[media presentation below] GospelThink Tuesday, October 10 LUKE 10:38-42 I do not want people to be anxious and worried like Martha; I want them to spend time thinking about me. Prayerthoughts a. The Gospel story concerns family. In my own family right now, are there relationships that I should work on to make them better? b. Mary listened to Jesus speak. Do I truly listen to the Lord, that is, concentrate on the words of Scripture? c. Martha knew Jesus well enough and Jesus was close enough to the family that she could complain to him. In my prayer to the Lord, am I as open about my situations in life as I should be? d. As Martha, we have a tendency to worry or be too concerned about what goes on in our lives. Am I too anxious about anything in my life right now, and if so, perhaps I should “hand it over” to the Lord, and let God take care of it. e. The better part in life is to spend time with the Lord as Mary did. Do I have a prayer schedule set up in my life, and do I try to follow it as best I can. f. My prayerthoughts….   Today, I will read Jonah, chapter 3, and write an important thought from it. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy   LISTENING TO JESUS  + In the first reading, continuing the story of Jonah, Jonah finally listens to God, preaches to the people of Nineveh, and the people of Nineveh, in turn, listen to Jonah, turn from the evil that they were doing             – Jonah listened to God, the people listened to Jonah                         – listening is the key  + It is also the thought of the Gospel today: we must listen to the Lord’s words             – first of all, Jesus once again goes against the culture of the time                         – and seems to be spending time alone with women other than relatives (Luke would easily report that in his Gospel since he was concerned about women)             – his words to Martha are significant for the person interested in a deeper spiritual life                         – the spiritual life begins with listening to the words of God through Jesus  + Once again here in the Scriptures, we run across the idea that the spiritual person must listen to the words of Jesus             – there has to be time spent with those words                         – Mary was seated at the feet of Jesus                                     – a significant amount of time was spent                                                 – and applying it to ourselves, a significant amount of time must be spent in our day                                                             – perhaps reading/listening for 10-15 minutes, and then thinking about a personal application for 10-15 minutes                         – we know that it is possible to find a half-hour a day if we want to                                     – it’s a matter of planning and scheduling                         – what a significant thing this could be for a parish or a Christian community                                     – it would have a profound effect on our behavior  + Also, there must be the effect of putting the words into practice             – not mentioned in the Gospel here, but one is led to believe from the Scriptures that Mary did well with following through with Jesus’ words                         – much of this will be automatic since if we expose ourselves to something like Jesus’ words long enough, they will affect us                                     – but there must be a real desire to do something also                                                 – to make some resolutions to do some good things in our lives  + Listening is a difficult virtue in many ways             – because we spend too much time with the “background noise” of the world                         – Jesus words are important and we must make them so in our lives. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “Moneyball” — final session THE WAY TO MEAN SOMETHING The Gospel MARK 1:14-15 After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Gospelthink: My task of preaching was to repent and believe in me. Am I living my life in that way now?

Baseball people usually think in terms of winning, and in particular winning “the last game of the season,” that is, winning the “World Series.” Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics in 2002, was interested in that, of course, but he was interested in more. Influenced by his own life as a baseball player and by his particular situation of family–a divorce and a 12-year old daughter whom he dearly loved–he knew there was something else. As he told his protege Peter Brand in the movie “Moneyball,” he wanted his life and contribution to “mean something.” He wanted to make what he was doing something better than it was before he entered into it. He accomplished it in baseball.

Paul the Apostle defined the “kingdom of God” to be a place of “righteousness, peace and joy” (Romans 14:17) and therefore a place much better than the world in which we dwell. The gospel is the “good news” which proclaims such a kingdom according to Jesus. In short, Jesus wanted the world to be better than it was. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom was his way of doing it. Billy Beane in the movie “Moneyball” was not interested so much in the outside world as he was in the baseball world, but his desire was the same. He wanted to make baseball better. Billy explained to Peter Brand: “I’m not in it for the record. That’s when people get hurt. But if we win on our budget, with this team, we’ll have changed the game. And that’s what I want. I want it to mean something.” For Billy “meaning something” was the same thing as accomplishing something better. With Peter Brand’s help, he was able to do it. Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets once said that “My hope is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.” Such was the attitude of Jesus as he began the process of redemption. It was likewise the attitude of Billy Beane as he worked in the sport of baseball. If we accept the Christian way of life, it is exactly what you and I are called to do as we live our daily lives. Our personal worlds can be so much better than they are now. We can work for the kingdom of God to come into our lives, and thus “mean something” for our world. If we work at making our lives “mean something,” we can accomplish amazing things. And make the whole world better than when we got here.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, your Son redeemed our world, and thus made the world a better place. Give us the grace to accept his redemption completely into our lives so that we can make our world a little better than it is. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: Our desire in life should be to change things for the better. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (session: approximately 63 minutes) 1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why? 2. Outline the presentation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition on the kingdom of God. See numbers 2816-2821. 3. Why do Christians call the Gospels “good news”? 4. Most Christian say that they “believe in the Gospel.” In your opinion, do most people completely believe in the Gospel? Yes or no and why? 4. What is your understanding of “repent”? 5. If there is one thing that could be done by someone to make the world better, what would it be? 6. With your knowledge of baseball, what is something that could make the game better? 7. Scene analysis: Beane talks to David Justice about being a leader on the team. What is necessary to be a good leader of a group of men or women? 8. Scene analysis: Beane talks to Brand about the strength of his belief: “Do you believe in this or not?” What is necessary before one can say that he/she really believes in something? 9.  Analysis: the Athletics win twenty in a row, the American League record. Why is winning so important in a sport? 10. Scene analysis: The media says that the reason for the success is the “manager.” Beane does nothing to say otherwise. Is there ever a time when it is necessary to tell the truth, and accept personal praise? Yes or no and why? 11. Scene analysis: Beane usually does not attend a game, probably out of superstition, something very prominent in baseball. Why do people, especially baseball players, fall into superstitious practices? In your opinion, does doing the same thing all the time really help a player? 12. Scene analysis: Despite all the success, the Athletics lose in the first round of the post-season, and actually have not won the World Series yet. Analyze this fact together with the fact that they won twenty in a row. Did Beane’s and Brand’s method fail? Yes or no and why? 13. Scene analysis: Beane passes up the opportunity to be the Red Sox general manager. In your opinion, why did he make the decision? 14. Scene analysis: Brand shows Beane the video about the person hitting a home run and not even realizing it. What did he want to accomplish by showing it to Beane? 15. What does the movie “Moneyball” teach young people?