Captain America, Time Travel, and Marriage (New Years’ Weird Questions)

MYS239: It’s the New Year, so Cy Kellett of Catholic Answers Live is asking Jimmy Akin weird questions from listeners, about topics like Capt. America; Johnny Cash; St. Patrick and snakes; did Mary have two spouses?; Jesus’ wounds; and baby Jesus’ umbilical cord. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email | Watch this episode and subscribe on YouTube Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today? Questions covered (times are approximate): * 3:26 – Can you explain the Biblical references in the Johnny Cash song “when the man comes to town” and is it biblically accurate? I’d love to be able to share Jimmy’s thoughts on this on social media. * 13:12 – I understand that in devotional language the Blessed Mother is “The Spouse of the Holy Spirit”. But it’s confusing to hear in the same prayer that the Blessed Mother is also the spouse of Joseph. (Did Mary have two spouses?) Also, I once said that Joseph was the “husband of Mary” and was corrected that he was the “spouse of Mary” and that made a big difference. She explained the marriage of Joseph and Mary was only “for show” and the “real” marriage was to the Holy Spirit. So what’s the right way to explain this gently – without having to disturb the pious fictions that people have lived with for a long time? * 17:40 – I am reading a book “The Rod of an Almond Tree in God’s Master Plan.” Basically, the theory is that God gave Adam a rod from the Tree of Life when He expelled Adam and Eve from Eden. The miraculous rod makes its way from Adam to Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. David thrusts it into the ground while fleeing Jerusalem from his son Absalom. The miraculous rod grows into the tree that Christ was crucified upon to atone for our sins. Have you heard of this theory before? What do you think? Potential topic for “Mysterious World?” * 21:32 – Is it possible the person of the Holy Spirit made brief appearances in the Bible? When Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene in the tomb (John 20:14-18), and to the two followers on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) and to the seven disciples fishing (John 21:1-14), is it possible that their eyes did not see Him because they were not seeing God the Son at first, but God the Holy Spirit for a brief time? * 27:39 – In the Winter Soldier movie, Captain America meets his old love interest from before he travelled into the future and finds out that she married and grew old with someone else after she thought Captain America had died back in the 1940s. In the latest Avengers film, Captain America travels back in time to before Peggy Carter married this other man and marries her instead, thereby pre-empting the unnamed other man from ever marrying Peggy Carter. While Captain America was traveling back in time like this, would it have been adultery for him to have desire for and even make the move to pursue and marry a girl who he knew was married in his own future time but not in the time he was currently traveling to? Seems like this might be adultery for him, but not for her. What do you think? * 32:26 – What’s the deal with St. Patrick and the snakes on the “plain”? I can’t find anything definitive out there. * 36:34 – Why does the glorified Jesus not have the wounds of the Scourging at the Pillar or Crown of Thorns while keeping the nail marks and side wounds? * 38:07 – Jesus’ nails were in his wrists (according to the Shroud of Turin), why do stigmatic saints have the wounds on their hands?