In the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Benedict Viviano, OP, writes about Matthew 11:2-6: “These verses contain a school of debate, probably of post-resurrection origin, over the nature of Jesus’ mission, held between disciples of John the Baptist and Christians.”

Jesus was not the type of Messiah that most of his contemporaries expected. Always concerned to show Jesus as fulfilling the Old Testament, Matthew’s account implicitly links verse 5 to Isaiah 26:19; 29:18-19; 35:5-6; and 61:1—all passages referring to God’s ultimate victory over evil.

Matthew’s Jewish Christian audience would have made this connection.

John the Baptist grew in his faith; his disciples’ encounter with Jesus that you cited helped them grow in their faith. The account in the Gospel of Matthew can help us grow in our faith.

We can always wonder about why Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did not explain something in more detail in the Gospels, but we should never allow our questions to overshadow what those evangelists very deliberately included.

God’s values can seem to be in the minority, but that will not always be the case. Those who have died and are in heaven (Sts. Kateri Tekakwitha and Marianne Cope, for example) will be reunited with their glorified bodies after the general judgment. Jesus and his mother simply have a head start in that regard. We entrust all the deceased to God’s mercy.

Sections 668 through 682 and 1038 through 1041 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church describe the general judgment. Sections 1021 and 1022 describe the particular judgment.

Wearing sandals was part of the 16th-century Spanish reforms of Sts. Peter of Alcantara, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross. Most of the Franciscans who came to Mexico and Central and South America in that century belonged to the Alcantarine Franciscan family.

The climate where a person lives is clearly a factor. A barefoot person living outdoors in northern Canada or in Alaska would eventually suffer from frostbite.

Is not wearing shoes or sandals a form of mortification? Yes. Is it necessary for salvation? No. This custom simply calls attention, in certain climates, to the difference between needs and wants.

In 1 Corinthians 9:5, St. Paul asks, “Do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Kephas?”

The author of the Letter to Titus says that a presbyter (whom we identify as a priest) should be “married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious” (1:6b).

The Catholic Church has authorized the ordination of married, former Episcopal priests or Protestant ministers. The Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches will ordain as priests men who have already married, but they do not allow men who were single when they were ordained to marry later.

The Catholic Church recognizes the marriage of two baptized Christians who are free to marry each other as a valid, sacramental marriage.

Your son will need to contact his parish priest to apply for such a dispensation. The first contact should probably be at least six months before the wedding. A Catholic priest can participate in this wedding if the couple requests that.

I have been the Catholic Church’s official witness at several such marriages. I have also requested and received a different dispensation for couples where one person is not baptized