What is the Type Scene? Type Scene is a kind of literary technique that many ancient authors used in their literature. They used in works where the particular scene has the same feature or pattern all over his works. For example, the films of James Cameroon have some garden-type scenes. There was a recent study on type seen and they discovered in the bible there are a number of type-scenes present; betrothal-type scenes, dream type-scenes, banquet type-scenes and et cetera. Annunciation is one of the type scene event. 

If the authors wanted to narrate the story of a legend, they speak about the nation which was under slavery and people were suffering, God choose a poor family and there is a barren lady in that family.  The angel of God was sent to her and announces god's message about the birth of a legend, initially, she does not receive the message then she receives and the birth takes place. This is called the annunciation type seen in the bible. 

There are three annunciation-type scenes: The birth of Samson, the birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus. There are many similarities between these three, but Mary's YES was unique and different compared to other scenes. Manoah's wife (mother of Samson) had also pronounced yes but a different kind that of criticizing and demanding YES. He was dependent to Manoah, her husband. Zachariah did not tell yes directly but with the heart of a high priest. But Mary had the heart of the humble immaculate lady.  innocent question. God wants us to express our honesty. God with hold the heart of a priest of a Leader Be simple and fight your ego every day.

Bring a sacrifice to the Lord

"…when a man among you brings a sacrifice to the Lord…"—Leviticus 1:2

We are beginning the book of Leviticus this week. The word Leviticus means “of the Levites.” The name makes sense considering that the book is primarily focused on the service in the Temple or the Biblical laws of purity and impurity.

Today though, the Levites are for the most part unemployed!

The Second Temple was destroyed in the year 70 CE and hence the end of the sacrificial system which was a central feature of the Temple.

Jews today pray three times a day paralleling the morning offering, the afternoon offering and the burning of the remains of the offering in the evening.

Substituting prayer for sacrifice is explicitly written in the book of Hosea where it says “…we will render for bulls the offering of our lips” (Hosea 14:3)

The English word sacrifice means that you are giving up something that has some level of value to you often in exchange for something else or for a higher value. For example, you may sacrifice your time for a friend or you may sacrifice your money for a good cause.

When we think of sacrifice in the context of the Temple, we think of the offering of an animal or in some cases vegetarian offerings.

In order to understand what the sacrifices in the Temple meant, we need to look at the Hebrew word used. The Hebrew word commonly translated as a sacrifice is “korban.”

The root of the word korban means “to come close.” It does not mean to sacrifice. When a person would bring any kind of offering in the Temple, and there were many, the goal was always the same—to get closer to God.

Whether it was a voluntary offering, holiday offering, peace offering, Nazirite offering, sin offering—what they all had in common was that it was a means to help us get closer to God.

The bringing of the offering was not an end in and of itself. This is a common misunderstanding of what a korban is. It is not a magic trick that somehow offering an animal in the Temple will affect an outcome automatically. The korban was the culmination of all the inner work that a person would do and it was a reflection of that.

Think of it this way. A person invests time and energy into a project and then makes a party to celebrate the completion of the project. The korban is the completion of the project–of all the inner, spiritual work that is invested to get closer to God. The korban is the celebration of the end of the process.

Thanks: Rabbi Moshe, weekly devotional

LIFE OF JOSEPH FORESHADOWING LIFE OF JESUS

God loves the man and he offers his beloved son for us every day in the Eucharist. The sacrifice at the Cross was a visible sign of invisible mercy we experience every day.

In the first reading, we see how Israel loved his last son, he was the son he had in advanced age. He knew that he would not generate again and this last child was like a closing life legacy to the world. This son was his last love in the life. Many times we were told that Joseph is a figure of Jesus, sold and abandoned. Every detail of the story of Joseph matches the life of Jesus. Even his being cast in a well, is very similar to the place where Jesus was held during the night before coming in front of Pilatus. Jesus is also God’s only begotten, the last son of the alliance. God sent many prophets to the people of Israel to call His people back from sin, but their ears were always deaf, or their hearts were attached to wealth and sin. Jesus narrates about the vineyard slaves who kill the legal son thinking how to solve the problem of the vineyard and keep it. Jesus hits the nerve of the Pharisees and priests because that is their thought precisely. How can they keep their positions and wealth, love of the people and well-being? The exact thought also of Joseph’s brothers. 

Do we sell our brothers and sisters to be well-off ourselves? Are we ready to throw them away because of our ideas and positions? Do we sometimes look at a person with disgust and rejection because it is more loved in our eyes by God or by other people? One can kill not only with weapons but more often by envy, hatred, prejudice and haughtiness. 

This Lenten time is a good moment to look for our Josephs in the wells where we threw them and give a hand of reconciliation. Though God can save his son from any evil and let come good out of evil, we should never find ourselves dirty with the blood and tears of our brothers and sisters. God will know what is hidden and as in the story of Joseph, God will bless his sufferings but with what face and courage can we appear in front of God and face his wrath if we abandoned our youngest and smallest brothers in Christ?

Let us use this Lenten time for reconciliation and love....

Thanks: Zeljka

RICH MAN AND LAZZARUS

If you are one of the Jeepney passengers in the Philippines, you will not be indifferent to the suffering of the Jeepney drivers at this moment. More than 100,000 drivers launched a national strike against govt plans to provide new Jeepneys. A Jeepney driver says, “Govt is indifferent to our livelihood."

The theme for today is indifference or carelessness toward the other and it is visible in today's readings. We are called to be sympathetic, concerned and helpful to the other who is living next to us. As human beings we are responsible for others, we can not give God the irresponsible answer of Cain, "am I guardian of my brother?" 

1. The parable tells vividly the amount of wealth that separates the rich man from Lazzarus. Apart from this wealth, there is also Lazzarus' experience of suffering that has to be noted; Lazzarus body was full of sores, even dogs were licking his sores. The rich man was indifferent to the pain of Lazzarus all his lifetime. (In Old Testament, chronic diseases were considered cursing. Society had a lot of rules of isolation for the sick person because they wanted to care the society. In the parable of the good samaritan also, the two persons passed by on the other side being indifferent to the suffering of the other). 

Remember! physical suffering in this world is temporary suffering. Death puts an end to this. What the rich man was experiencing today in hell is "eternal torment". We need to show solidarity with the suffering ones in our temporary life. Solidarity is not merely a question of helping others, but it is more than that - it is a matter of justice.

2. The rich man and Lazarus had one thing in common. Both were Jews. Both were sons of Abraham. According to Torah, one Israelite should help another Israelite. In a special way, he should be concerned with the poor and abandoned. In this case, he disobeyed Torah also. He did not even concern his own family member. Charity begins at home. People who need our help are all around us. If our vision is focused on wealth, fame and power we may not care about them. 

3. Everyone should make this reflection, "Who is poor for you?". We may help the poor persons generously. But with what attitude? The rich man did not even have concerns about the poor Lazzarus in the next world. He argues with Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. In his mind, Lazzarus  is still a slave, a work that he could command at any time and by whom he should be obeyed. The first reading is opening our eyes in regard to this. God is God. The poor are not God for you, we should treat him equally so that we identify Jesus in then. For Jesus said, "whatsoever you do to the least ones, you do to me" (Mt 25). In today's first reading, God curses the people who put their trust in human beings. We can share our love with the people, and we can help and feed them, but we cannot believe them, we can only believe in God. 

Be Merciful as God is merciful

BE MERCIFUL 

Which is best in front of God? To be perfect according to His mind? Or To be merciful like Him? 

Actually, both are same, but are different aspects of His identity. Matthew writes, "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), which echoes Leviticus 19:2: "Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." Luke makes a single but remarkable word change, "be merciful, just as your heavenly father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). 

Luke’s Gospel was believed to be written  10 to 15 years after the gospel of Matthew. Maybe it was Luke who wanted to change the way of looking at the holiness of God. How can we understand the word of Jesus as per today's gospel reading according to Luke? 

1. No one can be perfect, but everyone can show mercy. And in showing mercy we approach divine perfection. Luke records the perfection used by Matthew as the mercifulness of God.  

God's perfect life is donated to imperfect people. God's face is nothing but his mercy. When we say perfection, what comes to our minds are hardness, rigidity, and roughness. But the Mercy of God does not include inferiority, fear and negative feelings. Jesus said, “I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). Jesus did not judge even his own murderers. Instead, He was thinking well of them, excusing them and praying for them: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). As His disciples, we are invited to be like the Master.

2. Throw away the judgemental attitude: There are two strong imperatives used in the sayings of Jesus; Stop judging and stop condemning. When Jesus says: “Do not judge”, Jesus is not prohibiting the exercise of our faculty of discernment, nor are we asked to approve everything that our brother does. What He is forbidding is to attribute an evil intention to the person for acting thus. Let us not spend time judging others for it is not our work. Rather, we are asked to help, discern and correct others who are traveling with us without taking the role of condemning. 

3. The flow of forgiveness: Just if we laugh at them, we think about their ignorance, and we have pity on them. It becomes mercy. Why they are just unable to understand the people? How small are still people? They are not exposed to the environment of love. It is written, "Give and gifts will be given to you": how can we understand. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father gave gfts to both the sons, but what did  he receive from them in return? Yet, the Father receives happiness. Remember there is no happiness in having or receiving, but rather in giving. If you want to remain satisfied, just give whatsoever you can, offer time, and give love in case of negligence. 

Surrendering is important to achieve the happiness, like the father by simply offering. In the first reading, Daniel prays to God, he surrenders to God, he surrenders the people. Daniel is satisfied. Happy. 

ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK (Mt 7:7-12)

Today’s gospel reading narrates many things, but one thing is prevalent, that is "interdependence". Jesus invites us strongly to come out from our self-centered living and to move towards other-centered living and therefore to God-centeredness. 

Most of us think very often that we can make it alone. At times, we understand that it is not possible at all. We are not created alone in this world. Please reflect on these three words; Ask, Seek, and Knock.  We cannot achieve anything if we do these three actions alone.  At times, we feel that asking for something is a humiliating experience,  we become weak and vulnerable if someone is helping us. We become shameful when help is denied if we have asked. We go near the door, yet we sometimes return without knocking because it will disturb other people. 

Not only in prayer but also in our social and commercial interactions we need to ask, seek and knock. Jesus says our Father in heaven is a God of goodness and benevolence. 

We may take as an example the prayer of the Queen Esther before she goes to the king to plead for the people. The implication is that it was not she who brought liberation to help people, but God, God alone. Esther seeks the presence of God to accompany her. In her childlike trust, she knocks, and the doors are opened for her. 

These are the simple messages from today's Gospel: 

• We are dependent as human beings. 
• We are here not to compete but to complement each other. 
• We need to collaborate and cooperate for the common good that brings success not confrontation with others.