Descended into Hell and Today you will be with me in Paradise: How does this fit?

Waiting in Limbo...

Renee, a student member of the New Saint Thomas Institute recently asked this question:

Ok, I am confused about something in regard to this subject.
As Jesus hung on the cross, one of the crucified thieves acknowledged Him as the Son of God, acknowledged Christ’s innocence, confessed his own sins, and asked to be remembered. The Bible says: (Luke 23:43) ‘Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” ‘
Since Jesus truly died, then descended into hell to preach, and then rose again on the third day, how is the construction of the sentence in Luke 23:43 possible? It makes sense to me if you move the comma like so: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise”.

What is going on with this passage? How can the thief be with Jesus in paradise on THAT day when Jesus has descended (or will descend) into hell? Does the original Greek have a different context? Any help would be appreciated.

And here is my answer:

10 Reasons to Study Thomas Aquinas in 2016

I heard a priest say in his homily: “I do not recommend that you read Thomas Aquinas.” He had praised the great patron of theology, education, and scholar, but then implied that Saint Thomas was “too difficult.”

“Thomas Aquinas is too hard,” is a common myth and it derives from decades of teachers who were not enthusiastic and skilled in making Catholic Theology via Thomas Aquinas accessible to the ordinary person.

So here are 10 Reasons to Study Thomas Aquinas for 2016. Below you also find resources to help you:

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Could You Explain Natural Law and Homosexuality?

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you needed to explain or defend our Catholic teaching about traditional matrimony, homosexuality, abortion, etc?

We can use Scripture and Tradition, but when talking to a non-Christian we often need to reach deeper and craft the discussion around NATURAL LAW. Natural Law Theory is one of the most powerful teachings – and yet so few Catholics know what it is or how to use it.

You are invited. Please join us:

I wrote my PhD dissertation on Natural Law and Thomas Aquinas, and I’ll be giving a short and complimentary online class on Natural Law and how it will help you understand and explain key topics related to human sexuality, grace, and apologetics.

All attendees will receive a pdf copy of our Catholic Bible Cheat Sheet (gives all the Bibile verses for all our Catholic doctrines) and a Worksheet on Natural Law. It’s a free gift to help you in the New Evangelization.

Please click the button below or click here to register and reserve your spot:

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VIDEO: How to Share Catholic Faith with Jewish Friends

Hanukah ends this week: So how do you convincingly and charitably share the Jewish Faith with your Catholic friend or family member?

Despite what you may have heard elsewhere, we Christians really do want our Jewish family and friends to experience the healing of baptism and the joys and consolation of the Holy Eucharist!

Thomas looking at NSTIChrist is the King of the Jews, and (as St Paul and St Thomas Aquinas teach) their personal reception of Christ brings glory to God and is an eschatological sign!

I’m really excited to share with you this HD Catholic Class from the New Saint Thomas Institute with detailed practical advice on sharing the Catholic Faith with Jewish family, friends, and co-workers. Hanukah ends this week so it’s a great opportunity to brush up on your Catholic theology and Old Testament skills.

[If you already are a Member of the New Saint Thomas Institute, you received this video lesson last week, plus so much more. Your premium version access of this video is available here.]

If you’re not a Member of the New Saint Thomas Institute, here is a free sample of our high quality Catholic theological videos:

HD Video: How to Share Catholic Faith with a Jewish Friend:

If you don’t see this theological video in your email, click here to begin watching it.

If you are not yet a Member of the New Saint Thomas Institute and want to study Catholic theology with us online and earn your Certificate, our Advent Enrollment is currently open!

You can receive our Advent Apologetics package and over 100 videos on Catholic Theology and Apologetics by signing up today:

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Sign up as a Student Member at the New Saint Thomas Institute by clicking here.

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You Need a Theology of Delayed Gratification!

Learn to wait and delay good things...

Did you know that there is a connection between your child waiting for the prayer of blessing before meals and his ability to avoid premarital sex?

It has to do with delayed gratification:

When we sit down at a meal, it is just and right that we first thank God and ask His blessing upon the food that we are about to enjoy. Then, and only then, do we pick up our forks and eat.

Little children are usually tempted to sneak a bite from their plates while mother is turned around getting the last dish on the table. It’s the duty of parents to stop this. The children must learn to wait. Why?

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 2.56.14 PMWell one day their appetites will include not only food for preservation of the human body, but they will have an intense appetite for the preservation of the human race. Will they be allowed to nibble a little bit here and there before the blessing? In case you’re not following the analogy:

hungry child > dinner blessing > fulfillment of hunger appetite

young person > matrimonial blessing > fulfillment of sexual appetite

You see if Timmy learns that he can eat before the family is assembled and father leads in the religious blessing, well then, Timmy will not likely wait to have sex until after his family is assembled at church and Father has pronounced the religious blessing on Timmy’s bride and Timmy at the altar.

Are you following this?

Delaying Good Things for Good Reasons:

And this isn’t just about family meals. It’s about everything. School, jobs, Advent, Lent, the Eucharistic fast, fish Fridays, penance, sacramental preparation, childbearing, childrearing, illness, natural death, and so on and so on.

Catholicism is the religion of delayed gratification. This life is a test run to determine our eternal gratification. If we live only to have pleasure in the now, we won’t have beatitude in the future. Christ has instituted His Catholic Church to provide us with small mini-trials every day.

The Eucharistic fast is one obvious example. Humbling one’s self in the confessional before receiving the Holy Eucharist is another. It’s learning how to do something difficult or inconvenient for some other greater good.

Let’s go back to Timmy. If Timmy learns to break the Eucharistic fast or cheat his resolutions during Lent, what will he do in other areas of life? He’ll push the boundaries, but ultimately he’ll fail because he does not understand that all success derives from delayed gratification – both temporal and eternal.

Look at all these hipsters in America. They have college degrees. They vote. They are somewhat intelligent. They even own an interesting collection of vinyl records. Yet they do not have jobs.

It’s now being reported that our college educated hipsters are becoming dependent on state subsidies. They hang out in coffee shops discussing Renoir, Radiohead, and Rousseau, but they buy their groceries with food-stamps! It looks like they’ve fallen for the hipster trap.

What’s going on here?

These young people have been raised to reject delayed gratification. They are the products of society that glorifies immediate gratification  They want meaningful jobs…right now. They want to be art gallery directors, professors, CEOs, non-profit directors, film-directors, Facebook creators, authors, actors, and poets.

What they don’t see is that it takes a helluva lot of hard work to ascend to these professions.

This is why we must realize the value of Catholicism for our culture. Catholicism, in this regard, helps us in two ways: The first way is supernatural and the second way natural, temporal, and social.

  1. First, the Catholic theology of waiting confirms that the honors and accolades of this world are vanity of vanities. The Faith is what led the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to resign his power and live his remaining days in an obscure monastery. The smaller natural pleasures of this life are not worth trading for the enormous supernatural beatitude to be attained in the next. This life itself is a prolonged wait for something better and beyond.
  2. Secondly, the theology of waiting or delayed gratification is not one of passivity. You are active and waiting. Unlike the ideology of hipsters smoking hand rolled cigarettes and complaining about those faceless stiff-shirts belonging to the “one percent,” the theology of waiting calls for sacrifice now for something better later. So if you want a meaningful job, get up off your skinny jeans and produce something. Contribute. Nobody cares about your thoughts and feelings unless they contribute to something. If you’re an artist, it may take you 20 years to actually sell something. If you can’t accept that, then don’t throw a tantrum and complain about the world. Learn a little delayed gratification. Write down your goals and realize that it takes a long time to reach important goals.

Contraception and Delay:

Contraception is the perfect example for our society’s desire for instant gratification. Contraception is the idea that you can have lots and lots of immediate pleasure (feels really awesome!) without committing to one person (a sacrificial act), and without committing to a pregnancy (a hugely sacrificial act), and without committing to raising a human person for eighteen years (an immensely sacrificial act).

Back to Timmy for one last time. From the time Timmy is born, he will be maintaining his “threshold for waiting.” He will observe the “threshold of waiting” in his parents. Do they live on a whim? Do they go into debt to have fun now? Are they penitential? Are they religious hypocrites? Then he will begin to see how the standard for the “threshold of waiting” is applied to him. Is he allowed to throw temper-tantrums when he is not immediately gratified. Will he persevere in household tasks? Will he finish homework? Will he keep the Eucharistic fast or will he sneak a cookie before Mass? Will he maintain simple customs such as not eating before the Blessing? You get the idea.

If Timmy does not learn this Catholic principle of delayed gratification, what will he become? He’ll become a contracepting hipster with a B.A. waiting for that $60,000 job to fall into his lap. Regrettably, he’ll be a nothing. Worst of all, he won’t live the abundant life that Christ promised for those who would take up their cross and follow Him.

Of course, it’s not easy to assume this theology of waiting. It is the most difficult teaching of Catholicism. As the Blessed Virgin Mary said to Saint Bernadette: “I promise to make you happy, not in this world, but in the next.” Those words terrify me. However, it is a sure promise. None of us will be perfectly happy in this life. It’s just not going to happen.

C.S. Lewis once speculated that if God gave us perfect happiness in this life, it would be unjust since we would then stop seeking after God Himself. Saint Thomas Aquinas would say it is impossible to find happiness anywhere else since our Summum Bonum is none other than God Himself.

So don’t get down in the mouth about delayed gratification. It’s delayed…not never. Life won’t be perfect. Embrace this truth. There is freedom in it. There is joy in realizing it. Here the verse that wraps it all up nicely:

“But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” (1 Peter 4:13)

And another:

“But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

Godspeed,
Taylor R. Marshall

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Did Thomas Aquinas Fear the Man of One Book?

A member of the New Saint Thomas Institute recently asked a good question about Saint Thomas Aquinas:

aquinasDear Taylor,
I am truly fascinated by Saint Thomas aquinas’ comment Beware the man of one book.
I can interpret that two ways and I was wondering if you had the original italian, because the word ‘un’ in Italian can mean one book or it can mean a book, and this would help better interpret the meaning.
If it means one book, then it can mean that a man who writes only one book could be limited in his views.
It can also mean that the writer of one book has put a lot of thought and study into writing and therefore he is a thinker and therefore, a person to be reckoned with or an authority on a subject.
On the other hand, to beware of the man who writes A book could mean any book (indefinite article.) which can then mean that he thinks he is an expert and may not be.
So I would love to know the original Italian and context for nothing more than curiosity.

Cheers,
Catherine

Dear Catherine,

You have some amazing analysis of this quote! I’ve never thought so much about it!

Fortunately for us, Thomas didn’t usually write in Italian! Let’s get into the Latin, which makes it very clear.

We don’t know if Thomas Aquinas really said this (it’s not in his Works as far as I’ve read), but in Latin the received Thomistic proverb is: “Hominem unius libri timeo.” I fear the man of a single book.

Here unius means one and only one. In a medieval context it would refer to a man who has only studied one book. Probably not a man who has written only one book.

So Saint Thomas Aquinas, if he really said it, is communicating that he fears “scholars” who only have a single speciality and not a breath of knowledge (as did his master Saint Albert the Great).

As we show in the New Saint Thomas Institute, Saint Thomas Aquinas was a master of:

  1. Old Testament
  2. New Testament
  3. Aristotle
  4. Boethius
  5. Augustine
  6. Dionysius the Areopagite
  7. Eastern Church Fathers
  8. Science and Astronomy (for his time)
  9. Practical sermons and preaching

Thomas was hardly a man of one book or one speciality. I hope that helps. Thanks for the question!

Godspeed,
Taylor

PS: A few “back to school” slots will be opening up on Monday Aug 17 2015 for those that want to study with us at the New Saint Thomas Institute (NSTI). Please join the NSTI waiting list in order to hold a reservation.

Saint Luke as the Roman Lucius and Famous Brother in the Gospel (2 Cor 8:18)

Saint Luke wrote the majority of the New Testament – even more than Paul.

The Gospel according to Saint Luke (the longest of the four Gospels) and Acts of the Apostles rank Saint Luke in first place as largest contributor to the New Testament. As I argued in my book The Catholic Perspective on Paul, Saint Luke is also the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Paul is the “author” and Luke is the “writer” or “drafter” Hebrews. (The Paul/Luke production of Hebrews is also the position of Saint Thomas Aquinas.)

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Saint Luke was Lucius and the Paul’s “Famous Brother”

Saint Luke as Loukas (3 mentions in NT)

This Luke (Λουκᾶς) is mentioned in Paul’s epistles three times:

Our dear friend Luke (Λουκᾶς) the physician, and Demas send greetings. (Col 4:14)

Saint Paul mentions Luke as his fellow worker along with Mark in Philemon:

And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers. (Philem 1:22-24)

And then again in 2 Timothy in connection with Mark yet again:

“Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me.” (2 Tim 4:11)

Note here that Luke is Paul’s “dear friend,” Paul’s “fellow worker,” and Paul’s sole companion at the end of his life.

Saint Luke as Lucius (2 mentions in NT)

Lucius or Loukios (Greek: Λούκιος) appears two times in the New Testament, once in Acts (written by Luke) and once in Romans.

Lucius is the Romanized version of the name Luke. In a Roman context, Greek men would adapt their names to Latin by creating a -us ending so that their names would rightly decline in Latin. Hence, the way to give Λουκᾶς or “Loukas” a Roman ending is to modify the ending and render it as Lucius.

And wouldn’t you know it, we find this form of Luke’s name in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans!

Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius (Λούκιος), Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews. (Rom 16:21)

Origen in his Commentary on Romans states that the “Lucius” in Romans is Saint Luke.

Lucius is also mentioned in connection with Barnabas and Paul in Acts:

In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene (Λούκιος ὁ Κυρηναῖος), Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. (Acts 13:1)

Note here the connection between Paul/Saul, Lucius, and Barnabas with…drumroll…Herod the Tetrarch. This proves that Paul/Saul was a Herodian. I’ll write more about this in a future post.

Luke as the “Famous Brother in the Gospel”

There is a unnamed man in 2 Corinthians that Paul refers to as a brother made famous in the Gospel:

But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. With him we are sending the brother who is famous in the Gospel among all the churches (τὸν ἀδελφὸν οὗ ὁ ἔπαινος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ διὰ πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν); and not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us in this gracious work which we are carrying on, for the glory of the Lord and to show our good will. (2 Cor 8:16-18)

Paul is sending Titus and another man who is famous “in all the churches.” Apparently, he is so famous that he doesn’t even need to be mentioned by name. The Corinthians know him already. Notably, he is famous “in the Gospel throughout all the churches” (ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ διὰ πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν). Paul frequently speaks of the Gospel, but never in this way. Some English translations wrongly read “famous for preaching the Gospel,” but the Greek says “famous in/for the Gospel.”

Saint Thomas Aquinas suggests that this “famous brother” is Saint Luke and that he famous because Saint Luke has by this time published his written Gospel and that it has made him “famous throughout all the churches.” The date of 2 Corinthians is around AD 57 and so this would date Saint Luke’s Gospel before AD 57.

Modern scholars will laugh at this, but I think it makes great sense since Saint Paul cites the Gospel of Luke as Sacred “Scripture” in 1 Timothy 5:17-18.

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The Slow Death of Marriage…And Its Future Resurrection

Why are Christians failing so miserably in the social debate on matrimony, abortion, and the redefinition of family? We are losing because the most powerful weapon in social reform is how we relate WORDS to ACTIONS.

Words carry ideas. Ideas change people. So if a regime changes the meaning of words, the regime changes the ideas of people.

What is Marriage? Finding a Definition

Take “marriage,” for example. Marriage is an institution that ratifies a monogamous sexual exclusive relationship for procreation.

Notice the words I’m using here: monogamous, sexual, exclusive, procreation.

It’s not essentially a legal arrangement for “best friends.” It’s not a legal arrangement for insuring hospital visitation rights. It’s not essentially a structure for tax benefits. Holy Matrimony is an institution that ratifies a monogamous sexual exclusive relationship for procreation.

It is a legal contract and covenant that grants exclusive sexual access to one another’s body till the death of one spouse. It always hopes for the fruition of children whether God grants children or not. That’s what marriage is. By fully consenting to this reality, a marriage bond was publicly created.

The historic reason why marriage includes the additional lumping together of financial assets is: children, their rearing, and their inheritance!

But modern society has changed the definition of marriage and by doing so they have changed everyone’s idea of marriage.

Falling in/out of Love

With the advent of the birth control pill, the idea that the marriage contract meant exclusive sexual access to a spouse for the rearing of children decayed.

Decades later, they began to depict marriage as “falling in love.” If you fall in love, then you should be married. The problem is the phenomenon of “falling out of love.” And so in the 1970s we got “no fault divorce.” The children suffered. Matrimony had been a public institution to create and protect the next generation. The children were royally screwed over in the 1970s.

“Love Wins” With Same Sex

So for decades heterosexual spouses performed (and deformed) marriage by “falling in love” and “falling out of love’ while cranking up the divorce rate. Birthrates plummeted. There was no longer any sound reason in this new definition of marriage to prevent same sex marriage. If two men “fall in love” why not have a legal ceremony that means, um, very little to heterosexual people.

Heterosexuals since the 1960s already demonstrated to society that marriage does not mean:

  1. male/female role polarity
  2. life-long monogamy
  3. covenantal indissolubility
  4. natural conception and birth of babies
  5. staying together to raise children
  6. growing old together

Think about it. It was heterosexuals who destroyed those 6 points above – not the gay community! The homosexual lobby merely had to wait for the “normal society” to redefine things in their favor.

Matrimony works because it assures paternity assurance. If a woman has intercourse with 10 men and then becomes pregnant along the way, none of those 10 men are going to provide for that woman and care for the new baby. There is no paternity assurance. Men only invest where there is paternity security. Having children requires effort, time and money. A cuckolded man isn’t going devote that much energy in a promiscuous culture where progeny cannot be secured. That’s why we have the quickly growing MGTOW culture for men. Society breaks down.

How You Can become a Healer for a Broken Culture

I wrote about 10 Radical Ways We Can Reclaim Matrimony. There I explained our strategy to “take back” traditional vocabulary. One way we can accomplish this is to the avoid the word “individual.” Originally, the term individualis was applied to the the “undivided” essence of the Holy Trinity.

Around 1750, the word “individual” began to be used in place of a human “person. Why? Because society was already being restructured as “individualistic.” You can keep dividing nations, states, cities, even families, but according to them you can’t divide the “individual.” This was the era leading up to the French Revolution. The important aspect for an anti-Christian society was to elevate the solo-person – the undivided individual. Every man an island.

Previously, Christians spoke of “persons” not “individuals.” The family was the basic “undivided” unity (everyone comes from a family – not from an individual) for Christendom. But now it is the “individual” that it is the basic unit. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be an Individual (revolutionary). I want to be a Person (Trinitarian).

Reclaiming as an Example of Light

Remember how we learned that we must reclaim right WORDS and associate them with right ACTIONS. Ultimately, the best thing you can do is mentor others with your good example. This is how you best reprogram the definitions of words. If you are single, then you can live a life of noble chastity and avoid the hook up culture. Live with personal dignity and demonstrate the joy of Jesus Christ in your life.

If you are married, the best thing you can do is show your children how much you love and respect your spouse. This will overflow to those around you.

  • Are you kind to one another? Do you give each other the benefit of the doubt before a fight breaks out?
  • Men, are you affectionate with your wife when you get home. (Wives deeply desire love, affection and approval [“I love you and I missed you today. Close your eyes while I kiss you.”] more than they desire gifts or respect.)
  • Women, do you respect your husband in front of the children and your friends? (Husbands deeply desire honor/respect [“I’m so proud that you’re my husband. You work so hard!”] more than they desire love.)
  • Are you quietly teaching those in your circle of influence that lifelong exclusive monogamy is beautiful, sweet, and rewarding?
  • Do you fight back the fear of having babies in this crazy world?

Our best strategy is living Holy Matrimony and living it with joy and a smile on our face. It is difficult. It is a challenge. My wife Joy is pregnant with baby #8 and it’s much harder on her than baby #1. Much harder! (Ladies, can I get a witness.) But she is living a heroic life and I can’t help but admire her love for me, our new baby, and her profound dedication to our wedding vows.

If you are a student Member of the New Saint Thomas Institute, please watch our 2-part video series in which my wife Joy and I sit down in front of the video camera to talk about those issues as they relate to our own lives and how we grapple with these challenges in our marriage.

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You can find this video series in the “Catholic Certificate in Theology” module on Sacramental Theology:

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If you are not yet a Member of the New Saint Thomas Institute, we will be soon opening enrollment for a few new spots. NSTI is the largest Catholic online education institute in the world with 1,800 Catholic students from 30 nations. If you’d like to join our student body, and earn a Certificate in Catholic Theology with me, please sign up here. (There are currently 280 people on the waiting list for NSTI. Today’s enrollment is limited to the first 300). Please visit newsaintthomas.com to learn more about what we do and what we offer through the New Saint Thomas Institute. And don’t forget to join our waiting list if you are interested Save your spot!

Just like the early confessors and martyrs – we must live heroic lives. People are converted when they see the love of Jesus. That could be in seeing a Coptic Christian beheaded by ISIS. It could also be in the powerful witness of a young mother sweetly caring for her babies. Or by watching a handsome man care for his wife and honor her till death as the mother of his children.

You’d be surprised how much your actions touch the hearts of others. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is in your heart. Share His Heart with the hearts of others.

Cor ad cor loquitur,
Taylor Marshall

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