Because of my background, I can’t help but get caught up in the worldly affairs that surround me. This is especially the case for political and cultural events that have faith implications and/or undertones.
Lent, however, is supposed to be a time to put worldly issues in the background. It is a time to look into ourselves and the saving grace of Jesus Christ through His sacrifice on the cross.
I view the Lenten season as a foundation experience for understanding who Jesus is and what our faith is all about. As a history buff, I can’t help but view my thoughts and feelings during this season through a Christian story line. Even in my RCIA talks I find that it helps the understanding of Jesus and Christianity if it is presented as a story.
There are different ways to present that “Christian story line” depending upon where the emphasis is placed. In a previous essay, for example, I adapted a story line from Jeff Caven’s and Scott Hahn’s Bible study program called “Our Fathers Plan.” The program provided a framework for “covenant and salvation” history as the story line.
I am always looking for new ways to express the Christian and Catholic story line. Presenting a story can be especially helpful in trying to get “Nones” or those searching for God to consider Christ and the Catholic faith.
Recently, our pastor, Fr. Joe, and deacon, Deacon Rob, gave a series of Lenten homilies offering a fresh perspective on the Christian story line, especially in light of the Lenten journey. In context with my military background, I characterize this Christian story line as a Capture and Rescue operation. In summarizing those homilies, a story with four chapters emerges.
Chapter 1 – We are Created
There is something greater outside of ourselves and the world that provides direction and order. This something is a loving, caring, and personal God. He created the universe out of nothing and set in motion the laws of nature that dictate the natural world. God created a perfect world with order and harmony.
He created humans in his image and likeness with a body and a soul which is eternal. The first humans had perfect communion/connection to God and his graces (love, life, and kindness toward us). It was a loving eternal life to share in God’s divinity in complete obedience to God. He also granted us free will.
Chapter 2 – We are Captured
An enemy – Satan – declared war on mankind. He influenced the first humans and us, to this day, to disobey God. This disobedience is called sin. The world and we, as individuals, are “captured” under that influence. As a consequence, death came into the world.
That influence is a major cause of the suffering and evil we experience in the world. It causes us to sin and to be disconnected from God. The enemy’s strategy is to convince us, through our culture, that there is no God. We don’t need Him and we can be happy without God.
His tactics involve manipulating and influencing the world and culture to accuse, distract, tempt, divide and discourage us. His goal is to make us feel we are perfect and can do no wrong. However, with our free will, we are responsible when we do wrong.
. . . and that they may return to their senses out of the devil’s snare,
where they are entrapped by him, for his will (2 Timothy 2:26).
Chapter 3 – We are Rescued
But our God is a God of “second chances.” He offers us a free gift, called redemption (rescue, salvation, forgiveness). Redemption frees us from the captured state in which we reside.
Someone was needed, however, to “rescue” mankind from the enemy and our ongoing tendency to sin and go against God. The rescue demands a faith “warrior” and “savior/rescuer” willing to sacrifice His life as an atonement (make amends). Such a sacrifice provides forgiveness that blocks the evil one’s grasp on humans.
Because God loves us so much, he provided that rescuer – His Son – Jesus Christ. Christ’s death on the cross atones (pays) for all the sins of mankind (including our personal sin). Jesus provides hope for our life on earth. He is a model for how to live a righteous life, to build the kingdom of God (a better world), in spite of Satan’s efforts.
In addition, his sacrifice enables us, upon our death, to get back in close communion and connection to God in heaven. His sacrifice enables us to participate in His divine nature for eternity, and to receive His graces as it was originally in creation.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe
to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen (2 Timothy 4:18).
Chapter 4 – We are to Respond
This redemption is a free gift from God to humans. It allows us to be free from the control of the enemy and to have an eternal reconnection to God. However, we need to respond to that gift.
We need to show our gratitude to Jesus Christ for our rescue by owning up to our sins and repenting. We also need to worship and trust in Him. And we are to let ourselves be transformed to be like Him so He acts through us in the world. That process helps to set up a “firewall” against the evil one’s intentions.
We are to follow the commandments that Christ gave us to love God and neighbor and to participate in his remembrance. The details of our full response have been provided by Jesus through his Word. They are expressed in the Bible and Holy Tradition that He passed on to His Apostles and then through the Church.
But, we need additional help to follow Jesus’ commandments and meet those obligations. So, Jesus commanded his Apostles to establish a Church that would support and guide our efforts to blunt the continuing efforts of our enemy over the course of time. That Church (the Catholic Church) has done that for over 2,000 years.
Summary
There is, of course, much more to the “story” in this Jesus and Christian story line of us being extracted and saved. However, this brief four chapter story line provides a simple perspective. It explains why we are here, why things are messed up, what God has done about it, and how we are to respond.
Its uniqueness as a teaching story caught my attention in that the “capture and rescue” theme highlights the role that Satan has played in our lives. Nowadays it seems we don’t want to acknowledge or discuss the importance of the evil one or the role he has played in the necessity of Jesus’ rescuing sacrifice.
This storyline makes me delve deeper into my Lenten journey. It helps me to recognize that I am a sinner in need of salvation. I have to fight the evil one’s influence ongoing basis. It leads me to ask the question – how am I to respond to being rescued, not just during lent but always?
4 thoughts on “A ‘Capture and Rescue’ Lenten Storyline”
Richard
Thanks for the feedback. Of course you can use it
To Tom:
A fascinating summary of the “economy of salvation.” Easy to remember, and a great presentation-lucid and relevant. I’m planning on using it in my RCIA class. Do I need your permission to do this?
Rowland:
While your comments cover a lot of ground I will just address your notion that God did not create man with an eternal body and soul and Creation was not perfection. First, I think we must recognize that, as Catholics, we make inferences based on our understanding of sacred scripture and holy tradition expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Gen 1: 26 it states we are created in the image and likeness of God as CCC 356-361 expands upon. That can imply mortality. Likewise, the CCC in 327, 362-368 discusses the unity of body and soul given to man at creation.
Throughout Genesis 1 after God created something, he mentions “And God saw it was good”. In turn, Paul’s first letter (4:4) states the same. The same conclusion is discussed in CCC 299. Perfection is implied.
No question, there are many aspects of how Creation worked that does not always seem clear. However, at a general level it explains why we are here and what was lost when Satan captured us.
I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but your story line is false right from the beginning which I have quoted here:
“He created humans in his image and likeness with a body and a soul which is eternal. The first humans had perfect communion/connection to God and his graces (love, life, and kindness toward us). It was a loving eternal life to share in God’s divinity in complete obedience to God. He also granted us free will.”
God did not create Adam and Eve with an eternal body and soul. Their immortality came from an external source: The Tree of Life. Eating of the fruit of this tree gave them immortality. And all God had to do to cause them to begin dying after they had sinned was to deny them access to The Tree of Life. The Bible says nothing about God being forced to changing either their soul or body to cause them to begin dying:
“Then Yahweh God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of The Tree of Life and eat, and live forever––…. He [Yahweh God] drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to The Tree of Life” (Gen. 3:22, 24).
This truth that Adam and Eve’s immortality was based on an external source is contrasted with the immortality that Jesus would experience with his resurrection. Using the past tense instead of the expected future tense, Jesus says this about his human immortality (and about our future immortality which will not require The Tree of Life):
“‘For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself'” (John 5:26).
In regard to the creation of human beings, Jesus was always Plan A and not Plan B in case Adam and Eve sinned. Their fall from grace was a forgone conclusion regardless of their supposed free will. To have the perfection and immortality that you erroneously grant them at their creation, they needed the Spirit of Jesus Christ living in their hearts. The Father breathed the breath of life into Adam (Gen. 2:7), but did not give him his Spirit or the Spirit of his Son, the Holy Spirit. They would need Jesus for the Spirit, something the Catholic Eucharist points to. God’s creation was good, but in the case of Adam and Eve their creation was purposely not perfect because from before the universe was created, God intended that this perfection would depend on his work through Jesus of Nazareth.
The other evidence that Adam and Eve were not perfect at their creation is that they were made of dust. When we human beings are resurrected we will have imperishable spiritual bodies. We will no longer be in the image of the man of dust, the image he had at his creation BEFORE he sinned: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinth. 15:49; see all of 1 Corinth. 15:22-56).
And, Adam and Eve were naked at the time of their creation. This means that while they were innocent of sin, they were spiritually imperfect. They did not love their Creator and that is why they disobeyed him. The most important verse in the Bible contrasts Adam and Eve’s failure to love their Creator with Jesus’ obedient sacrificial love for the Father. Jesus, on his way to his crucifixion said this to his disciples:
“‘But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here'” (John 14:31).
Genesis say nothing about Adam and Eve loving their Creator. Sometimes what is not said is even more important than what is said in a biblical story.
Your brother in Christ,
Rowland F. Stenrud