Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God
Welcome to "Fast Fridays," weekly gathering by videoconference for reminder that God is in our life -- even on a Friday evening.
We will take thirty minutes Fridays 6:00-6:30 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, Michael Bromley, fasts on Fridays.
- 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;
- The discussions are not catechism; but they will be led by my experience and point of view as a Catholic, as well as to draw from the Catechism of the Catholic Church;
- Here for where the idea came from: Fast Fridays: How it got started;
- Fasting serves as a penance for sins, reminder of our dependance upon God, and to "help us acquire mastery over our instincts" (CCC 2043).
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God bless, and I hope you will join us!
- Michael
Friday, Sept 27: "Religion is the opium of the people" (or nothing new under the sun?)
Marx was an idiot. He was also troubled, drunk, ambitious, and fearful.
Humans don't like change, and like the infamous Luddites, who wrote threatening letters to factory owners signed "Ned Ludd" for a mythical weaver, Marx couldn't stand for the rapid, albeit bewildering changes in English society of the early- mid-19th century. Either that, or he saw personal advantage in them. Likely both.
Unlike the Luddites, however, Marx left the street protests and raids to others, who only went on to kill upwards 100 million people in his name. Unlike the real Ned Ludd, who as kid went into a fit of anger at being accused of idleness and smashed his knitting frames -- or, another story had it, smashed his needles to bits after his father told him to "square his needles" (Ned Ludd - Wikipedia), Marx wrote radical tracts, underwritten by a mill owner, Fredrich Engels, who didn't suffer from the Luddite movement, which had been crushed before the German Engels, a whoremonger, btw, who inherited all his money, took over a mill in Manchester.
Engels and Marx correctly worried, as did Dickens, who also profited from it, the conditions of the working class in industrial England. Dickens, though, sold his books to the growing middle class -- growing from rising incomes, not the other way around-- and who turned the industrial revolution into cottages, professions, education, and improved living conditions. The short of it is such: Marx, Engels and their later followers all thought -- hoped -- the communist revolution would occur in industrialized Britain or France, which of course, would have none of it, as factory workers were making money and the rising middle class (the dreaded "bourgeoisie") was having a time of it all. Those revolutions did occur, but only in nations that, instead, lacked a vibrant, healthy middle class: namely, Russia and China and their client states, in whom they destroyed the middle class.
The impatient and frustrated seek to blame obstacles for impeding their will. Marx blamed the bourgeoisie for externally obstructing the great proletariat uprising and religion for sedating proletariat anger, thus his infamous "opium of the masses" rant, which went as follows:
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
Well, then. Marx: 1, God: 0 -- ?
Maybe not. We will discuss how our faith does not intoxicate, but uplifts; does not replace our pain, but refocuses it upon the Cross; does not excuse or justify suffering, but admits of it; and how our faith does not reflect our lives, but instead makes our lives.
We will start today with one of the best-known passages from Scripture, Eccl 3:1-15, "There is a time for..." The passage has been used in popular songs, just about every funeral, and as a lame excuse for murder (yes, there is a time for that, too). The quick read is that God not we are in control and whatever we have, good or bad, is a "gift of God" (verse 14). The first section of the poem ends,
Thus has God done that he may be revered. What now is has already been; what is to be, already is: God retrieves what has gone by.
Whatever popular culture assumes of the poem, Christ teaches (he always extends the OT!) to "glorify your heavenly father" (Mt. 5:16). As the paralytic picked up his mat and walked off "glorifying God" (Lk 5:25): so must we -- no matter in joy or sadness.
Friday, Sept 20: Typology and Salvation History
Carrying on from last week, we will review the concept of "typology" and apply it more directly to the "History of Salvation" -- aka God's plan for salvation.
The omniscient, omnipotent God created all things from love. His greatest act of love was to give us (and the angels) free will, for there is no love if it is not willed. But what is not willed as love is its opposite, thus while not creating evil, God necessarily allows it.
Since the exercise of free will necessitates the possibility of poor choice, God knows we will make poor choices. He thereby established a way towards redemption from those poor choices, which fallen mankind cannot recover from by himself. We call this "God's plan for salvation."
The plan includes Covenant blessings and curses, designed to guide us, inform us, and correct us back to him. After the false starts of Adam and Eve, and of Noah, in choosing Abram, God imprinted his chosen people with the rules and paths for redemption. They screw it up, of course. Constantly. But God never gives up, and sending prophets for guidance and to set anticipation for the only possible act of redemption, the sacrifice of God's only son, the only unblemished lamb.
The "types" of the Old Testament mark this path towards Jesus, who completes God's plan for salvation. We will review the History of Salvation and see how the Old Testament Types lead us to greater appreciation of Jesus Christ.
This week we worked mostly on the notions of the Trinity and how in Creation the Father sent for ("proceeds from") the Son to accomplish the Plan of Salvation. So much here to discuss! We wrapped it back into Salvation History and how the
For a quick run through Salvation History see Isaiah 53 and Wisdom 2:13-24. Prepare the mind for a blowout...
Friday, Sept 13: Typology
What do we Christians make of the Old Testament? There are various approaches to it across denominations, but there can be only one basic understanding, which comes from the Lord himself in Matthew 5:17:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."
Much to discuss there, especially given the larger context of the verse in the Beatitudes. However we can take directly from it the notion of "typology" -- that the Old Testament "prefigures" Christ who "fulfills" it. Saint Augustine has been quoted or paraphrased with the brilliant observation,
The New is hidden in the Old, and the Old is revealed by the New.
That is to say, when we read the Old Testament, we are reading a preview of the Gospel, which reveals the true meaning of the Old Testament. Here we run into a huge issue for those who lived through the Old Covenant: what did they really experience? What were they supposed to believe?
God's "Plan of Salvation" answers this question. He chose Abraham to establish the people by whom that plan would play out. He didn't choose them because they were special; they were special because he chose them. And, of course, like Adam and as Adam's descendants, the screwed it up constantly, all the while revealing through God's agents, the way he wants us to live, and how to get there, which is fully and finally revealed in Christ.
We will review a few examples of New Testament ("New Covenant") fulfillment, starting, as we touched upon briefly on Sept 6, with Christ as the New Adam.
Something to consider is why does God need to "reveal" himself at all? Why not just tell it straight? Therein we have the problems of free will, the Fall, the limits of reason, and our inherent concupiscence. When God chose Abraham, he gave him only that information Abraham could process, because God needs not our fullest comprehension but our fullest faith.
Besides, we're dumb, full of ourselves, and slow to change - - stiff of neck and hard of heart. God reveals out of our necessity not his.
Friday, Sept 6: Intercession
Does God listen to us only if we ask him directly? Can we ask him to help someone else? Can we ask someone else to ask God to help us? Can we ask someone else to ask him to help someone else?
"Intercession" may be a topic of dispute among Christian sects, but we know from Scripture that asking the Lord for help for ourselves and others is not only possible, but desirable.
We will explore the Scriptural sources for the various types of intercessions available to us, as well as our personal stories of intercession and fulfillment of it.
Our principal focus of discussion was this page, Intercession. We started off reviewing the exchange between Jesus and Mary at Cana, the occasion of Jesus' first public miracle. Points on this are on the "Intercession" page, but the most important for us is that someone took the problem of running out of wine to Mary who took it to Jesus. Jesus would have known already that they were running out of wine, but he waited until someone asked someone else who asked him -- and then that someone else (his mother...) tells the others what to do ("Do whatever he says" Jn 2:5).
We discussed briefly that there's much here in Catholic theology about Mary as the "Mediatrix" -- literally the medium by which the Lord became man, intercession at Cana, at the foot of the Cross and at Pentecost, etc. (and so much more), but for our discussion about intercession the Wedding at Cana is a perfect example.
We also reviewed Gospel examples of direct intercession to Jesus (Simon's mother in law, instructions in Pauls' Epistles, especially Heb 7:25). We did not discuss, but I will add here that there is another magnificent example of the Son's intercession to the Father on our behalf in "The Prayer of Jesus" in John 17 -- in fact, all of John 17 is a prayer of intercession to the Father by the Son on behalf of the Apostles and believers in Christ.
We then reviewed personal stories of intercession and prayer to God on behalf of others. It is real, and it is powerful.
Finally, we discussed Justin's document (not posted here) on “Travaileth Prayer”. I shared the document with participants and these observations on "travail":
A first question is, what is a “Travaileth Prayer”? From the word “travail,” which is French for “work,” but in English carries the connotation of suffering in work.
We find the word “travail” in Scripture frequently in the KJV translation, especially in the Old Testament. It appears only once in the Gospels, in John 16:21:
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
My NABRE uses “labor” as in Jn 16:21:
When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world
Revelation also mentions the pains, or travails, of birth (Rev 12:2):
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
As does Job 39:1:
Do you know when mountain goats are born, or watch for the birth pangs of deer
In the OT, the coming of the Messiah is illustrated frequently through birth pains. So God wants us to associate travail with birth, both literally and figuratively, and, as always, towards the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. This is why in John 16:21, Jesus refers to the “hour” of birth which brings pain and subsequent joy.
What Justin has wonderfully done here is to bring up this notion of travail and the pains and joys of birth as we pray, with St. Paul’s teachings, for our friends and family to open their hearts and minds to the Lord.
We also discussed briefly something that David had emailed after the prior week about how one's struggles with the devil is not external but an internal fight. And so it has been from the beginning of the fallen world, when Adam, priest, prophet and king, fails his duty as king by allowing the serpent into the garden in the first place.
Friday, Aug 30: Staying faithful in a sinful world
While struggling to avoid sin in ourselves, here we are living in a world that not only denies God but forces its godless ways upon us. How do we navigate our faith when sin is at every corner?
See this homily on the Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist (Mk 6:17-29, reading starts min. 16:00) by Fr. Kevin Dansereau from Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic church in Fredericksburg, VA. Some notes:
- Herod cared more about saving face in front of the court than doing the right thing
- Herodius leads others to temptation and sin, the reverse of John the Baptist, who led others to Christ
- John was martyred for defending marriage
- like the Diocese patron Saint Thomas More, he stood up for the truth
- sin wants us to compromise our faith
- asked Thomas More just to sign a piece of paper, not a big deal
- people love the Church as long as we stay quiet
- it is our time now to stand up for the truth, marriage, life
- to have courage
- to care more about truth than the crowds
- Herod got acclaim and applause, but handed over his soul
- we need to be strong witnesses and not just buddies
- try to get them to heaven
- they will get mad
- but they will be grateful from heaven
- true freedom as children of God, free from sin.
We discussed the world around us, which threw us each into a reflective moment of where we are, who is around us, and how do we get past its temptations, diversions, and deviations from the Lord.
Justin, the youngest among us, recommended prayer.
And this leads to our next topic: intercession.
Friday, Aug 23: Avoiding Sin
Last Friday we defined sin as "separation from God." Given so, then avoidance of sin requires proximity with God.
Jesus teaches us how to avoid sin:
The "occasion of sin"
In the Beatitudes, Jesus advises that we avoid sin by distancing ourselves from it. In what seems harsh advice, in Mt 5:29-30, he says,
"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.”
The "occasion of sin" is that moment, location, situation, or disposition
Prayer
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells the sleeping Peter, John and James, Mk 14:38:
"Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
We may also discuss the different types and terminologies of sin (venial, grave, mortal, etc.)
We didn't get into the types of sin, and instead focused on the context of Jesus' Garden prayer, and how he repeated it to the Apostles three times. He knows our concupiscence and reminds us always to return to him.
We also discussed how our world removes standards in order to avoid judgment, and in doing so separates itself more and more from God. Dave brought up the interesting concept of "cultural training," through which sin is embed in society, and which he had to endure in his comparny. Therein is a next topic: how do we live faithfully in a sinful world?
Liz reminded us of the Our Father prayer's ending petition to God to "lead us not into temptation but preserve us from evil."
Friday, Aug 16: Sin
We discussed the Father and the implications of both a living God and a God who is "Our Father." It's stunning to even think about.
Yet, very little do we think about our relationship with the Father -- if we did, we wouldn't sin, now would we?
Would you, for example, do that in front of God? Uhh, yes already are doing that in front of the Father, we're just pretending he's not there.
When I was little, I had a strange notion that I was being watched every minute of the day. I never recall being comforted by the thought, but I do distinctly recall growing into the notion that it'd be really embarrassing if someone were actually watching me all day. From there, I just forgot about it. Much easier that way.
To ask people what is “sin” is to enter the fascinating world of self-justification and rationalization. Have you ever defined “sin” yourself, or for yourself?
Let's discuss!
Agenda:
- sin definition
- a fallen world
- sinful by default ("you have to opt-in to Jesus")
- types of sin
- the Cross'
Discussion Aug 16:
Sin is:
- breaking away from God = going opposite direction from God
- following natural impulses,
- it's easier
fixing it?
- bring yourself to God
- something to expect on the other side
- so don't have to expect
- "if you don't expect much from this world, then you'll be pleasantly pleased when you get to the next"
discussed:
- eye of the needle = not a needle but a passage/threshold for animals for sale in ancient Israel
- sell everything and follow me
- D: can't just stay at home and pray
- God wants us to do things
- in the things we do we
Joan of Arc: if God wills it
Friday, Aug 9: Confirmation bias
We have been thinking over what it means to be "childlike" in terms of being believing in a -- the Father, which as we encountered over the last two weeks is the essence of childhood.
We will briefly review the last two weeks' thoughts, with this addition about "the Father" and "Our Father"
- Note: the Old Testament speaks of the 'living God" (as we discussed about the "Jesus prayer", "son of the living God") but not of "the Father," to whom the Son introduces us. God's revelation is incremental and must accommodate our biases and sinful nature (which we will discuss today). However, there is a hint in Exodus, as God calls Israel his "first born son" (Ex 4:22: "So you will say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my firstborn.")
This week we will encounter the things that get our intellect in the way of our childlike faith, including
- concupiscence
- limits of reason
- Three-fold sins, sins of
- the flesh
- the eyes
- pride
How we separate ourselves from childhood when we sin, as if we are the Father.
casuistry
- = self-deception through insincere reasoning or sophistry
- from CCC 579:
This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus' time to an extreme religious zeal. This zeal, were it not to lapse into "hypocritical" casuistry, could only prepare the People for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all sinners.
scripture to consider
We have been discussing Matthew 11:25 and the confirmation bias of the pharisees that led them, even though "wise and learned" to hide God from themselves. God does not hide things from us: instead, what we don't see is hidden, hidden by our concupiscence and biases
- The easiest example in scripture is when the pharisees see a plain miracle by Jesus and then complain he did it on the sabbath, as in
- or when Jesus goes home and was rejected by the people he grew up with: Luke 4:15
- the Apostles, too, are blind to the Lord before them (many examples)
- But the Lord himself warns us directly about not seeing him. In the quasi-parable of the "Judgment of the Nations" (Mt 25:31-46), Jesus tells of the Son of Man "upon his glorious throne," sorting out the goats from the sheep, and tells the goats, Jesus tells "those on the right" (the sheep),
Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'
Then "the righteous" sent to the left (the goats) will protest
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
The limits of their reason, they biases and sinful state kept them from seeing God in every brother and sister.
Session recap
We did a little catching up for a new member, and so reviewed the ideas of the last couple weeks regarding "the Living God", "the Father," "Childlike," and "Wings of Faith", all of which were the foundation of our discussion tonight.
Childlike = having a father, thus when we are arrogant and "independent" we are actually orphaning ourselves from God.
Another big idea was that God is everywhere, and puts no limits upon us -- we place those limits upon ourselves. So when God "hides" knowledge from the wise and the learned, he is not hiding it from them, they are unable to see it due to their arrogance and pride. The "childlike," instead, are open and curious and so can see what Jesus was showing them. This brings up a question: can someone be only childlike in faith and have no reason? No!! That's called my dog. The Lord wants us to reason, he just wants us to reason
We discussed how, as the sense of pain signals danger, God's "curses" are not imposed by him but upon ourselves. God didn't punish Adam and Eve -- by disobeying God they punished themselves.
We wrapped up discussing how our "concupiscence" and pride get in the way of seeing one another as brothers and sisters, all of us as children of God.
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. Here for my blog post on Matthew 11:25: Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25
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
- Socrates on reincarnation: The Slave Boy Experiment in Plato's 'Meno' (thoughtco.com)
"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 humility
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
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.
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.