The Gospel Life & Understanding
Scripture:
(LIVING THE GOSPEL LIFE)
NOTE: The Holy Spirit
inspired each evangelist to write a gospel for a unique community of believers
(The Jewish people of that time, The Gentiles, Those persecuted by The Imperial
Romans, and the Universal World as a whole). In other words, the gospels were
written (and still are today) for the insiders, the outsiders, the powerless
and everyone.
MATTHEW’S GOSPEL: The
Holy Spirit had inspired this gospel from a Jewish perspective to show that
Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures. Today it
demonstrates our Jewish heritage as fulfilled Christian - Jews. The Gospel of
Matthew is associated with the Apostle St. Matthew (This is based on early
Christian tradition). Like most Franciscans, I have a love for MT 25: 31-46
(Christ in disguise within all the needy).
MARK’S GOSPEL: The Holy
Spirit had inspired this gospel during the persecution period
in Rome that martyred Peter, Paul and hundreds of others. It is
believed that Mark had been influenced by Peter’s accounts of the life of
Jesus. The theme of this gospel is: “God’s Kingdom is found through Jesus on
earth and in heaven”.
LUKE’S GOSPEL: The Holy
Spirit had inspired this gospel for the Gentile world. This gospel is part one
of a two volume work (“The Acts of the Apostles” being the second volume). Luke
was associated with Paul’s teachings. His gospel contains an inclusive Jesus
reaching out to the poor, rich, Gentiles, Jews, women, men, foreigners, and
Israelites. Half of the gospel is new material.
JOHN’S GOSPEL: The Holy
Spirit had inspired this gospel to go beyond the similarities of the other
gospels. It tries to answer the question, “Who was Jesus” and it emphasizes Jesus
came from God for the salvation of the world. It is associated (through
tradition) to the Apostle St. John. John uses the term, “The Jews” to mean the
corrupt Jewish Religious institution of Jesus’ time (not the Jewish people
themselves).There is a vast amount of symbolic language used in this gospel
(like: Light vs. Darkness, The Word became flesh, God is love, I am the
resurrection and the life, and the eternal waters of life).
THE INCOMPLETE GOSPEL:
The Holy Spirit has written this gospel upon the heart of each person. This is
the gospel that we live from day to day. Like it or not, each one of us is
showing the world our unique gospel (not with words but with our actions). The
question is, “Do you move from life to gospel then from the gospel to life”
over and over again? This gospel life demands that we live in peace, we become
compassionate, we show loving ways, we humble ourselves, we seek social
justice, we balance off our excesses and we respect the dignity of each life
that is around and within us. If we do not listen to the demands of our gospel
life, then we are in conflict with ourselves and our true meaning. Instead of
fearing it, we embrace and love the diversity of all the human life around us.
The love of Christ is not something we only use as spiritual renewal for our
souls, we also invest it into our daily lives. Then we discover Christ (in
disguise) reacting with us through so many unusual situations. Let us call
these situations “Franciscan Life”. D. Crone
(UNDERSTANDING BIBLE THEMES)
We can find more meaning
in life when we live a gospel life. You see, living a Gospel life can give our
existence more purpose. Somehow we can relate to God more and somehow have a
better relationship with what we actually believe. Then our activities through
faith and our beliefs about faith are a lot more in agreement with each other.
We can experience life
just like the God’s covenants within scripture. You see, God has made covenants
with people like you or me throughout the biblical history. God had chosen
ordinary humans like us to love and for them to show God’s love to others. It
should make us humble to think of it; therefore, let us become reluctant
leaders (not leaders in an over powering commanding way) but in a spiritual way
– gently introducing God’s love into our world through caring actions from our
sincere hearts.
In the video “Our
Father’s Plan” (Ignatius Press by Hahn & Cavins) you can see the covenants
God made throughout biblical history: “God made a marriage covenant with Adam
and Eve (Gen. 2: 15-25). It was sealed with paradise and a promise to
provide. God made a family covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:12-13). It was
sealed with all the colors of God’s love – a rainbow. God made a racial covenant
with Abraham (Gen. 22: 1-9). It was sealed with the bloodless sacrifice of
Isaac. God made a national covenant with Moses (EX. 12: 12-13). It was
sealed with the Passover meal (and the blood of the lamb). God made a Kingdom
covenant with David. It was sealed with the bloodline of the messiah
(JN. 7:42). God made a world-wide covenant because of Jesus. It was sealed
with the bread of life because of the sacrifice on the cross (JN. 6:27).”
We can notice that
through time God became more inclusive (broadening out his love to more people)
and at the same time he became much more intimate. Usually people feel that we
are only under the last covenant (the New Covenant of Christ). Let us now
realize that we can be a part of all the covenants. Like Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, David and Jesus, we now understand that we can live within a personal
covenant with God (to give out God’s love and be loved). Since we were
created in the image of God, (like God) we must be more inclusive and genuine
with our love for family, friends and others. Let us care and understand like
God (as much as possible). For our spiritual descendants can be as numerous as
the stars. Our marriages or our single life can be experienced through a love
that can only come from God (with all the colors of the rainbow). Our
sacrifices in life must have the sacrifice of Christ behind them. Our
personal Gospel Life is God’s personal Covenant life with us to love others
(all of them) as he does us. Let us show mercy, forgive, and reshape our loving
world into the image of God and let us make this our life’s meaning.
Questions:
1. What does St. Francis
mean when he said:” Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use
words”?
2. Why is the Bible
important to people like Franciscans?
3. Does the Gospel
produce insight into God’s will for your life, if so, how?
5. Why do Franciscans
embrace a sense of openness and understanding when disagreement over living the
Gospel life arises?
6. Explain your
understanding of what is needed for living a Gospel Life?
7. What do you think it
means to “Go from the Gospel to life and from life to the Gospel”?
8. Does Gospel living
reflect for you the life of Christ and that we should imitate it?
9. What does Gospel
Living say about the poor, the greedy, hypocrites, pride, sacrifice and
forgiveness?
!0 Is there a pattern
concerning the covenants in scripture? Is God’s love becoming more
intimate as he offers his love to more people?
11 Which covenant are we
under today ? Is it the last one
only or maybe all of them (since God is all
inclusive)?
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