Skip to main content

Advent Series December 3

 

+
JMJ

December 3

After the flood, Noe and his sons had children and they had children and so on. Years went by and families grew into tribes and tribes grew into cities then nations. They became skilled in building with bricks and in their pride decided to build a tower that would reach all the way up to heaven without God's help.

God saw this prideful plan and put a stop to it by giving people different languages so that no one could understand one another. Everyone sounded  as if they were babbling, so we call the tower that caused it all, the Tower of Babel. Since they could no longer communicate, all work on the tower stopped and people moved away. (Genesis 11)

If you look at the very end of the Bible in the chronological index, it says that one man did not agree to help build the tower. His name was Heber. Heber was the great grandson of Noe’s son Sem.

To reward Heber’s faithfulness, God let him keep the original language. We call this language “Hebrew” after Heber. So now you know that Adam and Eve spoke Hebrew in the Garden of Paradise!

Heber had children and his children had children, until another special person was born. That person was Abram. When Abram was 75, he went to live in the land of Chaanan with his family and his nephew Lot. Eventually, they parted ways and Lot went to live in Sodom.

Then there was a war and Lot was taken captive. When he heard this, Abram went with his servants and rescued Lot and Lot’s family and possessions.

After the rescue, Melchisedech, the king of Salem (which means peace), and priest of the most high God, brought forth bread and wine and offered them in thanksgiving. He blessed Abram saying, “Blessed be Abram by the most high God, who created heaven and earth.” (Genesis 14:18-19)

Melchisedech is a mysterious person. We do not know where he came from, or when he died. He
offered bread and wine to God when most sacrifices at that time were animals. Melchisedech is a priest and a king; the king of Salem (which will later be called Jeru-Salem…Jerusalem!)

Melchisedech prefigured Our Lord, the King and Eternal High Priest of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Melchisedech offered bread and wine, which prefigured the Sacrifice of the Mass. Our priests today have the power to change that bread and wine into the very Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.


When a priest is ordained, he is told, “Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of
Melchisedech.”

So Melchisedech is an interesting figure in the Old Testament, but Abram would have a greater part to play.

Abram was the great great great great grandson of Heber.

Abram was born 450 years after the flood, just 2 years after Noe died. (Noe’s son Sem would live until Abram was 50.)

This marks a new time in the history of mankind.

Before he died, anyone who wanted to follow the true God could have talked to Noe. The chronological index shows that Noe was born just 126 years after Adam himself died! Noe would have been able to talk to men who had known Adam, the first man personally! Those people could have told Noe exactly what Adam said regarding the creation of the world, original sin and the promise God made of the Redeemer.

But now Noe was gone. Men had much shorter lives since the Flood and there was a danger that the words of God would be lost.

So God had a special plan. He wanted to have a race of people whom He would adopt as His Own family. They would be His “Chosen People” in order to guard the true faith until the coming of the Savior.

God chose Abram to be the father of His people. He changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means, “father of the multitude.”

We will talk more about Abraham tomorrow.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology

Shining the light of Church Teaching on the doctrinal positions of the SSPX and the Resistance. Principles are guides used to aid in decision making.  It stands to reason that bad principles will lead to bad decisions. The recent interactions between Rome and the SSPX has challenged a number of closely held cultural assumptions of people in both sides of the disagreement. This has resulted in cultural skirmishes in both Rome and the SSPX. Since it is the smaller of the two, the skirmishes have been more evident within the SSPX.  The cultural fault-line that Bishop Fellay crossed appears to be linked to two points of Catholic Doctrine: Ecclesiology and Obedience.  The cultural difference of view points is strong enough that it has resulted in the expulsion of a number of members.  It should also be noted that some other priests expelled since the beginning of the latest interactions (starting in 2000) held the same view points and have joined with the l...

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3

The Position of the SSPX on Canonizations by the Saint Factory

+ JMJ I have sometimes been criticized for including 'St' as a title for Pope John Paul II et al. I've given my reasons here  in a discussion with Alex Long. The question is one of prudence in discussions with ntCatholics and in some cases with tCatholics. In discussions with:  ntCatholics, I will use the title in order to continue the discussion and help them arrive at a realistic understanding of the crisis of the Church. tCatholics, I will use the title in order to broaden their perspective on the doctrine of dogmatic facts. This broader perspective is, in my opinion, essential maintaining a realistic understanding of the crisis of the Church. So from a doctrinal position, I have written the article Dogmatic Fact of Fancy  and includes a reference on canonizations. Now, I know the position of the SSPX is that the canonizations are doubtful (see references below) and I also know of at least one non-SSPX theologian who agrees with the level of doubt du...

Comparision of the Tridentine, Cranmer and Novus Ordo Masses

+ JMJ I downloaded the comparison that was linked in the previous article on the mass (here) . ... a very good reference! P^3 From: Whispers of Restoration (available at this link) . CHARTING LITURGICAL CHANGE Comparing the 1962 Ordinary of the Roman Mass to changes made during the Anglican Schism; Compared in turn to changes adopted in the creation of Pope Paul VI’s Mass in 1969 The chart on the reverse is a concise comparison of certain ritual differences between three historical rites for the celebration of the Catholic Mass Vetus Ordo: “Old Order,” the Roman Rite of Mass as contained in the 1962 Missal, often referred to as the “Traditional Latin Mass.”The Ordinary of this Mass is that of Pope St. Pius V (1570) following the Council of Trent (1545-63), hence the occasional moniker “Tridentine Mass.” However, Trent only consolidated and codified the Roman Rite already in use at that time; its essential form dates to Pope St. Gregory the Great (+604), in whose time the R...

Church Militant TV and the SSPX - Again

+ JMJ The old narrative used to be that the SSPX was 'schismatic' and 'excommunicated'. Now the excommunication has been lifted for a number of years and the only ones who think it still has effect are the 'resistors'. That leaves the other opponents of the SSPX with the label 'schismatic'. Make it clear, the conservative Catholics have issues with the SSPX probably because they violate some of their assumptions about the Faith and this crisis of the Church. Church Militant TV is one of these the exists along the Catholic thought spectrum. They like the Traditional Mass but must ensure that they don't get tarred with the same 'schismatic' brush that the liberals use against the SSPX.  So what do they do, they use the same brush against the SSPX. The funny thing is that even when the Church does speak, they don't want to listen and persist in calling the SSPX 'schismatic'. Here's a transcript of the latest s...