10.24.23 - Member Questions Tuesday

Bible Study Format: Each week of the month has a repeating topic, as noted below.

Each meeting: 5 min greet, prayer, 10-15 min Catholic topic, 40-45 min main topic.

Week 1: Gospel Week:

Week 2: Bible Week (Gen to Rev): We are in EXODUS, the 2nd book of Moses.

Week 3: Survey Topics Voted on by Members:

x 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables x 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven x 3) Comparative Religions

4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Book of Revelation 6) Major Heresies and Church Councils

Week 4: Member Questions:

1. What is glory – does it belong to God or also us? What does it mean to “put on Christ”?

2. Can you provide a brief review of the origin/meaning of the (12) statements in the Creed?

3. Can we do a Christian Meditation one evening?

4. Angels – who are they, what do they do? Do we really have guardian angels? What about devils/demons?

5. Please explain exorcisms. Do they happen, are they real?

6. What should our response be to those who ask us about priestly sex abuse?

7. What about the atheist who leads a good life? Can I be a person be good apart from God?

8. Miracles since the NT

9. What’s the difference between Charity and Love? What are the highest forms of charity?

10. How can I get more excited by the Mass?

Opening Prayer

O God

We gather here together in your midst to learn, to grow, and to change.

Help our questions move into a deeper understanding of Your truth.

May we all feel safe with each other to think and to question

As we share our thoughts, our faith, and even our doubts with You.

And as you taught us to pray…

Our Father

Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily Bread;

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Major upcoming holy days in the Liturgy of the Church: November 1 – All Saints Day, Nov 2 All Souls Day

Quote of the Week: “When faith enlightens the mind worldly things begin to lose their hold on us.”

• St. Teresa of Avila

We will review a different apologetics or exegesis term each week (below)...

Apologetics and Exegesis Terms

Apologetics – to defend a belief.

Catholic Apologetics– to defend the Catholic faith using reason, tradition, & Scripture.

Exegesis – the study and interpretation of Scripture (it’s what we do here every week; you are all exegetes).

Eschatology (Greek, eschaton=last/end): the study of the End Times – the Second Coming of Christ (also called

Parousia), Judgement Day, Heaven and Hell.

Bible = The OT = The Torah (Pentateuch, Books of Moses), the Prophets, the Writings (Wisdom, Novellas)

The NT = The Gospels and the Epistles (Epistles: New Test Letters (Paul), Catholic Letters, and Revelation).

Church – Greek kyriakon house of the Lord: building for Christian worship; the whole body of Christian believers.

Ark of the Covenant: a) The golden chest holding the 10 Commandments; b) Mary’s womb holding the Word of God

Tabernacle - the portable sanctuary used by the Israelites in the wilderness from the Exodus from Egypt to the building of the Temple in Jerusalem by Solomon (and again later by Herod). Latin tabernaculum – tent; temporary dwelling place.

Temple – Latin templum - space set aside for sacrifice/worship; replaced the Tabernacle; the Temple in Jerusalem.

Synagogue – Jewish house of worship often w/facilities for religious instruction. Greek synagogue: assembly/gathering.

Doctrine – Doctrine refers to any official teachings of the Church. Doctrines fall into three categories:

1. Those which the Church has authoritatively but not infallibly taught.

2. Those which the Church has infallibly taught.

3. Those which the Church has infallibly taught to be divinely revealed. This category is “dogma.”

Dogma – Dogma comes ultimately from the Greek dokeîn, which means “to believe is true or good.” In the Catholic Church over the centuries it eventually came to take on a stronger meaning and now refers only to those teachings which have been divinely revealed and infallibly taught. It requires both of these: the subject must have been divinely revealed and have been infallibly declared so by the Church. Dogmas are therefore required beliefs of our faith (some obvious examples are the Divinity of Christ and that God is a Trinity). Dogmas cannot change, e.g., the divinity of Christ will never change, even if the earth survives 100 billion more years.

Q: What is a Heresy?

A heresy is the rejection of dogma. If someone rejects a teaching belonging to the first or second categories of doctrine, it may be very sinful, but it does not rise to the level of heresy.

Epiphany – Epiphany means a manifestation from above. In Christianity, Epiphany refers to the manifestation of Jesus Christ being the Savior of the World to the gentiles (Magi) 12 days after Christmas.

Theophany means the appearance of God, such as Yahweh to Moses on Mt. Sinai, or at the Transfiguration.

Eucharist –the Lord’s Supper. The bread & wine become Jesus’ body/blood. From Greek eucharistia = thanksgiving.

Mass – the celebration of the Last Supper/Eucharist. “Mass” is from the Latin missa meaning “to send (out).”

Evangelize – to make the Kingdom of God present in our world.

God as Father/He/Him – scriptural tradition (God is not a gender); God does set the gold standard for fatherhood.

Man – generic for mankind, humanity.

Deism – belief in a supreme being/creator who does not intervene in the universe, or who is indifferent to it.

Theism – belief in the existence of God or gods, especially the believe in one God who is creator of the universe and is actively engaged in some way, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relationship with his creatures.

Atheism – belief that gods of any kind do not exist.

Agnosticism – belief that God may or may not exist but we cannot know.

Preternatural – means “outside the natural”; refers to the preternatural state of grace Adam & Eve were in before the Fall.

The “World” – as used in the Bible, this term pertains to the material world or our temporary, material lives. The word “secular” means the same thing (Latin seaecularis - worldly/temporal). It is often used with a negative connotation, i.e., “The fall of man resulted from our choosing this world/ourselves over God.”

Q: The meaning of some words naturally evolve over time. Language is powerful. Sometimes, it is intentional and manipulative, especially when it’s against religion. Can you give me an example?

Sure. Check out dogma in Dictionary.com:

Twentieth-century American academic and aphorist Mason Cooley concisely observed that “Under attack, sentiments harden into dogma,” suggesting that dogma is spawned as a defensive act. This idea further implies that for every dogma that exists, there is a counter dogma. With so many “truths” out there, there is sure to be a dogma to conveniently fit every set of beliefs.

Gospel Reading for Sunday 10/29: Matthew 22:34-40

Context: Last Sunday, you heard how the Pharisees teamed up with the Herodians (normally they would never do that) to trap Jesus with the question, “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” One group was in favor of paying taxes and the other wasn’t. If Jesus said “yes,” he would badly alienate the Zealots and Pharisees and if he said “no,” the Herodians would report him for inciting a rebellion against Herod and Rome. Jesus crushed them with his answer.

After this, the Sadducees step in and say, “We got this you losers!” The Sadducees were the one Jewish sect who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead; they followed the Pentateuch only which doesn’t speak about human resurrection explicitly. Btw, not believing in an afterlife was convenient for the Sadducees because they were the wealthy Jewish aristocrats. They had everything in this life and would like to think they had “arrived” materially and spiritually. Of course, Jesus corrects them. They pose the question about a man married seven times (because his wives kept dying) so which of the seven would be his wife in the afterlife? It was meant as the perfect joke on Jesus because there was no good, sensible answer. Jesus tells them that hey don’t know scripture very well or else they would recall that God told Moses, “I AM the God of your fathers, Abraham, etc.,” rather than “I WAS…” because Abraham & Co are still alive and well. Peter, James, and John could have piped in and claimed they just saw Moses and Elisha at the Transfiguration, but Jesus told them to keep it to themselves until after his resurrection. The Sadducees were defeated. “When they heard Jesus’ response, they marveled and went away.” – Mt. 22:22

Now that the Sadducees failed, the Pharisees decided to try again. Do you see their determination to get Jesus? Now the Jews had 613 commandments and many were extensions of the good moral laws found in the Ten Commandments (adultery is spelled out in 24 different laws), but many were also ritual or ceremonial in nature, such as circumcision, not to tattoo your skin, not to eat leaven during Passover, only eat “clean” animals, what to wear on certain days, etc. According to literature from that time, all the commandments were to be treated with equal devotion, although there was much debate about that. So when the lawyer asked Jesus which was the greatest of the laws, there were many to choose from, and many right or wrong answers, depending on the group.

Mitzvot is the Hebrew word for “commandments”

Matthew 22:34-40

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, tried to trap him with this question:

"Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?"

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Q: Who was the “lawyer”?

Legal experts were the top scribes.

Q: What is meant by all your heart, soul, and mind?

The heart refers to your will/desire. Your soul is you – your life. Your mind is your intellect.

Q: Did Jesus make these two commandments up or where they among the 613?

Most people you might ask this question will say Jesus gave them to us as part of the more advanced “New Covenant.” But Jesus was merely quoting from the Torah. The commandment to love God is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and to love your neighbor as yourself is Leviticus 19:18. (Earlier in Mt 5, Jesus did add to love our enemies which was new.)

Q: What did Jesus mean the whole law and the prophets depended on these two commandments?

The “whole law” referred both the first five books of the Bible and to the 613 commandments. By adding in the “the prophets” he was referring to the fullness of divine revelation (all Jewish Scriptures).

Q: What was the lawyer’s response?

One has to read this story in Mark to get the answer, because in Matthew this section ends here. Mark tells us the lawyer praised Jesus’ answer, prompting Jesus to reply, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” –Mk 12:28-34.

This is an example of a Pharisee who was swayed by Jesus’ teaching. Not all Pharisees remained hostile to Jesus. The Pharisees Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and others became Jewish-Christians.

Week 4: Tonight’s Member Questions

1. Why aren't Catholic priests allowed to marry? Wasn't Peter married?

The biggest confusion that surrounds this issue comes from thinking that priestly celibacy is dogma or doctrine – some irreformable part of the faith that that is believed to have come from Jesus and the apostles. Non-Catholics like to make a big deal of the scriptural passages that refer to Peter’s “mother-in-law” (Mark 1:30), probably supposing that if Catholics only knew that Peter had been married, they would never have been able to call him their first pope.

However, the celibacy of Catholic priests is neither doctrine nor dogma.

Married Priests

Many people are surprised to learn that for the Eastern Rite Catholics, married priests are the norm, just as they are for Orthodox and Oriental Christians. But even in the Eastern churches, there are restrictions. Married men may become priests, but unmarried priests may not marry. If married priests become widowed, they may not remarry. Also, their tradition of choosing bishops must come from the ranks of celibate monks, so all their bishops are unmarried.

As these variations and exceptions indicate, priestly celibacy is not an unchangeable dogma, but an internal discipline or rule. The fact that Peter was married is not relevant and doesn’t matter in the least.

The tradition in the Western (Latin-Rite) Church has been for priests as well as bishops to take vows of celibacy, a rule that has been firmly in place since the early Middle Ages. Even today, though, exceptions are made. For example, there are married Latin-Rite priests who are converts from Lutheranism and Episcopalianism.

Is Marriage Mandatory?

Another, quite different confusion (especially for Protestants) is the notion that celibacy is unbiblical, or “unnatural.” Every man, it is claimed, must obey the biblical injunction to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28); and Paul commands that “each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:2). It is even argued that celibacy somehow “causes,” or at least correlates with higher incidence of, illicit sexual behavior or perversion.

This is an example of cherry-picking verses out of their context to try and make a point, which is very poor exegesis. If this requirement to marry is truly what they were saying, then Jesus and Paul would have been the first sinners to violate it.

As for celibacy increasing illicit sexual behavior, this is also unsupported as the incidence of sexual abuse (including pedophilia) in the Catholic Church is no higher (and often lower) than in other religions, including Protestant denominations, although the Catholic Church gets all the attention in the media.

Paul even goes on to make a case for preferring celibacy to marriage:

“Do not seek marriage. . . . The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs and how to please his wife – his interests are divided.” (1 Cor 7:27-32).

This gets to the whole point. If a priest has a family to care for, he can only give a percentage of his time to his parish and parishioners in need or else he would be guilty of neglecting his family. A Catholic priest is essentially available to the people he serves 24/7/365. He is truly married to Christ.

Paul was not the first apostle to conclude that celibacy is, in some cases, better than marriage. After Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19 on divorce and remarriage, the disciples exclaimed, “If such is the case between a man and his wife, perhaps it is better not to marry.” – Matt 19:10. This remark prompted Jesus’ teaching on the value of celibacy “for the sake of the kingdom”:

“Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom it is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” – Matt. 19:11–12

As for celibacy being something invented by the Church, consider God’s instructions to Jeremiah to remain unmarried; and consider the Dead Sea Scrolls revealing the 200-year-old Jewish Essenes monastic community – celibacy was required of everyone (175 BC-70 AD).

The last statement (attack?) on celibacy is that the Church forbids priests to marry and nowhere in Scripture do we see this requirement. In fact, the Church forbids no one. As Jesus said, the individuals “renounce marriage” for the sake of the kingdom (Mt. 19:12). The Church simply elects candidates for the priesthood who voluntarily renounce marriage.

The Dignity of Celibacy and Marriage

Most Catholics marry, and all Catholics are taught to venerate marriage as a holy institution—a sacrament, an action of God upon our souls; one of the holiest things we encounter in this lifetime.

When you think about it, it is precisely the holiness of marriage that makes celibacy precious, is it not? Just as fasting presupposes the goodness of food, celibacy presupposes the goodness of marriage. If food and marriage were not good, they there would be no sacrifice in either case.

Lastly, celibacy is an eschatological (end times) sign since a priest is living out in the present the universal celibacy of heaven: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30).

2. Is “recognition” a good or bad thing?

Recognition is part of humans from the day they are born to the day they die.

RECOGNITION

We all seek recognition since our earliest days. It’s natural for babies, and thereafter to our kids’ accomplishments, to recognition in other activities as we get older in our hobbies or through our work. Humanity seems to value it continually, in giving our MVP awards in sports, medals in the military, the Emmy and Academy Awards, the Nobel Peace Prize, and on and on.

Yet, at the same time we know that “seeking” recognition can be looked down upon as a self-centered thing, an arrogant thing.

Q: How does this work? We need recognition, don’t we?

Recognition – like money, power, or fame – is not good or evil in and of itself. All these can be good or bad, depending on how we get them and how we use them.

If we see any of these things as an end of themselves, they are likely to turn out bad. Think of it – “I want power for power’s sake” – who wants to hang out with this person? Same for money and fame. Same for recognition – “I’m only doing this so everyone will praise me and love me and look up to me!”

Humanity is full of paradoxes, and this is another one. We are all drawn to money, fame, power, and recognition and yet those who want them for their own sake are losers. That’s why these can be so dangerous. They can – and often do – destroy lives.

All of these can be good if they are a means to an end, and the end is good. Repeat. Examples:

• If I make a lot of money because I am good at what I do and earn it honestly, treat people well along the way, and don’t spend my excesses on material excesses but helping others, then money can be a very good thing.

• If I become famous because I am good at what I do and do it honestly and treat people good along the way, and I don’t use my fame to become full of myself but to do good in the world, then fame can be a very good thing.

• If I become powerful (politically or otherwise) because I am good at what I do and do it honestly and treat people good along the way, and I don’t use my power to control others and get my way but instead to accomplish good in the world, then power can be a very good thing.

The same goes for recognition. If I am recognized for my accomplishments become I am good at what I do and because I did it honestly and treat people well along the way, and I don’t use my recognition to tell the truth about things and do good in the world, then my recognition can be a very good thing.

Q: How is Recognition similar to the Parable of the Talents?

The “talents” in the parable are the skills and passions God has given us. We should develop them and use them to help others and improve the world. In this way, we advance the Kingdom of God here on Earth – and they were rewarded by the Master when he returned. The one who kept his talent for himself was thrown into the darkness because he did nothing for God, just himself. Likewise, “recognition” is a byproduct of using our talents to help others and the world. If this is how we pursue recognition – for the glory of God – then Jesus will reward us a hundred-fold.

Closing Prayer

Prayer to “Put on Christ”

As I enter this day with You, Lord,

I will walk in your worn shoes and selfless garments,

Taking nothing with me, and taking nothing from anyone else,

Because I need nothing except You.

With you, I have nothing to prove.

I will learn to listen carefully to others,

And speak only if my words are true, necessary, helpful, and kind.

And together we pray for Mary’s intercession for all humans everywhere!

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee

blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.