Fr. Michael Kerper - A Priest Answers 27 Questions That You Never Thought to Ask

A Priest

Answers

27 QUESTIONS

You Never Thought to Ask

by Father Michael Kerper

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2016 by Father Michael Kerper

The questions and answers reproduced in this book were originally published in Parable , the magazine of the Diocese of Manchester. Bishop Peter Libasci and the Parable staff are grateful to Father Kerper for sharing his knowledge of our Church as well as his wit and wisdom. For more information about Parable or to read all of Father Kerpers articles, visit www.catholicnh.org.

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior design by Perceptions Design Studio.

On the cover:

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Biblical references in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church , Second Edition, for use in the United States of America, copyright 1994 and 1997, United States Catholic Conference Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotes from English translations of papal encyclicals are from the Vatican website (w2.vatican.va) Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kerper, Michael (Priest), author.

Title: A priest answers 27 questions you never thought to ask / Father

Michael Kerper.

Other titles: Priest answers twenty-seven questions you never thought to ask

Description: Manchester, New Hampshire : Sophia Institute Press, 2017. |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016054529 | ISBN 9781622824168 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 9781622824175

Subjects: LCSH: Catholic Church Doctrines.

Classification: LCC BX1751.3 .K468 2017 | DDC 230/.2 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054529

Contents

1. About the Author:

Acknowledgments

We learn to answer questions well by observing the techniques of good, truthful, prudent, well-informed people. Throughout my life God has blessed me by bringing me into contact with many people worthy of imitation.

Whenever I succeed in giving a satisfying answer to someone, I always remember the two sources of any success I may have enjoyed: the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who taught me in grade school; and Dr. Germain Grisez, my professor of moral theology at Mount St. Marys Seminary.

The Sisters, reknowned for teaching English, stressed order, clarity, and precision in writing and speaking. We learned that language makes us God-like. Hence it should always be used to propose truth in a convincing and attractive way.

From Dr. Grisez, I learned the importance of respecting those who ask the questions, understanding clearly whats being asked, knowing the fullness of Catholic tradition, and responding with compassion, charity, and balance. Dr. Grisezs works, frequently presented as answers to questions, have always impressed me as excellent models to follow.

The Sisters and Dr. Grisez did much more than merely demonstrate technique. They lived their answers, putting into practice what they taught so clearly. Whatever may be useful in this little book flows from their rigor in teaching, their wisdom, and most of all their witness to the Lords abiding truth. Thank you.

PART I

Fear, Trembling, and Sweaty Hands:
Our Life in the Church

Did Jesus actually give us the Lords Prayer?

Dear Father Kerper,

I have three questions about the Lords Prayer. First, can we be sure that Jesus actually wrote it? Ive read somewhere that the Church made it up after He died. Second, isnt it very misleading to call God Father all the time? God is bigger than any single image, and Father seems too narrow. Third, why does the version used at Mass keep very old-fashioned words such as thy and hallowed? They seem so out of place.

Thank you for your questions. Because almost every Christian knows the Our Father by heart and because we say it so frequently, we may eventually find it stale, boring, and even obsolete. And so probing questions like yours, which force us to take a critical look at the Our Father, can deepen our understanding of this simple yet glorious prayer.

Jesus as the source

Some people instantly dismiss Jesus as the real author of the Our Father because the New Testament contains two versions: the long one in Saint Matthew (6:913) and the short one in Saint Luke (11:24). Pope Benedict XVI frankly admitted this in his beautiful book Jesus of Nazareth . He made this crucial comment: The discussion of which text is more original is not superfluous, but neither is it the main issue. In both versions we are praying with Jesus.

Here, as always, we must remember that when Jesus preached, He never had stenographers on hand to write down every word precisely. Rather, His disciples listened to Him very carefully and soon repeated His words to others. Constant repetition over time produced a collection of very reliable memories of His shorter sayings and longer statements, such as the Our Father, which is the only prayer He left to us intact. Eventually, the Gospel writers transformed these oral traditions into texts, which are very reliable, although certainly not as precise as a court reporters transcript today.

In defense of the Lords authorship of the Our Father, I cite John P. Meier, a highly rigorous, careful, and immensely knowledgeable Scripture scholar. In volume 4 of his massive work A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus , Father Meier stated that there is a fairly secure judgment that some primitive form of the Lords Prayer goes back to Jesus.

In light of this scholarly assessment, we can safely reaffirm what Pope Benedict said so succinctly and beautifully: We are praying with Jesus. Think of what happens: whenever we say the Our Father, we have within our mouths and minds the essential prayer uttered by the Lord. For this reason the priest at Mass always introduces the Lords Prayer by saying, We dare to say. With wonder and awe we allow the Sons prayer to flow through us to the Father.

God as Father

I fully agree with you that Father is a narrow image of God. After all, God is neither male nor female, has no physical dimensions, and can never be adequately portrayed.

However, the Our Fathers most marvelous element is precisely the Lords command to address God as Father not Creator, not Lord, not Friend, not even God. Here, unfortunately, we run into a problem with translation. Jesus spoke Aramaic. With just one exception, he always addressed God as Abba, the term used by children when speaking to their fathers. In English, the equivalent word would be Daddy or some other informal term. The Greek text uses the word Pater, which our translation renders as Father. The problem, of course, is that our familiar translation cannot convey the astounding and very touching intimacy that exists between the Father/Abba and the Son.