The Clever Catholic

Work Out Your Salvation Like an Investor

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 20:06:52 GMT

When I make out my annual spiritual profit and loss statement for my soul’s fiscal year that begins in Advent, I’m always reminded of the parable of the dishonest steward (Lk 16:1-13). The dishonest steward knows he’s being canned for previously squandering his boss’ property. Rather than dig ditches or beg, he makes the shrewd move to eliminate his commissions on current sales so that the delighted buyers might “welcome him into their homes.” And he charged big commissions, up to 100%.

"The dishonesty of the steward consisted in the squandering of his master's property and not in any subsequent graft" (New American Bible commentary). Rather, his master commends him for his financial prudence, taking strategic losses now for possible gains later.

Our Lord’s financial advice is to “store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:20). Let’s run our spiritual life then, like a Schwab portfolio. We need to be as spiritually savvy as the worldly are worldly: “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” (8b). The world’s bumper sticker says, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins.” Ours should say, “Whoever dies with the most Communions wins.”

Receiving Holy Communion as often as possible is obviously the biggest bang for our spiritual buck, physically and spiritually uniting with God, yielding the highest ROI (return on investment), easily beating the S&P 500. What's beautiful about the Catholic Church is that there are Masses going on all over the world all the time. The sun never sets on the Mass. Go to daily Mass to financially make a killing. If you can't get to daily Mass, make spiritual Communions to score some moolah. Bring home the bacon with Eucharistic Adoration, bankrolling heavenly greenbacks hand over fist.

Reading sacred scripture, of course, is another way to put on the mind of Christ and earn beaucoup bucks. Praying the rosary is a cash cow. In every Hail Mary, we say Jesus and Mary are blessed, affirm his divinity, admit we’re sinners, and ask Mary, the Mother of God, to pray for us. It’s like hitting heaven’s lotto. As members of “a royal priesthood” (1 Pt 2:9) we can offer up in sacrifice our little annoyances and our real challenges as we take up our cross daily, to receive a treasure trove of grace.

"For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be" (Mt 6:21).

The next paper will cover the sin of spiritual greed. (I couldn’t resist.)

The Trinity

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 02:17:14 GMT

For Catholics, in the hierarchy of truths, the highest truth, and the toughest one to explain--next to the Eucharist--is the Trinity. “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian life and faith” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 234). Only because God revealed that he’s three distinct Persons with one nature would we know it. But we could fumble if we think that because the Father, Son, and holy Spirit each possess the divine nature, we believe in three Gods. And there are many other heresies we could fall into. We must, therefore, define and make the distinction between person and nature.

Defining person is easy. Not every being is a person. Only rational beings are persons. Persons are who we are. You’re you and I’m me.

Nature is what we are. By our nature, we do what we do. “We can laugh and cry and walk and talk and sleep and think and love. All these and other things we can do because as human beings we have a nature which makes them possible. A snake could do only one of them--sleep. A stone could do none of them. Nature, then, is to be seen not only as what we are but as the source of what we can do. But although my nature is the source of all my actions, although my nature decides what kind of operations are possible for me, it is not my nature that does them: I do them, I the person" (Frank Sheed, Theology and Sanity , 1946).

God’s nature is the total possession of divinity. Because Father, Son, and Spirit each possess the fullness of God, their nature is exactly the same. The Son, therefore, is everything the Father is, except being the Father: “If you know me, then you will also know my Father" (Jn 14:7), for in Christ "dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily“ (Col 2:9). "Thus, the one, infinite, divine nature is totally possessed by three distinct persons. Here we must be quite accurate: the three persons are distinct, but not separate; and they do not share the divine nature, but each possesses it totally” (Sheed, 1946).

Because the three Persons each possess only one, identical, divine nature, there is only one God. You and I have a human nature, but it’s not exactly the same. We think, love, talk, etc., differently.

The Trinity is like three laptops plugged into one mainframe computer. All three laptops are distinct, but really there is only one computer. Each laptop, or Person, though, possesses the fullness of the total nature of the one infinite mainframe, God.

The Three Persons

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 02:11:02 GMT

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. --John 1:1

These ideas are Frank Sheed’s, British founder of the Catholic Evidence Guild, of which I was a member. Besides being an acclaimed author, Sheed was a street corner preacher. After taking classes at the seminary, the NYC Guild would meet at Washington Square Park in Manhattan. Then, one by one, we would present our assigned topic to passersby. If people had questions, members would pull them aside. It was a fun and fascinating experience, like being with St. Paul at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22).

From Sheed's book, Theology for Beginners , 1957, abbreviated and slightly expanded on:

The truth, that Father and Son possess the one same nature, might remain wholly dark to us if St. John had not given us another term for their relation—the Second Person is the Word of the First.

God utters a Word—not framed by the mouth of course, for God has no mouth. He is pure spirit. So it is a word in the mind of God, an Idea. It is the Idea he produces of himself. But the Idea that God has of himself cannot be imperfect. Whatever is in the Father must be in his Idea of himself, and must be exactly the same as it is in himself. Otherwise God would have an inadequate Idea of himself, which would be nonsense. Thus, because God is infinite, eternal, all-powerful, his Idea of himself is infinite, eternal, all-powerful. Because God is God, his Idea is God.

The Father knows and loves; so, his Idea knows and loves. In other words, the Idea is a Person. God's Idea of himself is not something only, it is Someone: for it can know and love. Hence, the Son--the Father's Idea of himself--is everything the Father is, except being the Father. "If you know me, then you will also know my Father" (Jn 14:7). The Son, therefore, is "the refulgence of the Father's glory" (Heb 1:3a), the full light of God the Father, reflected in God the Son, who is the very imprint of the Father's being (Heb 1:3b). Jesus is thus "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15).

The Thinker and the Idea are distinct, the one is not the other, Father and Son are two Persons. But they are not separate. An Idea can exist only in the mind of the Thinker. Each possesses the divine nature, but each is wholly himself, conscious of himself as himself, of the other as other.

Among men, fathers are always older than sons. But God has not to wait for a certain amount of eternity to roll by before he can be a Father. Eternity does not roll by; it is an abiding Now. Merely by being God, he knows himself with infinite knowing power, and utters his infinite self-knowledge in the totally adequate Idea of himself which is his co-eternal Son. The Father can think you out of existence (which he won't), but he can't think the Son out of existence. The Son is a given, the Father's eternal generation of the Son, an inevitability.

The closest we get to an animated idea of self is when we dream. In dreaming, we generate an idea of self that can be quite convincing until we awaken. But it's at that moment of awakening when we see our self and our idea of self as distinct, but not separate, entities.

There is one huge and instant difference, however, between God’s Idea and any idea we may form. His is Someone, ours is only something. God’s Idea is Someone, and an infinite Someone; between Thinker and Idea there is an infinite dialogue, an infinite interflow. Father and Son love each other, with infinite intensity. What we could not know, if it were not revealed to us, is that they unite to express their love, and that the expression is a third Divine Person. In the Son, the Father utters his self-knowledge; in the holy Spirit, Father and Son utter their mutual love.

Their love is infinite; its expression cannot be less. Each gives himself wholly to the outpouring of his love for the other—holding nothing back. The uttered love of Father and Son is infinite, lacks no perfection that they have, is God, a Person, Someone. After all, "God is l ove" (1 Jn 4:16b), Love is God, Personified.

As this one great operation of spirit, knowing, produces the Second Person, so the other, loving, produces the Third. The Second proceeds from, is produced by, the First alone; but the Third, the holy Spirit, proceeds from Father and Son, as they combine to express their love. No one says it quite like Frank.

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor 13:13).

Geneses

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 13:33:53 GMT

Though God is not in science’s purview or vocabulary, science can lead us to God. The Big Bang, everything from nothing; the subsequent order and maintenance of the universe; and life and its evolution all prove God.

A bit of science distances one from God, but much science nears one to Him.

--Louis Pasteur

By the Lord's word the heavens were made. For he spoke, and it came to be.

-- Psalm 33:6a, 9a

Belgian Jesuit Fr. Georges Lemaître was the first to propose the Big Bang theory. Einstein didn't believe it (at first). Cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle pejoratively named it the Big Bang. Until 1927, scientists thought matter always existed, Hoyle's Steady-state theory. The easy way out. I bought an astrophysics text from 1930 with an addendum saying the universe may have a beginning and be expanding, but we’re not yet sure.

For if 13.8 billion years ago, the still-expanding, 93-billion-lightyear-wide universe exploded from a single point billions of times smaller than a proton! which it did, then scientists have a problem not acknowledging that an independent force outside the universe, outside time and space because they did not yet exist--also known as God--created the universe. What Is the Big Bang Theory? diameter of the universe

And this infinitesimal point, an infinitely dense "singularity," contained all the matter in the universe ( Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time , New York: Bantam Books, 1988, p.49 ). The reason science cannot go back any further is because before the singularity was nothing. Science can't study "nothing," no time and no space.

Everything from nothing is Creation. To say that everything, two trillion galaxies averaging 100 billion stars each, came from nothing--on its own--is preposterous. God made the Big Bang go bang. Because God is beyond the scope of science, some scientists just dismiss God, despite compelling evidence to the contrary. They're too smart for God. Instead of being the smartest guys in the room, they have to be the smartest guys in the universe. "For they preferred human praise to the glory of God" (Jn 12:43). At least they're honest about their discoveries.

Philosophers (good ones) always knew the universe had a beginning, i.e., came from nothing. For if the universe always existed, then it goes back an infinite amount of time. However, if the universe goes back forever, it could never reach the present, which it's obviously reached, as an infinite journey can be made only in an infinite amount of time. 

The bible considers the earth the center of the universe, which it is. Who cares what’s going on in the geographical center of the universe? We  are  the center. There is no center anyway, as it’s expanding— faster than the speed of light! I know, Albert, I know. There have been some updates. Turns out light's special relativity speed limit is not universal, only local.

How Can the Universe Expand Faster Than the Speed of Light?

When criticized about the bible making the earth the center of the solar system, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson smartly replied that in Einstein's general relativity theory, "The earth goes around the sun, but the sun also goes around the earth." The bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go; it's not a science book.

Genesis is an allegory, a symbolic narrative, for "the Lord God was walking about in the garden" (Gen 3:8). God has no feet pre-Incarnation. Genesis, though, does reveal deep spiritual truths about Creation, the Fall, and the devil (Catechism of the Catholic Church 390-400). The bible was right, and science had been wrong until Fr. Lemaître's Big Bang theory, that everything exploded from nothing--Creation.

Written four thousand years before Darwin and Hubble, Genesis is fairly accurate in its sequence of the origin of humanity. First the stars, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). Then the sun, night and day (5). Next is the ocean and land (9). Vegetation follows (11). The first creatures begin in the sea (20). Later, the land animals emerge (24). And finally, humans appear (26). It took six days, and God rested on the seventh (Gen 2:2) because he’s a good Jew, keeping holy the Sabbath. The six days are symbolic. "With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years" (2 Pt 3:8), or a couple of billion. After all, Catholics are not Fundamentalists.

But could there be other rational beings in the vast universe? Did the Son assume their nature too? Are we the only center? Who am I to limit God’s creative powers? Are there countless Geneses? Or are we alone? Whether the universe is teeming with rational, diverse creatures, or if it's just us, either possibility is staggering.

Scientists now say MILLIONS of planets could be teeming with life

From the Sept. 23, 2016 WSJ:

“In 2014, two Jesuit astronomers at the Vatican published a book with the title, ‘Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?’ That year, Pope Francis himself—during a hypothetical section of a weekly homily—said that he would baptize a green Martian with a ‘long nose and big ears,’ although only if the alien ambled into St. Peter’s Basilica and asked. ‘Who are we to close doors?’ the pontiff asked.”

Christ In the Universe

Alice Meynell (1847-1922)

With this ambiguous earth

His dealings have been told us. These abide:

The signal to a maid, the human birth,

The lesson, and the young Man crucified.

But not a star of all

The innumerable host of stars has heard

How He administered this terrestrial ball.

Our race have kept their Lord’s entrusted Word.

Of His earth-visiting feet

None knows the secret, cherished, perilous,

The terrible, shamefast, frightened, whispered, sweet,

Heart-shattering secret of His way with us.

No planet knows that this

Our wayside planet, carrying land and wave,

Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss,

Bears, as chief treasure, one forsaken grave.

Nor, in our little day,

May His devices with the heavens be guessed,

His pilgrimage to thread the Milky Way

Or His bestowals there be manifest.

But in the eternities,

Doubtless we shall compare together, hear

A million alien Gospels, in what guise

He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear.

O, be prepared, my soul!

To read the inconceivable, to scan

The myriad forms of God those stars unroll

When, in our turn, we show to them a Man.

The Incorruptible Saints

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 13:28:42 GMT

The one whom God raised up did not see corruption. --Acts 13:37

Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days." --Jn 11:39

When USSR founder Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin was adamant Lenin should be preserved as a socialist saint:

After death do us part: How Russian embalmers preserve Lenin and his ‘colleagues’

The embalmers “made around 20 incisions, drilled holes in the skull (the brain and eyes had already been removed, along with most other internal organs) and put the leader in a bath of formaldehyde for a couple of weeks to kill germs and bacteria – ultimately preventing further decay.” It takes a lot of work to keep someone looking good forever. Lenin is on display in Red Square.

"Cryonics (from the Greek, kryos, meaning 'cold') is the low-temperature freezing (usually at −196 °C or −320.8 °F or 77.1 K) and storage of a human corpse or severed head, with the speculative hope that resuscitation may be possible in the future. As of 2014, about 250 corpses have been cryogenically preserved in the U.S., and around 1,500 people have signed up to have their remains preserved. Since 2016, four facilities exist in the world to retain cryopreserved bodies: three in the U.S. and one in Russia" (Wikipedia). Instead of resurrection, they await defrosting.

Probably the most impossible modern-day miracles to scientifically explain are the Incorruptibles. The natural preservation of Saints’ bodies, after being dead many, many years, is a particular problem for skeptics. On display, openly defying the laws of nature, they are known as the Incorruptibles. Without any chemical embalming, the corpses are “lifelike, flexible, and sweetly scented.” 1

There are 102 Saints who, after their bodies were exhumed, never decayed, a foretaste of the resurrection. Just one example, St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, who claimed the Mother of God appeared to her and called herself the Immaculate Conception, looks like she’s about to awaken from sleep, considering she passed over 140 years ago:

St. Bernadette's body

I was a subscriber to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, CSI, which publishes the quarterly newsletter, The Skeptical Inquirer. The committee is made up of scientists, atheists, even magicians, all to disprove the paranormal. Part of their purview is to try to discredit miracles. In the ten years I was a subscriber, I never saw a debunking of the Incorruptibles. What could they say?

To those who believe, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.

Bonus: The latest Incorruptible, in Missouri? Show me: Sister Wilhelmina

________________

1. With over 300 pages of facts and photos, “The Incorruptibles” is a fascinating read. Joan Carroll Cruz, The Incorruptibles , (Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, 1977), p. 27.

You Are What You Eat

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 13:18:36 GMT

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

-- Jn 6:51

Want to get as close to God as possible in this life? Then go to Mass and receive Communion. Experience the mystery of "Christ in you, the hope for glory" (Col 1:27).

The only miracle recounted in all four gospels, and twice in Mark and Matthew, is the multiplication of the loaves (Mt 14:13-21, New American Bible commentary). Obviously, this miracle held huge significance to early Christians, prefiguring the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The first miracle in John, changing water into wine at a wedding (Jn 2:1-11), foretells the changing of one substance into another, at Mass. Incidentally, Jesus made 180 gallons of top-notch wine at that wedding. I always knew God was a partier.

At the Last Supper, Jesus ritualized the Mass, commanding that his sacrifice be memorialized:

“He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you’” (Lk 22:19-20).

During Mass, Jesus, acting through the Roman Catholic priest, in Christ’s name, in Christ’s power, changes bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood. "The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit:

"Christ, our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper 'on the night when he was betrayed,' he wanted to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1366).

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass perpetuates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. St. Paul concurs: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). Jesus, however, is not being crucified again. Rather, we are sharing in his one eternal sacrifice and triumph over sin, death, and the devil. The separation of Body and Blood during the consecration at Mass signifies Jesus' death on the cross, when Christ's Blood was separated from his Body.

God’s saving deed is timeless. That’s why the Lamb, Jesus, in Revelation is seen as slain (Rev 5:6). “Christ is the Paschal Lamb without blemish, whose blood saved the new Israel from sin and death. 'The Lamb' is the main title for Christ in Revelation, used twenty-eight times” (NAB commentary). Recall that Jesus was still scarred after his resurrection from his eternal sacrifice: "Look at my hands and my feet" (Lk 24:39); "Jesus showed them his hands and his side" (Jn 20:20). Catholics have a crucifix above their altar, but non-Catholic Christians display only a cross. St. Paul has no problem with a crucifix, "for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2).

"The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different. In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner" (CCC 1367).

A listener asked EWTN’s Dr. David Anders if the Mass and Crucifixion are the same sacrifice; at Mass are you present at Calvary? Dr. Anders, a former Presbyterian, clarified that:

“The Council of Trent taught that the Mass and Calvary are specifically the same and numerically different. Each individual Mass is a distinct oblation [offering] that is distinct from Calvary.

“There is a common but erroneous view that the function of the Mass is to serve as a time-capsule or time vehicle that carries you supernaturally back 2,000 years so that the only sacrifice at which you are present is the historical sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. That position is false.

“That’s the Calvinist position, the Protestant position, repudiated by the Council of Trent and repudiated again by Pope Pius XII. The Council of Trent, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Pius XII taught--this is the faith of the Catholic Church--that the same victim who died on Calvary, Jesus Christ, who died in a bloody manner on the cross, that same victim is present on the altar of sacrifice at the Mass through transubstantiation, but in an unbloody fashion.

“He’s not killed on the altar at Mass. In fact, he’s glorified, but nevertheless the same victim who died at Calvary is present at Mass, once in a dying fashion, now in an undying, never-to-die-again, unbloody fashion.

“The priest who offered the sacrifice at Calvary, namely Jesus, was present at Calvary; the same priest is present at Mass through the person of the ministerial priest. Christ makes his own intention present, namely, to offer his Body and Blood to the Father in reparation for the sins of the world.

“The reason why Christ died at Calvary, to reconcile God and man, is also present in the sacrifice of the Mass, which is why they are specifically the same. But they are numerically distinct so that each individual Mass is its own oblation; it’s not simply a time portal to the past. A priest can say Mass on Monday for Aunt Edna; on Tuesday for my knee surgery; and on Wednesday for peace in the world” (EWTN’s Called to Communion , 3/22/24, @18 mins.) Dr. Anders

"In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, suffering, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering" (CCC 1368).

Jesus’ Resurrection is also being celebrated at Mass. Through Christ's victory, God is able to transform bread and wine into Jesus' Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. "The whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist" (Council of Trent, Session xiii, October 11, 1551). This transformation is more accurately termed “transubstantiation,” meaning to change one substance into another. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16), St. Paul rhetorically asks. We celebrate by the victory of his Resurrection.

"It is by the Breaking of Bread “that his disciples will recognize him after his Resurrection, and it is this expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Christian assemblies; by doing so, they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with him and form but one body in him" (CCC 1329).

The Church is the Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament as it is the Sacrament of sacraments. “The blessed Eucharist is the sacrament. Baptism exists for it; all the others are enriched by it” (Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners, 1957 ). The Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324). Every devotion revolves around the “Real Presence” of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Although in his divinity Jesus is omnipresent, he is substantively present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity--the whole Christ--in the Bread of Life and the Chalice of Eternal Salvation. He is present in the "very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he 'poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'" (CCC 1365, Mt 26:28), but with no physicality, in an unusual mode of being. The Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ! Amazing, but true.

The Holy Eucharist is the Whole Christ

Because "Christ lives, death has no more dominion over him. The bread becomes his body, but where his body is, there he is; the wine becomes his blood but is not thereby separated from his body, for that would mean death; where his blood is, he is. Where either body or blood is, there is Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity. That is the doctrine of the Real Presence" (Sheed, 1957), also known as "concomitance."

Holy Communion is real. St. Paul believed it is not symbolic:

“Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:27-29).

If the bread and wine are symbolic, how could one partake unworthily? Or why should a person have to examine oneself before eating and drinking so as not to be condemned if they are merely bread and wine? It’s obvious St. Paul believes that the risen Christ is truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, or else he would not be so strict in his exhortation.

Some disciples of Jesus had a hard time believing in Holy Communion: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn 6:52). But Jesus did not back down:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6:53-56).

Since Jesus literally means eating his body and drinking his blood, “many of Jesus’ disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66). And Jesus let them go. If Jesus had been talking symbolically, he would be morally obligated to say so. But because he did not try to explain, he obviously meant it—and they took it—literally.

When Jesus promises, “The one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6:57), the Greek verb “feeds” means to “gnaw,” like an animal (NAB commentary), further emphasizing the real nature of the “bread from heaven” (Jn 6:50). After all, Christ was born in a feeding trough for animals, a manger (Lk 2:7), in Bethlehem, which means in Hebrew, "House of Bread."

Eucharist is from the Greek, meaning thanksgiving. "The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father—a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God" (CCC 1360). What a great gift God has given us—himself. Do we expect any less from Jesus? What boundless love God has for us to want to unite with us so closely. If all this is really going on at Mass, how could anyone miss Mass? It’s the greatest event in the universe. When we miss Mass, we miss a deep encounter with Christ.

When we unite with Jesus in Holy Communion, we are as close as we can get to him this side of eternity. The best possible food to nourish Christ spiritually living in us, is Christ. "When we receive, we have a closer union with Jesus than the apostles had in their three years of companionship, closer than Mary Magdalene had when she clung to him after his Resurrection" (Sheed, 1957). Most joyfully is knowing that God loves us and wants to be incredibly intimate with us. "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps 34:9), literally.

Prayer after Communion: "Grant us, almighty God, that we may be refreshed and nourished by the Sacrament which we have received, so as to be transformed into what we consume. Through Christ our Lord." You are what you eat.

"I am the bread of life. "--Jn 6:35a

The Grand Machine

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:14:25 GMT

Have you heard? It’s in the stars. Next July we collide with Mars.

--Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra from the Cole Porter song What a Swell Party , from the movie High Society

The heavens declare the glory of God .

--Psalm 19:2

Besides the still-expanding, 93-billion-lightyear-wide universe exploding out of nothing, scientists are also at a loss to explain the universe's subsequent maintenance and order. The universe is a huge machine, with everything in constant, predictable motion. Any engineer will tell you that while it’s one thing to start a machine, it’s quite another to keep it going.

The earth is rotating on its axis at a thousand miles per hour. You don’t feel it because the speed is constant, with no acceleration or deceleration. The moon is revolving around the earth, and the earth and planets of the solar system are revolving around the sun. The earth revolves around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. The sun itself is zipping through space at the blinding speed of 143 miles per second , revolving around the center of our Milky Way galaxy, bringing the rest of us with it. It takes 230 million earth years, a galactic year, for the sun to make its revolution: Galactic year - Wikipedia Our Milky Way galaxy is moving even faster , at 373 mps or 1.3 million mph: How Fast Does the Milky Way Move?

How could objects with no intelligence maintain such order and precision that you can set your watch by them? My stand-up routine: How come atheists aren't more worried? I’m nervous at my wife's distracted driving on our block at 20 mph. How can you go to sleep knowing the mindless sun is taking you for a ride at 143 mps with no stop signs? After all, one crash wiped out the dinosaurs.

So if a cop asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?" say, "No, it's a complicated calculation." If he wants you to walk a straight line, tell him you can't; there's too much movement going on in the universe to walk a straight line. We're zooming in four different directions, at really high speeds. I'm dizzy. Yet you can walk a straight line despite the magnificent panorama playing out all around us. That's God.

This incredibly complex and fast-moving symphony of the spheres shows that the same Being who created the universe also keeps it going. It is far more rational and probable that a sentient Being independent of the universe is responsible for its origin and maintenance. No worries.

The Divine Internet

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 22:36:48 GMT

Presently, the Mystical Body of Christ is in three divisions: those in heaven, the Church Triumphant; those in purgatory, the Church Suffering; and those on earth, the Church Militant, battling it out. “At the present time, some of Jesus’ disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating in full light, God himself triune and one” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 954).

Though the Body is in three different places and stages, we’re all connected, with Christ as head (Col 1:18). Jesus prays for those in the Body that "they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us" (Jn 17:21). "May we become one body, one spirit in Christ" (prayer at Mass after Consecration). Thus, the Body is spiritually but not physically linked. Like bees making honey we’re working toward a common goal--Thy kingdom come--behaving as a single organism.

God is our ultrahigh speed wi-fi supplier. He’s never had a service stoppage or security breach. No password or user fee is required. The login is, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit. Amen.

Because “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1), praying to the angels, saints, and souls in purgatory is really only going online, through God-xinfinity, and asking them to pray for us, the same way we ask those on earth. St. Dominic, dying, to his brothers, said, “Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you more effectively than during my life”

(CCC 956).

Certainly the ecstatic saints in heaven and the hopeful souls in purgatory are champing at the bit to do good. They're at the ready to plead for us, cheering on the next racers after crossing the finish line themselves. For there is "more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents"

(Lk 15:7).

How can we not avail ourselves of the Body and the angels--the Communion of Saints--when we pray, prefacing every petition, “I please ask Our Lady, all the angels and saints, and the souls in purgatory, to please pray for whatever”? God would be barraged by so many requests by so many friends of his that he may see it our way.

Of course God already knows the future, as God is outside time. However, God previously included in his Providence people's free actions, including our prayers, which he knew before time began: "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Mt 6:8b).

“Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her” (Lk 4:38). Why would such an intercession cease after death if someone asked for it, so long as we’re connected, which we are? God will upload users’ requests.

“Faith, hope, love remain these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). In heaven, though, faith is no more because one beholds the object of faith, God. Hope likewise disappears because one achieved the goal of eternal life. “Faith has yielded to sight and hope to possession” (NAB commentary).

Love, though, remains. St. Therese of Lisieux: “I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth” (CCC 956). I’ll take her up on the offer. What’s her email, StTL@heaven.org?

"Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel"

(Rev 8:3-4).

The End

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:22:59 GMT

There are two versions of the end, Jesus’ return. The one that most believers think of is the fiery Parousia, the Second Coming, like Revelation: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed at the roaring of the sea and waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Lk 21:25-26).

A neighbor asked me if I thought now—during the pandemic--was the end. I said, No, our present plight is nothing compared to WWII, for example, where “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Mt 24:7).

Instead, the trigger for the end is subtle and quiet. It’s not that life on earth gets so bad that God has to end it. Rather, the end will come silently, when the Body of Christ is complete. At that time, there will be no need for God to keep life on earth going because God's mission is accomplished. The completion of the Body, when the precise number of the saved is reached is the game-changer, but not necessarily dramatic or visible. A big leadup to the end may not be forthcoming.

I prefer this less known presentation of the end, which is preliminarily calm and silent, like a thief, with no warning, "for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come" (Mt 24:42-44). When the end comes, people were just going about their business: “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

"Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed” (Lk 17:26-30).

The end, then, comes strikingly, of course, but as a surprise. No one sees it coming because it’s not based on world events, but rather a spiritual one. "Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour" (Mt 25:13).

“Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, “Look here it is,” or, “There it is.” For behold, the kingdom of God is among you’” (Lk 17:20-21), "thus shifting from an imminent observable coming of the kingdom to something that is already present in Jesus' preaching and healing ministry" (NAB commentary).

The necessary terror of the Apocalypse is because at the Final Judgment the everlasting destiny of all will be confirmed. All will know the stark reality that some do, and some do not, want to be with God: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace” (Dn 12:2).

Life and Its Evolution Prove God

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 21:55:44 GMT

A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!"

"However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."

-- Stephen Crane, poet, and author of The Red Badge of Courage

All living creatures you sustain, Lord.

--Psalm 36:7c

Some think that to believe in evolution is to deny God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life and its evolution affirm God’s existence. Charles Darwin boarded at the Anglican Shrewsbury School and graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Darwin certainly knew Genesis, which is fairly accurate in its sequence of the origin of humanity: First the stars, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). Then the sun, night and day (5). Next is the ocean and land (9). Vegetation follows (11). The first creatures begin in the sea (20). Later, the land animals emerge (24). And finally, humans appear (26). How ironic it would be if Darwin came up with his sequence because of Genesis.

Amazingly, 3.7 billion years ago, non-living matter began to organize itself into life. These simple forms of life—one-celled creatures—then evolved into more and more complex multicellular forms resulting in the staggering diversification of life found today. The problem is that the universe—on its own—cannot make life from non-living matter, and then take that life and make it evolve.

Some find it difficult to reconcile their faith with evolution, but not Pope St. John Paul II: “The theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis. The convergence of results in scientific work, conducted independently, is in itself, a significant argument in favor of this theory.”1 What's the difference how we got here? Christ still came.

There is too much evidence not to believe in evolution. How can one explain away the dinosaur room in the NYC Museum of Natural History? We have to be open to the truth. God is Truth. Thus all scientific truths ultimately point to God.

Evolution is common sense. For example, the reason many pesticides eventually fail is because the few surviving bugs obviously have some genetic resistance. Their offspring will likewise be resistant. Thus, a change in the environment, the pesticide, altered the species. Over billions of years, big changes can happen.

Evolution, though, depends on God. The reason that life and its evolution could not happen without God’s intervention is the “Second Law of Thermodynamics.” Don’t be bothered by the term; it’s a simple concept. The second law of thermodynamics explains what happens to everything, a book, a car, your body, the universe, over time—they fall apart. Any college chemistry text states this law:

The entropy or disorder of the universe is constantly increasing. Entropy is a measure of the randomness of a system. The direction of all natural events is toward disorder. Every spontaneous chemical and physical change increases the total entropy of the universe.

By itself, the universe breaks down order into disorder. It never builds things up. We instinctively know this, although we may not realize it. Basically, as Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest astrophysicists of our time, said: “Entropy is a form of Murphy’s Law: Things always tend to go wrong.”2

For example, a vase on a stand is in a higher state of order than if it falls to the floor and breaks. Anyone could tell you which vase was “before,” and which one was “after.” People have seen a vase fall and break, but no one has ever seen a broken vase put itself together and go back on a stand (except when a movie is reversed).

The broken vase is now at a lower energy level, with less potential energy and less order. One day, the universe will run down because all its energy will be in the lowest form, heat, which then dissipates, leading to the Big Chill, a dead universe. St. Paul observes the obvious, that "creation was made subject to futility" (Rom 8:20a). Heat Death of the universe

Because the direction of all natural events is toward disorder, entropy is sometimes referred to as “time’s arrow.” As time goes forward, disorder increases. Based on entropy, it’s easy to figure out “before” and “after” to every natural and spontaneous event.

The universe can give an illusory appearance of increasing order, like when water freezes. Entropy still increases, though, because of the heat lost in becoming ice. However, this apparent increase in order is transitory and there's never a next step in complexity.

Opening the door to an air-conditioned room shows the universe decreases order. Having cold air in a closed room and hot air outside is order. The difference in concentration between the two air masses is a concentration gradient. When the door is opened, however, the universe takes over. Hot air comes in, cold air goes out, and disorder increases until the temperature is uniform.

When a balloon pops, the entropy of the universe increases. In an air-filled balloon, the molecules of air have a certain degree of order because they are close together. Their movement is limited by the balloon. After the balloon pops, though, the air molecules expand into the atmosphere, with much more random, disordered movement. They aren’t able to stay together.

Since the universe is always increasing disorder, how could life—which is the epitome of order—begin unless something independent of the universe--also known as God--brought it about? And how could life then evolve into more diverse and complex forms without divine intervention? Life’s progression has been a continual increase in order, yet the universe can only make disorder increase.

In previous examples, “after” always meant less order than “before.” That’s not the case, however, with life and its evolution. Scientifically speaking, one is compelled to believe in God. By itself, the universe is obviously not capable of making life come from non-living matter, and then taking that life and making it more diversified and complex. In other words, life and its magnificent, breathtaking evolution could not happen without God.

The famous Miller-Urey experiment, which recreated the conditions of primitive earth, led to the formation of amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. However, the simple amino acids did not combine to form more complex proteins or anything resembling primitive life. A big letdown. It's just a one step, dead end, with no increase in complexity, like water to ice. In over 70 years, scientists can't go past that first step. Miller-Urey experiment

Prolific science author and atheist Isaac Asimov's spurious argument is that although the total disorder of the universe is increasing, there may be pockets or islands where there is an increase in order, such as life on earth, for example. The mistake here is that entropy is a uniform phenomenon affecting all areas at all times which would not allow the steady 3.7 billion year progression of life from simple to complex, disorder to order. Remember the textbook statement: “The direction of all natural events is toward disorder.” Life is a supernatural event.

Entropy troubled Dr. Asimov; he knew that having life, despite entropy, challenged atheism. So he wrote a short story, his favorite, about how a computer becomes God to overcome entropy, no fooling: The Last Question

Entropy is not selective, allowing some parts of the universe to be affected by it and other parts not to be. It would be the same as a balloon bursting and all the air molecules staying together and becoming more concentrated. Imagine how impossible it is for an apple to jump up from the ground to a tree. Consider the likelihood of food coloring staying completely together and intact in water. Think of how incredibly odd it would be if an air-conditioned room with its door opened kept the same concentration gradient as if the door were closed, with cold air on one side and hot air on the other.

These events are too unlikely. And you'd have to do them for 3.7 billion years. Yet that’s what life continually does in combating entropy by increasing order. Hence, life and its evolution could not happen on its own. God is responsible. God overcomes entropy.

Because we’re alive proves God exists. Our bodies are constantly battling entropy. The universe abhors life’s order. We are under continuous assault, in countless ways, by the environment. At every moment the universe is trying to destroy us. We usually do not realize it because our bodies are doing such a good job of putting up a fight. Gravity is pulling our blood down while our hearts are pumping it up. The outside temperature tries to change our steady internal temperature. The universe tries to break up our highly ordered bodies into randomness, the same way food coloring diffuses in water.

Our bodies fiercely fight back, attempting to remain intact with a controlled internal environment, also known as homeostasis. One day, though, the universe will win the battle, turning us back into dust, the original elements we’re composed of. When you die, the entropy of the universe will have increased, for the universe brought your highly ordered living body to a halt and began breaking it down into its disordered components. There is just one problem: There should not even be a battle.

The indifferent, belligerent universe cannot simultaneously maintain you and destroy you. It can do only one, all the time. While the cold, mindless universe is trying its best to annihilate us at every moment, the average person is making 2 to 3 million red blood cells per second or 200 billion red blood cells a day, and breaking down 200 billion! How Many Cells Are in the Human Body? Types, Production, Loss, More

To describe all the actions your body does to maintain order using the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, urinary, muscular, skeletal, digestive, and other complex systems requires a thick physiology text. A doctor can only clean, apply ointment, and bandage a wound. God heals it by directing the universe. The aloof, callous, hostile universe by itself is of no help. Quite the contrary, the universe would like to see your cut become infected and do you in. You're much too ordered.

One human cell's DNA, for example, contains a code that's comprised of six billion units , unique to that person . All the information needed to make that person is in their DNA, far, far more complicated than any computer code: Introduction - Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome ... The mindless universe on its own is not capable of naturally generating such an astounding degree of complexity for every person who's ever lived on earth, including the current eight billion. God obviously governs the universe.

The degree of order in a living being is astonishing. That’s the miracle of life. Every person is being held in existence by God's will alone. Without intelligence, all the parts of the body are working purposefully together to maintain homeostasis.

The universe, however, cannot perform the complex processes that take place in the human body to overcome entropy while attempting, at the same time, to destroy those processes by entropy. The threatening universe cannot be on both sides. The universe can do only one thing all the time: increase disorder. The universe is consistent. The unknowing, uncaring, menacing, destructive universe has no choice in the matter.

The only explanation is that God creates life, sustains life, and guides its evolution by directing the universe. God is the Intelligence that enables life to overcome entropy at every moment, and with such vigor, in every generation. Praise God.

"For in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

_____________________________

1. “Message to Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Evolution,” Origins, CNS Documentary Services, 5 Dec. 1996, p. 415.

2. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time , New York: Bantam Books, 1988, p.144.

Liar, Lunatic, or Lord

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 21:47:32 GMT

What follows is my take on C.S. Lewis’ idea:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.

“Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”1

Does Jesus embody God’s qualities? Unlike philosophers who say this is the way, Jesus says, “ I am the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). Jesus declares he is God: “Whoever sees me sees the Father” (Jn 14:9); says he always existed: “Before Abraham came to be, I AM” (Jn 8:58); foretold the future: “the Son of Man will be handed over” (Mk 10:33); forgave wrongs that didn’t directly involve him: “Child, your sins are forgiven” (Mk 2:5); multiplied bread: “They all ate and were satisfied” (Mt 14:20); never sinned: “Can any of you charge me with sin?” (Jn 8:46); controlled the weather and sea: “He rebuked the wind and the waves” (Lk 8:24); healed the sick: “The blind regain their sight” (Lk 7:22); raised the dead: “Little girl, arise” (Mk 5:41); gave a new commandment: “Love one another” (Jn 13:34); said he would judge the world: “He will separate them one from another” (Mt 25:32); and did many other things only God would be able to say and do. (How could fishermen, a tax collector, and the rest of that crew have thought all this up, anyway?)

Jesus is either lying, crazy, or telling the truth. There is no middle ground with Jesus. One cannot say he is just a good man or only a moral teacher because he claims he is more: “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12). If Jesus isn’t whom he claims to be—namely God—then he’s a bad man for telling such a big lie. Or he’s crazy for thinking he’s God. Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. Guards sent to arrest Jesus attest to his unique viewpoint: “Never before has anyone spoken like this one” (Jn 7: 46). Jesus is Lord.

-----------------------

Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity , London: Collins, 1952, pp. 54–56.

You Can't Go Home Again

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 20:23:30 GMT

You Can't Go Home Again

--Novel by Thomas Wolfe

In the gospels, Jesus never uses his divine power to work miracles for himself or his family. All Jesus' miracles are to help others or be signs for belief or both. When Jesus was hungry from fasting forty days, the devil suggested Jesus turn stones into bread (Mt 4:1-4). “Jesus refuses to use his power for his own benefit and accepts whatever God wills” (NAB commentary Mt). Jesus does eventually multiply the loaves, but only because his hearers are hungry.

In the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Jesus does help his family using miracles, which is one of many reasons this gospel was rejected. For example, he stretches a beam of wood that was too short to help his father finish constructing a bed:

Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Jesus’ return to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth (Lk 4:16-30), where he grew up, starts off fine, but ends quite badly, precisely because of this self and family miracle prohibition. After his reading Isaiah, “all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?’” Jesus, however, oddly replies, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” Familiarity breeds contempt.

Traditionally, St. Joseph, patron of a happy death, died before Jesus’ public ministry:

Francisco Goya, Sketch for the Death of St. Joseph

Thus, Jesus is picking up that the townspeople are implying, “Why didn’t you heal your father? You’re healing all these strangers in Capernaum, yet you let beloved Joseph die.” Jesus tells them, this attitude is why prophets Elijah and Elisha were sent to non-Israelites.

When they heard Jesus’ response, the people in the synagogue were furious. They drove Jesus out of town, wanting to throw him headfirst off a cliff. Jesus somehow passes through the crowd and gets away. Jesus never went back to Nazareth again. "No prophet is accepted in his own native place" (Lk 4:24).

Jesus Redeems God

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 20:20:32 GMT

They sang a new hymn, saying,

"Worthy are you to receive the scroll and break open its seals,
for you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God
those from every tribe and tongue, and people and nation."-- Rev 5:9

Most people who do not believe in God do so because of the problem of suffering and evil. And many people turn to God because of suffering and evil. Long before I was a big believer, when I had to change a flat on the Bronx Bruckner Expressway shoulder with my grandfather in the car, I was really praying.

If you asked, most people would say the cause of suffering and evil is human free will. Thank God we’re not robots. We can love each other or kill each other. That explanation will work if someone punches my nose, but not for the 2004 Indonesian tsunami that killed 230,000 people. If God is all good and all powerful, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Rabbi Kushner’s mistaken conclusion in his book of that title was that God was not yet in complete control; some chaos remains in the universe.

God, however, is still fully in control. But God respects free will. Because of his infinite goodness, God is able to bring good out of every event, even those that originate in an evil free will, whether human or angelic. God, though, limits evil. If the devil had his way, he would destroy us all.

The worst thing that ever happened was Jesus being crucified. God incarnate, rejected and killed, was the greatest injustice. But God turned the Crucifixion into the best thing that ever happened, using Jesus’ sacrifice to redeem humanity. That’s why it’s “Good” Friday. Although an evil act is never good, God somehow manages to make good come out of it.

Remember, back in the Garden were not only Adam, Eve, and God, but also the serpent. God is spirit (John 4:24). If God created us, a hybrid, surely, he first created purely spiritual creatures like himself, the angels. We’re the oddballs.

Unlike us, the children of God, the angels are "all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation" (Heb 1:14). Just as God has no control over my free will, the angels were put to a one-time challenge: Are you for or against my children and material creation? Just like God has assigned us jobs, be a good mom, husband, worker, priest, daughter, citizen, etc., the angels could choose to do good or evil, to serve humanity or turn against us. I can make a lot of mistakes, which I do, and repent, which I also do, and try again. Not so the angels.

Since their preternatural consciousness can see all the consequences of their choice, they’re locked into one or the other, good or evil. Hence, the fallen angels made the fallen world, as "the whole world is under the power of the evil one" (1 Jn 5:19b). But God (always) had a plan. He knew what would happen. Still, people blame God for suffering and evil; he should’ve stopped it.

Fr. Chad Ripperger Reveals the Forgotten Secrets of the Fallen Angels

Jesus, though, redeems God. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, God's only begotten Son, endured suffering and evil also, much worse than all of us will ever likely experience: "Look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering" (Lam 1:12).

God became man. And in voluntarily suffering for love of us, to save us and open heaven for us with his victory over sin, death, and the devil, reconciling humanity to God by his cross, Jesus the Son of God makes God worthy of our love. Because God suffered for us, we can now willingly suffer for God, and for others, as St. Paul did: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church" (Col 1:24), thereby making us co-redeemers.

When faced with unavoidable suffering, our response must be Christ's: "I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name" (Jn 12:27-28). St. Paul has the proper perspective: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us" (Rom 8:18). "For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Cor 4:17).

Recall that after his glorious Resurrection, Christ showed his wounds, his hands, feet, and side (Lk 24:39; Jn 20:20, 27). God likewise will transform our crosses into our glory.

Be honored that as an adopted child of the Father, you have the same calling as his only begotten Son. For "you received a Spirit of adoption, through which we cry, Abba , 'Father!'" (Rom 8:15), better translated, "Daddy." "We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Rom 8:16-17). "For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Rom 8:29).

Though God doesn’t necessarily take our suffering away because of the fallen world, God lends his presence to our plight. "Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested" (Heb 2:18). God, however, providentially uses the devil to allow God's children to freely choose good or evil. Our free choice, challenge, and destiny.

"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life"

(Dt 30:19b).

God's Sense of Humor

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:13:19 GMT

As Catholics, we’re not required to believe in a private revelation, like Our Lady of Guadalupe, for example, but she’s not that easy to scientifically explain away: The Science (or Lack Thereof) Behind Juan Diego’s Tilma However, I never met an elementary believer who thought it odd that the assumed, resurrected Mary could appear any way God wants, even as a pregnant Aztec.

God has some fun in the resurrection appearances because from scripture we can only conclude that Jesus sometimes looked like a different person after he rose. His friends had to recognize his personality to realize it was Jesus. By the tomb, Mary Magdalene thinks he’s the gardener (Jn 20:15). She must have been a close friend, because once Jesus says her name, she immediately knows it’s him.

Mark says, “he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country” (Mk 16:12), which is similar to Luke’s two walkers whose “eyes were prevented from recognizing him” (Lk 24:16). They walked and talked with and about Jesus for seven miles not knowing this guy was the very person they were discussing (Lk 24:13-31). How funny. Jesus does not look otherworldly because they would have fallen down and worshiped him. Like Our Lady of Guadalupe, he just looks like someone else.

When Jesus then takes the bread and says the blessing, in his own style of course--with Eucharistic overtones, substance without appearance, Jesus, God, looking different--is when they grasp who he is. The best part, though, is at that moment, Jesus vanishes (Lk 24:30-31). I’m already laughing. Now imagine telling others, he rose, we saw him, but he was shorter with a different face and body, and then he disappeared into thin air. But we knew it was Jesus. Yet that’s what some witnesses seem to be saying. A supernatural Seinfeld episode. The real divine comedy.

After catching no fish during the night, even his good friends the apostles do not perceive this stranger’s identity: “When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus” (Jn 21:4). It took the great catch of fish for John to say, “It is the Lord” (Jn 21:7). “And none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they realized it was the Lord” (Jn 21:12b). God plays some jokes on his friends.

In the last paragraph of Matthew's Gospel, the commissioning of the disciples on the mountain, perhaps it was because of Jesus' different appearance that "When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted" (Mt 28:17).

"'Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?' And he replied to them, 'What sort of things?'"

--Lk 24:18-19

Jesus' Brothers and Sisters?

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 17:42:14 GMT

By a basic reading of the gospels, it seems Jesus had at least six siblings: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (Mk 6:3). Where was this brood when the firstborn was lost at 12? (Lk 2:41-52). The six siblings could have potentially been 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 years old, with a newborn, or that Mary was pregnant with one of them. Yet no mention is made of them in the finding in the temple. And where were they when Jesus gave Mary to John at the cross (Jn 19:26-27), when John took Mary into his home? Matthew starts the sibling list that Jesus is “the brother of James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. Are not his sisters all with us?” (Mt 13:55).

How can we reconcile these readings with the Church’s belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary? The Eastern churches believe incorrectly that these are the previously-widowed St. Joseph’s kids.

The Catholic New American Bible explains that “in Semitic usage, the terms ‘brother,’ ‘sister,’ are applied not only to children of the same parents, but to nephews, nieces, cousins, half-brothers, and half-sisters” (Mk 6:3), and even other relatives. Remember, Jesus spoke Aramaic; the gospels are in Greek. Brother and sister mean different things in translation. By using all four gospels, we can prove these relatives are cousins. 

At the cross, Mark has “Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses, and Salome. ” (Mk 15:40). Matthew writes, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Mt 27:56). John says the women were “his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas , and Mary of Magdala” (Jn 19:25). So the Virgin Mary’s “sister” is also named Mary. Boxer George Foreman is the only one I know of who named all five of his sons, “George.” Thus, in Semitic fashion, the virgin Mary’s “sister” is her sister-in-law, Mary, not a sibling. Hence, this sister-in-law Mary is the mother of James and Joses/Joseph, and also the wife of Clopas.

This Mary, Jesus’ aunt, is an important witness to the resurrection: “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid” (Mk 15:47). “But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb” (Mt 27:61). 

“When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James , and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him” (Mk 16:1). “After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb” (Mt 28:1). 

Even more interesting, from John 19:25 above, is “ his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas. ” Luke’s resurrection appearance on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:18) names one of the two walkers as “Cleopas,” who says, “Some women from our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive” (Lk 24:22-23). Jesus’ aunt Mary and uncle Cleopas/Clopas were the ones that Jesus appeared to on the road to Emmaus. Since aunt Mary, "the other Mary," is the Virgin Mary’s sister-in-law, as both Marys aren't sisters, Cleopas is St. Joseph’s brother.

We used all four gospels, but give a plausible explanation that Jesus, the Son of God, was an only child. 

The Son Who Chose His Mother

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 17:51:05 GMT

He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight.-- Eph 1:4

These amazing ideas and great quotes—including the title—are from street corner preacher Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners , abbreviated: Our understanding of Our Blessed Lady depends totally upon our understanding of her Son. Everything about her flows from her being Christ’s mother; as our understanding of him grows, our understanding of her grows.

She is the mother of God. The child she conceived and bore is God the Son. In his divine nature he had existed eternally. But this human nature he owed to her as much as anyone owes his human nature to his mother. As God he was born of the Father before all ages; as man he was born at a particular point of time of the Virgin Mary. Do not think it sufficient to call her the mother of his human nature; natures do not have mothers. She was mother, as yours or mine is, of the person born of her. And the person was God the Son. Most of us find this truth almost shattering in its greatness; it is not simply a biographical fact about Jesus which one notes but does not linger upon. There are those who do see it like that and so dismiss it.

On the outdoor platform I once had a questioner who said, solemnly: “I respect Christ’s mother as I respect my own.” The overwhelming temptation, when one hears such a remark, is to point to the difference between the two sons.

In seeing what the difference is, a good starting point is the simple fact that this Son existed before his mother. So that he is the only Son who was in a position to choose who his mother should be; he could choose therefore what every son would choose if he could, the mother who would suit him best.

Further it goes with the very heart of sonship that a son wants to give his mother gifts; and Christ, being God, could give her all that she would want. To his giving power there was no limit. And above all she wanted was union with God, the completest union possible to a human being of her will with God’s will, grace therefore in her soul.

He was her Son, and he gave it lavishly. She responded totally, so that she was sinless. It was her response to the grace of God that made her supreme in holiness—higher even than the highest angel, the Church tells us. By grace, Our Lady outranks all created beings. But only because she responded to God’s love more perfectly.

St John Chrysostom says, “She would not have been blessed, though she had borne him in the body, had she not heard the word of God and kept it” (Lk 11:28).

The Immaculate Conception and Assumption

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 17:36:45 GMT

Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners, 1957 , abbreviated, continued:

We have considered one result of Our Lady’s being the mother of God—all sons want to give their mothers gifts, but this Son could give without any limit save her power to receive; and what in supreme measure he gave was sanctifying grace. But there is one special element in his power to give that we might easily overlook. Because he was God, he could give his mother gifts not only before he was born of her, but before she was born herself. This is the meaning of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

It refers not to Christ’s conception in Our Lady’s womb but to her conception in the womb of her own mother. It does not mean, either, that she was virginally conceived; she had a father and mother. It means that her Son’s care for her and gifts to her began from the first moment of existence.

For all of us conception comes when God creates a soul and unites it with the bodily element formed in the mother’s womb. But from the very first moment of her soul’s creation, it had, by God’s gift, not natural life only but supernatural life. What this means quite simply is that she whom God chose to be mother never existed for an instant without sanctifying grace in her soul.

Yet for many devoted lovers of the Blessed Virgin, a troubling question remains. Our Lady had said in the Magnificat: “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” How could God be her Savior, what was there to save her from, if she had grace always?

To save men from their sins is a great mercy of God; but to save this one woman from ever sinning was a greater mercy, but still a mercy. Not only that. Sinless as she was, possessed of grace at every instant, she was still a member of a fallen race, a race to which heaven was closed. The Savior’s redeeming act opened heaven to her as to all members of the race.

The Assumption means the taking of Our Lady, body and soul, into heaven. It is a doctrine of the Church that all would receive back the bodies from which their souls had been separate at death. The gap between was a result of sin, and Our Lady was sinless. At the Annunciation, theologians hold that in saying, “May it be done to me according to your word,” Our Lady uttered the consent of the human race to the first step in its redemption. The Assumption means that in heaven she represents the human race redeemed; she alone is, body and soul, where all the saved will one day be.

At Calvary, when our Lord gave her the apostle John to be her son, he was not simply making provision for her. It was part of his plan of redemption, that he was giving her to be the mother of John—not of John as himself but of humanity. From that moment she is the mother of us all.

What does motherhood carry with it? Essentially love and total willingness to serve. Those two things Catholics have always seen in Mary, telling her their needs with complete confidence, inwardly conversing with her freely. That is, we pray to her; which simply means that we ask for her to pray for us—for all kinds of things, but especially for grace, which is what mattered most to her.

Christ redeemed us. We are not meant to be only recipients of redemption, still less spectators and no more: we are called to be stewards in the dispensing of graces. The principal ways for every one of us are love, prayer (the Mass above all), suffering.

Everyone’s prayers can help others, but the holier, the more. With Christ and in Christ we are called upon to take part in redeeming others. All are meant to take part in his redeeming work, but Mary above all; for she was sinless, she was wholly love, she suffered supremely. The truth is that what the Church, the Mystical Body, does in its other members more or less well according to the individual’s will to cooperate, she in her single person does continually and perfectly. She is the first steward in the dispensing of graces, the ultimate co-redemptrix. Mary: Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate

The Risen Jesus' First Appearance to the Apostles

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 17:33:06 GMT

I contend that the Risen Jesus first appeared to the apostles days after his Jerusalem appearances on the first day of the week. Odd as it sounds, based on the preponderance of scripture, most or all of the apostles weren’t in Jerusalem late Sunday after the Resurrection. Peter and the apostles fled to Galilee, out of fear of their lives. The other disciples were there, though, on that first day of the week.

The Eleven skipped town. Can you blame them? Maybe they were next. Their whole world fell apart. Jesus promised the apostles at the Last Supper: "After I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee" (Mt 26:32 and Mk 14:28 verbatim). The message from the angel to the women in Mark, after the Resurrection, is, “Go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you’” (Mk 16:7). In Matthew, Jesus says to the women at the tomb, “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Mt 28: 10b).

Luke, like John, mentions that Peter went to the tomb, saw the burial cloths, and went home: “Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened” (Lk 24:12). "Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there. Then the disciples returned home " (Jn 20:3, 6, 10). Home for Peter is Galilee. It takes a few days to walk there. Jesus predicts, "The hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home " (Jn 16:32).

In the addendum to his original ending, John adds the story of the great catch of fish. John’s original ending was, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:30-31). This is obviously how John first ended. The NAB says the next part below was added before John was published (as all versions/copies have it).

A TV reporter asked a mom how she was coping with the loss of her son in the Iraq war. She said she did a lot of cooking, because that’s what she liked to do; cooking gave her some peace in dealing with her tragedy. Peter’s the same. He goes fishing after his tragedy:

"After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberius [aka Galilee]. He revealed himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We also will come with you.' "(Jn 21:1-3a). Then the great catch of fish follows. Remember, this story comes after John’s other appearances, but is chronologically the first appearance to the apostles because going fishing makes sense only if Peter and the apostles don’t yet know about the Resurrection.

Earlier, John says that Thomas wasn’t around for the Jerusalem appearance: “Thomas, called Didymus, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came” (Jn 20:24). How could Thomas be there? He went back to Galilee like the rest of the Eleven.

Luke knows of this post-resurrection Galilee appearance but he’s trying to remain faithful to Mark, his source. Unlike Mark and Matthew, Luke’s call of the fishermen includes the great catch of fish (Lk 5:1-11). In addition, Peter kneels to Jesus and says, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” This is Peter’s newfound faith, “Lord,” and repentance, “sinful man,” for his three denials. Further, in John, Jesus is cooking fish (Jn 21:9). In Luke, Jesus eats a piece of baked fish after his resurrection (Lk 24:42-43). Finally, in Luke’s appearance on the road to Emmaus, Jesus gives the “impression that he’s going on farther” (Lk 24:28), yeah, to Galilee.

Mark may know this Galilee appearance also, because in his gospel, the four fishermen leave their boats and follow Jesus even before he does any signs (Mk 1:16-20), which is somewhat implausible for this crew. For Mark, it’s more important to show that the apostles were with Jesus from the beginning.

Nonetheless, something extraordinary obviously happened to these scaredy-cats who fled after the crucifixion, because the apostles soon returned to the temple area in Jerusalem, boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ, ultimately giving their lives for him. "All day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus" (Acts 5:42), despite being warned, flogged, imprisoned, and ultimately martyred. What prompted the apostles' dramatic change of heart and newfound courage? They saw him again. If Jesus did not rise, Christianity would have fizzled out.

And of course, the women were always the first ones to know.

The Moment of Salvation

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 16:18:42 GMT

Mary said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. --Lk 1:38

When exactly did Christ open wide the gates of Paradise? Some might think that the precise moment when souls could enter into heaven began at the birth of Christ, Christmas, or perhaps on Good Friday, Jesus’ death. Maybe it’s at the Resurrection.

The pro-life Sisters of Life, founded in NYC by Cardinal O’Connor, first resided in my Bronx parish. They would correctly disagree with those dates. We should be exchanging gifts on March 25th, the Annunciation, not nine months later on December 25th. Sisters of Life

When the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary and revealed God’s Will that she become the Mother of the Son of God, she accepted. At that moment, the “Word became Flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). Mary’s “yes” changed everything! Through Mary’s fiat--” Let it be done to me according to your word” -- she made the Divine Plan of salvation effective in history.

As Eve disobeyed and set humanity on a path of sin, Mary was perfectly obedient and set us on the path of grace. As Eve was the “mother of all the living” (Gn 3:20), Mary is the mother of all those living in Christ. Mary is the new Eve. We owe her a debt of justice and a filial obligation of love.

Mary’s words at the Annunciation “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), indicate an attitude characteristic of Jewish piety. At the beginning of the Old Covenant, Moses, in response to the Lord’s call, proclaims himself his servant (Exodus 4:10; 14:31).

With the coming of the New Covenant, Mary also responds to God with an act of free submission and conscious abandonment to his will, showing her complete availability to be the “handmaid of the Lord.” Mary, “full of grace,” by proclaiming herself “handmaid of the Lord” intends to commit herself to fulfil personally and in a perfect manner the service God expects of all his people.

Life begins at conception. That moment when Mary’s egg is fertilized, when God begins to suffer, is the beginning of our salvation. Jesus is true God and true man, Son of God and Son of Man. Because he is man, he can suffer. Because he is God, his suffering has infinite value to redeem us. From a Collect: O God, may Christ our High Priest, interceding on our behalf, by his likeness to ourselves bring us reconciliation, and by his equality with you free us from our sins.

The Blessed Virgin gives us a perfect example of how to surrender to God’s will and trust in him completely. St. Teresa of Calcutta said,

Mary showed complete trust in God by agreeing to be used as an instrument in his plan of salvation. She trusted him in spite of her nothingness because she knew he who is mighty could do great things in her and through her. Once she said “Yes” to him, she never doubted. She was just a young woman, but she belonged to God and nothing nor anyone could separate her from him. Christ's DNA

“Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you”

(Lk 1:28)

God's Attributes

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 17:20:40 GMT

St. Augustine was walking on the seashore thinking about God’s nature when he noticed a boy doing something strange. After filling a seashell with water, the boy poured it into a small hole in the sand. He did this several times. Augustine asked what the boy was doing. The boy said he was putting the ocean into the hole in the sand. “That’s impossible,” he replied. But then Augustine realized he was doing the same thing. He was trying to fit the infinite God into his finite brain, which is impossible. St. Augustine and the Seashell, by Dr. Marian Horvat

One can, however, make some reasonable assumptions about God’s attributes. God has consciousness and identity. When confronted with the reality that the universe could not start itself or keep itself going, some might erroneously think the universe was started by some mindless force. It takes a mind with intelligence to construct and maintain such an orderly machine. The universe’s clockwork precision betrays the intelligence of its Creator. Thus, God is a Person.

Since God is outside time and space, he is eternal. Augustine asked, “What was God doing before the universe was created?” The answer is at the Big Bang, not only was the universe created, but time also began. Astrophysicists claim correctly that before the Big Bang, time did not exist. Because God is outside time, he always is. God has no origin: "I am who am" (Ex 3:14).

God's primary attribute, therefore, is existence. “For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself” (Jn 5:26). Furthermore, past, present, and future are simultaneously present to God. He sees us dead and buried already. God has no beginning or end.

God holds all things in existence by his will alone. Deism, which believes God started the universe but is now no longer involved with it, is wrong. By his very nature, God is unable to dissociate himself from his creation. If he did somehow “forget” about us, we would revert to what we were--nothing.

God is omniscient. He knows the past, present, and future positions of every subatomic particle in the universe. Better said, "Even all the hairs of your head are counted" (Mt 10:30). God is infinite, so he knows all possible permutations of every event. Because he didn’t subscribe to quantum physics, which is based on probability and uncertainty, Einstein famously said, “God doesn’t play dice.” The answer is that God does play dice. It’s just that the game is fixed. Them bones are loaded.

God is all-powerful. Nothing can happen without God ordaining or permitting it. Apart from sin, the Almighty is responsible for everything that happens in the universe. There are no accidents.

Though God is all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, all-just, all-merciful, amazingly, God is humble: "I am meek and humble of heart" (Mt 11:29). Despite all of God's overwhelming attributes, God is humble. God is not proud or arrogant. When you're so great, you know to be humble. You can't top God in humility, where the King of the Universe became one of us, dying a terrible death--for love of us. That same King unites with us at Mass under the appearance of bread and wine. How humble God is.

Moreover, “because God is infinite, there is no distinction between his attributes and himself. If only my knowledge, for example, were myself, I should be knowing all the time, simply by being. I should not have to make a distinct effort to know; I should never forget. God’s knowing is not distinct from himself. It is himself. This applies to all his attributes. God is justice. God is mercy” (Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners , 1957).

Most of all, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God loves us. How wonderful. His love is an infinite love. He cannot stop loving his creatures. “If you were the only person on earth, Christ would have still suffered and died for you” (St. Augustine). How could we not be filled with joy in knowing God loves us? Part of the response to acknowledging someone’s love is to trust. Thy will be done. Jesus, I trust in you.

Would You Die for a Lie?

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:42:30 GMT

Someone asked, How can I start a new religion? Get publicly executed and show up three days later. St. Paul knows that Jesus’ divinity depends on his rising from the dead. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain” (1 Cor 15:17).

Jesus’ followers claim a real bodily resurrection, not some symbolic return. Jesus does not rise as a ghost: “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Lk 24:39). However, the resurrected body is not limited by time and space. Although the resurrected body is a corporeal one, Jesus went through locked doors (Jn 20:19); he appeared and vanished suddenly (Lk 24:31). Yet he ate a fish (Lk 24:42-43). The witnesses to the resurrection were convinced Jesus physically rose.

According to the gospels, the first person to see Jesus after he rose was Mary Magdalene. Mary of Magdala is described as a big (former) sinner: “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out" (Lk 8:2, Mk 16:9). Because numbers have significance, “seven demons” means the fullness of sin. Perhaps she had been an adulterer or prostitute. She certainly would not be considered a credible witness in her day. Even the disciples do not believe her: “She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe” (Mk 16:10-11).

If the author of the earliest gospel wanted to convince people about the Resurrection, a woman who was a known sinner would be the last person to use as first witness. The only reason to use her is if she really did see the risen Lord first.

The witness of the apostles also gives reason to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If the Resurrection didn’t happen, Christianity would have fizzled out. Christianity is built on the blood of the martyrs.

Although people have been known to give their lives for a false reason, at the time they believed it to be true. The apostles were martyred for a simple reason: they believed they saw Jesus after he had risen from the dead. There is no complicated reason behind their belief. Either they saw Jesus risen or they didn’t.

All the apostles—except John, and Judas, of course—died martyrs’ deaths. These were the same apostles who deserted Jesus out of fear of their lives. At Jesus' betrayal and arrest, "all the disciples left him and fled" (Mt 26: 56B). Peter, who cowardly denied Jesus three times, was crucified upside down. Paul, who at first was an enemy of Christianity, had his head cut off.

Would you die for a lie? If the apostles had not seen the resurrected Lord, what would they gain by lying? Some people might not have the courage to die for the truth. Who would die for a lie? All the martyrs needed to do to save their lives was to deny Jesus. Yet they gave their lives for him. He is risen, truly risen.

Love Your Enemies

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 14:09:32 GMT

Jesus’ command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44) is radical. Which non-Christian in history ever gave such advice? The reason, of course, to love our enemies is because God loves his enemies. God still cares for them and keeps them in existence, for “he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and unjust” (Mt 5:45). Seeking revenge? Dig two graves.

St. Paul started off as a great enemy of Christianity: “Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment” (Acts 8:3). He was breathing murderous threats against the disciples (Acts 9:1). Saul watched over the cloaks of those who stoned St. Stephen, the first martyr (Acts 7:58). Thus, St. Paul could be considered an accessory to murder. Saul was a bad guy.

Paul admits his former misdeeds: “I imprisoned many of the holy ones with the authorization I received from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. Many times, in synagogue after synagogue, I punished them in an attempt to force them to blaspheme. I was so enraged against them that I pursued them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:10-11).

In the great miracle of his conversion, St. Paul radically, intellectually, changed his whole view of the new movement, recognizing Jesus’ truth. But what’s even more amazing, is that St. Paul became nice. He had not just a change of mind, but what’s much more difficult, St. Paul had a change of heart: “If I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2b).

How can the same guy who assisted at St. Stephen’s martyrdom later write:

“Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection”? (Col 3:12-15).

I like St. Paul’s post-conversion treatment of enemies: kill them with kindness. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so, you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good" (Rom 12:20-21).

Besides God's command, another reason to love our enemies is that God can flip them. God can take his greatest enemy, like Saul, and make him his greatest proponent. Paul single-handedly changed the world. St. Paul’s letters made it to the New Testament. No one could ever have guessed this outcome before his conversion.

Most desirably, forgiveness frees a prisoner, me . Why should I give my enemy free rental space in my head? I don’t have any gigabytes to spare as it is. Forgiveness is not a feeling, but an act of the will. To err is human, to forgive divine. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Abraham and Isaac

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 23:38:14 GMT

The sacrifice of Isaac is one of the most bizarre stories in the Bible. The background is that Abraham was a “friend of God” (Is 41:8; 2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23), unlike Moses (Dt 34:5), Joshua (Jos 24:29), and David (Ps 89:21) who were servants or slaves of God (NAB commentary Jn 15:15). We're God's friends, too: "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15b). Abraham was old like Sarah his wife (Gn 18:11). “When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said; ‘I am God the Almighty’” (Gn 17:1). “I am making you the father of a host of nations” (Gn 17:5b).

God promised, “Sarah [meaning “princess” NAB] is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him” (19). “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3, Jas 2:23). “Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time that God had stated” (Gn 21:2).

After fulfilling his pledge, God then puts Abraham to the test, asking the unthinkable: “Take your son Isaac, your only one [also translated “beloved” NAB], whom you love. Offer him up as a holocaust” (Gn 22:2). As Abraham took the knife to slaughter his son, the Lord’s messenger [angel] said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son” (12).

Who would sacrifice his own son? I’m sure when I said God told me to do it, my attorney would advise I plead insanity. But in hindsight, the Old Testament story makes perfect sense. It’s no longer bizarre. The sacrifice of Isaac is a prefigurement of God sacrificing his only beloved Son—for us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

Apostolic Succession

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 23:12:04 GMT

After his Resurrection, Jesus shared his power with the apostles, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:21-22). Before his Ascension, Jesus commissioned them, “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:18-20).

Jesus created an office of authority for Peter and his successors. Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter, meaning “Rock”:

“You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:18-19).

Jesus empowers Peter to be his earthly representative. To make up for his three denials of Christ, three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him (Jn 21:15-17). When Peter responds that he loves Jesus, Jesus commands him, “Feed my lambs.” The second time Jesus tells him, “Tend my sheep.” Finally, Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”

Peter is the earthly shepherd in place of Jesus. Thus, wherever Peter is, Christ’s Church is. That the Catholic Church has an unbroken line from Peter to present Pope Leo is indisputable. Check any reliable source for a list of Popes. There may be a controversy like the Western Schism when three men claimed to be Pope (below), which the Council of Constance resolved, but one was definitely Pope. Just recently, there were two living popes, when the late Benedict retired. Western Schism

In an emergency, any person can baptize (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1284). In Holy Matrimony, the wife and husband give each other the sacrament, how beautiful. But Holy Communion, Reconciliation, Confirmation, Anointing, and Holy Orders need an ordained priest or bishop. So how was Christ’s power transferred from the apostles? By the laying on of hands.

"The imposition of hands was used in the Old Testament to signify the transmission of authority from Moses to Joshua (Nm 27:18-23; Dt 34:9). The early Christian community used it as a symbol of installation into an office: the Seven (Acts 6:6) and Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:3)" (New American Bible commentary, 1 Tm 4:14). “They presented these men [deacons] to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them” (Acts 6:6). Paul reminds Timothy to "stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands" (2 Tm 1:6).

It’s like I’m holding a live wire, so I’m electrified, then someone grabs me (don’t try this at home), and the electricity flows through to the next person, and the next, ultimately, intergenerationally. The Catholic Church has apostolic succession, a sign of truth.

Are You Saved?

Sun, 08 Aug 2021 23:08:52 GMT

Catholics are sometimes puzzled when a non-Catholic Christian asks, “Are you saved?” We don’t presume salvation because I know if I make a few bad choices, I’ll be making a U-turn. How ironic is it then, that in the Catholic New American Bible, when Jesus heals someone he often says, “Your faith has saved you,” while the Protestant Revised Standard Version reads, “Your faith has made you well," which is similar to the King James Version's, "Thy faith hath made thee whole"?

Using “Google translate” and the Greek New Testament, " η πίστη σου σε έσωσε " is indeed, “Your faith has saved you.” Hence, the Catholic translation is the more accurate one.

In The Cleansing of Ten Lepers (Lk 17:11-19), all ten lepers were healed as they were going to show themselves to the priests. However, only one, a Samaritan, returned to Jesus to give thanks. It’s at this point that Jesus says to him alone because of his response, “Your faith has saved you” (Lk 17:19). All ten had faith to ask to be healed, and trust that they would be healed on the way. Jesus asks though, “Where are the other nine?” (17b). Only the Samaritan followed up on the next step, to give thanks to God.

Any line in scripture needs to be interpreted within the totality of scripture and tradition. Faith in Jesus, of course, is the springboard to salvation. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). But faith cannot be mere intellectual assent. Response is the key, as "faith without works is dead" (Jas 2:26). The same St. Paul who said, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9), also said, “If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing" (1 Cor 13:2b).

In the Parable of the Sower (Mk 4:1-9), some seed scattered among rocks “sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain” (5-7).

In the parable’s explanation, the ones sown on rocky ground are those “who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when persecution or tribulation comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” (Mk 4:16-17). Those sown among thorns are “people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit" (Mk 4:18-19). Both groups initially had faith but fell away. They failed to persevere. “We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end” (Heb 3:14).

"But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance" (Lk 8:15). God "will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works" (Rom 2:6-7).

At His Right and Left

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 22:59:38 GMT

Like every family, the Holy Family had their share of misunderstandings. When Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem after the feast of Passover, without telling his parents, they frantically searched for him for three days (Lk 2:41-52). When they finally find him, his mother exclaimed: “Son, why have you done this? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety” (48). His answer was basically, You should’ve known where to look. I think my parents would have used a slightly different choice of words than Mary. Jesus is Lord. Mary is sinless. I guess any problem was always Joseph’s fault.

Before his first miracle in John at the wedding feast in Cana (Jn 2: 1-10), his mom tells Jesus, “They have no wine” (3). “Jesus said to her, 'Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come'” (4). Despite his resistance, Jesus complied. Thus, Mary, who willingly agreed to bear the Christ (Lk: 1:38), now spurs Jesus’ public ministry.

In the earliest gospel, Mark, James and John request from Jesus “that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left” (Mk 10:37). Remember, the apostles openly wondered who was the greatest (Mt 18:1-5). The request is not out of character. Jesus answered, “To sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared” (40). Isn’t John “the disciple whom Jesus loved”? (Jn 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:20, and 21:24). So who could these two honorees be, whose places are already set?

Matthew, who copies this story from Mark, changes the questioner to the mother of James and John (Mt 20:20). “The reason for Matthew’s making the mother the petitioner is not clear” (NAB commentary). However, by using “mother,” Matthew is giving the answer to the question by making us think of “mother.” Of course, Mary and Joseph, his mom and dad, the people closest to him, are at Jesus’ right and left in his glory. They raised Jesus and believed in him before anyone else. Our Lady was there from womb to tomb to upper room. Who else could sit in those designated spots?

Does Life Have Meaning?

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 22:46:41 GMT

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.--St. Augustine

It’s sad that some people go through life not knowing why they’re here. Except for daily existence, life has no transcendent meaning for many. They trudge through this often difficult and frustrating life with no ultimate purpose.

Life has its good times for sure, but they are often short-lived. Everyone suffers. Not to be a killjoy, but life is hard. That’s just reality. People become old, sick, homeless, addicted, abused, unemployed, handicapped, rejected; they endure war, poverty, crime, natural disasters, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. Some are starving to death today. The specter of death always hangs above us. Even if our lives are relatively free of immediate life-threatening suffering, our sisters and brothers are enduring it, which sometimes is more painful to watch than if it were us.

What’s the point? If life is just going to be eighty years—or much less—of suffering, and then I die and that’s it, I’m disappointed. There is nothing to look forward to. St. Paul agrees: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all" (1 Cor 15:19). Oftentimes, especially when we’re young, we forget about death. Death, however, eventually reminds us of our finite existence. If after death my consciousness ceases to exist, who cares about anything else? Let’s just live for today.

That’s why people run after all sorts of diversions: sports fanaticism, singing idols, drugs, alcohol, illicit relations, excessive exercise, workaholism, endless TV, internet addiction, materialism, power, and anything else that makes people temporarily forget or numb the meaninglessness of life. I read about a seventy-two-year-old who waited thirty-six hours for Yankee playoff tickets. I wonder if he went to church that week. Although sports, music, exercise, and the internet are good in themselves, these amusements and activities cannot be the main purpose of life. Ultimately, they never satisfy. True fulfillment cannot be found in transient things.

Life can only have meaning if it transcends this temporary earthly existence. Having children or writing books are two ways to outlast your allotted time, in a sense. Yet they fall far short of true transcendence. The only life that would give hope is an afterlife in which we retain our identity. The meaning of earthly life is dependent on whether there exists true eternal life.

If there is a life beyond this one, then life on earth becomes incredibly meaningful since every action has eternal consequences. On the other hand, if there is no afterlife, then life is meaningless. Ironically, what you believe happens after death, if anything, is what gives or does not give life meaning. But there is an afterlife, because there is a God, who loves us and opened wide the gates of Paradise. And that makes all the difference.

"What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him."--1 Cor 2:9.

The Cleansing of the Temple

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 22:40:51 GMT

The destruction of the Jerusalem temple was in 70 AD, around the time the earliest gospel, Mark, was published. Some might erroneously think that Jesus’ prediction of the temple’s destruction, “There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mk 13:2b), was added after the event. However, there are some stones remaining upon each other to this day, at the Western Wall. Mark did not make up the close, but slightly inaccurate quote.

Another mistaken belief is that the cleansing of the temple didn’t happen, but is only a parable in action. Biblical scholar, college textbook author, and self-described atheist-agnostic (because of suffering and evil) Dr. Bart Ehrman: “It is virtually certain that some days before his death Jesus entered the temple, overturned some of the tables that were set up inside, and generally caused a disturbance. The account is multiply attested (Mark 11 and John 2) and is consistent with the predictions scattered throughout the tradition about the coming destruction of the temple.” 1

In the synoptic gospels, the cleansing of the temple (Mk 11:15-19) is toward the end of Jesus’ public ministry, immediately after his entry into Jerusalem (Mk 11:1-11). John, though, puts the cleansing at the beginning of his ministry (Jn 2:13-25). “The order of events in the gospel narratives is often determined by theological motives rather than by chronological data” (NAB commentary John).

The later entry is probably more chronologically accurate, after Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, when he was literally riding high, on a donkey. Though the chief priests and scribes “were seeking a way to put him to death, they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching” (Mk 11:18). Jesus’ exalted entry, with the crowds crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (9b) prevented his enemies from taking action when Jesus then cleansed the temple.

“Jesus made a whip out of cords,” which is one of two things Jesus “makes” in the gospels; the other is clay to heal a blind man (Jn 9:6). He then drove out those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there, overturned their tables, and spilled their coins (Jn 2:14-15). "Only the coinage of Tyre could be used for the purchases; other money had to be exchanged for that" (NAB commentary, Mt 21:12). Jesus' righteous anger is because the exclusive sellers are price gouging pilgrims' purchases and currency exchanges: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. But you have made it a den of thieves" (Mk 11:17; Is 56:7; Jer 7:11).

Furthermore, the animals for sacrifice, and the means to purchase them, will no longer be needed anyway because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. “This episode indicates the post-resurrectional replacement of the temple by the person of Jesus” (NAB John).

Jesus’ opponents couldn’t understand that the temple will no longer be the place to worship God. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. He was speaking about the temple of his body” (Jn 2:19, 21). God dwells in the person of Jesus. He is the new temple. And amazingly, by virtue of our Baptism, we are temples of God as well: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16).

________________

1 Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 221.

A Woman Caught in Adultery

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:33:18 GMT

Once again, the Pharisees test Jesus, to try to make him make a mistake so they can bring a charge against him. In a dramatic but cruel scene (Jn 7:53-8:11), they make a woman stand in the middle of Jesus’ listeners, saying, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women (Dt 22:23-24). So what do you say?” (4-5). Where’s the man involved?

His enemies place Jesus in another no-win situation. They know Jesus would never agree to stone her, but how can he reconcile that with the commandment “Thou shall not commit adultery” and its accompanying penalty? (Ex 20:14).

Then “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger” (6), the only time Jesus writes in the gospels. Jesus said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (7), and he kept writing. “And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders” (9).

What could Jesus possibly have written, to make his enemies scatter? I say, if he wrote only the names of their past girlfriends, it would be enough for holier-than-thou guys to vamoose.

This story is intriguing because it’s “a later insertion, missing from all early Greek manuscripts. It is found in different places in different manuscripts” (NAB commentary). The reason the gospel editors may have been initially hesitant about including the story is that Jesus is too lenient, too merciful.

After her accusers scatter, Jesus, the Judge of humanity, asks the woman, “Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you” (10-11). His advice is only, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (11).

The Pharisees never experienced or imagined the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where because of Christ's sacrifice, in God’s mercy, sins are forgiven. “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 976; Jn 20:22b-23).

“There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest. Christ who died for all desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin” (CCC 982).

The Good Samaritan

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 22:10:34 GMT

After correctly answering Jesus' question about inheriting eternal life, that we must love God and neighbor, the scholar of the law then asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). “For ethnic and religious reasons, the Samaritans and Jews were opposed to one another” (NAB commentary), in other words, enemies.

On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus tried to pass through Samaria, but the Samaritans would not let him (Lk 9:51-56). James and John were so angry at Samaritan inhospitality that they wanted fire to come down on them, the way Elijah called down fire on his enemies (2 Kgs 1:10-12). Jesus simply rebuked James and John, taking a different route.

Of course, in the parable, Jesus makes the sworn enemy the hero of the story. Hence the ancestry of the person standing before you has no bearing on their personality, whether they're nice or not. Prejudice, or pre-judgment, makes no sense. We've all met many, many people of all sorts, whose personality was impossible to predict based on their ethnicity. One cannot logically summarily dismiss a whole segment of people. Recall the Samaritan woman who goes off as a missionary to proclaim Jesus (Jn 4:4-42).

When the priest and Levite approach the victim, they cross to the other side. They avoid the victim because he may be dead. He’s described as “half-dead” (Lk 10:30). Being close to a corpse violates the Jewish law, making one ritually impure (Lv 21:11), as the legal scholar would know.

Because God delivered the Jews through Moses, the lawgiver, from 400 years of slavery under the Egyptians, destroying their powerful army, leading the Chosen People to the promised land, they believed the law was God’s greatest gift to his people. Ancient Jews were committed to following the law because they had already been shown favor by God. Keeping the law was not a dreaded task. Jews typically considered the law a great joy to uphold. Imagine that in everything you do, wake up, go to bed, prepare to eat, finish eating, in everything, you bless God for his good favor. How wonderful.

The mistake of the priest and Levite is making legalism superior to love. They cross the street instead of helping an injured person so as not to violate the law. "Love one another as I love you" (Jn 15:12). Love trumps the law. Who is my neighbor? The person in front of you.

The Rapture

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 22:07:47 GMT

St. Paul thought the Second Coming was imminent, to take place in his lifetime. In the earliest writing in the New Testament, circa 51 AD, he consoles those in the Thessalonica community whose loved ones have now passed before the Parousia: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep. We who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thes 4:14-15).

The controversy comes from the next lines: “For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thes 4:16-17a).

’’Will be caught up together” literally means snatched up, carried off. From the Latin verb used, rapiemur , has come the idea of “the rapture,” when believers will be transported away from the woes of the world; this construction combines this verse with Mt 24:40-41: “Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left” (NAB commentary 1 Thes).

The big, recent proponent of the rapture is late author Tim LaHaye. His first book and movie, “Left Behind,” starts with a pilot and stewardess discussing that some passengers disappeared during their flight. Only their clothes were on their seats when the plane landed. I guess it’s, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again” (Job 1:21).

Like any few lines, the rapture, also known as "millennial dispensationalism" (1 Thes 4:17 NAB commentary), must be considered in the entirety of scripture and tradition. Belief in the rapture is a relatively new, mainly American Evangelical idea to which the majority of Christian traditions do not subscribe Rapture - Wikipedia .

The many quotes about the Second Coming, however, portray that Christ’s living disciples will experience the Parousia on earth, and not get a pass: “And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds” (Mt 24:31); “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (Lk 21:27-28); “For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth” (Lk 21: 35); “The one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Mk 13:13b); “Amen I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Mt 16:28).

“So if they say to you, ‘He is in the desert,’ do not go out there; if they say, ‘He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be’” (Mt 24:26-27).

Lazarus

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 20:49:40 GMT

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) is the only parable in the gospels that names one of its characters. Like Matthew, Luke uses Mark for many of Jesus’ deeds. Matthew and Mark, though, make no mention of Lazarus. Luke’s parables are from another source that Matthew also accessed. Only Luke, however, seems to vaguely know John’s story of the miracle of The Raising of Lazarus (Jn 11:1-44). Unlike Matthew and Mark, Luke also knows of Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38-42). Incidentally, as of 2021, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are officially Saints.

“In both stories, a man named Lazarus dies; in Luke there is a request that he return to convince his contemporaries of the need for faith and repentance, while in John, Lazarus does return and some believe but others do not” (NAB commentary Jn).

The parable expresses the reversal of fates, like the Beatitudes: "Blessed are you who are poor” (Lk 6:20); “Woe to you who are rich” (24). Pope Benedict wrote that Lazarus is a metaphor for Jesus, that’s why he’s “covered in sores” (20). At his crucifixion, Jesus was the poorest of the poor. But his fate was reversed, like poor Lazarus. In the same way, the rich man, blessed with good fortune in this life, suffered torment in the next.

It’s not a sin to be rich. Money is a good thing. Joseph of Arimathea is described as a rich man and a disciple (Mt 27:57-60). After all, he donated our Lord’s burial place (Mt 27:60). It’s what you do with the money. Is it for others or just yourself? Does being well-off make you forget about your complete dependence on God for every breath? In 1919 on his deathbed, wealthy entrepreneur F. W. Woolworth told his three doctors he would give them a million dollars each if he could last one more day. He didn’t make it. He couldn’t buy another minute.

John’s Lazarus story (Jn 11:1-44), the longest continuous narrative in John outside the Passion account, is the climax of Jesus’ seven signs (NAB commentary). Interestingly, Jesus intentionally allows Lazarus to die so that instead of healing him, Jesus can top that miracle by bringing him back to life, for the sake of belief: "I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe" (Jn 11:14). Ironically, "Jesus' gift of life leads to his own death" (NAB commentary).

"Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was " (5-6). Furthermore, Lazarus was in Bethany, which was "only about two miles away" (18b). Jesus could do miracles from a distance anyway (Mt 8:13, 15:28). Both Martha and Mary correctly say, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died" (21 and 32c verbatim). But more importantly, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?" (40).

When Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days (39). But at Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary’s pleading, Jesus “cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out’” (43). And the dead man came out. The reason Jesus had to call Lazarus by name is because if Jesus only said, “Come out,” all the dead would awaken. "The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out" (Jn 5:28-29).

John The Baptist

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 20:33:31 GMT

The emergence of John the Baptist is often thought of as the return of the prophet Elijah. After the Transfiguration, coming down the mountain, Peter, James, and John ask Jesus, “’Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He said in reply, ‘Elijah will indeed come and restore all things, but I tell you that Elijah has already come’” (Mt 17:10-11). "Then the disciples understood that he was speaking of them of John the Baptist" (13).

The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, says that before the messiah comes, Elijah was to have reappeared: “Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day” (Mal 3:1, 23). Elijah never died. He was assumed into heaven: As Elijah and his successor Elisha walked, “a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kgs 2:11).

Both John and Elijah have the same fashion sense. “John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist” (Mk 1:6). Elijah preferred a “hairy garment, with a leather girdle about his loins” (2 Kgs 1:8). At least Elijah ate cake (1 Kgs 19: 6). John dined on locusts and wild honey (Mk 1:6).

John the Baptist is the transitional figure from the Old to New Testament. In the tradition of fiery prophets like Jeremiah, John proclaims a baptism of repentance, exhorting “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:1b). He’s not one to mince words: “You brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” (Mk 3:7b).

John was hesitant to baptize Jesus. He thought himself unworthy to even carry his sandals (Mt 3:11b). “Jesus said to him, ‘Allow it for now, for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness’” (Mt 3:15). Jesus, though sinless, identifies himself with sinners (NAB commentary Mk). Jesus would take on, and take away, the sins of the world.

“No one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk 7:28). How blessed we are. Despite his prominent role, John only proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. By our Baptism, we’re now part of it.

But Jesus wasn’t what John expected. The messiah was to destroy and vanquish his enemies. Instead, Jesus said to love them (Mt 5:44). While he was imprisoned, John’s disciples ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Jesus said to them in reply, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense in me’” (Mt 11:3-5).

Jesus became one of us, taught us God’s plan, died for us, and opened the gates of heaven for us. What more does one expect the messiah to do?

Paul and Barnabas Split?

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 20:26:56 GMT

Missionaries, Saints Paul and Barnabas, spent a lot of time and covered a lot of ground together. They were obviously good friends. After his conversion, Paul “tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple” (Acts 9:26). Barnabas was the one who vouched for Paul (27).

Barnabas retrieved Paul from Tarsus to spend a year together at Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). Because of a famine, Barnabas and Paul were chosen to bring Antiochene monetary relief to the presbyters [bishops] in Judea (Acts 11:29-30). The two then returned to Jerusalem with John Mark (Acts 12:25), who is traditionally the author of the earliest Gospel (NAB commentary Mark), and who is also Barnabas’ cousin (Col 4:10).

Along with John Mark, Paul and Barnabas traveled to Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, and Pamphylia (Acts 13). “But John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13). Barnabas and Paul continued on to Antioch, Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13 and 14).

Because of the controversy as to whether non-Jewish Christians needed to be circumcised, the sign of the Mosaic covenant, Paul and Barnabas were picked to confer with the apostles at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-2). Circumcision was no longer required.

But after all the successes, persecutions, and experiences they’d been through side by side, Paul and Barnabas had a falling-out, because, of all people, Mark. Paul and Barnabas wanted to make a return visit to the communities they founded. “Barnabas wanted to take with them also John, who was called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them someone who had deserted them. So sharp was their disagreement that they separated. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas” (Acts 15:36-40). Even saints feud.

In the hierarchy of importance in the New Testament, Mark’s Gospel ranks above Paul’s letters. Fortunately, Paul seems to have reconciled with Mark, naming him at the end of three letters: “Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greetings, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions; if he comes to you, receive him)” (Col 4:10); “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is helpful to me in the ministry” (2 Tim 4:11); “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as well as Mark, my co-worker" (Phlm 24). Saints may disagree, but forgive.

Forensic Files: Peter

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 20:16:59 GMT

Some of these ideas come from scripture scholar Bart Ehrman, self-described “atheistic-agnostic.” Dr. Ehrman doesn’t believe because of suffering and evil. (What's he doing in this business? He should read my “Jesus redeems God.”) He is a great expert, though. Using Dr. Ehrman's techniques, one can draw never-ending and fascinating connections in the Jesus phenomenon.

Like the show Forensic Files, can we make a case, for example, for the type of person the prince of the apostles is, fickle, impetuous, and vacillating? In the show, just a small piece of evidence, like a hair or drop of blood, can send a man away for life.

In this case, we have three witnesses, who are definitely biased and united in saying Jesus is Lord. What’s wonderful, however, is that their witness statements are unrelated and independent and don’t know—and if they did know, don’t care about--the other two witness statements. A detective’s dream: three bank robbers, being questioned in different rooms, who met at the bank, and never consulted each other.

St. Paul in the 50s says about Peter, “And when Kephas [Peter in Aramaic, Jesus’ tongue] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly wrong. For, until some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised.” (Gal. 2:11-12). Paul thinks Peter a wishy-washy, fickle man.

The synoptic (one eye) gospels, Matthew (80 AD), Mark (70), and Luke (80) count as one witness. Matthew and Luke independently used Mark as one of their sources. 90% of Mark is in Matthew and Luke. (What they leave out is another paper.) Often, the quotes are direct. Only Mark, though, quotes the original Aramaic Jesus spoke, like, “Talitha coum” (Mk 5:41) and “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (Mk 15:34). Mark also gives more details in events than Matthew and Luke. Mark alone, for example, says Simon, who helped carry the cross, is the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mk 15:21). Matthew and Luke’s readers wouldn’t know Alexander and Rufus, so they omitted them.

In Mark, Peter says, impetuously, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you” (Mk 14:31). Matthew testifies, “Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened; and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me’” (Mt 14: 30). He sank like a Rock.

John (90 AD) is another independent witness. Unlike Matthew and Luke who often quote Mark verbatim, John never directly quotes Mark, which would have shown he used Mark. John has a completely different style and take on who Jesus is. Mark intimates Jesus’ divinity; John boldly proclaims it throughout.

Only John names Peter as the one in the garden who rashly cuts off the high priest’s slave’s ear (Jn 18:10). Like Mark, John tells Peter’s three denials, but in a different way (Jn 18:15-27). Unrelated witnesses to a car crash, for instance, have their own take on describing what happened. But there was definitely a crash.

What makes for the authenticity of these witness statements is that they portray Jesus’ second-in-command as fickle, impetuous, and vacillating, the opposite of what would be expected if you made it up. Jesus is Lord. How could his appointed lieutenant, the Rock, be a coward?

We can conclude, however, that something extraordinary must have happened to this obviously rash, indecisive, and inconstant man, who was martyred for the faith. Because Peter saw his publicly executed friend alive again, he laid down his life for his belief. You can’t top that witness statement.

----------------------

Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Hell is God's Mercy

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:07:40 GMT

Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light. --Jn 3:20-21

The gates of hell are locked from the inside. --C.S. Lewis

When I was young, naïve, and idealistic—weren’t we all?--I couldn’t believe that God sent people to hell. The idea of being eternally separated from God was unthinkable. But now that I’m older and more experienced, sadly, I believe some people voluntarily want to go to hell.

During big snowstorms, I recall St. Teresa of Avila who said, “Souls fall into hell like snowflakes.” We’re advised, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it” (Mt 7:13). Jesus went to a lot of trouble to save us. God didn’t create us to damn us. He must, though, respect our freedom.

C.S. Lewis’ infamous demon Screwtape is right when he says, “Everyone ends up where they want to be.” I’m actually a bit grateful when I sin and humbly repent because it keeps me from the biggest sin: Pride. Pride is the belief that your life is yours and you can do what you want. You are your lord and master. We, on the other hand, know who our Lord and master is. The theme song of hell is, "I did it 'My Way.'” There are two kinds of people: those in heaven who say to God, "Your will be done," and those in hell to whom God says, " Your will be done."

In heaven, the saved freely surrender their free will to be totally directed by the holy Spirit (NAB commentary, Rom 6:1-11). Otherwise, you'd hear me cursing for joy. We'll finally be able to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength (Mk 12:30). We're on our way to heaven if we can say St. Ignatius Loyola's "Dedication to Jesus" prayer:

"Lord Jesus Christ, take all my freedom, my memory, my understanding, and my will. All that I have and cherish you have given me. I surrender it all to be guided by your will. Your love and your grace are wealth enough for me. Give me these, Lord Jesus, and I ask for nothing more. Amen."

The lost, on the other hand, retain their free will. "No one--including God--is going to tell me what to do." Like the devil, they think it's "better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" (John Milton, Paradise Lost , 1674, 1.263). The damned want to live their afterlife the way they lived their earthly life--free from God. What's hard for those who want to be saved to understand is that unlike us, the doomed prefer hell to nonexistence. (What will they do in their bodies after the general Resurrection?)

"By the end of life, the will has made its choice. Our love is either for God, or for self as distinct from God. Love of God takes us to God. Love of self as distinct from God takes us to a separation of self from God. The lost do not want annihilation. Love of self carried to that intensity would involve a clinging to self at all costs" (Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners , 1957). "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (Lk 9:24).

God doesn’t send anyone to hell. It’s "our own free choice" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1033). God "wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth" (1 Tm 2:4). Sorry Calvin, but "God predestines no one to go to hell" (CCC 1037). God does indeed know where we’ll end up, but from our side it’s a still undetermined and free choice. Hell, however, is God’s mercy.

Remember that '90s sitcom Family Matters? Steve Urkel Nerdy Steve Urkel is madly in love with his next door neighbor Laura. He’s always saying, over and over, multiple times, “I love you Laura.” Unfortunately, Laura doesn’t feel the same. She’s actually visibly pained every time Urkel professes his deep love.

God is all love, all the time, an infinite love. If a person doesn’t love God back, failing to repent, the feeling is excruciating. The only answer is to get away. And God gives them a break. God lets them go, because he’s nice, "for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked" (Lk 6:35b). He still loves them unconditionally, but the damned don’t have to be in his immediate, agonizing presence, "wailing and grinding their teeth" (Mt 8:12). His justice is merciful and his mercy is just.

People in hell--freely separated from God--are still endlessly in torment because they definitively rejected God, who is the only reason for their existence. But that's how they want it; they're never going to follow heaven's program. Therefore, praying for the souls in hell is of no value. God, however, in his mercy, makes their self-willed suffering much less than it should be.

When Jesus was casting out Legion, "a very large number of demons" (Lk NAB commentary), from the Gerasene demoniac (Lk 8:26-39), Legion begs Jesus not to torment them (28c). Legion "pleaded with him not to order them to depart to the abyss" (31), "the prison of Satan" (Lk NAB commentary). Legion pleaded to enter the swine instead (32b). "And he let them" (32c). But it ended badly for Legion (33), as expected. Nonetheless, God loves and has mercy on all his creatures, even his eternally separated enemies.

However, we're not to love the fallen angels, our sworn eternal enemies, no sympathy for the devil. For us, this means war! which we win. Victory is ours, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

From St. Faustina Kowalska's diary:

"Divine Mercy, greatest attribute of God, I trust in you."

Cardinal John Henry Newman:

"The soul who has chosen to reject God, if he were to enter heaven, would find

no one like himself there, therefore it would be hell for him."

Scandals

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:57:56 GMT

“Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur” (Lk 17:1). “The inevitability of things that cause sin (literally ‘scandals’) does not take away the responsibility of the one through whom they come ” (Mt 18:7 NAB commentary).

The Church is the visible presence of God in the world. The Church’s purpose is the sanctification of the world. Jesus works through his Church, performing the same acts he did when he walked the earth: teaching, bestowing grace, forgiving, and loving. The Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental charitable institution in the world. Since Jesus died for the truth, his Church must also be faithful to the truth.

The miracle of the Catholic Church is that its teachings regarding the faith have remained consistent for two thousand years. At Sunday Mass we still say the Nicene Creed from the year 325. The teachings have been expanded upon, but the basics, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,” for example, are the same.

What makes the consistency of the teachings of faith and morals incredible is that there have been many scoundrels running the Church through the centuries. Yet the Church preserved the truth despite its sometimes-evil leaders. No pope ever officially contradicted a previous pope. This is how we know God, who is Truth, is still the head of his Church.

What’s the Apostles' track record? Judas betrayed him; Peter denied him; Thomas doubted him; James and John wanted to call down fire on their enemies (Lk 9:54); and after his arrest, “all the disciples left him and fled” (Mt 26:56).

Truth, of course, is independent of those who proclaim it. I tell people if—God forbid—I'm in some scandal, violating the 11th commandment, “Thou shalt not get caught,” that doesn’t mean that what I’ve believed isn’t true. It just means I’ve had a fall. Such a false argument would be an “ad hominem” one, arguing against the man and not the truth. The Church is made up of sinners. If we weren’t sinners, Jesus wouldn’t have had to save us. Saints considered themselves to be great sinners.

Do we demand a degree of perfection from the members of the Church which we ourselves do not possess? Jesus asks, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” (Lk 6:41). When someone says they don't go to church because "They're all hypocrites," our response is that "We could always use another one." The truth is we're all hypocrites. Christ died to save us sinners.

Though there is the divine element in the Church, there is also the fallible human element. We have to accept our fallibility, not being judgmental. Even St. Paul struggled: “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:19, 24-25).

Paying Taxes

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 17:53:16 GMT

Jesus made a lot of enemies in his life, who ultimately had him killed. “Woe to you when all speak well of you” (Lk 6:26). The plots to make trouble for Jesus were devious and well planned. After restoring a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, “the pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death” (Mk 3:6). Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, forwarded the taxes of that region to the Roman Senate: Herod Antipas

The Pharisees, on the other hand, did not want to pay the tax. The Jewish Revolt, over payment of taxes, ended in AD 70, with the Romans destroying the temple. Thus, “the Herodians would favor payment of the tax, the pharisees would not” (Mt 22:16 NAB commentary). As an IRS revenue officer, I recuse myself from the debate. (He does have a thing for tax collectors, no?)

Quick joke: I recently spoke to a CFO on the phone as we’re presently barred during the pandemic from going in person to meet taxpayers. She thought I was an imposter. I said, “Madam, the good news is I’m not an imposter, I’m really from the IRS. The bad news is, I’m not an imposter, I’m really from the IRS.”

Despite these two groups’ dislike for each other, the Pharisees and Herodians, they team up against Jesus. Cunningly, they put this question to Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” (Mt 22:17). If Jesus says, “Don’t pay it,” the government would be against him; if he says, “Pay it,” the people will be angered.

Jesus, thinking on his feet, "knew their malice" (Mt 22:18). He asks for a coin and says, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt 22:20-21). In other words, the coin has Caesar’s face and name on it; give Caesar back his money. But more importantly, you are sealed with God’s image and likeness. Are you giving yourself to God?

“Those who willingly use the coin that is Caesar’s should repay him in kind. The answer avoids taking sides in the question of the lawfulness of the tax. Jesus raises the debate to a new level. Those who have hypocritically asked about tax in respect to its relation to the law of God should be concerned rather with repaying God with the good deeds that are his due” (NAB commentary).

Divine Providence

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 17:16:51 GMT

The plan of the Lord stands forever.

--Psalm 33:11a

From the back of a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal's funeral card:

Say yes to the surprises that interrupt your plans and crush your dreams, giving your day, perhaps your life, a completely new direction.

These ideas and quotes are from the book, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness , actually two small combined books, one by Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure SJ, and the other by St. Claude de la Colombiere SJ, spiritual advisor to St. Margaret Mary, of the Sacred Heart revelation.

Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence

Who doesn’t want the secret of peace and happiness? We have to be willing, though, to let go and let God. Apart from sin, nothing happens to us in this life unless God wills it so.

"Wealth and poverty alike come from him. If we fall ill, God is the cause of our illness; if we get well, our recovery is due to God. We owe our lives entirely to him, and when death comes, his will be the hand that that deals the blow.

"But should we attribute it to God when we are unjustly persecuted? Yes, he is the only person you can charge with the wrong you suffer. He is not the cause of the sin the person commits by ill-treating you, but he is the cause of the suffering that person inflicts on you while sinning.

"God did not inspire your enemy with the will to harm you, but he gave him the power to do so. If you receive a wound, do not doubt that it is God himself who has wounded you. If all living creatures were to league themselves against you, unless the Creator wished it and joined with them and gave them the strength and means to carry out their purpose, they would never succeed.

"Jesus attributed the suffering of his passion not to those who accused him, not to Judas who betrayed him, nor to Pilate who condemned him, nor to the soldiers who ill-treated and crucified him, nor to the devil who incited them all, though they were the immediate causes of his sufferings, but to God: Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me? (Jn 18:11)" ( Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence , 1980).

Because of his infinite goodness, God is able to bring good out of every event. St. Paul trusts in God’s Providence: "All things work for good for those who love God" (Rom 8:28). The worst thing that ever happened was Jesus being crucified. God incarnate, rejected and killed, was the greatest injustice. God, however, turned Christ's Passion into the best thing that ever happened, using Jesus’ sacrifice to redeem humanity. That’s why it’s “Good” Friday. Although an evil act is never good, God somehow manages to make good come out of it.

The death of a child will then be seen as its rescue from some great evil had it lived, separation from the woman you love the means of saving you from an unhappy marriage, a severe illness the reason for many years of life afterwards, loss of money the means of saving your soul from eternal loss. So what are we worried about? “Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?" (Lk 12:25-26).

We trust ourselves to a doctor because we suppose she knows her business. She operates on us, cutting away part of our body and we accept it. We are grateful to her and pay a large fee because we judge she would not act as she does unless the remedy were necessary, and we must rely on her skill. Yet we are unwilling to treat God the same way.

We know God loves us infinitely and has our best interest at heart. Therefore, we must trust him. Surrendering to Providence is not an excuse for laziness. But after trying our best, however things turn out, we have to accept God’s will, the secret to peace and happiness. After all, "Even all the hairs of your head are counted" (Mt 10:30). Thy will be done. Jesus, I trust in you.

From a Eucharistic prayer at Mass: "It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, creator of the world and source of all life. For you never forsake the works of your wisdom, but by your providence are even now at work in our midst."

Divine Retinopathy

Sat, 24 Jul 2021 17:14:07 GMT

Photic retinopathy is eye damage from prolonged exposure to bright light, like a laser or arc welder. But the most common cause, of course, is from staring at the sun, solar retinopathy. We should never look directly at the sun, at any time. The reminders come, however, before an eclipse, because people may be tempted to take a peek.

Besides a decrease in vision from retinal damage, photic retinopathy makes the eyes externally damaged: Solar eclipse eye damage and Retinopathy

The full extent of the damage may not be known for a while after exposure. Fortunately, there is some hope for improvement, but not in all cases.

St. Paul saw Jesus’ divine light with his naked eyes, which is much, much brighter than the sun, and the damage was immediate blindness, which lasted three days (Acts 9:1-19; 22:3-16; 26:2-18.) After all, scales fell from Paul’s eyes. For this malady, I’ve coined the term divine retinopathy. Thus far I know of only one case.

St. Paul appears to indicate the effect his obviously damaged eyes had on people. His eyes were, though, a testament to the authenticity of his conversion experience:

“You know that it was because of a physical illness that I originally preached the gospel to you, and you did not show disdain or contempt because of the trial caused you by my physical condition, but rather you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. Where now is that blessedness of yours? Indeed, I can testify to you that, if it had been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me” (Gal 4:13-15).

Choose Life

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:09:23 GMT

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life.

--Moses (Deut 30:19)

As Catholics, we have to be pro-life. We cannot say we’re for God and then be indifferent or God forbid pleased with the systematic slaughter of over 60 million innocent people since Roe v. Wade. God is the Author of life: “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). The passing of Justice Ginsburg reminds us that we will all make our case, before the Supreme Court. Abortion is the gravest moral issue of our time.

Mother Teresa warned, “Abortion represents the greatest threat to civilization. A society that permits abortion is teaching its people to get what they want by violence,” always a mistake. Only God should have the say in who lives and who dies: “It is I who bring both death and life” (Deut 32:39).

No human is here by mistake, or is unplanned, or is a surprise to God. Every life, therefore, is precious. God says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jer 1:5). Human life is sacred, made in God’s image. Every person is an immortal diamond who comes from God and is destined for eternal life with God. No one, at any time, is insignificant or worthless.

The idea that a fetus is not human at five months and twenty-nine days, but is human at six months is illogical. Abortion stops a beating heart. People say, “It’s not yet a person.” Well, what is it then? Are you growing tomatoes in there? Of course an embryo is a person as soon as it’s conceived because it has a unique genetic makeup. A fetus would never be human unless it was human already.

The answer is not to criminalize abortion. We should never condemn a woman who’s had an abortion. Oftentimes, they’re forced into one by their family, or the “dad,” or circumstances. Rather, in the spirit of Martin Luther King, we have to change people’s hearts, remove their blindness.

Ultrasound sonograms are a great teaching tool. Also, we need to try our best to be helpful, supportive, and encouraging to someone in a heart-wrenching situation so they can choose life. Plenty of good people are waiting to adopt. I’m for moms to have three years’ paid leave; free childcare; family-friendly employers; even a stipend. Finally, we must continue to pray and vote for life.

“The implicit assumption of pro-abortion activists is that the female body is somehow a defective version of the male body — which they take as the norm — and that women can be free and equal only if they are permitted to kill their unborn children. Rather than structuring our laws and forming our culture to foster solidarity and support for women, the pro-abortion movement treats the child as an intruder, a 'parasite,' and a threat to neutralize.” –Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis, authors of the forthcoming book "Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing."

I'm glad I wasn't aborted; you're glad you weren't aborted. How could we be for aborting someone else? Love your neighbor as yourself (Mk 12:31). The only people in favor of abortion are already born. Our God is the God of life, new life, the Bread of Life, eternal life. Choose life.

Poor in Spirit

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 17:05:49 GMT

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.-- Mt 5:3

The Sermon on the Mount shows the contrast between earthly and heavenly values. The attitudes valued in the kingdom, the beatitudes, are not highly valued in this life, and vice versa. Jesus has the ultimate, divine viewpoint. “In the Old Testament, the poor (anawim) are those without material possessions and whose confidence is in God” (NAB commentary).

Being poor in spirit means being detached from material things, which can make one more comfortable, but not bring true happiness. It does not mean being impoverished. The racetrack of materialism is a dead end, though. Jesus reminds us, you can’t take it with you: “Do not store up treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroys, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:19).

It’s not a sin to be rich. The rich Joseph of Arimathea is counted as a disciple of Jesus; he donated the Lord's tomb (Mt 27:57, 60). Money is a good thing. It’s just that you may be tempted to forget your complete dependence on God for every heartbeat, every breath. I’ve never seen a U-Haul following a hearse. The Parable of the Rich Fool (Lk 12:16-21) perfectly illustrates that God calls the shots.

After a highly productive, overabundant harvest, a rich man plans to tear down his barns and build larger ones. He says to himself, “I have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry.” God said to him, “You fool. Today is your last day.” As the bumper sticker says, “The one who dies with the most toys wins,” but you still die. Earth is not our destination. We’re just passing through.

A rich man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mk 10:17-22). Jesus says, “You know the commandments,” to which the rich man says, “All of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him loved him and said to him, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come follow me. ”

This man has a religious vocation. Jesus is calling him. He’s given the once-in-a-lifetime chance to follow Jesus closely. But his face fell, and he went away sad. Anytime someone in life rejects Jesus, they go away sad. The rich man was holding on too tightly.

Pontius Pilate

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:54:11 GMT

Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, presided over our Lord’s trial, ultimately ordering his execution. There are non-gospel historical sources which also record that Pilate ordered Jesus’ crucifixion: Pontius Pilate

However, “there is a tendency, found in varying degree in all the gospels, to present Pilate in a favorable light” (NAB commentary Mt 27:18). When the crowd shouts, “Crucify him,” Pilate asks, ‘Why? What evil has he done? I am innocent of this man’s blood” (Mt 27:23, 24). He says, “I find no guilt in him” (Jn 18:38). “No capital crime has been committed by him. Therefore, I shall have him flogged and release him” (Lk 23:15-16). “Consequently, Pilate tried to release him” (Jn 19:12). Pilate even hopes that by releasing a prisoner, the crowd will pick Jesus. Instead, they shout for Barabbas’ release (Mt 27:21). Ironically, Barabbas means “son of the father.”

Luke, though, relates a story about Pilate that doesn’t cast him in such an innocent light: “At that time some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their [the Romans’] sacrifices” (Lk 13:1). “What is known about Pilate from the Jewish historian Josephus, such a slaughter would be in keeping with the character of Pilate. Josephus reports that Pilate had disrupted a religious gathering of the Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim with a slaughter of the participants, and that on another occasion Pilate had killed many Jews who had opposed him when he appropriated money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem” (NAB Lk 13:1).

Perhaps the gospel writers wanted to say that in the trial of Jesus, Pilate was a victim of circumstance (or providence), in the wrong place, at the wrong time: “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason, the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin” (Jn 19:11).

Pilate’s wife may have glimpsed a foreshadowing of the tragedy that was about to occur. “She sent him a message, ‘Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I suffered much in a dream today because of him’” (Mt 27:19). Maybe she dreamt in a nightmare, that billions of times, through the millennia, until the end of time, people would say over and over, “For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.”

The Betrayer

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 16:49:52 GMT

Both Mark (14:3-11) and John (12:1-11), in two distinct, separate, unrelated traditions, tell the incident that drove Judas to finally betray our Lord. The two accounts agree that at Bethany, a woman anointed Jesus with an expensive jar of perfume. In John, it’s Judas who says, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions” (Jn 12:5-6).

Mark likewise, says the perfume was worth “three hundred days’ wages” and that the money could have been given to the poor” (Mk 14:5). Judas then immediately goes “off to the chief priests to hand him over to them” (10).

As an aside, to those who complain about beautifying the Church, Jesus gives a correction: “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me” (Jn 12:8, Mk 14:7). God deserves lavish adornment.

As to Judas’ demise, we have two disparate versions. Matthew says Judas “deeply regretted what he had done. Flinging the money into the temple, he departed and went off and hanged himself” (Mt 27:3,5). (A man is hanged, a picture hung.) Judas had remorse, not repentance.

Luke, in Acts, says that “Judas bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out, so that the parcel of land is called Field of Blood” (Acts 1:18-19). Matthew, on the other hand, tells that the chief priests gathered up Judas’ money and bought a burial place for foreigners. That is why the field is called Field of Blood (Mt 27:7-8). Pietro Lorenzetti (d.1348) depicts these two causes of death in one painting: The death of Judas

If only Judas repented, Jesus would have forgiven him. How glorious that would have been? So many churches would be named St. Judas the Penitent. Alas, it was not meant to be.

The Parable of the Talents

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 16:44:39 GMT

God has given all of us gifts that are to help others and forward the kingdom. Architect Buckminster Fuller: “Everyone is a genius at something.” The question is what we do with our gifts. Before he left on his journey, the master gave his servants talents (Mt 25:14-30). When he returned, he would see how successfully each servant invested his or her talents. “The talent was a unit of coinage of high but varying value depending on its metal (gold, silver, copper)” (NAB commentary).

“After a long time, the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them.” A servant who was given five, made five more. The one who was given two, made two more. The master was pleased and said to each of them, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. “Come, share your master’s joy,” eternal life.

A servant who received one talent dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. “In the unsettled conditions of Palestine in Jesus’ time, it was not unusual to guard valuables by burying them in the ground” (NAB). The servant said he buried the money because he knew the master was a “demanding person, harvesting where he did not plant and gathering where he did not scatter; so out of fear he went off and buried his talent in the ground. Here it is back.”

The master is infuriated. “Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?” Because he was so fearful of losing his master’s money, the servant wouldn’t even take a safe investment, like banking the money to gain interest. “Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,” the master commands. The master then gives that servant’s one talent to the first servant who doubled his money. Why don't we gamble with our faith, taking a chance to see what gains we may make, or are we too scared to fail?

The rich in faith grow richer, the poor poorer: “For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” “God gives further understanding to one who accepts the revealed mystery; from the one who does not, he will take it away” (NAB).

The Judgment of the Nations

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 16:43:04 GMT

Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. --Mk 9:41

When the Son of Man returns, the Parousia, is the time of the Final Judgment, the Second Coming, when the everlasting destiny of all will be confirmed. Christ will separate the sheep, the saved, from the goats, the lost. Matthew’s depiction (Mt 25: 31-46) is that our fate depends on our action, or inaction, toward Jesus’ least brothers: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine you did for me.” So much for faith alone.

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, I'll and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me" (35). The saved did not realize that when they helped Jesus' least brothers, they were helping him. The lost offered no help. "The righteous will be astonished that in caring for the needs of the sufferers they were ministering to the Lord himself" (NAB commentary Mt 25:37).

“A difficult and important question is the identification of these least brothers. Are they all people who have suffered hunger, thirst, etc. or a particular group of such sufferers? Scholars are divided in their response and arguments can be made for either side. It seems that a stronger case can be made for the view that in the evangelist’s sense the sufferers are Christians, probably Christian missionaries whose sufferings were brought upon them by their preaching of the gospel.

“The criterion of judgment for all the nations is their treatment of those who have borne to the world the message of Jesus, and this means ultimately their acceptance or rejection of Jesus himself. Mt 10:40: ‘Whoever receives you, receives me’” (NAB commentary Mt 25:31-46). Matthew gives the answer earlier: “Who are my brothers ? And stretching out his hand toward his disciples , he said, ‘Here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother’” (Mt 12:48b-50).

The tip-off about who these least brothers, and sisters, and mothers are is that we’re supposed to visit them in prison. I visited my uncle “Sonny Nuts” several times in federal prison, but he wasn’t a missionary. One time I sneaked in a chicken parmigiana hero, a good deed. St. Paul, though, who is a missionary, often speaks of his imprisonments: “I Paul, a prisoner of Christ” (Eph 3:1); “My imprisonment has become well known in Christ throughout the whole praetorium [governor’s residence] and to all the rest” (Phil 1: 13); “Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians while in prison” (NAB introduction Col.); “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus” (Phlm 1:1).

One, therefore, can conclude that our judgment will be based on our response to the Church, the Body of Christ, which represents Jesus. All who receive the disciples of Jesus receive him, and God who sent him, and will be rewarded accordingly.

"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me" (Mt 10:40).

The Workers in the Vineyard

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 16:37:44 GMT

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), peculiar to Matthew, is a challenge to our idea of God’s fairness. The story is that an employer starts at dawn hiring workers, “for the usual daily wage.” He hires employees throughout the day, even toward the end of the day at 5 pm, saying, “I’ll pay you what is just.”

At the end of the day, when the pay is distributed at 6 pm, the workers hired last, at 5 pm, received the usual daily wage, a full day’s pay. The ones hired at dawn naturally thought they would receive more, but they, too, got the agreed upon usual daily wage. So they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and heat.”

The boss says, “I am not cheating you.” This is what we agreed on. “Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?”

When God is the proprietor, the usual daily wage is eternal life. Do we find it unjust that God gives people, who we think do not qualify because of whatever reason, a break on everlasting life? Like the good thief on the cross who stole heaven (Lk 23:43), God wants all to be saved (1 Tm 2:4). Jesus paid the price. No one can earn heaven, anyway. All one can do, like with any gift, is graciously accept, and try to cooperate. Jesus went to a lot of trouble to save us. He wants us to be saved more than we do.

Of course, some will reject the gift, refusing to go along with the program, which they’re free to do. But to those who will receive, God lavishly gives, even if it’s at the last moment before the particular judgment, when one will know the full ramifications of one’s choice.

We received God’s mercy now, in knowing and accepting the truth. "So it [faith] depends not upon a person's will or exertion, but upon God, who shows mercy" (Rom 9:16). If others are given God’s mercy later, in God’s Providence and in his Holy Presence, even at 5 pm, their hour of death, we should rejoice all the more that Jesus scored the winning touchdown as the clock ran out, like the good thief on the cross (Lk 23:42-43). For in this life, "it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back" or fall away (2 Pt 2:21).

“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Patience

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 16:35:18 GMT

In the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Lk 13:6-9), the tree’s owner has been quite patient, waiting three years, and still finding no fruit. He wants to cut it down so it no longer exhausts the soil. But the gardener asks that he wait another year, promising to cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it. If the tree is still unproductive, then the owner can cut it down.

God is patient. He gives many chances. We need to be patient with others and ourselves. When I hear that relative is going to rehab for the fifth time (no exaggeration), for example, I can’t be cynical. Someone is undergoing a tremendous struggle. We must be encouraging and optimistic.

“Your failures will be a monument to your perseverance in God’s service, and the more numerous they have been, the more glorious will be their witness to your perseverance. A practical example: A man makes a journey on foot, across rough country, without food, and almost exhausted, so he repeatedly falls. He gets to his feet each time, determined not to give in, and arrive at his destination. When he finally arrives, is it not true that his perseverance has been all the greater and more heroic in proportion to the number of obstacles he has had to overcome and the falls from which he has recovered?”( Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence ). Mother Teresa: “God does not demand success, only that we try.” Maybe with God’s help, cultivating and fertilizing, we can make progress.

The caveat of the parable, however, is that we do not have unlimited time to try to do good. One day we’ll be called on the carpet to show our deeds. “I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Spirit, ‘let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them’” (Rev 14:13).

The Centerpiece of Creation

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 16:32:46 GMT

Some may think the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus, who took on our humanity, did so only because we needed to be saved. God the Son, however, always intended to be one of us, “one mediator between God and the human race” (1 Tm 2:5). Without the Fall, God would still enter into his creation.

While it’s true that Jesus’ sacrifice saves us, “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24), had humanity not fallen, God still planned to be the centerpiece of creation anyway: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation ” (Col 1:15). "All things were created through him and for him ” (16).

“Everything was created for him and in expectation of him. There is no theological discussion that makes any sense if it asks whether Christ would have been born without the sin of Adam. Christ is the center of creation; all creatures, both heavenly (the angels) and earthly (men) find in him their summation. On the other hand, we can affirm that, given the sin of our forebears, Christ’s coming assumed a particular role: he came as savior.” 1 An Exorcist tells his story

The cause of the rebellion may have been that you-know-who found out that not only was he not going to be the focal point of creation, but also that he would have no physicality in the material universe, but only be our servant. Our defeated enemy grossly miscalculated. “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wis 2:24). He’s jealous of our calling, that we’re children of God, that God is our Father, Jesus our brother.

“For to which of the angels did God ever say: ‘You are my son; this day I have begotten you?’ Or again: ‘I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me?’” (Heb 1:5). We are now Jesus’ siblings and children of God: “Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father , to my God and your God’” (Jn 20:17). “You received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, Abba, Father!” (Rom 8:15), better translated “Daddy.”

“To those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). Because we are children of God, we share in Jesus’ victory over the devil. St. Teresa of Avila: “So I said: ‘Come now all of you, for, being a servant of the Lord, I want to see what you can do to me.’ There was no doubt, in my opinion, that they were afraid of me. I was left with a mastery over them truly given by the Lord of all; I pay no more attention to them than to flies. I think they’re such cowards that when they observe they are esteemed but little, their strength leaves them.”2

St. Thomas More: “The Devil, that proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked.”
Martin Luther: “The best way to drive out the devil...is to jeer and flout him.”

Laughing at Lucifer

________________

1. Fr Gabriel Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), chap. Centrality of Christ.

2. ibid.

The Great Wedding Feast

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 14:39:50 GMT

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready --Rv 19:7

Marriage is one of the biblical metaphors used to describe the covenant relationship between God and his people. Hence, idolatry and apostasy are viewed as adultery and harlotry (New American Bible commentary Rv 19:17). Even John the Baptist says he is only the best man who rejoices at the bridegroom’s voice (Jn 3:29).

I love the lame excuses the invitees to the great wedding feast give (Mt 22:1-14, Lk 14:15-24). The king is throwing a big party for his son. Yet, one by one, they all began to excuse themselves: “I have purchased a field and must go to examine it”; “I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them”; and, “I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.” What’s the rush to view a piece of land or animals that you already bought? How much will change if you wait a day? Recently married? Bring your wife with you. At least, come up with something like, I’ve been exposed to a virus and I’m self-quarantining.

The king says to invite everyone, because he wants his home filled (Lk 14:23). “Will only a few people be saved?” (Lk 13:23). No, so long as they enter through the narrow gate, Jesus. The invitees who declined to attend were more concerned with mundane matters than uniting with God. I’m sure in eternity we’ll all regret the shoddy way we treated God at times by mistaken priorities.

The devil was interviewing demons to see who could make the most people fall away. The first said he would tell people there is no God. Most people know there is a God. He didn’t get the job. The second said he would say there is no hell. He also failed because most people know there are monsters in the world who don’t want to go to heaven. The successful candidate said he would make people think they need not decide for God now; they have a lot of time and can put off such a big decision for more pressing matters. Anyone can fall into this trap of delay.

St. Paul knows that despite all our plans and analyses of past and future, all we really have is the present moment: "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).

Purgatory

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 14:37:24 GMT

Exaggeration, also known as hyperbole, is a way to add humorous and dramatic effect: I’ve told you a million times. Jesus uses hyperbole in his sermon on the mount (Mt 5:1-48 and more) to remind us how far we are from God’s standard, the magnificence we’ll one day achieve. “So be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” (48).

As God, Jesus can revise the commandments. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna” (21-22). The bar got a lot higher on Thou shalt not kill. Just name-calling the driver who cut you off apparently can now damn you.

Another update: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (27). That’s it for the guys. Or how about, “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well” (44)? Another impossible response.

With such a shortfall, I don’t know how a Christian cannot believe in purgatory. We’re in purgatory now, where God is hidden, and if we have the right attitude, we’re being purified by suffering. We all obviously must undergo some major transformation before we can enter heaven. Just the smallest stain would make you uncomfortable when everyone’s wearing pure white. Not to worry, though, “when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher” (Lk 6:40b).

After mobster Chris' near-death experience in hell, Paulie Walnuts from the Sopranos tries to convince Chris he was in purgatory, "a little detour on the way to paradise." Paulie is played by Tony Sirico, whose brother is Fr. Robert Sirico of the Brooklyn diocese.

To compute his own afterlife sentence, Paulie multiplies his mortal sins by 50 years, and his venial sins by 25, figuring he has to do about six thousand years in purgatory. Paulie does get, though, that because he’ll be in eternity, he can do it “standing on his head,” in other words, easy prison time. The passage of time is meaningless in eternity. It’s more a state of mind. Paulie may not make it to purgatory, however. Purgatory explained by Paulie Walnuts

The suffering of purgatory comes from glimpsing God after death, and then separating for a while. St. Catherine of Genoa said that the joy of purgatory is exceeded only by heaven’s joy, because a person knows they're going to make it to heaven. The amazing news is that one day “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2b). In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says that God is making us into “little Christs,” copies of himself: Every person is to become a little Christ Hence, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away” (30), so as not to miss out on the brave new world to come.

Unexpected Kindness

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 14:25:01 GMT

I hadn’t written about the faith since 1997, 24 years ago. I gave out about 150 paper copies—before the internet--of my 50-page “Belief is Reasonable,” and emailed about 25 more scanned ones, to mixed or non-reviews. I count, unbelievably, that this is the 60th essay I’ve written, after meeting fellow parishioner Jenny, which is not her real name, at her request, because she was involved as an assistant in a big spiritual conquest that I didn't know about at the time.

I met Jenny at a kids’ party. I was day drinking, courtesy of the hosts. I may not have made the best first impression. Yet briefly, Jenny and I talked about religion. I told her that God chooses the weak to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27). She was nice enough to give me her email address. I emailed her my paper.

Subsequently, I saw Jenny for a few minutes at a supermarket and at a track meet. Jenny said she printed out my 50-page paper and read it page by page with one of her sons. She encouraged me to write more. I was completely overcome with a desire to write. After Jenny’s unexpected kindness, my spirituality was re-energized. I quit day drinking. One of Jenny’s sons in our school was a Big Brother to my son. Jenny’s son gave mine a birthday gift, another unexpected kindness. The story, however, gets better. Now it's God's sitcom.

So I’m writing all over the place after meeting Jenny, on various and sundry topics, emailing my essays one by one to several parishioners, who probably wonder if I'll eventually hit their story. For little do I know, Jenny, her family, and friends, assisted at an exorcism in our parish. I finally write, "Deliverance Prayer." I wrote that I like to go big in the deliverance prayer. Jenny called me. ("What are you writing?" "You told me to write.") She briefly explained what transpired several years ago. We spoke and emailed for perhaps a half hour. When I say the deliverance prayer, I now include our parish.

One can never predict the extent to where unexpected kindness and encouragement will lead. Thank you, Jenny, a spiritual powerhouse. God bless you.

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”

—Bob Kerrey

Deliverance Prayer

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 14:22:02 GMT

On parent enrichment night for my son’s First Communion, the pastor said that some time ago, an exorcism was performed in our diocese. He didn’t give much detail, but only advised to avoid Ouija boards and the occult. Thank God we’re back to saying St. Michael’s prayer. Holy Water is invaluable. St. Teresa of Avila: "Nothing drives the devil more effectively away than Holy Water."

St. John Bosco: "Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are powerful and indispensable means of overcoming the attacks of the devil. Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the devil will be powerless against you." The reason is because people may attend Mass, for example, out of habit or family obligation. But Eucharistic adoration is based on a pure and robust faith. "In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Eph 6:16).

The bestseller and movie The Exorcist is based on a true story. For those who doubt the devil, the preface of the book has three stories, beginning with the bizarre gospel story about Jesus driving out Legion from a possessed man and sending them into pigs, who then rush off a cliff and drown (Mk 5:1-20).

The next story is of soldiers in the Japanese invasion of the Philippines who cut off a teacher’s tongue and pushed chopsticks through the ears of her students because they were saying the Our Father. The last story is about mobsters who hung a “rat” on a meat hook and gleefully kept electrocuting him, even splashing him with cold water to revive him.

We know ourselves and countless others. This level of evil is beyond human capability. A diabolical, possessing force is at work. Christ Jesus, though, triumphs over the devil. God wins.

An exorcist is appointed by the bishop. He’s usually a down-to-earth person. Some priests are reluctant to take the job because they think they’ll be targeted. But the devil and his minions are trying their hardest against all of us all the time. He can do only what God allows. Only an official exorcist can be assigned to someone possessed, having a demon inside. Thankfully, possession is rare.

Again, only an official exorcist can say to a fallen angel, " In the name of Jesus Christ, I command" you to leave, say your name, or whatever. If we overstep our authority, we can face retaliation, where we'll be in a "battle of wills" with the enemy, because we directly challenged them without proper authority. You don't want that. I only have authority to say, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command" if I'm personally attacked. I only have authority over me: EWTN's The Spirit World episode

Though we can’t be official exorcists, we can say the deliverance prayer--as in "Deliver us from evil." Our deliverance prayer is for temptation and oppression, where an individual is harassed by the demonic, by a spirit of fear, anger, depression, guilt, etc.1 The prayer works because we have faith. Here’s how you can silently and powerfully--the Catholic way--pray it:

Praise to you Jesus. Thanks be to you Jesus.

Jesus, please protect us from all evil spirits.

Our Lady, please pray for us.

Jesus, please command every unclean spirit to leave me, my family, my surroundings, my friends, the Church, the world, and the universe, immediately, and go quietly to you.

Come Holy Spirit, please descend upon us and enlighten us.

You can tailor the prayer for an individual, for example, "Jesus, please rebuke Joan's spirit of fear," but I like to go big. After all, the Solemnity of Christ, the King, is now Christ, the King of the Universe. St. Michael's prayer includes "Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world."

Religious demonologist Adam Blai, co-host of The Spirit World radio show on EWTN's Catholic Spirit Radio, who's assisted at more than 1,500 exorcisms, claims that praying the Rosary is the best deliverance prayer. Exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger agrees: "The fallen angels can't stand Mary as her sanctity is greater than all the angels and saints put together. Our Lady sacrificed herself at every moment, never counting the cost." St. Louis Marie de Montfort: "A single sigh from Our Lady is more meritorious than all the martyrdoms, prayers, sufferings, and good works of all the saints combined." "Our Lady, by undergoing the Passion with Christ, merits an intimacy with God that no other creature has."2 Fr. Ripperger recommends praying the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Fr. Chad Ripperger Reveals the Forgotten Secrets of the Fallen Angels

Victory is ours. His time is short (Rv 12:12). Praise God.

"Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out" (Jn 12:31).

---------------------

Matthew and Dennis Linn, Deliverance Prayer , (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1980), pgs. 72-83.
Fr. Chad Ripperger, PhD., Deliverance Prayers , (Sensus Traditionis Press, 2000), pg. 9.

The Body of Christ

Sat, 10 Jul 2021 13:41:43 GMT

The first generation of Christians thought Jesus’ return, the Parousia, was imminent: “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Mt 16: 28). St. Paul thinks the end is very near, to happen in his lifetime: “We who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord” (1 Thes 4:15). The end may not come for ten thousand years. God wants his banquet table full (Lk 14:15-24). Who cares anyway? We'll be with the Lord soon enough. “But of that day or hour, no one knows” (Mk 13:32).

There is only one thing that has to happen to trigger the Second Coming. The world will end. . .when the body of Christ is complete. Because of his dramatic encounter, St. Paul was almost obsessed with the body of Christ. Jesus’ words, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (Acts 9:4) had a profound effect on Paul’s thought. Paul realized that afflicting Jesus’ followers was the same as attacking Jesus himself. They’re one and the same.

Though we’re physically separate, the members of the body—baptized believers--are deeply spiritually connected. Like bees, the body acts as a single organism. “Through Christ Jesus the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you are also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:21-22).

The body includes, of course, our separated brethren, protestants, evangelicals, and any other denomination that uses a Trinitarian formula in a valid baptism. If a Lutheran, for example, wants to enter the fullness of the faith—become Catholic--through the OCIA program (not a government agency, rather the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults), she does not get rebaptized. Latter Day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, would have to be baptized because they reject the divinity of Christ. They believe Jesus is an angel.

The body is named "the bride, the wife of the Lamb, the church, the new Jerusalem" (NAB commentary Rv 21:9), "coming down out of heaven, from God" (Rv 21:10). The world will end when the body is complete because there will be no need to make more people. The end of Revelation beautifully describes the completion of the body as a gigantic, radiant cube, a symbol of perfection, not one piece missing, not one extra, adorned with jewels, "inscribed with the twelve names of the apostles" (Rv 21:14):

“He measured the city with the rod and found it fifteen hundred miles in length and width and height. The foundations of the city wall were decorated with every precious stone.” (Rv 21:16b, 18a). God is ever-present in this city, made up of us : “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb” (Rv 21:22).

The Prodigal's Brother

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 13:36:49 GMT

As we're starting our ninth year and counting in court with my younger brother to settle our grandfather’s estate (died 1986!), I’m reminded of the prodigal son’s older brother (Lk 15:11-32). The prodigal asks for half his father’s estate–while the father is still alive! How rude. And the father gives it to him, which he then of course squanders. But the father continues to love him, always looking to see if he is returning. The father notices the prodigal's return from a “long way off,” maybe by his gait. The father then ran to his son, embraced him , kissed him, and celebrates. He throws a blast. A surprise ending.

His father’s actions are too much of a shock for the older brother, though. Like us, on a human level, we expect the father to cream the prodigal for his misdeeds. But God is not on our level. The older brother’s mad, but shouldn’t be. The father tells him (truly), “Everything I have is yours" (31b). In other words, "I don’t expect you to share; you’ll get your half, which is everything that’s left". The eldest is angry, therefore, simply because the father didn’t react with anger, but rather joy, at his lost son’s return. Big brother can’t understand the foolish love of a parent or the lavish, forgiving love God has for us. I feel sorry for the dad. He raised two bad apples. 

Believe it or not, I think Luke tells us how it all turned out after the father passed (Lk 12:13-15): “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my [older] brother to share the inheritance with me.’ He replied to him, ‘Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?’” Thus, the eternal one who will judge the world, doesn’t want to get in the middle of this sibling dispute. Instead, Jesus advises “to guard against all greed,” always good counsel.

The Unforgiving Servant

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 00:15:39 GMT

When I feel wronged—which is rare as I’m an easy guy—I’m reminded of the parable of The Unforgiving Servant (Mt 18: 21-35). (I guess knocking on doors in the Bronx asking people to pay their tax does make one a little less touchy.) Stories are much better reminders than cold, hard facts.

In the parable, a debtor owes the king a huge loan that he could never pay back. So the king decides to sell the debtor and his family to recoup some of his money. The servant begs the king, on his knees, not to sell him and his family, and says he’ll pay the money back—an empty promise. In his compassion, the king relents.

That same servant then confronts a fellow servant who owes him a much, much smaller amount. He seized his fellow servant and choked him, demanding immediate payback. His debtor begged him on his knees, saying, like he did, “I will pay you back.” But the lender put him in prison until he paid the debt. When the king found out, he had the first servant tortured until he paid back his huge debt.

NAB commentary: The difference between the two debts is enormous and brings out the absurdity of the conduct of the Christian who has received the great forgiveness of God and yet refuses to forgive the relatively minor offenses done to him.

Revenge is senseless. Seek revenge? Dig two graves. After all my sins that God has given me a pass for, because Jesus paid the price, how dare I’m petty with someone who offends me. Forgiveness not only frees my offender, but also frees me. Why would I want to give this wrongdoer free rental space in my mind? I have only a few megabytes to spare to begin with. Not forgiving is like drinking poison and then expecting the other guy to die.

How many times must I forgive? Not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Recall the number seven represents fullness, thus, unlimited forgiveness. We have to be the opposite of Lamech, who wanted to exact unlimited revenge:

Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice. Wives of Lamech, listen to my utterance: I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for bruising me. If Cain is avenged seven-fold, then Lamech seventy-seven-fold” (Gn 4:23-24).

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Persistence in Prayer

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 22:23:07 GMT

I’m sure none of us would be able to talk to the president on the phone today, no matter how hard we tried. God, however, unlike the president, is eminently contactable, 24/7. We can bother God anytime we want. The toll-free number is, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit.”

In the parable of the persistent widow (Lk 18:1-8), the judge who’s deciding the widow’s case doesn’t care about God, people, or even justice. The widow, though, is harassing the judge so much that he thinks she’s eventually going to strike him. Therefore, he’s just going to give in and resolve the case in her favor. And Jesus encourages us to hound God in prayer like the widow. We have the ability to drive God crazy, the way my seven-year-old pesters me so much that I finally agree that playing soccer in the rain is a good idea.

When we’re with a difficult person, we can try to physically or mentally, or even geographically, distance ourselves. God can’t do that. He’s stuck with us. Then if we ask Mary, all the angels and saints, and the souls in purgatory to join us, we’ll hammer God with such a fierce barrage of prayer that he may relent and see it our way. The problem is not that we ask for too much, it’s that we ask for too little. Have an impossible problem? Force him into a workaround. He’s God. He’ll think of something.

Most intriguing, however, is the cryptic last line of the parable: “But when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?” The lesson must be that if we do not continually pray, our faith is in jeopardy. This parable "teaches the disciples the need of persistent prayer so that they do not fall victims to apostasy" (NAB commentary).

Walking on the Water’s Humor

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 20:01:39 GMT

One example of Jesus’ sense of humor and quick thinking is in the multiplication of the loaves and the walking on the water, two linked stories. Matthew and Mark’s accounts are independent of John’s. Even if John knew of the synoptic—“together-seeing”—gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which were published first, he never quoted them. Thus, the synoptics and John are unconnected, which makes for excellent witnesses, with no collusion or tainted observers.

“Matthew is based, in large part, on the Gospel according to Mark. Almost all the verses of Mark have been utilized in Matthew. Matthew also drew upon a large body of material (principally, sayings of Jesus) not found in Mark that corresponds, sometimes exactly, to material found also in the Gospel according to Luke. This material, called “Q,” the first letter of the German word Quelle, meaning “source,” represents traditions, written and oral, used by both Matthew and Luke. Mark and Q are sources common to the two other synoptic gospels” (NAB commentary, Introduction to Matthew).

“The Gospel according to John is quite different in character from the three synoptic gospels. It is highly literary and symbolic. It does not follow the same order or reproduce the same stories as the synoptic gospels. To a much greater degree, it is the product of a developed theological reflection and grows out of a different circle and tradition” (NAB commentary, Introduction to John).

In Matthew, Mark, and John the walking on water comes right after the multiplication of the loaves. It’s not in Luke. After the apostles returned from their mission (Mk 6:7-13), Jesus tells them to take a break, because they were exhausted and hungry: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. They had no opportunity even to eat” (Mk 6:31).

To the apostles’ dismay, the crowds—totaling more than five thousand--beat them to the hideaway (Mk 6:33). The Twelve start to get a little testy and say, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can buy themselves something to eat” (Mk 6:35-36), and we can take a break. Jesus jokingly says, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves” (Mt 14:16). You can feel Philip’s exasperation: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little bit” (Jn 6:7). Then of course, Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish.

The connected story right after the multiplication, is that Jesus stays behind and dismisses the apostles (Mt 14:22-33; Mk 6:45-52; Jn 6:16-21). John gives the reason our Lord stays behind: “They were going to come and carry him off to make him a King” (Jn 6:15). The first law of economics is never turn down a free lunch. (The second is that no one ever gives you a free lunch.) Jesus shrewdly went up the mountain to escape his earthly bread kingship (Mk 6:46; Mt 14:23; Jn 6:15).

Then in John, “The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left” (Jn 6:22). Like Mark, “Then he made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd" (Mk 6:45). Little did the crowd know, Jesus later sneaked off and walked on the water, so the crowd thought he was still stuck with them.

“Then Jesus saw that they [the apostles] were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of night [between 3 and 6 am], he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them ” (Mk 6:48). How funny. Not only did Jesus multiply the loaves and fish, then walked on the water to escape, but now he’s going to simply walk past his friends because of their indifference. Hilarious. But they panic and think he’s a ghost, so in his mercy, Jesus reassures them, "Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!" (Mk 6:50). Despite these signs and humor, the apostles “had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened” (Mk 6:52). What a tough audience.

Humility

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 17:23:20 GMT

Humility is a tricky virtue. Can you be proud you’re humble? A parish voted on who was its most humble member. When they presented the winner a medal for her humility, she put it on. So they took it back.

True story: after his friend’s successful heart surgery, a priest remarked about the surgeon’s God-given gift. The doctor foolishly replied that he was a self-made man; God had nothing to do with it. Though he studied, worked, and practiced hard, he didn’t realize that God helped him every step of the way, beginning with keeping him in existence.

St. Teresa of Calcutta gives a good example of humility. One Sunday her daughters came to her in a huff saying, “The BBC is doing a special on you. They’re ruining your reputation.” Mother Teresa simply said, “One less thing to worry about.”

Humility is not smart women thinking they’re dumb, or athletic men believing they’re clumsy. C.S. Lewis: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." Humility is recognizing that every good quality is a gift from God. We know that to be great: we must serve the least; take the lowest place (which sometimes is the most fun); be childlike, depending on and trusting in God; and most of all, acknowledge that we cannot save ourselves, in contrast with the Pharisee in the parable with the tax collector (Lk 18: 9-14).

The Pharisee thinks God owes him salvation. He has a contract with God, and the Pharisee kept up his end. He fasted and paid tithes, which are good in themselves. But he’s not like the rest of us, greedy, dishonest, adulterous. The Pharisee will not accept that he’s a sinner. Many saints considered themselves great sinners. They knew that salvation is a free gift from God that one graciously accepts, merited by the sacrifice of Christ.

Faith in Christ, true God and true man, also a gift, is the sign that we acknowledge and want to cooperate with God’s plan, thus receiving salvation: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). Faith, though, is not merely intellectual assent. We must try our best to love, often seen through works. “If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13: 2b). Therefore, faith, hope, and love are the ultimate expression of humility.

The Problem with Proving God

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 02:31:08 GMT

After seeing so many signs--”the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (Mt 11:5)--the scribes and Pharisees still insist to see a sign by Jesus that will end all possibility of doubt (Mt 12:38). Such a request will not be granted (39). After Jesus cures a leper, for example, Jesus tells the leper to "go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them" (Mt 8:4). Curing a leper is sufficient proof that God acts through the Lord Jesus. "Athough he had performed so many signs in their presence they did not believe in him" (Jn 12:37).

When proof of God is debated, like the scribes and Pharisees, some people require a standard of absolute, incontrovertible proof, which is impossible. Many murder trials, for instance, last a couple of weeks or less. After hearing, perhaps at most, 40 hours of evidence, for and against, a jury can determine whether the charge is true, beyond a reasonable doubt. The verdict is not beyond all doubt.

The accused and the victim argued; a threat was made; the murderer’s fingerprints were on the murder weapon; the suspect’s DNA was found under the victim’s fingernails, etc., a la Forensic Files. But there is no videotape or confession. However, the preponderance of evidence implicates the suspect beyond a reasonable doubt. The sentence is 30 years to life.

But because God’s existence is so important, a game-changer in life, unlike any other proof, some want God’s proof to be irrefutably certain. Such a request is unreasonable. Like any other proof that’s good enough, beyond a reasonable doubt, God’s proof is proof enough.

Though belief in God is fraught with emotion for many, such a belief or unbelief should be decided by the same criteria and merits that science, philosophy, math, the courts, etc., use. Science, for example, will never assert absolute certainty about something but rather theoretical reasonableness, which is sufficient for assent.

Therefore, we must apply the same standard of proof to God. The origin of the universe at the Big Bang, everything from nothing; the subsequent regularity and maintenance of the mindless universe; and life’s origin, evolution, and sustentation all point to an intelligent force independent of the universe, beyond a reasonable doubt, God. No other explanation will suffice.

Jesus gives enough signs. People sometimes will not believe because belief disrupts their paradigm of reality. The skeptics say, “Let him come down from that cross now, and we will believe in him” (Mt 27:42c). Even if Jesus came down from that cross, which he could have, they would still not believe.

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

Sun, 04 Jul 2021 02:02:13 GMT

St. Jerome, who translated the Bible, famously taught that knowledge of Sacred Scripture is essential: “Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” The Bible is truly the inspired word of God. Sincere people, though, can interpret the same passage so differently that to solely rely on scripture invites error. Few people are trained to be theologians. Even the devil quotes scripture for his own purposes (Mt 4:6).

Nowhere in the bible does it say that the bible is the final, infallible, doctrinal authority. If Sola Scriptura were true, there would not be the thousands of denominations which use basically the same writings. (An independent storefront church is a denomination.) Although we’re all the Body of Christ, so long as we’re baptized with the Trinitarian formula, Jesus wants “one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16).

The proper interpretation of scripture depends on which church has authority. Peter discourages unauthorized scriptural exegesis: “There is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation” (2 Pt 1:20). Where does Martin Luther, for example, get the authority to throw out the Book of Maccabees from the bible? He also wanted to toss James because it contradicted his idea of faith and works. The only church that has authority directly from Jesus is the Catholic Church. “The pillar and foundation of truth,” according to Paul, “is the church” (1 Tm 3:15).

The Church came before the New Testament, of course, the same way something has to happen before it can be written in a diary. Therefore, if there were any disagreements in the early Church, no one could say, “Here it is in the New Testament.” Rather, the apostles settled disputes.

When disciples, for instance, questioned whether Christians had to observe the Mosaic law and be circumcised, Paul and Barnabas had to consult the apostles (Acts 15: 1-35). They did not have the authority to decide for themselves.

The beginning of Luke’s gospel proves that the Church comes long before the gospels:

“Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.”

Thus, before Luke’s gospel is written, truth is handed down by the Church. There is already a body of teaching by Tradition. Only the Church has the authority to properly interpret God’s Holy Word.

The Books of the Bible were handwritten with no printing press. Also, most everyone was illiterate anyway. In 419 at the Second Council of Carthage in Africa, the Bishops of The Church decided which writings were inspired by God and which were not. Pope Boniface agreed and officially promulgated the Council’s conclusion.

The so-called “Lost Books of the Bible,” like The Gospel of Thomas, The Acts of Pilate, The Gospel of Peter, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, and many others were rejected. They are a fascinating read, however. Some are easy to see why they were tossed; others are for more subtle reasons. The Council‘s New Testament Books are exactly the same as today’s. Thus, anyone who uses the New Testament is already conceding the Catholic Church correctly put it together. There is no way around that.

NDEs

Sat, 03 Jul 2021 01:57:19 GMT

With the advent of modern medicine and technology in the last half-century or so, an interesting phenomenon emerged. People who are clinically dead—no heartbeat, breathing, and most of all, brain activity—sometimes are revived. Many have extraordinary stories to tell, which are quite similar, about what happened after death. Since there is absolutely no brain function, the occurrence is not easy to scientifically explain, though scientists’ attempts grow more and more outlandish.

These survivors claim to have been out of their corporeal bodies, in a different form. What is striking is how they can describe procedures done to them, conversations heard, or even events taking place in another room, all the while with zero brain function.

The pioneer of NDEs or near-death experiences is Dr. Raymond Moody. His book “Life after Life” became a bestseller in 1975. Using more than one hundred case studies, unrelated and geographically separated people from all walks of life described their experience when they were clinically dead.

The template for the most common elements in their descriptions is:

A person is dying and as she reaches the point of greatest physical distress, she hears herself pronounced dead by her doctor. She begins to hear an uncomfortable noise like a ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels herself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, she suddenly finds herself outside of her own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and sees her own body from a distance, as though she is a spectator. She watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval.

After a while, she collects herself and becomes more accustomed to her odd condition. She notices that she still has a “body,” but one of a very different nature and with very different powers than the physical body she has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help her. She glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving warm spirit of a kind she has never encountered before—a being of light—appears before her. This being asks her a question, nonverbally, to make her evaluate her life and helps her along by showing her a panoramic, instantaneous playback of the major events of her life.

At some point she finds herself approaching some barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet, she finds that she must go back to the earth, that the time for her death has not yet come. At this point she resists, for by now she is taken up with her experiences in the afterlife and does not want to return. She is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite her attitude, though, she somehow reunites with her physical body and lives.

Later she tries to tell others, but she has trouble doing so. In the first place, she can find no human words adequate to describe these unearthly episodes. She also finds that others scoff, so she stops telling other people. Still, the experience affects her life profoundly, especially her views about death and its relationship to life. 1

Because God loves us there has to be an afterlife. God would not put us through this tough life with no purpose. That’s not his nature. Hamlet was wrong when he said, “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” God is not an idiot. There is method to his madness.

Earthly life, therefore, is filled with meaning since by God’s existence and nature there is an afterlife in which life is changed, not ended. Mother Teresa simply said the meaning of life is to be holy and go to heaven. What we do in this short time is going to determine our eternity. If only people planned for eternity as much as they plan for retirement.

The afterlife will be our greatest fulfillment. Eternal life is the ultimate reality because all other things will pass away. Eternity is our destiny, what we were created for. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (Jn 10:28).

__________________

1. Raymond Moody, Life after Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1975), pgs. 21-23.

Christ's DNA

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 22:51:19 GMT

And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."-- Luke 1:35

Every person receives half their DNA from mom, and half from dad. Is Jesus’ DNA profile a duplicate of the Virgin Mary’s whole profile, or did God create a profile for himself that he contributed to half of Jesus’ profile? (Am I watching too many Forensic Files episodes?)

The answer is easy because Jesus is male. A woman’s sex chromosomes are XX; a man’s XY. Thus, women can donate only Xs. A man can donate an X or Y. Hence, dad determines the gender of a baby.

Therefore, because Jesus is male, the only conclusion one can reach is that God supplied his own created DNA along with Mary's in forming Jesus’ profile. Like Maury would say, “God, you are the father.”