Preparing for the Messiah

Our Lady of Lourdes High SchoolMrs. Safford Grade 10Fall 2014

THE PROMISE OF REDEMPTION

Questions to Think About…

• Who are the persons referred to in the Genesis Protoevangelium?• What is the felix culpa?• What are the senses in which the Sacred

Scripture can be read?

Who are the persons referred to in the Genesis Protoevangelium?• The Protoevangelium or “First Gospel” promises

that Christ, the New Adam, the seed of the woman Mary (the New Eve), will overcome the Devil and bring salvation.• Jesus is the New Adam because the obedience made

amends for the disobedience of the first Adam.• Mary’s humble “Yes” to the angel’s message

brought salvation to the world, undoing Eve’s no to God’s command which brought sin and suffering.

What is the felix culpa?

• The fall of Adam and Eve is the felix culpa, or happy fault because it resulted in the Incarnation of Christ.

What are the senses in which the Sacred Scripture can be read?The Old Testament can be read in the literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses.•Literal sense-the Sacred Authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, intended to express, it is the most immediate and direct meaning of the text.•Allegorical-shows how people and events in salvation history parallel future people and events.•Moral sense-interprets the heroes of Scripture are models for life.•Anagogical sense-elucidates knowledge of heaven through the events of Sacred Scripture.

How does Cain illustrate the transmission of original sin?• God had regard for the firstling animal offerings of Abel, and

not for the agricultural offerings of Cain.• Cain showed the truths of Original Sin when he murdered his

brother, Abel.• God showed mercy to Cain after banishing him by giving Cain

“a mark.” God promised a sevenfold vengeance on anyone who killed Cain.

Homework

Define the following Vocabulary Words on loose leaf paper to hand in:•Ark of the Covenant•Chosen People •Covenant•Exodus•Felix culpa•Idolatry•Messiah

MAN’S EARLY IMMORALITY

Questions to Think About…

• Who is Lamech?• Who is Seth?• What are the covenants in the Old Testament?

Who is Lamech?

• Lamech, the first polygamist, and violent killer, illustrates how sin proliferated in the primitive world.• Polygamy is bad since women become objects of

lust and domination. The husband withholds the exclusive affection owed to one’s wife.• Video: What is the Church’s stance on intimacy.

Who is Seth?

• Seth was the son of Adam, made in Adam’s image and likeness.• Seth’s lineage, unlike Cain’s began in

righteousness, but it too became corrupted.• The line of Seth became corrupted by polygamy

as the “Sons of God” (Seth’s descendants) and the “Daughters of Men” (Cain’s descendants) intermarried.• God punished early men for this evil by

shortening man’s lifespan.

What are the covenants in the Old Testament?• God instituted his plan of redemption of man by

entering into covenants with individuals and groups of people who would be ancestors of Jesus Christ.• Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David are

individuals who helped institute God’s plan of redemption.

HomeworkCreate a timeline and include the following people:•Abraham•Isaac•David•Joseph•Lamech•Moses•Noah•Cain and Abel•Adam and Eve•This will count as a test grade.

THE COVENANT WITH NOAH

Questions to Think About…

• What is the significance of Noah and the deluge?• How did Noah’s descendants behave?• How does the divinity of the human race relate

to salvation history?

What is the significance of Noah and the deluge?• God saved the world in the person of the one righteous man

Noah, and made a covenant with him,• The “Flood” is a type of Baptism.• The Flood symbolically represents the cleansing power of

Baptism achieved through Christ’s redemption.• The waters of the flood destroyed the sins of the old creations

and opened the way of the new creation, just as the waters of Baptism wash away our sins and create us anew.

How did Noah’s descendants behave?• Noah’s children spread their arrogance

throughout the world, with a good remnant preserved in the line of Shem, the ancestor of Abraham.• Shem continued the righteous line that would

eventually become God’s chosen people.• Ham’s line became the idolatrous Canaanites,

the traditional enemies of the Hebrews.

How does the disunity of the human race relate to salvation history?• The disunity of the human race into nations,

languages, and peoples is meant temporarily to curb human pride.• This disunity was only provisional since God

wants to reunite the human family under Christ

Homework

• Write an extended paragraph comparing Noah’s flood to Baptism.

GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

Question to Think About…

• What was God’s covenant with Abraham?

What was God’s Covenant with Abraham?• God chose Abraham, and made a covenant with him to be the

father of a new nation, his Chosen People, through which he would reveal himself to mankind.

• God’s command that Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac both challenging and inexplicable:

1.Isaac was the son whom Abraham was to become a great nation, how could that be if Isaac was dead, since Abraham had only one son?

2.A father being asked to kill his own son goes against human nature.

3.God was directing man to do something immoral, which would mean that God was evil, which he is not.

Abraham’s Covenant

• The sign of Abraham’s covenant is circumcision.• The bond between circumcision and the Passion

of Christ is that the blood that was shed by the males who entered into the Abrahamic covenant served as a remote prototype for the blood shed by Christ in establishing the New Covenant.

GOD’S COVENANT WITH MOSES

Questions to Think About…

• Who was Moses?• What was the Jews early experience in the

Promised Land?

Who was Moses?

• God revealed his name to Moses, God’s prophet who led the Chosen People out of slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea after the Passover.• Through Moses, God also revealed the

Decalogue, the moral law that was the basis of the covenant God established with the Israelites.

How does God reveal his name to Moses?• The miraculous occurrence in which a bush is

burned without being consumed and out of which Moses heard God speaking. • The name of God, which God revealed to Moses,

is I Am Who I Am.

Why did God send the plagues to Egypt?

• God sends plagues to force the Pharaoh to release the Chosen People from Egypt.• The worst plague was the last one, the death of

every firstborn male among the Egyptians, animal and human.• This is exactly what the Egyptians did to the

Jews.

What is the Passover? How did the Israelites protect themselves from this plague?• God protected the firstborn sons of the Israelites by

instructing them to offer a male lamb as a substitute.• The head of each family smeared the lamb’s blood on

the doorsteps and lintel of the house, so that the angel of death would pass over that house, and spare the household’s firstborn son.• When the Pharaoh's son dies, he lets Moses and the

Chosen People leave Egypt. However, he later realizes that his workforce has left, and sends his army after them. The Red Sea parts to let the Israelites through, however it closes and kills Pharaoh's soldiers.

What is the Decalogue?

• The Decalogue is the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai, the basis of the Mosaic Covenant.• Three commandments detail the proper

relationship should have with God.• Seven commandments regard the relationships

that a person should have with another person.

What was the Jews early experience in the Promised Land?• In the Promised Land, Israel found the constant

temptation to be unfaithful to God by idolatry.• It took 40 years from the Exodus into the

Promised Land.• Israel desired a King, because they wanted

someone who would protect them from their enemies and help them have a prosperous life.

DAVID AND THE PROPHETS

Questions to Think About….

• Who was David?• What was the message of the Prophets?

Who was David?• David, a prototype of Christ, was the greatest king of the

nation of Israel.• King David made Jerusalem both a religious and political

capital where his son Solomon built the Temple for worshipping God.

• The idea of Divine Kinship changes with David. Previously, the nation of Israel collective was God’s son. Now, God calls David, his son. God was referring to the heir of King David, which is God’s begotten son, Jesus.

What was the message of the Prophets?• Through the Prophets, God warned Israel they

would suffer for the infidelity but promised a future Messiah.• The prophets, in general, predicted that the

Messiah would restore Israel, bringing her to an even greater splendor, than that which existed under David’s rule.

Homework

Write an extended paragraph:•Define covenant•Who were the 4 covenants made by God for their chapter.•Give details on the covenants made.

Citations for this Chapter• Armenio, Rev. Peter. The Mystery of Redemption and Christian

Discipleship. 1st ed. Woodridge: Midwest Theological Forum, 2010.