Catholic Replies
Q. What should I do with my Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite? I have the four volumes, but now I use the Internet. Is there somewhere I could send them where they would be used? — E.C., via e-mail.
A. We will ask our readers for their thoughts, but in the meantime have you asked any priests you know? Or what about a Catholic high school or college or seminary library?
Q. In a CD entitled The Dead Sea Scrolls, Dr. John Bergsma says that Jesus and His disciples could have been part of the Essene community, who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls and who were a sort of monastic, celibate group of men who thought that the Temple at Christ’s time had been defiled and therefore wasn’t suitable for animal Passover sacrifices. So they offered bread and wine to celebrate the Passover (Pope Benedict has also alluded to Jesus and John the Baptist having been exposed to the Essenes). Dr. Bergsma states that normally women would have been the ones to carry water. Jesus told His disciples when preparing for the Passover to follow a man carrying a jug of water, which would have been typical of Essenes.
Also, they celebrated Passover on Tuesday because their calendar was different, with only 384 days. The First Eucharistic Prayer states that “on the day before he was to suffer….” Is this a conflict with our tradition of Holy Thursday? — L.S., via e-mail.
A. As for the Essenes, they were, as Dr. Bergsma said, a monastic sect of Jews who lived primarily in the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, although some also lived in Jerusalem, and they may have used the Scrolls as their source of divine Revelation. It is a matter of scholarly debate whether Jesus or John the Baptist had any connection with them. The sect disappeared after Rome destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem in AD 70, and the Essenes may have been wiped out during the rebellion against Rome.
It is true that Jesus told two of His disciples who were looking for a place to hold the Last Supper to follow a man who would be carrying a water jar. Only women carried water jars in those days, so the sight of a man performing this chore would stand out. Jesus didn’t tell them to say anything to the man, just to follow him and, whatever house he entered, to tell the landlord that the Teacher wanted to know where He would eat the Passover meal with His disciples (cf. Mark 14:12-16). There is no evidence in the Gospels that the man was an Essene.
As for when the Last Supper was held, the three Synoptic Gospels say that Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist at a Passover meal on Thursday evening and died the next afternoon. John the Evangelist, however, suggests that Passover was on Friday night. Here are Scott Hahn’s comments in his Catholic Bible Dictionary (p. 681-682):
“Calendrical studies now seem to indicate that the chronology of John is correct with respect to the lunar calendar followed by the authorities of the Jerusalem Temple. Calculations indicate that Passover fell on Friday night in both AD 30 and 33, and in fact it never fell on a Thursday night between AD 27 and 34. Since nearly all scholars place the death of Jesus in AD 30, and none but the most radical historians would place it outside the window of AD 27-34, it follows that John’s account accurately depicts the date of Passover accepted by mainstream Jerusalem.”
The Essenes followed a solar calendar in which Jewish feasts always fell on the same weekday year after year, and they had Passover beginning on Tuesday night. Whatever the correct day is, we don’t expect the Church to change the days of the Holy Triduum.
Q. I am a third order secular Carmelite from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Community in Minnesota. We are committed to prayer and the apostolate in the world. It would be beneficial to us to have a priest spiritual director, but with the shortage of priests there are none to be found who have time for that. It would be great to have a little encouragement and direction in the confessional, but this too is becoming rare.
I have gone to the priests at my parish, and they give absolutely zero comment, except the prayer of absolution. I have gone to other parishes for Confession and have gotten the same response. What is going on with this? — K.H., Minnesota.
A. Granted there are not enough priests in some areas, and those who are serving are usually very busy, but it seems that you ought to be able to find someone to be a spiritual director. Do any readers in the Our Lady Seat of Wisdom area know of a priest or two who could help? Please let us know and we will contact K.H.
On the other issue, where there are priests who hear Confessions, they should be willing to take the time to provide encouragement and direction to penitents, if not in the confessional itself, then certainly at another time. With the decreasing number of Catholics going to the sacrament, it would seem that those who do go should be able to get some solid spiritual advice.
Q. When I asked you some time ago about what steps a former practicing Catholic who now denies the existence of God should take to return to the Church, you suggested that he should “speak to a reliable priest about his circumstances, go to Confession, take some remedial instruction in Catholicism, and make a profession of faith in the Catholic Church.” Since this person went through Catholic schools from kindergarten through college, is remedial instruction necessary? — E.G., Florida.
A. But can you be sure that his Catholic education was truly Catholic? Did he attend Catholic schools during the generation after the Second Vatican Council, when many Catholic teachings were downplayed or ignored or distorted? We don’t know the circumstances surrounding his departure from Catholicism, and his subsequent embrace of atheism, but did it have something to do with an inadequate or even false understanding of Catholic teachings? If so, then remedial instruction is necessary.
But even if he just drifted away and has been gone from the Church for a while, he needs a solid course on what it means to be a Catholic in a secular culture. Too many Catholics today, even those who have remained in the Church, are still getting by on what they learned in their youth. In a society where continuing education is a must in many fields, why not in the most important field of all — the pursuit of one’s salvation?
Q. Our archdiocese has a tradition of celebrating a Mass and holding a procession in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe every year on the Sunday closest to December 12, the feast of our Lady. I am confused by this since I have always understood that Sundays are reserved exclusively for worship of our Lord. It is the day of the Resurrection, and we gather as the People of God to celebrate this mystery of our faith. Can you shed some light on this? — D.C.B., Texas.
A. There are pastoral reasons for marking the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the Sunday nearest to December 12, especially in parishes where there is a large Hispanic population, because such a celebration will draw more people to church. The thing to bear in mind, however, is that even when honoring the Patroness of the Americas, the regular readings for that Sunday are used. Last December, the feast fell on a Saturday, and there were special readings for the feast, including Rev. 12:1-6 and either Luke 1:26-38 or 1:39-47. But in the largely Hispanic parish where we work, the feast was celebrated at the Spanish Mass on Sunday, and the readings were for the Third Sunday of Advent.
