Short Answers
Short Answers… 1
We have written in past issues answers to 16 questions, and now we continue with the remaining answers.
17 – Hymns set to the tunes of popular songs
Q: What is your opinion regarding hymns that are placed on the tunes of popular songs?
A: Those who do this care only about the meaning, while ignoring the effect of music on the soul. Music plants certain emotions in the soul. A piece of music, even if silent (without words), can make a person rejoice or weep or become enthusiastic or agitated or awaken in him some lust. Therefore, we must not forget the effect of music on the soul.
The hymn is a spiritual song; its music should be spiritual and its tunes sacred. It is not fitting that we mix it with a certain tune that may stir emotions other than the sacred spiritual feelings intended by the hymn.
Also, this may remind the chanter of the popular song and its words, and his mind or heart may wander in it, or his emotions may become mixed. We must remember, my brothers, the saying of the Apostle: “And what communion has light with darkness?!” (2 Cor 6:14).
18 – The source of the image of the Virgin and the saints
Q: How did they obtain the current image of the Virgin and the saints, when photography was not known in their days?
A: Indeed, photography was not known then, but drawing and sculpture were known since ancient times. In the antiquities of the ancient Pharaohs we find precise images of them. So some images of the saints have been preserved for us through drawing. One of the writers of the four Gospels—Luke the Evangelist—was a painter, and he painted an image of the Virgin.
19 – Atoning for sins
Q: If a person commits a sin, can he atone for it by a good deed or an act of mercy?
A: Scripture says, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). And there is no escape from this judgment except through the death of Christ on our behalf. He is the only atonement for our sins: “Nor is there salvation in any other.” And no one deserves the blood of Christ except through faith and repentance.
Good deeds do not remove sins; rather, one sin can destroy a person no matter what other good deeds he has.
As for acts of mercy, they soften the heart of God who said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt 5:7). But an act of mercy without repentance and without faith cannot save anyone. Yet because of mercy, grace visits a person’s heart and calls him to repentance; if he repents, he becomes worthy of the blood, and his sins are forgiven.
20 – Responsibility for a sin not committed
Q: If circumstances prevent me from committing a sin, will the sin be counted against me even though I did not commit it?
A: Perhaps, brother, you think that the only sin is the sin of action! No, for action is the last stage of sin. Sin begins first in the heart with the love of evil and the heart’s response to it, then it enters the stage of execution; if executed, it is completed. And if not executed, a person is judged for his sin in the heart, and by desire, intention, and thought.
And what was the sin of Satan except a sin of the heart, as divine revelation says: “And you said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God… I will be like the Most High.’” (Isa 14:13–14). Merely saying this in his heart was enough for his fall from the height of his rank.
21 – What should the priest do with his thief?
Q: If a thief steals something from a priest and then comes to him confessing his sin, what should the priest do with him?
A: Here the thief has committed a sin against the priest by stealing from him, and a sin against God by breaking His commandments.
From the personal standpoint, the priest must forgive the thief for stealing from him, and his heart must be pure toward him, forgetting his offense and rejoicing in his repentance.
But regarding the right of God, the priest must make sure of the thief’s repentance. And the priest in general, if a repentant thief comes to him, must command him as much as possible to return what he stole to its owners. In the repentance of Zacchaeus the tax collector, we see that he restored what he had taken from people fourfold. So if this thief is truly repentant from the depths of his heart, he must return what he stole.
However, the priest can waive this right in fatherly graciousness, to show the repentant thief that he is not affected by any personal matter.
22 – “Go tell His disciples—and Peter”
Q: The angel said to the women after the Resurrection of the Lord Christ, “Go tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him” (Mark 16:7). Does mentioning Peter by name mean that he is distinguished above the other disciples?
A: The Lord truly intended to give special care to Peter, because he was in a state of anxiety about himself and his fate after his denial, blasphemy, cursing, and saying that he “does not know the Man.” If the Lord applied to him His saying: “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny…” (Matt 10:33), Peter would have perished.
So mentioning Peter by name was a form of consolation for him because of his denial and his sin, for he might have been in such shame before the Lord that he could not meet Him except by a special invitation from Him. Do you not see that Adam, after his sin, hid from the face of God and feared to meet Him, and when God called him, he answered: “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid” (Gen 3:10). Peter was in the same situation, and he needed a special call by name.
Thus the matter is not one of primacy or preference, but comfort for a poor soul…
Shenouda
Bishop of Theological Institutes and Church Education
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Second Year – Issue Ten – 12-1966
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