[media presentation below] GospelThink Saturday, June 17, The Immaculate Heart of Mary LUKE 2:41-51 Even as a child on this earth, I knew that I had to be about what God wanted me to do. Prayerthoughts a. Jesus’s parents fulfilled the law of Moses. Do I sincerely try to follow the law of God in everything that I do? b. His parents frantically search for the lost Jesus. Have I reached out to my parents (if they are alive) and thanked them for their guidance.  A prayer for them is in order. c. Luke’s Gospel says that it took three days to find him. It had to be a very anxious time for them. Are there times in my life when I have been very anxious? Did I trust in the Lord the way that I should have? d. Jesus’s parents want to know “why”?  It is a question that I often ask about why God has given trials to me. What have been the biggest trials in my life so far, and I have tried to resolve them with God in mind? e. Jesus was about His Father’s work. in my life, in general, have I done God’s work? f.  Jesus went with his parents, and were obedient to them. In my circumstances, who am I obedient to? And, have I shown true obedience to what they legitimately wanted? g. I should formulate a prayer to grow more in the love of God. (This is the task of the meditation.) f. My prayerthoughts… Today, I will carry out letter g. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy  LISTENING THOROUGHLY TO JESUS  + The liturgy presents a real contrast in the readings today          – the book of Lamentations lamenting that the Lord has abandoned His people          – and Mary in the early life of Jesus—                   …kept all of those things in her heart                            – mention of Mary’s heart, of course, is the reason for the Gospel on this feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary  + The things that Mary kept in her heart were the indications that Jesus was more than her son          – someone whom others would listen to and learn from as teachers of the temple did in the familiar story of the Gospel                   – and yet, also something that Mary kept in her heart, Jesus was obedient to her and Joseph  + It is interesting to study the derivation of the word “obey”          – it comes from the Latin – ob—“to” and—audire—“listen completely”, or better “to thoroughly listen”                   – and to convey the full meaning, it means: I give my ear to the word of another so much so that I pay complete attention to what he/she says and allow the complete meaning to come across to me          – symbolized by teachers of small children who are told to get down to their level, and look them in the eye  + I believe that that idea of listening is a major part of the overall guiding principle that can handle life and especially what might be called the messes of life          – those messes are something that all of us are familiar with                   – you and I must deal with messes                            – because every situation, every church, every family, every community has some kind of a mess                   – sometimes they are real tragedies                   – most of the time, they are not earth-shattering; they simply deal with day-to-day living                            – nothing really major, just enough to upset things, make us uneasy                                     – we want things to go orderly, neatly, the way we want them to go                                              – and they almost never do                                     – because we are dealing with human beings—ourselves and others  + Listening to Jesus is a way to handle mess          – to thoroughly listen to the Scriptures as Jesus talks to us                   – with all the nuances and meanings that he wanted to convey                   – trying to live with his direction in mind          – to thoroughly listen to each other as we try to implement what Jesus said  + As we celebrate this feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and use this Gospel,          – we have to be aware of the fact that Jesus obeyed his parents                   – that is, that Jesus listened thoroughly to what they had to say          – obedience goes much further than young people to parents                   – because we all should listen thoroughly to other people          – and especially when we feel the messes of life,                   – we have to listen thoroughly to what Jesus says in the Gospels. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “Moneyball” — beginning session TO THINK AS GOD DOES The Gospel MARK 8:31-33 [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Gospelthink: I tell you to try to think as God does which means that I should think in terms of love of others. Am I improving in my thinking?

The movie “Moneyball” begins with a quote from Mickey Mantle who said: “It is unbelievable how much you don’t know about a game you’ve been playing all your life.” He did not know about the business of baseball. The movie based on a true story as told in the book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis, is about the business of baseball. As he began the 2002 baseball season, Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, realized that he had a serious problem if he did not want to lose. And losing, as he said, was something that he hated to do. He had lost his three best players due to free agency and did not have enough money to hire them back or to trade for better players. His staff was thinking the usual way of thinking in baseball circles: you bring up the players you have in the minor leagues or you trade. Billy was searching for another solution and after he met a young man by the name of Peter Brand who was only educated in economics, he began to think in a different mode.

Jesus gives us a distinction that we should take to heart. When it was clear that the future leader of his Apostles did not understand what he was doing, Jesus reminds him that he must begin to think as God thinks. Peter was thinking as human beings think: we become so taken up with our own feelings that we cannot possibly understand another point of view. Peter had to learn to think in a totally different way, and when he finally did, he began to see what God wanted in his life. Fundamentally, thinking the way God wants us to think involves objectivity. We must be able to view problems without our own personal feelings. Peter illustrates for us a pattern that we can study. As we are called to determine solutions to problems in our lives, our solutions may be prejudiced by our own set of circumstances. We may not be able to see beyond what we think. Billy Beane in the movie “Moneyball” was able to see beyond his set of circumstances. It meant that he had to change his own thinking first before he discovered a solution to winning baseball games. British author Phyllis Bottome once said that there are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them. Much of the time the difficulties are going to remain, no matter what we do; then, if we want to find a solution, the way we approach them may have to change. Only when we are able to look at things in another light will we be able to see that there are answers to problems that at one time seemed unsolvable. We all have difficulties in life and we search for solutions. One of the solutions might be to look at the difficulties in a different way. It might mean that we have to begin thinking of them the way God thinks of them, and begin to see that our thinking may be part of the problem.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, our human natures tend to look at the problems of our lives from our own point of view. As your Son told his apostle Peter, help us learn to think as you think so that we will be able to solve our problems a little better. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: Sometimes we have to change our way of thinking about the problem in order to solve it.     DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (session: approximately 63 minutes) 1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why? 2. Jesus is speaking of the process of redemption in this passage. What is your understanding of Jesus’ redemption? See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 599-618. 3. Give some instances in our world today in which you see people thinking as they think and not as God thinks. 4. Analysis: “$114,457,768 vs $39,722,689.” Should professional sports people be paid as much as they are? Yes or no and why? 5. Analysis: describe the character of Billy Beane as presented by the movie. 6. Dialogue analysis: Beane: “If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we will lose to the Yankees out there.” What does Billy mean? 7. What do you think of the approach to baseball that Peter Brand gave Billy Beane? 8. Analysis: the disagreement between General Manager Billy Beane and Manager Art Howe. What is the best way to solve this difficulty? 9. Analysis: Beane obviously has an “anger” problem. What is the best way to control “anger” in our lives today?