Father Knows Best—Episode 23: Liturgy; Life at the Time of Jesus; Sacraments in the Bible

Liturgy; Life at the Time of Jesus; Sacraments in the Bible

Tune in so we may discover, learn, and engage our hearts, souls, and minds and become illuminated, informed, and inspired. Send in your questions to Fr. Mark via e-mail at fatherknowsbestshow@yahoo.com.  The program is sponsored by St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, NE. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I have questions. I don't understand. I'm confused. What's going on? This is not what I learned in school. What does the church really teach? Welcome to Father Knowles Bush, the studios of 88.1 FM, KFA C Pankasu City, and K-O-I-A. Storm Mike. Brought to you by the St. Augustine Indian Mission, Winnebago. We all have questions and the curiosity about matters of faith as it is normal for humanity to ask questions and seek answers in the timest for understanding regarding matters of faith in the church. We believe that there is no such thing as a foolish or dumb question. And I say the only dumb question is the one that is not asked. And the reality is that the questions you have are like questions others have, and so it is good to ask. Sometimes an answer leads to more questions. Sometimes the questions and answers will lead us to insights we never considered. We at Sioux Land Catholic Radio want to invite our listeners from Jackson, Nebraska, to Elk Point, South Dakota, to Stromlick, Iowa, and everywhere in between and beyond, send your questions to us at Father Knows Best Show at Yahoo.com. Or mail them to Father Knows Best, Sioux Line Catholic Radio, 701 West Fifth Street, Sioux City, Iowa, 51103. During this time, once a week, I or another guest will do our best to answer some of the questions I've received here at the studio so we may discover, learn, and engage our hearts and souls and minds, so we may be illuminated, informed, and inspired. So I thank you for tuning in. We invite you to open your mind, let the questions begin, and let your curiosity find its voice. I'm Father Mark Stoll, Priest of the Diocese Sioux City, with you again today. And joining me is Tim Soudin, Executive Director of Sioux Line Catholic Radio, presenting some of the questions I've received from your listeners. How are you doing today, Tim?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

I am doing wonderful. I have learned so much from these nights that we spend together, Father, that I cannot tell you that I believe I'm becoming a better Catholic. So I hope that happens out there in the listening area too.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Excellent. I'm hoping it's helping me too because again, I'm learning so much along with everybody else. So again, thank you to Ann for being here again to help us sound good here. She's at the control board. And so let's dive into some of the questions that I received. And so, what's our first question? A faithful listener sent you this request. Please define what the word liturgy means. Thank you for that request. Again, it's a word that we often kind of just throw around. And kind of let's dive in a little bit what that word means. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1069, we find a wonderful definition of liturgy. Liturgy is defined as the public work of God, that is the church's official worship in which the people of God participate. And this, of course, is based on the original meaning of just public work or service on behalf of the people. And this, again, what has led us to use this word today, it's a participation of the people of God in the work of God. And so it's through the liturgy that the church, excuse me, this is through the liturgy that Christ continues his work and redemption in, with, and through the church. And so liturgy is just not an outward ceremony, but is the church's public worship in which Christ acts and unites the faithful with his priestly work. And so, in short, the word liturgy refers to any time that we gather for public worship for God, including the celebration of sacraments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, which is the Mass, of course, matrimony, holy orders, reconciliation, anointing of the sick. We also, of course, liturgy includes liturgy hours. It's the prayer that are prayed by priests, deacons, and religious each day, which includes morning, mid-morning, midday, mid-afternoon office readings, evening, night prayer. And in short, liturgy is the public work of God. It's the church's official worship of which we, the people of God, participate. That's what liturgy is. Very good. I think that's your question.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

That's a very thorough answer.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Thank you. And that's again a very short, you know, easy question to take care of.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Another faithful listener sent you this interesting question. In Jesus' time, everyone walked. Where did they, or what did they do at nightfall? Were there any outhouses along the way?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Thank you for that interesting question. Yeah, um, very interesting. Um, so again, yeah, most people walked, and again, there was a few people that would have uh horses, mules. Remember, Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, you know, riding on a donkey. Um, again, some people had carts, but again, travel is not the same as it was today. It's just a much more simpler way of life back then in Jesus' day. No modern conveniences such as no cars, buses, telephones, TV, radio, you know, whatever it might be. And so in Jesus' day, again, most people travel was by foot, maybe by animal, horse, mule, or donkey. Again, if you could afford one, and maybe by cart. But travel at night, we also know it would have been dangerous at that time, dude, because there's no headlights, there's no um, yeah, I'm just saying, there's no headlights on horses, no headlights on carts, and they were thieves. And so again, we hear about that. For example, you may remember the famous story of the Good Samaritan, is the guy is you know robbed there along the road. So at night, when night came, most people traveling foot in Jesus' time would have needed to stop and find a place to spend the night in a town or in a home or maybe some lodging with other travelers. Again, there's you know, another consideration with uh their journeys would be that it would need to be closely related to their daily routines, you know, the time for prayer, uh, time for you know, need for water and for food. And so wells, you know, were uh would have been a major stopping point, you know, late in the day, for example. Um again, you know, people would need to find shelter before dark, you know, even before sunset. So again, we see a good example of this mentioned when Jesus is traveling with his disciples and they stop in a town in Samaria called Sakar, and Jesus, you know, they stop at a well and converses with a Samaritan woman at the well. Again, beautiful long story there. So again, that's another example where we kind of see evidence that you know they need to stop for the night, and they're gonna it's so again they're stopping at the well. So now, when it comes to sanitation needs and the use, such as use of outhouses, again, based on historical information that I did a little research on, you know, that's available, you know, along rural roads, for example, we could say there was no outhouses. I know I'm not sure when the outhouse was invented. I know George Washington had one then in Mount Vernon. And it was an interesting outhouse. Have you looked that up sometime? But there was, of course, no rest stops, you know, convenient facilities like we see along our modern interstate highways. And thus, if nature called, or if there was some other bodily need, they would likely need to go off the path when necessary and do what they needed, maybe behind a tree or a bush, as you know, one might do when you're camping in a secluded place. Um again, they would need to maybe have to wait until they got to a village or town which might have some sort of facility. Uh, again, we you know we hear about uh like the Roman baths and things like that, so I'm not sure exactly what they would have had there in Israel regarding you know the conveniences like the quote, the convenience that the Romans had. But again, I'm not entirely sure what type of facilities have been available, but however, there must have been some type of latrines because Jesus makes a reference, you know, one of his his he's talking about impure and pure actions and speech, and he he mentions latrines, and so there must have been some sort of retreat, latrines utilized at his time. But again, from what I know and what I've researched, you know, we don't know much about their daily sanitation habits from the various writings, including we know very little in the scriptures. Um again, there's a brief mention about King Saul at the time of David going into a cave to relieve himself, but again, that's about very little uh information about that. So the most of the evidence that we'd have their sanitation needs would probably have disappeared due to the natural decay of waste materials. Again, we'd have to be looking at what archaeologists are digging up, you know, remains of garbage pits or latrines or whatever. So again, I had you know haven't found anything specific on that in my little research I did. But obviously we knew that they would short it before nightfall, maybe even before sunset, most travelers would need to have sought out shelter in a city, town, or village, and then you know, do their business as best they could without any outhouses on the roads. So I hope this answers your question because you know this question takes a little bit into the gutter, if I could say.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Let me have a follow-up on that.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Go right ahead.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Okay. So when Jesus was ready to leave, he tells his apostles, do not take an extra pair of sandals. Yes. Do not take an extra tunic. Yes. So he made the assumption that they would find friendly people somewhere along each town. It may not be the town that they first went to, but eventually, so they would take them into their houses, so there were no hotels or anything like that. Right. It was just staying at somebody's house.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Well, there was there had to be some sort of ends because remember Mary and Joseph get to Drathram and there's no room in the inn. And so they were, you know, they said, okay, the stables available. But yeah, I probably at that time, you know, people had guest rooms, and so you just I I need a room for the night. Yep. And it's like, yep. So again, if we even go back to um Abraham, the idea of hospitality was very key to them, to the Jewish people. And so if someone needed help, they would be hospital. I have a room for you. You know, might be real not real convenient, but I got a place for you to stay.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

You know, I I think in my mind that is the ultimate show of faith in Christ. That they didn't take anything extra with them. There was no food, no nothing. They just assumed that God would take care of them. Right. That's the ultimate view of faith as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Exactly. And so, again, there was hospitality offered. Uh some of the details, you know, that we take for granted today. Not mentioned, so totally agree. But they'd be they'd be fine. They'd they'd have uh a way to take care of their needs. Correct. Very good. So if you're just tuning in, you're listening to Father Knows Best, believe it or not, if we just talked about latrines, we're listening here on Shootland Catholic Radio, and I answer as I answer your questions that uh I received about the faith in the Catholic Church. I'm Father Mark Stowe joined by Tim Soudine, who is presenting some of the questions I've received from you, our listeners. And so let's go to a third question tonight.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

From another faithful listener, we have this question: Where in the Bible do we find the sacraments mentioned, and how many of the sacraments are found in the Bible?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Very good. Thank you for that question. Again, that's a very popular question. And the first, I'm going to answer the second part of the question. All seven sacraments are mentioned in the Bible, specifically in the New Testament and the New Scrap in the Christian scriptures. And so now the question is where do we find mentioned these sacraments that are instituted by Christ? So let's start with baptism, the very first sacrament that makes us a member of Christ's family. And so there are is some first foreshadowing of baptism in the old and the old testament, in the Hebrew scriptures. You know, for example, the great flood in Noah's Ark, found in Genesis chapter 6 to 7, a crossing of the Red Sea, found in Exodus 14, and the curing of Naaman the leper, found in 2 Kings chapter 5. Now, in the Christian scriptures, the New Testament, we find, of course, John the Baptist baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah, which of course is Jesus Christ. And of course, we also see John baptizing Jesus. Then there are two verses in John chapter 3 that seems to indicate Jesus also baptized. I'm going to clarify. So John chapter 3, verse 22, it says, Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. Well, then we go to verse 26, and it says, it mentions people going to John the Baptist and reporting that Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you're testifying, he is baptizing and everyone was coming to him. Well, then we go to the next chapter, chapter 4, verse 1 and 2, and it seems to be a little clarification. It says, Jesus himself was not baptizing, just his disciples. Thus it seems that maybe Jesus was not personally baptizing anyone, but he had taught his disciples to baptize, and thus this activity was being done by his disciples, but attributed to Jesus. So there again we see some baptism going on there. Then we get to Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, right before the ascension. Jesus says to his apostles, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And finally, we have numerous references in the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Peter and Paul and other the apostles about baptizing people or to the effects of baptism. And so these are just some of the places we find baptism mentioned in the New Testament, in the Christian scriptures. Then we come to sacrament of confirmation, which completes our baptism. In canon, or even excuse me, in the Catechism Catholic Church, paragraph 1286, it says, The Old Testament, we find in the Old Testament the prophets announced that the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon the hoped-for Messiah for his saving mission. We find that, for example, in Prophet Isaiah 11, verse 2, and chapter 61, verse 1. Then in the New Testament, there is reported the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus and his baptism by John, again as a sign that he is the one who's to come, the Messiah, the Son of God. Again, we find that in Matthew chapter 3 and also then John chapter 1. Of course, we know that Jesus, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and throughout his whole life and mission, was seen. You know, we see carrying out this, he's with total communion with the Holy Spirit, whom the Father gave to him. And then, of course, we see several occasions where Jesus promised this outpouring of the Spirit, you know, towards the end of, well, in the middle, about Luke chapter 12, verse 12, and John chapter 3, and again John chapter 7, and again John chapter 16. So again, Jesus continually talks about this outpouring of the Spirit. And then he fulfills his promise. In John chapter 20, verse 22, we find on the first Sunday, first Easter Sunday, Jesus gives the apostles the Holy Spirit. And again, more clearly in Acts chapter 2, verse 1 to 4, we have the Holy Spirit come upon the apostles at Pentecost. So that's confirmation. The third sacrament is the Eucharist. The obvious place we find in the scriptures, of course, is the gospel counts of the Last Supper, where it says on the night before Jesus was betrayed, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples, saying, This is my body. Then he took a cup of wine, blessed it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my blood. And then, of course, there's other references made to the sacrament of the Eucharist, the holy sacrifice of the Mass. In the other places in the scriptures, including we see the disciples traveling with Jesus to Emmaus on the afternoon of the first Easter Sunday. They recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The Acts of the Apostles and largely the apostles report on the early church gathering together for the breaking the bread. And then, of course, if you go even before the Last Supper, we see in John chapter 6 the foreshadowing of the Eucharist when Jesus gives his famous bread of life discourse. And then you go back to Exodus, the Passover meal. Again, another foreshadowing of the Eucharist. And so these are some of the accounts, you know, the accounts of the Last Supper in the Gospels are the primary source that says Jesus instituted the Eucharist, you know, done, you know, instituted by Jesus himself. And he says to us, do this in memory of me. That's the Eucharist. I'm going to talk a fourth sacrament I'm going to talk about is holy orders. Again, this is again another institution of this sacrament that is done by Jesus. It's again the sacrament that ordains men as priests, and this occurs, of course, occurs at the Last Supper. And it's very subtle. In John, we find the account of then the washing of the feet, and Jesus says, As I have done, so you must do. And of course, we know that Jesus is the high priest. And so he confers that on his disciples through that washing of the feet. But also in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, again, Last Supper, Jesus says, Do this in memory of me. So he's instructing them to offer this new sacrament of the Eucharist as he has done. And of course, we also see in Luke chapter 22, verse 19, again at the Last Supper, Jesus gives the apostles authority related to offering and to sacramental ministry. We also see, of course, the sacrament of holy orders rooted back in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. Again, we see the priestly ordinations of Aaron and his sons in Exodus and Leviticus. And then again, go back again to the New Testament. Again, Jesus gives power to his apostles in John chapter 20, verse 21 to 23, as he says, As the Father has sent me, I send you. So again, conferring of that to them. In addition, we see the apostles ordaining others by laying on hands upon them, what we call an apostolic action in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 6, verse 6, we hear about the apostles praying and imposing hands on seven men chosen to be deacons, and thus there's the source of the holy orders for deacons. In 2 Timothy verse 1, chapter 1, verse 6, St. Paul mentions laying on hands on Timothy. Again, he puts him in charge of a community. And again in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 4, it states, One does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was and his four sons, found in Exodus chapter 20, verse 1. And also when Paul and Barnabas begin their first journey, the apostles lay hands on them and sends them forth on their first journey. So right there we see what we call apostolic succession. The passing on of Jesus' high priesthood as bishops and priests from one generation to the next by laying on of hands. I'll come back to some of this more details in a little bit. Let's move to the sacrament of matrimony. This sacrament has its origin first in the book of Genesis when God creates Adam and Eve. As I stated in Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, it says, This is why a man leaves his father, mother, clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. And then this is all about stating that the union of one man and one woman is what God intended. And I'm going to point out, like all the other sacraments, Christ does not issue a formal decree saying, I hereby now institute matrimony as a sacrament. Instead, he establishes and clarifies the meaning and the purpose of marriage, you know, by how he says things or what he does. You know, by he talks about restoring God's original plan. Again, this is part of how we're going to recognize Jesus' institution of matrimony. And what I mean by that is when we look at Matthew chapter 19, verse 3 to 9, the Pharisees come to him and ask him about divorce, and Jesus points them back to creation, back to what I just pointed out in Genesis chapter 2. And Jesus says, God created them male and female. It was God's intention that spouses become one flesh. And he states what we call the indissolubility principle. He says, What God has joined together, let no one separate. In Mark chapter 10, verse 2 to 9, we also find the same controversy. And Jesus' response is, From the beginning of creation, God made the male and female, man and woman, and the two become one flesh, let no one separate. In Luke chapter 20, verse 27, 38, we find Jesus answering a question from the Sadducees about resurrection, namely about whose per you know, whose spouse is this person going to be in, quote, the next age. And then this statement assumes that marriage belongs to this age, and Jesus responds, those who belong to this age marry, and are given to marriage, but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection of the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. And again, finally in John chapter 2, we find the account of Jesus and the disciples going to a wedding in Cana, and basically he blesses the wedding with wine changed from water. And while he says nothing about marriage in that case, we see Jesus basically blessing the couple just simply with his blessing. And so those are some of the references that we have that says that Jesus intends the sacrament marriage to be a sacrament. Let's move to sacrament of recollection, also known as the sacrament of confession or penance. In the Old Testament, again, there's pre-configuration of the sacrament as God instructs Moses on how to offer sin offerings. And so you can read all about it in Exodus and Leviticus and other places. Then in the Gospels, we see Jesus, of course, offering forgiveness of sins for the many people he that are presented to him before he heals them. And again, remember the case where they lower the paralytic down through the roof? Yep. And Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees have this kind of how who how can he forgive sins when only God can forgive sins? And so there's a little discussion there. But then we get towards the end of the Gospels, Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 21 to 23. Again, I mentioned this a little bit earlier in the relationship to the Eucharist. Jesus says to the apostles, As the Father sent me, I also send you. Here's the key words receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. And so right there is a reference of forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins that Jesus then imparts onto the apostles, which of course are the first priests, first bishops of the church. Then in Matthew chapter 16, verse 19, when Jesus says to Peter, I give you the keys of the kingdom, he then says, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosened in heaven. Again, very similar words about forgiving or letting go or binding or loosing, etc., etc. Matthew chapter 18, verse 18, again, Jesus is addressing the issue of another person's sins. He says, similar words. Again, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And so these verses, for example, are referring to the power that Christ gave to his apostles, the first priests, first bishops, to forgive sins. Then we come to the seventh sacrament, the sacrament of anointing of the sick, which of course we talked about in the last two episodes, in episodes 21 and 22. Again, the clearest reference to the institution of this sacrament by Christ is found in the letter of James, chapter 5, verse 14 to 15. And there it says, Is anyone among you sick, he should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of the faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. And so, in cases of sickness, we know that a Christian would should ask for the presbyters of the church, as St. James says. Again, those presbyters, aka priests, bishops, have the authority of the church, authority of Christ, to pray over the sick person and anoint them with oil. Oil again, used for medicinal purposes in the ancient world. We see this in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 6, and also in Luke chapter 10, verse 34, mentioned about oil being used to pour over a person's wounds. In Mark chapter 6, verse 13, we see the twelve apostles being sent out to preach repentance, and Jesus sends them out to anoint the sick with oil on the missionary journey in the name of the Lord, by the power of Jesus Christ. And all this goes back again to ancient times when oil was used to anoint prophets and kings. So there's some of that foreshadowing again. And so, in summary, for each of the sacraments, seven sacraments, we do not see again Jesus issuing a clear decree saying, I firmly declare and institute this sacrament. But we see Jesus giving instructions andor giving examples to his disciples on what to do. And in response, we see that apostles did as they were instructed. They went out, they preached, they baptized, they cured the sick. We also see, of course, that the celebration of sacraments are not quite like they were originally when Jesus instituted. We've developed them over time. And so the sacraments that we celebrate today, as we celebrate them today, have all the roots back to what Jesus said and did. And so I hope that answers your question. Let me again do a follow-up here. You betcha.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Okay. So when Jesus was spoken speaking to the crowds, he had many conversions. Yes, crowds converted, converted. But there was no formal conversion. These crowds were never baptized or confirmed. They were just turned from non-believers to believers. There really was no formal event that caused them to do that. It was just their faith became.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Now, you know, through the authority, we have developed some of these sacraments that to provide this meeting that you know was intended at the beginning or that Jesus did. So yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

I I I think it's very important to recognize that there really was no formal event that took place. They just began to believe. So I think for the listeners out there, I think that that that's a really important thing. Exactly. Is that you can turn from a non-believer to a believer in a very short period of time. Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

And again, as time developed, you know, then they the rituals start developing so that you know we were consistent. We're not just making things up so that we stayed true to what Jesus had done to begin with. Agreed. So very good. So that's you know, that's how we got the sacraments. So again, very good. It's a great question. Great question.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

It's a great question. And it really is centralized to our faith. I mean, each of those sacraments is so central to our faith. Yes, they are. That it just it it probably re represents the Catholicism in a nutshell, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

And again, what we do today again is we're basically repeating what Jesus did, maybe a little more you know, formal sense, but we're following what Jesus asked us to do. I love it. Exactly. So, Tim, I think we're coming to the end here. So we are how about next episode we talk a little more about the holy oils that we use in some of the sacraments and maybe about the first priests and bishops and and changes of names, and we see what other questions we'll get into.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

I think this is so exciting to find these different pieces of Catholic information that we really don't think about very often. Oh, yes. They're kind of deep in the recesses of our minds. Exactly. But but they don't come out until they come out in the form of questions. So I think this is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

We'll be back next week. So again, Tim and I and Anne, of course, we really appreciate you tuning into Southern Catholic Radio as we offer national local programs, including Faith in Action, Draw Near, Life Plan, Catholic Ministry Professional, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and of course Sunday morning mass. Please check out our Facebook pages on Sue Line Catholic Radio and Father Knows Best for more information about this show, including more information about the questions and answers I've addressed, and even more information that I've not addressed in the show. As we wrap up today's question and answer session, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in and sharing your thought-provoking questions, your curiosity, engagement, make the show possible, and we're always inspired by the incredible range of topics you bring to the table. We hope you found the answers both informative and enlightening, and that you'll carry some new insights with you as you go about your week. And if your question was not answered today, you may hear answered next week. If you missed this episode, would like to re-listen to this or other episodes, please visit our website, Sue Lancatholic Radio.com, and zoom visit the programs drop menu and click on local programs to find this episode and other episodes of Father Knows Best and other local programs. If you have any questions, please send your questions to me at father knows best show at yahoo.com or mail them to Father Knows Best, Sue Lan Catholic Radio 701 West Fifth Street, Sioux City, Iowa, 51103. And thank you to our sponsor, St. Augustine Indian Mission, Winnebago. Please join us again next Wednesday at 9 p.m. for another round of questions and answers. Until then, stay curious, stay faithful, keep your light shining, keep those questions coming. For now, I'm Father Mark Stowe, your host, signing off. Wishing you a great week ahead. God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.