Monday, April 8, 2013

Bible & Catechism - Day 6

Genesis 6:9 - 7:24
This reading is all about building the ark and the gathering of the animals into the ark. As a child, I imagined Noah like a cattle wrangler or something to have to gather up all those wild animals. Noah had enough to do with building the ark and gathering food. But in 6:20, it reads, "two of each will come to you." I also thought the footnote was interesting about how did Noah know which were clean and unclean. The distinction wasn't made until Sinai that we are aware of. Maybe he didn't know and learned as they showed up.

Psalm 6
The first of the Seven Penitential Psalms used to express repentance.

Matthew 5:1-20
The Beatitudes - I have a new appreciation for the Beatitudes as a Catholic. They have often been described to me as "bless you if you got a rotten lot in life." But in Roman Catholicism, the Beatitudes are worthy of aspiration. Being a Christian is way more than the Thou shalt not's. Those are important but equally important is how you fill the space left when you purge sin from your life. Verses 13-16 describe the salt and light. We need to be visibly different from the world. Verses 17-20  speak of Jesus coming not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

Catechism 31-38 - Ways of coming to know God and the Knowledge of God according to the Church

The world - we can see God in the order and beauty of the world around us.

The human person - We are made in the image of God with an openness to truth and beauty, a sense of moral goodness, freedom and the voice of conscience, and longing for the infinite and happiness.

But we need to be enlightened by God's revelation. 37 quotes Puis XII about being hampered in the attaining of such proofs. For, "So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful."

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