven and re-dedicate ourselves to God.

It is "fast" because we will spend no more than 30 minutes, and because your host fasts on Fridays. We fast on Fridays to recognize the absence of God on Good Friday.

Note:

• The discussions are not catechism; but they will be led by my experience and point of view as a Catholic.
• The discussions are not apologetics -- we're not here to argue or defend one belief or another; we are here to celebrate the faith we bring to one another

Please join us!

For list of other topics we may review, go to the Discussion page here Talk: Fast Fridays

Friday, Aug 9: Confirmation bias

We will think over what it means to be "childlike" in terms of being believing, which as we encountered over the last two weeks forms the basis of a child.

Friday, Aug 2: "Childlike" (Matthew 11:25)

Continuing with the idea of "Our Father" as well as Matthew 11 and Luke 10, we will discuss the what it means to be "childlike" -- i.e. to have a father.

When approaching Scripture, we quickly encounter the limits of reason. For example, Matthew 11:25 has confounded me:

At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike." (Mt 11:25)

Without trying to be ironic, it makes no sense to me that only the "childlike" can see God. Well, if it says it, it says it, and we just have to go with it -- we can call these the "mysteries". However, we mustn't surrender reason. Stay at it, try to understand, for the more powerful our reason, the stronger our faith.

Using the Two Wings of Truth: Reason and Faith

See Two Wings of Truth: gifts of faith and reason

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves - Saint Pope John Paul II

DNA / Reproduction

• DNA teaches us the nature and purpose of reproduction: maintaining the health of the species; self-correction of mutation; encoding inherent knowledge and/or behaviors
  • Socrates on reincarnation: The Slave Boy Experiment in Plato's 'Meno' (thoughtco.com)
    • he understood innate knowledge ("all learning is recollection")
    • but could not explain it other than through reincarnation
  • DNA carries knowledge across generations

"childlike"

• What "childlike" faith is: trusting, loving, in awe of, obedient
• What "childlike" faith is not: unthinking, simplistic, unlearned, unwise

The way to understand Matthew 11:25 is that "childlike" doesn't mean simplistic, unthinking, it means having a father. The implications of accepting a father are huge! See my post on Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25 for some views of what it means to accept the Father.

Note: Christ is Son of God; we are God's adopted children

• does that make sense?
• let your Wing of Faith fly on that one!

Prodigal children

Childlike
believing
trusting
adoring
faithful

Tempted by the snake, Adam and Eve gave up our inheritance as children of God, so, like the Prodigal Son, we must come back groveling to the Father.

• Prodigal son:
  • he wanted the inheritance now
  • he looked at the now and not at the eternal
  • he partied it up: me, me, me
  • destitution broke his pride and he returned in humilty
  • reasonably, he

Friday, July 26: the Living God

Friday, July 26, we discussed the idea of a "Living God" -- we take it for granted today that our God is "living" and "personal" -- these are not obvious concepts to the ancient world, for whom the notion of "Our Father" was unthinkable. (Even some modern religions find the idea of a "living" and "personal" God abhorrent.)

The "living God" is expressed in the "Jesus prayer," which was used similarly to today's Rosary prayers as a meditative prayer. In fact, beads were used to count recitations of the Jesus prayer, which might be recited 100 times or more at a time.

The "Jesus prayer"

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

"The living God"

• what a "living God" is not:
  • an object or statue
  • ritualism and superstition
    • those are forms of idolatry, which means placement of anything above God.
• what a "living God" is:
  • present
  • personal

When we kneel before an altar, or pray with a Cross, it is not idolatrous, as we are praying to a representation of the living God and not an object which is seen as a god unto itself. (The Eucharist and transubstantiation is different, but we did not discuss that.)

Our Father

• contemplating "Our Father"

We discussed how, when Jesus gave us the "Our Father" prayer he was changing our relationship to God, instructing us that we, collectively, have a Father in Heaven, and we are his children if we so choose.

To the ancient world, the notion that God was "the Father" was shocking. The "Desert Fathers and Mothers" were early Christians who escaped worldly attentions to live in isolated prayer in the lands outside of Alexandria, Egypt, and in the Holy Lands. One Desert Mother was so firmly moved by the notion of "Our Father," that should would spend three days sobbing in gratitude and wonder over those two words -- and she could never make it through the Our Father prayer!

Btw, here for the "Seven petitions" in the Our Father prayer. (Protestants refer to it as "Lord's Prayer": it is the same.)

Christ reveals the Father

Matthew 11:25-27

At that time Jesus said in reply,* “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.

Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

Luke 10:21-22

At that very moment he rejoiced [in] the holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

We had a wonderful first Fast Fridays! discussion. Thank you so much for attending, and for thoughtful, inspirational discussion. Michael blew it on one thing: we didn't open or close with prayer! That will happen going forward.