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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

my name is Gianluca, and I am 18 years old.

About three years ago, I suffered a spiritual crisis, and by that I mean that I couldn’t find a religion to practice that I felt was mine.

I felt as if I was caught between Catholicism, which I was baptized in, and Islam. I felt attracted to Jesus but also to the tenets of Islam.

So, one day I began praying to Jesus and to Mary Most Holy, and I asked them to stay close to me and to give me an answer on whether Catholicism was the true religion of God, and after a few weeks I read a sentence in a church newspaper which said “I will always be with you” and I thought it was Jesus who said that to me.

Since that moment, and it has been almost two years, I have felt an attraction towards Jesus and the Dominican order.

I discovered the order when in a church I saw an image of St. Dominic that fascinated me.

I was also aware of other religious orders such as the Franciscans or the Benedictines, but in the end the Dominican order fascinates me more.

So, I inquired about it, and I immediately felt an attraction to the order, because up to that moment I did not know what Jesus was calling me to: either a regular or a secular vocation.

From that moment, I have thought that he is calling me to serve him in the Dominican order.

I really like the tenets of the order and the person of St. Dominic.

But on the other hand, I am afraid of losing my friendships, the closeness to my family, and the material things that I own.

I hope you can help me with my vocation, to understand if I can enter the Dominican order and where to do my pre-novitiate.

Thank you and God bless you,

Gianluca

Answer from the priest

Dear Gianluca,

1. as I received your email, I was eager to answer you immediately. I am only able to do it now.

Before discussing your vocation to the Order of Saint Dominic, for which, thanks be to God, you feel a particular attraction, I would like to examine your spiritual crisis.

You are not the first young man who writes to me that he is feeling drawn to both Christianity and Islam. I gave answers to several people in private. In your case, I do it in public because the condition is becoming endemic.

No wonder about this fact.

It is only natural that, when living in contact with young Muslims or in any case with Islamic people, the question arises as to which is the true religion.

Therefore, I decided to divide my answer to you in two parts.

In the first part, and it is this one, I discuss why Muhammad cannot be compared with Jesus Christ.

In the second part, I will write about your Dominican vocation.

2. So, here is the first part of the answer, in which I bring forth just a few reasons why Muhammad cannot be compared with Our Lord.

Muhammad introduced himself by saying that he is the prophet. But who gave confirmation to that? What testimonies are there in his favour?

We have nothing but his statement. Do you think that is enough?

3. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, has been confirmed by the entire Old Testament, which in him finds its fulfilment.

Moses had already announced the coming Messiah, saying that he would in any case fulfil all of his works, and concluded by saying: “To him you shall listen” (Dt 18:15).

Even a pagan prophet, Balaam, had announced 1200 years earlier that the king of the end of times would be born in Israel and that his birth would be accompanied by the rising of a star: “I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel” (Num 24:17).

The place where the Messiah would be born had also been foretold: “But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times” (Mi 5:1).

4. His mother had been foretold: she would be a virgin not only before conceiving him but also before giving birth to him, and the child’s name would be Emanuel, which means ‘God with us’: “the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Is 7:14).

It is further indicated that this child will be “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace” (Is 9:5).

5. Jesus is a wonderful counselor for everyone. He is because he is God. He is because, made man, he rose again to immortal life and, while sitting at the right hand of the Father, lives with us.

You can speak with Jesus. You can ask him questions like you did at the time of your crisis and he answered you.

He can do it because he is the Living One, as he sought to define himself through the angels speaking to the women who were looking for him on Easter morning: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” (Lk 24:5).

Conversely, who can ask Muhammad questions and expect an answer? Nobody.

The reason is simple and within everyone’s grasp: Muhammad is dead.

He is a man who belongs to the past.

It is not possible to speak with him.

Nor did Muhammad make this claim. He knew he was a mortal man and that was it.

6. Jesus is God in strength.

– He gave overwhelming proof of his divinity by showing absolute power over nature: “Who then is this, who commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey him?” (Lk 8:25).

The amazement of the people of that time is ours too. No person of sound mind would even dream of giving orders to the wind. Only a fool could do that.

Christ instead commanded the winds and the seas, and they immediately obeyed him. They obeyed him in the same way in which, by the command of their Maker, they began their existence.

– He gave overwhelming proof of his divinity by showing absolute power over matter: “Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to (his) disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all.

They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate (of the loaves) were five thousand men” (Mk 6:41-44).

Matter is shaped and multiplied in his hands in the same way in which the Maker made and multiplied all things.

He does not need to perform special rites to accomplish the miracle. His will is enough.

Nor does he perform this miracle with such strength as could come from the devil, because he deliberately raises his eyes to heaven and recites the blessing, that is, he gives thanks to God the Father, with whom he is one.

– He gave overwhelming proof of his divinity by showing absolute power over diseases: “Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed” (Mk 5:56).

Jesus shows by his deeds what he said about himself: “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25).

No person in the world can say: “I am the resurrection and the life”.

If he said so, he would have to bring forth the proof.

– He gave overwhelming proof of his divinity by casting out demons. Before his presence, they get scared, tremble, and lose all their power. In particular, when Jesus Christ orders them to go away, they cannot put up any resistance. They must go away. They are forced to obey him.

For this reason, the people were amazed even more: “All were amazed and asked one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.’” (Mk 1:27).

– He gave overwhelming proof of his divinity by showing his absolute power over death.

He resurrects the dead, buried already for four days like Lazarus, by a command of his will.

He is the same God who said in the Old Testament: “It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them, and from my hand there is no rescue” (Dt 32:39).

– But he gave the greatest proof of his divinity by resurrecting himself.

True, there are known cases in history of people who came back to life. But they came back to life by the power of others.

No one ever came back to life by his own virtue.

Instead, Jesus came back by his own power and rose again to a life over which death has no power: “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (Jn 10:17-18).

7. Jesus is announced as Father Forever. The Latin text of the Vulgate says: “The father of the future age”.

He is the father of the new Israel, of the Christians, to whom the Messiah opens a new age, that of being God’s adopted children, that of holiness. To them he promises the future age, eternity.

Father forever because he follows everyone with his love. And to their gesture of attention, he replies saying ‘here I am’.

Finally, he is the prince of peace. He is the one who comes to bring forth the true peace with God, effecting the remission of sins and conforming the will of men to that of God.

Furthermore, he establishes true peace among men because he bestows on us a supernatural strength (charity) through which we are given the ability to love everyone, even enemies, for the love of God.

8. At this point, always with the utmost respect, we can ask ourselves: is Muhammad the wonderful counselor announced by Isaiah? Is he the God-Hero who made himself manifest with great power and glory, with the splendour of miracles, and above all with his own glorious resurrection?

Is he the father of the future age who through his grace revitalizes men, making them the adopted children of God?

Is he the prince of peace because he brings forth the forgiveness of sins and brings all men together as brothers in the holy bond of grace?

Muhammad, on the other hand, said he was a creature, indeed that he was a sinner. He acknowledged that he did not have the power to work miracles.

9. Here then is the enormous difference between Jesus Christ and any other man.

Jesus Christ is God. Exactly because he is God, and we have overwhelming proof of that, we know who we believe (see 1 Tim 1:12).

In the midst of your crisis, you turned to Christ with a simple heart without any presumption of defiance and He answered you.

I am very happy for this experience of faith you had. I am glad I inspired it.

I bless you, I wish you well, and I gladly remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo