Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study & Apologetics  4/15/25

Every Tuesday, 7PM-8PM. This meeting is a lecture/Q&A format. It is free.

Meetings on Meetup: www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy

Past classes are posted on our Catholic Catacombs Website:  www.CatholicCatacombs.org 

House rules/notes…

1. Our meetings/classes are on ZOOM every Tuesday, 7-8 PM. Sign up for Zoom notifications and to receive meeting reminders at www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy.  Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081  Password: 406952.  

2. RSVP Reminder:  Please RSVP whether you are attending the meeting or just reading the Recaps afterwards. The more RSVPs, the more Meetup will give exposure to “Catholic Bible Study” – a good thing! 

3. Questions. We encourage questions although we ask that you keep them on topic and brief. You can ask during the meeting, or in the chat box, or if you prefer you can email us through Meetup.com, or Ron directly: ron@hallagan.net. 

4. Recaps. Within a day or two after each meeting, we will post the edited meeting notes of our discussions on our website, www.catholiccatacombs.org. Taylor will notify everyone when this is posted and provide you with a link.

5. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between Christian denominations and religions in general, and we seek to be respectful at all times. Protestants especially are our friends and brothers-in-Christ; in fact, I personally owe much of my return to the faith to them! 

6. No politics.  It would be easy for us to self-destruct, but that’s not our goal :). Our goal is to learn, understand, and apply the Bible and our Catholic faith to our everyday lives. 

7. “The Chosen” TV series.  All of us seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is not always easy. It can help if we have seen and heard Him. The Chosen series captures Jesus better than any show I have ever seen. Highly recommended.  

8. Catholic Prayer & Fellowship. Are you interested in praying the rosary, etc. with other Catholics during the week?  Follow fellow member Jason Goldberg at https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/.  

9. Cursillo. Interested in meeting weekly over coffee to discuss how God is involved in your personal and professional life? Join Cursillo (cur-see-yo). Initiation is a 3-day retreat at Mission Hurst in Arlington from April 24-27. Contact Ron (ron@hallagan.net), or Jim Ward (Jim.B.Ward@gmail.com) or Jennifer Pence (Jennifer.pence@gmail.com).    

Our Bible Study is a combination of Exegesis and Apologetics.

                            Study and interpretation of Scripture         A reasoned defense of the faith 

Format:  Each week of the month has a repeating theme, as shown below.

    Wk 1:    Gospel Week – we study several Gospel stories, especially the tough ones.     

    Wk 2:    Bible Week – we are working our way through the Bible. We are studying the Prophets.  

    Wk 3:    Survey Topics Voted on by Members:       

x 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables, x 2) Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, x 3) World Religions, x 4) Great Women in the Bible   x 5) Book of Revelation  x 6) Sacraments   7)Fathers of the Church, Heresies, Church Councils. 

Next Survey: Open Mic, Faith-Doubt-Truth, Finding our Identity, Sin and Purgatory, Meanings in the Mass, Protestantism, the Trinity…

        Wk 4:    Member Questions/Apologetics:

1. Adam & Eve, the Fall of Man, The Meaning of the Trees in the Garden of Eden

2. What happens to animals after they die. Will we see our pets?

3. A refresher on Plenary and Partial Indulgences 

4. Prison ministry/inmate discussions

Each meeting is (roughly) as follows:

• 15 min Catholic topic/catechesis

• 15 min Upcoming Gospel reading

• 30 min  Weekly topic/theme

            1 hour

Reader needed for the Gospel (Taylor will select)

Opening Prayer

Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 

For loving us into existence so we could have a relationship with You. 

Thank you for coming after us when we walked away from you, even unto the present day. 

Thank you for paying for humanity’s transgressions, against each other and against You, 

For forgiving our sins and pardoning all our iniquities, 

and all we have to do is ask, and desire to have you in our lives. 

And as Jesus taught us to pray… together

Our Father Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily Bread;

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Upcoming major holy days:   Lent Wednesday, March 5 – Thursday, April 17

Paschal Triduum (Last Supper to Easter Vespers) April 17-20  

Ascension – Thursday, May 29 – 40 days after Easter

Pentecost – Sunday, June 8 – 50 days after Easter (What is Shavuot?)

TODAY:  

• Lenten reflection, Easter prophesies. 

• Last words of Christ:  My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?… I thirst! It is finished. 

• Reading for Easter (4/20) – The Resurrection of Jesus, John 20:1-9

Quote of the Week:  

"Faith is taking the first step even when we don’t see the rest of the staircase.” 

Today enters the last week of LENT

Btw, if you haven’t started yet, you still can – 2 days left to take up your cross!  

Easter Reflections:

What are some of the prophecies foretelling the death of Jesus?

My knees totter from fasting; my flesh has wasted away. I have become a mockery to them; when they see me, they shake their heads – Psalm 109:24-25. 

Like water my life drains away; all my bones are disjointed. My heart has become like wax, it melts away within me. As dry as a potsherd is my throat; my tongue cleaves to my palate; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me; a pack of evildoers closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and my feet, I can count all my bones. They stare at me and gloat; they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots – Psalm 22:15-19. 

I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of mercy and supplication, so that when they look on him whom they have thrust through, they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and they will grieve for him as one grieves over a firstborn – Zechariah 12:10. 

… and for my thirst they gave me vinegar. – Psalm 69:22  

Therefore I will give him his portion among the many, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty. Because he surrendered himself to death, was counted among the transgressors, bore the sins of many, and interceded for the transgressors – Isaiah 53:12

He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain. Like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. … he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way. But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though harshly treated, he submitted and did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep silent before shearers, he did not open his mouth. Seized and condemned, he was taken away. Who would have thought any more of his destiny? For he was cut off from the land of the living, struck for the sins of his people. – Isaiah 53:3-8.

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad! – Pslams 118:22-24.

Most people are unaware that even Job prophesied Jesus and the resurrection. 

In one of the oldest books of the Bible, and perhaps the most well-known story of suffering, Job made a curious declaration. In the middle of his hour of great pain and grief, he spoke these words:

"I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the Earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" – Job 19:25-27

How easy it is to pass over these words without analyzing them. He speaks of Jesus, his redeemer and ours. Not only will Christ save him someday, but Job believed the Messiah actually was alive at that moment, and that he would stand on the earth like a flesh-and-blood person.

He also says that after his own body dies and returns to the ground (“after my skin has been destroyed”), he will have new flesh, and look on God with the eyes of his new body.

What an amazing prophetic truth from this man who lived many centuries before the far-off Messiah came. What faith Job had. 

Why did Jesus say, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mt 27:46). Did God abandon Jesus? Did Jesus think God abandoned him?

No, God didn’t abandon Jesus. And no, Jesus didn’t think God abandoned him. 

Prayer, not despair. Jesus is reciting the beginning of Psalm 22, which starts exactly, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Most Jews hearing this would instantly know the Psalm he was quoting, including the fact that the Psalm ends in victory, not despair; which is what Jesus knows, too. Jesus was fulfilling this Messianic psalm.  

Secondly, in becoming human in every way in order to undo the Fall of Man, Jesus had to experience everything we do, including sadness, pain, suffering, and death. In fact, he had to experience greater suffering since he is paying for all of humanity’s sins. Humans were/are the cause of Jesus’ suffering, not God. God is only responsible for trying to erase them, since no sins can enter Heaven.   

The Passover Seder Meal – the Last Supper – traditionally had four required cups of wine. What did they represent? 

1. The Cup of Sanctification. “I will bring you out from Egypt.” God promises to being the Jews out from slavery and into a nation. It is a cup of humility and gratitude.   

2. The Cup of Deliverance. The people had to respond to the method God chose for them, which involved sacrificing and sharing the first Passover lamb in order to be spared the 10th plague (death of the first-born). 

3. The Cup of Redemption/Blessing was the first cup drank after the meal, which is the cup that Jesus says, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20).” This cup traditionally signified the slaying of the Passover lamb where the blood of the lamb would be put on their doorposts to ensure death to passed over them (“Passover”). They would then have to eat the lamb, as God was sharing his sacrifice with them, as with family. Who sees a connection with what Jesus is about to do?

4. The Cup of Praise (the Hallel cup). This is a cup of celebration over their freedom from slavery. However, this cup is also bittersweet since they still await God’s ultimate act of salvation in the future. The prophets said that day would come with the arrival of the Messiah. Here’s the thing: Jesus does not drink this cup, which was unheard of. For us, that would be like the priest ending the Mass just before Communion. Instead, Jesus says, “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”  He does not drink it because HE is the future salvation that they have been waiting for, and he hasn’t completed his mission yet.  

When was the next time Jesus drank “the fruit of the vine”? 

In Matthew 27:34, while Jesus is carrying his cross on the way to Calvery, “they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall.” 

Jesus refuses it, why?

Because it wasn’t time. 

Later when Jesus is nailed to the cross, he says, “I thirst.” – John 19:28.  

They put a sponge full of “oxos” (vinegar or sour wine) on a hyssop branch and stuck it up to Jesus lips to drink (John 19:29). 

“For my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” Psalm 69:21

This time, Jesus accepts it. Why?

He was drinking the Hallel Cup, the celebratory wine that was left incomplete at the Last Supper. 

Why was it celebratory? 

His mission was complete, man’s salvation was accomplished! Heaven’s gates were now reopened to us. 

What did Jesus say then?

What else, besides, “It is finished.” 

What Jesus did was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant Passover and its transformation into the New Covenant Passover.  The New Covenant Passover – the Mass – is for the forgiveness of sins and has been paid for by God Himself, in Christ. 

Reflection on “I thirst” (Ascension Press) 

The apostle John gives us a fascinating contrast in his Gospel. He opens Jesus’ public ministry with the famous Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus transforms over 120 gallons of water into choice wine – to satisfy the guests’ thirst! Then, in the closing scene of Jesus’ public ministry, the people offer Jesus a sponge of sour wine to satisfy His thirst as He hangs dying on the Cross.

Another perfect storm: God’s abundant generosity meets humanity’s abundant stinginess.

The question we should ask ourselves is whether or not we behave similarly toward Jesus today. We’re too busy, right?

Philippians 2 reminds us that Christ poured himself out completely for us: first emptying himself of His pure divinity to become man for us. Then, as a man, he humbled himself further by dying on the Cross for us like a common criminal.  

All this was so Jesus could turn death’s doorway into our doorway to Heaven. Not that we deserved it. But what do we give in return? 

Maybe we begrudge Him an hour a week for Sunday Mass. Perhaps we pray daily, so long as it’s convenient and doesn’t interfere too much with our other plans. 

Jesus thirsts for only one thing: our love of God and neighbor. He has done so much for us. We should work on our response to Him, not just for Lent. 

Jesus hung on the cross from 12-3 pm Friday. What are you doing? It could be good to make some time to reflect on this. 

Gospel reading for Easter Sunday (4/20)

John 20:1-9 – The Resurrection of Jesus, The First Day, The Empty Tomb.

Context:  All humans want justice. No, we demand it. But could we really handle justice? Justice requires payment of some kind to even the scales after an injustice occurs. 

For example, how could humans pay for the hundreds of millions killed in wars of aggression just in the last 200 years, let alone the last 1000 years, or the last 10,000 years? 

How could we pay for the hatred, anger, lying, stealing, and murder – estimated to be over 400,000 every single year? 

Hatred and violence cannot start with large groups or countries. It always must start with us as individuals and then work its way into the hatred and violence of a larger group of us. 

How could we pay for our individual hatreds, anger, lying, jealousies, and passing judgments on everyone around us? If you compound these daily, they rise to tragic proportions quickly, yet we all think we are innocent. All humans are innocent, but all humans are guilty. We are one sick species.

Justice comes from God, not from mother nature. Wouldn’t we have been better off if God had not given us this idea of justice to begin with?  We want it, and at the same time we can’t handle it. 

And if perfect justice came crashing down on us tomorrow, how many humans would be left alive?  

Justice comes along with free-will. But then so does beauty and happiness. God gave us a tall order! He knows we let our egos ruin everything, and he also knows we couldn’t even the scales of justice in a 100 billion years, because we can’t even stop our self-centeredness for one day. So, he came here to show us what love looks like, and also to pay for the justice we can’t pay for, so that we can have forgiveness for the asking. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. 

Could God have found some other way to remove our sins? 

Many other religions denigrate our material/physical existence, since it seems to be the source of all depravity, suffering, and evil choices. Not in Christianity. God created all things good, but to those He gave free-will were given the ability to corrupt themselves and their environment, but that doesn’t make us or our environment evil. It’s our choices, and for those He gives us forgiveness.  

God uniquely created the human body and soul/spirit. If the body wasn’t good and important, God could have solved our sinfulness some other way. But this part of us was so important that He Himself came here in a human body precisely to save us, physically and spiritually.   

Easter – officially "Pascha" (meaning Passover) – is the most important event in Bible history going back to the Creation. It is the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 when God tells our fallen parents that one day, “The seed of the woman will crush the head of the Serpent.” The woman is Mary, her seed is Jesus, and Jesus crushes the head of the serpent with his death and resurrection. 

If Jesus crushed the head of the serpent, why are we still here? 

The only reason we are still here is because we have free-will. We now have to choose for ourselves, like our first parents. Besides, if God had ended everything 2000 years ago, how many people would have made it to Heaven? Where would we be?     

When Jesus died, the veil in the Temple split in two. What does this mean?

The veil separated the Holy of Holies in the inner Temple where the Ten Commandments and mana were historically kept – and a fuller presence of God. Only the high priest could enter the sacred place once a year on the Feast of the Atonement. The veil was meant as a kind of separation between God and man since the Fall of Man. When Jesus died, the veil was torn apart because our separation from God was over. 

John 20:1-9

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark,and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Exegesis = Interpretation/Explanation

What is the significance of Mary Magdalene being the first to the tomb?

1. A woman was the first to be tempted in the Fall of Man. A woman is the first to come back. Because she was the first to bring the news to the others, she is called Apostle to the Apostles. 

2. Christ changed the dialogue on 2nd class citizens, like women and children. He raise them up and called them equals in the eyes of God. Consequently, they are given prominent attention in the Gospels, which was not the cultural norm.

3. If the disciples of Christ wanted to build the credibility of the new Church in the eyes of the world, they would not have led with a woman being the first to the tomb. But Christianity was never about marketing. Only the truth can set you free. 

What was “the first day of the week”?

Sunday 

Why did they wait till Sunday to come to the tomb?  

The women who came to the tomb to tend to Jesus had to wait for the Sabbath to end. 

What day of the week is the Sabbath and where did it come from?

The Sabbath is the 7th/last day of the week and is a required Jewish day of rest. Sabbath translates as rest.  It originates in Genesis 1 when God rested on the 7th Day after 6 days of creation. 

As we learned in the Fall, man chose against God, damaged their relationship with God, and lost access to Heaven. Man needed the Sabbath more than ever if he ever hoped to rebuild his relationship with God. As we have seen over the next several thousand years, Man failed too many times to count. God knew this would be the case and promised from the beginning that He would come one day and save them from their eternal separation.  

Jesus came to accomplish this. Though God knew what we would do to Jesus, He showed love by coming anyway (as only a parent would do). Not only did He come, but He used the punishment that we inflicted on Him as human payment for human sins, so that justice could be satisfied, and we could receive forgiveness for the asking.  

In this way, Jesus becomes the “new Adam” because he reversed the Fall of Man so we could start over again. Man was being given another chance to build a relationship with God and enter Heaven forever. You could say Genesis was getting a re-do. As Jesus said in Rev 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new.”  

This brings us back to “the first day of the week” in our reading. 

If God rested on the 7th day of the week (Sabbath), on which day of the week did Creation begin? 

The first day of the week would have been a Sunday. 

If you were going to reverse the Fall of Man and start over, which day of the week would you begin? 

The 1st Day – Sunday. This is why Sunday is “The Lord’s Day” and replaces Saturday as the Sabbath Day in the Old Covenant. All creation has been redeemed. The Sabbath – which always was the Lord’s Day – is still Saturday for the Jews who have remained part of the Old Covenant.

 The significance of John saying, “On the first day of the week” is because it represents God’s gift of a new beginning for humanity. On the first creation day, God said, “Let there be light,” and now, on Easter day, Jesus, who said “I am the light of the world,” conquered sin and death and returned to show us. 

This means that everything has changed, and everything has been recreated. 

“Behold, I make all things new.” – Revelation 21:5

When the disciples entered the tomb, it says they “saw and believed.” Why? What does this mean?

The prevailing belief is, first of all, that they believed what Mary Magdalene had told them. Second, they believed now what Jesus meant, that after three days he would rise!

Was there anything else? Some say that if robbers came to take the body, they would have taken it while still wrapped in the linen cloth. Who would take the linen cloth off to carry a dirty/bloody body?  

Furthermore, the head cloth was folded and set aside. Who would do that?  There was also a Jewish custom (still similar today) that if a cloth for a meal was being used, that it was folded or rolled up and set aside when they left the table if they were coming back. In that case, this would mean, “he’s not finished, he’s coming back.”    

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ who came here and conquered sin and death when we couldn’t, 

I rejoice – and rejoice continually – in Your glorious and triumphant victory over death.

For Your victory is my victory and our victory.

Help me to live by it, in it, and for it.

I am grateful to my depths—grateful forever.

Amen.

Happy Easter, Everyone!