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#jerusalem – @fathershane on Tumblr
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Fr. Shane Johnson

@fathershane / fathershane.tumblr.com

I'm Father Shane Johnson,a Catholic priest at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in the Bronx.
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Anonymous asked:

Is heaven and the Kingdom of God that Jesus talks about in his ministry the same thing? What, then, is the New Jerusalem? Or are all those one and the same thing?

Yes, in certain ways they’re aspects of the same reality: the triumph of God’s grace in us. That’s really the best interpretation of what Jesus meant by “the Kingdom of God” or “the Kingdom of Heaven”: he could say “the Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21) because it isn’t really like any other kingdom we know of.

That’s why we pray “thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer: that his reign in us and in all women and men be made complete forever. In part because that’s what Heaven is: the fullness of life in and with God, forever, in which the triumph of love is so definitive that it can never be lost or corroded. It’s Heaven that is referred to as the New Jerusalem: the original Holy City was the place in which God chose to dwell among us in his Temple on Mount Zion.

Once Jerusalem was overthrown by the pagan Romans and the Temple was definitively destroyed in 70 AD, St. John could call Heaven a “New Jerusalem” in the Book of Revelation in a new and poignant way — referring to an eternal presence of God with men that could never suffer the same fate. And somehow the mystery is that we’re all part of this: Christ desires to triumph in all of our hearts and to have us close to him forever in Heaven!

Really hoping to make it there, where there will be no more "anon" and we will know exactly as we are known, in all charity! God bless you.

- Father Shane

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Anonymous asked:

I'm having trouble with Jer. 22:3 Wasn't Jesus a descendant of Jehoachin? There must be some explanation.

Good question. I can't give you an expert answer, but it seems to me that this verse was in fact fulfilled with the end of the Davidic monarchy, and yet without cancelling out the truth of Nathan's prophecy to David himself:

Your house and your kingdom are firm forever before me; your throne shall be firmly established forever. (2 Samuel 7:16)

Thus the obscurity of Joseph, a poor carpenter yet descendant of David (Matthew 1:6-16) thanks to the sins of David and his royal progeny, is blessed with the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise, in being the chosen instrument by which God's Son would choose to be grafted into David's house and become the eternal Davidic king.

Then, too, as long as you're reading Jeremiah, turn to the next chapter for a Messianic prophecy of Christ also, in Jeremiah 23:5-6.

God bless you!

- Father Shane

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Anonymous asked:

How come Catholics seem to be the only Christians that make pilgrimages?

Well, we're really not, at least in the Holy Land. There is a very strong tradition of Protestant pilgrimages there, and the Orthodox presence there is very very ancient.

But Catholics feel kinship to more sacred places than Protestants, in part as an extension and continuation of the medieval tradition of "places of pilgrimage" like Rome, Compostela, etc. It's also clear that no Protestant is going to be as excited about a trip to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe as I was when I got to go, or to visit Rome as we are.

Anyway, pilgrimages can be a fantastic and even life-changing way to grow in our faith. In all cases, it's very important to keep the focus on Christ; otherwise it can digress into something almost superstitious (like going somewhere exclusively looking for a cure in the same way you would go to a medical doctor, instead of going seeking to grow in faith).

God bless you!

- Father Shane

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Anonymous asked:

Hi Father. A question I thought was pretty interesting came to mind a few days ago, and I thought you might be able to answer it :) Why do we refer to the Church itself as feminine? For example, I might hear someone say "The Church and HER teachings" or something like that. Why is that so if the Church is Christ's(His) Church and was built upon Peter? Thanks so much for taking the time to answer this and all other questions, it really is a great help!

Great question. Part of it undoubtedly has to do with linguistic inertia: English doesn't give genders to its words, but as all those who struggled through some foreign language in high school know, most other languages do.

It's feminine everywhere: Greek (ekklesia), Latin (ecclesia), even Italian (chiesa), French (église) and Spanish (iglesia).

So that was easy.

But there's also a deeper theological meaning: St. Paul often calls the Church the "Bride of Christ" or the "Spouse of Christ" (perhaps most famously in Ephesians 5) so it's natural to use feminine imagery for her. The Book of Revelation does too, of course. So precisely because it's "his," the Church is a "she."

God bless you!

- Father Shane

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