Question of the Day for Friday, May 16, 2008

Helping My Neighbor?

Q. I hope you can answer a question for me. I have a hard time dealing with people. My nerves are bad. I’m anxious a lot. I want to do God’s will and help people, but I can’t go out and deal with them personally. So I give to two or three charities each month.

Does this count as helping my neighbor? I feel guilty about not doing more. Thank you and God bless.

Name withheld

A. Here’s a reply from TCA columnist Father Francis Hoffman, J.C.D.:

By giving to two or three charities each month you are helping your neighbor. So don’t worry.  You’re basically a good person in this regard because you’re generous and concerned about the welfare of people. Whether you should feel guilty about not doing more, I can’t say, because I’m not really in a position to tell how much you do for others.

It’s likely that no matter how much you do for God and for others, you might still feel you could do more. That’s okay, because, as someone once said, “We can’t outdo God in generosity.”

As for your social limitations and anxiety, that seems to be a separate issue which might be best taken up in spiritual direction or in counseling. At least I can encourage you to spend some time before the Most Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis: That’s the best remedy for anxiety known to man.

Question of the Day for Thursday, May 15, 2008

Letters on Easter Candle?

Q. What do the letters “P” and “X” on the Easter candle stand for?

Name witheld

A. What look to us like “X” and “P” are actually the Greek letters Chi and Rho, respectively. Chi (the equivalent of our letter combination “CH”) and Rho (the equivalent of our letter “R”) are the first two letters in the Greek word Christos, “Christ.”

 The Chi Rho, as it’s called, is thus a symbol of Jesus Christ. In addition to depictions of the two Greek letters side by side, they may be combined artistically in various ways: sometimes with the center of the Chi intersecting the leg of the Rho; sometimes with the Rho forming one of the four arms of the Chi.

 While we’re talking about Christian symbols made of Greek letters, we should note that the “IHS” (also “IHC”) sometimes seen in churches is not an abbreviation, as some have suggested, for “In His Service.” “I” (the Greek letter Iota), “H” (Greek Eta) and “S” or “C” (both used for the Greek Sigma) are the first three letters of the Greek Iesous, “Jesus.”

Question of the Day for Wednesday May 14, 2008

Reading for the Year of St. Paul?

Q. I read with interest your column in The Catholic Answer that mentions the Year of

St. Paul from June 2008 to June 2009. I am interested in obtaining information about any program(s) that can be used in the parish to discuss St. Paul’s Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles.
What I have in mind is a weekly Bible study program that would cover this material during the Year of St. Paul. Please help me identify a source(s) for materials or a syllabus to cover the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul's writings. 

F.H., via email

A. Our publishing company, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., will be offering St. Paul: A Catholic Bible Study by Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J., a fine biblical scholar and the popular host of EWTN Live. (Available in June; to purchase, go to www.osv.com). This book will include a reading plan for reading through Paul-related biblical texts in three months. Also available will be “Celebrating the Pauline Year,” a pamphlet and a Pauline Year Holy Card (also available in June).

 No doubt other Catholic publishers will be offering Pauline-themed materials as well. I hope Catholics everywhere will take advantage of every opportunity to rediscover the great Apostle during this year.

Question of the Day for Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Our Lady in Blue?

Q. Why is the color blue often associated with Our Lady?

U. F., Queens, N.Y.

A. Here’s a reply from TCA columnist Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.:

So far as I can determine, we seem to have inherited from the ancient Egyptians a tendency to associate the color blue with the divine. Perhaps this came about because of the association of heaven with the sky, which is normally blue. Some medieval Jewish rabbis in fact spoke of the blue sky as God’s throne. In any case, it seems that at least since the early Middle Ages, artistic representations of Our Blessed Mother have favored the color blue for her garments.

In modern times the color blue is a common symbol of purity or excellence (“blue-ribbon,” “blue chip”). These connotations today enrich the meaning of the association of this color with Our Lady.

Question of the Day for Monday, May 12, 2008

Did Jesus Ever Laugh?

Q. I enjoyed reading your answer to the Question of the Day for March 24 [found here],  which talked about “Easter laughter.” It got me to thinking: Why doesn’t the Bible ever talk about Jesus laughing? Did Our Lord ever laugh?

 L.N., Kansas City, Kansas

A. Those are great questions that I’ve asked myself as well. Let’s take the second question first: Did Our Lord ever laugh?

 Though the Gospels make no reference to Jesus laughing, I think it’s safe to say that He did in fact laugh, and probably quite often. Here’s why: The Church teaches us that Jesus Christ, though fully God, was fully human as well. What could be more human than laughter? Could we possibly imagine a fully human Jesus living his entire human life on earth, including his childhood, without ever laughing?

 Psychologists tell us that one of the common symptoms of certain kinds of psychosis is the inability to laugh. Laughter is a normal, healthy, natural aspect of the human condition; the inability to laugh is abnormal, pathological.

Just look, for example, at St. Teresa of Avila and St. Thomas More. They had a healthy sense of humor, and when we study their lives, we come to see that this characteristic is actually one aspect of their conformity to Christ, a result of divine wisdom and grace at work within them, an expression of Christian faith, hope and charity.

As for your second question: Why don’t the Gospels ever mention that Jesus laughed? My guess is that they saw no need to mention it; they would have assumed that their readers didn’t have to be told that He laughed just like everybody else.

At the same time, the four evangelists do record occasions when it would have been quite natural for Our Lord to laugh. Some of his remarks have a sense of slapstick humor: for example, the blind leading the blind and falling into a ditch; Pharisees straining gnats and swallowing camels; the folly of hiding a lighted lamp under a bed, where it would ignite the sleeper — bed, pajamas, straw mattress and all! (See Matthew 23:24; Luke 6:39; 8:16.) I can imagine Jesus saying all these things with at least a twinkle in His eye, if not a chuckle.

Luke 10:21 tells us that on one particular occasion Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” The Greek verb translated here as “rejoice” refers to exuberant celebration; it means literally “to jump for joy.”

Is it so hard to imagine Jesus leaping for joy like a small child as He spoke specifically (as noted later in the same verse) about the importance of being childlike? And if He did that, is it so hard to imagine that he was laughing just as a small child would have laughed while He jumped?

G. K. Chesterton concludes his wonderful book Orthodoxy with the intriguing speculation that the Gospels say nothing of Jesus’ laughter, not because He didn’t laugh, but because He laughed only when He was alone: “There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth,” Chesterton suggests; “and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”

Be sure to read the rest of that fascinating passage. (You can download the entire book free here.) 

For more about this matter, check out the chapter about humor (chapter 10) in my book Last Words: Final Thoughts of Catholic Saints and Sinners (Servant, 2007, available here.)

 Finally, here’s a correction from my friend Cal Samra, the editor of The Joyful Noiseletter, (click here), referring to the answer for March 24: 

“You were wrong on just one point: the ongoing post-Easter celebrations and festivals didn’t originate in Bavaria. They originated with the early Greek Christians, and there is an excellent (but out-of-print) book by a Franciscan priest detailing the history of these celebrations in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant traditions. At the request of our subscribers, we are now putting together our own book on the subject and its contemporary resurrection.” We’ll be looking for the book!