Each day during the week of September 3 through 7, you'll find a new question and answer. Check back every weekday and scroll down to see that day's entry! Let us know what you think--or question!--by emailing us at tcanswer@osv.com»  

Question of the Day for Monday, September 3, 2007

What Does the Church Say About Labor?

Q. Here’s a question for Labor Day: Where would I find a good summary of the Church’s teaching about human labor — its spiritual value and meaning? --  R. H., New Orleans, LA

A. A happy Labor Day to everyone! The best place to look is in the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” published by the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, which can be found here». Check out chapter 6, entitled “Human Work.” While you’re at it, you’ll want to do some reading in the rest of the book — great stuff!

Someone once said that Americans tend to “work at their play, play at their worship, and worship their work.” In that light, here’s a good quote from the Compendium for all our fellow laborers who are taking the day off:

“Work is essential, but it is God — and not work — who is the origin of life and the final goal of man” (no. 257).

Question of the Day for Tuesday, September 4, 2007

What’s a “Personal Prelature”?

Q. Can you explain for me what a “personal prelature” is? -- J. Q., via e-mail

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

Personal prelatures are a relatively new type of organization the Church designed to meet specific pastoral or missionary needs. They are a sign of the active presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, and a fulfillment of Vatican II’s desire to renew the task of evangelization.

First discussed in the council’s Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests (Presbyterorum Ordinis, no. 11), personal prelatures were finally written into law with the new Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1983. Shortly after that, Opus Dei was established as the first personal prelature of the Catholic Church. So far, it’s the only one.

A personal prelature is made up of a prelate (who would usually be a bishop), clergy and, if it would be helpful for its task, lay faithful, all working together in harmonious and organic cooperation to meet specific needs of the Church. It is named a “personal” prelature to distinguish it from a “territorial” prelature, precisely because the limits of its jurisdiction are defined by personal characteristics of the faithful, and not by geographical boundaries.

A personal prelature is not a religious order (such as the Benedictines), nor is it an association of the faithful (such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society). It also can’t substitute for the local Church or diocese in which it operates. It is meant to complement them.

Canon law allows for a variety of personal prelatures being established to meet specific pastoral needs as they arise. For example, the Opus Dei personal prelature, founded by St. Josemaría Escrivá, helps lay Catholics and diocesan priests to become contemplative saints in the midst of their ordinary tasks and duties. It works toward that goal with very specific methods and attempts to equip its members and supporters with a profound doctrinal and spiritual formation.

Question of the Day for Wednesday, September 5, 2007

“Oremus pro Invicem”?

Q. I have a Catholic friend who signs all his correspondence with the words “oremus pro invicem.” What do they mean? --  L. D., via email

A. This is a Latin phrase that means “Let us pray for one another.” I use it sometimes myself; we could all benefit from more prayer!

 Two other phrases commonly appearing as a sign-off in correspondence: the Jesuit motto “Ad Majorem Gloria Dei,” which means “For the greater glory of God,” and the Franciscan blessing “Pax et Bonum,” which means “peace and [everything] good.”

Question of the Day for Thursday, September 6, 2007

Were All the Apostles Jews?

Q. Were all Christ’s twelve apostles Jewish? --  K. N., Boise, ID

A. Apparently all the Twelve were Jewish, since they worshipped (as did Our Lord) in the Jewish temple and synagogue and observed the Passover.

Though two of them, Philip and Andrew, had Greek names, that fact simply reflected the great influence of Greek culture on that part of the world in the first century A.D., especially in their home district of Galilee, where many Gentiles (non-Jews) had settled. As for Philip, when Jesus called him he displayed the kind of familiarity with Old Testament Messianic prophecies that would have been typical of Jewish men of his day (John 1:45). And as for Andrew, his brother Peter’s lifelong observance of the Jewish dietary laws (see Acts 10:14) suggests that they were raised in a Jewish home.

In some Bible translations Simon is called the “Canaanite” (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18). But the Greek word translated there should be understood to mean either “Cananaean” (someone from the town of Cana) or “zealous” (from a Hebrew term; he’s called the “zealot” in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13). In fact, Simon would have earned the name “Zealot” for his rigid adherence to the Jewish law.

Given that distinctions between Jews and Gentiles were quite sharp at the time when the Gospels were written, if any of the Twelve had been Gentiles it’s highly unlikely that the evangelists would have failed to note the fact. Observe, for example, how the Gospel accounts make a point of telling us when a primary character in the story isn’t Jewish: the Samaritan leper (Luke 17:16), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:7); the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22); the (presumably Roman) centurion whose faith Jesus said was greater than those “in Israel” (Matthew 8:10). 

 Of course, the Gospel was for both Jews and Gentiles, so it wasn’t long before Gentiles took their place alongside Jews as believers and even as bishops, the apostles’ successors.

Question of the Day for Friday, September 7, 2007

Muslim Beliefs About Jesus?

Q. What do Muslims believe about Jesus? That He was an imposter? Or maybe just a legend? --  K. N., Trenton, NJ

A. Muslims don’t see Jesus as either an imposter or a legend. But they don’t believe He’s the divine Son of God, either.

The book that is most sacred to Muslims is the Qu’ran. It refers to Jesus (“Isa”) as “a servant of Allah” (God) and a “prophet” (Sura 19:19-33; a sura is a chapter in the Qu’ran). In the Muslim view, He stands in a long line of prophets that includes many Old Testament figures, such as Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and Moses (Sura 2:136), and culminates in the greatest prophet, Muhammad. Jesus is even referred to as the “word” of Allah (Sura 3:45), echoing the New Testament title “the Word” of God (John 1:1).

 Islam reveres Jesus as a great prophet and actually honors Mary as His Virgin Mother. But Muslims deny that He is God, rejecting as blasphemous the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Sura 4:171). They also deny that Jesus was crucified (Sura 4:157).

 When Christians point out that such claims contradict the Revelation (embodied in Scripture and Tradition) handed down from Jesus Himself through the Apostles, Muslims generally respond that Jews and Christians have corrupted the revelation God gave them. So the Qu’ran must be used to correct the biblical account and also to fill in its gaps. It purports, for example, to provide details of Jesus’ birth that aren’t found in the Christian Gospels. 

 Islam accords considerable honor to Jesus, then, but it denies certain essential realities at the heart of the Christian faith: the Triune nature of God, the Incarnation, the atoning death and resurrection of Our Lord, and the trustworthiness of the apostolic tradition.