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Q.
Dear Father Angeo,
1. First, I would like to thank you for everything you do and for your time.
Sorry to bother you again, but I would like to ask you a few questions:
Is it correct to affirm, “men evolved from monkeys”? I hope it is not…
You cannot take for granted something that is just possible or hypothetical.
This is the reason why, you can just answer to your question that it is incorrect to affirm that men evolved from monkeys.
It could be possible or hypothetical.
In any case, men’s bodies could be an evolution from monkeys but this does not concern his soul that, since it is spiritual, cannot be created by anyone except for God.
I have read many things about the Church’s thinking regarding the creation of man without being able to understand well the transition from “ape” to Homo sapiens with an infused soul – due to my own limitations. Was there a further evolution from the former to the latter and the simultaneous infusion of the soul by God? Could you kindly explain to help me understand this properly? The Lord has given us three wonderful children aged 2,5 and 7 who are starting to ask big questions and I would like to be ready and good enough to give them right and encouraging answers.
The Church limits itself to say that the evolutionary theory does not contradict Holy Scripture. Whether God drew man from the dust of the earth – as the Bible says through image – or from living animals or even from nothing does not make any difficulty. However, the Church teaches that during man’s appearance there was a precise intervention on God’s part because at that moment He created the rational and spiritual soul.
Do you know any book that I could buy on the answers to be given to children on the great themes of the existence of God, creation, heaven, etc…?
There is “Catechismo dei bambini”, by CEI (Conferenza episcopale italiana).
2. Is the resurrection an historic fact?
If by historic you mean a real fact, it is certainly an historic fact.
However, if by historic you mean verifiable, then we should say that if someone was buried in the sepulcher during the Lord’s resurrection he would have seen the starting point but not the end.
In other words, he would have seen the body of Jesus disappearing because during resurrection it became glorious, spiritual, not material anymore and not subject to the needs of present life.
This is the reason why some people said that Christ’s resurrection is a metahistorical event, this means that goes beyond history, since the latter only registers natural events.
With the transformation from natural to supernatural, history misses the ending point.
Only the inhabitants of Heaven, the Angels, could see the body of Jesus entering the Gates.
This is why only Angels can be witnesses.
And this is why they talk as such in the announcement of the Resurrection.
Why do you believe in God? Do you ever doubt and think that unfortunately there is nothing after death? Do you ever think it is all a catch?
Believing in God means two things.
The first concerns its existence.
I would like to arrive at this statement by logic. As from a painting, we can go back to its author, so from the cosmos that is made with perfect laws we can go back to its author who must necessarily be even more perfect.
Anyone can understand that, even children.
The second aspect concerns His revelation, what He said through the holy story. In particular, through Jesus Christ that is God Himself who manifested humanely among us, but he gave sure signs of His divine nature.
Those sure signs are his absolute control over matter, nature, demons, illnesses, death, in particular on His life and His teaching.
I need to point out that those signs do not cause my faith; they confirm it.
Faith is a gift through which God initiates in us a communion of supernatural life by which we become sharers in his thoughts, decisions and affections.
Man alone could not accomplish such a thing because of the abysmal and infinite gap between nature and supernature.
The Christian believes because he has welcomed God’s action in his heart and has responded to His call for communion of life.
You asked me: do you ever doubt and think that unfortunately there is nothing after death? Do you ever think it is all a catch?
It is normal to ask oneself questions. It is natural because the realities to which we adhere through faith are invisible, we do not have them before our eyes.
However, we immediately recover because there is a communion of life that is made up of graces, of feedback, of trust, of communion, of heavenly interventions that abundantly make up for the simple not seeing.
Sometimes I feel like I hope instead of believe.
Who can undoubtedly affirm to believe and to have a big faith?
Every night in bed I pray a little, but then I immediately have dark thoughts before falling asleep: I fear death, nothingness – I fear there is nothing after death and that Gian Luca will disappear forever like he never existed –, losing my family, etc.
Are those thoughts normal or am I a hopeless case? I am saying this because I do not think that the people I know have thoughts like these…
When I go to bed, I don’t have all these thoughts.
I say my last prayers, which are of entrustment and communion: Jesus, Joseph, Mary, I give you my heart and soul… with what follows.
Try to do this too: to live communion with Heaven.
The Christian life is not just thinking about the beyond.
However, it is a living Communion with God, with the inhabitants of Heaven, just as we read in the letter to the Hebrews: those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Eb 6;4-5).
Then all fear disappears and you feel only joy, consolation and peace.
In a word, you live an anticipation of Paradise.
I wish you this experience which is absolutely the most beautiful. And I wish it to you in abundance so that you may also communicate it to your three beloved children.
I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo
I apologize for the confusion in the exposure and I await your kind response.
Thank you very much! A big hug.
Gian Luca
Translated by Rossella Roma