Weekly Bible Study - Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-34

28 June 2015
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

If we had the ability to think of God only in positive terms, it might make a difference in our lives.  It might even change the world! We wouldn’t blame God for our misfortunes, get angry with our Creator for taking away our loved ones, or question his ways when they seem unjust. 

Our first reading this Sunday offers us that very “wisdom.” Written about 50 years before the birth of Christ, the Book of Wisdom was somewhat revolutionary in its time.

Wisdom offers a steadfast belief in an afterlife, using the views of Greek philosophy as way of understanding human nature in terms of a soul-body split. For the Greeks, the body is like a prison that the soul can't wait to escape. The author of Wisdom uses this idea to extend the Jewish notion of humanity made in the “image and likeness of God” (from Genesis) beyond one’s mortal life.

The idea of living beyond the grave (Hebrew: Sheol) was, by historical standards, a relatively new resurrection from the dead, which helped the disciples of Jesus to finally recognize and accept Christ’s bodily resurrection (and our hope of resurrection of the body). See Daniel 12 and Romans 6.
idea at this time. The Book of Daniel, written about 150 years earlier, shows the first unambiguous statement of a Jewish belief in

What Wisdom proposes is a little different, but what is driving the idea is similar and “spot on.” In Wisdom, we encounter a deeper, more positive view of the relationship between Creator and creation than was common throughout most of the history of Israel. Sunday's reading affirms that it was never God’s intent to bring evil and corruption into the world and into human souls. The Wisdom writer believed that it is not within the nature of God to cause evil or destruction, and so logically the soul that is a "friend of God" (righteous) could live beyond the death (corruption) of the body.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.

BJ Daly Horell, editor

CONGRATULATIONS CBS CLASS OF 2015

Thanks to Georgieanna Roy's good friend and photographer, we have a lovely collection of graduation photographs. I've included the best of them on the page "Graduation 2015 - Photos." Click on the link in the right-hand column, just below the Blog Archive. (You'll probably have to scroll down to see the link.)

May the blessings and peace of God our Father, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit be poured out upon you all!

Back: BJ Daly Horell, Loretta Whiting, Bob Howard, Stephen Ward, Linda Ward, Barbara Kaminsky, Leslie Marconi, Maria Klimczak, Fr. Christopher Tiano; Middle: Marcia Franko, Janice Colandrea, Susan Howard, Rosemary Salerno, Dan Chouinard, Georgieanna Roy, Rosalie Puskar, Kathleen Congero, Amy Ekeh; Front: Fr. Jeremiah Murasso, Bob Cyr, Kathleen Bellemare, Janice Belfiore, Ivy Chan, Patti Cacciabaudo, Michelle McNulty.

Summer Assignments 2015

Summer assignments and textbooks are now updated online! Please click here (http://www.orehartford.org/joomla2/index.php/summer-assignments) to find the assignment for your year. Year 1, Year 2 or Advanced Year (combined Years 3 and 4).

Assignments are all due at your Opening Scripture Day, as follows:

Year One: September 12, 8:30*-3:00 

Year Two: August 29, 8:00*-2:30

Advanced Year: August 29, 8:30*-3:00

*Coffee And and Sign-In begins. Talks will begin PROMPTLY within the half hour.

Weekly Bible Study - Job 38: 1, 8-11 ▪ Mark 4: 35-41

21 June 2015
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For the people in ancient Israel, the sea held terror. They experienced it as a monstrous power that could threaten their very lives. At the very least, it set severe limits on their ability to control their lives. In mideastern mythology, the sea in storm symbolized chaos and disorder.

At the same time, the sea, with its teeming life, had the potential to feed them, give them life. And so in the first words of the Bible (in Genesis), it is God's spirit hovering over the waters of chaos that breeds all the living. God's creative power embraces chaos and makes of it a world of order, caring and goodness. For Israel, God's creativity establishes order in the midst of uncertainty and chaos.

 In the story of Job, Job is a bold hero, searching for answers amid the chaotic suffering of his life. He doesn't get the answers he's looking for, but in the end (in our reading) he finds that God's creation somehow requires chaos, as a kind of dance partner, so that God can be in the midst of life in abundance.

The brief passage from today’s Gospel casts a similar question in the context of a storm at sea: “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” These experienced seamen know well the potential danger of the violent squall. Jesus, asleep, seems to be unmoved by the storm’s intensity and the apostles’ fears. Does Jesus CARE that they are in peril? Jesus turns their question back on them, just as the LORD God turned Job's questions back on him. “Do you not yet have faith?”

What will it take for believers to trust in God, to know that God can use even the chaos to create life and order? Coming to faith will be a life-long process, for Job, for the apostles and for us.  In the midst of a storm is where we may all, in fact, find true faith and life to the full.

Br. Mickey McGrath, OFSF, At the Name of Jesus, (c) 2008

Weekly Bible Study - Ezekiel 17:22-24

14 June 201511^th Sunday in Ordinary Time  

The Scriptures weave together God's teaching through both testaments of the Bible.  In the words of Benedictine Michael Casey, the mystery of Jesus “shimmers through” many of the verses of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).  Today’s brief reading from Ezekiel illuminates this truth.

This sixth century (BC) priest and prophet often painted his picture of a restored Jerusalem in allegorical and poetic terms. His people were in the throes of exile and could only cling to the hope of new life, renewed worship and a rebuilt temple. Ezekiel appealed to the depths of their pain-filled hearts and to the vision of restoration these hearts carried. If we listen carefully to today’s passage we can hear the deepest hopes of humankind, which find answers in the preaching of Jesus. We see glimmers of a new kingdom and the hope of a renewed people.  Like many of his fellow prophets, Ezekiel looked to the future with hope and faith; a faith which ultimately is fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The prophet tells us in today's reading that the Lord will take a tender shoot from the topmost branches of the “crest of the cedar” (House of David). Do we not experience Jesus as the pinnacle of the line of David? Ezekiel continues this image of a shoot being planted by the Lord upon a high and lofty mountain, and elsewhere in Scripture the mountain of the Lord (Jerusalem) is envisioned as the highest mountain to which all nations would stream, in hopes of a community that worships God in truth. Ezekiel continues, noting that the tree planted upon this lofty mountain shall put forth abundant branches and fruit. Might Jesus’ reflections on the vine and branches given in the Gospel of John have sprouted from this Old Testament text? Finally, Ezekiel points out that the Lord will bring low the high tree and lift high the lowly tree. This sounds like Mary’s words in the Magnificat and reflects a favorite biblical theme, which culminates in Jesus, the “lowliest” criminal lifted high on the cross and raised from the dead?

Ezekiel, the priest-prophet, carefully crafted words that offered a vision of hope not only to a downtrodden nation in exile but to people of ages to come.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.

May the Angels Lead Her to Paradise

On Friday, June 5, 2015, retired CBS faculty member, Sr. Joan Bernier, SNDdeN, received the fullness of God's life given her in Baptism. Let us pray for her and for her family at this difficult time.

Weekly Bible Study - Exodus 24:3-8 ▪ Hebrews 9:11-15

7 June 2015
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Memorable words, familiar rituals, recalled each Eucharist, arising from traditions detailed in the Book of Exodus. Words and rituals ever ancient, ever new.

The bloody ritual that Moses performs strikes a very unfamiliar chord with our modern understanding. We can hardly imagine an ancient custom of splashing blood on an altar and sprinkling it on God’s people. In scripture, blood was considered the source of life, a symbol of reconciliation and hope. This ritual signified the covenant relationship of God and Israel. By sprinkling "life" (blood) on the altar (symbolizing God) and on the people, the two become one life, sharing the life of God.

Of course, God shares life with us more effectively in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that we celebrate at each Eucharist. The author of Hebrews made sense of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus on the cross by drawing from ancient tradition. As the Letter to the Hebrews contrasts Jesus' sacrifice with the ritual action of Moses, the sacrifice of Jesus is revealed to be greater and more perfect because it is not made by human hands nor renewed annually with the blood of animals in a man-made temple. The mediator of the Old Covenant, through the annual ritual of animal sacrifice, brought God and the Israelites together in a renewable covenant that had to be repeated every time the people sinned. Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, offers redemption in a way that does not need to be repeated and promises a sharing in God's own life once and for all.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.

Joy of the Gospel #13

49. Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.

If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).

Gospel Links to Ponder: Mark 6:34-43
Click here to find this biblical reading.

Afterword: God loves a picnic! Hospitality is the #1 virtue of the Old Testament, to my way of thinking. It includes all respect and precludes all violation of God or neighbor. How often in the Bible do we see the messengers of God, and Jesus himself, sitting down to a festive meal with friends and followers? I am ashamed to admit that, in the reconciliation room this month, I had to confess a time very recently when I shut the door on someone asking me for Christian fellowship. I fervently hope that I have matured in my faith through this terrible experience of sin and will never fall in this way again.

Do you hear Christ's invitation to "Give them something to eat" today? If not, you are not listening!

Weekly Bible Study - Deut 4:32-40 ▪ Rom 8:14-17

31 May 2015
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

It seems, from our reading of the Old Testament, that the first thing God wanted the Israelites to know was that there is  no other God like our God, Yahweh. In today’s first reading Moses reminds the assembly that it was the Lord God who performed wondrous deeds “before their very eyes,” and no other. This speech, one of many in the Book of Deuteronomy, does more than reminisce about God’s saving acts and powerful revelations “speaking from the midst of fire.” It is more than a promise to the children of Israel. It is a clarion call that they should “fix in their hearts that the Lord is God, ... and that there is no other.”

In his Letter to the Romans, Paul wants to fix this same image in the hearts of the Roman Christians of his time. The Spirit bears witness, Paul teaches, that followers of Jesus are children of God. Could there be any greater reassurance than that? God is our Father and there is no other! Nothing else to be relied on or believed in. We have received a spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry “Abba, Father.” It is important to note that the original intent of “Abba” was not exactly the familiar “daddy” as is sometimes suggested today. In its Aramaic and Hebrew origins, “Abba” is an intimate designation of God as Father, but with a focus on reverence, solemnity, an acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty. In the one place in the Gospel in which Jesus addresses God in this way (Mark 14:36) the focus of the passage is complete obedient surrender of the will of Jesus to the will of God. This should give us pause as we ask: Are we truly ready to call God “Abba?” Are we ready to be obedient, even unto death?

The language of Deuteronomy and Romans may be separated by the saving act of Jesus, but the message is one message: We are the children of God, the God who is the sovereign Lord of all creation and no other. As we unite ourselves with Jesus in his life and in his suffering and death, we will also join him in his resurrection from the dead.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.