Understanding Scripture?

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

04/20/14

John 20:1-9

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark, 
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter 
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, 
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb, 
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter 
and arrived at the tomb first; 
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him, 
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, 
and the cloth that had covered his head, 
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in, 
the one who had arrived at the tomb first, 
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture 
that he had to rise from the dead.

The key in this passage for me is “did not yet understand the Scripture”. Who does, really? You may ask. I would hope that we all can, at least a little better than we do now. That's why we at Real Life Radio have begun promoting a small group prayer method known as GPS. GPS stands for Gospel Prayer Solution and it's a simple way of gathering with friends, looking ahead to the upcoming Gospel reading for mass and trying to understand it better with reading, reflection and sharing. The GPS method borrows from ancient forms of Catholic prayer, but adds a very specific formula in order to arrive at something more than mere faith sharing. In order for GPS to be effective the participant must arrive at a personal mission.

There have been numerous books, lectures, blogs and articles regrading the New Evangelization. But in my experience there has yet to be anything that offers a practical “how to”. I've seen a lot of “this is what needs to be done” type of approaches, but for me many of these are no more practical than the bumper sticker that reads FREE TIBET. How am I supposed to do that? It's all great idealistically, but what do we realistically do?

I have personally spoken with a half a dozen pastors who have agreed to form and promote GPS groups in their parishes. The method has a built-in exponential growth component that gives me hope that with a few small seeds of enthusiasm we can actually see a growth curve that can begin to stem the challenge of “not understanding the scripture”. Our goal is to not only understand, but to hear and do the word of God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In my research I found a thriving evangelical ministry that sees their goal of balancing a person's faith life by bringing them into the discipleship triangle of Jesus, Community and Service. I love this approach. They know that their doors are opening every week to people who may be seeking one of these three areas but rarely are they fully discipled into balancing the triangle. GPS will do this as well. Potentially more effectively than the evangelical model because of the intentional growth element. Nonetheless, we have an opportunity to bring about the New Evangelization. We can re-evangelize the fallen away. We can strengthen our own faith in the process and we can do all of this through the grace of the risen Lord through this Easter season. Pray about this and consider joining us.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown