Why Did Mary Have To Marry Joseph To Have Jesus?

[Groo the Wanderer]

2. Who built the Church? Jesus Christ (picked the first bishops and laid out his Divine Revelation) and the Holy Spirit (guides the Church since Pentacost. the building continues to this day...)


3. We have to die to be born into the next life. Think of it as a newborn sees it. The widdle one knows nothing but warmth and sounds and wetness and its momma's insides for nine months. Life is good and this is all it knows. Then suddenly, it is forced into a world full of light and loud noises and coldness and oh my there is nothing to do but scream and cry. Kinda like dying...and then its new life starts so to speak. Our death is really nothing more than birth into our final state of life.

[Theologian in Training]

Thanks to everyone for help and your great insights.

God Bless

[Theologian in Training]

I still have no idea what to say about death...

[shortnun]

[quote name='Theologian in Training' post='1141506' date='Dec 13 2006, 04:43 PM']
I still have no idea what to say about death...
[/quote]
How old are the kids and/or what was the specific question? I have my own personal catechetical response, but even that doesn't work in any/every situation.

[Theologian in Training]

Man, that was difficult....

I decided to save the hardest question for last, since I think given the nature of the question, it is one of those that will probably take up the entire page. It is probably one of the most difficult questions to explain not just to a 3rd grader but to everyone, because it is a question we all wonder, we all want to know the answer to, and yet the question we fear to ask the most. With that, the following is the final question from the 3rd grade class.

Why do we have to die?

Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical The Gospel of Life, very eloquently explains the theology behind death, and the way in which we should understand its meaning in our life. He says: “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living…Death came into the world as a result of the devil’s envy (cf. Gen 3:1,4-5) and the sin of our first parents (cf. Gen 2:17, 3:17-19).” In other words, death was not part of the original plan, but sin entered our hearts and death entered our world.

I find the way in which the question was posed to be very interesting because it almost seems to infer that we were not designed to die, but something happened which causes us to die, which, given what John Paul II said, is actually quite true. However, the question also seems to infer something else, something I think we have to be careful to avoid, which is that though death was not part of the original plan, we are still living with the belief that no good can ever come from death. Yet, it was the death of one person who brought new life from His death. The God who created the universe took on human flesh and died on a cross made of wood. He became like us in every way except sin so that we might become like Him, and all of us who are baptized into His death will also share in His resurrection on the last day.

This is why we should not look at it as the finality, that is, the complete end of our life, but rather as being born into a new life, a life of the spirit. For you see death is our gateway to eternity, to our eternal home, and though to everyone it appears as though a person’s life ends, it has not, it has only changed. And, it is only by dying that new life can come forth. There is a great passage in Scripture (John 12:24) that explains this quite beautifully: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Now, I realize this may be a bit too theological for a 3rd grader to understand, so I am going to try and “translate” this into something they may be able to comprehend.

A while back I explained the difference between time and eternity, and I noted how we see things affected by time. We see the night change into day, we see the seasons change, and we also see someone get older. The progression of time also means that there is a beginning and an end, unlike eternity, and because of this, everyone eventually dies. Although they die, it is only their body that comes to an end, because, like I said, we have an element of eternity within us, and that is our soul, which will never die.

Now I want you to remember that as I explain the other part of this: God did not want us to die, but the Devil, as you will recall, was jealous of us and the relationship we had with God. So he caused division with God, this division is what we call sin, and when sin entered our world, it also brought death. We actually hear this in Scripture from St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (6:23) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And this is what happened God saw that we needed to be saved from our sins so He sent Jesus, who, because He was God and man, was free from all sin, but took all of our sin (still remaining free of sin Himself) and by taking all of our sins He died for us. However, after He died He rose again from the dead, which we call the Resurrection, this Resurrection means that His body and His soul were united. However, because we believe that Jesus is both God and man, since He became one of us, we also will be Resurrected at the end of the world. So, when somebody dies, we know that it is their body that dies and that their soul lives on. And, we also know that, just like Jesus, our body will also be reunited with our soul, and we too will be a new creation in the Lord.

Fr. Brian

[jmjtina]

And out of the mouth of children comes the most challenging questions!!!

I'm sure the whole parish is benefiting from this!

[123]

Do the Holy Scriptures even mention a marriage ceremony between Mary and St. Joseph? All along I just figured that they were only betrothed. But, the Scriptures never really mentioned a wedding ceremony.