Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers Concerning:

Martyrdom, Marriage, Unity, Baptism,
Stations of the Cross, Discernment, General Absolution

by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

1. Do you think martyrdom is imminent in our day?
   
   
2. If Protestants do not believe that marriage is a sacrament, but they have been validly baptized, do they receive the sacrament of matrimony?
   
   
3. Our Holy Father urges, "that they all may be one." I didn't take it to mean that his Holiness wants the faithful to lay aside the faith which they have.
   
   
4. I know of a woman baptized on her death bed, unconscious, by a Catholic nurse. She never went to Church or expressed a desire for baptism. But she led a good life and believed in God in general. Was it a valid baptism?
   
   
5. How do we see God in everyday circumstances?
   
   
6. When you said to make the Stations of the Cross each day, did you mean each day of the retreat, or each day of our life?
   
   
7. How is one to know whether God is speaking to him or it is the devil distracting him from God?
   
   
8. When is general absolution proper?
   
   

1. Do you think martyrdom is imminent in our day?
   Martyrdom is not only imminent it is a reality in our day. The twentieth century is the Age of Martyrs. There have been more men women and children who have shed their blood for Christ in the twentieth century than in all the centuries from Calvary to the year 1900. Moreover, there is what the Church calls "white martyrdom". This means living a life of witness to the Catholic faith under constant duress and psychological pressure from a world that rejects Christ's followers even as it rejected the Incarnate Son of God when He came into the world in first century Palestine. [List of Questions]
   
   
2. If Protestants do not believe that marriage is a sacrament, but they have been validly baptized, do they receive the sacrament of matrimony?
   Yes, provided two Protestants are free to marry, believe that marriage is a life-time commitment and want to have children, they receive the sacrament of matrimony if they are both validly baptized before their marriage. The key factors are valid baptism and having the necessary dispositions for contracting a valid marital union. [List of Questions]
   
   
3. Our Holy Father urges, "that they all may be one." I didn't take it to mean that his Holiness wants the faithful to lay aside the faith which they have.
   Our Holy Father quotes the Savior in His discourse at the Last Supper. Certainly Christ wants His followers to be united in faith. But this faith must be founded on the truth. There can be no compromise with the truth. In fact, there can be no real unity which is not based on the truth. The Catholic Church possesses the fullness of God's revealed truth. Christ therefore wants the whole human race to be united in mind and heart. But the mind must possess the truth and the heart must respond to this truth in love. The ecumenical movement is only as authentic as its guiding principles are those taught by the Roman Catholic Church. [List of Questions]
   
   
4. I know of a woman baptized on her death bed, unconscious, by a Catholic nurse. She never went to Church or expressed a desire for baptism. But she led a good life and believed in God in general. Was it a valid baptism?
   We may certainly trust that it was a valid baptism. If she led a good life and believed in God, she must have received many graces during her mortal life. Only God really knows, but we may surely presume that He gave her the crowning grace by enabling her to receive the sacrament of baptism before she entered eternity. [List of Questions]
   
   
5. How do we see God in everyday circumstances?
   We see God in the circumstances of our daily life by our faith in His Divine Providence. We believe that there is no such thing as chance in the world. Nothing ever happens. Nothing simply occurs. Every event in our lives is part of God's universal plan for our salvation and sanctification. Everything that we casually say "happens" is really a manifestation of God's will, inviting us to see His mysterious will and responding with our loving will in return. Your question centers on the word how. We have the faith which enables us to see God in every circumstance. But there are two further conditions that we have to fulfill. We must develop the habit of being always ready to do the will of God; and we must cultivate the habit of living in the presence of God. These two conditions are not as obvious as may seem. We must first of all keep our hearts open to surrender our wills to the will of God, no matter what sacrifice of self-will this may require. Moreover, we should live in prayerful communication with God by constantly sharing with Him our thoughts and desires, our hopes and fears, and humbly asking Him for the light and strength that only He can provide. [List of Questions]
   
   
6. When you said to make the Stations of the Cross each day, did you mean each day of the retreat, or each day of our life?
   Each day of our life. Thanks for the question. As you may know Priests of the Society of Jesus have the faculty to bless crucifixes, whether on a rosary or otherwise, with a special blessing. This blessing enables a person to make the Way of the Cross by simply holding the crucifix in one's hands and making the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis by a brief meditation on each of the stations. [List of Questions]
   
   
7. How is one to know whether God is speaking to him or it is the devil distracting him from God?
   The key factor is whether a person is already sincerely trying to do the will of God. In general, for a person who is honestly trying to do God's will (which does not exclude such failings as are part of our fallen human nature) he or she can safely assume that God will speak in such a way as to inspire peace of soul. On the other hand the evil spirit acts just the opposite. The devil causes anxiety and worry; he disturbs the hearts of those who are trying to conform their wills to the will of God. This basic principle of the spiritual life is crucially important if we, who are striving to imitate our Lord, are to discern whether it is the good Spirit or the evil Spirit which is "speaking to us." [List of Questions]
   
   
8. When is general absolution proper?
   General absolution is proper and, in fact, valid only under the following circumstances. There must be a real emergency situation. A large number going to confession is not, in itself, an emergency. Moreover, those who are to receive general absolution validly must be ready and willing to confess their mortal sins in a private confession to a priest within a reasonable time after being generally absolved. This willingness to actually confess their grave sins in a private reception of the sacrament of penance is necessary for the general absolution to take effect. [List of Questions]

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