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“Ask a Priest: Jesus is God, so why does he say ‘the Father is greater than I’?”

November 11, 2014 / Ask a Priest

Q: In John 14:28, we read: “You heard me say to you, I am going away and I am coming to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.” Are not God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit equal to one another? What does Jesus mean when he says that the Father is greater than he is? -N.B.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: Jesus here is speaking in his humanity. As true man he recognizes the comparative greatness of God the Father. By taking on human nature, Jesus condescended to be like one of us in all things (except sin).

We might also venture to say that Jesus is also speaking as God. The Second Person of the Trinity was sent into the world by the Father. “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me” (John 4:34). It wasn’t the Son who sent the Father.

That notion, coupled with the revelation that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, implies that God the Father is a kind of “first among equals” within the Trinity. I say “kind of” in a loose sense. All three Persons are equally God.

The Trinity, of course, is a mystery that eludes understanding. Our language can’t begin to do justice to describing the dynamics of the triune God.

We can be sure, though, that Jesus is true God, equal in substance to the Father. Elsewhere the Gospel according to John affirms this. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). “The Father and I are one” (10:30).

Don’t worry if all this still seems mysterious. It is. And it will ever elude our capacity to totally understand it. I hope this helps. God bless.

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“Ask a Priest: Do Matthew and Luke contradict each other on Jesus’ early life?”

October 14, 2014 / Ask a Priest

Q: In Matthew 2, it says Mary, Joseph and Jesus were in Bethlehem, and (verse 13) after the wise men left, the angel told them to flee to Egypt. So they went to Egypt and stayed there till Herod died. But in Luke 2, Mary, Joseph and Jesus go to Jerusalem for their purification when Jesus is a baby, and verse 39 says then they returned to Nazareth where the child grew and became strong, etc. This seems like a contradiction. Can you explain? -T.D.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: There really isn’t a contradiction here. Rather, each Gospel writer is selectively using facts in order to convey a certain message.

The real sequence of events was probably this: Jesus was born, and then some weeks later he was presented in the Temple. Sometime later — possibly months or a year or more later — the magi visited. After the magi left, the Holy Family fled to Egypt. Then, after the death of Herod, the Holy Family returned to Palestine and settled in Nazareth. The Gospel texts seem to support this version of the sequence of events. I’ll explain why.

It is highly probable that the magi visited the Baby Jesus a significant amount of time after his birth. Two texts indicate this. Matthew 2:11 says of the magi, “on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.” The mention of a house indicates that the Holy Family by this time was more established in Bethlehem; Mary and Joseph no longer had to rely on a manger (a feeding trough for animals) for the Baby Jesus. They obviously had found better accommodations by then.

Matthew 2:16 goes on to say that Herod “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.” That passage indicates that Herod perceived a lapse of time of up to two years between the appearance of the star, the birth of Our Lord and the arrival of the magi.

The Gospel according to Matthew would have been keen to mention the flight into Egypt and the subsequent return since these events help show how Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures — in this case, Hosea 11:1. “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

The Gospel according to Luke, on the other hand, chose to emphasize (in quick succession) the Presentation in the Temple, the Holy Family’s return to Galilee, and the Finding of Jesus in the Temple at age 12. The writer, by choosing a simpler story line, could shift the scene from the Temple to Nazareth and back to the Temple again. That each Gospel writer was selective about details in the life of Jesus is obvious since the Matthew account doesn’t mention the Presentation or the Finding in the Temple.

Hence, we could say there is no contradiction in the Gospel accounts. I hope this helps. God bless.

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A Mother's Tears | A Regnum Christi Retreat Guide on Our Lady of Sorrows with Fr. John Bartunek, LC

A Mother’s Tears: A Retreat Guide on Our Lady of Sorrows

September 3, 2014 / Retreat Guides

Nothing compares with what Mary had to go through during our Lord’s passion: She stood by, helpless, watching Jesus being condemned unjustly, mocked, scourged and tortured, crowned with thorns, and crucified. Could anything be more horrible for a mother than to witness that happening to her only son? Jesus, being God, could have preserved her from that. He could have brought her home to heaven before those events occurred, for Instance, as happened with St. Joseph. But he didn’t. Somehow, his love for his mother included allowing her to suffer, and to suffer deeply, painfully, terribly. Why? That’s what this Retreat Guide, A Mother’s Tears: A Retreat Guide on Our Lady of Sorrows, will delve into. In this Retreat Guide, A Mother’s Tears, we will reflect on this amazing gift.

In the meditations, we will reflect on the meaning behind the ancient liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows, which the Church commemorates every year on September 15th.
And in the conference, we will unpack the meaning behind the traditional Catholic practice of “offering up” our sufferings.

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“Ask a Priest: Was Joseph Much Older Than Mary?”

July 4, 2014 / Ask a Priest

Q: Some friends and I are having a discussion about this. It would appear that St. Joseph was much older than Mary when they married. Was he widowed with children? -J.M.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: There is not much definitive teaching about the life of St. Joseph. The notions that he was much older than Mary and was married before seem to be rooted in the apocrypha, a body of literature that arose in the early centuries of the Church. Apocrypha, meaning hidden or concealed, dealt with esoteric things known to a chosen few.

The idea that Joseph was much older than Mary might have arisen in later centuries as a way to defend the belief in the perpetual virginity of Our Lady. The idea that Joseph had children from a previous marriage might have arisen to explain scriptural passages that spoke of Jesus’ “brothers” (see, for example, Mark 6:3).

There are arguments in favor of Joseph being young and virginal. For instance, he presumably had to be strong enough to support the Holy Family, and he was certainly perceived as being the natural father of Jesus. “Is he not the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55). That Joseph would have been virginal seems fitting, since Jesus from the cross entrusted his Mother to the disciple whom he loved. “Behold, your mother” (John 19:27). Tradition says that that disciple was the virginal John. (For further reading see Pope John Paul II’s letter on the person and mission of St. Joseph, Redemptoris Custos and an article).

The Gospels don’t say much about the life of St. Joseph. That he was “a righteous man” (Matthew 1:19) and the foster father of Jesus and the husband of the Blessed Virgin, says enough. I hope this helps. God bless!

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Fire & Thorns | A Regnum Christi Retreat Guide on the Sacred Heart with Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fire and Thorns: A Retreat Guide on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

June 2, 2013 / Retreat Guides

Pope Benedict XVI called devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus “irreplaceably important.” Pope Pius XI called it “the very epitome of our religion.” Why is this devotion so central? And if it is, how are we supposed to tap into it and live it to the full? That’s what this month’s Retreat Guide, Fire and Thorns: A Retreat Guide on the Sacred Heart of Jesus will explore. In the First Meditation, we will ponder the amazing invitation at the core of this devotion. In the Second Meditation, we will dig into the deeper meanings behind the symbols that Jesus himself chose to associate with this devotion. And in the conference, we will review the tried and true practices that can connect us more intimately to Our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart.