Saved: a Bible Study Guide for Catholics
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Saved A Bible Study Guide for Catholics 2 Saved A Bible Study Guide for Catholics Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. www.osv.com Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. Huntington, Indiana 46750 3 Imprimi Potest Very Reverend Brian G. Paulson, S.J. Provincial of the Chicago-Detroit Province Nihil Obstat Reverend Monsignor Michael Heintz, Ph.D. Censor Librorum Imprimatur ✠ Kevin C. Rhoades Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend March 1, 2017 The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book is free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed. Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly. Copyright © 2017 by Mitch Pacwa, S.J. Published 2017. 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher. Contact: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440; [email protected]. ISBN: 978-1-68192-027-6 (Inventory No. T1784) eISBN: 978-1-68192-030-6 LCCN: 2017934115 Cover design: Tyler Ottinger Cover art: ©The Crosiers/Gene Plaisted, OSC Interior design: Sherri L. Hoffman Interior art: iStockPhoto.com Printed in the United States of America 4 About the Author Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J., is a popular host of EWTN Catholic television network and founder and president of Ignatius Productions, a Catholic media production apostolate. His best-selling series, A Bible Study Guide for Catholics, includes St. Paul; Growing in Faith; The Eucharist; Mary: Virgin, Mother, and Queen; Mercy; and The Holy Spirit. He can be found online at www.fathermitchpacwa.org. 5 Dedication To Father Martin Gerber, forty years a priest serving Jesus Christ and his people. Ad multos annos. 6 Contents How to Use this Study Guide in a Group Acknowledgments Introduction Session 1 — Salvation Comes from God and for God Session 2 — Salvation, Repentance, and Faith Session 3 — The Role of Baptism and the Eucharist in Salvation Session 4 — The Necessity of a Christian Spiritual Life for Salvation Session 5 — Good Works and Eternal Life Session 6 — Perseverance unto Eternal Life Last Words 7 How to Use this Study Guide in a Group This is an interactive study guide. It can be read with profit either alone or as part of a group Bible study. Below are suggestions for the use of this book in a group. What You Will Need for Every Session • This study guide • A Bible • A notebook • Before Session 1, members of the group are encouraged to read the Introduction and Session 1 and to complete all the exercises in both. They should bring this study guide with them to the group session. • Begin the session with prayer. • Invite one person in the group to read one of the Scripture passages included in this session’s material. • Allow five minutes of silent reflection on the passage. This allows the group’s members to quiet their inner thoughts and to center themselves on the lesson to be discussed. • Catechesis: Give all members a chance to share some point that they have learned about salvation. Was this something new or a new insight into something? Was there anything that raised a question? (Allow fifteen to twenty minutes for this.) • Discussion: Use the discussion questions at the end of the session chapter to begin a deeper grasp of the material covered in the session. (Allow fifteen to twenty minutes for this.) • Conclusion: Have all members of the group summarize the key concepts they learned about salvation in the session. Assign the next session as homework, to be completed before the next group session. Symbols Used in this Study Guide = Information 8 = Stop and Read = Investigate = Quotation 9 Acknowledgments Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright © 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Where noted, other Scripture citations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible — Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), designated as RSV-SCE. Copyright © 1965, 1966, 2006 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Excerpt from the introduction to the Letter to the Romans is taken from the New American Bible, revised edition, copyright © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica, copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Excerpt from the Renewal of Baptismal Promises is taken from the English translation of The Roman Missal, copyright © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL). All rights reserved. 10 Introduction “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” — John 3:16-17 We begin this Bible study with the assumption that God wants to save the world because of his love for human beings. From his very conception and infancy, Jesus is identified as the one who saves his people. For instance, the meaning of his name in Hebrew is explained by the angel in St. Joseph’s dream when he says that the still Virgin Mary “will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). When the angel appears to the shepherds after the birth of Jesus, he tells the shepherds “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). As Jesus walked toward Jerusalem with his disciples before his passion and death, he taught them that “the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19:10); “the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). When he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he announced that “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). An often-quoted verse points out Jesus’ mission: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). At the Last Supper, he made it clear that his mission is not for abundant life that centers on this world but eternal life, which means knowing the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent (Jn 17:3). Salvation was not defined as a political deliverance from the Romans but as the forgiveness of sin and a new life of holiness and goodness. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). St. John taught that “he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). The extension of salvation to the whole world was a promise of the prophets: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6). Jesus taught this as well: “[May they] all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21, RSV-SCE). 11 Clearly, Jesus is the focal point of salvation: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6), and “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). Yet the vision is directed outwardly to the whole world: “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn 18:37). For that reason, this Bible study will explore a number of the rich mysteries of salvation with the sole purpose of deepening and enriching the interpersonal relationship of every human being with the tri-personal God, who is one and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 12 Session 1 Salvation Comes from God and for God “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.” — St.