Q. When Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions,” what did He mean by “mansions”? — M.M., Alabama.
A. In this verse from chapter 14 of John’s Gospel, “mansions” is sometimes translated “dwelling places” or “rooms.” It does not mean that there will be separate places in Heaven for those, for example, of different religions.
What Jesus meant was that not all those in Heaven will enjoy the same degree of happiness. Each person will be perfectly happy in knowing and loving God, and will have all the joy that he or she can bear, but the degree of happiness will vary according to the life a person lived on Earth.
To use a weak analogy, think of the excitement of hitting a game-winning home run in the World Series. All players on the winning team are jumping for joy, but none can match the excitement of the one who hit the home run. So, too, those who led extraordinary lives of holiness on Earth will experience a deeper and more intense joy than those who led ordinary lives.
Talking to the Corinthians about our resurrected bodies, St. Paul said that “there are both heavenly and earthly bodies, but the brightness of the heavenly is one kind and that of the earthly another. The brightness of the sun is one kind, the brightness of the moon another, and the brightness of the stars another. For star differs from star in brightness. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:40-42).
In other words, those who loved God ardently on Earth, who bore trials and crosses patiently, and who seldom offended God through sin will have higher degree of happiness in Heaven than those who led sinful lives but turned back to God at the end and saved their souls.
Q. Do you have a recommendation about the “Amazing Parish” program? Is it the real deal or is it smoke and mirrors? — J.T., via e-mail.
A. Downloading some articles from the “Amazing Parish” website, we found that the program was started in 2013 by two Catholic businessmen, Pat Lencioni and John Martin, who wanted to bring to parish life the leadership and organization skills they learned in the business world. The program calls for creating strong and vibrant parishes by setting up teams of laypeople to help pastors “in leading the direction and priorities of the parish and bringing the rest of the staff, volunteers, councils, and parishioners on board.” The parish mission, they say, “includes everything from strategic decisions and inspiring people to operations and finances….A pastor is a better leader when he surrounds himself with good leaders and opens himself to their input and influence.”
They say that these teams differ from parish councils in that they are not “an advisory or oversight body,” but rather “an operating body” that is “actively involved in implementing the decisions of the team.” That sounds like a distinction without a difference to us. The value of these teams, like that of parish councils, depends on who serves on them. In our experience, some councils wanted to supplant the pastor in running the parish; others came up with ambitious programs that worked for a while, but then petered out.
We have come to believe that one can have competent people running certain programs (religious education, Eucharistic Adoration, liturgy, ushers, lectors, fund-raising, etc.) without having a council or team overseeing everything. Sure, a pastor could use help from competent parishioners in administration and finance, but does he need leadership teams to discern the mission of the parish? This might work if the members of the teams respect the authority of the pastor and assist him in a strictly advisory role, but it has been our experience, and perhaps yours as well, that these teams and councils often overstep the boundaries and try to run the parish themselves. Instead of “amazing parishes,” perhaps it’s more important to have amazing parishioners.
Q. Pope Francis has called for accompanying sinners rather than condemning them for their sins. But some people have interpreted this to mean excusing such sins as abortion, remarriage after divorce, and same-sex behavior. What do you think? — V.A., via e-mail.
A. We don’t think that’s what the Holy Father meant, but sometimes he says things in a way that leads to wrong interpretations. In his book False Mercy: Recent Heresies Distorting Catholic Faith, Christopher J. Malloy said:
“Holy accompaniment does not follow the wayward toward the edge of the cliff so as to watch them plunge into the abyss. Holy accompaniment strives to pull straying friends out of the muck of error rather them letting them wallow in it. Holy accompaniment searches for the right time, the right words, and the right gestures for fruitful advice, while always keeping the goal in mind. It avoids the extremes of passivity and of aggression, of apathy and pressure. Holy accompaniment presents the full truth judiciously, gently, clearly, and in due season.
“We must follow the path of holy accompaniment. We must not withhold gifts from our brothers in the faith. These gifts are not ours to hoard, as though we were embarrassed Pelagians; they are God’s to share. God intends the Catholic religion for everyone. If we are truly working to serve God, we will not refrain from offering our brothers the full truth. We must use tact, of course, but never deception” (pp. 223-224).
Q. You mentioned the Antichrist in a recent column. What are we to believe about this evil being? — D.E., California.
A. The Antichrist is specifically mentioned only in the letters of St. John (1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3, and 2 John 7), and John identifies this person as “whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist” (1 John 2:22). St. Paul doesn’t use the word “Antichrist,” but talks about “the lawless one . . . the one doomed to perdition who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god” (2 Thess. 2:3-4).
Paul goes on to say that “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord [Jesus] will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming, the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned” (2 Thess. 2:8-11).
While some historical figures, such as the Roman Emperor Nero and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, and even the Pope (!), have been labeled as antichrists, the common Catholic interpretation is that the Antichrist is a real person who will engage in a final apocalyptic struggle with Christ before the end of the world.
To the question of whether Catholics are to believe that the Antichrist is a real being, Fathers Leslie Rumble and Charles Carty answered this way in volume three of their Radio Replies:
“The Antichrist is a reality, and not just a myth. We are not allowed to suggest that Almighty God would inspire the Sacred Writers [of the Bible] to set down myths for our instruction. Antichrist will be a reality in the sense God knows and intends. Is Antichrist to be an individual being, or rather a general sense of unbelief? We are free to interpret the future reality in either sense. But authors think that more probably Antichrist will be some definite human being because St. Paul calls him ‘the man of sin’ — an unbelieving and immoral beast who will come by the power of Satan. That is the more general interpretation. But it is not a defined article of faith, and Catholics are obliged to believe simply that some great force opposed to Christ will arise prior to His Second Coming — a force which will deceive many members of the Church and drag them into apostasy” (p. 148).
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