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If God Created the Universe Then Who Created God?

Posted on May 13, 2024 by Father Joe

Krystal Smith poses this question at STAPLER CONFESSIONS and states: “Most theists believe that God is eternal and therefore always existed. Some might suggest that God created time, space, and the universe all at the same time. Atheists insist that something cannot come from nothing, and therefore something must have created God in the first place. The phrase ex nihilo nihil fit is Latin for “from nothing comes nothing.” This argument has been used by philosophers throughout history to refute the notion of an eternal God.”

Yes, Christians believe that God has always existed; however, the matter is far deeper. God is the ground for all existence. He is existence itself or the great “to be.” The problem with atheists is that they are thinking about “god” as just another thing. He is not. God as a pure spirit exists from all eternity, but he wanted to share the goodness of existence. We believe that he created spiritual beings called angels and that he created material beings, the highest of which are men and women. Material things find themselves situated in time and space. They come into and go out of being. We are immortal because the soul is immaterial and has no parts to break down or die. The Latin phrase, ex nihilo nihil fit, is actually an argument against atheists, not theists. The proper question is not, “Who created God?” but rather, who created us and everything else? An infinite regression is an absurdity. If “nothing comes from nothing” then there should be no humanity and no creation around us to reflect upon. God is the necessary being. The catechism asserts that almighty God creates us through an act of the divine will out of nothing. Even the much touted theory of the “big bang” was theorized by a Catholic priest. Note the confusion of non-believing scientists when asked what existed prior to the singularity that became the big bang. They really do not know and their speculation takes them into the realm of magic.

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Why Does God Allow Tragedies?

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Father Joe

Krystal Smith poses this question at STAPLER CONFESSIONS and states: “You might hear an atheist bring up tragedies, people starving, genocide, or any example of immense suffering of the innocent and ask why. Theists believe that God gave man free will, and that god only intervenes in day-to-day life through miracles. Atheists question the logic of the conditional role God chooses to play in this scenario.”

Christians and Jews are realists. We know perfectly well that we find ourselves in a broken world. Indeed, those who minister view themselves as wounded healers. We believe that what God creates is necessarily good. The disharmony in the world is attributed to the sin of our first parents. It is a tenet of faith that suffering, sin and death enter the world through sin. God allows as part of his passive will both natural and moral evil. However, God in his direct or active will desires only the good for us. While we have brought our troubles upon ourselves, God gave his people a promise of a Messiah and redemption. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that as the “innocent one” he has made himself a sin-offering for us. He takes our suffering upon his shoulders and suffers and dies on the Cross. Doing so makes satisfaction for sin, redeems us, and offers us the gift of salvation. He rises from the grave and offers us a share in eternal life. It is in Christ that LOVE is stronger than DEATH. Sin and death are conquered by Christ, but the effects have yet to be undone. Such awaits his second coming. The problem of pain is answered within the solidarity of Christ. He commands us to take up our crosses and to follow him. We can add our struggle and pain to his and thus know transformation in Christ.

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Where is the Proof That God Exists?

Posted on May 11, 2024 by Father Joe

Krystal Smith poses this question at STAPLER CONFESSIONS and states: “Many theists believe that the existence of man, the world, and the universe are all proof that God exists. They argue that everything we see is God’s creation, and the forces of the universe serve as proof that only something as powerful as God could have created it. Atheists suggest that the big bang is origin of the universe and that beyond that everything can be explained by science. They claim that any existence at all before the big bang simply unknown, or even unknowable.”

The assertion that everything before the “big bang” is unknowable is a bit of a cop out. Avoiding the question of ultimate origins, it reflects a linear thinking about time and the limitations of the scientific method. Observation and celestial mathematics require something to see or measure. What was going on before the beginning? Most throw up their hands and say that cannot be answered or even asked. Frustration about this is known by believers as well. We claim a faith seeking understanding. But sometimes we must be humble. Atheism from scientists is frequently exhibited alongside a hubris for their calling and a disdain against believers. St. Augustine posed the question differently in his Confessions, “What did God do before he made heaven and earth?” He jokingly answered, “Preparing hell for those who pry into such mysteries.”

Of course, the Christian would respond that our existence is itself the answer to the question of God’s existence. Which seems more reasonable, that the universe and rational human life emerged on its own from nothingness or that there is a creator God? The cosmological argument insists that nothing comes from nothing. The universe exists and can be studied. If the atheists are right then we should not be here— not us, not the earth, not the stars— nothing. But the fact remains, we exist and know we exist. There is objective reality. As rational creatures we can observe, make deductions, and ponder the great questions. Are we to imagine that we are merely a cosmic accident?

Besides the cosmological argument that assumes God’s existence from that of the created universe, there are various other efforts to prove God’s existence. Many are familiar with the ontological argument of St. Anselm that God is the “being of which no greater can be conceived” and as such by necessity must exist. Descartes would argue that the existence of a good God under-girds the credibility of our senses to the objective world. Aquinas gives us his Five Ways (the unmoved mover, the first cause, the necessary being, the perfection of attributes or goodness, and the final cause).

Throughout history there have been many efforts to prove the existence of God or ways to know that he is real. Christians believe that philosophy and human reason can bring us to this awareness, but that revelation is necessary to know that he is a personal God who loves us and wills to save us.

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The Buck Stops with the Pope!

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Father Joe

While there has long been an invisible schism in the Church caused by the many loud liberal or progressive voices in the years since Vatican II, today matters have intensified with resistance from a growing arrogant traditionalism. Critics observe that the catalyst for the reaction on the right has been a papacy that represses the historical Latin Mass, sometimes pampers the Church’s enemies, glosses over what seem to be serious errors, and opts for diplomatic ambiguity when there is a pressing need for clarity and truth from the teaching office. Admittedly, the pastoral accommodation that belongs to the pastors on the ground cannot be appropriated by the highest shepherds or by the one who sits in the chair of Peter without doing insufferable harm to the transmission and interpretation of the deposit of faith.

Like the proverbial snowball rolling down a hill, many religious pundits who have made accurate assessments about what falls short of complete fidelity are now lashing out against anything and everything that comes down from Rome or the bishops in union with him. They make themselves into mini popes who presume to tell the Holy Father what he is doing and saying wrong. They are hesitant to admit agreeing with the pope when he says or does anything wholly Catholic.

The First Vatican Council of 1870 expounded upon its definition of papal infallibility:

“Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the Church.”

If schism is a failure to submit to the Holy See or to be in full communion with the Church he leads, then we are indeed entering such dark days. However, the current situation is so chaotic that many pay lip service even as they dissent in practice. The mockery in social media, inclusive of those who flaunt their orthodoxy, is a clear denial of the Pope’s command authority. The left’s liturgical abuse and the right’s impugning of the Novus Ordo signifies both a refusal to embrace the Church’s current understanding of herself and her divine worship. Left unsaid is when the line might be crossed into excommunication.

When teaching upon faith and morals for the whole Church and doing so from the chair and in union with the world’s bishops, St. Peter and his successors are guaranteed the grace of infallibility from the Holy Spirit. Of course, they can interpret and explain but cannot invent anything entirely new or contrary to revealed truths. Popes are not always accurate in private opinions and the fact that they go to confession is proof that they are not impeccable. Just as St. Paul corrected and changed the mind of St. Peter at the council of Jerusalem, they can be admonished, particularly by other apostles or bishops. But ultimately, much like the cat dropped from a height, the papacy lands on its feet. Those who would deliberately trip a pope up and then expose and laugh at his tumble, are not faithful sons of the Church. Instead of a true dialogue and shared creativity leading to a satisfactory consensus regarding matters like liturgy and morality; there is instead, a combative “us and them” attitude that is tearing the Church apart. Traditionalists fight for anachronisms and progressives enshrine the trite and untried.

Those who propose a rigid interpretation of “No Salvation Outside the Church” would often cite the 1302 papal bull of Boniface VIII: “. . . we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” Catholicism takes seriously its divine institution by Christ and how its foundation is inseparable from the Petrine office:

“And so I say to you, 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” (Matthew 16:18-19).

We pray that we will have saintly popes, but the charism is given to the good and the bad alike, not for their own sake but for the overriding good of the Church. Historically they rule as absolute monarchs and for all practical purposes the popes constitute the Roman rite, with an emphasis upon living men over the dead. The latter point is essential to the so-called liturgical wars.

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Don’t Mess with the REAL Jesus!

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Father Joe

Several years ago, there was a fad where people placed the logo WWJD on clothes, wristbands, and what-have-you. The letters signified the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” It was a cool idea but there was one significant problem— many fashioned a parody of Jesus and did not know him in truth. The Jesus they created was “nice” and pandered to the humanism of our times. He failed to make judgments and subscribed to popular misconceptions. The judge of all was reduced to a rubber-stamp weighed against those hard right-wing “conservative” Christians who dared to claim that God rewards obedience and punishes sin. The clichéd slogan was not alone. Another would-be sacramental for a false Christ was the plastic Jesus that adorned many car dashboards. Often, they could be found alongside a rosary hanging from the mirror, employed not as a tool for prayer but as a superstitious talisman against accident and other irate drivers.

The Jesus of the world is weak, fallible, and cowardly. The Jesus of the Bible and the Church is almighty, courageous and the truth, itself. Yes, he makes himself weak on the Cross; but he proves himself strong by overcoming the grave and the false conviction of evil men.

The argument about the strength and weakness of Christ resonates with the historical tension between his humanity and divinity. He proves himself as strong in repelling the three-fold temptation of Satan in the desert. He struggles with the human condition in the garden before his betrayal.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.” He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again, “My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!” (Matthew 26:36-42)

The prayer of Jesus was not one of despair but rather demonstrates the truth about the human condition and our Lord’s firm resolve to carry out the Father’s will. Only a sadist would desire the agony of the passion and death that Jesus would experience. Our Lord is a divine person but there is no abnormality in his humanity. The “angst” he feels is normal. Indeed, it is felt by all the great heroes. Jesus does not run away from what is coming. He faces it. Indeed, it is allowed to happen. When captured, Jesus pleads only for the release of his friends. Jesus gives all who would follow him the right to pray to be delivered from temptation and from the evil one. But his actions also reveal a deep humility in accepting the Father’s will, even when there is a part of us that wishes it could be otherwise. When Jesus tells us to take up our crosses and to follow him, he fully appreciates how difficult this might be. It is this Jesus we must know to respond as we should to our calling.

I suspect that his words in the garden reverberate with those on the Cross when he pleads that his Father might forgive us. Did he see in his mind’s eye all who would follow him as martyrs on the road to Calvary and desire in his heart of hearts that he might preserve his children from such a test and pain? Certainly, he prayed that they might have strength to endure the trial. Did he also suffer the many who would find it all too much and would turn away and abandon him? This may be the crucible where the Divine Mercy is most engaged in the lot of sinners. Ultimately, the heavenly Father does not directly desire that his Son should suffer and die; however, he does expect that his Son would be faithful to the mission given him. God is demanding but he is not a monster. It is a fact in this world that the price to save a people is the cost of a life. The value of sacrificial love makes all other loves pale by comparison.

Our Lord’s prayer is heard but he himself knew what the answer must be. There can be no tension or conflict in the trinitarian godhead. Jesus expresses in time the human turmoil that afflicts us when facing betrayal, suffering, and death. One might argue that this is his offertory to the Father before the sacrifice of the Cross.

Given the gravity of Christ’s redemptive work, we must never dismiss his role as the one mediator and savior. There is no other way to the Father except through him. It is in understanding Jesus that we come to appreciate the truth about the Gospel.

What is the Gospel NOT? It is not about a carefree toleration. It is not about being nice to each other. It is not about a libertine freedom. It is not about keeping peace at all costs. It is not about staying quiet to avoid conflict. It is not about focusing on oneself as number one. It is neither about pursuing pleasure nor avoiding pain or vice versa. It is not a political agenda or a philosophy of life. Our understanding of Christian discipleship is caught up with our appreciation of saving faith, not as a simple profession of words, but as a lifetime response to the person of Christ that is realized with love and obedience. While there is an unconditional element to divine love, it is a love that makes serious demands. There is a cost to responding to the Christ. There is no Christianity without the Cross. Obedience does not mean be true to yourself or do what you want— this is a lie that the evil one sows that we might harvest weeds against the wheat of Christ. The commandments maintain their binding force and we are obliged to offer assent, in both words and actions. We must be transformed to the likeness of Christ. The Lord must be alive and active in us. At the heart of the Christian mission is a profound humility— “Thy will be done!”

What is the goal of this saving faith in Christ? Is it a better and more utopian world? No. Is it a comfortable life where God makes all his children happy and prosperous? No. The faith is directed to the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of souls. If you end up going to hell, then your life is a failure, and you live in vain. Yes, hell is real, and Jesus is the judge of all. Some will know the reward of heavenly bliss and union with God. Others will know fire and eternal alienation from God. Ours is not the God that says everything is okay. Our Lord makes demands and disobedience will elicit the direst consequences.

The Jesus that many imagine is not the Jesus of the Bible or that of the Church. Jesus is critical with his words and actions. Look at how he addresses the Jewish leadership:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13,15,23,25,27,29).

“Woe to you, blind guides!” (Matthew 23:16,24).

“Blind fools!” (Matthew 23:17).

“Blind Pharisee!” (Matthew 23:26).

“You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth” (Matthew 23:27).

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?” (Matthew 23:33).

Jesus is neither polite nor civil when it comes to the money changers in the temple:

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, “It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:12-13)

We are told in John 2:15 that Jesus chased them out with a whip of cords. Any child that ever had the belt taken to him for being bad could well appreciate this scene. Jesus is not always kind or nice or gentle. He can be abrasive and filled with righteous indignation. Disobedience cries out for punishment.

Our Lord is harsh but just in his judgments. The woman at the well cannot hide her background from Jesus and the many men with whom she has been intimate. He even casts off Satan in reference to Peter who becomes a stumbling block regarding the prophecy of the passion. While many placate the whims of our society today, Jesus did not hesitate to condemn his own times as a “faithless and perverse generation” (Matthew 17;17).

We must never forget that Jesus is both the Divine Mercy and the Divine Justice. He says:

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father. Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” (Matthew 10:32-34)

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Jesus Descends to the Dead

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Father Joe

Jesus is risen. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.”

If we are to be fishers of men, the apostle Paul images the resurrection as the hook of Christianity. He asserts:

“But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:12-14).

What happens with the death of Christ on the Cross? Death is defined as the separation of the body and the soul. In the case of Jesus, his body and soul were still united to him as a divine Person. The creed stipulates that he descended into hell, or unto the quick, or to the dead. I recall an Eastern icon with devils reaching for the feet of Adam and Eve as Christ raises them up by their hair. However, despite the symbolism, this is not the hell of the damned. Our Lord descends to the Limbo of the Fathers to take claim of the righteous dead who from the beginning of the world were awaiting the opening of heaven’s gates. Jesus is literally the bridge or the way to the Father. The prophets, patriarchs, and other faithful waited in a passing abode for the dead. Also included among their number would have been godly gentiles. The Good News is preached by Jesus to those who preserved the promise and came before his redemptive work. We are reminded of Jesus’ words when he told his critics:

“And concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32).

We do not cease to be at death. The dead are alive. The Limbo of the Dead ceases to exist with the translation of its inhabitants to heaven. Between now and the end of the world there exists a transitory place of purification called purgatory. At the judgment that will also pass away. The two realities that will remain are heaven for the angels and saints and hell for the devils and damned. (Some argue for a Limbo of the Innocents, but many reckon it as only a Scholastic theory devised to keep unbaptized infants out of hell. The speculation is that they might be naturally happy but ignorant of God. Many of us hope that they will be granted so much more. We were made for God.) The chief apostle acknowledges Jesus’ proclamation to the dead. “In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). Of course, Jesus did not stay dead. Those in the prison of Limbo find release and are given a share in Christ’s life. As a sign of this reality, we read in Matthew 27:52-53:

“. . . tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.”

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A Glimpse into the Mind of Christ

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Father Joe

I have spoken before about what Christ knew as a man and yet questions remain. There is no way that we can absolutely penetrate this issue. Why is it important? Particularly for those of us who pursue an active intellectual life, living largely in our heads, this matter touches the depths of our own sense of identity. What we know and believe largely defines us and our place in the human family. The operations of the human soul, knowing and willing, speak to our appreciation of faith and our convictions— separating us from animals and machines.

As a pastor of souls, I have also accompanied families in their dealing with aging relatives suffering from Alzheimer’s and other ailments of the mind. Families confessed to losing loved ones, not all at once, but a little at a time. Eventually they must deal with loving someone who does not even know his or her name. It is our firm confidence that the soul retains that which escapes the grasp of physical brains. We hope that one day we will be restored body and spirit— sharing something of Christ’s resurrection.

I mention this, because I firmly believe that if we and the world forget— God will never forget. This is very pertinent to Christ because when as a man he is most vulnerable on the Cross, as God he is the most powerful in offering himself for each of us by name. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Such is the wonder and necessity of his divine knowledge.

Christ possesses both his divine and human intellect. Further, as the new Adam, he would claim what our primordial parents had lost— an infused science that complements experiential knowing. Further, he always enjoys the beatific vision. As a divine person, Christ knows all things. His conceptual knowledge could not expand because it was already infinite. While the general awareness of Christ is unbounded, his experiential knowledge is mysteriously shielded or preserved. When he walked the earth as one of us, his human experiential knowledge came through his physical senses. While his divine knowing and infused knowledge were always a part of him, in his humanity he could ask questions (see John 18:4 and John 6:5-6).

Variations of Gnosticism plagued the early high Christology of the Church. Docetism was a heresy that Jesus was fully divine but only appeared or pretended to be human. Monothelitism also stressed the divinity of Christ but denied he had a human will, just a divine will. Apollinarianism reduced Jesus’ body to a shell for his divinity, with no human soul (and thus no human mind and will). Others would assault the identity of Christ from the perspective of a low Christology, viewing Jesus more as a creature than the Creator: Nestorians (viewing Mary as the “mother of the man” but not as the Bearer of God) and Arians (defining Jesus as a spiritual demiurge but not truly divine). All these false roads also espouse an erroneous psychology in the Lord.

The business about Christ’s identity and awareness is still explored and often gotten wrong, particularly in films, television, and popular books. The novels about Jesus from the late Anne Rice appealed to the apocryphal and were dangerously shallow in trying to speak from Jesus’ perspective. Her Jesus was neither omniscient nor omnipotent. He was liable to error and was more human than divine. As a corrective, we have the life of Christ given us by the late Pope Benedict XVI. He writes in regard to the finding of Jesus in the temple:

On the one hand, the answer of the twelve-year-old made it clear that he knew the Father— God— intimately. Only he knows God, not merely through the testimony of men, but he recognizes him in himself. Jesus stands before the Father as Son, on familiar terms. He lives in his presence. He sees him. As Saint John says, Jesus is the only one who rests in the Father’s heart and is therefore able to make him known (cf. Jn 1: 18). This is what the twelve-year-old’s answer makes clear: he is with the Father, he sees everything and everyone in the light of the Father. And yet it is also true that his wisdom grows. As a human being, he does not live in some abstract omniscience, but he is rooted in a concrete history, a place and a time, in the different phases of human life, and this is what gives concrete shape to his knowledge. So it emerges clearly here that he thought and learned in human fashion. It becomes quite apparent that he is true man and true God, as the Church’s faith expresses it. The interplay between the two is something that we cannot ultimately define. (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, p. 127)

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Article 12 of the Declaration on Human Dignity

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Father Joe

Article 12 of the declaration speaks of the dignity to be found in Christ’s solidarity with humanity by being “born and raised in humble conditions.” Next, we are told that his public ministry “affirms the value and dignity of all who bear the image of God, regardless of their social status and external circumstances.” It should be clear that the Cardinal Fernández is not referring to the elevated supernatural dignity given by grace to persons regenerated through faith and baptism. Several religious pundits have attacked the him and the Holy Father on this front without conceding a dignity that is inherent firstly, as a rational creation of almighty God, and secondly, as one who shares a kinship with Christ due to the incarnation. The whole point about the change of economy regarding images in the Decalogue is that God has now revealed himself through a human face. While there is a discrepancy in how the terms are used, one might argue that we are all created in the image of God but that through the sacraments we are reborn into the likeness of Christ. This natural dignity is very much a part of Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body. Note that when it comes to the Gospel of Life, the unborn child (although lacking baptism) possesses a right to life and dignity that should not be assailed.

Jesus also defended a moral dignity of persons, especially toward the oppressed and marginalized. The Church must similarly be the voice for the voiceless. Citing Scripture, the document takes note of his outreach to the tax collectors, women, children, lepers, the sick, strangers, and widows. The Cardinal writes that Jesus “heals, feeds, defends, liberates, and saves.” The love of neighbor flows from our love of God and must be dynamic in the life of charity.

The one problematical element of this article is the following:

For Jesus, the good done to every human being, regardless of the ties of blood or religion, is the single criterion of judgment. The apostle Paul affirms that every Christian must live according to the requirements of dignity and respect for the rights of all people (cf. Rom. 13:8-10) according to the new commandment of love (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1-13).

Critics contend that the Cardinal Fernández and the Pope undermine religion as a basic factor in our judgment and salvation. However, we should remember that the document is written for believers, and it is taken for granted that the good being done is by Catholics in right standing with God. I doubt the Holy Father would undermine basic soteriology. There is no salvation apart from Christ and his holy Church. Further, any merit for good acts also requires that the agent be in a state of grace. A person in mortal sin remains under God’s negative judgment until the remission of sin through heartfelt contrition and the sacrament of penance. However, for the justified believer, grace builds upon grace. Our good work is not limited to our own. A disciple of Christ is compelled by love and truth to preserve human dignity and in justice to defend human rights.

As a Christian I am required to be compassionate and just to all, even those who are not of my family or ethnicity or religion. I can know the catechism backwards and forwards, but without charity I have nothing. Again, on the level of creation, there is a duty to preserve basic human rights and dignity. I believe this is what the document is saying. It connects to the teaching about the corporal works of mercy in Matthew 25:41-45:

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’”

I suspect that what Cardinal Fernández and Pope Francis are wanting to say is made clearer in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8:

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

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Mystery of the Incarnation

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Father Joe

An important verse for the ancient school of Alexandria was John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” This is what authorities call a high Christology because the emphasis is upon Jesus as God and only secondarily upon him as man. Who is Jesus? He is God come down from heaven to save us.

Given the revelation of the Trinity, Jesus is understood as the Second Person of the one triune God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the eternal God joins himself to his creation and begins to exist in time. The Son of God becomes one of us, entering our world through the immaculate vessel that he had fashioned and safeguarded for himself. It all begins not with the nativity scene but with the annunciation:

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” 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.” (Luke1:30-31, 34-35)

God would come himself to make things right, making possible— the forgiveness of sins, hope against despair, healing to the broken, liberation from spiritual bondage, and the victory of love over death.

The incarnation is a deep mystery that we cannot fully penetrate. Who is Jesus? He is almighty God and the second Person of the Trinity. He is the eternal Word. What is Jesus? He is God and man— two natures that are substantially joined in the one person of Jesus Christ. Both natures are whole and complete. His human nature is body and soul. His soul possesses both a human intellect and will.

This is no spiritual adoption of an ordinary man as through an accidental union of the godhead. He is no Gnostic phantom or a God pretending to be a mortal man. Jesus Christ is a unique individual whose soul and flesh is substantially joined in the divine Person of the Lord. Yes, this is a fantastic claim. Note how Caiaphas responds to our Lord’s admission of his identity:

But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?” They said in reply, “He deserves to die!” (Matthew 25:63-66)

Jesus is not simply a prophet. If he is not God and the promised Messiah, then his claim was indeed blasphemy. But our Lord affirms his identity by his works— the sick are healed, the possessed are exorcised, and the dead are raised. He forgives sins which is a prerogative reserved to God. (Priests can do so because Jesus has extended something of his authority to mortal men.)

There was no division in Christ but rather a perfect harmony between his two natures. His divine and human wills were in perfect sync. Room was made for his human knowing while not impoverishing or forfeiting his divine mind. As God, Christ knew all things; as human, he had genuine experiential knowledge and beheld the beatific vision.

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If Jesus were Tempted, Could He Sin?

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Father Joe

The question invariably arises, “If Jesus could be tempted then could he sin?”

Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and: ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. (Luke 4:1-13)

There are some critics so desperate to humanize Christ that they will deny the definition of Chalcedon about Jesus as a divine Person with both a human and divine nature. They contend that in his humanity our Lord could sin. Nuts! Let’s be blunt— if Jesus could sin then he is not God. If Jesus is not God, then he cannot save us, and we are still in our sins.

At work here is nonsensical reasoning. It is like the false logic behind the old question, “Given that God is all powerful, can he make a rock too heavy for him to pick up?” There is an inner contradiction. If God can fashion such a rock, then he is not omnipotent in failing to lift it. If God cannot make this rock, then again, he cannot be all-powerful either. But it is a silly and flawed syllogism. Similarly, critics will argue, “If Jesus were truly tempted by the devil, then he must be liable to falling into temptation and sinning. But they are wrong. While one might be tempted by hunger and thirst, power, or worldly acceptance and glory; we do not necessarily have to succumb to such allurements. Indeed, for Jesus while the temptations are real, he is incapable of sin. How is this? Sin is a violation against God. There is no way that God can wrong himself. The humanity of Jesus can never be severed through sin from his divinity. Such would be a twisted version of the heresy of Nestorianism. There can be no fracturing of the holy Trinity. There is one deity, not two or three. God is perfect holiness. There is no defect in God that would permit a wrongful act. He is all good and there is no space in him for evil. He is the LIGHT that cannot be dimmed by the darkness.

Hebrews 4:15 leaves no room for doubt. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” The moral test was real, but the test was fixed. The new Adam was not liable to fall as was the old Adam.

While not God, the angels of heaven can no longer sin either as they share the beatific vision. This is another reason why sin for Jesus is impossible. We must accept that while our Lord entered the human family, he is not entirely like us. After the incarnation of the eternal Word, his hypostatic union ensures the unity of his two natures. Jesus has a complete human nature (body and soul) and a divine nature. But he is not a human person but the divine Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lord’s human soul, including its mind and will, were sanctified by the divine presence and heavenly vision. The beatific vision means that he both saw the Father and also all those joined with him in his mystical body. That is why he conquers our sin on the Cross and does not falter as we often do. He lovingly sacrifices himself, intimately knowing by name all those for whom he surrenders his mortal life.

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