Daily Gospel Exegesis

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠ For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850p Matthew 9: 9-13 - 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick.' Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs: - 581 (in 'Jesus and the Law') - The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law. Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people "as one who had authority, and not as their scribes" In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old. . . But I say to you. . ."With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void the word of God" - 589 (in 'Jesus and Israel's faith in the one God and Saviour') - Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet (abbreviated). - 2100 (in 'Sacrifice') - Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit...." The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor. Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" (abbreviated). Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pJohn 6: 51-58 - 'My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 2837 (in 'Give us this day our Daily Bread') - "Daily" (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this day," to confirm us in trust "without reservation." Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence. Taken literally (epi-ousios: "super-essential"), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the "medicine of immortality," without which we have no life within us.- 1384 (in 'The Sacrament of the Eucharist') - The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."- 1406 (in 'The Sacrament of the Eucharist') - Jesus said: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; . . . he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and . . . abides in me, and I in him"- 1509 (in 'Heal the Sick') - "Heal the sick!" The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health.- 1524 (in 'Viaticum') - In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum. Communion in the body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of "passing over" to the Father, has a particular significance and importance. It is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection, according to the words of the Lord: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The sacrament of Christ once dead and now risen, the Eucharist is here the sacrament of passing over from death to life, from this world to the Father.- 787 (in 'The Church is communion with Jesus') - Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him: "Abide in me, and I in you.... I am the vine, you are the branches", and he proclaimed a mysterious and real communion between his own body and ours: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." (abbreviated).- 1391 (in 'The Fruits of Holy Communion') - Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." Life in Christ has its foundation in the Eucharistic banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me."- 994 (in 'The Progressive revelation of the Resurrection')- 728 (in 'Christ Jesus')- 1355 (in 'The Movement of the Eucharistic Celebration')Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠ For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850p John 3: 16-18 - 'God sent his Son into the world so that through him the world might be saved.' Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs: - 219 (in 'God is love') - God's love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." - 444 (in 'The Only Son of God') - Jesus calls himself the "only Son of God", and by this title affirms his eternal pre-existence. He asks for faith in "the name of the only Son of God" (abbreviated). - 458 (in 'Why did the Word become Flesh'?) - The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - 678-679 (in 'To Judge the Living and the Dead') - Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgement of the Last Day in his preaching. Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned...Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgement on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right by his cross. the Father has given "all judgement to the Son". Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love (abbreviated). Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠ For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850p John 17: 1-11a - 'Father, it is time for you to glorify me.' Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs: - 2746-2749 (in 'The Prayer of the Hour of Jesus') - When "his hour" came, Jesus prayed to the Father. His prayer, the longest transmitted by the Gospel, embraces the whole economy of creation and salvation, as well as his death and Resurrection. the prayer of the Hour of Jesus always remains his own, just as his Passover "once for all" remains ever present in the liturgy of his Church. Christian Tradition rightly calls this prayer the "priestly" prayer of Jesus. It is the prayer of our high priest, inseparable from his sacrifice, from his passing over (Passover) to the Father to whom he is wholly "consecrated." In this Paschal and sacrificial prayer, everything is recapitulated in Christ: God and the world; the Word and the flesh; eternal life and time; the love that hands itself over and the sin that betrays it; the disciples present and those who will believe in him by their word; humiliation and glory. It is the prayer of unity. Jesus fulfilled the work of the Father completely; his prayer, like his sacrifice, extends until the end of time. the prayer of this hour fills the end-times and carries them toward their consummation. Jesus, the Son to whom the Father has given all things, has given himself wholly back to the Father, yet expresses himself with a sovereign freedom by virtue of the power the Father has given him over all flesh. the Son, who made himself Servant, is Lord, the Pantocrator. Our high priest who prays for us is also the one who prays in us and the God who hears our prayer. - 684 (in 'I Believe in the Holy Spirit') - Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ" (abbreviated). - 1721 (in 'Christian Beatitude') - God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life. - 1069 (in 'What does the word 'liturgy' mean?') - Through the liturgy Christ, our redeemer and high priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his Church (abbreviated). - 2812 (in 'Hallowed be thy name') - Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice. This is the heart of his priestly prayer: "Holy Father . . . for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth." Because he "sanctifies" his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father. At the end of Christ's Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." - 2765 (in 'the Lord's Prayer') - The traditional expression "the Lord's Prayer" - oratio Dominica - means that the prayer to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. the prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is "of the Lord." On the one hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him:1 he is the master of our prayer. On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer. Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠ For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850p Matthew 28: 16-20 - 'Go and make disciples of all nations.' Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs: - 849 (in 'Mission - a requirement of the Church's catholicity') - The missionary mandate. "Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be 'the universal sacrament of salvation,' the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men": "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am with you always, until the close of the age." - 1257 (in 'The Necessity of Baptism') - The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament (abbreviated). - 232 (in 'in the Name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit') - Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: "I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity." - 831 (in 'What does Catholic Mean?') - Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race: All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God's will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one.... the character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit. - 2743 (in 'Persevering in Love') - It is always possible to pray: the time of the Christian is that of the risen Christ who is with us always, no matter what tempests may arise. Our time is in the hands of God (abbreviated). - 1120 (in 'The Sacraments of the Church') - The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church. the saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they receive the Spirit of Jesus to act in his name and in his person (abbreviated). - 644 (in 'The Appearances of the Risen One') - 2 (in 'Prologue') - 767 (in 'The Church - revealed by the Holy Spirit') - 189 (in 'The Creeds') - 543 (in 'The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God') - 691 (in 'The Proper name of the Holy Spirit') - 2156 (in 'The Christian Name') - 80 (in 'One Common Source') - 788 (in 'The Church is communion with Jesus') - 860 (in 'The Apostles Mission') Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠ For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850p John 14: 15-21 - 'I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate.' Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs: - 729 (in 'Christ Jesus') - Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made to the fathers. The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the Father in answer to Jesus' prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus' name; and Jesus will send him from the Father's side, since he comes from the Father. the Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us for ever; he will remain with us. the Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that Christ said to us and bear witness to him. the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. - 2615 (in 'Jesus teaches us how to pray') - Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is "another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." This new dimension of prayer and of its circumstances is displayed throughout the farewell discourse (abbreviated). - 692 (in 'Titles of the Holy Spirit') - When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the "Paraclete," literally, "he who is called to one's side," advocatus. "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler. The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth. - 243 (in 'The Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit') - Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously "spoken through the prophets", the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them "into all the truth". The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father. - 687 (in 'I Believe in the Holy Spirit') - The Spirit of truth who "unveils" Christ to us "will not speak on his own. Such properly divine self-effacement explains why "the world cannot receive (him), because it neither sees him nor knows him," while those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them (abbreviated). - 2466 (in 'Living in the Truth') - To follow Jesus is to live in "the Spirit of truth," whom the Father sends in his name and who leads "into all the truth" (abbreviated). - 2671 (in 'Come, Holy Spirit') - The traditional form of petition to the Holy Spirit is to invoke the Father through Christ our Lord to give us the Consoler Spirit. Jesus insists on this petition to be made in his name at the very moment when he promises the gift of the Spirit of Truth (abbreviated). - 788 (in 'The Church is communion with Jesus') - When his visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave his disciples orphans. He promised to remain with them until the end of time; he sent them his Spirit. As a result communion with Jesus has become, in a way, more intense: "By communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body those brothers of his who are called together from every nation." Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pJohn 14: 1-12 - 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 151 (in 'To Believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God') - For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me." (abbreviated).- 2795 (in 'Who Art in Heaven') - He is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father's house is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from the land of the covenant, but conversion of heart enables us to return to the Father, to heaven. In Christ, then, heaven and earth are reconciled, for the Son alone "descended from heaven" and causes us to ascend there with him, by his Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension (abbreviated).- 661 (in 'He Ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father') - This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus. "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.- 1025 (in 'Heaven') - To live in heaven is "to be with Christ." the elect live "in Christ," but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name. For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.- 74 (in 'The Transmission of Divine Revelation') - God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth: that is, of Christ Jesus Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth.- 459 (in 'Why did the Word become Flesh?') - The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (abbreviated).- 1698 (in 'Life in Christ') - The first and last point of reference of this catechesis will always be Jesus Christ himself, who is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (abbreviated).- 2466 (in 'Living in the Truth') - In Jesus Christ, the whole of God's truth has been made manifest. "Full of grace and truth," he came as the "light of the world," he is the Truth. "Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know "the truth [that] will make you free" and that sanctifies (abbreviated).- 2614 (in 'Jesus teaches us how to pray') - When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name." Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life."- 470 (in 'How is the Son of God Man?') - The Son of God therefore communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pJohn 10: 1-10 - 'I am the gate of the sheepfold.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 754 (in 'Symbols of the Church') - "The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.- 2158 (in 'The Christian Name') - God calls each one by name. Everyone's name is sacred. the name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it.Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 24: 13-35 - 'They recognised him at the breaking of the bread.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 1094 (in 'The Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ') - It is on this harmony of the two Testaments that the Paschal catechesis of the Lord is built, and then, that of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church. This catechesis unveils what lay hidden under the letter of the Old Testament: the mystery of Christ. It is called "typological" because it reveals the newness of Christ on the basis of the "figures" (types) which announce him in the deeds, words, and symbols of the first covenant. By this re-reading in the Spirit of Truth, starting from Christ, the figures are unveiled (abbreviated).- 1347 (in 'The Mass of All ages') - Is this not the same movement as the Paschal meal of the risen Jesus with his disciples? Walking with them he explained the Scriptures to them; sitting with them at table "he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them."- 643 (in 'The Appearances of the Risen One') - Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad") and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale". When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen."- 601 (in 'He Died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures') - Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures." In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles (abbreviated).- 572 (in 'Jesus Christ Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried') - The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (abbreviated).- 641 (in 'The Appearances of the Risen One') - Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" (abbreviated).- 1329 (in 'What is this sacrament called?')- 659 (in 'He Ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father')- 439 (in 'Christ')Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850p⁠Matthew 28: 1-10 - 'He has risen from the dead and now he is going before you into Galilee.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 500 (in 'Mary ever-virgin') - Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph, "brothers of Jesus", are the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls "the other Mary". They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression.- 2174 (in 'the Day of the Resurrection: the new Creation') - Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation.      Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday:  "We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead."- 641 (in 'The Empty Tomb') - Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One. Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves (abbreviated).- 654 (in 'The Meaning and Saving Significance of the Resurrection') - Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation ingrace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection:"Go and tell my brethren." We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!