|
Q u i c k Q u e s t i o n s
|
This Rock
Volume 3, Number 3
 March 1992 
|
|
|
Is our calendar pagan?
Q: Some folks say the Catholic calendar and its feasts are pagan in origin. They say the only feast days we should celebrate are those given in Scripture.
A: Yes, there are sects which hold such a position, but none of them can present a convincing case for criticizing the calendar or the feast days we have.
To call our calendar pagan is incorrect. Its framework, with its months, weeks, and days, is more accurately termed secular. It existed among the Romans and was reformed under Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar was reformed under Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and renamed the Gregorian calendar. The world uses it today.
The Church instituted feasts commemorating Christian persons and events and placed the feasts in the framework which the Romans had previously constructed. This framework should not be considered any more pagan than the roads, bridges, and ships built by the Romans and used by the apostles and the Church. If any sect thinks reverting to the Jewish calendar is somehow better and not pagan, it doesn't know the facts. The Jewish calendar is derived from the Babylonian calendar, and you can't get more "pagan" than that.
Q: I have seen some of your Catholic books that have quoted the Psalms. When I go to look them up in my Bible they don't say anything close to what you said they did.
A: It seems you're missing a basic point of difference between the organization of the psalms in the Protestant and (many) Catholic Bibles. Our citations are from a Catholic Bible; yours are not. Both list a total of 150 psalms. The Protestant Bible splits psalm 9 into two, making it 9 and 10. It then combines psalms 146 and 147. The result is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in between.
Q: Why do Catholics kneel during their services? This seems unnecessary. Why not just sit still and listen to the preaching of God's word?
A: If you attend a Catholic Mass you will see the first part of it consists of reading and preaching; we stand for the Gospel, but we sit for the other readings and for the preaching. But the Mass is more than just reading and preaching. The Mass is a sacrifice, and there are times--especially in the last part--when the faithful pray on their knees. Kneeling shows our humility before God.
Your question is a surprise because you probably should be asking yourself why you don't kneel in your Protestant services. Scripture suggests you should. In Ephesians 3:14 Paul says, "I kneel before the Father," and in Acts 9:40 Peter "knelt down and prayed." The Catholic habit of kneeling is consistent with Scripture and is another manifestation of the continuity between the Church of the first century and the Catholic Church of today.
Q: I can't believe anything religion teaches. I consider myself a rational person. I want to see something myself before I believe it. If I can't see it, then I don't believe it.
A: That is not being rational. To be rational means to use your reason, and you are not doing that. If you are going to limit your belief only to what you can detect with your senses, you are excluding a great deal of reality. The universe contains more than you can discover on your own.
If you depend only on what your eyes can see and nothing else, you are prone to error as well. Your eyes may tell you the sun rises and sets, but your reason (and your human faith in what astronomers, mathematicians, and physicists tell us) makes you realize the truth--the Earth moves around the sun.
There are many things, including spiritual things, that exist whether you have seen them or not. A person who declines to accept their existence is not working on the basis of sound reason, but on "blind faith," and someone who insists nothing exists beyond what his senses can detect--particularly someone who rejects out of hand the supernatural--might be called out of sync with reality.
We recommend you read Frank Sheed's best book, Theology and Sanity. (Unfortunately, we don't have any copies in stock, and we understand the book may have gone out of print.)
Despite the title, Theology and Sanity has nothing to do with psychiatry. Sheed said a man who rejects the supernatural is like a physician who rejects bacteria. You begin to think he isn't all there. A physician who says bacteria aren't real operates from prejudice, not science, and someone who says the supernatural isn't real operates the same way.
Q: I understand there are some things considered to be inspired and spoken by Jesus which do not appear in the Gospels. How can that be?
A: Be careful here. What you have said is correct, with qualifications. The technical term agraphon refers to something which was said by Jesus but which does not appear in the Gospels. It appears elsewhere in Scripture. "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35) is the most well-known example. It appears in Acts but not in the Gospels. The quotation is authentic and inspired because it appears in one of the inspired books and is attributed to Christ. Any quotations attributed to Jesus in books not in the canon are of questionable authenticity--in fact, we can't think of any that could be considered definitely authentic.
Q: A Catholic writer said many of the first English Bibles were in terrible error. This is a manifestation of Catholic prejudice against the Bible. The Bible is inerrant
A: You're missing the writer's point. There have been many vernacular editions of the Bible that can only be described as embarrassing. Some were filled with printer's errors, others with translator's errors.
In one Bible one of the commandments was printed without the word "not." This Bible became known as "the blasphemous Bible" because it said, "Thou shalt take the Lord's name in vain." Sometimes translations were odd to the point of misrepresentation. In one, Adam and Eve are described as wearing "breeches" made from fig leaves, but breeches are a fairly modern type of clothing.
Inerrancy does not mean printers and translators are protected from error. (Any writer can tell you that, and he'll throw in editors too!) Inerrancy means the Bible accurately conveys the religious truths God wants conveyed. The Bible never, when rightly understood, teaches error
Q: Let's make it simple. Non-Catholics need to become Catholics, period. This is urgent, so why not speak urgently? If it takes being tough, I say be tough.
A: For some folks, "being tough" translates as "being rude." Go ahead and be rude if you like, but you won't find yourself winning converts. If rudeness is what Catholicism produces as its best fruit, why should anyone sign up? We shouldn't be mamby-pamby, of course, but we should be kind and firm at once. We mustn't compromise beliefs, but we shouldn't use the rack either.
|
