• Chapter 1 What experiences in your freshman year brought you closer to Jesus? Explain.
• Chapter 2 Do one of the "Living the Gospel" question at the end of the chapter, page 40. Write out the question and then answer it well.
• Chapter 3 Pick one organization working for social justice today. Describe the organization and what it does. Make sure to provide a link to its web site.
• Chapter 4 Do a three level interpretation on the "Parable of the Sower," Mark 4:3-9.
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6 Do the "Living the Gospel" question at the end of the chapter, pae 118. Write out the question and then answer it well.
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8 What is your favorite parable or miracle story? Cite the passage (book, chapter and verse) and explain why you chose this.
• Chapter 9 What is your most favorite passage from an epistle? Copy the passage and tell why it is important to you.

The key theme of chapter three is to come closer and be more like Jesus. Now we all know that Jesus was the symbol of perfection, and that we will never be perfect in the way that Jesus is, but we can at least strive to work towards what he was teaching us to do in the way of how to live our lives to come close to God. Jesus calls us to be the best that we can, and that in and of itself, is good enough for him. shows us this through the Beautitudes. The Beautitudes are considered the foundation of our Christian faith, and make up the Law of the New Testamnet.

A while ago I did not know how important the Beautitudes really were. I was talking to my pastor, Father Joseph Simon, about my freshman year at SLUH. I was not really in the mood to talk about Theology class, but I did engage in the conersation. I told him that I did not really know what made up Theology II, III, and IV, but I told him that we could take up and elective for Senior Theology. When he found out that one of them was the Beautitudes, his face lit up, and he immediately said, "That is the course that you want to take! The Beautitudes are the very foundation of our Catholic faith." I was just kind-of like,"Uh, huh. Sure.", and them I told him that it was not one of those classes that really jumped out at me, and that World Religions really sounded like and interesting class. He looked down on me with great disdain, but I later just shrugged it off. Now, that I am just going through this class, I see the Beautitudes in a whole new light, as well as that class.

The first thing that I have learned in this chapter is :one of the best ways to look at Jesus, is like a normal person. Jesus was jsut like everyone else, when it came down to him being fully man. This is one of the greatest mysteries of our faiths: How could Jesus be both fully God AND fully man? I guess that this is just one of those topics that requires us to just lie on faith.

The reason why I think that this is important because (1) it is a capital 'T' Tradtion in our faith, and (2)it is a good method of how we can come to know Jesus even better in our daily lives. If we can jsut put ourselves into Jesus's place, then I think you can become even closer to Him. If you can just put yourself into someone's head at the time of all this stuff was happening, you can go through it with Him and EXPERIENCE it with Him over and over again.

The second important thin that I learned in this course was: how careful Jesus was with his words. Jesus was very smart and wise with what he said, and what he did during his preaching career. An example would be, Jesus never referred to himself as the Son of God. Everyone else called him the Son of God. Jesus always referred to himself as the Son of Man; thus, no longer technically blaspheming. He always seemed to make the Pharisees and the Scribes say what he was trying to convey. Jesus. Seems to have that casual response for most of the time, "You said it, not me."

I believe that this is important because the fact that Jesus tried to outsmart the Pharisees and Scribes, shows him as a remarkably brave and courageous person. People would not usually question the Scribes authority because they were the smart people, and everyone else was beneath them. Yet, Jesus had the gusto to get up there, and show them that he was and could outsmart them in public, and that made them mad, so they had to come up with some way into tricking him. I only hope that I can have that kind of mind, so that I can use it like Jesus.

Here is the picture that I think exemplifies this chapter. It is a link so you can click on it, and go to the website where I got it from.

While I cannot speak for Satan, I can make a guess. Satan wanted to tempt Jesus because Satan wanted the power of God on his side. Because Jesus was fully God and fully man, he could have his powers and be tempted at the same time. So, Satan thought that if he could make Jesus use those infinite powers for the side of evil, then he in turn be as powerful as God. However, Jesus did not falter to Satan, and he stayed strong in order to reject Satan. Yet it still seems unclear, why Satan would even think that Jesus would give into him, even if he was fully man, because he would still be fully God.

The United Nations is an organization that I believe is very different, when it comes to working for social justice. The United Nations is one of the only places that is where just about every nation in the world can come together, and discuss problems that are going on in our world today. The United Nations is most definitely one of the most peaceful organizations with their strong desire to refrain from violence as long and as commitedly as the UN does. A lot of people say that the United Nations is not a very useful and productive organization, but they have been in the past.