Street Evangelization Wrap-up (June Newsletter)

Taking the Faith to the Streets!

     Shawn and I were blessed to be able to do some street evangelization this past Saturday.  The downside is the only time we had was during the May meeting time.  Several people have enquired about our group in the last few weeks and I hope they all attend the June meeting.

 

     The first rule of street evangelization is to go where people are.  We set up right outside the main entrance to Celebrate De Pere, on the Fox River Trail.  The downside was we started fairly early so the foot traffic to the fair was low, but it was a beautiful day and the foot traffic on the trail was quite busy.

 

   After about an hour a young man, Louis, approached us.  He had a military style, desert camo, ruck sack on, so we assumed he was a desert war vet.  We began talking to Louis and found out he had just started attending Our Lady of Lourdes, in West De Pere, occasionally.  Louis stated he had not been back to church in a while and had not been to confession.  After speaking to him about the beauty of confession, and knowing your sins are forgiven, Louis stated he wanted to do that.  We told him to check with Our Lady of Lourdes' website for confession times, but Shawn also knew approximately when they were.  Louis thanked us a lot, and wanted "one of everything."  Louis expressed interest in learning how to reach out to others, like we were doing.  Louis asked us to pray for him because "I have lots of hurts inside."

 

     Please pause here and pray for Louis.  We saw him later with a sign that read, "Remember your Vets."

     A little while later a jogger, Charles, stopped.  He was visiting from North Carolina where he attends a Bible College.  He said he always wanted to ask a Catholic how someone gets 'saved'.  As Catholics we can say we're "saved" provided we're in a state of grace.  The process for an adult is quite simple: 1) Repent 2) Believe 3) Be Baptized.  This explanation started a great conversation that led in many different directions: Why do Catholics call their priests "Father" when the Bible says "Call no man on this earth 'father'...(Mt. 23:9)?; Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest since Christ is our only mediator between God and Man (1 Tim 2:5)?;  Isn't immersion the only valid form of baptism?  and
more.

     This happens to be Fidei Defensor's sweet spot.  We were happy to discuss all of these issues with him.  However, even if we didn't know the answer to any of his questions, we had the pamphlets there to help.  He took several pamphlets and probably would have talked to us all day - and we would have loved to talk to him all day - but his girlfriend pulled him away to continue jogging.  We shook hands, told him we would pray for him and asked him to pray for us.


     Finally we had Barbara, a Catholic from St. Paul.  She was visiting her friend in the area.  She said her friend stopped going to mass shortly after his wife died.  Barbara said she has tried to talk to him about it, but he gets very angry about anything to do with religion.  We talked to Barbara about suffering and the 'problem of evil', that is, why bad things happen to good people.  Barbara, herself, is trying to be a faithful Catholic, goes to mass and goes to confession regularly.  She's also a Viking's fan, but we forgave her for that.  She was very happy to see us evangelizing out there.  We encouraged her to look up the St. Paul Street Evangelization chapter in St. Paul and get connected there.

     Besides these conversations we had many people waving, giving us 'thumbs up' and yelling, "God Bless you!" as they went by.  As one of our wives said, you never know what seeds you might plant by just being visible and WILLING to share your faith.  That witness alone speaks volumes.
    
    Do you feel good reading these stories?  Maybe you're being pulled by the Holy Spirit to join us!  Does that thought scare you?  Of course, the Devil doesn't want you to.  But what does Jesus want us to do?  "Preach the Gospel to all living creatures!"  I invite you to join us and help spread the Gospel!

Fidei Defensor
Dedicated to teaching Catholics how to share their faith with kindness and respect.



Junia the female Apostle

What does Paul say about Junia?



      I recently received a question from a face book follower.  She stated in her bible study she has several Protestants.  One of them asked her why the Catholic Church supports an all-male priesthood when Junia is listed as an apostle by Paul in Romans 16:7.  The Catholic's question to me was, what are we to make of this?

     The first thing we always must do is make a positive statement about the person's question.  "Thank you for the question" or "That's a really interesting question" or "I love this question" are good examples.  Do this even if the question was asked in a negative manner.  A kind word turns away wrath.

     Next, we always look at the verse(s) being presented, and the context around them.  The context may be as much as the whole book, or the chapter depending.  This is another reason why we must read Scripture daily so we already have a feel for the context.  Many "proof texts" fall apart when read in context, or just read at all.  This can be one of those examples depending on the translation being used but I'll get to that in a bit.

     Romans 16:7 in the NAB says, "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners; they are prominent among the apostles and they were in Christ before me."  Junia, by the way, is a woman's name.  This is one of those verses that, on the surface, looks like it is saying that Junia, a woman, is a prominent apostle.  Also the context isn't much help as it is in one of those sections where Paul does his "shout outs":  Greet so-and-so for me; say 'hi' to that guy and this gal for me, etc.

     But there are many other things to consider with this verse.  First, the name "Junia" in Greek is ᾿Ιουνιαν.  The name is either male or female depending on the location of an accent mark.  If the accent mark is in one place, the name is male, if it is in another, the name is female.  In the earliest copies of Romans we have, there are no accent marks at all.  So we are not sure if "Junia" is male (Junias) or female (Junia).  To be fair, many historians and most of Church History believe Junia to be a female. 

      Does this mean that Paul is saying she was an ordained apostle?  Not necessarily.  Several other translations translate Rom 16:7 to say that Andronicus and Junia were "well known to the Apostles."  The Greek allows for both "well known among the Apostles" or "well known to the Apostles."  So it is entirely possible that Andronicus and Junia were a husband and wife team of evangelists who had become well known to the Apostles.

     But even if the proper translation was saying that Andronicus and Junia were well known apostles, and if we say, for the sake of argument, that Junia is a woman, is this saying that Junia was an ordained apostle?  Again, not necessarily.  The word apostle means "sent."  Many time it means "sent with the authority of the one sending."  Hence Jesus is our One True Apostle (Heb 3:1) because He is sent by the Father (Jn 20:21 and others) with the Authority of the Father (Mt 28:18).  Jesus then sends the Apostles with His authority(Jn 20:21 and Mt 28:18).

     Other times it just means one who was sent:  Mary Magdalene has traditionally been called "the apostle to the Apostles" because Jesus sent her to tell the Apostles (Mk 16:7) but no one - not even those in favor of women's ordination - have typically used this as saying she was ordained.

     The bottom line is it is reasonably debatable whether or not "Junia" was a woman or a man, whether or not he / she was actually an apostle or just "well known to" the Apostles and it is debatable whether or not the apostleship spoke of here is an ordained apostleship or not.  But there is one more argument that seems to clear it up:  the voice of History.

     Not once in Church History is Junia considered an ordained apostle.  If Romans 16:7 was truly Paul saying that a woman can be ordained, then we would see it in Church History.  Or shouldn't we, at least, expect ONE OTHER EXAMPLE of a woman being ordained in all of Church History?

   We don't.  This is not to say that woman are somehow inferior to men.  To somehow believe that because the priesthood is "male only" is somehow chauvinistic is to apply a modern sensibility - or actually modern LACK of sensibility - to the issue. 

Does the Catholic Church teach that men are superior to women?  Absolutely not. 

Does the Catholic Church believe that men and women are different?  Absolutely.  We have EQUAL dignity and worth.  BUT WE HAVE DIFFERENT ROLES.

So what possible role could a woman have that balances what some believe to be a disparity between them and the all-male priesthood?

The all-female mother-hood.  Lest we forget: The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

Looking at my 7 month pregnant wife, I actually think God may have decided on the all-male priesthood to try to make men feel somewhat important.

Most of my information came from these three sources:  What does Paul mean when he refers to Junia as an apostle?; Apostles who weren't part of the Twelve; and Junia among the Apostles.

Follow up information here: Women and the Priesthood

Fidei Defensor

Explaining the Catholic Faith, and teaching others to explain, the Catholic Faith with kindness and respect.

Why do we confess our sins to a priest when we can just pray to Jesus?

Questions from teens continues...

This is a great question and shows that you’re thinking about the Catholic faith.  It also shows me you're being drawn to the Sacrament of Confession. 

As Catholics we can and do believe in praying directly to Jesus to get our sins forgiven, in some circumstances.

            Let me explain further:  the Bible, the First letter of John, Chapter 5 verses 16-17 (1Jn 5:16-17) we see John describe how if we see someone committing certain sins we should pray for them and they will be forgiven.  But notice, John says “sins that do not lead to death” are the ones we can pray for and be forgiven.  But also notice John then says the sins that “lead to death” we should not pray for.  What does this mean? 

First, as an aside, the phrase “leads to death” in Latin is “Mortal” and the phrase “do not lead to death” in Latin can be translated “Venial.”  This is why the Catholic Church recognizes God’s truth that there are two different kinds of sin.

            Ok, so if we are not to pray for sins that lead to death (Mortal Sins) how do we get them forgiven?  Does it mean God won’t forgive those sins?  Absolutely not.  There is no sin too big for God to forgive.  Let's also be perfectly clear, the Catholic Church recognizes God's truth that only God can forgive our sins (Catholic Catechism 1441 cf. Mk 2:7 among others).

            So how do we do it if not by prayer?  Well, if we were in the Old Testament, we could take a sacrifice to a Levitical priest.  God empowered the Levitical priesthood to make atonement for the sins of others and thereby forgive a person’s sins (Leviticus 19:20-22).  God created and empowered the Levitical priesthood, in part, to communicate His forgiveness to His people.

            But what about now, in the New Testament?  It is the same thing.  Jesus (God made flesh) created a New Testament priesthood and empowered it, among other things, to communicate His forgiveness for whatever sin we do.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus, just after rising from the dead, appears to the Apostles, breaths the Holy Spirit upon them and says, “Whosoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven.  Whosoever’s sins you retain they are retained.”  Jn 20:21-23.  You will notice that the Apostles – and therefore our priests today – have to make a choice: do I forgive this sin or retain it?  How can they possibly make that choice without hearing the sins?  Christ directly implied that the priests would have to hear the sins to make that decision.

            Jesus also empowered them to "bind and loose" (Mt. 18:18) which has been understood since that time to mean both as binding and loosing dogma / doctrine, but also binding and loosing sin.  In addition, in James 5:14-15 if a person is sick, they are to call the presbyter to anoint them with oil, pray over them and their sins will be forgiven.  This is where we find that Christ gave us the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.  Paul also states that God gave us, through Christ, "the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:18).

            So we see that only sins that do not lead to death can be "prayed directly to Jesus" for and the sins that lead to death cannot be, however, God empowered his New Testament ministerial priesthood with the ministry of reconciliation to be able to forgive any sin, mortal or venial.

            So why go to confession regularly instead of just waiting to commit a Mortal sin?  Several reasons: 1) For an increase in Humility; 2) As a safe guard against "that's not a sin"; 3) For the Assurance of Absolution.

Humility

1) God desires us to be humble.  Most of the time, I am not (just ask me sometime).  When we admit our sins, out loud, to another human being we come face-to-face with the reality that we are sinners saved by God's Grace alone.  We cannot do this on our own.  We need God, daily, hourly, moment to moment.  When I only "pray to Jesus" for my sins to be forgiven, I miss out on practicing humility.

Humility can be a balance against the other extreme too.  I can be too prideful or I can also fall into scrupulosity: the errant belief that I am too bad to be forgiven.  When I only "pray to Jesus" and I'm suffering from scrupulosity, I have no other human to tell me, "You're being too hard on yourself."  Eventually, if not addressed, scrupulosity can lead to not asking for any sins to be forgiven, just as too much pride in myself can do the same thing.

Humility means knowing myself in truth: not thinking too much of myself; not thinking too little of myself either.  Confession to a priest aids in this pursuit.

Safeguard

2)  When we don't have an external measure, set up by God, to say whether or not something is a sin, we eventually begin to eliminate things as sins.  All over in the Protestant communities we see governing boards, pastors and elders coming out and saying that such-and-such is no longer a sin.  This is the result of "me and Jesus only" confession.  Since sin separates us from God, even if I don't know it, I want to know if something is actually a sin or not, so I can repent from it, confess it and be forgiven of it.  If we reject that external measure God set up, we risk, in the end, rejecting God.

Assurance of Absolution

3) I think the most compelling reason for confessing my sins to a priest regularly (I aim for 1 x month) is what I call, the Assurance of Absolution.  When I only pray to Jesus how do I know I repented fully?  Or I confessed what Jesus wanted me to?  Or that I'm not praying for one of those "sins that lead to death" that Scripture says we should not pray for?  As a Catholic, we can hear the words of Jesus, through his empowered minister: "Your sins are forgiven."  Only the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches have priesthoods that are traceable back, by the laying on of hands, to the Apostles who were empowered, by Jesus, to forgive sins (Jn 20:21-23).

            In addition, though I have lost the cite, studies were done of the most psychologically healthy people.  The most common trait of all of them?  They confessed their sins to a priest, regularly (more than once a year).

            In my own experience, I am almost always nerveous before I go.  Yet I am reassured that priests are not allowed to tell anyone anything anyone confessed to them in confession.  They cannot even say who they saw in confession.  If they do so, they cease to be a priest instantly!  This is called the Seal of the Confessional.  Priest have been imprisoned rather than tell what they heard in confession.
             On Sept 18th, 2011, I made my first good confession in over 20 years!  I knew I had to get all of those 20+ years off my chest.  It literally felt like a weight crushing me.  I happened to be passing a Catholic Church offering confession right at the time I was passing by.  I pulled into the lot with my heart racing, both out of nervousness but also in excitement to KNOW my sins were going to be forgiven.  I stepped into the confessional and chose to sit face-to-face with the priest.  I spent over a half hour laying out all the sins, in as much detail as I could, to him.  When I was done, I waited for the priest's reaction.  I was thinking he'd say something negative like, "It's been HOW long?"  But instead, when I looked up, the priest was beaming!  He said, "A priest waits his whole career to hear a confession of someone coming back to the faith.  Thank you for your honest, humble confession!" 

            When I heard the words of absolution... wow!  To know Jesus loves me and forgives everything I have done, no matter how big or small, is purely miraculous!  I walked out literally feeling lighter!  The sun was brighter, the reds were redder, the greens were greener!

            If you have not gone in a while, I encourage you to go and go regularly especially if you're struggling with a habitual sin.  Once per month confession, in my opinion, is a bare minimum to help combat a habitual sin.  Once a week might be necessary for a while.  The last several popes are reported to have gone several times... PER WEEK!

            If you're not Catholic, I encourage you to research, from Catholic sources, more about the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  It is one of the 7 ways we can increase our personal relationship with Jesus Christ!  Don't you want to encounter the Risen Lord?

            "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 Jn 1:9

Additional resources:  Q + A Confessions to a Priest; Confession to a Priest in Scripture; The Forgiveness of Sins; Confession Explanation