Preparing for the
Messiah
Our Lady of Lourdes High School
Mrs. Safford
Fall 2014
Grade 10
THE PROMISE OF REDEMPTION
Questions to Think About…
• Who are the persons referred to in the Genesis
Protoevangelium?
• What is the felix culpa?
• What are the senses in which the Sacred
Scripture can be read?
Who are the persons referred
to in the Genesis
Protoevangelium?
• The Protoevangelium or “First Gospel” promises that
Christ, the New Adam, the seed of the woman Mary
(the New Eve), will overcome the Devil and bring
salvation.
• Jesus is the New Adam because the obedience made
amends for the disobedience of the first Adam.
• Mary’s humble “Yes” to the angel’s message brought
salvation to the world, undoing Eve’s no to God’s
command which brought sin and suffering.
What is the felix culpa?
• The fall of Adam and Eve is the felix culpa, or
happy fault because it resulted in the Incarnation
of Christ.
What are the senses in which
the Sacred Scripture can be
read?
The Old Testament can be read in the literal, allegorical, moral,
and anagogical senses.
• Literal sense-the Sacred Authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
intended to express, it is the most immediate and direct
meaning of the text.
• Allegorical-shows how people and events in salvation history
parallel future people and events.
• Moral sense-interprets the heroes of Scripture are models for
life.
• Anagogical sense-elucidates knowledge of heaven through the
events of Sacred Scripture.
How does Cain illustrate the
transmission of original sin?
• God had regard for the firstling animal offerings of Abel, and
not for the agricultural offerings of Cain.
• Cain showed the truths of Original Sin when he murdered his
brother, Abel.
• God showed mercy to Cain after banishing him by giving Cain
“a mark.” God promised a sevenfold vengeance on anyone
who killed Cain.
Homework
Define the following Vocabulary Words on loose leaf paper to
hand in:
• Ark of the Covenant
• Chosen People
• Covenant
• Exodus
• Felix culpa
• Idolatry
• Messiah
MAN’S EARLY IMMORALITY
Questions to Think About…
• Who is Lamech?
• Who is Seth?
• What are the covenants in the Old Testament?
Who is Lamech?
• Lamech, the first polygamist, and violent killer,
illustrates how sin proliferated in the primitive
world.
• Polygamy is bad since women become objects of
lust and domination. The husband withholds the
exclusive affection owed to one’s wife.
• Video: What is the Church’s stance on intimacy.
Who is Seth?
• Seth was the son of Adam, made in Adam’s
image and likeness.
• Seth’s lineage, unlike Cain’s began in
righteousness, but it too became corrupted.
• The line of Seth became corrupted by polygamy
as the “Sons of God” (Seth’s descendants) and
the “Daughters of Men” (Cain’s descendants)
intermarried.
• God punished early men for this evil by
shortening man’s lifespan.
What are the covenants in the
Old Testament?
• God instituted his plan of redemption of man by
entering into covenants with individuals and
groups of people who would be ancestors of
Jesus Christ.
• Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David are
individuals who helped institute God’s plan of
redemption.
Homework
Create a timeline and include the following people:
• Abraham
• Isaac
• David
• Joseph
• Lamech
• Moses
• Noah
• Cain and Abel
• Adam and Eve
• This will count as a test grade.
THE COVENANT WITH NOAH
Questions to Think About…
• What is the significance of Noah and the deluge?
• How did Noah’s descendants behave?
• How does the divinity of the human race relate
to salvation history?
What is the significance of
Noah and the deluge?
• God saved the world in the person of the one righteous man
Noah, and made a covenant with him,
• The “Flood” is a type of Baptism.
• The Flood symbolically represents the cleansing power of
Baptism achieved through Christ’s redemption.
• The waters of the flood destroyed the sins of the old creations
and opened the way of the new creation, just as the waters of
Baptism wash away our sins and create us anew.
How did Noah’s descendants
behave?
• Noah’s children spread their arrogance
throughout the world, with a good remnant
preserved in the line of Shem, the ancestor of
Abraham.
• Shem continued the righteous line that would
eventually become God’s chosen people.
• Ham’s line became the idolatrous Canaanites,
the traditional enemies of the Hebrews.
How does the disunity of the
human race relate to salvation
history?
• The disunity of the human race into nations,
languages, and peoples is meant temporarily to
curb human pride.
• This disunity was only provisional since God
wants to reunite the human family under Christ
Homework
• Write an extended paragraph comparing Noah’s
flood to Baptism.
GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
Question to Think About…
• What was God’s covenant with Abraham?
What was God’s Covenant with
Abraham?
• God chose Abraham, and made a covenant with him to be the
father of a new nation, his Chosen People, through which he
would reveal himself to mankind.
• God’s command that Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac both
challenging and inexplicable:
1. Isaac was the son whom Abraham was to become a great
nation, how could that be if Isaac was dead, since Abraham
had only one son?
2. A father being asked to kill his own son goes against human
nature.
3. God was directing man to do something immoral, which
would mean that God was evil, which he is not.
Abraham’s Covenant
• The sign of Abraham’s covenant is circumcision.
• The bond between circumcision and the Passion
of Christ is that the blood that was shed by the
males who entered into the Abrahamic covenant
served as a remote prototype for the blood shed
by Christ in establishing the New Covenant.
GOD’S COVENANT WITH MOSES
Questions to Think About…
• Who was Moses?
• What was the Jews early experience in the
Promised Land?
Who was Moses?
• God revealed his name to Moses, God’s prophet
who led the Chosen People out of slavery in
Egypt through the Red Sea after the Passover.
• Through Moses, God also revealed the
Decalogue, the moral law that was the basis of
the covenant God established with the Israelites.
How does God reveal his name
to Moses?
• The miraculous occurrence in which a bush is
burned without being consumed and out of
which Moses heard God speaking.
• The name of God, which God revealed to Moses,
is I Am Who I Am.
Why did God send the plagues
to Egypt?
• God sends plagues to force the Pharaoh to
release the Chosen People from Egypt.
• The worst plague was the last one, the death of
every firstborn male among the Egyptians,
animal and human.
• This is exactly what the Egyptians did to the
Jews.
What is the Passover? How did
the Israelites protect
themselves from this plague?
• God protected the firstborn sons of the Israelites by
instructing them to offer a male lamb as a substitute.
• The head of each family smeared the lamb’s blood on the
doorsteps and lintel of the house, so that the angel of
death would pass over that house, and spare the
household’s firstborn son.
• When the Pharaoh's son dies, he lets Moses and the
Chosen People leave Egypt. However, he later realizes
that his workforce has left, and sends his army after
them. The Red Sea parts to let the Israelites through,
however it closes and kills Pharaoh's soldiers.
What is the Decalogue?
• The Decalogue is the Ten Commandments given
to Moses on Mount Sinai, the basis of the
Mosaic Covenant.
• Three commandments detail the proper
relationship should have with God.
• Seven commandments regard the relationships
that a person should have with another person.
What was the Jews early
experience in the Promised
Land?
• In the Promised Land, Israel found the constant
temptation to be unfaithful to God by idolatry.
• It took 40 years from the Exodus into the
Promised Land.
• Israel desired a King, because they wanted
someone who would protect them from their
enemies and help them have a prosperous life.
DAVID AND THE PROPHETS
Questions to Think About….
• Who was David?
• What was the message of the Prophets?
Who was David?
• David, a prototype of Christ, was the greatest king of the
nation of Israel.
• King David made Jerusalem both a religious and political
capital where his son Solomon built the Temple for
worshipping God.
• The idea of Divine Kinship changes with David. Previously, the
nation of Israel collective was God’s son. Now, God calls
David, his son. God was referring to the heir of King David,
which is God’s begotten son, Jesus.
What was the message of the
Prophets?
• Through the Prophets, God warned Israel they
would suffer for the infidelity but promised a
future Messiah.
• The prophets, in general, predicted that the
Messiah would restore Israel, bringing her to an
even greater splendor, than that which existed
under David’s rule.
Homework
Write an extended paragraph:
• Define covenant
• Who were the 4 covenants made by God for
their chapter.
• Give details on the covenants made.
Citations for this Chapter
• Armenio, Rev. Peter. The Mystery of Redemption and Christian
Discipleship. 1st ed. Woodridge: Midwest Theological Forum,
2010.