Claretian Teaching Ministry

God, by his providence pre-plans all that happens to us. Recognizing that theological and scriptural truth can help us face the daunting challenge of trusting in his love. “Lord, all your ways are prepared in advance, and your judgments are with foreknowledge.” (Judith 9:5). But knowing that God (by his positive or by his permissive will) is in some way the source of our hurts and our troubles, does not mean that we should succumb to the heresy of quietism, by doing nothing at all to improve a bad situation; Vatican II made that clear in the Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes. Otherwise, we would have to close down all orphanages, schools, hospitals, courts, prisons, voting booths, etc.

Calm and rational concern that seeks ethical solutions to problems is not anxiety, but maturity. Anxiety is a negative emotion, corrosive and stressful. “Have anxiety for nothing,” says Paul in his prescription for inner peace (Phil. 4:6-7). Five times, anxiety (called “worry”) is forbidden by Jesus (Matt. 6:25-34).

In his commentary on that gospel passage, St. John Chrysostom asks, “Of what use would all our cares, anxieties, and troubles be to us if they only served to torment us? Our anxiety about a problem only increases the pain that arises from the problem itself. Anyone invited to a banquet doesn’t worry about going hungry. The providence of God is an inexhaustibly rich banquet, so do not be uneasy; do not cherish any misgivings. Be at peace in knowing your needs will be fulfilled. Place your trust in the Providence of God, aborting any anxiety; such worry only tortures your mind uselessly. Whether or not you are disturbed, God remains ultimately the source of these troubles; he may even increase them until you learn to trust his loving providence without anxiety.”

St. Augustine, commenting on psalms 6 and 38, writes, “If God provides for the wicked—his enemies—“sending his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45), won’t he take care of you who are not evil-minded? He created you; won’t he take care for you? He took care of you before your problem; will he stop his care for you now, during your hurt—and afterward?

John H. Hampsch, cmf

A teacher sent a note to a pupil’s mother: “Take your son out of school. He is too stupid to learn anything.” The pupil was Thomas Edison.

Rash judgment is unfounded “labeling” of people negatively. It’s the sin most frequently committed and least frequently confessed.

“Prejudice” means simply pre-judgment. Most pre-judgments are “rash” and  found to be false; hence, prejudice has the connotation of being injurious.

Scripture chronicles many examples of God defending and supporting victims of rash Judgment. Tobit (2: 9-14) falsely accused his wife of stealing a goat. Later, he weeps in remorse for his rash judgment. Sarah, daughter of Raguel, was falsely accused of killing her seven successive husbands, each on their wedding night. Raphael Archangel responded to both, Tobit and Sarah, first, by curing the eye disease of Tobit and then leading his son, Tobias, to happily marry the unjustly accused Sarah, the victim of serious rash judgment. Through Archangel Raphael God defeated Asmodeus, the demon whose evil intervention had killed Sarah’s seven husbands. The Lord vindicates those judged rashly (Matt. 5:11-12).

Note St. Thomas’ definition of rash judgment (Summa Theologica, Quest. 60, art 2): “When the human intellect lacks certainty, as when a person, without any solid motive, forms a negative judgment on some doubtful or hidden matter, it is called judgment by suspicion or rash judgment.”

Rom. 14:3-4: Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their Lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Rom. 14:13: Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.

1 Cor. 4:5: Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

Matt. 7:1: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.

For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

Luke 6:37: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.

Rom. 2:1-4: Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?  (It’s hypocrisy, if you foster the same faults you condemn in others)…Or, do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Even if you rightly judge the failure of another, all are subject to God’s forgiveness through repentance.

One pastor set up a “book of complaints” for parishioners berating other parishioners, and asked each complainer to sign his or her complaint as testimony to be read publicly when each accused person was to be publicly confronted. Hundreds made complaints, but no one signed their   complaint. For the entire year, no signature was found in the book.

Let us pray that our “book of complaints” at the end of life will be blank.

John H. Hampsch, cmf

By bringing God to the human race, Mary became the model of the Church in that same function – a function for which it is called to be “without stain … holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27). It was thus appropriate for God to predestine her to pattern his ideal for the Church, by keeping her immaculate and unstained.

To the serpent (Satan) in the Garden of Eden, after the “Fall,” God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head” (Gen 3:15). In this passage (called the “protoevangelium” or “prefigured Gospel”) the word “he” refers to the woman’s offspring, which in the Hebrew text is a masculine word, logically leading Christian tradition to refer to the woman’s offspring as Christ; who else but Christ, by the redemption, would crush the head of the serpent? If this offspring of the woman is Christ, then the “woman” must be Mary, referred to prophetically, not Eve. The prophesied “enmity” between Satan and this woman, Mary, bespeaks an uncompromising opposition between the initiator of sin and a sinless woman, who was most highly graced or “full of grace” as totally sinless.

Mary, as the God-assigned “enemy” of Satan, would have to be one who had never been under his dominion by either original or personal sin, in order to be maximally worthy to tabernacle in her body the “Offspring” prophesied in Genesis – the sinless God Incarnate – and bring him forth to redeem a sin-filled world.

The prophesied victory of “crushing” the power of Satan would not be a meaningful victory if the conquering Redeemer had assumed his body from a woman who had been subject to the Adversary (which is the very meaning of “Satan”). Christ’s victory would have been only a Pyrrhic victory if his suffering and glorified Body – the very instrument of the victorious redemption (1 Cor. 11 :24) – had been drawn from a mother who had been contaminated or “conquered” by his enemy through sin. Christ would not derive his sinless body from a mother’s body that had been even slightly sin-contaminated.

These are a few of the multifarious insights that the Spirit has delivered to the Church in the gradual Scripture-based development of Mariology through the centuries. The theological insights mentioned here deal with only one Marian privilege – her Immaculate Conception.

Let us never weary of praising God, as Mary did, for all she has received from him for us to enjoy and admire. Truly, “he who is mighty has done great things” for us by doing such great things for Mary, as “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” As part of “all generations” that will call her blessed, let us admire and honor God’s splendiferous masterpiece; in doing so we will be implicitly honoring the divine Artist himself who fashioned her.

“Glad You Asked” by Fr. John Hampsch, CMF

You are correct in stating that the Bible names Jesus as the only mediator between God and humans (l Tim. 2:5; Acts 4:12; Heb. 7:25). However, in each of these citations, as the context shows, it refers to him as redemptive mediator (Savior or Redeemer). Mary’s mediatorship is non-redemptive; it is only petitionary (impetrative) mediatorship, just as your own mediatorship would be if you prayed to God for me at my request. No Scripture passage states that Jesus is the only intercessor or prayer mediator – although he is the greatest one (Heb. 7:25, 9:24; Rom. 8:34; Is. 53:12; 1 Jn. 2:1), and the one through whom all prayer must ultimately pass to reach the Father (Jn. 14:6).

Vatican II states (Lumen Gentium, art. 62) that no creature, even Mary, can be put on the level of Jesus, the only Redeemer. However, just as Jesus’ singular eternal priesthood is shared by both his ministers and the laity in various ways (I Pet. 2:5), and as his one goodness is radiated among creatures in various ways (l Tim. 4:4), so also his unique mediation does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold shared mediation, in petitionary form, within which Mary’s is preeminent.

It was this petitionary mediation that Paul requested of the Ephesians, asking them to pray “for all the saints [believers]” and he “prayed” for them to pray for himself (Eph. 6: 18-19; 1 Thess. 5:25), while he himself prayed for others (Eph. 3:16; Col. 1:3), as did Epaphras (Col. 4:12). Mary’s intercessory power with Jesus is of the same type as that of St. Paul and Epaphras, and the same as yours or mine, namely petitionary. But as the “highly favored one – full of grace” (Lk. 1:28), hers is far more powerful, as evidenced by her successful intercession for the embarrassed host at the Cana wedding, persuading Jesus to work his first miracle, even before his planned time (In. 2:4).

Mary in heaven is not deprived of that intercessory power that she exercised on earth, since heaven is a place not of deprivation but fulfillment, as implied in Hebrews 11 :40. Even in the Old Testament we find examples of deceased persons (Jeremiah and Onias) prayerfully interceding for the living (2 Mac. 15: 12-16). Those in heaven have more prayer power than they had on earth, for they are not faith-limited in heaven, since they see God directly (Job 19:26; 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 In. 3:2).

In response to your assertion that Marian devotion “distracts” from Christocentric devotion: Vatican II in the Constitution on the Church (art. 51) states, “Let the faithful be taught that our communion with those in heaven [by veneration] … in no way diminishes the worship of adoration given to God the Father, through Christ, in the Spirit; on the contrary, it greatly enriches it.” In the treatise on Mariology the same document states that Mary’s salutary influence “flows from the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation … and draws all its power from it. It does not hinder in any way the immediate union of the faitlhful with Christ, but on the contrary, fosters it … it neither takes away nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ, the one Mediator” (art. 60 and 62, quoting a formulation of St. Ambrose).

Your phrase, “praying to Mary,” shows a misunderstanding common to both Catholics and non-Catholics, regarding Mary’s role in our devotion. The Catholic Church does not teach us to pray to Mary or to any saint; if the phrase “pray to” is used in the strictest theological sense, it can be said that we pray only to God. But we do “prayerfully address” Mary, asking her to pray for us and with us to God, as in the Hail Mary: “pray for us sinners … ”

Thus, Mary’s mediation is not a “relay” system; she does not relay our needs to God as if they go through her to him. Rather, our prayers to God “parallel” her prayers to God for us, like two arrows going simultaneously Godward, in tandem. Mary doesn’t stand “between” us and God to forward our prayers to him, but exercises her mediatorship by joining us in a fellowship of prayer, as mandated by Jesus: “If two of you agree to ask anything … ” (Mt. 18:19).

“Glad You Asked” by Father John Hampsch, C.M.F.

PSALM 34*

Thanksgiving to God

Who Delivers the Just

I

I will bless the LORD at all times;

praise shall be always in my mouth.

My soul will glory in the LORD

that the poor may hear and be glad.

Magnify the LORD with me;

let us exalt his name together.

II

I Sought the LORD, who answered me,

delivered me from all my fears.

Look to God that you may be radiant with joy.

and your faces may not blush for shame.

In my misfortune I called,

The LORD heard and saved me from all distress.

The angel of the LORD, who encamps with them,

delivers all who fear God.

Learn to savor how good the LORD is;

Happy are those who take refuge in him.

Fear the LORD, you holy ones;

Nothing is lacking to those who fear him.

The powerful grow poor and hungry,

But those who seek the LORD lack no good things.

III

Come, children, listen to me;

I will teach you the fear of the LORD,

Who among you loves life,

Takes delight in prosperous days?

Keep your tongue from evil,

your lips from speaking lies.

Turn from evil and do good;

Seek peace and pursue it.

The LORD has eyes for the just and ears for their cry.

The LORD’s face is against evildoers

to wipe out their memory from the earth.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears

and rescues them from all distress.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted,

saves those whose spirit is crushed.

Many are the troubles of the just,

but the LORD delivers from them all.

God watches over all their bones;

not a one shall be broken.

Evil will slay the wicked;

those who hate the just are condemned.

The LORD redeems loyal servants;

No one is condemned whose refuge is God.

New American Bible

It is very definitely indicated in Psalm 139:13 that God’s personal regard for the embryo begins from the time of conception, when it is referred to as a person: “You formed my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (”Me” indicates personhood, not just an organism.) If it is a person that is killed by abortion, then abortion is murder.

The Psalmist continues (vs. 16): “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Thus abortion not only aborts the child, but also it aborts the ordained plans of God for that child.

The modern science of biogenetics affirms that all genetic features to be later developed in the adult are already present in the fecundated ovum from the very beginning: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. .. ” (vs. 14). Ecclesiastes 11:5 reminds us, “As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything,” including the unborn child. Destroying a human life made to the image and likeness of God is a very serious matter, not something like killing a cockroach.

In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord says to the prophet, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I consecrated you.” Thus it is seen that we humans have an identity in the mind of God that is “from everlasting” obviously prior to conception by those natural processes that bring about the miracle of human life (see Job 31:15). Beyond that fact, the Jeremiah passage emphasizes the staggering truth that God has a definite plan and purpose for our lives, and that each of us really matters to him. Consequently, anyone who takes a human life at any stage will have to reckon with God. In Genesis 9:5 God tells Noah, “From each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellowman.” Abortionists and women planning abortions should consider this interdiction seriously.

In Isaiah 49: 1 the prophet says, “The Lord called me before my birth. From within the womb he called me by my name.” Like Jeremiah, Isaiah was called before birth, as was the Apostle Paul, from his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15). All this makes it obvious that personhood is present before birth, and taking the life of a person is homicide (apart from cases where the right to life is forfeited, as in cases of crimes deserving of capital punishment, and cases of self-defense – including national self-defense in war).

It is interesting to speculate how the U.S. Supreme Court would answer the question, at what point in the gestation period of Christ in Mary’s womb was the “Word made flesh” as a human? Or, to speak the unspeakable, if Mary had an abortion, beyond what point of her pregnancy would that have meant the death of Christ? After one month? After one day? After one minute? Or to rephrase the question, when did the miracle of the Incarnation take place? Was it not at the very moment of conception? A serious consideration of this major biblical event would put the abortion issue in perspective.

John the Baptist before birth (Lk. 1:41) manifested the fulfillment of the prophecy of the angel to Zechariah (vs. 15) that he (John) would be “filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” This occurred when he was six months into gestation (vs. 36). The Holy Spirit doesn’t fill a “blob of tissue,” but a human being. Hence, if this human being had been aborted at that time, clearly it would have been murder.

In biblical times, incest reaped the death penalty (Lev. 20:11, 12, 14, 17, etc.) for the perpetrators, but not for the child that might be conceived from the incestuous relationship, thus supporting the protection of innocent human life, no matter how sinful the act that brought that life into being. Thus the Bible has something to say to those who tolerate abortion only in cases of incest or rape. Abortion in any case is still murder.

Other biblical passages that indicate personhood from the time of conception include Psalm 51:5. “I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” This statement about original sin inherited from our protoparents Adam and Eve would not have any meaning if the embryo were not human from the moment of conception.

In early biblical times, the closest thing to abortion was infanticide at the time of birth, as when the Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all male Hebrew children at birth (Ex. 1:16). God punished this baby-killing by sending “defiling floods” on the land (Wis. 11 :7).

Ultimately, the whole abortion issue, in biblical terms, is summed up by the words of God through Moses in Deuteronomy 30: 19: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

“Glad You Asked” by Fr. John Hampsch, cmf

There are many thousands of objections and questions that deal with the proper interpretation of God’s word (that’s the basis of apologetics as a science). This is because of what Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:14: “There are many things [in Paul's writings] which are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest….you lose your own stability.”  Weak-faith Christians will tend to “lose their stability and see their faith crumble unless they find convincing answers to such doctrinal conundrums as the immutability of God in the face of many scriptural references that seem to indicate that God sometimes “changes his mind,” and shows “regret” or “repents” of his former decisions, etc.

Of course God is intrinsically immutable–unchangeable; otherwise he would not be God.  Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man that he should lie, not a son of man, that he should change his mind.”  1 Sam. 15:29 uses almost the same wording. Hebrews 6:17 says, “God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear…”  You probably don’t need his proffered support to make that truth very clear, but if you do, check out the following:

Mal. 3:6 says: “I the Lord do not change.”   In the New Testament, Jesus says, “My words will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35); see also Acts 4:28 and 2 Cor. 1:20. James 1:17 refers to ”the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” The list of pericopes on this subject of God’s immutability goes on and on.

(additional scriptural references: 1 Kings 8:56,   Job 23:14,   Ps. 33:11,  Ps 102:27,   Prov. 19:21,   Eccles. 3:14, Is. 14:24,  Is. 31:2,  Is. 46:10).

But the Scriptures also speak of God “repenting” or “regretting,” even for having created man (Gen. 6:6-7), and for having made Saul to be king (1 Sam. 15:11, 35). It seems that God had a “change” of heart or intent. Such statements are simply the sacred writers’ use of a journalistic technique called “anthropomorphisms” or subjective “humanizing” of God to describe him and his actions that cannot be easily understood except by envisaging them in accordance with our human way of thinking and acting. Thus, we speak of Jesus sitting “at the right hand of God”, though God as pure spirit has no “right hand.” We speak of the “eye” of God being on us, though he has no “eye.”  Thus, “the finger of God,” the “anger” of God–as if it were a human emotion, etc.; there are hundreds of similar references, like: “You shall be as gods,” or “Man is a little less than God” (Ps. 8:5).

Some similarly confusing passages presume that the reader-audience is aware of the distinction between the human and divine natures of Christ in his one personhood: “The Father is greater than I”; or, “Not my will but your will be done” ; “Not even the Son of Man knows the day or hour of the tribulation.”  Hundreds of confusing Scripture passages make the Bible “difficult to understand,” as Peter says (above). Without the exegetical interpretation presented by the Catholic Church’s magisterium, we Catholics would end up with the confusing multitude of doctrinal interpretations of the current 18,300 non-Catholic denominations worldwide.

But back to the main question: How can God’s will (plan or providence) be immutable if he seems to change it in answer to petition prayer, etc., as well as being re-directed from threat of punishment–like Moses’ prayer that “changed God’s mind” and prevented the Israelites’ near extinction?

Classic theology–especially that of St. Thomas Aquinas–demonstrates that God has two dimensions to his will–positive and conditional. His positive will is never “changed”, but that same divine will in its conditional mode, can be “fulfilled” or “non-fulfilled” by its interaction with the free will of humans or angelic spirits.

Thus, God, by his positive will, desires or wills the salvation of all men (1 Tim. 2:4). But his conditional will is: “I will save you IF you repent. I will work the miracle of healing that you want IF you have enough faith, trust, perseverance, etc.”; I would have answered Paul’s prayer for healing of the “thorn in the flesh”–the evil spirit of infirmity (a “messenger of Satan,”  Paul calls it in 2 Cor. 12: 7)–IF I had not seen a better response in my divine mind–my divine power manifested more perfectly working through human weakness, instead of curing that weakness” (verse 10).

Notice the “if” in God’s will–IF you repent; If you have enough faith, perseverance, etc.; IF my divine mind sees a better direction than you see in your human anguished petition, etc., etc. This makes it seem as if God changes his mind when a condition is fulfilled. No–His positive will always remains unchanged, and even his (conditional) will is not really “changed”–it is fulfilled–often by the apparently God-controlling decisions of us humans–who are empowered for this by virtue of the fact that we are made to his image and likeness.

+++++++++++++++

Yes, all do indeed have a personal guardian angel. And the full acknowledgment and realization of that truth should utterly transform the life of anyone, just as the many angelic apparitions mentioned in the Bible transformed the lives of those who saw them. Either seeing or truly believing that you have the awesome privilege of a personally assigned guardian angel would convince you, for instance, that there is no such thing as solitary confinement; the loneliest widow in the world would no longer languish in loneliness or self-pity; those tempted to lust would find it unthinkable to sin in the presence of their heavenly companion; those tempted to discouragement or despair would be reinvigorated by the radiant presence of their angel companion, etc.

For those angels assigned to us individually as guardian angels, their main function seems to be that of guarding and protecting us: “He will command his angels … to guard you in all your ways, …. so you will not strike your foot. .. ” etc. (Ps. 91:11-12).

The teaching about the existence of personal guardian angels (as distinguished from teachings about angels in general) is a doctrine of the Church classed as proxima fidei, that is, as a consistent and scripturally supported teaching that is affirmed by theological luminaries such as St. Jerome and St. Thomas Aquinas (whose extensive writings on angels earned him the title “Angelic Doctor”).

There is a class of evil spirits (fallen angels) known as “familiar spirits” (referred to in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles and Isaiah), so called because they become familiar with our weaknesses so as to attack us in those areas. Likewise, there is a class of holy angels, at least one of which is assigned by God to each human; they too become familiar with our weaknesses and strengths, and are commissioned by God to protect us, to inspire us, to pray for us, to encourage and support us in trials, etc. All holy angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve” (Heb. 1:14), but those ministering spirits assigned as special protectors of individual humans are those traditionally called guardian angels.

Do all have guardian angels, or only righteous persons?

St. Jerome and St. Basil held that serious sin drives away one’s guardian angel, leaving sinners vulnerable to spiritual and perhaps even physical hurt in life’s spiritual warfare. Although this is somewhat conjectural, and perhaps contrary to Jesus’ remarks about God’s indiscriminate beneficence to saint and sinner alike (Mt. 5:45), still there may be some basis for the conjecture. God does withdraw many favors from those who disobey him (Deut. 28:15-68). Psalm 91 promises angelic protection “if you make the Most High your dwelling” (verse 9): it refers to God-lovers: “because he loves me … I will rescue him” (verse 14). “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear (reverence) him” (Ps. 34:8). And Scripture clearly states that angels are “sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14). Although it is possible that God may send angels to protect those who will not inherit salvation, yet there is no scriptural indication that he does so.

“Glad You Asked” by Fr. John Hampsch, cmf

Angels are referred to in Scripture more than 300 times. In general, angels are ministering spirits (Heb. 1:14), and as the Greek word for angel (angelos) signifies, their primary ministerial role is acting as messengers (2:2).

God’s myriads of angels, “mighty ones who do his bidding” (Ps. 103:20), are beings with a superlative intellect and incredible power. Of the nine angelic “choirs” or orders, referred to in various places in Scripture, our guardians belong to the order closest to the human level. As angels, they are lower than archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim and seraphim. Yet their abilities and intelligence and holiness are inconceivably greater than ours. Having such an angelic companion is better than having super-holy Superman as our private intercessor, servant, bodyguard, and friend.

“Glad You Asked” by Fr. John Hampsch, cmf