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I’m baaaaaaack…

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So it’s 2015, which means my sabbatical is over and I’m back blogging! The posts over the next few days are going to be pretty light as I’m working on a few special blogging projects:

1. I am completing a series of posts concerning abortion, which I’m posting to coincide with the March For Life later this month.

2. Next, I have a series of guest posts on the subject of sex for the Goretti Group that I’m just finishing off which will be published in a few weeks.

3. Finally, I’m recording a video series on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians. You’ll be hearing more about all these projects over the next couple of weeks…

The break was good, but it’s good to be back. Happy New Year everyone 🙂

2015

What the Q?

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“Q” is the name given by theologians and historians to the hypothetical document which would account for the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but which are not found in Mark:

Two Source

Although I think the existence of the Q source is a distinct possibility, I’ll admit that I’ve grown very weary with all the modern scholarship which takes its existence as Gospel (so to speak) and who seem to enjoy developing more and more elaborate theories concerning its existence.

Given this, I simply have to share the following quotation which Joseph Heschmeyer put up a quotation on Facebook yesterday:

“I must admit, though, that the affirmation of Q’s existence comes close to exhausting my ability to believe in hypothetical entities. I find myself increasingly skeptical as more refined and detailed theories about Q’s extent, wording, community, geographical setting, stages of tradition and redaction, and coherent theology are proposed. I cannot help thinking that biblical scholarship would be greatly advanced if every morning all exegetes would repeat as a mantra:

“Q is a hypothetical document whose exact extension, wording, originating community, strata, and stages of redaction cannot be known.” This daily devotion might save us flights of fancy that are destined, in my view, to end in skepticism.”

– J.P. Meier, “A Marginal Jew: Mentor, Message, and Miracles”

Q Q

Quick Apology: Making present again?

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I’m going to take a break from my “Quick Apology” series concerning Mary and Saintly Intercession. Today’s “Quick Apology” will be a very brief and concern the Eucharistic liturgy…

Objection

The Catholic Church teaches that, in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Calvary is made present again. In response to this, some Protestants object in this way:

“How can you say the sacrifice of calvary is made present again? The Epistle to the Hebrews says that His sacrifice was once for all. He’s no longer bleeding…”

Obviously, there is a lot that could be said in response to this, but how might we respond briefly?

Response

In reply to this objection, sometimes I challenge Evangelicals over the very language they use in talking about salvation. Don’t they often talk about “being washed in the blood”, upon accepting Christ as their personal Lord and saviour? However, given the objection they raised above, isn’t there a problem? Hasn’t Jesus stopped bleeding? Wasn’t His sacrifice 2,000 years ago?

When Evangelicals talk about “being washed in the blood”, they’re talking about the the grace of the cross being applied to their souls in time in a real, substantial way. Given this, is the idea of the Eucharist being a participation in Calvary really that alien?

The Passion

Quick Apology: “Saint intercession isn’t in the Bible”

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In previous “Quick Apologies”, I’ve dealt with different aspects of the intercession of the saints. Today I’d like to address one of the final pieces of the puzzle…

Objection

After explaining the Catholic understanding of Saintly intercession, as well as having shown its merit, one is often presented with a common retort against many Catholic doctrines:

“But [Doctrine X] is not in the Bible!”

I’ve written before in another post about the problem with this objection and about the logical problems and presuppositions associated with it. However, is the claim actually true in this case? Is it correct to say that we don’t see saintly intercession within the pages of Scripture?

Response

We actually do see Saintly intercession within the pages of Scripture. We see departed Saints offering prayers and pleading for God to take action upon the earth.  In fact, we don’t just see departed Christians doing this…

Heavenly Helpers

In John’s Book of Revelation, we read the following:

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints…
– Revelation 5:8

These “twenty-four elders” are deceased humans, yet we are told that they offer bowls of incense before the throne of God which are representative of the prayers of other Christians. If they are offering these prayers to God, it would make sense that they have some knowledge of their content too.

In response to this, I’ve heard a variety of attempts to deny that this passage teaches Saintly intercession. However, the fact cannot be denied that the Book of Revelation presents us with a picture of the deceased interacting in some way with the prayers of those on earth. This stands in rather stark contrast to assertions which Catholics often hear (“Christians in Heaven can have nothing to do with Christians on earth”).

On earth as it is in Heaven

A little later in the Book of Revelation, we read about how the martyrs in Heaven petition God:

…I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?” – Revelation 6:9-10

Here we have a concrete example of deceased Christian martyrs pleading for God to take action upon earth!

Not just Saints

A few chapters later, we see not only Saints, but angels as having something to do with prayers from earth:

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. – Revelation 8:3-4

One might ask how this is possible. How could an angel have anything to do with the prayers of men on earth? How could they know of the contents of a man’s prayer? If we recall that angels rejoice whenever a sinner repents (Luke 15:10) then surely anything is possible through the grace of God.

Angel

UPDATE 11/20/15 07:10 – I just got back from Mass where the First Reading included the first passage I quoted in this post. I had no idea prior to posting 🙂

What’s the big deal with Latin?

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Latin

A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a question that I’d like to answer in this post:

So, what’s the deal with Latin? It seems to be considered holy or at least holier than the vernacular and I was wondering why. I know that shortly after Christ’s death the church was based in Rome and that Latin was the primary language of most of the Church fathers, I just didn’t know if that was all that was behind it or if there was more. Is it at all important to learn to pray certain prayers in Latin? Or even work to understand the Mass in Latin?

So, what’s the deal with Latin? In my opinion, it’s a horrible language that I was forced to study for three years in school which I absolutely hated. Next question? Okay, maybe that’s not the answer you were looking for.

Why Latin?

I suppose that you could say that Latin is important to Catholicism for a few reasons…

1. Lingua Sacra
The Catholic Church’s love of Latin finds an echo in Judaism. Although most Jews spoke Aramaic (or Greek outside of Palestine), it was Hebrew that was the language of the Temple and the Sacred Scriptures. Latin in Catholicism occupies a similar position as a “Lingua Sacra” (Sacred Language).

2. History
As you rightly point out, a few centuries after Christ Latin is starting to overtake Greek as the common language of the Roman Empire. Starting with Tertullian, the Early Church Fathers increasingly wrote in Latin. This meant that, at least in the West, Latin became the language of theology, liturgy and learning in general. All this resulted in the Latin language being tied to the faith in a very special way. Even once the general use of Latin started to decline, it was still used in the Church, as well as being the universal language of published scholarly works, law, science, …

3. Catholicity 
I never really saw the point in Latin Mass until I travelled abroad where my knowledge of the vernacular wasn’t too strong. I could typically follow along with the liturgy, knowing as I did the words of the Mass by heart. However, I remember my joy when we started singing the Sanctus, Benedictus, Amen*… I got a little taste of what a universal liturgical language could bring to the sense of oneness and catholicity of the Church.

* Please note, the “Kyrie” isn’t Latin, but Greek.

Should you learn it?

Now, is it important to learn to pray certain prayers in Latin or understand the Latin Mass? You could that is isn’t because typically most of the Masses you’ll attend will be in the vernacular (something which, by the way, the Eastern Churches have always done).

However, on the other hand, you could that it is very important because it is the patrimony of the Western Church and therefore deserves our attention, since it roots us to the historic Church. Personally, I go to Tridentine Mass a couple of times a year. I prefer my usual liturgy, but I attend periodically so as to gain an appreciation for the liturgy which was celebrated by many of our great Saints. Finally, please remember this great saying:

“Quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur”
“Anything said in Latin sounds profound”

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