• In session 2, we thought about the importance of Interpreting scripture correctly. We realized what goes into that effort.

• In session 3, we took a close look at John 15 to get familiar with Christ and his mission of love.

• In Session 4, We reflected on Who we are and How we got here i.e. in a state of corruption.

•  In Session 5, We reflected on what a covenant is, the first one in particular, and we inquired as to what was God's intent

1. Content of the Promise

2. An oath to accompany the content of the agreement 

3. A curse invoked by each one upon the self should the agreement be broken

4. The formal ratification of the covenant by some solemn external act

5. Adam and His wife were given the Sabbath

• In in Session 6, Then we looked into the second Covenant with Noah and the covenant made about acts of God against creation and floods in particular with Noah's family.

•  In Session 7, We learned about the ancient and current practice of Lectio Divina to encounter Scripture and understand it objectively and personally, built on the verse "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you."

• In Sessions 8 & 9, we looked at Abram and then Abraham. We witnessed the elderly couple bear children who would become the fulfillment of the promise. We met Melchizedek. We learned the promise given to Abraham was "I will make of you a great nation..." - a Kingdom, "I will bless you, and make your name great so that you will be a blessing." - Exaltation/Glorification, and "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. - Safety. We saw how this was accomplished in a way Abraham could not have and scarcely could have imagined. We also heard of Joseph, who was the viceroy of Egypt which we see as a prefigure of the Papacy in the Old Testament kingdom.

  • We largely jumped over Jacab and Esau for the sake of time and direction.

  • Through Abraham came tribes of God's people

•  In Sessions 10 & 11, we met Moses who came from the Tribe of Levi (brother to Joesph) (the great-grandson son of Abraham whom the tribal patriarchs are), he was the great-grandson to Levi, Grandson to Kohath, and Son to Amram. We reflected on the importance of water and spirit in the scripture. We see that Moses, though sinner He was, was made capable of leading God's people by virtue of His relationship with God and the People. He led them through a great trail and the people complained again and again and would often turn back to their idols as we also tend to do.

  • The Covenant here was expanded to a whole nation of tribes

•  In session 12, we watched as God choose David. We saw God make a very familiar-sounding covenant with David. We saw Solomon follow in his father's footsteps lacking chastity. We saw the upper structure of the Old Testament Kingdom and the role of the Queen Mother. We see another example of servant leadership, i.e. leadership inspired by serving the good of others. We saw a foretelling of the eternal Kingdom.

  • In David that nation became a Kingdom under God

•  In session 13, we introduce ourselves to the Lord of all creation as He cooed in a feed bunk for livestock. We reflected briefly on the writings of the prophets and the immediate foretelling of Christ's coming and role.

• In session 14, we asked God, "Who do you say that I am?". We searched for an answer in Christ and looked to see who we think He is. We read in-depth about the Prodigal son and felt ourselves a member of the story.

•  In Session 15, we looked at the cross. We see the completion of Christ's ministry and earthly mission. We looked in depth at the ways Christ fulfills every preceding way albeit in brief and not a complete engagement of the subject. We recognized not only Jesus as our bridge back to God, how He intends to bring about salvation within us, the importance of the resurrection, the concept of Atonement and the splitting of the veil between the Holy of Holies and the Tent of Meeting in the Temple. 

  • In Jesus we became His Church, The bride he had talked about in the old testament which will be fully joined to Him in the Resurrection.The Family procured by the covenant has reached an infinite and everlasting expansion (until Christ comes again when it will remain its size but never day).

CCC 73: God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established his covenant for ever. The Son is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him.

• In Christ, God completed His work of drawing us back into relationship with Him as a people or rather allowing us personally a means to do so. He every continues this work in His Church and in/through each of us who are His "local"/corporeal Church

CCC 580: The perfect fulfillment of the Law could be the work of none but the divine legislator, born subject to the Law in the person of the Son. In Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone but "upon the heart" of the Servant who becomes "a covenant to the people", because he will "faithfully bring forth justice". Jesus fulfills the Law to the point of taking upon himself "the curse of the Law" incurred by those who do not "abide by the things written in the book of the Law, and do them", for his death took place to redeem them "from the transgressions under the first covenant".

• Jesus absorbed the curse or destruction condition of the covenants, taking on our part of the Covenant.

CCC 436: The word "Christ" comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means "anointed". It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that "Christ" signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in his name. This was the case for kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets. This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively. It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king and priest, and also as prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet and king.

• Jesus Fulfilled the Propets

What will we do?

 We are beginning to see not only the truth of Christ and the whole history of his preparation of His people to draw us back into the right relationship with Him whom we first doubted and hid from. In our fallenness, we more than strayed from Him. He did not change his course nor did his mission change. He relentlessly chased after us, very often preventing unrecoverable harm and irreparable damage. He finally comes himself, making himself take on flesh through a woman full of grace and empty of sin. He dives head-first into the lowliest aspects of man. He becomes but a babe in the sight of great sinners and grows up like you or I a normal life, and when the fullness of His love is demonstrated when publicly executed Him in our sins, the worst and most shameful of ways possible. In response, He returns with His peace. Do we accept this as the final reality? Do we realize just how broken we are and what He has done for us? Do we realize we owe everything to him who never gave up on us? Who does He say that we are?

Truly, if we know anything about justice, we know the "debt" we owe to the one, who in spite of our outright betrayal choose to continue loving and caring for us. We take his gives as plunder and used His mercy against Him, but He never stopped loving us. This kind of love deserves more than a response, if we are to receive it requires all of us, not just an Hour of our Week but all of it. Not just some of our relationships, but all of them. Simply living the fullness of the Christian life is enough to save us because it is the full gift of self to God, such that even that which would have separated us from God, actually draws us closer. Now that we see ourselves as apart of this narrative of all reality, let us enter into this relationship with Him. Just as He called disciples on Earth He continues to do so through our fell Christians. In our day, we are thrown from one stage of life to the next, from one stimulus to the next, from one vice to the next, here is precisely where God wishes to intercept us. Close your eyes and imagine that all the turbulence of live is manifested in waves, wind, and darkness. Your life symbolizes a boat you are in with your friends. From your Baptism, Christ has been in the boat too but what role has he played?

 Perhaps turn lights off in the room and light a candle

 John 6:16–21; Luke 8:22–25; Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:36–41

What is the one thing that matters in this life?

• Jesus! Knowing, Loving, and Serving Him in that order

The fullness of the Christian life as discussed in the previous session will be enough to save us from ourselves if we truly aim for its fullness and we will always fall short of it in this life which is why we must continue renewing our efforts always striving through sacraments, conforming our lives to Christ's, and encountering Him always in prayer. It is one thing to have command over nature but what about death.

Luke 24:13-35

We have looked at all the way Jesus has completed the works of God, and we have something in common with these disciples. We have not seen Christ's resurrected body and hitherto to this Bible study had little if any (and now more but but still little) knowledge of the prophets. However, we notice the gesture Christ makes after promising "[he] will be with [us] until the end of the age" he completes the action of Mass when He disappears. In truth He had not disappeared at all but rather shifted his presence from bodily to sacramental i.e. in the bread and wine.

Further, if the resurrection never happened then none of this matters.

The question remains how will we respond to this ultimate gift:

Scripture provides us with two key possibilities once we have recognized at what has happened to our gain.

1. John 21:1-14

Granted that there is also a key aspect of grieving and emotionally and intellectually processing every that has just happened. However, will we return as Peter and the Apostles did to the pre-Jesus status quo? Will there be a noticeable change in the way we live? It would seem that if there is not, like Peter, we would be missing something important.

2. Acts 2:1-4; 41-42

Very different from the pre-Jesus status quo, the life we will take up interiorly and exteriorly ought to be different, or more accurately new. Old perspectives must be changed and the very meaning of life as one understands it should change. Still, there can be hindrances to taking up this new life and experiencing that final conversion. In truth, this can only be that we are not receiving God's love sufficiently, and what obstacles we find in the way need to be dealt with properly, this may require help from a spiritual director, psychologist, and much vulnerable honesty.

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