Dear Father Angelo,

I hope you are fine. I would ask you two questions which nastily worry me, being rather ignorant (and proud, as you will see).

Here they are:

1. I really cannot understand the statement (already by our dear Pope John Paul II), that Muslims, Christians, and Jews are descendants of Abraham. I see it about Jews (descendants by blood and circumcision), I see it about Christians (descendants by the promise, which Abraham received and which Jesus Christ fulfilled), but I do not see it about Muslims. In fact, in my opinion, Muslims are descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, and perhaps only some of them. Many Muslims are not Arabs, but Indonesians, Africans, etc. and therefore those do not have the blood of Abraham. We could say that they acquired their descent by circumcision out of a desire to be descendants of Abraham. But their Faith is not the Faith of Abraham, otherwise they would be Christians (the same about the Jews, and this is precisely what Jesus says in the Gospel), as Abraham rejoiced when he learned that Jesus was coming. So?

2. I cannot understand the statement by Our Lady at Fatima about souls going to Hell because no one prays for them. Yet, I have experienced it in my life, I would have gone to Hell if I had not finally met praying hearts. But I cannot see how God can allow so many souls to be damned, out of others’ negligence and selfishness, while they never asked to be created in such a situation. God is Good and Just… and Jesus told St. Padre Pio that no soul is damned without knowing it. And there is the entire mystical body of the Church that offers Masses and prayers every day with Jesus, for the salvation of all souls… So? In my life I have seen that prayer is useful, but it is not enough. A deed is required (for me, the gift of the Miraculous Medal), or an advice, that information which can bring us out of the perdition due to our oblivion.

I thank you for your apostolate, so much helpful to us that you cannot know! May God give you Glory and Merit forever.

THANK YOU!!!

Cristina

The Priest’s answer 

Dear Cristina,

1. one may be Abraham’s child in different ways.

The Jews are such by blood descent, and certainly also because they refer to the faith of Abraham.

Being called Abraham’s children was precisely their greatest honor, the source of all their privileges.

2. But Jesus challenges the Jews who did not accept this honor because they did not do the deeds of Abraham. They were children of Abraham only by blood descent, by carnal lineage, by race.

But carnal descent is worthless.

What matters is the imitation in deeds.

Jesus says: “I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you.” (Jn 8:37).

Note the expression: “descendants of Abraham” and not “Abraham’s children”.

3. The Jews “answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.” (Jn 8:39).

Here is the commentary of the Jerusalem Bible in the Italian edition of 1974: [tr.] “The Jews are not Abraham’s children like Isaac because they do not believe; their race only is from Abraham, like Ishmael the son of the slave girl who was expelled, see vv. 34-35.

Even more, they are not children of God”.

This very clear and precise note was strangely removed in the 2008 edition.

Certainly, the last statement of that note in the Jerusalem Bible is strong: ‘even more, they are not children of God’, evidently in the biblical and theological sense.

4. About the statement “But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name” (Jn 1:12), the current [tr.] Italian edition of this Bible (2008) notes: “the Word is a divine seed which makes us God’s children when we receive it”.

Here Word has a capital initial and refers to the Word made flesh, that is, to Jesus.

The biblical scholar G. Segalla writes in his commentary on the Gospel of John: “Even in the Jewish tradition the distinction between natural and spiritual offspring is known”.

5. Jesus instead healed on the Sabbath the woman, who had been bent over for 18 years, naming her as Abraham’s daughter: “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” (Lk 13:16)

He also named Zacchaeus as Abraham’s son: ‘And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham’ [n.tr.: filius sit Abrahae (is Abraham’s son) in the Latin Vulgata] (Lk 19:9).

Zacchaeus is called Abraham’s son because he imitated the works of Abraham: just as Abraham left his land to obey God, so Zacchaeus left his possessions as well, sharing them with the poor (rf. Commento di San Beda).

6. For Muslims: as you said, a good part of them are descendants of Abraham through Ishmael.

They call themselves descendants of Abraham, but they do not have the perfect faith of Abraham because, as you rightly pointed out, Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced.

It is interesting what Vatican Council II says about Islam in the decree Nostra Aetate on ecumenism:

“The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God” (NA 3).

The council does not define them as Abraham’s children, but recognizes that they willingly refer to the exemplarity of Abraham.

7. In reference to the words by Our Lady at Fatima: truly all members incessantly pray, suffer, and offer for all in the Church, which abandons nobody.

No surprise, also because Pius XII wrote in the encyclical Mystici corporis: “This is a deep mystery, and an inexhaustible subject of meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention and on the cooperation of pastors of souls and of the faithful, especially of fathers and mothers of families, a cooperation which they must offer to our Divine Savior as though they were His associates.” (Mystici Corporis, 44).

8. About that, we should remember that we are united to them through charity, so our prayers for them are beneficial.

And, when we particularly express prayers for somebody, and not just widespread, that stronger charity makes Jesus Christ particularly present and active in the people whom we pray for.

Moreover, Jesus Christ Himself gave us the example: He prayed for everyone, but He also particularly prayed for some, as we can read in Luke 22:31-32: “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” (Lk 22:31-32).

He also particularly prayed for those who were crucifying Him: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34).

‘Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen’ (Acts 1:24).

Along the same lines, St. Paul particularly asks for our prayers: “and also for me, that speech may be given me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Eph 6:19); “at the same time, pray for us, too, that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak of the mystery of Christ” (Col 4:3). “Finally, brothers, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you” (2Thess 3:1).

9. Therefore, we can say that our prayers and sacrifices implore for some in a particular way while they benefit the whole Church. That is affirmed in the encyclical Mystici Corporis by Pius XII (29.6.1943): “Yet this, also, must be held, marvelous though it may seem: Christ has need of His members. … Moreover, as our Savior does not rule the Church directly in a visible manner, He wills to be helped by the members of His Body in carrying out the work of redemption. 

That is not because He is indigent and weak, but rather because He has so willed it for the greater glory of His spotless Spouse. 

Dying on the Cross He left to His Church the immense treasury of the Redemption, towards which she contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this work of sanctification with His Church, but He wills that in some way it be due to her action” (Mystici Corporis, 44).

Therefore, you are not wrong if you pray for me too. Your deeds are very precious.

I reciprocate and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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