Jesus of Nazareth: Your Pattern for Postmodern Living · 2013-02-08 · Conference 2: Jesus of...

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Jesus of Nazareth: Your Pattern for Postmodern Living

Presented by Rev. Joseph Tetlow, S.J., Ph.D.

JESUS OF NAZARETH: YOUR PATTERN FOR POSTMODERN LIVING S T U D Y G U I D E

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Table of Contents

Program Summary ............................................................................................................... 4

About Your Presenter ........................................................................................................... 5

Conference 1: Jesus of Nazareth: Pattern for Postmodern Living ..................................... 6

Conference 2: Jesus of Nazareth’s Human Identity ........................................................... 9

Conference 3: Jesus’ Charism of Faith in the Father ....................................................... 12

Conference 4: Jesus’ Charism of Knowing God’s Will .................................................. 15

Conference 5: Jesus’ Authentic Character ....................................................................... 18

Conference 6: Jesus’ Charism of Spirituality .................................................................. 22

Conference 7: Jesus’ Charism of Authority ..................................................................... 26

Conference 8: Jesus: Reading of the Signs of His Times ................................................ 29

Conference 9: Jesus’ Charism of Physical and Moral Courage ...................................... 33

Conference 10: Jesus’ Charism of Human Liberty .......................................................... 36

Conference 11: Jesus’ Charism of Love and Friendship ................................................. 39

Conference 12: Jesus’ Charism of Humility .................................................................... 42

Prayer before the Crucifix .................................................................................................. 45

Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 46



Program Summary

Jesus of Nazareth stands at the center of the Christian faith. Now, you are

invited on a life-changing retreat that illustrates how Jesus’ human life can

provide you with a model for holy living today.

In our postmodern society, we live in a world of constant flux. Our lives

have become increasingly busy, and we are often bombarded with ever-

changing technologies. In such a world where everything seems relative, holding

on to absolute truths can prove challenging.

Now, you can join renowned Ignatian retreat leader, Rev. Joseph Tetlow,

S.J., in exploring the Christian search for meaning in this evolving world. As

you will discover, the full meaning of human life has been revealed through

Jesus of Nazareth. Looking at the immense body of biblical criticism and

scientific knowledge about Jesus’ times, you will come to “know Him more

clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly.”

This 12-lecture audio retreat provides a unique model of Jesus’ life as

pattern for postmodern living. Jesus was born in first-century Judaism and “grew

in wisdom, age, and grace.” Jesus went through the various stages of human life,

and by watching him, we learn a lot about ourselves. From Joseph, he learned

carpentry and what a good father is. From Mary, he learned domestic economy

and how the Holy Spirit appears.

You will explore Jesus’ spirituality, firmly rooted in Revelation and

nourished by constant prayer. Jesus lived the moral principles he taught: do unto

others, forgive seventy-seven times, and render unto Caesar. As His postmodern

disciples, we too are called to embrace these principles.

Through this retreat, you will discover Jesus’ human character: He was

compassionate and loyal, bold and tender, and a great friend. If we imitate Him,

we will be kind, humble, courageous, and we must look to the joyous

expectation of risen life. Jesus saw His trials, death, and resurrection as the will

of the Father. In this often overwhelming postmodern age, Jesus of Nazareth

holds out to us as a strong, steady light of hope.

Follow Him on this inspiring retreat today.



About Your Presenter

Rev. Joseph Allen Tetlow, S.J., Ph.D., is considered one of the world’s

leading experts on Ignatian spirituality. Rev. Tetlow served in Rome for 8 years

as Secretary for Ignatian Spirituality on the Jesuit General’s staff. He had earlier

been dean of Loyola University in New Orleans and President of the Jesuit

School of Theology at Berkeley. He was associate editor of the Jesuit weekly

magazine, America. For ten years, while conducting a final training program for

younger Jesuit priests, he acted as spiritual director to the clergy of the Austin

Diocese, an activity he continues in Dallas and Fort Worth. He has published

extensively, and his handbook on St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, Choosing

Christ in the World, has been translated into several languages (Korean, Polish,

Portuguese, Italian, and Mandarin, among others). He is the former director of

Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House at Lake Dallas, Texas, and he is currently

professor emeritus and writer-in-residence at Saint Louis University.



Conference 1: Jesus of Nazareth: Pattern for Postmodern Living

I. Opening prayer: We ask to know him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow

him more nearly (St. Aelred of Rievaulx, 1109–1167)

II. This retreat is based on Jesus’ saying, “Disciple is not superior to teacher; but the fully

trained disciple will be like the teacher” (Luke 6:40) .

A) We follow the One who said:

1) “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark but will

have the light of life” (John 8: 12).

2) “Anyone whom the Father gives me will come to me. I will certainly not reject anyone who

comes to me” (John 6:37).

B) We are created in “the image and likeness” of God (Genesis 1:26).

1) Image: intelligent, free, related, masculine/feminine, creative, everlasting

2) Likeness: we let the Holy Spirit work it in us, and we have to agree, saying yes

3) “I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14).

III. Early Church: Paul’s magnificent theology of Christlife

A) In the earliest Church, the first documents circulating were St. Paul’s letters.

B) 2 Corinthians 3:1, 18: “And all of us… are being transformed into the image.”

C) Romans 8:29: “For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his

Son.”

D) 1 Corinthians 15:49: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the

image of the heavenly.”

E) Colossians 3:10: “The new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him

that created him”

F) Colossians 1:15: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”

G) 1 Peter 1:13-15: “Be yourselves holy… the model of the Holy One … Scripture says, ‘Be holy,

for I am holy.’”

IV. Jesus of Nazareth is humankind’s teacher; invite Him to be your teacher.

A) Of Him, we come to see that He did the little given Him to do, and the Father filled it with power

and glory.



B) His little human life is the middle point of human history; all computers show 2012, anno

Domini.

C) If we are to imitate Jesus of Nazareth in this retreat, we need to know Him.

V. In these talks, I’ll invite you to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth—not the Christ, the

Universal Redeemer, but Jesus who was “the carpenter’s son.” We will look at:

A) His identity that gives us a pattern for postmodern living

B) His human identity

C) His charism of faith and trust in God the Father

D) His charism of knowing God’s will

E) His characteristics: His definite, crystalline character and His time and place

F) A deep spirituality, rooted in The People and the Covenant, and fired by the Holy Spirit

G) How Jesus displayed an authority sometimes astonishing

H) How Jesus read what we call “the signs of the times”: He knew His people and their plight

I) How he showed real physical and moral courage in that situation

J) How Jesus showed profound human freedom, even though He was constrained by human power

and the divine Will

K) How He exercised His human freedom as a model of love and friendship

L) How He humbled Himself to come and be among us

VI. Remember to ask constantly for this grace: in the words of St. Aelred of Rievaulx, to

“know him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly.”



REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Are you open to considering how you might be like Jesus of Nazareth?

2. What does Jesus have to say to a thorough scientist? To the citizen of a democracy?

3. In what ways has Jesus of Nazareth had an impact on human history? In what ways does our world still

need Him?



Conference 2: Jesus of Nazareth’s Human Identity

I. “Disciple is not superior to teacher; but the fully trained disciple will be like the

teacher” (Luke.6:40)

A) We are created in “the image” of God; we are called to grow into His “likeness.”

B) To be like Jesus of Nazareth, we need to know Him.

C) “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

II. Jesus was aware of His identity; He was a “self-aware” man.

A) He was joyfully alive and loved Himself: this is all about His holy, divine self-love.

B) He knew that His humanity was “aimed” at God, that He was with and for God always.

C) “What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole world and forfeit or lose his very self?” (Luke

9:25)

III. When we ask our question, we ask it at the end of modernism, in postmodernity.

A) Secularism in nation, church, and the family

B) We must choose the “communion” to which we belong: we are choosing the Mystical Body.

IV. Jesus knew that we have to dig deep into ourselves: “The man who, when he built a

house, dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock” (Luke 6:48).

A) Modernity produced the “expressive individualist”: I have to be me/I have to do my own thing

B) Postmodernity is learning to belong, and we choose this.

V. Jesus “knew” the ultimate particle: information

A) Science is now toying with the conviction that the ultimate “particle” is not the boson but

information, that is, design.

B) Jesus was given mystical knowledge to know the design “from before time was” and to embody

it in His own habits, character, life, and self.

VI. “For their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth” (John

17:18).

A) Jesus gives us the pattern for living in a world afraid of design and yearning to be free.

B) About His followers, Jesus said this: “I tell you, of all the children born to women, there is no

one greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).


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VII. Jesus was seized by the Holy Spirit in the Transfiguration.

A) And long before that, he was “filled with the Spirit.”

B) That Spirit formed Him as a man and continues to form us on the same pattern.




1. How would you answer Jesus, if He asked you, “What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole world and

forfeit or lose his very self?” (Luke 9:25)

2. Consider carefully how you take my identity from the Church. What makes you belong to the Church?

3. What do you tell yourself about the purpose of your life? Where are you? Where are you going?



Conference 3: Jesus’ Charism of Faith in the Father

I. Jesus of Nazareth accepted to be a man in all things.

A) “He grew in wisdom, age, and grace” (Luke 2:40).

B) He came to share our humanity so that He could share with us His divinity (St. Augustine).

C) He had a complex attitude toward and relationship with the Father.

II. Origin: Jesus knew that He had been chosen by the Father; His origin was the Father.

A) Baptism: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on him” (Matthew 3:17).

B) We are His brothers and sisters, a relationship granted by God to us.

III. Giver of Gifts: Jesus knew that the Twelve were chosen for him by the Father.

A) “I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me” (John 17:9): the Twelve given

to Him

B) Transfiguration

1) Gift of prayer: Moses/Elijah

2) Revelations: “What he would undergo”

3) Resurrection of the body: They “did not understand what he was talking about” (Luke 9:35).

IV. Trustworthy Source: For Jesus, the Father is utterly trustworthy.

A) “Your heavenly Father knows you need them all”: bread, clothes, sun (Matthew 6:32)

B) Jesus did what he told the Twelve to do: “Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor

haversack, nor bread, nor money; and do not have a spare tunic” (Luke 9:3).

V. Loving: Jesus’ feelings about the Father begin in love and never leave loving Him.

A) “Made your name known… so that the love with which you loved me may be in them” (John

17:26)

B) Generous: the importunate friend—the Father is readier to give than you are to ask

VI. Familiar: Jesus was very close to His Father.

A) “All I have is yours and all you have is mine” (John 17:10).

B) “In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name” (John 16: 23).



VII. Holy and Just: For Jesus, the Father is both holy and just.

A) The Father as vinedresser: “Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he cuts away” (John 15:2).

B) “As for my enemies who did not want me for their king, bring them here and execute them in my

presence” (Luke 19:27).

VIII. Fearsome yet Merciful: Jesus knew that Almighty God was fearful, but also that His

mercy was complete.

A) After warning about the “power to cast into hell,” Jesus goes right into God’s mercy: “Can you

not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet no one is forgotten in God’s sight. Why, every

hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than many

sparrows” (Luke 12:6).

B) The Prodigal Father (Luke 15:11-32)

IX. Intimate: Jesus knew the Holy Spirit intimately from His mother and father and from

experience.

A) “I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete” (John 14:16).




1. What image or figure comes to mind when you think about God?

2. How does God the Father fit into your understanding of the Big Bang and the universe?

3. How do you think God is just?

4. What makes you think that God is kind and merciful?

5. Can you imagine that the Almighty Father has chosen you as His own beloved?

6. If you are in Jesus’ likeness, do you feel love? Do you want to be loved? Whom are you to love and be

loved by?



Conference 4: Jesus’ Charism of Knowing God’s Will

I. We know three things about Jesus and the Father’s will.

A) First, God is benevolent; He put God’s will before everything, not hesitating even when faced

with death.

B) Second, He knew what God wanted when He saw something He MUST do.

C) Third, He knew what the Father wanted when He saw someone’s NEED that he could meet.

II. Jesus KNEW and said, “The son of man can do only what he sees the Father doing”

(John 5:19).

A) “Ask and it will be given you; seek, you will find; knock, and it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7).

He experienced this.

B) He lets his rain fall on the just and unjust alike (Matthew 5:45). He saw this.

C) “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the

clever and revealing them to little children” (Matthew 11:25).

III. All through His life, Jesus knew what God wanted when He saw something He MUST

do.

A) Boy: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

(Luke 2:45)

B) Youth (Capernaum): “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns,

too, because that is what I was sent to do” (Luke 4:43).

C) Syrophoenician: “And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold [the Jewish nation],

and I must lead these too” (John 10:16).

D) After transfiguration: Jesus was going to suffer to save the people. “As Moses lifted up the snake

in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted” (John 3:14).

E) At the end: In the garden, Peter takes his sword to a soldier and Jesus stopped him: “How would

the scriptures be fulfilled that say this is the way it must be?” (Matthew 26:54)

F) Resurrected: Emmaus: “This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that

everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, [must] be

fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).

IV. When Jesus saw someone with a need that He could respond to, He knew what the

Father wanted.

A) At Cana: “You have kept the best wine till now” (John 2:10).



B) Early on: Nicodemus “who came to Jesus by night” because he needed secrecy (John 3:2)

C) Middle journey: at the well: “How is it you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?” (John

4:9)

D) Toward the end: Woman taken in adultery: “Neither do I condemn you. Go away, and from now

on, sin no more” (John 8:11).

V. Conclusion

A) “As long as day lasts, WE must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be

here when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world” (John 9:4).

B) “YOU are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).




1. Do you really think that the world, things that happen, and your life situation are all part God’s will?

2. Do you really take as God’s will for you those things that you must do to fulfill your vocation and to help

your family and friends?

3. Do you remember to ask what God might want when you face some decision?

4. Can you honestly let yourself think that, in God’s providence, you are somehow the “light” of your world

and the “salt” of your little part of the earth?

5. Whom can you help?



Conference 5: Jesus’ Authentic Character

I. Character sums up the patterns a man develops relating with his others and his world.

II. Character is a fixed set of habits, virtuous and not virtuous: moral, emotional, social,

intellectual, religious, and even political; rising out of nature, nurture, or free choice;

usually shaped in a community; and generally reformable.

III. Look at Jesus’ character as He was: courageous; a leader; authority; discerning “signs

of the times.”

IV. Jesus’ character

A) Positive

1) “When someone is given a great deal, a great deal will be demanded of them” (Luke 12:48).

2) Jesus knew His power and the authority given Him, and He said yes to having it and being

accountable for it all.

B) Available

1) Always went when invited; no “maybe”

2) St. Paul (2 Corinthians 1:19): Everything in Jesus is yes.

C) Hopeful

1) He saw this world as passing and temporal and looked to heaven and eternal life.

2) “Rejoice instead that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:17-24).

3) “We are full of confidence, then, and long to be exiled from the body and at home with the

Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

D) Attentive

1) “Come aside and rest awhile.”

2) When the Twelve returned from work in ministry, He noticed they were tired and invited

them to leisure.

3) Jesus always had time to have dinner with someone—anyone!

E) Friendly and popular

1) “And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came

from his lips” (Luke 4:23).



2) Friends of two Sadducees who cross the Jordan, Nicodemus, Lazarus, and Simon the

Pharisee

3) Enemies want to kill Him “but could not because of the people.”

F) Courteous

1) When Simon didn’t give Him water for His hands, He didn’t make a scene, but mentioned it

only when the woman began to wash His feet with her tears.

2) The Gerasenes asked Him to go away, so, “He got back in the boat, crossed the water and

came to his home town” (Matthew 9:1).

3) Ten accusers of woman in adultery: could have “outed” them

G) Loyal: faithful to the Covenant and prayers

1) Counter-cultural pattern, e.g., support parents: “And why do you break away from the

commandments of GOD for the sake of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

2) Pharisees opposed Rome: “Render unto Caesar…”

3) Religious teachings: “You have heard it said, but I say to you….”

H) Forthright, clear

1) He could have curried favor of the powerful but instead told them, “It is not the healthy who

need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

I) Truthful

1) “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

2) “Even though I am testifying on my own behalf, my testimony is still true because I know

where I have come from and where I am going” (John 8:14).

3) “I am telling you the truth” (John 16:7).

J) Bold and made enemies

1) “When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your

liberation is near at hand” (Luke 21:28).

2) He turned His face toward Jerusalem “resolutely.”

K) Prayerful: “After saying goodbye to them he went off into the hills to pray” (Mark 6:46).

L) Compassionate and tender

1) He looked for those who needed help: “Do you want to be healed?” (at Bethsaida)



2) He foretold destruction of Jerusalem and thought mainly of the little people: “Alas for those

with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!” (Luke 21:23)

M) Sweet and generous of heart

1) He came across the Widow of Nain burying her only son and said to her: “Don’t cry” (Luke

7:13).

N) With a sense of humor

1) “Zacchaeus, come down.”

2) At Cana: Not just wine, but good wine: “Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine

when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now” (John 2:10).

O) Forgiving, not holding grudges or bearing resentment: “Peter, do you love me?”




1. If you were writing a reference for Jesus, how would you describe His “character”?

2. What would someone who knows you well make of your character?

3. What qualities, habits, and attitudes do you wish to keep or to develop in your character?

4. How can you figure that you are among the “little ones” to whom the Father has revealed the truth?



Conference 6: Jesus’ Charism of Spirituality

I. Spirituality means at least these five things.

A) Living a virtuous life: prudent, just, temperate, hopeful, loving; virtue=authority and ability to do

right

B) Praying both in public worship and in an interior way

C) Having a purpose in life and keeping it in focus

D) Enacting the virtues, prayer, and the relationships you have

E) Trusting in God and living content

II. Prayer

A) Jesus prayed a lot.

1) “In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house and sent off to a lonely place

and prayed there” (Mark 1:20).

2) Before multiplication of the loaves

3) After Transfiguration

(a) Apostles who had done it before couldn’t in this case.

(b) Why? “Driven out by prayer”

4) Jesus often prayed before healing.

B) Jesus showed that He used many methods in prayer.

1) Consideration: “Consider the lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:28).

2) Fantasy: “When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will

take his seat on his throne of glory” (Matthew 25:31).

C) Jesus asked the Father for what He needed and discerned in prayer.

1) “Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the

whole night in prayer to God.” Then He called the Twelve, with Judas (Luke 6:12).

2) “Ask and you will receive.”

3) Cures: “He looked up to heaven, sighed…” (Mark 7:34)



III. Jesus’ spirituality begins with gratitude.

A) “Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I myself know that you hear me always, but I speak

for the sake of all these” (John 11:41).

B) “I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these from the wise…” (Matthew 11:25)

C) When they roll away the stone from Lazarus’s tomb, He says, “I think thee, Father, that you hear

me…” (John 11:45)

IV. Jesus had total trust in God.

A) As a12 year old, he went back home.

B) He knew powers, but had no “ego” invested in them.

C) He accepted all his “musts” as from the Father

D) Emmaus: “Did you not know that these things had to happen to fulfill the prophecies?”

V. Jesus cherished self-knowledge.

A) The woman washed His feet; the Pharisee didn’t even wash His hands: “A person who is

forgiven little shows only little love” (Luke 7:50)

B) Matthew 5:17: We shouldn’t even want to commit sins: adultery, murder, revenge. Jesus

expected His followers to know themselves and their desires.

VI. Jesus practiced self-denial in many ways.

A) “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every

day and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

B) Renounced self-indulgence: THIS is what he condemned

C) St. Paul to Galatians: what self-indulgence leads to

VII. Jesus thought and reflected on his own place in the history of the People. What can one

man do?

A) “Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me and . . . the one

who sent me” (Luke 10:16).

B) No fake modesty—“Oh, not me?!” He knew he would be lifted up and save all humankind.

C) He knew He was chosen (“this is My Son”).

D) In Jesus, everything is YES—not yes/no.



VIII. Finally, Jesus’ spirituality breathed obedience to God, to what the Father is making

Him, even in the end: “Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, now I, would

have it” (Mark 14:36)

IX. Love: for God, for His own, and even for enemies

A) Jesus a “lover”

B) Think of the women who followed Him, the Twelve, and John, the “disciple Jesus loved.”




1. What goes into your spirituality?

2. What in Jesus’ spirituality helps you to know yourself?

3. What in Jesus’ spirituality are you able and willing to imitate as His follower?

4. How would Jesus interact with the political system in the United States today? What about paying taxes?

5. When do you seem to be praying as Jesus prayed, and how can you tell when you are?



Conference 7: Jesus’ Charism of Authority

I. Note these two things about authority:

A) Power means you can make others do what you want, whether they want to or not. Power is

Pilate or Pol Pot putting people to death. It is a terrorist torturing a captive. Jesus saw people in

Satan’s power.

B) Authority helps others see what is good and brings them to be willing to do it. Gucci, Oprah

Winfrey, the Tea Party, and Neiman Marcus have authority. Jesus invited the Twelve.

II. Power

A) Jesus of Nazareth showed power over nature: “He rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a

great calm” (Matthew 8:26.)

1) Jesus asked the Father to perform miracles, and so should we.

2) First multiplication of loaves: “Raised His eyes to heaven;” 12 full baskets were left over

(Mark 6:41).

3) Even in distances: Canaanite woman, Tyre and Sidon, centurion’s little servant

B) Jesus had power over sicknesses

1) Jesus came down from a night in prayer, “and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him

because power came out of him that cured them all” (Luke 6:19).

2) Jesus healed blindness, paralysis, deafness, the grand mal, fevers, and leprosy.

3) Withered hand: “Stretch out your hand!” (Mark 3:5)

4) He touched the blind man Bethsaida outside the village and spit on his eyes (Mark 8:23).

C) Jesus has power over death.

1) At Bethany, Lazarus had been in his grave four days, and Jesus wept, prayed to the Father,

and shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And he came out, alive again (John 11:41).

2) Jairus’s daughter dead: Jesus takes her hand and says, Talitha kum (Mark 5:45).

3) The widow of Nain: Jesus raises the dead son.

4) Stories today

(a) Raoul: Papa—here they are!

(b) My cousin R.E.

(c) Jolley’s mother: “No sleep around here tonight”



D) Jesus had power over demons, and they knew it.

1) In the synagogue at Capernaum a devil shouted, “What do you want with us, Jesus of

Nazareth? Do you come to destroy us?” (Mark 1:24)

2) The Gadarene demoniac

3) “They brought to him many with demons, and he drove the spirits out and healed them”

(Matthew 8:16)

III. Authority

A) Jesus has the authority to forgive sin, so He healed people “to prove to you that the Son of man

has authority to forgive sins on earth.”

1) To prove He had authority

2) “We have never seen anything like this” (Mark 2:12).

B) Responsible men questioned his authority

1) “What authority have you for acting like this? Or who gave you authority to act like this?”

2) He asked them on the Baptist: “We don’t know.” He refused to answer them (Mark 11:28).

3) On the Feast of Shelters, Pharisees try to arrest him: “No one has ever spoken like this man”

(John 7:46).

IV. Jesus gives this power to his disciples from their very first mission.

A) “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin-diseases, drive out

devils” (Matthew 10:8).

B) Jesus chose not to use his power for himself: “Others he saved, let him save himself”

(Luke 23:35).

C) Yet the Father heard Him: “Cried out loud… into Your hands & breathed his last” (Luke 23:46)

D) They gave Him vinegar: “It is finished, and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).




1. What authority do you sense in Jesus’ voice in the gospels? Does “take up your cross” speak to you?

2. Do you feel any sense of the power of the Evil One still at work?

3. Do you feel any fear at all at the power of the One who can condemn you to Hell after death? What kind

of fear?

4. Do you believe that Jesus “will come to judge the living and the dead?” How do you think it will happen?



Conference 8: Jesus: Reading of the Signs of His Times

I. What was Jesus’ world like?

A) What were His days, weeks, and years like?

B) If we are to imitate Him in our place and time, we would be smart to remember as much as we

can about Him in His place and time.

II. The Temple

A) The Temple was the center of life and of the universe. Jesus found it violated, the Court of

Gentiles, a marketplace.

B) “Does not scripture say: My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have

turned it into a bandits’ den” (Mark 11:15).

C) As a boy, Jesus went with Mary and Joseph, holding hands. He was in awe and reverence until

He was old enough to shape His own opinion.

III. Upbringing

A) Jesus was reared by Mary and Joseph, who did “everything the Law of the Lord required,” and

Jesus grew up with a good mother and father (Luke 2:39).

1) He was reared well, was given boundaries, and shared beliefs.

2) Jesus knew His “father” from Joseph.

B) Jesus knew domestic work and materials; he watched Mary work. “It is like the yeast a woman

took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through” (Luke 13:20).

1) Breakfast on the shore; oils and fragrances; salt loses savor; weaving; the lost penny

2) Jesus knew farming and husbandry, and He might have been a construction worker at

Sepphoris (perhaps with Joseph).

3) Mustard seed; wheat and tares planted; good harvest needs bigger barn

4) The Father as an orchard owner

(a) “Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” (Luke 13:7)

(b) “Sir, leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it” (Luke 13:8).

5) The Father a vintner (trims vine to make it more fruitful); Prodigal Father

IV. Work

A) Jesus “Son of Joseph the Carpenter” had a workman’s hard hands.



1) Sepphoris: Joseph settled in Nazareth, an hour walk from lots of work; he and Jesus may

have worked together.

2) Jesus’ hands were hard.

B) Jesus started learning the Law at about ten and really knew it, not to become a lawyer, but to heal

hearts: “This people honors me only with their lips, while their hearts are far from me”

(Psalm 78:36)

C) Joseph dies; Jesus becomes a working man to support Mary.

1) A working man, He knew what pay meant: “The laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:7).

2) Herod Antipas: in 20 A.D. built Tiberius, the capital, and settled Galileans there

V. Society

A) Society as Jesus knew it was rigidly divided into classes. Jesus dealt with all equally, but His

heart was with the little people.

1) “He noticed a poverty-stricken widow putting in two small coins… more than any of them…

they gave what they could spare…she, all she had to live on” (Luke 21:2).

2) Prejudices

(a) “Galileans—what good from there?”

(b) Samaritans (the good man was a Samaritan and a Jew was the victim in John 10)

3) Jesus: NO hatred! No despising public servants

B) A sign of all times: pay your taxes. The authorities tried to get Jesus in trouble, but he was clear.

1) “Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and God what belongs to God” (Mark 12:16)

2) Intelligent folk differ about government

(a) “Bought Congress”

(b) Church social teaching

(c) “Socialism!”

C) Jesus was socially easy with the wealthy and powerful.

1) “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5).

2) Knew “place” at table

D) He associated with the prostitutes and tax collectors.

1) He put up with tax collectors, dined with them, and chose one as His apostle.



2) “In his honor Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large

gathering of tax collectors and others” (Luke 5:29).

E) A great divide fell between wealthy and powerful and the poor. Jesus treated everyone with

grace, but He said, “Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: you shall go hungry; alas for you

who are laughing now; you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:24).




1. What do you think about “the little people” with whom Jesus spent time? What about the poor?

2. In what ways can you see the “kingdom of God” already working in the real world today?

3. How deeply do you accept the Church’s teaching about the dignity of labor of all kinds?

4. How far do you accept Jesus’ attitude of compassion for the poor and the rich, the little and the powerful?

5. How can you be compassionate with someone who is trying to destroy our nation?



Conference 9: Jesus’ Charism of Physical and Moral Courage

I. Nagasaki, Japan, February 5, 1597: Paul Miki hangs on a cross. He declares: “I obey

Christ. After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God

to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

II. Courage

A) Courage is the ability and will to pursue your purposes and goals in all circumstances, even

threatening, and to defend yourself and your own against opposition.

B) For us, courage is the ability and will to profess gladly, and even to proclaim, our beliefs and

convictions in Christ, even where they are not welcomed.

III. The ride into Jerusalem showed physical courage: “He taught in the Temple every day”

(Luke 19:47).

A) Judas is conspiring and has been paid 30 pieces of silver to set Him up.

B) Jesus enters Jerusalem to a cheering crowd, which threatened Pharisees and the Romans, as Jesus

knew.

C) Jesus clears out the Temple: the Gentile Court was a business center.

D) Jesus tells the parable about the wicked tenants—the elites (Luke 20:19).

IV. Moral Courage

A) Jesus showed moral courage to do right while being damned: “Then he looked round at them all

and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored” (Luke 6:10)

B) He openly and steadily dissented, challenging the Pharisees and Sadducees for their dress and

habits.

1) He kept challenging the leaders, even as their anger and hatred kept growing.

2) “Every tree can be told by its own fruit… Good people draw what is good from the store of

goodness in their hearts; bad people draw what is bed from the store of badness” (Luke 6:44).

3) Before Annas and Caiaphas: “Why ask me? Ask my hearers what I taught; they know what I

said” (John 18:21).

V. A little deeper: Jesus showed bravery, perseverance, honesty, and zest.

A) Bravery

1) Pharisees rejected the Roman tax, and to put Jesus in danger, they push.

2) His answer: “Whose image is this?”



3) They surround Him with stones: “Many good works: for which of stoning me?” (John 10:33)

B) Perseverance

1) He chosen Capernaum, but “I have to go to other towns to declare Good News.”

2) “How long will I have to put up with you?”

C) Honesty takes courage.

1) At the arrest, to Roman soldiers: “I told you that I am he” (John 18:8).

2) Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus said plainly that He is the Son of God (Luke 22:71).

3) Before Pilate, knowing that Pilate would misunderstand: “It is as you say” (Mark 15:2).

D) Courage is not grim, but full of zest.

1) He looks up into a tree and calls Zacchaeus down.

2) He tells the Sanhedrin, “I am [the Christ]” and adds “Power and Glory” (Mark 14:62).

VI. Courage is not the absence of fear.

A) His prayer in the Garden was agony; he sweated blood (Luke 18:32).

B) “Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face

towards Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

C) “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will tell you whom

to fear: fear him who, after he has killed has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, he is the

one to fear” (Luke 12:4).




1. Have you ever been horribly afraid? Did you call on God and trust?

2. How does belief in Jesus Christ demand courage in this postmodern time?

3. How does belonging to the Church require courage?

4. When does a Catholic need to be courageous?



Conference 10: Jesus’ Charism of Human Liberty

I. The Second Person of the Trinity

A) “Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But

he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in

every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross”

(Philippians 2:6-8).

B) A mystery we cannot comprehend: the Maker of all freely limits himself to be human.

C) This Person—unlimited, infinite, eternal—wraps Himself in human skin, like an astronaut in

gear.

D) Jesus’ human freedom is exercised heroically in the Agony in the Garden.

E) We have to fight the “self” that our world believes in: totally innocent & pure—a lie.

II. Jesus the 12-year-old stays in the Temple to be a lawyer— his Father’s business”—and

freely goes home.

A) Obeyed: freely spent 30 years in very, very simple human life.

B) Parents spend 20 years rearing children; older people embrace years of “doing nothing” in

retirement.

III. Jesus, who as Person is utterly united in Trinity, dares to be alone in the desert.

A) No support, no one else

B) Today: Twitter, TV, Google, iPhones—we are afraid of “all one” or “one-ly me”

IV. Jesus is the model not of modern but of postmodern freedom.

A) Modernism

1) “I have to be me.”

2) “Expressive individualism”

3) I “make my own meaning.”

B) Postmodernism

1) Me in communion

2) Not fractured into categories: M/F, Dem/Rep, N/S, PhD/illiterate

C) “Good tree, good fruit; bad tree, bad fruit”: the truth about human nature “fallen”

D) Drinking from the same river in Bengal: all of us in the same culture in the U.S.



V. Jesus enacted human freedom in poverty and labor.

A) Freed Himself of fashion, fancy dress, higher education, power politics [N.Y. friend from 3rd

to

30th

floor, dress, customs]

B) He was not enslaved by any sin.

C) He was not too much attached to any creature.

D) He never worried about what others thought about Him.

E) “I have not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it” with the law of love: truest freedom.

1) True human freedom is limited and circumscribed.

2) Jesus models true human freedom

F) Free of burden of attachments: “I must go to other towns,” leaving HIS town, Capernaum.

G) Freed others from attachments and sins: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down.”

H) Freed Himself from politics of division (Pharisees versus Sadducees, those pro-Roman and those

anti-Roman); instead, Jesus believed “the truth will make you free.”

VI. Jesus wanted others to be free.

A) He always asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41).

B) Free of the burden of ambition and power: “The greatest among you must behave as if he were

the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves” (Luke 22:26).

C) Free of burden of ego and selfishness

D) Freed, the Holy Spirit leads to greater things: “You will do greater things than these.”

E) John XXIII, Vatican II, St. Benedict for millions, Mother Theresa, the Curies

VII. He used his own freedom for us.

A) “The passersby jeered at him” (Mark 15:29).

B) The leaders: “He saved others; let him save himself” (Luke 23:35).

C) But he would not use His power only to save His human life from the final human experience to

be embraced. Instead, he said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46), and he

died.




1. Are you free to be alone for a time? How can you do so?

2. What are you currently attached to, and where does your real freedom lie?

3. What limits on you freedom vex you? What limits help to make you content and happy?

4. Are you free to be joyful when something hard happens, confident that it is the Lord?



Conference 11: Jesus’ Charism of Love and Friendship

I. Jesus loved many people.

A) The Twelve returned from their mission and Jesus “took them with him and withdrew… by

themselves” (Luke 9:1).

B) Jesus “looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him” (Mark 10:21).

C) To Calvary, “large numbers of people followed him, and women too, who mourned and

lamented for him” (Luke 23:27).

D) His “tunic” (a long T-shirt, a one-piece woven probably by His mother or a female friend)

II. Jesus was very approachable, but:

A) In Capernaum, “at sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind of

another brought them to him” (Luke 4:40).

B) Four friends lowered Him through the roof—He wouldn’t be angry and reject them.

III. Friends

A) Jesus had many kinds of friends.

1) Fishermen and rich men, Sadducees and tax collectors, women and men

2) Made and deepened by conversation; “communications” like Facebook cut us off.

B) He cared for His friends and protected them.

1) He fed them twice with multiplying loaves and fishes.

2) He defended them in the cornfield and at the arrest.

3) In little things

(a) Cured Simon’s mother-in-law

(b) Warned them about spirit of pharisaism

C) Jesus had special friends.

1) Seventy-two, twelve, three, and little John

(a) Mary Magdalene first

(b) The Gadarene

(c) The lawyer



2) Peter “more special,” not just “pope”

(a) Walking on water

(b) “Who say I am?”

(c) “Do you love me?”

3) Little John: “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and to whom he entrusted His mother

D) Love of enemies

1) “You must set no bounds on your love, just as your heavenly Father sets none on his.”

2) Sun shines on the bad and good, and rain falls on the just and wicked (Matthew 5:48).

E) John the Baptist

1) “When Jesus received this news [Baptist beheaded] he withdrew by boat to a lonely place”

(Matthew 14:13).

2) Jesus and John the Baptist knew each other well: “I baptize you.” Jesus grieved when he was

murdered.

IV. “Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him” (Mark 10:21).

1) Jesus honors the young man’s freedom, even in His invitation to him.

2) We need to recognize a spark that the Spirit of Love ignites in Jesus and in us.

3) The distinction between “like and love”: not in scripture, but invented in Hell; bound to be

some; ask to love them!

V. All of this enriches the “Great Commandment”

A) A well-ordered love for God makes real love for others unavoidable.

B) Jesus’ loves were empowered by His Father’s love: “This is my Son, the Beloved”

(Matthew 3:17).

C) Jesus guarded His holy self-love, so He could “love His neighbor as Himself.”

D) Jesus learned love from His father Joseph, who “named him Jesus,” which means Joseph adopted

Jesus as his son (Matthew 1:35).

VI. Go back to the end of Mark’s story about the rich young man: Jesus feels compassion

for him.

A) “Come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).

B) When he couldn’t, Jesus felt compassion: “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the

kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:22)




1. What have the loves and friendships in your life to do with life in Christ?

2. What do Jesus of Nazareth’s friendships tell you about your friendships?

3. Where is the spiritual growth in your loves and friendships?

4. Are there “riches” keeping you from being closer to Jesus?

5. What would it be like if Jesus looked at you, loved you, and said, “follow me”?



Conference 12: Jesus’ Charism of Humility

I. The story of the Gadarene demoniac (Luke 8:26-39): a story of spiritual power, care for

a wretched person, and then civil rejection that is accepted humbly

II. Jesus’ world

A) Jesus accepted to be born into first century Judaism, reared in it, lived it: not its best time.

1) Pharisees, Sadducees, Romans—and John the Baptist “disturbing”

2) Jesus bought into the Law, Tradition: “Nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new.

The old is good, he says” (Luke 6:29).

3) Jesus had to “let go” of what He had been taught; this requires humility to create “new wine

skins.”

B) Jesus grew up in Galilee and accepted to be the “Galilean;” the Father gave Him this.

1) “What good comes from there?” In popular opinion, it was nowhere.

2) Jesus came to adulthood from “nowhere.”

3) No word of complaint

III. Humble roots

A) Jesus’ mother had no family tree; she was a humble girl from the country.

1) He came to human self-awareness in her lap, relating to the Holy Spirit she knew about.

2) He learned how to “rejoice in God my Savior” from her.

3) What was his mother like?

B) Joseph was His father; as everyone knew, as He was “the son of Joseph, the carpenter.”

1) His prayers sounded just like Joseph’s, and his worked looked just like Joseph’s.

2) Joseph loved his lady, she loved him, and they loved the Boy; He learned human love from

them.

3) Jesus learned what a father’s love is from Joseph, a humble workman from “nowhere.”

IV. Jesus had a “master” without name or fame, in a backwater synagogue.

A) He began around ten to learn, and learned from a nameless master.

B) His learning freed Him and required Him to argue with the learned scribes and priests.

C) Jesus must argue with the leaders; He knew they were guiding wrongly.



D) Humility is doing what you know you must, even if it makes you a leader, famous, or dangerous.

V. Jesus accepted into His friendship and His self those whom the Father had assigned for

Him.

A) Some were learned, some were rich.

B) Some were humble fishermen, little people with whom Jesus loved to be.

C) “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the

clever and revealing them to little children” (Luke 10:21).

D) He listened to His friends.

1) “Who do people say that I am?” (Mark 8:33)

2) Not always agreeing: “Behind me, Satan!”

VI. Jesus was a humble Teacher and a humble Master

A) No Phi Beta Kappa fishermen

B) Capernaum, after the discourse about the Bread: “Do you want to leave, too?” (John 6:59)

VII. A complete human and holy man, Jesus accepted rejection by His people.

A) His friends abandoned Him, and He protected them so they could run away.

B) The rejection of “the entire population of the Gerasene territory” is symbolic.

VIII. Jesus was executed as a disturber of the peace.

A) Savagely tortured, stripped naked, and jeered at, He bore it in silence.

B) He forgave His murderers while they were doing it.

C) He had to let His mother watch all of this, powerless to prevent it.




1. Do you accept willingly yours parents and family?

2. Can you go against current negativity and just be grateful to be “an American”?

3. Do you look down on any of your co-parishioners, colleagues, or friends?

4. How do you fit into your time and place, and how can you imitate Jesus of Nazareth?

5. What was changing in Jesus’ time, and what did He hold on to as the same?

6. What is changing in your time and place, and what do you want to hold on to as the same?



Prayer before the Crucifix

This is what brought you among us,

Lord of lightsome joy—

to be hurt and suffer sorrow in your self,

your own, your very self.

For if love always shares,

how could you have shared your pain

who never had a pain to share?

So you came down here,

where suffering and sorrow dwell

and you dwelt among us,

the citizens of this planet

that we have crusted

with every bitterness we could invent.

Now you hang there, in image and in truth,

sharing the littlest hurt I can inflict—

my single mite of offhand neglect,

my not remembering from one grace to the next

how you hung naked and vilely misjudged,

lathered with your own dear blood

and the sweat of labored breath,

so you would have a hurt to share with me,

your mother watching her son die,

who never hurt anyone.

And still I am afraid and cowardly

and cannot bring myself to share with you

my little hurt with yours

though sharing it would close the gap of love.

Will you help me, Lord?



Bibliography

Berger, Peter L. A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity. New York: Anchor, 1992.

Boase, Leonard, S.J. The Prayer of Faith. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1962.

de Caussade, Jean-Pierre. Spiritual Letters. Trans. Kitty Muggeridge. Wilton, CT: Morehouse-Barlow,

1986.

Fagin, Gerald. Putting on the Heart of Christ. Chicago: Loyola, 2009.

Green, Thomas H., S.J. Opening to God: A Guide to Prayer. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria, 1976.

Maloney, George, S.J. Inward Stillness. Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1976.

Nouwen, Henri. The Wounded Healer. New York: Doubleday, Image, 1979.

Tetlow, Joseph A., S.J. Choosing Christ in the World. Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1987.

Tetlow, Joseph A. S.J Discerning God’s Will the Jesuit Way. Now You Know Media. 12 Lectures (5

CDs).

Thibodeaux, Mark E., S.J. Armchair Mystic: Easing into Contemplative Prayer. St. Anthony Messenger

Press, 2001.

Wright, N.T. Simply Jesus. New York: HarperOne, 2011.

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