Self-Defense and Firearms

anti-gun-control-rally-Reuters-640x480The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

This amendment, along with the various interpretations given to its opening clause, guarantees that gun ownership will be a perennial topic in American politics.

In recent years there has been a marked shift in favor of those who support gun rights.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the second amendment entails an individual right to possess a firearm for lawful purposes including self-defense within one’s home.

Public opinion polling has also shifted in recent years. Using two-year averages and data provided by the Gallup organization:

  • Those who felt that the nation’s laws on the sale of firearms should be made more strict dropped from 73% in 1990-1991 to 51% in 2014-2015.
  • Those who felt they should be less strict rose from 3% to 12% in the same time frame.
  • And those who thought they should be kept as they are now rose from 21% to 35%.

Similarly:

  • Those who thought there should be a law banning possession of handguns except by police and other authorized persons fell from 60% in 1959 to 27% in 2015.
  • In the same time frame, those who thought there should not be such a ban rose from 36% to 72%.

Both in legal courts and in the court of public opinion, those who favor gun rights have been making significant advances.

But what is happening in these arenas does not tell us much about what a Catholic should think concerning such subjects.

So: What does the Church teach?

 

Fundamental Principles

Firearms can be used for different purposes (hunting, target shooting, etc.), but here we will consider their use in self-defense.

An initial point of reference is found in the Gospel of Luke, where Our Lord indicates the legitimacy of the right to self-defense, telling the disciples:

Let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one (Luke 22:36).

In a modern context, the fundamental principles of self-defense are laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:

If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful. . . . Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s.

2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another’s life. Preserving the common good requires rendering the unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. To this end, those holding legitimate authority have the right to repel by armed force aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their charge

The Catechism thus acknowledges the right to use lethal force in self-defense, including on behalf of others, when the use of this force is moderate (i.e., when it is not practical to use less force).

 

Applying the Principles to Firearms

The Catechism does not specify the means by which one may use lethal force in self-defense, but this may be inferred: If you are in a situation where the only effective means you have of defending your life (or that of another) is a gun then you can use it.

As the saying goes, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

This brings us to the question of gun ownership: Should you be allowed to have a gun?

 

Some Necessary Qualifiers

Of course, not everybody should be allowed to have a gun. Homicidal maniacs should not. Neither should toddlers.

In what follows, we’ll be considering ownership of firearms by ordinary, responsible people (responsibility including things like knowing how to use a gun and being committed to gun safety).

 

Statements of the Universal Magisterium

The Church’s universal magisterium is exercised either by the Roman pontiff or the worldwide college of bishops teaching in union with him.

I am not aware of any statements of the universal magisterium dealing with the ownership of firearms by ordinary, responsible individuals.

I am aware of no papal statements on this subject.

Neither am I aware of any statements by bodies such as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which also exercises the universal magisterium when its decrees are expressly approved by the Roman pontiff (Donum Veritatis 18).

A search of the Vatican web site on the term “handgun” does not turn up any results.

A search using the term “firearms” turns up a handful of references. These reveal that you’re not allowed to bring firearms into the Vatican museums, that the Holy See is concerned about illicit trafficking in firearms, etc.

The only relevant statement from a body connected with the Holy See that I have been able to obtain (and it took some doing to get it, because it is not on the Vatican web site), is found in a 1994 document titled The International Arms Trade: An Ethical Reflection by the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace (PCJP). Under the heading “Furnishing Arms to Groups That Are Not States,” the document says:

It is urgent to find an effective way to stop the flow of arms to terrorist and criminal groups. An indispensible measure would be for each State to impose a strict control on the sale of handguns and small arms. Limiting the purchase of such arms would certainly not infringe upon the rights of anyone (4:8).

This document does not address the question of handguns and small arms (rifles, etc.) except under the rubric of keeping them out of the hands of terrorists and criminal organizations. It thus does not engage the broader self-defense question.

It sees “a strict control on the sale” of such weapons as important (“indispensible”) for keeping them away from terrorists and criminal organizations, but it does not define what would count as this form of control. Presumably that would be determined by the individual states.

The document does not call for a ban on the sale of such weapons. It speaks of “limiting the purchase” of them, apparently within bounds that would “not infringe upon the rights of anyone”—presumably including their self-defense rights.

Ultimately, this document does not engage the Church’s magisterium. As noted above, the express approval of the pope (then John Paul II) is required—even for the documents of the CDF—to do that, and this document does not carry John Paul II’s express approval. It is therefore a hortatory, advisory document of the PCJP but not Church teaching.

Thus we do not seem to have any doctrinal statements by popes, the CDF, or others capable of exercising the universal magisterium.

Nor has the college of bishops as a whole made such statements.

 

Statements of Particular Magisteria

By divine law, individual bishops are also capable of exercising the teaching authority of the Church in their own, particular sphere.

I am sure that various bishops around the world have expressed their views on gun ownership, though I am not aware of any who have attempted to exercise their personal magisterium in this regard. (There is a difference between a bishop expressing an opinion and his saying, “This is Church teaching.”)

What about groups of bishops?—for example, the episcopal conferences like the U.S. bishops?

These bodies do not exist by divine law. They are erected by ecclesiastical law to serve pastoral purposes, but they were not instituted by Christ, and so they do not have the same teaching authority that the Roman pontiff and individual bishops do.

Consequently, episcopal conferences can only engage the Church’s magisterium in special circumstances.

As John Paul II established in his 1998 motu proprio Apostolos suos:

In order that the doctrinal declarations of the Conference of Bishops referred to in No. 22 of the present Letter may constitute authentic magisterium and be published in the name of the Conference itself, they must be unanimously approved by the Bishops who are members, or receive the recognitio of the Apostolic See if approved in plenary assembly by at least two thirds of the Bishops belonging to the Conference and having a deliberative vote (IV:1).

If a doctrinal declaration were approved by each member of an episcopal conference then it would be equivalent to each bishop engaging his own magisterium, and so there would be a foundation in divine law for seeing the declaration as an expression of the Church’s magisterium.

Similarly, if the Holy See approved (gave recognitio) to the doctrinal decree then it would be equivalent to the Holy See exercising its magisterium, and thus there would again be a foundation in divine law. (The norm indicates, however, that the Holy See won’t consider doing this if a doctrinal declaration got less than a two-thirds vote by an episcopal conference.)

Most of the time, neither of these conditions is met, and so we have to read statements issued by or on behalf of bishops’ conferences with a significant degree of caution.

 

The U.S. Bishops and Guns

The views of individual U.S. bishops on guns appear to be mixed. That is virtually guaranteed by the fact there are more than 400 active and retired Catholic bishops in America, and unanimity among them on a public policy question that divides the American public is not to be expected.

Further, some bishops are known to be avid hunters and users of firearms.

This does not mean that there is not a generally prevailing opinion among the U.S. bishops. Judging by statements issued by representatives of the body, it would appear that the general ethos of the U.S. bishops conference favors gun restriction.

Whenever there are mass shootings, it is typical for representatives of the bishops to issue a statement of sympathy and condolence, and it is common for these to contain language supporting the restriction of firearms.

The same position is common in statements prepared by various bodies within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

For example, in 2000, the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Policy drafted a position paper titled Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice, which was later approved by the conference as a whole. It states:

All of us must do more to end violence in the home and to find ways to help victims break out of the pattern of abuse. As bishops, we support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer (especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner), and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns (“Policy Foundations and Directions” 4).

A footnote to this section states:

However, we believe that in the long run and with few exceptions (i.e., police officers, military use), handguns should be eliminated from our society. “Furthermore, the widespread use of handguns and automatic weapons in connection with drug commerce reinforces our repeated ‘call for effective and courageous action to control handguns, leading to their eventual elimination from our society’” (U.S. Catholic Bishops, New Slavery, New Freedom: A Pastoral Message on Substance Abuse [Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1990], 10).

The original source of the call for an ultimate elimination of handguns is a 1975 statement of the bishops’ Committee on Social Development and World Peace titled Handgun Violence: A Threat to Life.

While these statements indicate a prevailing and longstanding view that favors handgun restriction among the U.S. bishops, it does not constitute Church teaching.

The relevant statements are not doctrinal declarations and do not fulfill the conditions specified in Apostolos Suos for being authentic (i.e., authoritative) magisterium.

The U.S. bishops thus have not engaged their collective, particular magisterium on this question and the statements in question are of a hortatory, advisory nature that reflects the prevailing opinion among U.S. bishops.

 

Conclusion

We thus arrive at the following takeaways:

  • Church teaching supports the right of individual self-defense, including the use of lethal force when necessary. It does not expressly address the means by which this may be carried out, but it is a reasonable inference that if a gun is the best way you have to defend yourself, you can use it.
  • The Church’s magisterium has not made any pronouncements regarding ordinary people possessing firearms for self-defense purposes, though the general ethos both at the Holy See and among the U.S. bishops seems to favor handgun restriction.
  • Therefore, this is an area in which, in Cardinal Ratzinger’s words, there may be “a legitimate diversity of opinion” among Catholics.

Why Are the Gospels Called “Gospels”?

gospel of markGod may have created man in his image, but there is a well-known tendency among biblical scholars to re-create Jesus in their own image.

The tendency is particularly notable among skeptical scholars, who feel more free than their conservative counterparts to dismiss or discount Gospel passages that don’t fit their theories.

In writing books on the life of Jesus, they can select, filter, and interpret evidence in a way that allows them to find the kind of Jesus they want—often one that is an idealized form of their own self-image.

Thus a Marxist scholar might read the Gospels and discover a Jesus who is a proto-Marxist revolutionary martyr that led a peasant uprising and fell afoul of the powerful and monied upper classes.

Big surprise.

 

“By their Lives of Jesus ye shall know them”

The tendency is so common that it led the British biblical scholar T. W. Manson to quip, “By their Lives of Jesus ye shall know them” (C. W. Dugmore, ed., The Interpretation of the Bible, 92).

This is a cutting insight about the foibles of biblical scholars, but it’s also something else: an unwitting reflection of what the Gospels might have been called if history had taken a different path.

Manson’s remark turns on the fact that modern scholars tend to write books with titles like The Life of Jesus or The Life of Christ. Search Amazon, and you’ll find multiple books with both titles, as well as variants on them.

And there’s a good reason for that. They are, after all, books about the life of Jesus.

They are, in fact, a specialized kind of biography—not the typical sort of biography that you’ll find in the biography section of a bookstore today. We don’t have the right kind and number of sources about the life of Jesus for that kind of biography to be written. But scholarly Lives of Jesus are nonetheless a form of “life writing” (Greek bios + graphē = “biography”).

The principal sources for modern Lives of Jesus are, of course, the Gospels. And that raises a question: Why aren’t the Gospels called Lives of Jesus?

They are, just like modern Lives of Jesus, about the life of Jesus. They are biographies. Specifically, they fall within the ancient Greek literary genre known as the bios (see Richard A. Burridge, What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Greco-Roman Biography).

 

The Names of Ancient Biographies

Given that, we would expect them to have titles like Bios Iēsou (Greek, “Life of Jesus”) or Bios Christou (“Life of Christ”) or some similar variant.

Some ancient biographies were simply referred to by the name of the person who was their subject. Thus in Suetonius’s De Vitis Caesarum (Latin, “On the Lives of the Caesars”) the individual volumes are called “Tiberius,” “Caligula,” “Nero,” etc.

On that model, the Gospels might have been called simply Iēsous, Christos, Iēsous Christos, or a similar variant.

Whichever model would have been used, ancient biographies tended to have the word “life” (Greek, bios; Latin, vita), the name of the subject, or both in their titles.

So why don’t the Gospels?

 

Who Gave Books Their Titles?

Today, authors typically propose titles for their books, but publishers make the final decision. They may overrule the author’s proposal if they think that they have a title which will sell more copies.

In the ancient world, things were different. For one thing, there were no publishing houses. All books were self-published by their authors, which meant that the author could publish a book under any title he wished.

Yet many authors refrained from doing so. Surprising as it may seem, they sometimes released books without titles.

However, if the book proved popular, there needed to be some way to refer to it, and so it ended up getting a title, anyway.

This title was bestowed by those who used the book, such as by the booksellers who had copies made, the librarians who archived it, or the members of the public who read and promoted it.

Even if an author gave his book a title, this could be trumped by the users of the book.

Consequently, a book sometimes was given more than one title.

Yet the Gospels weren’t.

 

What We Don’t Find

It is often claimed that the Gospels circulated for a long time without any titles or authors—that the titles and authors were added at a much later date, perhaps in the second century.

If that is what happened then—as the German scholar Martin Hengel pointed out—we would expect to find copies of the Gospels or other early writings referring to them by multiple titles and authors, and we don’t (see Martin Hengel, Studies in the Gospel of Mark, ch. 3).

Instead, we find them called things like Kata Maththaion, Kata Markon, Kata Loukan, and Kata Iōannēn (“According to Matthew,” “According to Mark,” “According to Luke,” and “According to John,” respectively).

Or we find them called things like Euangelion kata Maththaion (“Gospel According to Matthew”) and the expected variants.

On this model, neither the word “life” (bios) nor the name of the subject (Jesus) appears in the title.

Why not?

 

The Hebrew Scriptures

The books of the Hebrew Scriptures commonly go by different names than we use in English. For example, Genesis is known as Bereshit and Exodus is known as Shemot.

These names are taken from the opening verses of the books.

Bereshit means “in the beginning,” which is famous from the opening verse of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1).

Shemot means “names,” which is also taken from the opening verse of Exodus:

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household (Ex. 1:1).

This may provide the key to which biographies of Jesus are called “Gospels” rather than “Lives” (Greek, bioi) of Jesus.

 

“Gospel” in the New Testament

One of the surprising things about the Gospels is how small a role the word “gospel” actually plays in them.

The term “gospel” (Greek, euangelion) and its verb form “evangelize” (Greek, euangelizō) appear 130 times in the New Testament, and these are broken down as follows:

  • Matthew: 5
  • Mark: 8
  • Luke: 19
  • John: 0
  • Acts: 17
  • Paul’s Letters (Romans-Philemon): 81
  • Hebrews: 2
  • James’s Letter: 0
  • Peter’s Letters (1-2 Peter): 4
  • John’s Letters (1-3 John): 0
  • Jude’s Letter: 0
  • Revelation: 3

As you can see, the terms “gospel/evangelize” are overwhelmingly used by Paul. Though the Gospels are each longer than any of Paul’s letters, the terms are used less frequently in each of them.

 

Renormalizing the Numbers

The above raw occurrences of “gospel” and “evangelize” are instructive, but they are more so when we adjust (or “renormalize”) based on the length of the works in question. To do this, we need to know the number of words in the Greek texts of each of the above sources, which are approximately as follows:

  • Matthew: 18,345 (Greek words)
  • Mark: 11,304
  • Luke: 19,482
  • John: 15,635
  • Acts: 18,451
  • Paul’s Letters (Romans-Philemon): 32,407
  • Hebrews: 4,953
  • James’s Letter: 1,743
  • Peter’s Letters (1-2 Peter): 2,783
  • John’s Letters (1-3 John): 2,141
  • Jude’s Letter: 461
  • Revelation: 9,852

If we divide these word counts by the number of occurrences of the words “gospel” and “evangelize,” we obtain the following results:

  • Matthew: 3,669 (Greek words per mention of “gospel/evangelize”)
  • Mark: 1,413
  • Luke: 1,025
  • John: N/A
  • Acts: 1,085
  • Paul’s Letters (Romans-Philemon): 400
  • Hebrews: 2,477
  • James’s Letter: N/A
  • Peter’s Letters (1-2 Peter): 696
  • John’s Letters (1-3 John): N/A
  • Jude’s Letter: N/A
  • Revelation: 3,284

The entries listed as “N/A” indicate places where the overall word count would have to be divided by zero, because the word “gospel” never occurs in the works in question.

The others indicate how many words of a given text you would need to read in order to (on average) encounter one occurrence of “gospel” or “evangelize.” Thus in Matthew you would need to read around 3,669 words to encounter either of these words.

These averages make it clear that “gospel/evangelize” is one of Paul’s favored terms. You need only to read 400 words by Paul to encounter one of them. They are also favored words of Peter. You’d need to read 696 of his words to encounter one of them.

Among the Gospels and Acts, these terms are favored of Luke, who uses them for about one in a thousand words of his Gospel and Acts. They are slightly less common in Mark, who uses them for one in 1,400 of his words. Matthew uses them much less frequently (one in 3,700 words), and John does not use them at all.

From this we may draw the general lesson that “gospel/evangelize” was a favored term by Paul and Peter, and it was used to a similar but lesser extent by their associates Luke and Mark. Other New Testament authors used them less frequently or not at all.

 

Initial Mentions

For our purposes, the most important thing is not the average number of words per mention of “gospel/evangelize” but how soon the relevant term appears.

If the name “Gospel” was based on the first verse of the work in question, as in the books of the Hebrew Bible, what could be responsible?

Here are the first verses of each Gospel:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1).

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1).

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us (Luke 1:1).

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

From this it would seem that only Mark could have served as the origin of the term “Gospel” in the titles, for only he uses it in the first verse of his work.

Even if we expand our scope beyond the first verse, other Gospels would not have been the source. In Matthew, “gospel/evangelize” does not appear until the fourth chapter (Matt. 4:23), in Luke it does not appear until the nineteenth verse (Luke 1:19), and in John it does not appear at all.

The strong suggestion, then, is that the Gospels are called “Gospels” because Mark included this word in his very first verse.

 

The Key to the Name “Gospel”

Does Mark’s first verse hold the key to why we call the original biographies of Jesus “Gospels” rather than “Lives”?

The British scholar B. H. Streeter thought so. He wrote:

The world-wide circulation of Mark affords an easy and natural explanation of what, from the purely linguistic point of view, is the rather curious usage by which the word “Gospel” became the technical name for a biography of Christ. The Greek word euangelion means simply “good news,” and in the New Testament it is always used in its original sense of the good news of the Christian message. Commentators have tried elaborately to trace a gradual evolution in the meaning of the word until it acquired this new usage. No such gradual evolution is necessary, or even probable. Among the Jews it was a regular practice to refer to books, or sections of books, by a striking word which occurred in the opening sentence. That is how Genesis and Exodus derived the titles by which they are known in the Hebrew Bible, i.e. “In the Beginning” and “(these are the) Names.” As soon as portions of Mark were read in the services of the Church—and that would be at once—it would be necessary to have a name to distinguish this reading from that of an Old Testament book. Mark opens with the words archē tou euangeliou, “The beginning of the Gospel.” Archē [Greek, “beginning”] would be too like the Hebrew name for Genesis, so euangelion (nom.) would be an obvious title. When, fifteen or twenty years later, other Lives of Christ came into existence, this use of “Gospel” as a title would be an old-established custom and would be applied to them also. Then it would become necessary to distinguish these “Gospels” from one another-hence the usage to euangelion kata Markon, kata Loukan, the Gospel according to Mark, to Luke, etc. (The Four Gospels, 497-498).

Where Mark Got the Term

According to the above figures, “gospel/evangelize” appears to be Paul’s word. It occurs more frequently in his writings than in other books of the New Testament.

Since Mark was a companion of Paul (see Acts 12:25, 13:5-13), he could have gotten his use of the term from Paul.

However, Mark was only a companion of Paul for a short time, during the First Missionary Journey, and Paul refused to take him on the Second Missionary Journey (see Acts 15:37-39).

This leaves us with the question of whether Mark may have picked up his use of “gospel/evangelize” from Peter. We first learn of Mark when we read that Peter went to the house of Mark’s mother in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12), and later we learn that he was with Peter in Rome (1 Peter 5:13).

Multiple sources among the Church Fathers indicate that Mark served for a long time as Peter’s companion and interpreter, which may mean that he picked up his usage of “gospel/evangelize” from Peter.

Although Paul uses this term most frequently, in a footnote, Martin Hengel writes:

I wonder whether there could not be a Petrine understanding of the term (Studies in the Gospel of Mark, 72 fn. 50).

Based on our renormalization of the references to “gospel/evangelize” with the length of the New Testament sources, Hengel’s suggestion seems a plausible one. Peter/Mark uses the pair of terms almost as often as Paul/Luke, and both pairs uses it much more frequently than other New Testament sources.

This suggests that Mark’s use of the terms may be based on Peter’s. It also suggests, given Paul’s derivative status as an apostle (cf. Gal. 1:18, 2:1-2), that he may have picked up this usage from others—perhaps including Peter—and that he then made it his own in a special way and passed the usage on to Luke.

 

The Titles of the Gospels

However “gospel” found its way into the first verse of Mark, this is very probably the basis on which the other first century biographies of Jesus came to be called “gospels.”

This has implications for the order in which they were written.

As Streeter suggests, if Mark was the first Gospel written and read in the churches, it would have been necessary to give it some form of title to distinguish it from the various Old Testament readings that were already established.

Thus there would need to be an ancient equivalent of the modern liturgical statement:

A reading from the Gospel according to Mark . . .

Even if “according to Mark” had not yet been added due to the lack of other Gospels, a statement like “A reading from the Gospel . . . ” would need to have been used.

When Matthew, Luke, and John were written, the modifiers “according to Matthew/Mark/Luke/John” (kata Maththaion/Markon/Loukan/Iōannēn) then would have been introduced.

However, if one of the others had come first, the use of the term “Gospel” would be difficult to explain.

None of the others include the term “gospel” (euangelion) in their first verse or near it, and it would have been much more likely that the natural term bios (“life”) or the name of the subject, Iēsous, Christos, or Iēsous Christos (“Jesus,” “Christ,” or “Jesus Christ”) would have been used instead.

The best explanation of the data we have is thus that Mark was the first Gospel written and his initial verse, with its term “gospel,” supplied the name of the reading of this work in the liturgy. When Matthew, Luke, and John later wrote their similar works, they came to be called by this title and the author attribution (kata/“according to” so-and-so) was introduced.

 

Looking for Something Good to Read This Lent?

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The Weekly Francis – 17 February 2016

popefrancisThis version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 28 January 2016 to 17 February 2016.

Angelus

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “God wants to live amidst his sons and daughters. Let us make space for him in our hearts.” @Pontifex 4 February 2016
  • “Entering through the Holy Door means discovering the depths of the Father’s mercy, who seeks each of us personally.” @Pontifex 8 February 2016
  • “In Mexico I will look into the eyes of the Virgin Mary and implore her to look upon us always with mercy. I entrust my journey to her.” @Pontifex 11 February 2016
  • “Today is a day of grace. The meeting with Patriarch Kirill is a gift from God. Pray for us.” @Pontifex 12 February 2016
  • “Dear Mexican friends, you are in my heart. Let us put our trust in the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe who always looks on us with tenderness.” @Pontifex 12 February 2016
  • “Mexico has a young face. This makes it possible to contemplate and plan for a future, for a tomorrow. This offers hope.” @Pontifex 13 February 2016
  • “Mary is the woman who says yes, a yes of surrender to God, a yes of surrender to her brothers and sisters. May we follow her example.” @Pontifex 13 February 2016
  • “Simply looking at you, O Mother, to have eyes only for you, looking upon you without saying anything…” @Pontifex 14 February 2016
  • “Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to injustice, to open our hearts to those suffering.” @Pontifex 14 February 2016
  • “May the Lord help us overcome the temptations of wealth, vanity and pride which seek to destroy the truth of the Gospel.” @Pontifex 14 February 2016
  • “Jesus is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy.” @Pontifex 14 February 2016
  • “In the heart of every person is a desire to live in freedom, in a place where change is possible in fellowship and solidarity.” @Pontifex 15 February 2016
  • “Among the poor being treated worst is our planet. We cannot pretend all is fine in the face of the great environmental crisis.” @Pontifex 15 February 2016
  • “I prefer a family with a tired face from sacrifices made rather than a pretty one which is unfamiliar with tenderness and compassion.” @Pontifex 15 February 2016
  • “We learn how to pray, just as we do to walk, speak and listen. If you tell me how you pray, I can tell you how you live.” @Pontifex 16 February 2016
  • “Our first calling is to learn how to say the “Our Father”. Father, help us to avoid the temptation of resignation.” @Pontifex 16 February 2016
  • “In Jesus I have met the one who is able to bring out the best in me.” @Pontifex 16 February 2016
  • “You have asked me for a word of hope: what I have to offer you has a name: Jesus Christ.” @Pontifex 16 February 2016
  • “Jesus would never ask us to be assassins; he calls us to be disciples. He would never send us to die. He invites us to life.” @Pontifex 16 February 2016
  • “The mercy of Jesus embraces everyone in every part of the world: open your hearts!” @Pontifex 17 February 2016
  • “Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy means learning how to not remain prisoners of the past. It means believing things can be different.” @Pontifex 17 February 2016
  • “Dear prisoners, while you have experienced great pain, you can become prophets of a better society without violence and exclusion.” @Pontifex 17 February 2016
  • “All of us must struggle so that work can become a reality of humanization and a positive future.” @Pontifex 17 February 2016

9 Things to Know and Share About Ash Wednesday

22feb-ash-wednesdayAsh Wednesday is upon us again!

Here are 9 things to know and share . . .

 

1. What is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is the day that Lent begins (see: 9 things you need to know about Lent).

The name comes from the fact that a particular rite is always celebrated on this Wednesday in which the faithful have ashes put on their foreheads.

According to the Roman Missal:

In the course of today’s Mass, ashes are blessed and distributed.

These are made from the olive branches or branches of other trees that were blessed the previous year [on Palm/Passion Sunday].

 

2. What does the putting on of ashes symbolize?

According to the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy:

125. In the Roman Rite, the beginning of the forty days of penance is marked with the austere symbol of ashes which are used in the Liturgy of Ash Wednesday.

The use of ashes is a survival from an ancient rite according to which converted sinners submitted themselves to canonical penance.

The act of putting on ashes symbolizes fragility and mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God.

Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolize that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptized are called during Lent.

The faithful who come to receive ashes should be assisted in perceiving the implicit internal significance of this act, which disposes them towards conversion and renewed Easter commitment.

 

3. How does the distribution of ashes take place?

The Roman Missal states that after the homily, the priest blesses the ashes and sprinkles them with holy water.

Then the priest places ashes on the head of all those present who come to him, and says to each one:

Repent, and believe the Gospel.

Or:

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Meanwhile an antiphon or another appropriate chant is sung.

 

4. Is there a particular way the ashes should be put on people’s heads?

Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at Regina Apostolorum University comments:

There are no set rules regarding this, and it largely depends on local custom.

In most English-speaking countries the prevailing custom seems to be that the priest places enough holy water into the ashes to form a kind of paste. The ashes are then daubed in the form of a cross on the forehead.

Many Catholics see this practice as a means of publicly showing their faith and leave the smudge on their forehead throughout Ash Wednesday.

In other countries, such as Spain, Italy and parts of Latin America, the prevailing custom seems to be sprinkling fairly dry ashes on the crown of the head. But even within these geographical areas, both customs are practiced and there may be other legitimate traditions as well.

 

5. Can this be done outside of Mass?

Yes. The Roman Missal states:

The blessing and distribution of ashes may also take place outside Mass. In this case, the rite is preceded by a Liturgy of the Word, with the Entrance Antiphon, the Collect, and the readings with their chants as at Mass.

Then there follow the Homily and the blessing and distribution of ashes.

The rite is concluded with the Universal Prayer, the Blessing, and the Dismissal of the Faithful.

 

6. Can someone other than a priest distribute the ashes?

Yes. The Book of Blessings states:

1659 This rite may be celebrated by a priest or deacon who may be assisted by lay ministers in the distribution of ashes. The blessing of the ashes, however, is reserved to a priest or deacon.

 

7. How long do you leave the ashes on?

There is no rule about this. It is a matter of personal decision based on the individual’s own inclinations and circumstances.

The ashes can be left on until they wear off naturally or they can be washed off or wiped off when the individual chooses.

 

8. Can ashes be distributed to the sick who cannot attend Mass?

Yes. The Book of Blessings states:

1657 This order [in the Book of Blessings] may almily should conclude by inviting the sick person to prepare himself or herself for the reception of the ashes.

 

9. Is Ash Wednesday a Holyday of Obligation?

No. There is no obligation to attend Mass.

However, Ash Wednesday is a penitential day and it (together with Good Friday) is one of two days of the year on which fasting and abstinence are required.

See here for more on the discipline of fasting and see here for more on the discipline of abstinence.

 

One More Thing . . . 

If I may be permitted a personal observation, Ash Wednesday is spiritual marketing genius.

Give away free stuff–on a limited time basis–and people will show up in droves.

No wonder Mass attendance soars on Ash Wednesday, even though it’s not a holyday of obligation.

 

Looking for Something Good to Read This Lent?

May I suggest my commentary on the Gospel of Mark?

It goes through the whole text and provides fascinating information that you may have never heard before.

It also comes with a verse-by-verse study guide with questions that you or your study group can use.

And it comes with a lectionary-based study guide, so you can read along with Mark in the liturgy and ponder its meaning before or after Mass.

Right now, this commentary is available exclusively on Verbum Catholic software.

Verbum is an incredibly powerful study tool that I use every day, and I heartily recommend it to others.

I can also save you 10% when you get the commentary or one of the bundles of Verbum software. Just use the code JIMMY1 at checkout.

CLICK HERE TO GET JIMMY AKIN’S STUDIES ON MARK.

The Weekly Francis – 3 February 2016

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 1 January 2016 to 2 February 2016.

Angelus

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “As Christians, we cannot be self-centred, but must always be open to others and for others.” @Pontifex 28 January 2016
  • “Mary, Mother of Jesus, help us to share the wonders of the Lord with all whom we meet on the way.” @Pontifex 2 February 2016

Nazareth Residents: Who does Jesus think he is?

jesus teaches in the synagogueJesus meets an incredulous group of people from his home town in this Wednesday’s Gospel reading (Mark 6:1-6).

It’s a fascinating text, and it has a surprising number of interesting details.

Let’s take a look . . .

 

What Happened?

First, here’s the text itself:

He went away from there and came to his own country; and his disciples followed him.

And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”

And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.

 

Where is “his own country”?

This is presumably Nazareth, since his family is present (v. 3) and since the response he gets is very different than the one he received in Capernaum (Mark 1:21–37).

 

How do people react?

As Mark’s final statement (“and they took offense at him”) makes clear, people are incredulous when Jesus teaches in the synagogue. Their reaction is, “Who does Jesus think he is!”—that is, he is putting on airs and has gotten too big for himself.

The apparent wisdom of his teaching in the synagogue and the reports of spectacular miracles done elsewhere (e.g., the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, the raising of Jairus’s daughter) are too much to be credited to Jesus himself.

He is a fellow villager. He is “the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

 

“The carpenter”?

The reference to Jesus (not Joseph) as “the carpenter” indicates that Jesus had learned the family trade.

The Greek word used here (tektōn) indicates a person who works with wood, metal, or stone and not specifically a person who builds houses.

The second-century Judean writer Justin Martyr, in fact, indicates that Jesus’ father Joseph made plows and yokes (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 88).

 

Why isn’t Joseph mentioned?

The omission of Joseph in the list of family members, coupled with the identification of Jesus as the son of Mary, may indicate that Joseph is dead and somewhat faded from the memories of the villagers, with Mary being Jesus’ more familiar parent.

 

“Brothers” and “sisters”?

The precise relationship of the “brothers” and “sisters” to Jesus is not clear. What is clear is that they are not biological children of Mary. This is known from a variety of sources, both inside and outside the New Testament.

Mary was already legally Joseph’s bride (thus Joseph’s plan to divorce her upon learning that she was pregnant [cf. Matt. 1:19]). Thus, her question to Gabriel of how she would become pregnant (literally from Greek, “How will this be, for I know not man”) would be unintelligible if she were planning on a normal marriage with sexual relations between her and Joseph (Luke 1:34). She would have assumed that Joseph would be the biological father of the child.

Similarly, Jesus entrusting Mary to the care of the beloved disciple at the cross (John 19:26–27) would have been unimaginable if Mary had had other children.

The earliest explanation of who the brothers and sisters were, found in the second-century document known as The Protoevangelium of James, is that they were stepbrothers through Joseph.

According to this document, Joseph was an elderly widower who agreed to become the guardian of Mary, a consecrated virgin. Being elderly and already having children, he was not seeking to raise a new family and so was an appropriate guardian for a virgin. This theory is consistent with Joseph’s apparent death before the ministry of Jesus.

It is the standard explanation in Eastern Christendom of who the brethren of Christ are.

Shortly before the year 400, St. Jerome began to popularize the view that the brethren of Christ were cousins, and this view became common in the West.

Other views are also possible. They could have been adopted children, or the terms brothers and sisters could be used merely to mean his kinsfolk without distinguishing any particular degree or form of kinship.

 

A prophet without honor

In any event, Jesus was too much of a known quantity to the people of Nazareth, and “they took offense at him.” Jesus responds by telling them: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”

This principle applies even to people who are not prophets. Think of the common English saying “Familiarity breeds contempt” or the specifically British saying “No man is a hero to his valet.”

It is often difficult for those who are most familiar with someone to recognize his greatness or what God is doing through him.

Thus many find it difficult to evangelize their own families. Sibling rivalries and parental relationships often get in the way. For example, one can easily imagine a parent thinking, or even saying, “Who are you to tell me about God? I changed your diapers!”

As a result of their familiarity with Jesus, his own townspeople do not recognize his greatness, and “he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them.”

 

“He could do no mighty work”?

A “mighty work” would be one of the extraordinary types of miracles we read about in the previous chapter—Mark 5. We saw there, in the case of Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood, that their faith saved them from their desperate circumstances.

If there were people in such desperate circumstances in Nazareth, they did not have faith in Jesus and so did not seek relief from him. He does, however, perform a few lesser miracles.

Notice that faith is not conceived of as a magical, miracle-working power on its own that Jesus could manipulate like a sorcerer.

His power came from God, not from others’ faith, and he thus had all the power he needed.

Instead, the people’s lack of faith resulted in their not seeking Jesus’ help, and that is why no mighty work was done at Nazareth.

Those who may have been in desperate straights didn’t ask.

 

Jesus marveled

Though he knew that prophets tended to lack honor among those most familiar with them, Jesus still “marveled because of their unbelief.”

The Greek word for “marveled” here (ethaumazen, a form of the verb thaumazō) can mean to be extraordinarily impressed or disturbed, and the sense is likely that Jesus was chagrined at the lack of faith the people displayed.

In any event, he does not allow this to stall his mission, and “he went about among the villages teaching.”

 

Want to learn more?

It so happens that I recently wrote a new commentary on Mark’s Gospel!

It goes through the whole text and provides fascinating information that you may have never heard before.

It also comes with a verse-by-verse study guide with questions that you or your study group can use.

And it comes with a lectionary-based study guide, so you can read along with Mark in the liturgy and ponder its meaning before or after Mass.

Right now, this commentary is available exclusively on Verbum Catholic software.

Verbum is an incredibly powerful study tool that I use every day, and I heartily recommend it to others.

I can also save you 10% when you get the commentary or one of the bundles of Verbum software. Just use the code JIMMY1 at checkout.

CLICK HERE TO GET JIMMY AKIN’S STUDIES ON MARK.