Miscellaneous Excerpts

for conclusion — Jesus ratifies the covenant

Jesus defeats the devil by his death

Jesus was not incarnated as man before the fall when they were without sin, and could not die, but live forever with god in heaven, He was incarnated as fallen man, suscepitble to sin, and could die.
Salvation, Sanctification, Justification.
- use and expand on Peter Kreefts explanation on these things,
- and how they are different than subtitutional attonment.
Use gregory of Nyssa’s explanation of God using jesus as a ransom for our sins, and how that defeated the devil
By His ressurection he overcame the fallen nature of man, defeated death, and because of that he opened the gates of heaven to all of us.

Jesus is the answer to all questions, and the fullfillment of all promises.

Psalm 85, “kindness and truth shall meet, and Justice and peace shall kiss.
Jesus is the answer to the question of how much kindness (soft virtues of tenderness and mercy) should be given, and how much truth (hard virtues of tough love, and reality) must be given.
Jesus is also the answer to how much of Gods Justice, and His peace that need to be given as well.
He is the happy medium between loveing and telling the truth, and the punishment of justice and the mercy of peace.
Jesus shows us that God give us mercy, when we deserve justice, and he shows us kindness when we dont deserve truth.
Jesus on the cross is the most amazing answer to the problem of sin, that could ever be dreamed up…! It shows us his love when we dont deserve even a second glance. It shows us that the god of the universe wants the best for us, at all times and in all things.
He is totally selfless, and wants to be share an agape/eros relationship with us, His bride the church.

Jesus in the eucharist…, is the sacrifice and the priest.

There were 5 types of offering divided into 2 groups, voluntary and required. Reference: https://seedbed.com/5-offerings-old-testament/
- Required offerings were made for the atonement of sin.
  - Guilt (or trespass) Offering — these offerings were required to bring you back into good standing with the community after you willfully commited sin. Different sins had different costs, but these costs were not aborogated by what people could afford but by what the sin cost the person sinned against. This offering was not shared, it was for god alone.
  - Sin Offering — This offering served as a way of purifying yourself after the unintentional sin or defilement. It was also used as a way of acheiving ritual cleanliness. The animal offered depended on what you could afford. The person making the offering would not participate in the eating of it, but it would be consumed by the priests of the temple
- Voluntary offerings were made for peace, fortune and thanks
  - Burnt Offering — This offering was made for “general” atonement of sins, and a public expression of thanks and devotion to god. (think of david bringing the ark back to jerusalem). The offering was always a bull goat or dove/pigeon, and was burnt whole overnight. All of it was to be consumed by the fire except the animal skins that were given to the priests.
  - Peace Offering — This offering was made to consecrate a meal (or make covenant) between two or more parties before God and share that meal together in fellowship of peace and a commitment to each others’ future prosperity. The offering could include animal bread, and drink. The portions unsuitable for eating were given to God and burnt.
  - Grain Offering — Was made simply for thanksgiving to god for his goodness and providence. It was bread in any form, baked, fried, cereal, etc. It was giving to the priest, and some was offered to god and burned, and the rest was giving to the priests to eat.
- The highest form of offering was the thanksgiving (grain) offering (called the todah offering), simply made tothank god, for his goodness and his love. It usually was accompanied by drink and was consumed by the priests to ratify the offering.
He is the fullfillment of all of the previous sacrifices. In the eucharist, he is all of these offerings, he is the only matter that is sacrificed, and he give himself completely to us who are to recieve it wholely. not just the priests but all of us who are in communion with Him.

Jesus bonds Himself to His bride the church, in covenental marriage by the complete giving of Himself for all eternity.

Jesus conquers the death that Adam and Eve’s choice brought into the world, and through his death restore us all to life for eternity in heaven.
Marriage is a sacrament bestowed by the husband and wife. The total gift of one to another
Jesus in his marriage proposal on the cross gave his whole self to us.
We are then called to respond by giving ourselves completely to Him.
This is the new covenant. The perfection of love. And God (creator of everything) wants to have that with us.
What does it mean to give your self completely? What is the perfection of love? It is the Interchange between eros and agape
Jesus washing his disciples feet, shows us the way. His removing his divine cloak, kneeling to wash, rising again, and sitting in his throne at the last supper is a metaphor for his incarnation, humble sacrifice on the cross, resurrection, and ascension.
We are called to the same

Jesus gives us the sacraments to sustain us until the end

List all of the sacraments, and how they prepare us for the end… us my document on the sacraments as a starting point.
These things prepare us and sustain us for eternity in heaven.
The greatest of these is the eucharist. It is a foretaste of heaven, and the highest form of worship is the mass where the eucharist is shared.
the process of confession consists of forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration
- Forgiveness rooted in Justice
- Reconciliation rooted in trust
- Restoration is rooted in mercy and healing
IMPORANT: Every time a sinner sins, and reconciles, the covenant is renewed, and the bond of blood is re-established, because at every mass, we re-participate in His covenanatal sacrifice, and we renew the covenant.

“Upon reading this, supported with other teachings of the Fathers on the Eucharist, I came to believe in the Real Presence. But then the following chain of thoughts occurred to me: (1) Let us acknowledge that the Eucharist is truly transformed into the Body of Christ. (2) But does this happen when any Christian, at any time, prays over bread? Does every Christian have the power and authority to make bread into the true Body of the Lord? Surely that would be ridiculous and lead to abuses of all kinds: persons confecting the Eucharist in sacrilegious ways and treating the Eucharistic Lord without proper reverence. (3) Therefore, it must be the case that only certain persons, at certain times, can transform bread into the Body of Christ. (4) Who would those persons be, and what would those times be? Surely they must be persons authorized by the Church to do so at the times when the Church authorizes the Eucharist to be celebrated. (5) But to be entrusted by the Church with the authority to celebrate the Eucharist is an awesome responsibility that marks a person out from among the laity of the Church. (6) Therefore, the Real Presence…”—John Bergsma

The church is the shelter from the storm

Tebah min Tehom
- Tebah -- The ark of noah, or the ark that protected the 10 commandments, or the basket that carried baby Moses.
- Min -- from
- Tehom --The deluge that destroyed all life on the world, during god's flood.

Powers and Passions

By Thomas Aquinas

Passions

Am embodied response to physical stimuli. Love is the root of our passions.

Anticedent passions - those things that get out ahead of us. Out of control

Consequent passions - the virtuous response of properly caring out your passions.

Powers

Concupicible power - engages with the apprehended good or evil in as much as it causes pleasure or pain. These passions are Love, desire, pleasure, hated, aversion and sorrow.

the power as it pertains to good. First response to the good is love.
- Causes of love are goodness, knowledge and likeness
- Effects of love are union, mutual indwelling, ecstasy, and zeal
- if the good is absent it leads to desire, if the good is present, it leads to pleasure or joy
the power as it pertains to evil. the first response to evil is hatred.
- Hatred is not at the same level as love, but it is a choice or a movement of the soul away from love, or even an absence of love.
- if the evil is absent it leads to aversion, if the evil is present, it leads to pain or sorrow.

Irascible power - engages with good or evil in as much as it is difficult to obtain or avoid. These passions are hope, despair, daring, fear, anger

The power also contains the good and evil, just like the Concupicible power, but it also included an added dimension of approach or withdrawal.
The first power is hope — hope is a movement of approach towards a difficult or possible good.
Opposed to hope is despair — despair is a withdrawal away from a difficult or impossible good.
Daring is a movement of approach towards a difficult evil that is possible to overcome.
Fear is a movement of withdrawal away from a difficult evil that is impossible to overcome.
Anger is a movement of vengeance (apprehended as good) in a redress of an evil.

4 types of Law

Eternal Law — God’s law, His plan of creation. Everything he did in order to bring existence into being.
Natural Law — God’s “eternal” law imprinted on all of his creation.
Divine Law — God’s law shown to his creation through divine revelation.
Human Law — Laws of the nation, state, or city, designed to order civilization.

Heresies-

Docetism — Jesus only appears to be a man, and so only appears to suffer. Adoptionism — Jesus was a man that was adopted by God, rather than being god. Arianism — Jesus was created by God. This was condemned by the council of Nicea. Nestorianism — The word dwells within Jesus, but was not Jesus. This was condemned in the council of Ephesus, and then later re-condemned at the council of Chalcedon.

Scriptural Passages and quotes

Keep your eyes on the crucifix, Jesus without the cross is a man without a mission. And the cross without Jesus is a burden without a reliever. — Fulton Sheen

Jesus Paid a Debt He Didn’t Owe Because We Owed a Debt We Couldn’t Pay — Fulton Sheen

11: since the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement on the altar for yourselves, because it is the blood as life that makes atonement. — Leviticus 17:11 — NABRE

8: “Lord God,” he asked, “how will I know that I will possess it?” 9: He answered him: Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 10: He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up. 17: When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. 18: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram —Genesis 15:8-10, 17-18 — NABRE

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The Exodus Tablets

Chapter 19 god has moses gather all of the people of isreal at the bottom of the mountain. This is 3 months after the passover
- They are not allowed to approach the mountain lest they die.
- They are afraid of god, and try to run away, moses tells them to stay
Chapter 20 god gives the 10 commandments to the people directly from His own mouth as a voice from the heavens.
- The people are very afriad, and they ask moses to speak to god on their behalf.
For chapters 20 -24 he gives the whole of the law directly to the people, the law that he wants them to follow
Chapter 24 moses goes up the mountain into the cloud to write down the law and to learn from the lord how to teach the law to the people (this is the spoken version of the law).
For chapters 24 to 32 Moses is on the mountain. He is there for 40 days with no food and drink
God gave moses the first tablets, they were written by gods own hand.
Chapter 33 the people thinking that moses and god has abandoned them, asks arron for an idol that they can worship in place of the real god
- They were not worshiping a pagan god, but they fell for the lies of the pagans thinking that an idol would replace god.
- They took all of their gold jewlry etc, threw it in the fire, and the golden calf came out
- It was not fashioned by human hands, it just came out. So who made it, I suggest it was satan.
Moses is told by god that the people had fallen to idol worship, and heads down the mountain with the tablets made by god, and see what the people had done
He throws down the tablets and punishes them.
- The levites stayed true, and were given the task of destroying the worst offenders, 3000 were slain
- The idol was destroyed, and they were forced to eat it.
Chapter 35 - moses makes new tablets from his own hand

TAKE AWAYS

the people were afraid of god, and wanted to run away
They prefered a god of their own design rather than god himself
They were not worthy of the law given by god, and instead had to live under the law given by man (inspired by god).