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Question

Dear Father Angelo, 

I was thinking about different topics and I have some doubts; I wanted to ask you how to reconcile the contradictions in the books of Maccabees? I read that the death of Antiochus Epiphanes is described in 3 different ways…how is that possible if the Bible is the Word of God? and therefore shouldn’t everything in it  be regarded as true?

(…).

Here is the problem I would like to present to you: whether it is possible that a practicing Catholic could stop being a believer, after maturing the conviction in good faith within himself that the Christian faith is not necessary for salvation. He might ,for example, come to think that Christianity is of equal value when compared to other religions. It may be the best and most beautiful of all, however it would still be a religion amongst many others. That person could start to believe that the only important thing would be having good behavior and that only love counts, no matter what religion one would claim belonging to. One might also think that religion is very much related to where we are born: I was born in Italy , therefore  raised as a Catholic, but if I had been  born in Japan I would have been raised a Buddhist, and so on. Nonetheless, both religions contemplate the same goal of living well and loving one another.

That said, my problem concerning this argument is: if a faithful Catholic feels in his conscience this way, I don’t know how he could be considered guilty, especially if his conscience does not condemn him.

Thank you in advance Father Angelo and have a good day.

Priest’s answer

Dearest, 

1. Concerning  the description of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, the apparent differences can be explained in a very simple way.

The end of Antiochus Epiphanes is narrated in great details in the second book of Maccabees in chapter 9.

Here is the central part: “Yet the condemnation of Heaven rode with him, since he said in his arrogance, “I will make Jerusalem the common graveyard of the Jews as soon as I arrive there.” So the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him down with an unseen but incurable blow; for scarcely had he uttered those words when he was seized with excruciating pains in his bowels and sharp internal torment, a fit punishment for him who had tortured the bowels of others with many barbarous torments. Far from giving up his insolence, he was all the more filled with arrogance. Breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, he gave orders to drive even faster. As a result he hurtled from the dashing chariot, and every part of his body was racked by the violent fall. Thus he who previously, in his superhuman presumption, thought he could command the waves of the sea, and imagined he could weigh the mountaintops in his scales, was now thrown to the ground and had to be carried on a litter, clearly manifesting to all the power of God. The body of this impious man swarmed with worms, and while he was still alive in hideous torments, his flesh rotted off, so that the entire army was sickened by the stench of his corruption.” (2 Mac 9:4-10).

“So this murderer and blasphemer, after extreme sufferings, such as he had inflicted on others, died a miserable death in the mountains of a foreign land.” (2 Mac 9:28).

2. We can read in the note of the Jerusalem Bible: The parallel of 1 Mac 6:9 (here is the second narration) is much more sobering.

Here is what we read there, “When the king heard this news, he was struck with fear and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.

There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow, for he knew he was going to die. So he called in all his Friends and said to them: “Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking with anxiety. I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now! Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’ But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.”” (1 Mac 6:8-13). 

As we can see, there is no contradiction. The first text is more bombastic, while the second is more sober.

3. The third narrative, on the other hand, is definitely different.

However, it is narrated within a letter reported in the text.

The Jerusalem Bible notes, “The sacred author, by inserting such a letter before his work, does not vouch for its historical value” (note to 2 Mac 1:10).

So much so that in chapter 9 he will go on and describe precisely how the death occurred.

4. In the second part of your email you ask whether it is possible that at a certain moment a practicing Catholic would  stop believing and start thinking, with no fault of his own, that the Christian religion, while better than the others, was just one among many.

We have to say that evidently, if a person stops believing all of a sudden, it may be basically for two reasons, that can be summed up in one: he has not cultivated the faith.

He may not have cultivated it first of all in the aspect of education.

Although urged by various objections, he has preferred concluding that one religion is just as good as any other. Christ, on the other hand, urges each of his interlocutors to question the truth among  various religions: “Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?” (Jn. 8:46).

Every Christian has a duty to give a background of reason to his faith (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15).

5. The most serious responsibility, however, is on the practical and operational level.

If someone lives in a perpetual state of mortal sin, he will start to feel God as farther and farther away, he will hardly be affected by Him in his personal life.

In this situation, it would be easy to come to the conclusion you described.

But if one lives in God’s grace and, not only that, but cultivates this divine seed laid within us (cf. 1 Jn. 3:9), then he will enjoy God’s presence within one’s heart, as those who “tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Heb. 6:5).

When “those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the holy Spirit” (cf. Heb 6:4), they no longer can say that Christianity is one religion among many.

They immediately understand the abysmal difference between Jesus Christ and the other founders of the various religions. Jesus is not just a man, but he is God who took on human nature to be seen, to teach, to accomplish redemption, to bring divine life into the human heart.

The other founders are simply mortal men.

No one else accomplished the redemption, the atonement for sins.

No one else has merited us the opening of heaven and communion with God.

No one else can lay a seed of divine life in the heart of man.

When one is not living in grace, it is fatal to stop thinking about all this.

6. Finally, it should be remembered that the discriminating point for salvation is not simply honest living, but living in a state of grace.

A person can be honest in the eyes of the world because he does not steal or kill.

But while being honest in the eyes of the world, they may not be in God’s grace by not keeping His commandments. I am thinking particularly of the third (remember to keep the feasts holy”) and the sixth commandments (“do not commit impure acts”).

7. It is true that being born in a nation of Christian tradition facilitates faith in Christ.

However, at the end of the day, we do not believe in Christ because we were born in Italy, but because we believe in His divinity and freely have accepted Him into our lives.

The inevitable comparison with other religions today affirms us more and more in the words spoken by St. Paul under the  inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “I know Him in whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12).

I bless you, I wish you well and will remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo