The Son Of God Religion Essay

The Son Of God Religion Essay In the gospel of Mark we read of the Son of God, but this title is used sparingly, only at key moments The Transfiguration, Trial with the High Priest when Christ is condemned and by the centurion at the foot of the Cross, truly this Man was the Son of God. Mark wants people to know the Christ is the Son of God, he does not want people to misunderstand who Jesus is, he is not a magician, healer, etc. There is a lot to more to Jesus and Mark wrote his gospel to clear up the misunderstandings that had arisen with regard to Jesus. The gospel writers knew they were right, they did not want people to lose heart; the communities that they were writing for were communities of faith. Mark says Jesus is Divine; He is the Son of God, not some local hero. He is the Son of God faithful to his Father. We hear Peters answer to the question asked by Jesus is correct. Peter calls Jesus the Christ but he really does not understand what he has said, he did not really understand what this meant. This is the turning point in Marks gospel. Peter thought that Jesus was power and glory. He saw Jesus as a great person with great power greater than that of Caesar and King David rolled into one. Jesus was swift to correct Peter who had made a mistake. To be Christ meant rejection, torture, death and then and only then Resurrection, but to a new kind of life, eternal life offered to all. . Peter had to accept Christs idea of what it meant to be Christ and to totally accept this idea. Peter had to be converted. He had to realise that Christ had not come to overturn Caesar; Christ had come to destroy sin, death and the Devil. Are we like Peter and answer Jesus, you are the Christ without actually thinking what this means. There are consequences if we say Jesus, you are the Christ and these consequences are not defined by us, they are guided by Christ. If I genuinely believe in Christ I will surrender myself to His will, His ways, His agenda for me, I will not set my own agenda I will not care about my own comfort etc. I will visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament and see him in all the people I come across without exception. If I genuinely believe that Christ is the Son of God, then everything changes and it must change. The deeper I enter into a relationship with Christ and the more I embrace His ways, His ideals, etc the more committed I become. I become a Christian. We become totally converted. But I only become a true follower and committed member of the church if my faith is profound and rooted in Christ, so rooted that it is in the depths of my heart. So I must show concern for all not matter who they are. Faith as mentioned in the Letter of James is not only prayer but also means showing compassion and care for Gods people, as Christ has, if one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need and we do not help then our faith is only a talking faith. Faith in Christ is a faith of action. A faith without deeds is an abstract faith if the good works do not go with faith, it is quite dead Faith in unity with Christ, does what Christ would do. No point in being pious, kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament and being totally unaware of what is going on around us and saying to ourselves that what is happening in the third world countries has nothing to do with me. So there are consequences in being a Christian and saying You are the Messiah, the Anointed One of God We must be prepared to deny ourselves to follow Christ and listen to what he has to say to us. We will never be asked to give up our life for Christ I hope, I mean to be martyred for our faith. But we are asked to lose our life, and this means that we enter into a loving relationship with Christ, we love Him without reservation, we take up our cross whatever that is follow Him without grumbling. We give ourselves wholeheartedly to Christ. This gospel today challenges us as followers of Christ. Can we willingly follow like the Suffering Servant mentioned in our Psalm, giving ourselves completely to God and to die for Christ like he died for us. IF WE DO THIS OUR LIVES WILL BE TRANSFRORMED BEYOND WORDS.

CHief Matenge’s Character Sketch Essay

This assignment is based on Bessie Head’s classic novel, When Rain Clouds Gather. It gives an assessment of one of the novel’s main characters, Chief Matenge and in the process exposes him as an undoubtedly corrupt leader. This is supported by the many intertwined facts and quotations that portray his character as such a leader and these are selected and presented from the novel. Byrne, Kalua, Scheepers and Kane (2012:100) provide the foundation for the reader’s agreement that Chief Matenge is a corrupt leader which in turn shapes the whole negative perspective of his personality when they describe him as representing the â€Å"Old Africa† at its worst – moral degeneration. Going through the whole novel the reader struggles and eventually loses the battle in finding anywhere where any positive notions are associated with Chief Matenge. Bryne et al (2012:100) present Matenge as a â€Å"villain, a bad person who is openly corrupt†. He is indubitably the antagonist and the opposer of Gilbert Balfour and Makhaya who generally stand for good in the name of progress and development in the novel. Head (1987:18) introduces Chief Matenge as Paramount Chief Sekoto’s â€Å"troublesome and unpopular younger brother†. This already gives the reader an idea of what sort of personality Chief Matenge has. This description of him sets the tone in the whole novel as he is further described using such adjectives and phrases as â€Å"overwhelming avariciousness† and â€Å"unpleasant personality†, (Head 1987:18). It soon becomes apparent that Chief Matenge’s brother, Paramount Chief Sekoto does not like his own brother, as the statement â€Å"nothing upset Chief Sekoto more than a visit from his brother, whom he had long classified as belonging to the insane part of mankind† (Head 1987:48) clearly displays. Paramount Chief Sekoto is said to have always sided with villagers who his brother constantly upset. Head (1987:18) presents Matenge as having a â€Å"devil† that drove him and would subside after some chastising from Chief Sekoto only to awaken its â€Å"clamouring and howling† a few months later. Matenge’s wickedness is further unfolded in the wish of Chief Sekoto to destroy him for â€Å"all the family feuds and intrigues he had instigated† (Head 1987:20). Ironically, Paramount Chief Sekoto was not what one would call a shining example of morality. Chief Sekoto, â€Å"although he was widely known as a good chief† (Head 1987:19) just like his brother Matenge â€Å"lived off the slave labour of the poor and his lands were ploughed free of charge by the poor, and he was washed, bathed and fed by the poor† (Head 1987:19). In turn Matenge also strongly despised his brother Paramount Chief Sekoto. Head (1987:42) discloses this when she reveals his thoughts about his brother who he secretly thought was â€Å"an amicable, pleasant nitwit of a brother in the supreme position. Matenge coveted is brother’s position of Paramount Chief. Matenge is referred to as â€Å"evil† countless times in the novel. Dinorego further exposes this evilness or corruptness when he confides in Makhaya that he (Matenge) was the evil force delaying progress in the village. Dinorego reveals Matenge’s machinations to â€Å"damage† and â€Å"delay† the starting of the farm and the cattle co-operative which are projects that are supposed to push development in the village. Matenge is said to have particularly sabotaged Gilbert Balfour on the cattle co-operative because he was personally benefitting from buying the poor villagers’ cattle at a low price and making huge profits by then selling them at a much higher price. Matenge took advantage of the poor villagers’ inability to hire railway trucks to transport their own cattle because they could not afford it. Matenge fought Gilbert Balfour’s cattle co-operative because it would put him out of business. Matenge’s falsehoods and cunningness are clearly portrayed when he lies to the villagers that Gilbert wanted to enslave them, â€Å"Was it true they wanted to know, that Gilbert had secretly purchased land from the paramount Chief and was using the name co-operative to enslave the people? That was what Chief Matenge had told them† (Head 1987:35). The reader would not hesitate to label Matenge as greedy and selfish. Head (1987:41) reveals that Matenge lived alone (before Joas Tsepe joined him) in a â€Å"big cream-painted mansion†. The other villagers are said to have lived in small and primitive mud huts and were in fact not allowed to build brick houses without permission from the Chief which was rarely given, if at all. Head (1987:41) goes on to mention that the central village where Matenge’s mansion was situated contained â€Å"one very poor general dealer’s shop which supplied the villagers with the â€Å"bare necessities† like sugar, tea and â€Å"cheap materials and shoes† among other items. The location of Matenge’s â€Å"big mansion† was also in proximity to a â€Å"three-roomed shack† which serves as the village primary school. The jarring contrast of Matenge’s seemingly luxurious life style and his surroundings nauseates the reader and speaks loudly of his greediness and selfishness. The reader can safely accuse Matenge of being a tribalist. Byrne et al (1987:100) describe tribalism as the practice of advancing one’s own tribe above others and judging other people on the basis of their tribal origins. Matenge is described as a â€Å"die hard traditionalist† (Head 1987:42). He wanted things to remain the same. He is said to have understood tribalism and that it was â€Å"essentially the rule of the illiterate man who when he was in the majority, feared and despised anything that was not a part of the abysmal darkness in which he lived†. (Head 1987:65) further portrays his disgust for other tribes when he is said to have dismissed Dinorego’s greeting at some point with a â€Å"slight gesture of the head which contained in it an inheritance of centuries of contempt for the ordinary man. † His shaky and opportunistic relationship with Joas Tsepe is another revelation of Matenge’s lopsided and corrupt character. Joas Tsepe was also corrupt and this is revealed in the sponsor that was shrouded in mystery who supplied him with money which enabled him to remain unemployed and to travel every six months by air as a very important person. Matenge also has xenophobic tendencies. His wish to chase Makhaya out of the village very much smelt of this. This is revealed when George Apple-by confides in Makhaya that Matenge wants him â€Å"removed† from the village because he is a refugee. Refugees were generally not liked in Botswana at the time of the book’s setting when many came from South Africa running away from Apartheid, but Matenge’s particular hatred for Makhaya as a refugee and all like him comes out when he referred to him as a â€Å"South African swine who always needs to run after his master† (Head 1987:66), referring to Makhaya’s close association with Gilbert Balfour. To say Makhaya was thoroughly offended by this is an understatement for unbeknown to Matenge, he secretly formed thoughts of murdering him. In conclusion Head (1987:43) could not have summed up Chief Matenge’s character better when she described him as â€Å"the epitome of darkness with his long gloomy, melancholy, suspicious face and his ceaseless intrigues, bitter jealousy and hatred†. Makhaya also equates him to several unsavoury items such as a â€Å"lout, cheat, dog and swine and he reckoned the â€Å"Matenges everywhere got themselves into a position over the poor† (Head 1987:136) The reader agrees with Mma Millipede when she quietly but unsuspectingly accurately predicts Chief Matenge’s demise. She tries to calm Makhaya after his dramatic encounter with Chief Matenge where he is labeled a South African swine and says, â€Å"People who err against human life like our Chief and the white man (referring to Apartheid in South Africa) do so only because they are more blind than others to the mystery of life. Some time life will catch up with them and put them away for good or change them† (Head 169:137). In Chief Matenge’s case, he was unlucky to not suffer the later of these predictions, but the former. After he comes back from a rather long absence from the village, he immediately gets back to what he knows best and summons Pauline and six village elders to be tried. Unbeknown to him, the whole village was excited that the day had arrived that they would face their â€Å"persecutor of many years† (Head 169:184). Because Matenge was not expecting a crowd, he panics, retreats into the house, and rather than facing the crowd, commits suicide, and the reader discovers another hidden character that was lurking in Matenge all along, cowardice. Not even his servants stand by him at his time of need; they beat a hasty retreat and leave him to deal with his issues alone and his eyes are opened and perhaps he finally sees himself for the monster that he is. The saddest part is not even his brother is quiet disappointed by his demise. Chief Sekoto’s digestion is said to have been â€Å"upset the whole day† by Matenge’s death, Head (1987:189). The reader is sure it is not because he is grieving for his brother but he is unappreciative of the fuss and inconvenience that the death causes. Such is the fate of the antagonist of When rain clouds gather. The reader applauds Bessie Head on successfully creating a fitting villain who one cannot help but hate. SOURCES CONSULTED Byrne, D, Kalua, F & Scheepers, R. 2012. Foundations in English Literary Studies. Only study Guide for ENG1501. Pretoria: University of South Africa Head, B. 1987. When Rain Clouds Gather. Heinemann.

American Funerals - 1658 Words

Student Name Tutor Course 2 May 2014 A Re-look at the America Funeral Process Funerals are some of the most difficult activities for most individuals to experience, especially when they involve the death of a loved one. Over the years, there has grown a common and yet distinct American custom when it comes to how funerals are perceived and conducted (James 348). However, most Americans still hold unto the traditional funerals as opposed to modern ones. Unfortunately, the American funeral customs put a lot of more emphasis on some activities that turn out to be very costly. Worst of all, the economic burden that this traditions put on the bereaved families is even more detrimental. Most of the old folks are the greatest defenders†¦show more content†¦Identified by the majority as funeral directors† in America, these specialists have transformed the twentieth-century experience of death and body disposal. On the flip side though, this does not mean that they have made things any easier. Since the funeral expense plans have become a part of the American funeral custom, here is a look at how this plans may not be a good investment after all. First of all, such plans usually accord the client negligible interest of their money, and in some cases the interest goes into their pockets therefore meaning that they do not over individual the control of the money they have invested in them (Nash). Secondly, the funeral plans will always cost more than they claim that it will cost for them to offer their services fully during the death of an individual. In that regard, I would like to point out that this is my utmost to both funeral homes and American funerals since the two are intertwined. According to Nash , most commercial on American televisions currently advertise the services of funeral plans, saying that it costs just around $6,000 for and individual to get a full cover. However, this is a huge lie. This could have been true a few decades ago, not today. 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Why I Have Made The Decision For Further My Education

Paper 1 Assignment â€Å"Why I have made the decision to further my education† I was born in Novokuznetsk, a small city in the Siberian part of Russia. Life happens, and my father left us when I was only a few months old. Being a single parent, my mother had to work hard to raise me and to give me everything that was in her forces. Since the earlier childhood I had realized that if I wanted to change something in our life and become successful in the future my priority task must have been getting a good education. It was absolutely clear that, being an educated person, I would more likely become an advanced professional and achieve my own goals in career and personal life. The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, once†¦show more content†¦My mother noticed my abilities and put me in the school specializing in physics and math, which from I later graduated with honor. Being studying in high school, I had participated in the mathematical competition, organized by our city association of the universities. I won and received a scholarshi p and the opportunity to be placed in any university in the city without the placement tests and fee. By this way, I had got not only a gladness but also the freedom to choose the university and a major. Then I was facing the difficult and very important choice of the future profession. However, the choice I had finally made was the greatest mistake in my life. Sanford J. Ungar in his essay â€Å"The New Liberal Arts† quotes the suggestion of the president of Hart Research Associates, Geoffrey Garin, that â€Å"the responsibility of higher education today is to prepare people â€Å"for jobs that do not yet exist†. So I decided to be prepared for the job which didn’t yet exist but sounded too attractive for me. The fact is that the world is undergoing changes, the international connections are rapidly growing and the globalization is in full swing. Considering this tendency, one of the best universities in our city had established a new major â€Å"global economy†, also called as â€Å"world economy†. This major was oriented to prepare high qualified foreign affairs