So Wednesday night cell group got good tonight!
[I am Catholic, and I am part of a group of fellow Catholic, early-20-somethings who get together once a week to prayer, chat, discuss theology, spirituality, etc]
Tonight we were discussing last Sunday’s Gospel, specifically Matthew 22:39 “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Simple? Sigh, with us it never is…
My one friend quoted some-important-person-or-other, “The most Holy thing in the world is the Eucharist, the second is the person sitting next to you in the pew.”
Now, typical me, I take this and turn it completely upside down and squiggle it around….
I said I agreed with the statement, but I maintain that there are TWO most important things in this world, that they are on “par” Holiness so to speak. And I feel, that Scripture places joint 1st place with Holy Eucharist.
Now, unfortunately, us Catholics tend to underestimate the importance of Sacred Scripture, we are so against the Protestant views of Sola Scruptura (by scripture alone, come on peeps, brush up on your latin :P) that we veer the complete opposite way and rely completely on Tradition and run away from the Word of God.
I know that is a sweeping statement, and does not apply to ALL Catholics, but unfortunately it applies to many Catholics I know :(
Now, back to my argument em, um, i mean debate… As far as I understand it, The Holy Eucharist is Jesus, The Incarnate Word of God. And, as Scripture is the Written Word of God and as we understand it, basically Jesus.
I never fully “got” this until I got my new Bible (Life Teen’s Catholic Teen Bible) and read the preface.
I mean, in the Catechism, paragraph 108 it says: Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living”. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures.”
In John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
K… to some up - Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God. Scripture is the Written Word of God. I believe that the Holy Eucharist AND Sacred Scripture are the most Holy things on this earth.
Sigh… maybe we shouldn’t be “ranking” things’ Holiness? I dunno… My one friend just wasn’t “getting” it… i dunno, am I wrong? sigh.
I really want your opinions! What do you think?
Pray like Abraham
Going through the YouCat’s section on prayer and it’s blowing my mind!
1. Prayer
2. Listen
Part 1 Section 1 Chapter 1 Question 3
I love my YouCat that I got when I went to WYD 2011 - & the fact that it says on the front “THIS BOOK IS A PERSONAL GIFT FROM THE HOLY FATHER” - I mean! Come on! I love it!
