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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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What if God Were One of Us?

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Father Joe

Many years ago, when I was a seminarian, I recall a class discussion over Luke 2:51-52:

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”

The context was the tension between the theological school of Antioch that emphasized the humanity of Christ with the school of Alexandria that focused upon his divinity. The latter school stressed John 1:1-3:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”

The biblical verse from Luke substantiated the claims of Antioch. However, it seemed to fly in the face of the Church’s discernment that Jesus Christ was a divine person, albeit with two natures. While Jesus could certainly grow in age regarding his humanity, how could he really advance in wisdom and grace or holiness? While we should be careful about presumptions toward the mind or psychology of Christ, it must be held that as God he assuredly knew all things. It would be absurd to imagine him as an amnesiac deity. He knew from the womb who he was and his mission. The best we can figure, so as not to destroy his human “experiential” knowledge, he must have pocketed or set aside the fullness of divine knowledge or awareness. It was always there, but like a book that needed to be taken off a shelf.

An analogy can be made as to how we all know things. While we can call upon our many memories and knowledge, it is an element of human psychology that we do not focus upon everything at once. We concentrate on a few things or what we need at any given moment. I suspect it was the same for the incarnate Christ. However, when there was a need, he could call upon his infinite divine knowledge, as he does in prophesying his passion and reading souls that he would heal and forgive. Thus, Jesus could have learned carpentry from his foster father Joseph, even though in his divine knowing, he could have built wooden television consoles. But Jesus is careful not to do anything that violates the parameters of his humanity that is situated in a particular culture within space and time. Further, the pocketing of his divine knowledge means that his experiential learning is real and that he is not a God pretending to be a human being. Both elements of his being are sustained although the tension would precipitate much confusion and debate in the Church.

More problematical is the fact that Jesus Christ is the source for all holiness. How can he possibly grow in grace? Again, looking at the rest of us, something of the solution emerges. When an infant is baptized it can be said that the holiest person in that family household is that child. Like Jesus, we get older, are instructed in the ways of our faith and we mature. We begin to manifest the fruits of faith and realize the graces received in the sacrament. Similarly, our Lord is the living sacrament and uncreated grace starting in the womb of Mary. Unlike us he will never forfeit or blemish his holiness through sin. His trajectory or life in holiness is perfect while ours will know detours with needed repentance and God’s mercy along the way.

Jesus always sees the heavenly Father (the beatific vision). As a child in the womb, as a baby in the manger, indeed, throughout his whole life there was never any confusion in his mind between his foster father Joseph and God the Father. It was in this sense that there was no ignorance or confusion in Christ.

Our Lord will realize before men who he is and why he has come into the world. His learning will amaze listeners and they will wonder where he received it. His presence will exude a welcoming and enriching grace that will attract many to him. The transition is from his hidden life as the son of Joseph and Mary to his public life as the Son of God come to save us. His ministry begins when he is thirty years old, not when he immediately emerges from the womb. It is fitting that he is like us in all things except sin. He knows what it is to grow up in a human family. He is one of us although he is also the second person of the Trinity, the one true God.

The Church teaches that the human and divine natures of Christ are perfectly joined in a hypostatic union (in one divine personhood). Jesus is both God and man, but he is a divine and NOT a human person. This is still the case— the incarnate Christ in heaven is forever God and man. What Christ is by way of identity, we can share by the indwelling of grace by which we as human persons are remade into the likeness of Christ by the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

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What Does It Mean to be a Catholic?

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Father Joe

I have had people angry with me because there was no formal way for them to disaffiliate with the Catholic Church. A few years ago, there was an effort to allow those intellectually and/or emotionally alienated from the faith to juridically separate themselves with a written document signed by their pastor and bishop. But clergy largely refused to sign it. The legitimacy of this whole business was called into question regarding dispensations, marriage annulment cases and tribunals. Complicating matters further, there was a disagreement between two Vatican congregations— Liturgy and Doctrine of the Faith. The pressing doctrinal fact remains that baptism is a once-and-forever sacrament. Baptism cleanses us of original sin, infuses sanctifying grace, makes one an adopted child of the Father and a temple of the Holy Spirit. We become a Christian and a member of the Church with privileges and duties. Baptized a Catholic, one remains always a Catholic. A person might become lapsed or start worshiping in a non-Catholic church, but he or she remains a Catholic and will be judged by God as a Catholic.

There are many others that insist upon being designated as “Catholic” when they have long since stopped living the faith. Their religion is treated as a club or as an ethnic matter. When pollsters interview such people on beliefs and the value shifts of the day, the results are skewed to the left. That is why those seeking serious statistics distinguish between those Catholics that regularly participate at Mass and those that do not.

Can one be a Catholic in truth while abiding in mortal sin, literally with one foot in hell? Remember that the deliberate failure (through our own fault) to go to Mass on Sundays and holy days is a grievous sin that brings us to perdition. Status becomes even more dire when a host of other mortal sins are added like fornication, adultery, homosexuality, abortion, and various forms of contraception. The failure to worship dishonors almighty God. The so-called pelvis or sexual sins bring dishonor to created persons and human life. The trouble with the latter is not a misplaced preoccupation of the Church with human sexuality but rather a failure of men and women to respect themselves as bodily creatures. Human dignity is violated through disobedience to both natural and divine positive law.

It may be that many others go through the motions of faith but suffer from missing or inadequate religious formation. How many do not understand or reject the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist? Does everyone in the pews appreciate that the Mass is an unbloody re-presentation of the immolation of Calvary? Do we go to church solely from duty or do we intend to adore the trinitarian God? Do we all pray? Are there some that do not know how? Do we invoke the Holy Spirit and petition for the intercession of the saints? Do we see the priest at the altar as one who participates in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ? He is so very different from a minister as in Protestant sects.

At baptism we were anointed as priest, prophet, and king. A priestly people render sacrifice, literally taking up their crosses to follow Jesus— spiritually grafting themselves to Jesus as an acceptable offering to the Father. As a nation of prophets, we are commissioned to proclaim and share the Good News of the Lord to all whom we meet. Given that Jesus is king, and Mary is the queen mother, we are made family members of the royal household of God. Do we acknowledge this privileged dignity and dutifully preach the truth and participate in Sunday Mass?

Salvation requires faith in Christ; however, it is more nuanced than the evangelical’s easy profession of Jesus as one’s “personal Lord and savior.” The Catholic appreciation takes into consideration the Gospel of Mark, the writings of Paul and the epistle by James. We are not saved by faith alone, but by grace alone. Works are important as well, because remade in his likeness, we allow the Lord to minister through us. Whatever Jesus does, has value. Saving faith includes the ingredients of charity and obedience. We must have both a personal and a corporate relationship with Christ that is realized through loving fidelity (John 14:15; 24).

Affiliation with the Church is not optional. Just like the Jewish people of old, we are called to the Lord as members of his new People of God or New Zion— the Church. The Church is the mystical body of Christ. Just as Jesus is the one WAY to the Father, the Church is also necessarily the way— the means through which we sacramentally encounter Christ. It is for this reason that we teach that there is no salvation outside the Church. This provides the mandate for evangelization and for the Church’s prayerful intervention for everyone. While the identities of “the many” that will be saved remains with divine providence, the Church cooperates in proclaiming the universal call to salvation.

Our Lord makes a point of instituting the Church and giving Peter the keys to the kingdom. Jesus gives the promise that the Church will prevail until the very end of the world. This is the same Church we proclaim in the Creed as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. These four marks find their home in Roman Catholicism.

Too often we use political labels for the persuasion or depth of one’s Catholicism. We say that this or that person is “liberal” or “conservative.” The true measure of faith is between “orthodoxy” and “heresy.” One cannot be a good Catholic and subscribe to false doctrines or immoral practices. We are also obliged to remain in union with the pope who is the Vicar of Christ and the successor to St. Peter. Such relationships can be strained when bishops of Rome promote their fallible ideas over immutable truths; but we trust that the Holy Spirit will preserve both the faith and the papacy. The Pope is the servant of the Word and not its master. His trust is to preserve and to pass on the timeless faith. It is for this reason that Catholics have an obligation to know the Scriptures and the Catechism. Too many are ignorant and easily swayed by the changing fads and whimsy of the day. Indeed, many have spoken of an unofficial schism that afflicts the Church. We should make the firm resolution to practice the Catholic faith, despite outside pressures, disappointments inside the Church, and personal doubts and weaknesses.

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Christianity is NOT a Book Religion

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Father Joe

When I first began apologetics online in the mid-1990’s, the internet was brand new and while there was little to no Catholic presence, there was no shortage of bigots who spouted the anti-Catholicism that was popular a century or more earlier. The “Bible alone” proponents were fundamentalist to the core and reduced Christianity to a “book religion.” If a Catholic tried to employ Scripture, because we are the true bible Christians, they would lament that our translations could not be trusted and that we had added books. Some would point to the missals used at Mass or the Breviary said by priests and religious, arguing that these papist books were what we substituted for the real Bible. I remember having the most heated arguments with a Protestant apologist who argued that the only true Bible was the old King James Version without revision— “if it were good enough for Jesus,” he argued, “it is good enough for me!” When it was explained that the Bible was originally in Greek and Hebrew, he would just delete the Catholic objections on his message board (there were no blogs in those days) as just so much spell casting and sorcery. The “Bible alone” champions would use isolated proof texts to answer any challenge, no matter what the actual context was about. They believed they had an immediate understanding of the biblical texts from God and that no commentaries, catechisms, and definitely no Catholic pope were necessary. Debate was hard because they were slippery and far from honest or rational.

What was the truth? The Christians inherited the Old Testament from the Greek speaking Jews of the diaspora. Gospels were composed, letters written, and an oral tradition spoken, that became the nucleus for the New Testament. A living sacred tradition has remained the backdrop for understanding the inspired Word of God. There was no complete Bible and agreed upon New Testament for the first three centuries of the Church’s life. The bishops gathering at Hippo (393 AD) would agree upon the canon. It would only be with the Vulgate Bible composed by St. Jerome that all 73 writings of the Bible were available in a single book, written in the vernacular Latin of the West. (English did not exist as a language.) Up until the invention of the printing press, there were few Bibles and they were very expensive. That would coincide with the reformation and the general availability of bibles (for the past 500 years). Given poor literacy rates, the main way that people absorbed Scriptural truths was from preaching, liturgy, and art. The latter should not be forgotten because both statuary and stained-glass windows often brought to mind the saints and the stories in salvation history. This the fundamentalist condemned as idolatry!

As the years passed, the winds have changed direction and I find myself in arguments with Catholics and Protestants alike who make a claim of the Bible but then ignore what it has to say. Essential salvation truth subsists in the Bible. But the Church comes first in time, not the book. The command to preach the Gospel is what gives birth to the Scriptures.

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