Sooner or later, everyone who becomes known as a practicing Catholic will be asked all kinds of questions. When such questions arise we have the opportunity to do much good or great damage – to the faith, to ourselves, and to the questioner.
How do we respond to these endless questions? We find exquisite guidance in the gospels, for there we can observe the technique of Christ himself, whose teaching, in large measure, consisted in answering questions.
By looking at the many “question and answer” moments found in the gospels, we will find at least five rules.
Rule 1: Make sure you hear the real question, which lurks beneath the surface.
Rule 2: Respond by building upon the already existing knowledge of the questioner.
Rule 3: Don’t waste time with irrelevant questions.
Rule 4: Assess the spiritual condition of the questioner as well as the circumstances and consider silence.
Rule 5: Don’t attempt to answer anyone’s question until you have answered the ultimate question put to the apostles at Caesarea Philippi: Who do you say that I am?
Let’s examine these rules.
Rule 1: Make sure you hear the real question, which lurks beneath the surface.
Some of the most powerful – and controversial teaching of the Lord – emerged in his responses to questions that he never really answered directly. In Matthew 12, they ask: Is it permitted to cure someone on the Sabbath? In Matthew 19, they ask: Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife for any reason? In Matthew 26, they ask: Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
On the surface, all of these questions seem to seek a mere legal opinion, a piece of legal information. But Jesus refuses to hand on mere information. For those who ask these questions don’t want information, they ask the questions to find a reason to disbelieve in the person and authority of Jesus Christ.
And so he never directly responds to the specific legal question. Instead, he speaks in such a way that his authority becomes evident because it is so personal and unprecedented.
When people ask us questions like: Why do you Catholics always try to impose your moral views on us? Why do you Catholics refuse to “get with the times” by permitting divorce? Why do you Catholics still tell your sins to priests, most of whom are weirdos and criminals? Why do you change laws about eating meat on Friday but not contraception? When these questions arise, many questioners are really saying: “I do not want to submit myself to any authority other than myself.” And many say this because they do not know the person of Jesus Christ. And our task is to present him, not just information, which is not really desired in first place. How do we do this? The answer will come later.
Rule 2: Respond by building upon the already existing knowledge of the questioner.
Many who ask us questions see an unbridgeable abyss between themselves and Catholicism. They see an “inside” and “outside.” Jesus frequently responded to questions by showing the questioners that they already had the answer, at least a big chunk of it.
For example, in response to the question about divorce, which came from the Pharisees, he said, “Have you not read that in the beginning God made them male and female…” He directs them back to the Torah, thereby affirming a basic commonality
In Matthew 22 where a Pharisee says, “Master, which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus responds with direct quotations from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, which the questioner knew by heart. Jesus simply fuses the texts together. He responds in a way that is new but not opposed to the old but based on the old.
The best example of this technique appears in Matthew 19, the story of the rich young man who asks the question, “What good deed must I do to possess eternal life?” This questioner seeks something novel, a “secret formula” for happiness. He recognizes the goodness and power of Jesus but sees him as outside the tradition. Jesus tears down the barrier between the young man and himself by simply reciting back to him the Commandments. The young man says, “I have kept all these from my youth.” Jesus here affirms that much of the answer is already there within him.
When answering questions about our faith, we must imitate this strategy of the Lord. We must seek for what binds us to the questioner. If they are already Christians, we already have more unity than disunity (and we dare not inflate the points of difference). If they are Muslims or Jewish people, secular or religious, we worship the one God. If they are atheists or secularists, we have a common humanity.
Rule 3: Don’t waste time with irrelevant questions.
Jesus practices this rule numerous times in the Gospel of St. John. Here’s one example. In chapter 4 the Samaritan woman asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” He refuses to spend time rehashing the age old battle between Jews and Samaritans. Don’t waste time about the Crusades, why Catholics burned Bibles, and the tunnels between the rectories and convent
Rule 4: Assess the spiritual condition of the questioner as well as the circumstances and consider silence.
We find the preeminent and haunting example of this in John 18, the fascinating encounter between Pontius Pilate and Jesus. The conversation ends with the famous question posed by Pilate: What is truth? Those are the last words spoken to Jesus by Pilate. Jesus gives no answer.
Though the text gives no explanation for the silence of Jesus, I would suggest that Jesus does not respond because at that point Pilate was not able or ready to hear the true answer. Only after seeing the outcome of his decision and later hearing of Easter and the emergence of the infant church would Pilate perhaps become open to an answer. According to some ancient traditions, Pilate became a believer. But who knows? In any event, Jesus himself provides the compelling example of silence, not a scornful silence, but a silence that waits for the right time, the maturity of the questioner.
Rule 4 brings us directly to Rule 5, the most important of all.
Rule 5: Don’t attempt to answer anyone’s question until you have answered the ultimate question put to the apostles at Caesarea Philippi: Who do you say that I am?
Peter alone gets it right: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Peter says this, not as a rational dogmatic deduction, not as a precise doctrinal formulation memorized from a book. He blurts out the truth because of Grace and personal knowledge of the fullness of the Lord in the flesh. Peter knows Jesus Christ in the flesh.
People who ask us questions are searching for more than information. After all, anyone with a computer or cell phone can get an answer to any theological or canonical question. But no book, no website, will ever convey the person of Jesus Christ. He comes only through believers who know him.
Permit an illustration. Last Saturday night I had dinner with a young couple getting married next summer. The bride grew up with no religion at all. She is totally secular. They had just come from the Engaged Encounter and during dinner the conversation weirdly turned to a long discussion about the history of Israel, which loved. Then, the groom to be said, “ummm, Tif has some major questions about the church and she doesn’t have the words to ask them.” Oh no, I thought, I don’t want to talk about sex in a restaurant, surely it’s family planning, fertility, whatever. I said, OK.
He said, “It’s the resurrection.” She nodded. Then he said, “Like she wants to know where is He now.” I could have said, “In heaven and in the tabernacle.” That’s accurate and precise information . But instead, I said, “You knew his grandmother, you know his father and mother, you know his brother, uou know they’re believers, you have seen their love. That’s where He is.” So she said, “Oh, now I’m getting it.”
This is the very core of the teaching of Pope Francis. The ultimate answer to all the questions about faith and religion is not data, formulae, laws. Rather, the answer is the person of Jesus Christ, Crucified and Risen, transmitted forever through those who truly believe and live like Him