Exploring the Faith Archive

11 Mar. 2008 - Reconciliation

The Bible is filled with facinating stories about Reconciliation. We looked at four:

Genesis 27 and 33

This is the famous story of Jacob and Esau, twin brothers who fought all their lives. Jacob steals the blessing from his brother and his brother wants to kill him. Years later they encounter each other and Esau forgives his brother.

Ezekiel 16

This story is a parable about how Israel, symbolized by a woman, is taken by God and made a great lady. Proud of herself, Israel becomes a prostitue. God punishes her, but then takes her back again even though he owes her nothing.

Luke 15:11-32

The famous story of the Prodigal Son. A son takes his father's money and wastes it on loose living. Becoming destitute, he returns to his father, who is thrilled to see him. His brother, however, is less than thrilled.

Luke 22:54-62 and John 21

Peter, Jesus' star disciple, faces a difficult decision. When the chips are down and Jesus is arrested, he baulks and claims not to be a disciple. After the Resurrection Jesus forgives Peter's three-fold denial with a three-fold confession of love.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not so much about Getting my Sins Forgiven. It is about us as children of God returning to our father. He has given us great riches and we have squandered them. We return through the Sacrament and God forgives us once again and takes us back.

4 Mar. 2008 - The Bible in Pictures

We looked at some basic Bible questions, beginning with the Church's excellent document on Divine Revelation called Dei Verbum. This document insists that Divine Revelation is much more than the Sacred Scriptures. God reveals himsel through the creation of the world and the words of the prophets. His revelation reaches its high point with the sending of his Son. The message of the Son is passed on by the Church, and some of it was recorded in the Bible. We believe that the Holy Spirit guided the authorship of the Bible such that the human authors were really authors, and used their skill and knowledge in writing, while at the same time without competition God guided the authoring of the Scriptures. See the above document for a more thorough explanation.

26 Feb. 2008 - Artificial Reproduction: IVF and Stem Cells