Q. Regarding the Magi following a star to Bethlehem, was this an actual star in the constellations or was this a one-time event? My second question refers to the statement in Matthew 1:25, “He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.” Does this mean that Mary and Joseph had sexual relations after Jesus was born? I thought she was ever a virgin. — R.M., via e-mail.
A. On the first question, Pope Benedict XVI, in his book Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, said that astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler (died 1630), have suggested that around the time Jesus was born there was a conjunction of the planets, accompanied by a supernova or bright star, that could have pointed the Magi first toward Jerusalem and then toward Bethlehem. Or it could have been a miraculous event. He quoted St. John Chrysostom as follows: “That this star was not of the common sort, or rather not a star at all, as it seems at least to me, but some invisible power transformed into this appearance, is in the first place evident from its very course. For there is…not any star that moves by this way.”
The Holy Father said that “much of the Church’s tradition has underlined the miraculous nature of the star, as in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 100 A.D.), who saw the sun and the moon dancing around the star, and likewise in the ancient Epiphany hymn from the Roman Breviary, which states that the star outshone the sun in beauty and brilliance” (pp. 97-98).
As for the second question, the problem is that we interpret the word “until” to mean that something happened after that. But in the Bible “until” means only that something had not happened up to that point in time. It does not imply, as it does today, that some action did happen later. The Greek word for “until” is heos, which always refers to the past and never to the future.
Consider an example from the Old Testament that shows how absurd this interpretation can be if the modern sense is applied to the Bible. In 2 Samuel 6:23, it says that “Saul’s daughter Michal was childless to [until] the day of her death.” Does this mean that she had children after her death? Of course not. Or look in the New Testament at Luke 2:36-37, which says that the prophetess Anna had “lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as widow until she was eighty-four.” This certainly doesn’t imply that Anna got married again after the age of eighty-four. Nor does Luke 1:80, which says that John the Baptist “was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel,” imply that John never returned to the desert.
Our belief today is the same as it was in the fifth century, when St. Augustine described the Blessed Mother as “a virgin who conceives, a virgin who gives birth, a virgin with child, a virgin delivered of child — a virgin ever virgin.”
Q. Is Joe Biden really a Catholic? — C.D., via e-mail.
A. President Biden was baptized a Catholic, and Baptism imprints an indelible character on the soul of the baptized, so Joe Biden really is a Catholic in the sacramental sense. But is he a Catholic in reality, that is, a person who follows all the teachings of the Catholic Church? The answer is no, as indicated by his fierce promotion of abortion, same-sex “marriage,” and the transgender insanity. He should heed the first public words of Jesus: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Q. At Mass recently, I noticed that our priest has dropped the word “one” from the Collect. He no longer uses the words “one God, for ever and ever,” but just “God, for ever and ever.” What is going on here? — R.B., via e-mail.
A. The change, which took effect in the United States on Ash Wednesday of last year, was prompted by a letter sent to English-speaking episcopal conferences in May 2020 by Robert Cardinal Sarah, then the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship. The reason for the change, said Cardinal Sarah, was because “there is no mention of ‘one’ in the Latin [Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum], and ‘Deus’ in the Latin refers to Christ.”
The English and Welsh bishops’ conference explained that “the addition of ‘one’ before ‘God’ in the conclusion of the Collects could be construed as mistaken and problematic. ‘Deus’ here refers to the earlier mention of ‘the Son’ and is a Christological, anti-Arian affirmation, and not directly Trinitarian in this context.” They said that the addition of “one” before God “could serve to undermine the statement of the unique dignity of the Son within the Trinity” or “could be interpreted as saying that Jesus is ‘one God.’ Either or both of these interpretations is injurious to the faith of the Church.”
Q. (1) Please give proof that man has a soul. (2) Please give the reason why the souls of brute animals do not survive death, while the souls of men do. — Name Withheld, North Carolina.
A. (1) If you have been to a wake or viewing of a dead person recently, what was missing from the person that they possessed when you last saw them alive? Their soul, which is the principle of life. Without a soul, we are not alive. Furthermore, the soul is the principle of such spiritual activities as thinking and choosing. Our material body cannot engage in these activities; only our soul can.
According to the Catechism, the soul “refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God’s image: ‘soul’ signifies the spiritual principle in Man.…The human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit …. The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body:
i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature….The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God — it is not ‘produced’ by the parents — and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection” (n. 363, 364, 365, 366).
(2) The souls of humans survive death because they are immortal, but the souls of animals are not. Animals have a life principle, but they are not capable or thinking or reasoning or making decisions. They act on instinct, not reason. As far as we know, the Church does not teach about the fate of animals after death. The Catechism calls them “God’s creatures” and says that “he surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory [cf. Matt. 6:26; Daniel 3:79-81]. Thus, men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals” (n. 2416).
However, said Fr. Benedict Groeschel in his book After This Life, “We can engage in some reasonable speculation.” He said that “it would seem to me that although animals can have no right to eternal life — as even human beings only receive this by grace — is it not reasonable to hope that an animal who has helped us along our way through life, and had a real share of our affections, may also be with us (recreated, so to speak) in our heavenly home? Some will laugh. Some will ridicule. But many will at least hope that they will find their animal friends, who have meant so much in this life, with them in the next” (p. 111).
Q. When there is no Mass on the first Saturday of the month, I pray the rosary and do the meditations and then go to Mass and Communion on Sunday. But now we have weekend Masses only for three months because of a shortage of priests, so that eliminates Masses for some first Saturdays. What can I do? — Name Withheld, via e-mail.
A. God does not expect us to do the impossible. If no Masses are available, you can at least pray the rosary and meditate on the mysteries. Jesus, and His Mother, will happily accept your best efforts, especially since you so faithfully observed the First Saturday conditions for so many years.
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