Divine Revelation

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: Creation and the Incarnation – Miracles or Contradictions?”

Q: So I’ve been thinking a lot about God making square circles. And I’ve heard people say, well, it’s a nonsensical term. Or that it’s asking if he can make a contradiction. But what about creating the universe? Getting something from nothing, how is that not a contradiction? How does that make sense? What about God becoming man? How can a perfect God become an imperfect man? How can he die? So are these two miracles that we believe that God did, not a contradiction like him making a square circle or making 2 + 2 = 5? -R.V.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: There is a big difference between a contradiction and a fact of divine Revelation that is hard for our minds to grasp. A contradiction is easy to dismiss – it is simply nonsensical. It’s not that God is limited; it is simply that a contradiction makes no sense, it carries no real meaning.

As for creation and the Incarnation, those are mysteries that our minds cannot quite get a grip on. But that is a reflection of our limits rather than God’s limits. He is God, after all, and his power is infinite.

If creation seems hard to accept, then look at the alternative. That would mean the world wasn’t created, that it has always been here. But if that were the case, where did the world come from? It couldn’t create itself. If it wasn’t created by God, then he is not master over it — but that would imply that he wasn’t omnipotent.

And if the world were eternal (not created by God), it seems to rival the Almighty in some way. In this scenario the world didn’t need God, and it doesn’t need him to exist. Which, again, would imply God is not all powerful.

Hence, the account of creation makes sense, in that it reflects the fact that the world needed something or Someone greater to create it – which is where God comes in.

The incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity is a different kind of mystery. (Christ, by the way, was not an imperfect man; he is the perfect man.)

One thing we can be sure of: Christ was real. He rose from the dead. He did miracles. He showed he was God. By taking on human nature, he was also true man, and hence could suffer and die like the rest of us. Since he is also Truth itself, then we can believe all of this, even if we don’t totally understand it.

But that is OK. We are only human, after all. It is too much to expect us to have the same intellectual capacity as God. And if that is humbling — to not understand these two particular miracles — then that is good. We need lots of humility when dealing with the mysteries of God. I hope this helps.

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Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: What do Catholics base their beliefs on?”

Q: I’m taking a comparative religion course and am unsure of the answer of one of my questions. I was hoping you could help. The question is: “Aside from Scripture, on what else do Roman Catholics base their beliefs?” Thank you! -T.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: When we talk about Catholic “beliefs” we are referring to divine Revelation, that is, what God has revealed for our salvation. The height of Revelation is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who took on human nature. What Christ taught us was his Gospel.

Here, “Gospel” means the broad expanse of what God revealed in Christ; it doesn’t just mean the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament.

Revelation is handed down to us by Sacred Scripture (the Bible) and Sacred Tradition (with a capital T — not to be confused with mere traditions or customs). The Second Vatican Council’s document on Revelation, Dei Verbum, says in No. 10: “Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church.”

For most people it’s easy to understand Scripture as the word of God, even if some non-Catholic denominations don’t accept all the books of the Old Testament that the Church accepts.

What is harder to get a handle on is Tradition. Tradition is the oral transmission of Revelation. It complements Scripture.

Permit me to quote at length from Dei Verbum, No. 9: “[T]here exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.”

The Catechism in No. 78 explains: “Through Tradition, ‘the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.’ ‘The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer.'”

One could think of Tradition as the living memory of the Church. The Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit remembers what Christ taught. “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name — he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you” (John 14:26).

Why do we need to remember what Christ taught — isn’t it already in Scripture? In fact, Scripture itself gives an answer: “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). So Scripture didn’t record everything Jesus said and did. Were those “other things that Jesus did” lost and forgotten? No. They are, so to speak, in the memory banks of the Church. This is the stuff of Tradition.

Pope Francis, in a speech April 12, 2013, to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, said, “The Word of God therefore precedes and exceeds the Bible.” He could have also said that Tradition precedes and exceeds the Bible.

Why do I say that? Because we wouldn’t even have the Bible without Tradition. Think of St. Peter on Pentecost when he preached to the crowds and saw thousands of people baptized that day (Acts 2). What did Peter use to teach the crowds? The New Testament? No — the New Testament as we know it wouldn’t be compiled until years in the future. Peter instead relied on Tradition — the oral transmission of the Gospel message, what he learned from Christ.

Scripture needed the help of Tradition in order to be assembled. Look at the list of books in the Bible. Where did that list come from? It came from Tradition. How do we interpret the Bible? We rely on Tradition.

But where can we find the contents of Tradition? This is a complicated matter. Elements of Tradition are diffused. Elements of it can be found in the writings of the Church Fathers, in the liturgy, in the magisterial teachings of the Church (especially the popes and the Church councils). Guiding the whole process is the Holy Spirit.

All this might sound complex, and it is. But it all holds together. We couldn’t really understand Scripture without Tradition, and Tradition would likely dissipate without the anchor of Scripture.

I hope this helps you understand something of the bases of the Catholic faith. God bless.

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Alex Kucera

Atlanta

Alex Kucera has lived in Atlanta, GA, for the last 46 years. He is one of 9 children, married to his wife Karmen, and has 3 girls, one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. Alex joined Regnum Christi in 2007. Out of the gate, he joined the Helping Hands Medical Missions apostolate and is still participating today with the Ghana Friendship Mission.

In 2009, Alex was asked to be the Atlanta RC Renewal Coordinator for the Atlanta Locality to help the RC members with the RC renewal process. Alex became a Group Leader in 2012 for four of the Atlanta Men’s Section Teams and continues today. Running in parallel, in 2013, Alex became a Team Leader and shepherded a large team of good men.

Alex was honored to be the Atlanta Mission Coordinator between 2010 to 2022 (12 years), coordinating 5-8 Holy Week Mission teams across Georgia. He also created and coordinated missions at a parish in Athens, GA, for 9 years. Alex continues to coordinate Holy Week Missions, Advent Missions, and Monthly missions at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Cumming, GA.

From 2016 to 2022, Alex also served as the Men’s Section Assistant in Atlanta. He loved working with the Men’s Section Director, the Legionaries, Consecrated, and Women’s Section leadership teams.

Alex is exceptionally grateful to the Legionaries, Consecrated, and many RC members who he’s journeyed shoulder to shoulder, growing his relationship with Christ and others along the way. He knows that there is only one way, that’s Christ’s Way, with others!