Christ, Abraham, and Malchizedek: A Parallel

For Theology Class I have to read chapters 1-28 of Genesis by tomorrow (so I should be reading, not posting, actually, but anyway...). In chapter 14, verses 11-20 I found this very interesting parallel.

So basically there's all these kings (I skimmed that part with all their long unpronouncable names) and some sort of war, and kings charging through lands full of bituman pits (?). And these kings come charging through Sodom and Gomorah, plundering and looting as they go. Abraham finds out and gathers up his army of a big whopping 318 and goes and rescues the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorah since his relatives- Lot and his family- live there.

After the dust clears, the king of Sodom, Abraham, and the King of Salem meet in the Valley of Shaveh. And the King of Salem is Melchizedek, the priest who offers bread and wine.

The parallel I found was that Melchizedeck and Abraham are both Christ like figures. As you probably know, Sodom and Gomorah were not the most clean and righteous of cities. But Abraham goes and rescues all the inhabitants, not just his family. That's how Christ is. He spoke especially among the Jews, but salvation is not limited to them. No, it is extended to all people, even the most sinful and wretched.

And then we have the prefigurement of the Eucharist. Malchikedek offers the sacrafice of bread and wine even with the king of perverse Sodom right there. Judas was present at the last supper, and Jesus does not confine the sacrament of the Eucharist to only a select perfect few.

And just the other day I found out that there is significance in the number 72 when Jesus sends out 72 disciples to preach. At that time it was thought that there were 72 nations, indicating that Jesus is not confining His good news to just one nation, the Jews. No, Christs wants, through His disciples, all people to come to know Him. Christ came to save all mankind.

'Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshipd him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of hte Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."'

A FABULOUS 24 HOURS

WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY OF LAST WEEK WERE SO FABULOUS! SO LAST NIGHT MANY TMC STUDENTS INCLUDING MYSELF WENT TO THE BOSTON AQUARIUM BECAUSE LAST NIGHT WAS THE ANNUAL FREE COLLEGE STUDENT NIGHT. I SAW ALL THESE REALLY COOL FISH! I WAS SAD ABOUT SOME SAD THINGS HAPPENING IN MY LIFE AT HTE MOMENT, AND LOOKING AT ALL THOSE AMAZING FISH I FELT LIKE JOB, WHO I JUST READ ABOUT FOR THEOLOGY CLASS. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A FISH; WHO AM I TO QUESTION THE WAYS OF GOD?

THEN WE DECIDED TO WALK TO THIS COFFEE PLACE SINCE IT WAS A COLD RAINING NIGHT. GREAT! EXCEPT THAT THE SHOP SUGGESTED TURNED OUT TO BE ALMOST ALL THE WAY ONT HE OTHER SIDE OF BOSTON, SO WE HAD QUITE A WALK THROUGH RAINY NIGHT STREETS. BUT IT WAS FUN IN THE TOTAL RANDOMNESS SPONTINAITY OF IT ALL. IT WAS ANNOYING, I GUESS, ALL THAT WALKING, BUT I WAS DETIRMINED TO MAKE THE BEST OF IT.

AFTER GOING TO THE CAFE, WHERE I ORDERED GELATO ICE CREAM, WE WERE STANDING OUTSIDE AND THIS STREET MUSCICIAN CAME UP AND ASKED IF HE COULD PLAY FOR US. WE ALL PITCHED IN SOME MONEY AND I DECIDED TO PIPE UP AND ASK FOR A REALLY PRETTY ROMANTIC PEICE OF MUSIC THAT WAS A LITTLE SAD. SO HE PLAYED SEVERAL TUNES, I DON'T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THEM, SORRY. BUT THEY WERE LOVELY, AND THE WAY THE MUSIC ECHOED AGAINST THE BUILDING ON ON SIDE OF HIM AND WAS LOST INTO THE NIGHT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF HIM WAS QUITE FASCINATING.

THEN TODAY WAS THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY. I'M IN THE CHOIR AT TMC, AND FOR THE FEAST DAY THE CHOIR SANG THE AVE MARIS STELLA AND THE GREGORIAN CHANT AVE MARIA. IT WAS WONDERFULLY BEAUTIFUL BEINGA BLE TO SING. I PASSIONATELY LVOE MUSIC, AND IT'S ALL THE BETTER WHEN YOU CAN BE APRT OF IT, BECAUSE- HAVE YOU NITICED- MUSIC THAT IS PLAYED REALLY WELL IS ALIVE? HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT- THAT GOOD MUSIC IS ALIVE? AND THEN WHEN YOU'RE ACTUALLY PART OF THE MUSIC, PART OF YOUR OWN SOUL IS GOING INTO MAKING THAT SOUND BEAUTIFUL, AND IN ITS BEAUTY IS GROWS AND IS ALIVE.

THEN AFTER MASS I HAD NATURAL HISTORY, IN WHICH WE ARE LEARNING DIFFERENT TYPES OF TREES AND BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND. TODAY OUR TEACHER TOOK US ON A FIELD TRIP TO THE 'GREAT MEADOW NATURAL RESCOURCE'. IT'S A LOVELY PLACE. HE SHOWED US DIFFERENT TREES AND PLANTS, AND THEN GAVE US AN ASSIGNMENT AND WE WERE FREE TO EXPLORE FOR AN HOUR. THIS PHOTO IS VERY LIKE WHAT WE FOUND:

WELL, IT'S BEEN FABULOUS, I MUST SAY. KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS, AND I AM PRAYING FOR ALL OF YOU.

p.s. If you click on the pictures you can see them enitrely. None of the photoes except the religious painting were small enough to fit completely in the space Blogger gives, but if you click on them you can see the complete photo. Also click on the drawing below of Cardinal Newman that was drawn by my Dad!

Gallery II ~ My Dad

IN THIS SECOND GALLERY POST, I WOULD LIKE TO SHINE THE SPOTLIGHT ON MY DAD, IN HONOR OF HIS BIRTHDAY TO DAY (AND NAME SAINT FEAST DAY LAST THURSDAY, AS I RECALL)...

The drawing above is of Blessed Cardinal Newman, recently beatified by Pope Benedict XVI. It was done with charcoal from a photograph of Cardinal Newman.

Below is an oil painting of St. Bernadette. Dad worked on it for years. My mom and my brothers and I would come down to Dad's studio in the basement after he had spent all night awake painting and study the painting. Sometimes it was hard to tell what he had worked on all night, but other times it quite caught our breath away. my brothers and I refer to this painting as 'Dad's masterpeice'.




My dad has gone and still goes to several art clubs where artists will get together to paint a model. This is one his best from those sessions.

And here is the link to Dad's blog where you can find photoes of some more of his work: http://http://runartist.wordpress.com/

Feel free to comment on my Dad's blog!

Curious Observation

It has rained everyday this past week, almost non-stop. The only days it did not rain were Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday was particularly sunny.
Wednesday was the feast of the Archangels, Sts. Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. (St. Raphael is fantastic, by the way.)
Saturday was the feast of Guardian Angels.

Wisdom Chapter 6

You can find Wisdom Chapter 6 online here.

Keeping Wisdom's laws->Love-> desire of discipline-> Wisdom -> incorruptibly-> God

Of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, Self-control is the seventh. By self-control of the desire of discipline, we control our tendencies toward sin and keep our desire for goodness pure. As it is explained n chapters 1 ad 4, Wisdom cones to those who are good and pure. It is by love that we persevere in disciplining ourselves, for out of love of God and of what is good and of other people, we restrain ourselves from doing thoughtless and reckless things. Restraining ourselves from doing stupid things, keeping our desires pure, and acting accordingly is nothing less than living by Wisdom's laws. Living thus is living virtuously, which leads to heaven. So by desiring discipline, and keeping that desire alive and pure with love, and living according to it we receive Wisdom, the first of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. In this way we reach heaven where we will be forever united with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of Wisdom can be found here.

Although verses 3-15 are told from the point of view of wicked people, it is very truthful. Two things I find particularly insightful:
1) The connection between understanding and God. The minds of the wicked were clouded with sin so that they could not understand why the good were living as they were. As chapter 1 says, sin separates us from God, leaving us without wisdom, for "wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul." (1:4) This makes sense especially if the definition of wisdom is "the taste for goodness" as st. Bernard of Clairveiux said. For if one is in love with sins, one's 'tastes' are so askew that one cannot recognize goodness, and if one did 'taste' goodness, it would seem putrid. Catholic Masses always begin with the confiteor so that we may understand the wisdom spoken to us in the readings and Gospel and the living wisdom within us that is the Eucharist.
2) The lack of legacy. The good people have a legacy without going to any special effort to make a legacy. For when good things are done, they are good because they are done in God who is eternal. The wicked, however, leave no legacy, for there is no life except in God. And God draws even greater good from evil, so that everything that is wicked is eclipsed by God's goodness.
This chapter concludes with the destruction of the unwise, for not only are they unwise, but they are unwise because they are sinful and have rejected God.

Ascent and Prostrate

While hiking through the mountains as orientation for TMC last week, I thought of how all people seem to have a deep desire to ascend. We desire to strive,to go beyond limits, to soar and be unbonded. Perhaps that's why we climb mountains. It's like the mentality of the Tower of Babel wasn't just those people at that time. It is all of us always. And we are constantly building little Towers of Babel in our lives to be like ladders to carry us up. I think God has implanted this desire in us, as something curiously human, something to take us up to heaven where all that is human will be fulfilled in His magnificent glory. This desire then is a good and pure passion, and it drives us to seek purification and ascention from all that is muddied with sin and evilness. If sin is the lack of good, then sinning is lacking goodness. And if we are made to BE good, then sinning is ceasing, to some degree, to BE. Every time we sin we die a little.

Then during Mass that evening, kneeling on rock, it occured to me that it is when we lower ourselves that we become most human. It is when we cast ourselves down that we are entirely human, for it is then that everything in us in univocally in accord with what we are: lowly, helpless creatures before our awesome God. I think of when the priest prostrates himself at the Tres Ores on Good Friday- that is the true image of humanity. And every Tridentine Mass begins with the priest kneeling and begging God for forgiveness and to accept his prayers. And when we confess out sins, and when we recieve Christ in the Eucharist, we kneel.

It is when we cast ourselves down, accepting the patheticness of our fallen human state that God can elevate us. Only Christ could ascend, for He is God. Even the sinless Virgin Mary was carried into heaven- assumed. We cannot take ourselves up, but we can humble ourselves to accept God's help. So when we truly and sincerely cast ourselves down before God, kneel with all our hearts, and admit of the burden of our sins and our flaws- then God can lift our flaws and carry us up to Himself.

The next day I was really tired, and it was an even bigger mountain we were climbing, and then we had to climb all the way back down again, so my prayer was, "Lord what strength I have is in You. Carry me up, then help me back down again."

Wisdom Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of Wisdom can be found here.

I find it very interesting that it is in matters of chastity that the good prove their goodness and in death that the good are blessed. Humans have a spectacularly deep longing for union, given to us by God so that we will thirst for Him and seek Him. The ultimate union is between God and us in heaven. God gives us Himself to unite us to Himself on earth in the Eucharist.
And He gives union with friends, parents, sibling, and primarily with one's spouse to be like peices of heaven on earth so that we can help each other get to heaven. It is in living virtuously in these unions that we attain to the Ultimate Union, so that our passage to God - death - becomes a blessed thing. But those who distort and pervert the God-given unions with family and spouse defile themselves so that they cannot enter into the Ultimate Union with God forever in heaven. So it is very imprtant to be chaste; for as verse 11 and 12 say, perversion changes one's understanding so taht one's mind is twisted. Jesus said, "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God." (St. Matthew 5:8)