Jesus’ Mysterious Resurrection Appearances (and more! Live Stream)

resurrectionIn this live stream, I tackle the following questions:

00:02 How should we understand the differences in the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ resurrection? Do they contradict each other?

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: How the Resurrection Narratives Fit Together

18:38 When did incense begin to be used in the liturgy?

20:25 When and in what order were the Gospels written?

RECOMMENDED BOOK: The Gospels for All Christians

RECOMMENDED BOOK: The Case Against Q

35:28 Have you heard of Catholic integralism as a political philosophy and what role will it play in American politics in the future?

37:31 John and Mark seem to indicate Jesus was crucified at different times. How do we explain this?

RECOMMENDED BOOK: A Daily Defense

42:20 Did Pope Francis deny the existence of hell in an interview with an Italian newspaper publisher?

45:10 Why doesn’t Francis more directly contradict what the newspaper publisher says?

46:50 Did you consider becoming an Eastern Catholic when you decided to join the Catholic Church?

52:14 What translation do you generally use for Bible study?

53:32 How common is the idea among scholars that John’s Gospel was written by a “community” rather than a single individual?

RECOMMENDED BOOK: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

The Weekly Francis – 28 March 2018

pope_francis_mass_20130314124558_640_480This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 11 March 2018 to 28 March 2018.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “To defend the earth and to safeguard water is to protect life.” @Pontifex 22 March 2018
  • “Now is the time to be reconciled with God. Staying on the path of evil is only a source of sadness.” @Pontifex 23 March 2018
  • “The Word of God invites us to connect our ears to our hearts, and our hearts to our hands, in order to do good deeds.” @Pontifex 24 March 2018
  • “We enter this Holy Week with the Lord Jesus in order to celebrate Easter with hearts that are renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit.” @Pontifex 25 March 2018
  • “Dear young people, never get tired of being instruments of peace and joy among your peers!” @Pontifex 25 March 2018
  • “Please, let us fight together against the crime of human exploitation, which continues to cause unspeakable suffering.” @Pontifex 25 March 2018
  • “Christ, teach us never to be ashamed of your Cross!” @Pontifex 26 March 2018
  • “Jesus changes our sins into forgiveness and our fears into trust. In His Cross our hope is reborn again and again.” @Pontifex 27 March 2018
  • “Anyone who turns away from the Cross, turns away from the Resurrection.” @Pontifex 28 March 2018

Papal Instagram

Secret Identities in the Gospel of Mark! (And More! Live stream)

In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:

00:01 Why does the Gospel of Mark contain references to people whose identities are mysteriously concealed? Why does Jesus give his disciples unusual commands that let people have plausible deniability? What do we know about the people involved?

18:41 Who was the young man who ran away naked? (It probably wasn’t Mark!)

32:32 How to answer people who say the Gospels were written far too many years after Jesus to be reliable?

36:21 If the earth is 6000 years old, how can we justify dinosaurs?

44:24 Did Jesus mean it literally when he advised the disciples to buy swords? Can we use weapons in self-defense?

46:42 Why do Catholics allow baptism by pouring when some other Christians insist on immersion?

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

The Weekly Francis – 21 March 2018

FrancisBlessesPalms

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 3 October 2017 to 21 March 2018.

Messages

Papal Tweets

  • “In order to prepare a truly human future, it is not enough to reject evil. We must build the common good together.” @Pontifex 15 March 2018
  • “Lent is the road that leads from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life.” @Pontifex 16 March 2018
  • “Jesus made Himself like the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies to give life. Our hope springs from that love-filled life.” @Pontifex 17 March 2018
  • “As we listen to the aspirations of young people, may we catch a glimpse of the world that lies ahead, and of the roads the Church is called to travel. #Synod2018” @Pontifex 18 March 2018
  • “Dear fathers, happy Feast of St. Joseph! Follow his example when caring for your children as they grow up in wisdom and grace.” @Pontifex 19 March 2018
  • “Nobody can be discarded, because we are all vulnerable. Each one of us is a treasure whom God allows to grow in his or her own way. #Downsyndrome, #WDSD18” @Pontifex 21 March 2018

Papal Instagram

The Mystery of the New Covenant (And More! Live Stream)

new covenantIn this live stream, I tackle the following questions:

00:01 What is the “New Covenant” that we hear about every week in church?

06:06 Does the doctrine of original sin just make things more complicated? Should we not have it?

09:29 Is it sinful to attend a Mass at an SSPX chapel?

13:09 How to understand Paul’s statements regarding women’s head coverings and women teaching?

17:14 Does Jesus transforming water to wine symbolize the New Covenant replacing the Old?

22:42 Why do some Bible not capitalize divine pronouns (e.g., by referring to God as “he” rather than “He”)?

29:33 Can a Protestant who believes in transubstantiation take Communion in a Catholic Church?

31:34 What is Jimmy’s personal preference on how to receive Communion? (On the tongue? In the hand? Standing? Kneeling?)

34:03 Should we be wary of dangers with the New American Bible?

47:24 How can we explain the sacrifice of the Mass?

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

What kind of prayers for sports teams are okay? (Weird Wednesday strange questions about faith!)

Tim-Tebow-Jets-Bills-Praying00:29 Remembering Stephen Hawking on the occasion of his death.

04:53 What kind of prayers for a sports team are appropriate?

12:42 Is it true that a medieval pope had a previous pope dug up and put on trial?

16:14 Have some saints and popes used tobacco?

20:46 If life exists on other planets, did Jesus incarnate there also?

28:18 Today would we keep a beheaded John the Baptist alive with pumps and stuff?

29:50 How much of your body mass can you lose before you lose your soul?

33:14 If a Catholic is eating a hot dog on a ship and crosses into a time zone where abstinence is required, is it a sin to finish the hot dog?

41:22 Could an artificially intelligent and sentient creature be saved? What is required to have a rational soul?

48:32 Throughout the series Black Mirror, a recurring theme is digital duplicates of human consciousness getting treated with cruelty as they are enslaved by and pitted against actual body-and-soul human beings. As Catholics, who are we rooting for? The humans or the AIs?

WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

The Weekly Francis – 14 March 2018

Pope Francis is having his "Inaugural Mass"? What's happens in this Mass, and why is it important?This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 13 June 2017 to 14 March 2018.

Angelus

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

General Audiences

Homilies

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “I thank all women who every day strive to build more humane and welcoming societies.” @Pontifex 8 March 2018
  • “In the Sacrament of Reconciliation we find our way back to the Lord, and rediscover the meaning of life.” @Pontifex 9 March 2018
  • “If we dedicate more time to prayer, our hearts will reveal the lies with which we deceive ourselves, and we will find true consolation in God.” @Pontifex 10 March 2018
  • “What would happen to us if God did not always give us the chance to start over again?” @Pontifex 11 March 2018
  • “Living the encounter with Jesus means allowing yourself to be turned inside out by Grace every day.” @Pontifex 12 March 2018
  • “When we allow Jesus to enter our lives we discover the secret to keeping alive the flame of our spiritual life.” @Pontifex 13 March 2018
  • “If we encounter Jesus and our brothers and sisters every day, our hearts will not dwell in the past or the future. They will live in God’s present moment, in peace with everyone.” @Pontifex 14 March 2018

Papal Instagram

Does God Pick the Pope?

DoesGodPickthePope

When Pope Benedict was elected in 2005, I was overjoyed.

As much as I loved John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke to me in a special way, and I was thrilled when he became pope.

I was puzzled, though, by the way people began announcing him as “God’s choice” and speaking as if—in every conclave—the Holy Spirit himself selects the pope.

It’s customary for people to speak that way in the jubilation that occurs whenever a new people is elected.

I knew that, but this was the first conclave I witnessed as an adult, and as a Catholic, and I hadn’t experienced it first hand.

That kind of language is understandable as a way of building confidence for the new pontificate, but is it literally true?

Does the Holy Spirit really select the best possible man for the job, or is it a form of pious hyperbole?

 

Common Sense

Common sense would suggest the latter. The cardinals in a conclave certainly invoke the Holy Spirit and seek his guidance, but he does not override their free will.

We’ve had some really bad popes in the history of the Church, and not just ones like Peter who made mistakes and then repented.

We’ve had some genuinely bad actors in the papacy (for example, Benedict IX, who reigned three different times between 1032 and 1048).

So in what sense can the election of a pope be said to be God’s will?

 

Divine Providence

Everything that happens in history takes place under God’s providential care.

By his omnipotence, God could stop any event from occurring, and so if something happens, it’s because God allows it.

The election of a pope thus can be said to be God’s will in the sense that any historical event can.

In this broad sense, however, the fact that something is God’s will does not guarantee that he approves of it.

It may be God’s will to allow a man to commit adultery, but that doesn’t mean he approves of the adultery.

Is the election of a pope in accord with God’s will only in this minimal sense or does it involve something greater?

 

Divine Guidance

While God does not override human free will, he does offer guidance. Jesus gave the Church certain promises in this regard, stating:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth (John 16:13).

And:

Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matt. 28:20).

God has thus promised to give the Church his guidance. He has also promised it to individuals:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him (James 1:5).

If an individual man seeks God’s guidance, he can count on it being given. This does not mean it will be easy to hear or understand, or that the man will act on it, but it does mean that God will offer his assistance in some way.

Similarly, when the college of cardinals seeks God’s guidance in a conclave, they can be confident he will give it. Indeed, given the weightiness of the decision facing the cardinals and the implications it will have for the entire Church, they can expect he will provide even greater guidance.

This does not guarantee that the guidance will be easy to hear or understand, or that the cardinals will act on it, but it does mean that God’s assistance will be provided.

By presuming the discernment and good will of the cardinals, we may presume the man they elect was chosen in accord with God’s guidance and thus that his election was God’s will in a greater way than if God merely allowed it.

 

A Marriage Analogy

We should be careful about assuming that there is only one correct choice for pope, for the process of selecting a pope is similar to the process of selecting a spouse.

Pop culture sometimes promotes the idea that everyone has a soul mate—a single, best individual that they should marry—but the reality is more complex.

Each marriage prospect has different strengths and weaknesses, and depending on who you choose, your marriage will unfold in different ways. But that doesn’t mean there is a single, best candidate you must find.

Even if there is, identifying that person with confidence cannot be humanly accomplished, given the number of factors and the number of unknowns in play.

Similarly, candidates for the papacy have different strengths and weaknesses. Depending on who the cardinals choose, the next papacy will unfold in different ways. But there may not be a single, best choice—or one that is humanly knowable.

 

After the Choice is Made

Once a selection has been made, however, a new mode of divine will comes into play.

In the case of a marriage, once you exchange vows, it is God’s will that you treat that person as your spouse.

The realm of possibilities that existed before has now reduced to a single person, and that person is your divinely ordained spouse. He ordained that you be spouses in the moment the vows were exchanged, and “what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matt. 19:6).

It’s now your job to make the marriage work, not to worry about what-ifs and might-have-beens.

Similarly, when a man accepts his election as pope, he becomes the divinely ordained pope, and it’s now everyone’s job in the Church to support him in the various ways that are appropriate to their station and to make the papacy work.

Spouses are not perfect, and neither are popes. Just as every marriage has challenges and requires work, so does every papacy.

 

Cardinal Ratzinger’s Views

When he was still a cardinal, Benedict XVI acknowledged the fact that cardinals can elect sub-optimal popes in an interview with German television back in 1997.

When asked whether the Holy Spirit is responsible for the election of a pope, he said:

I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the pope. . . . I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined (John Allen, The Rise of Benedict XVI, 6).

He continued:

There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit obviously would not have picked!

Similarly, in his final address to the college of cardinals, Pope Benedict stated:

Before I say goodbye to each one of you personally, I would like to tell you that I shall continue to be close to you with my prayers, especially in these coming days, that you may be completely docile to the action of the Holy Spirit in the election of the new pope. May the Lord show you the one whom he wants.

Benedict’s prayer that they will be docile to the Holy Spirit indicates the possibility that they will not be docile.

 

Implications for the Future

Nobody knows when the next conclave will be, but we can draw several implications from all this.

First, we can be confident from the fact that the cardinals seek God’s guidance that he will give it to them, as he has promised.

Second, even if they make a sub-optimal choice, we can be confident that God will ultimately bring good out of it, for “in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom. 8:28; cf. CCC 311).

Third, we need to pray. We need to pray now that good cardinals will be chosen, and when they meet in conclave, we need to pray that they will earnestly seek and heed God’s guidance.

Does the Second Coming Mean We’ll Never Have Space Colonies? (And More!)

space colonyIn this episode of Catholic Answers Live (March 8, 2018, both hours), Jimmy answers the following questions:
 
00:07 What are the Orthodox objections to the Filioque (“and the Son”) clause in the Creed, and what are reasonable responses?
 
09:52 What is the history of sacrificing animals to God?
 
17:14 Were the Great Flood and other Bible stories ripped off from the Sumerians?
 
28:47 What should one make of Fr. Raymond Brown and the Jerome Biblical Commentary?
 
34:58 Are all our future sins forgiven? How to answer this claim?
 
44:51 What is the status of the Johannine Comma? Is it inspired and part of the Bible?
 
51:51 What are some recent philosophers that we can learn from the same way that Aquinas learned from Aristotle?
 
1:02:14 Does Jesus returning to earth for the Second Coming mean that mankind will never establish colonies on other planets?
 
1:09:50 How to disagree with the pope without making it seem we’re anti-pope or “popier-than-the-pope”?
 
1:20:48 Could the Internet cloud be the Beast and our smart devices be the mark of the Beast?
 
1:29:53 If Mary was conceived without original sin, why did she die? Would Jesus have been spared a natural death if he hadn’t been crucified?
 
1:34:54 Does everything that occurs in our lives have a special divine purpose or do some things not have a special purpose?
 
1:39:34 What is the difference between development of doctrine and changing doctrine? Can doctrine ever change and become the opposite?
 
1:46:58 Did God instruct Abraham to perform an intrinsically evil act with the sacrifice of Isaac? How does this relate to God’s goodness?
 

Jesus and the Mystery of the Bronze Serpent

7_brass-serpent-crucifixionIn this live stream, I tackle the following questions:

00:01 How to understand Jesus’ reference to the bronze serpent in the desert? (John 3)

07:39 How can a Protestant with an illness receive healing through the Catholic sacraments?

18:09 If God used evolution to produce the human race, were Adam and Eve’s parents non-humans, and would they have had souls?

21:15 If a Catholic wants to marry an atheist, what does the Catholic need to do in terms of the wedding, etc.?

23:30 Should the Church mandate the Tridentine, Latin Mass for everyone to restore reverence?

29:27 Did Jesus appear to Mary after the Resurrection?

31:44 What’s the difference between being unworthy to receive Communion and receiving Communion unworthily?

34:43 What does Paul mean by “works of the Law” in Romans 3:28, given that he talks about sin and morals earlier in the chapter?

44:25 Who is the greatest member of the Legion of Super-Heroes?

45:34 Who created the Nefilim or giants in the Old Testament?

49:24 Is danger of death the only situation in which Protestants can receive Communion in a Catholic church?

52:05 How to answer Bart Ehrman’s charge that the New Testament contains contradictions that undermine Christian claims?

1:02:08 Why did John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God? How did he know this title?