The Israelites are lead away from Egypt and as they leave, are instructed sacrifice the first to open the womb to the Lord of all the clean animals, and to redeem the unclean and the humans. St. Cyril gives us a Christological view of this redemption. As they leave Egypt, God instructs the Israelites to not take the Philistine road, the shortest route to Canaan, but rather toward the wilderness and the Reed Sea. The Ephraimites had met their destruction along the road of the Philistines and were destroyed. Who were the Ephraimites? We look ahead in the Book of Chronicles to answer that question. Why were the descendants of Ephraim, Joseph's younger son noted and not Manasseh who was the older? Dr. Hahn and Curtis Mitch explain this unusual pattern in Genesis. We review the importance of the Father's blessing, which involved the passing on of the priesthood to the first born son.

We begin by reading Matthew 14:13-36. Jesus withdraws from Judea upon learning of the execution/martyrdom of John the Baptist. Is Jesus a coward, or prudent? By what means did Jesus depart? What does that have to do with anything? We hear from St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom that give us insight. We look at the feeding of the five thousand or commonly known as the multiplication of the loaves. Why is this significant? How many people were there including women and children? Was there ever another event that would give an indication that the Messiah would do such a thing?

What does it mean to be consecrated to God? Why the first born male is consecrated and not any first born? Where did the Israelites approach the Red Sea? What is this pillar of cloud and the fire that leads the way for the Israelites? We look to Dr. Hahn, St. Cyril, St. Augustine and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to gain insight to this prefigurement of the freedom from sin and death effected by Jesus Christ in the foreshadowing of the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery to Pharaoh.

WE look at Chapter 13 of the Book of Exodus and look toward Dr. Scott Hahn, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Augustine and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to gain insight into this chapter and the institution of the redemption of the first born liturgy. The typology of this ritual is fulfilled in the paschal sacrifice of Jesus.

Why does God command the Moses to consecrate the first born male to Himself? God leads the Israelites as a cloud by day and fire at night, so they are guided both day and night by God. We look to Dr. Scott Hahn, St. Cyril and the Catechism to gain insight into these mysteries.

What does it mean to be consecrated to the Lord? Why was a redemption of the first born demanded by God as a commandment? Why is God requiring a sacrifice as the price of redemption? We see the typology of the fire and cloud, the liturgical services in the redemption of the first born. We look to Dr. Hahn, St. Cyril, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Consecration of the First Born foreshadowing of the redemption of man by the actions of Jesus Christ.

Why would John the Baptist be risk his life over the illicit marriage of Herod to Herodias? What does the Church, based on the teaching of Jesus Christ himself say about marriage? Is marriage by the very nature of the sacrament indissoluble, or is that just an "ideal?" We look to the Council of Trent, Vatican II, and St. John Paul II to see the enduring nature of the Church's actual teaching about marriage. Situational ethics or "relativism" is not an excuse for violating the sixth commandment. Is God's grace enough for us to live out the commandments of Jesus about this very foundational sacrament?

We look at the Passover liturgical rite as a prefigurement of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We look to St. Cyril of Alexandria and Dr. Bergsma and Dr. Pitre to gain insight to the parallels between the institution of the Passover and that of the Sacrifice of Christ. St. Cyril interprets the five day period between the 10th day of Nisan and the 14/15 day of Nisan as the ages of the world and human history and how that relates to the New and Everlasting Covenant.

Jesus ends the third discourse and then goes to his home-town and those who "knew" Him take offense at Him at His wisdom and mighty works. So they were aware of the miracles He worked and the wisdom of His speech. We hear from Pope St. Gregory the great and of course St. John Chrysostom and St. Jerome. WE look back at Sirach and Genesis to get a full understanding of Jesus using parables to describe the Kingdom of God.