Catechetical Synthesis Series
This entry is meant as a meditation and should be read aloud slowly and reflectively. It contains paraphrases of Scriptural passages, but will not cite them, in order to avoid distraction.
In the beginning, before all else existed, there was God, and in Him was a community, a family, a Trinity of Persons. The Father loved the Son and so poured Himself out entirely to Him and likewise, the Son loved the Father and poured out Himself, and the pouring forth was Himself a Person, the Holy Spirit. The Father, in expressing His great love, spoke the Son, His Word, and the Son was one in being with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but they three were in eternal bonds of love, without beginning or end.
In the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth. He divided the lands from the waters and placed the sun in the sky to give light to all the world, and the moon at night as a lesser light to reflect the rays of the sun. And God made man and loved Him, and called His him by name: Adam. And God sought to make a wife for Adam, one like him who could love him and whom he could love, and so God put Adam into a deep sleep and formed one of his ribs into a woman, and Adam called her woman and named her Eve, and she became the mother of all the living. And Adam walked in the Garden of Eden and was constantly in the presence of God in a natural covenant with him.
But this did not continue. A great war had been brewing in heaven and Lucifer, the deceiver, the murderer, began to lust after himself, fascinated by his own beauty, and his greatest beauty, which had been his love, became his greatest ugliness, lust, and he chose to rebel against God, and he was cast out of heaven, and fell like lightning from the sky.
And falling to earth, Lucifer tempted Eve and Eve tempted Adam, and they chose against God and fell from His grace. Casting them out into the wilderness, God nevertheless refused to abandon them. They, in sorrow, repented, but the damage was already done. Eve conceived and bore a son and then another, Cain and Abel, and Cain killed Abel, jealous of his greater sacrifice. And God came to Cain and said, "your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil!" And Cain was banished to wander all the earth, yet God would not abandon him.
And time passed, and generations rose and fell, and the whole world became wicked, and God came to Noah, the last righteous man, and told him to build an Ark, and Noah did as God commanded, and built the Ark and filled it with two of every creature, male and female, and God flooded the world and Noah and his family floated on the waters for forty days and forty nights. Finally the storm grew weak and the waters recessed, and Noah left the Ark and life began anew and Noah made a covenant with God, but humanity again fell, yet God would not abandon it.
And generations were born and died and God came to Abraham and promised to make of him a great nation. And God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, but spared Lot in His great mercy. And Abraham's wife bore him Isaac and God told Abraham to offer Isaac, his only beloved son, and Abraham went to do it and God saved Isaac and saw the great faith of Abraham and made a covenant with him.
And Isaac married and his wife bore Jacob and Jacob married and his wife bore many children, one of whom was Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery to Egypt. And Joseph interpreted dreams with the help of God and came to the attention of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him the master of his household. And there was a great famine in Palestine and Joseph's brothers were sent to get grain in Egypt and Joseph forgave them and the whole family moved there. God had not abandoned Joseph or his brothers.
Over time, the pharaohs began to oppress the Hebrews and make them their slaves. And God raised up Moses the infant who, though Hebrew, was raised in the home of Pharaoh, and Moses went out into the wilderness and God spoke to him out of the burning bush, hearing God speak His Name for the first time, YHWH, telling him to go and lead His people to freedom. And Moses went and the Lord sent plagues upon the land of Egypt and Pharaoh was obstinate and would not let the slaves go. So the Lord sent one final plague upon Egypt and had killed the first born son of every Egyptian family, but the families of the Hebrews were saved because they dined on the Passover meal behind doors marked with the blood of the lamb. And Pharaoh let Moses and the Hebrews go, but changed his mind again and rushed after them, and the Lord protected them and the whole Hebrew nation walked across the Red Sea dry-shod, and the waters came in again after Pharaoh and his entire army and destroyed them all. God still did not forget His people.
And Moses commanded the Lord's people and God sent a pillar of fire to lead them into the promised land, which He had promised to Abraham and His descendants forever, and Aaron became a priest of the Lord. And God provided food for them in the desert, His manna which He sent them. And God gave Moses the Ten Commandments for the people to live by and made a covenant with him and Moses placed the commandments in the Ark of the Covenant, but because of the sins of the Hebrew people, they wandered in the desert for forty years and had to face stricter rules than before.
And when all the people of the previous generation had died, God raised up Joshua, son of Nun, to lead the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, and Israel fought many battles and won many lands. And the people made their home in the land and were led by judges appointed by God.
Yet the people wanted a king and so God chose for them Saul, who grew corrupt, and so the Lord disinherited Saul and chose David, the son of Jesse, Saul's lowly servant, who had conquered the giant, Goliath. And Saul fought David, but David prevailed, yet would not kill Saul, because he was the Lord's anointed. And David became king and wrote the psalms and was a good king, wishing to build a great temple for the Lord, but he fell into lust and sin and grew corrupt, yet repented. And his son Soloman grew up to become king in Israel and built the temple his father had desired to build and the Ark of the Covenant was brought into it, uniting the Mosaic and Davidic covenants.
And Soloman grew corrupt and fell, and the Lord raised up prophets to testify against Israel and call for a new covenant, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others. And the Lord raised up foreign kings to conquer them, and Israel fell again and again, splitting into parts and dividing in the diaspora after their exile. And the Lord called them out of the foreign lands and they revived the law, but continued to fall again and again. And the Lord raised up Judas Maccabeus, who cleansed the temple and drove out the pagans.
And the Lord allowed the Romans to conquer Israel and "in the 5199th year of the creation of the world from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth; the 2957th year after the flood; the 2015th year from the birth of Abraham; the 1510th year from Moses and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt; the 1032nd year from David's being anointed king; in the 65th week according to the prophecy of Daniel; in the 194th Olympiad; the 752nd year from the foundation of the city of Rome; the 42nd year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, in the 6th age of the world, Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and 9 months having passed since His conception, was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary, being made flesh."
For the angel of the Lord, Gabriel, had come unto the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, and announced to her the coming of God and His will to become man in her womb, and she consented, giving herself entirely to the Lord. And she was overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit and He who from the beginning was the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in the fullness of time for the forgiveness of sins. And Mary became the Ark of the New Covenant. And the Blessed Virgin Mary went to visit her elderly pregnant cousin in the hill country and cried out, "my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His handmaid," and Elizabeth bore John the Baptist, who leapt in her womb at the greeting of the Virgin Mother, and Mary returned to her own land and Joseph, her husband, seeing that she was with child, but being a righteous man and not willing to see her put to shame, prepared to divorce her quietly when, lo, and angel of the Lord came to him and said, "do not be afraid to take Mary for your wife, for the child she bears is of the Holy Spirit, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save men from their sins." And Joseph took Mary into his home, but never had relations with her, and hearing a decree from the emperor, he took her to his ancestral home in Bethlehem, the City of David, and the Child was born in a manger because there was no room at the inn. And Jesus was presented in the temple, where Mary heard that a sword would pierce her heart. And the wise men came from afar to adore Jesus and offered Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And Joseph, having been warned in a dream, fled with the Mother and Child to Egypt, for the king of Israel was slaughtering all the baby boys for fear of losing His power.
And the child grew in wisdom and strength and was lost and found again by His parents in the temple, teaching the Scribes about the Scriptures and the ways of the Most High. And He was obedient to them.
And one day there was a wedding in the town of Cana, and the Mother of Jesus was there, and she asked Him to perform a miracle and produce more wine for the wedding feast, and the chefs said that it was greater than the first wine, and this was His first public miracle. And Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, who said, "behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" And He went out into the wilderness and was tempted by Lucifer, but resisted, and returned to begin His ministry, and He preached the Gospel, the Good News of salvation, and He healed the sick and raised the dead, He forgave sins and He consoled the sorrowing, He ordained followers and selected Apostles, teaching Simon Peter how to lead the rest, and at last, after three years of ministering to the people, He offered Himself, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharistic Feast, the first Mass, in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, celebrating anew the Passover Meal of the Hebrews.
And Jesus went with His apostles to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed so hard that He sweat blood, but His apostles could not stay awake, and He was handed over to the Pharisees, who beat Him and submitted Him to torment, and He was condemned by the Jews and the Romans and scourged mercilessly and crowned with thorns. And Jesus was made to carry a cross with only the help of one man, Simon of Cyrene. And Jesus met His Mother on the road to Calvary, where He was crucified with two criminals, one whom He forgave and another who was obstinate in his sins. And His side was pierced by a lance and blood and water flowed out. And His body was removed from the cross and laid in a tomb.
And on the third day, He rose from the dead and astounded many. And that same evening, He met two disciples on the road who were walking away in despair and He spoke to them, explaining the Scriptures, but they did not recognize Him. And, dining with them, He took bread, said the blessing, and broke it, giving it to them, and their eyes were opened and they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread, for it was His Body and Blood, the second Mass. And they returned to Jerusalem to tell everyone.
And Jesus appeared to many and taught them many more things and sent out the apostles to preach and to baptize, and He ascended into heaven. They waited and prayed in the Upper Room until the Holy Spirit came upon them and they were filled with the courage to preach the Gospel. And the Apostles went out and did just that. Then Saul, the persecutor of the Church, who had witnessed and consented of the martyrdom of St. Stephen the First Martyr, was struck down by a vision of Christ, who asked why Saul persecuted Him, and Saul was blinded, but healed and received into the Church and made an Apostle. And the Apostles continued to preach and were arrested, beaten, and martyred, but they left successors, the bishops, who also preached the Gospel. And the Church began to spread and overtake the world, and the Gospel was preached to all the corners of the Roman Empire and its voice grew in the persecutions of Christians, and it continued to grow despite all the powers of the world against it. And kingdoms rose and fell, but Christianity remained, and the successors of St. Peter, the popes, remained an unbroken lineage. And here you are today, reading this. The question is, where do you fit into the story?
I hope we can answer that together.
