May 2009 Study Guide

Bible Blurbs

“I am the good shep­herd… and I will lay down my life for the sheep… No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.“
John 10:14,15, & 18
Jesus answered, “…if you are look­ing for me, let these men go.“
John 18:8
For who­ever wishes to save his life will lose it, but who­ever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16:25

Cat­e­chism Clips

618: …He calls his dis­ci­ples to “take up [their] cross and fol­low (him)”, for “Christ also suf­fered for (us), leav­ing (us) an exam­ple so that (we) should fol­low in his steps…“
616: It is love “to the end” that con­fers on Christ’s sac­ri­fice its value… He knew and loved us all when he offered his life…
609: …Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Pas­sion and death…
610: Jesus gave the supreme expres­sion of his free offer­ing of him­self… [when he] trans­formed this Last Sup­per… into the memo­r­ial of his vol­un­tary offer­ing to the Father…

Pope Quotes

Every wit­ness of faith lives this “greater love” and, after the exam­ple of the Divine Teacher, is ready to sac­ri­fice his life for the King­dom.
Pope Bene­dict XVI, April 7, 2008, St. Bartholomew’s, Rome
“Only the com­mand­ment of love, a love that becomes a total gift of life, is the secret of the Res­ur­rec­tion. “
Pope John Paul II, Feb­ru­ary 6, 1997
“No one can take [Jesus’] life from him: he lays it down by his own free deci­sion… He gives his life and he takes it [up] again in the res­ur­rec­tion, so as to be able to share it for ever. “
Pope Bene­dict XVI, Holy Thurs­day, April 9, 2009

Vir­tu­ous Ver­biage Verification:

Holy Week – the week right before Easter, when we cel­e­brate the time that Jesus gave us the Eucharist at the Last Sup­per, was betrayed, gave him­self over to death, and brought the just souls wait­ing for Heaven into God’s pres­ence.
Peace - a fruit of of the Holy Spirit. Inner peace is a calm­ness of soul and reliance on God. Exter­nal or worldly peace, is both the absence of war or unrest AND the active pur­suit of jus­tice and char­ity for all.
Piracy - tra­di­tion­ally, hijack­ing a ship in the open sea by force, and steal­ing it or the goods on board. Often the pas­sen­gers of the ship are harmed or killed. Piracy has always been con­sid­ered one of the worst forms of rob­bery.
Ran­som – the price paid to ensure someone’s life or safety.
Sac­ri­fice – offer­ing some­thing one owns or holds dear to give honor to some­one else, or for the good of some­one else.
SEALs – stands for SEa Air Land… a group in the US Navy spe­cial­iz­ing in secret or dan­ger­ous oper­a­tions. They have become well known for their rig­or­ous train­ing, near-​​perfect exe­cu­tion, and dar­ing res­cue mis­sion.
Sur­ren­der – to give one­self freely and with­out a fight.

Dis­cus­sion questions:

1. Do you think what Cap­tain Phillips did was extra­or­di­nary? Is it some­thing many peo­ple would have done? What might you have done differently?
2. Often times in today’s world we see lead­ers, in gov­ern­ments, com­pa­nies, etc…, who are self­ish and use their posi­tion for their own gain. Can you find any exam­ples of this? How do you think these indi­vid­u­als might have done bet­ter if they acted like Capt. Phillips? Do you think Capt. Phillips’ exam­ple can help to change the hearts of lead­ers around the world?
3. The news media chooses to focus on Capt. Phillips’ courage rather than his self-​​sacrifice. Why is that? Does our soci­ety like to talk about sac­ri­fice? Is it a pop­u­lar idea? Do you think peo­ple in our soci­ety avoid sac­ri­fice? Why? Why would peo­ple focus on one aspect, his brav­ery, but want to leave out focus­ing on his will­ing­ness to give of himself?

Jour­nal Writing:

Imag­ine there are pirates or kid­nap­pers look­ing to cap­ture you. Some­one you know offers them­selves to the kid­nap­pers in your place. Write about what might be going through your mind at this time. What do you feel? What do you think about this per­son? How might this change you? Would you act any dif­fer­ently, or treat peo­ple any dif­fer­ently, now that you have been treated with such amaz­ing love?

Debate:

Divide in two teams. One team argue that to be a real “man” Capt. Phillips should have attacked the pirates and started a brawl. The other team argue that what he did, peace­fully sur­ren­der­ing him­self, actu­ally took more strength and courage. Email us at info@ourfaithinaction.net and tell us who wins and what their argu­ments were.

Activ­ity:

Write a let­ter to some­one who you feel has laid down their life for you or made sac­ri­fices for you, espe­cially some­one like a father or grand­fa­ther. If you like, email it to info@ourfaithinaction.net and we may pub­lish it on our website!