Q: Why is Jesus’ birth only in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke?
Joshua Beard
St. Clairsville
A: The four Gospel writers, through inspiration by the Holy Spirit, chronicle Jesus’ life from different perspectives and were also writing for different communities. There are those who contend that the Evangelists had similar notes. That is evident in sharing some of the same stories in more than one of the Gospels. Certainly telling the stories of the annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary and the nativity of Jesus was instruction to the early church community that Jesus is both human and divine.
If we view each Gospel through the eyes of faith, we see a complementarity between the Evangelists, as they themselves evangelize an early church full of zeal for the Lord, who would have just died and rose from the dead decades earlier. Of course, the center of each Gospel is the person of Jesus himself. Each Evangelist just shares the good news of Jesus Christ in a different manner.
Q: How do you know if you should sign up to be a server for Mass?
Anna Dayton
Wintersville
A: A server must be respectful at Mass and have a familiarity with what is happening at the celebration. Furthermore, the server should have received baptism and first Communion before serving for the sacrifice of the Mass. Usually, the fifth grade is about the time when one applies to be a server, but it could be later as well.
As with anything we want to do right, there must be the desire to serve. Parents are pretty good at determining if one of their children would make a good server. Finally, the pastor or parochial vicar tends to be a good judge if someone would make a good server.
Q: Why did you decide to become a priest then a bishop?
Mackenzie Pottmeyer
Marietta
A: When I was younger, I thought about becoming a priest, but I did not take the notion seriously until I was in high school, but even then I did not enter the seminary until I was 23 years old. At that time, I began my “formal” discernment of the priesthood. For eight years, I was in the seminary and during that time my encounter with Jesus continued to deepen.
I say that because it was Jesus who invited me to become a priest. It’s just that at the beginning of those eight years, I was somewhat, but not completely, sure Jesus had invited me. It did not take long that first year for me to be certain Jesus called me, and in subsequent years those entrusted with my ongoing priestly formation concurred that I had a priestly calling.
As for being a bishop, the vicar of Christ in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, appointed me a bishop. Before then, my aspiration was to be the best priest I could be, which is still the case. In my pursuit of holiness, I try to be the best priest I can be, but as a bishop. Please pray for all priests (and bishops) that we continue to deepen our encounter with Jesus Christ and be credible heralds of the Gospel.
May you and your family have a blessed Easter season, as we share and live the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.