Peace
Our
New-birth Right!
Discipleship
Questions for
Sunday December 7,
2008
Scripture
First
Psalm
Second
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
First
A reading from the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Comfort, give comfort
to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to
that her service is at an
end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received
from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare
the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the
wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be
filled in,
every mountain and hill
shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be
made a plain,
the rough country, a
broad valley.
Then the glory of the
LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see
it together;
for the mouth of the LORD
has spoken.
Go up onto a high
mountain,
cry out at the top of
your voice,
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong
arm;
here is his reward with
him,
his recompense before
him.
Like a shepherd he
feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers
the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with
care.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
(R.) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant
us your salvation.
I will hear what God
proclaims;
the LORD—for he proclaims
peace to his people.
Near indeed is his
salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
(R.) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant
us your salvation.
Kindness and truth
shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out
of the earth,
and justice shall look
down from heaven.
(R.) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant
us your salvation.
The LORD himself will
give his benefits;
our land shall yield its
increase.
Justice shall walk
before him,
and prepare the way of
his steps.
(R.) Lord, let us see your
kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Second Reading
2 Pt 3:8-14
A reading from the second Letter of Saint
Peter
We await new heavens and a new earth.
Do not ignore this one
fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day
is like a thousand years
and a thousand years like
one day.
The Lord does not
delay his promise, as some regard “delay,”
but he is patient with
you,
not wishing that any
should perish
but that all should come
to repentance.
But the day of the
Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will
pass away with a mighty roar
and the elements will be
dissolved by fire,
and the earth and
everything done on it will be found out.
Since everything is to
be dissolved in this way,
what sort of persons ought
you to be,
conducting yourselves in
holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the
coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens
will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted
by fire.
But according to his
promise
we await new heavens and
a new earth
in which righteousness
dwells.
Therefore, beloved,
since you await these things,
be eager to be found
without spot or blemish before him, at peace.
Gospel Mk 1:1-8
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Make straight the paths of the Lord.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the
Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead
of you;
he will prepare your
way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.”
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants
of
were going out to him
and were being baptized
by him in the
as they acknowledged
their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair,
with a leather belt around
his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is
coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the
thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship Questions:
1.
This is “Peace” Sunday! Let me ask us some framing questions. Please consider and discuss them: Are you at peace
today?
·
Do you
regularly experience “peace?”
·
Do you
really seek after it? Is it easy or hard
to find for you? Is it elusive?
·
Do you
have any peace?
·
Do you
crave peace?
·
Do you yearn for real inner peace?
·
So what
is your history with the reality – the experience, of “peace?”
2.
Please reflect on and discuss
the following: “Peace comes with the advent of the Prince of Peace in us! As we draw ever closer to our Lord His peace
becomes ours. Let’s really examine peace
and try to uncover its secrets shall we?
What is it that robs you and me of any peace? Its fear isn’t it – it’s the fear of losing
something dear to us! Our peace is
forever dependent upon our sense of security from loss! Fear is the cardinal enemy to peace and if
we’re to find peace we’re going to have to deal with fear. Think about that for a minute will you . . .
When was your peace disturbed this last week?
Think about it – try to isolate the source of your fears in each of the
instances when you lost your sense of peace.
This, by the way, it a very good exercise – for by doing it you are
identifying the idols in your life – those things that your terrified of losing
including your own life. Anything that gets
between you and God – is a false god or an idol. We all have them – I have them. My pride, my professionalism, my scholarship,
my spirituality – O how pathetic I really am.
How vulnerable is my peace! How
about you . . . Please think about it for a moment will you. Really think about it. It’s always beneficial for us to look at the
other gods in our lives. Age often plays
a part in this – older people often have other god’s than younger people. Our temperaments have some effect also – the
sanguine or excitable person may tend to be drawn to idols that keep them
floating on the winds of high emotion while the melancholic person would tend
to respond to the gods the promise security and so on. Identifying what gods stand between you and
the real God is vitally important if you are going to cooperate with the real
God in His ultimate destruction of any gods who would separate you from Him!”
3.
Please reflect on and discuss the following: Well now we’re getting to the real nub of our
reflection. For me perhaps the most
perfect statement on peace came from St. Peter in His first Letter. He wrote:
1John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect
in love. Ah! Did you hear that – “There is ‘NO’ fear in
love. But perfect love drives out
fear!” Now don’t get hung up on the word
– “perfect” in the sense that you think that since your love isn’t perfect
you’re never going to get rid of your fear.
The Greek word for “perfect” is “telios” and
it literally means – having reached its end – complete, perfect, mature, pertaining to being truly and completely genuine or pertaining to an adult human being. What this tells me
is this: if I have any fear it’s because my love – that which ultimately
motivates me – has some work needed and as this work is done any fear will be
driven out of me by this love So what we’re talking about here is “mature love”
– love that has gone through a purgation – a time of purging. It’s the sort of love that begins at marriage
or at the beginning of a friendship and it matures through many joys and
disappointments to emerge as refined and pure!
It’s this love that literally drives fear out of us Do you want peace –
perfect peace – then learn how to love. Show me a real lover and I will
show you a fearless person. Now
understand we’re not talking here about people who have stopped fearing because
life has lost meaning . . . NO – we’re talking about people for whom life has
infinite meaning and worthy of infinite sacrifice. Love always sacrifices. The Greek for
“drives” by the way – in the sense that love drives fear out of us - is
“bellow” and it literally means – to throw!
Love, mature love, literally throws fear out on it bum! – to put it crudely!
You see “fear” can’t exist in the same place as love
and since fear robs us of our peace we must lean how to love to apprehend our
full measure of God’s peace!”
4.
Please read and reflect on the following: 1John 4:7 “Dear friends, let
us love
one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is
how God showed his love among us: He
sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love:
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear
friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another. 12 No one has ever seen
God; but if we love one another,
God lives in us and his love is made
complete in us. Truly as