Called To Communion - 1/15/18- Dr. David Anders

Church and EWTN in the name of the father so I don't always period on that oh man 40 seconds guys Thank You house richly Thank You infinitives on what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests 1-800 five eight five nine three nine six I don't understand why I have to earn salvation one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six why do I need to confess my food to APRI what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network hey everybody happy Monday to you welcome again to call to Communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters if you're a non Catholic maybe you've never been a Catholic maybe you were a Catholic as a kid and then fell away for whatever reason but now you're thinking about the church again and you've got some questions well what a great what a great place to get those questions answered here is our phone number 1-800 five eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for the response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply again the phone number 1-800 five eight five nine three nine six what a team we have in place for you today rich Jesse our producer who's not produced this program in a long time we're glad to have rich back for today Matt Kaminsky is our phone screen or Jeff person is on social media he'll be taking your questions via YouTube and Facebook live I'm Tom price welcome again to dr. David Anders Tom happy Martin Luther King jr. Day you know when you arrived here at the radio studios I was reading his letter to the Birmingham jail from the Birmingham jail what a great letter that was so you know I used to teach Western civilization the University of Alabama in Birmingham right here a long time ago when I was writing my doctoral dissertation and and we were housed my classroom only made a stone's throw from the Birmingham jail isn't that something and I used to begin my semester and I would take this letter and I wouldn't tell that kids where it came from I figured who'd they figure it out pretty quick right I start reading the text until somebody could finally put their hand up and tell me what it was and but my point in the exercise was to show how king drew on Western civilization in history in order to make his case that was appeal for justice and and opposition to unjust laws and in particularly Catholic history the Catholic intellectual patrimony is where he draws on for that letter and my argument for that for the kids was history is is relevant it's relevant for models of human of humanity of humanism authentic Christian humanism in particular so so go study it yes is the this is the laboratory of human experience so it's worth studying absolutely here's our phone number again 1-855-828-4646 and he says you read the Bible the ultimate rule for the interpretation of Scripture and the application is the rule of love of charity which is the first and greatest commandment and what Christ came to bring and and Augustine himself struggled with the image of the God of the Old Testament until he discovered the Catholic bishop Saint Ambrose and through Ambrose he learned that the church has never read the Old Testament as simply a straightforward literal historical narrative that is just sort of a bald chronicle of events as if that was the end of the story but the church has always read the Old Testament not only but not less than an allegory for the trees of the Christian faith okay my and so at one level all all of the narrative description of the Old Testament has to be read as allegory and typology concerning the the truths of the interior life and the moral life that Jesus came to teach which essentially is the rule of love okay okay secondly Jesus himself tells us that the legislation the policy the civil polity of Israel was was a temporary and in part a contemporary engagement and a concession in part to human weakness so you can't read even the legislation of the Old Testament as a straightforward description of the divine character when Christ Himself deals with this not on the question of warfare but on the question of marriage law when the set when the Pharisees come to Christ and say is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife and Jesus says no that's that doesn't accord with the with the creation ordinance of the ultimate ultimately with the will of God and they say well then why does the law of Moses permit it hmm and he says God did this as a concession a concession to your weakness but I tell you wasn't this way from the beginning because what God is joined together let men not separate so we know that the Mosaic law contains within it concessions to human weakness that are provisional and temporary okay all right now secondly it's us that's two points third point is that the the the warfare in the Old Testament had a different character from the the religious conquests of Islam all right the the advance of the Empire of the world from the seventh century was very explicitly a conquest of conversion all right a forced conversion in fact join up you get to live don't join up we kill you all right and and that's not the character of the religious conquest of the Old Testament so whatever else is going on the the aim of the Jews was not to forcibly convert pagans to Judaism or to the Hebrew religion ok very good we hope that's helpful for you Courtney thank you so much for your letter I'm going to do one more here before we go to a break here is David in Steamboat Springs Colorado who says dr. Andrews your show has been such a blessing and an important part of my conversion to Catholicism thank you very much could you please explain the three days and nights timeframe that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 12:40 if he died on a Friday afternoon and rose on a Sunday morning well that's only two days and two nights thank you David right so this is just a convention of chronological numbering all right this is just a cultural convention Friday Saturday and Sunday are three distinct today's so on you know on three different calendar days Jesus is in the tomb alright does it's not necessary that he be there for you know exactly 72 hours ok very good when we come back from our quick break we'll be talking with kandi in Jarrettsville Ohio and we've got a phone line open for you right now one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six it's called a communion here on EWTN sharing the fullness of the Catholic faith one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network [Music] father John Ricardo when you and I wake up every day do we strive to know Jesus or not quick question to you and me right now is that what you and I are doing every single day the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio the Trump administration rolls back the Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate US bishops calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons Francis offers prayers for the victims of the California wildfire US House of Representatives has passed a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks and Pope Francis says the death penalty is contrary to the gospel your link to news headlines Catholics count on at the top of the hour we days on EWTN radio do you Roku Roku is a small black box that allows you to instantly stream EWTN to your TV oddity is a high-speed Internet connection a TV and the Roku player for more visit ewtn.com slash Roku living the beatitudes with father Bjorn blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God Saint Josemaria Escriva says that we are called to light up the pathways of this earth by being so errs of peace and joy this comes from being aware that we are sons and daughters of God on the road of life though we find dangers but God walks with us every step of our life pouring out the gifts of his Holy Spirit upon us our lady is our companion like GPS in our car connected to the cloud and bringing the latest updates to help us navigate our journey and get out of traffic on the way to the eternal Kingdom we don't want to get into family fights on our way to gods vacation destination but we should be these sewers of peace and joy who shouldn't accept substitutes accept only the authentic identity of being his children his sons and daughters let's grow in happiness and bring peace to those around us blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God aw gee live truth live Catholic what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic this is called to communion with dr. David Andrews one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six if you're ready now let's get to the phones at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six let's begin this time with candy in Jarrettsville Ohio listening to us via Ave Maria radio hey candy what's on your mind today well hi and thank you for taking my call you guys have been so helpful and your apologetics and I understand David that you are a convert and I was wondering how you came to terms with Mary because sometimes I feel like I'm taken away from God and when I'm her so could you tell me a little bit about absolutely so kandi can let me ask a question are you married by any chance no okay all right but you have married friends and you have married relatives and you value their marriages and the love that spouses have for one another so at least you can draw an analogy there would you say that when a spouse lavishes love and affection and attention on on on his or her beloved that that detracts from the glory or honor of God would you say that no no not at all not at all and that's the best analogy for it really I mean that the model of marital love is a great analogy for human love in general is a great kind of type for human love in general and it's what God desires us to do right I'm not detracting from the honor of God or from the dignity that is due to Christ if I lavish love and attention on my wife and and you know probably in a given day I my wife's name verbal I verbalize it more frequently than I verbalized the name of Jesus sometimes much to my wife's annoyance actually yesterday where we walked into the kitchen and I said hey Jill and she was like not again I've had enough you know I see that I was gonna ask her to do something for you no and I probably say my wife's name you know times a day and I might not actually verbalize the name of Jesus and a hundred two hundred times and today I mean maybe some days I do other days I don't but you can't rank order you know who's the greater value in my life just in terms of the quantity of times that I invoke one another one of them or the other directly okay and and so that's that's that's one thing to keep in mind secondly what is the nature of my invocation of the Blessed Virgin mayor or any of the saints okay well it's of the character of friendship alright another analogy I have a handful of best friends apart from my wife and I don't get to talk to them as much as I like but typically when I'm in my car if I'm driving to work or I'm driving out to EWTN that's that's when I've got you know twenty or thirty minutes of free time and almost always use that time to call my buddies on the telephone and check in on them and one of the things I do is I ask them to pray for me and they share their concerns and I pray for them and we are we're engaged with one another in a loving friendly way alright that relationship of mutual love and care and intercession does not detract from the glory or the honor of God in fact it this is precisely what loving relationship is supposed to look like this is the kind of thing that God wants me to do it's why the Bible commands me to pray for my friends and for them to pray for me so that we can express our love and care for one another in them in the spiritual domain now I have a few friends that I livin friends on earth you know that I consider to be people without standing holiness and so are because of that our relationships are not altogether equitable right I mean that I consider them to be my my spiritual or moral superiors and and I mean I'm still friends with them right but but I placed myself in the role of like learner or disciple or pupil all right to a certain extent and when I interact with them especially those that are older than me I adopt an attitude of reverence and respect as a Dominican priest for instance that I'm very good friends with who's a hundred and one years old and he's been he's been a priest longer than most people have been alive even going on like seventy seven years right now I think of priesthood of ordained priesthood and he's a good friend but when I talked to him I usually adopt you know some habits of reverence and respect and deference that I wouldn't take towards somebody he was an aged peer or maybe a pure of mind and and but and again but those those those attitudes of reverence and respect as I seek from him advise counsel prayers and sometimes the sacraments that doesn't detract from God's honor in fact it it it elevates God's honor because this this is something that I owe to my friend in justice give to everyone what is his do st. Paul tells us honor to whom honor and some people are worthy of a greater honor okay well we we recognize all those dynamics in our relationship with the body of Christ on earth which is the church and our friends that share the Catholic faith with us how much more so should those same dynamics perjurer or pertain to the Saints that are in heaven they're just as much a part of the body of Christ as we are if not more so and they're far more imminent than we are in charity and holiness they've been confirmed in glory by God in the presence of of God in the angels and the beatific vision so when I engage them in prayer in relationship even to the extent of showing acts of deference and in reverence and honor towards them again it's not taking away from from God I'm I'm venerating Christ in his members that's what saint gregory of nyssa once said about the veneration of the saints group or was it gnaws eons us I can't remember doesn't matter I'm venerating Christ and his members does that detract from the honor of God not at all because God desires me to be saved as a member of a community part of a family all right in which prayer and intercession and mutual love and concern and deference and honor are acts of justice and charity okay and you can't rank order the value simply in terms of well how many times a day did you invoke one name versus the other but that's that's irrational I mean that's not how we even rank order human relationships you know I might I might call out an unruly child far more frequently than I call out the well-behaved going you just can't do it that way of course if you really want to see symbolically where in our worship of God is the absolute priority of God and of Christ signified in our in the public worship of the church it's in the Holy Sacrifice of the mass all right and you won't find a more Christocentric Thea centric prayer anywhere on the planet than the Holy Sacrifice of the mass and look at how the Saints are involved in the mass if you listen to the Canon of the mass or the Eucharistic prayer the priest invokes all of the Saints the Blessed Virgin st. Joseph and you know and all of the faithful living and dead together in the sublime act of worship where we offer the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus to God the Father and Pope Pius the 12th and his beautiful and cyclical and the liturgy mariotta day says that the mass is the most of efficacious means of sanctity all right when we engage in the mass and offer our bodies as living sacrifices along with Christ that is the church's supreme act of worship in which all of the saints together with the living faithful join and not one Act one thing that we'd never do never do we don't ever offer sacrifice to the saints we offer sacrifice to God alone and that is the supreme act of religious worship and that's something the saints joined with us in doing absolutely Candi thank you so much for your call we hope that's helpful for you that opens up a line for you now one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six it's called a communion here on EWTN on this Monday afternoon Gabriel is watching us right now on YouTube Gabriel says what translation of the Bible should I trust I am reading the Council of Trent and the Vulgate is the authoritative translation but many are seeking to go back to the Hebrew and Greek what say you okay thanks I appreciate it so there's absolutely nothing wrong with reading the Volga translation of the Bible to say that it's authoritative doesn't mean that it is that it's textually perfect right doesn't mean that from from a critical or scholarly point of view we there's not something to be gained by looking at the original languages but the Vulgate was an ecclesiastical II approved translation so it's not going to lead you into heresy basically is what that means and it is possible for translators to bring their own ideas into play and there there are some kind of dynamic translations particularly those associated with Protestant groups in the 20th and 21st century that import a lot of the translators own theological prejudices into the into the English language or whatever modern line you're dealing with and you know I'm gonna I'm gonna call one out in particular that I have read a lot of okay probably the leading english-language biblical scholar in the world today is not a Catholic as an Anglican by the name of NT right okay and I can't remember which of his books he makes this claim but NT Wright says in one of them that it is impossible literally impossible to actually understand what st. Paul meant in the book of Romans if you limit yourself to the NIV to the New International Version which is an incredibly popular translation because the Calvinism of the translators is so infects the way they translate the words okay and and and they're there there are other translations that do some other things we can see the translators bringing their own theological agenda in alright so it's a you need to if you're a critically minded person you've worked with the original languages you're trying to get a handle on the Greek in Hebrew and so forth you can look at a lot of them you can cross references and so forth if you're really just looking for your own private lectio divina your own private devotional life it'd be good to go with a translation that you know has some measure of ecclesiastical approbation or Catholic theologians at least have said you know we think this is pretty good so the the translation that's for a long time being used in the in the liturgy north american church is the new American Bible okay the Vulgate in the Douay of course we're glazy a Stickley authorized translations the RSV catholic edition is one that has a lot of traction with the catholic hierarchy and catholic theologians that's the one that I personally prefer is a RSV Catholic edition okay very good Gabriel we'll hope that's helpful for you thank you for checking us out today on YouTube our phone number here one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six called a communion here on EWTN david is watching us on youtube as well he says I have learned that some Protestants view new passage new testament passages dealing with judgment first corinthians 3 second corinthians four romans 14 etc as having to do not so much with salvation but with a sort of second final judge during which rewards not salvation are distributed so what can what could Catholics make of this interpretation yeah okay so there is a certain analogy in the Catholic eschatology Catholic doctrine of the last thing so for instance st. Thomas Aquinas in his in his compendium of theology when he talks about the second judgement says that those that have been perfected in charity right basically totally purged of their attachment to temporal Goods that there's really nothing left in them to judge they're just like okay you're good to go alright there are other Catholics who are joined to God in charity who died in sanctifying grace who will be admitted to heaven eventually but there's still something that you could you know you could kind of pick apart in their interior life and that you know God will differentiate these things on the last day and the general judgment so you know here's what you did well here's what you did badly and then there are those for whom it's just you know flat-out condemnation so there's something analogous to that idea once once you've acknowledged that that God actually rewards morally good works alright once you've and and that's what your Protestant friends are saying they're acknowledging that okay if we die in God's friendship all right that after that God will actually differentiate so Christian a merits one objective reward because of his behavior Christian be merits another reward because he has superior behavior if you've if you've admitted that much you're a long way towards the Catholic doctrine of salvation alright because see here's the caricature of Catholicism alright the caricature is that to say that works has something to do with our salvation the characters is to view us like the ancient Egyptians who thought that when you died your heart would be weighed in a balance against a feather you know and if you're if your good deeds outweigh your bad you got it well I that's that's not what Catholics believe we don't actually think that God's got a ledger you know he's keeping double book you know you know double double-entry accounting and he's adding up good and bad deeds and if you'd the good outweighs the bad you get in that's not how it works Catholic faith teaches that without grace you're absolutely sunk all right you're absolutely sunk its not like on your own speed you can do anything to merit God's grace or merit his friendship it's totally undeserved it's totally undeserved all right having granted you that grace through faith and but not because of anything that you've done God then gives you an opportunity to participate to cooperate in His divine plan and as you cooperate you can in fact acquire merit merit means something that God rewards Jesus talks about merit all the time he says if you do this you'll receive a reward if you don't do that you won't says it all the time okay and the Catholic position is once you receive God's grace at God's gracious initiative not yours and not in response to anything you've done then you can cooperate and if you cooperate you will be rewarded for that cooperation and if you don't you will suffer loss that's what st. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 3 right as one passing through fire you yourself will be saved but what you built wood hay stubble you're not gonna get a reward for that okay so that's what your friend is if there's a long way towards the Catholic doctrine of salvation where is the difference where's the difference the Protestant believes that the question of your eternal damnation or salvation is determined by faith alone all right the Catholic position is that that grace that comes to us through faith in wordly transforms morally transforms us so that we really do Express the love of God really have the charity of God in our hearts and it's that love that gods with eternal life it's God gives it it's a grace it comes to us from God all right all right it's not ours but that God is actually rewarding something intrinsic to our character a qualitative change in our person that he effected so that God rewards his own gifts and that grace that charity given to us by God can be lost if we turn away from him with our free will and go back to mortal sin that's the big difference because most Protestants would deny that the gift of salvation can be lost by our failure to cooperate okay very good hope that's a helpful for you David thank you so much for your email and thanks for checking us out today on YouTube when we come back from our quick break we'll be talking with Sam in Steubenville Ohio also Natalie in Blue Springs Missouri and we've got a couple of folks getting screened even as we speak however two lines open right now one eight hundred five eight five five nine three nine six if you have a question for dr. David Andrews 1-800 five eight five nine three nine six it's called a communion here on the EWTN global Catholic radio network do stay with us EWTN news nightly with Lauren Ashburn I've been a journalist in Washington for 25 years I've covered car chases 9/11 hurricanes at this point in my career is my time to make a difference EWTN news nightly takes our Christian Catholic values and shines a light on what the government is or isn't doing and attempts to spur them to action EWTN news nightly with Lauren Ashburn weekdays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on EWTN radio trains of thought what a perfect phrase for the things that happen inside your head you can't stop a train but you can decide if you're gonna get off or on all too often our trains of thought are negative call it evolution I think the cavemen who got really upset when they were almost eaten by a saber-toothed tiger and they kept thinking about it all day they were probably more likely to survive than the cavemen who were really good at smelling the flowers but either way when you find yourself on a negative thought train do yourself a favor and just get off you don't have to trust your strongest feelings and darkest ideas do you really think you're gonna find the answer to your problems by exploring every car on that noisy train you won't let it go by choose silence we have a God who speaks in the whispering wind who leads us in the silence and who called himself the Prince of Peace this is Krista Fanning from real-life Catholic comm on ewtn radio catholic radio gives us an opportunity to become part of a larger family it can be so lonely when we are struggling in our faith or just try to live our faith on our own the Catholic radio connects us to that larger community of faith when we're able to get the support the encouragement and the grace that we need to have to struggle on but to really celebrate all the blessings that God brings into our life through our Catholic faith dr. Greg pop thanks Catholic radio is important so should you what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic this is called to communion with dr. David Angela one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six eight tonight at 6:00 p.m. Eastern our wonderful program Catholic Answers live you can hear it right here and only here on EWTN radio father Hugh Barbara will be along in the first hour at the chaplain is in and the second hour JD Flynn will be talking about the church in the news that'll be tonight at six on EWTN s Catholic Answers live the tonight at eight o'clock eastern the journey home with Marcus Grodi on EWTN TV and radio Matt Dan Tuan o is a former Evangelical Protestant we hear from a lot of folks in that in that camp he'll be along to talk about his journey to the Catholic faith that will be tonight at 8:00 Eastern Time on EWTN television and radio back to the phones now at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six look like all lines are full Sam is in Steubenville Ohio listening to us there hey Sam what's on your mind today hi thank you very much for taking my call sure I have a question for this Martin Luther King jr. Day no I would like to know how to respond to the gay rights movement when it's compared to the civil rights movement I know there's a difference and I've heard it explained but I'd like dr. David Anders to help me understand sure I appreciate that thank you so you know earlier in the show we mentioned dr. Martin Luther King jr. and his famous letter from the jail mm-hm and like most of his speeches or most of his philosophy about civil rights it was grounded in a in a very thick conception of the human person and adoption of natural law alright so when when King talks about rights alright I mean right so not just not they're not just legal rights that the government creates right because if that were if that were all rights meant then then King couldn't have argued that the civil rights statutes excuse math civil rights that the that the Jim Crow laws were unjust because if rights are only what the government seeds for you well then if the government doesn't give you the right to participate in civil society then you don't have that right no there has to be something intrinsic to human person in virtue of his identity as a human being all right that that morally obligates us to one another apart from any question of the government in its positive laws mcinnes argument was that civil rights I keep saying civil rights that the segregation statutes were unjust because they weren't in accord with the natural law and the eternal law okay that's that's the whole force of his argument right okay so that you have to have some prior conception of what that is what is the nature of the human person right what are the conditions that that allow for human flourishing and how is it that those conditions were being stifled or disallowed by segregation statutes so that King could have could appeal to that rational conception of the human person all right some sort of essential normative concept content to what it means to be a human being and then argue that that was being denied african-americans and the in the segregated south okay well so that's that's where you began what is a human person what are the conditions of human flourishing what when are we fundamentally frustrating in our fellow man those things that are essential to his humanity and to his happiness okay and and and obviously the difference is between you know black people white people or other kind of races are literally superficial differences okay well our common humanity is what binds us together the obligations we have to one another and a big part of Kang's argument also was that we have this capacity for friendship for loving relationship we can give ourselves to one other and friendship and in segregation statutes demean the human per frustrate that and you know make us tend towards prejudicial judgments that were not open to relationship and his dream he had the great I had a dream speech was was not just for equal access to economic and political benefits but it's actually for reconciliation he talks about the dream that that the sons of slaves and the sons of former slave owners would be able to sit down and break bread over the common table of fellowship okay alright because of their common humanity alright so how does that how does that affect the whole question about sexual ethics okay well what is a human person what is really in accord with humans a human Zdenek dignity and freedom as sexual beings and I think the easiest way to frame this question is is let's begin with the purpose of sexuality alright not its effects alright one of the effects of sexuality is it tends to bind people together and some kind of intimacy it's also very pleasurable alright but the ultimate purpose of sexuality the reason that it exists just biologically is for procreation correct if we didn't procreate as a species we might do a lot of things for pleasure but sex wouldn't be one of them okay and and so children are intrinsic to the discussion I mean they're absolutely essential to the nature of human sexuality well let's talk about the rights of children all right a lot of times this thing is not framed in terms of the rights of children but they're the ultimate product of human sexuality all right the children have a right to their parents the children have a right to their parents okay other words the parents have more obligations to their children that's another way of framing it okay well what what accords with the with the the dignity and the flourishing of a child okay well kids come into the world needy alright they're emotionally needy they're physically need either spiritually needy they're ignorant they require an awful lot of care and concern love attention formation and the virtues and all the rest of it it takes decades of their life to come to full maturity sure alright and and one of things they need tutelage in of course is in there is in their sexual identity as male or female and and by the way everybody is one or the other okay with with extraordinarily rare exceptions just minuscule exceptions to that rule all right exceptions to the sexual dimorphism are borderline cases just like you know extreme deformity can happen but people have you know two arms and two legs so forth right alright so what do they need well and who are the people who have the greatest capacity to meet those needs and the greatest obligation to meet them well namely their parents the mother and the father okay so it's not much of a stretch not very difficult to make the case that children have a right and a need for their parents and parents have a moral obligation to their kids all right well once you separate conceptually human sexuality whatever else may be entailed from the the the duties of parents and the rights of children right that once you separate that then then essentially you're arguing that children don't have a right to their parents and this is how I think for instance the whole debate over say for instance gay marriage needs to be framed not around what is subjectively satisfying to an individual all right but what's objectively the the the the duty of civilization towards its progeny and towards those people who have the responsibility of replenishing the culture through procreation all right is it better to have a culture in which children are seen as having an intrinsic right to their parents and parents an intrinsic duty and obligation to their kids now the the net result of say gay marriage legislation particularly as it pertains to adoption is to say no is to say no we don't think that kids have an intrinsic right to their parents all right because once you've reframed marriage as a subjective right right to gratify me and what I find personally satisfying and I what I would like is to have a child but I'm not going to be in the kind of relationship that's that's naturally fulfilled in varying shoulder uh-huh the only way I can have a kid is to take somebody else's Wow right I said it's simple by oh yeah all right if I have if if a child is something I have a right to mm-hmm all right and I and I and I want to have my cake and eat it too the only way I can gratify that desire to take somebody else's kid and so now the right to children becomes something that the government dictates you say not something that that flows from the nature of the human person all right and the Catholic point of view is look the family is prior to the state you know if the if the if the federal government just you know went away we found ourselves in a desert island and there was no national government wasn't a federal government all right they were still be families the family the individual and the family are prior to the state the state has to come in after the fact to respect and to sustain and to allow for the flourishing of the family as it exists in nature is something intrinsic to our to our common humanity right the family is not something defined by the state is something that pre-exists the state okay very good we hope that's helpful for you Sam appreciate your call one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six is our number one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six let's go to Natalie in Blue Springs Missouri listening to us on ke XS hey Natalie what's on your mind today um hi dr. Anders I was wondering if you could explain the difference between someone who is very prayerful and very devout and someone who is scrupulous yeah absolutely okay so so first of all scrupulous 'ti is is a species of obsessive-compulsive disorder so it's a neurotic condition all right which honestly I my personal opinion is this is something that needs to be treated in the context of psychiatry all right with medications and therapy all right it has nothing to do nothing whatsoever to all to do with holiness of life or with or with an authentic prayer life okay and in fact scrupulous it can be a major burden in all kinds of relationships and spiritual relationship with God and with human relationships with one another all right so somebody has a tendency of scrupulous 'ti my personal advice is number one you need to get with a confessor who is willing to spend the time who understands your condition knows something about scrupulous 'ti and become if you will pardon the phrase scrupulously obedient to the word of your confessor right and one of the things you do it with the scrupulous person if you're a confessor is is you will say all right you're not allowed to confess these things and you that and you must trust the judgment of the confessor the confessor will say okay so you know you've you've come to me 50 times and told me that you know you scratched your left nostril during Mass okay that's not a sin and you're not allowed to ever say that to me again now in when you when you deal therapeutically with people who are scrupulous you tell them to do what feels wrong now you don't tell that to normal people all right but to people who are scrupulous it feels wrong not to confess that I scratched my left nostril during Mass that feels like the wrong thing to do so you actually have to get their head wrapped around the idea of do what feels wrong all right you must let someone who's not affected with this disorder judge for you the morality you cannot take that burden on yourself you must relinquish that judgment to somebody else who's got clearer vision now scrupulous II like every kind of neurotic condition can best be treated by a certain kind of exposure therapy right where you've well you force the person to do what feels uncomfortable so if there are agoraphobic you know you you make them take one step outside and then two steps outside and then three steps outside before you know it they're running marathons okay and with the scrupulous you make them refrain from scratching their left nostril or from confessing it or whatever you know and then gradually over time they can become a little bit more acclimated to it now / from my private experience of people that I have known and worked with alright and I'm not a doctor so check this with your own doctor all right I recommend to people who have scrupulous a disorder under the condition under the under the treatment of a physician heavy doses of SSRIs are very useful for treating that condition and it's a medical condition it has to do with certain parts of your brain the cow Tate nucleus lights up that's the part of your brain that goes something's wrong something's wrong something's wrong and it goes looking for something to find to explain that sensation well that's a medical problem it's a it's a neurological problem needs to be treated medically that's my private opinion can you briefly define SSRIs Oh Sara selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors those are canny depressants okay Oh certain certain class of antidepressants which in very high doses is effective in treating all forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder now let's talk about prayer life and holiness all right st. Francis DeSales wrote a book called the introduction to the devout life in the seventeenth century it's a classic of Catholic spirituality and he begins that book and says is praying a lot of rosaries true devotion no he's going to mass a lot true devotion no is giving to the poor true devotion is doing penances true devotion no and he runs through basically all kind of accoutrements of Catholic life and says is any of these things by itself true devotion answer no he says what is true devotion love of God and neighbor that's true devotion and of course the whole Ministry of Christ dealt with that question you know can i tithe my dent mill did dent mill my mint dill and cumin got my tongue tied there can i tithe my mint my deal of my cumin and counted his holiness and Jesus says no Ultimates about the love of God and neighbor in prayer my prayer is a battle prayer is a struggle prayers difficult but prayer is about cultivating a loving relationship with God that brings us into a closer union with our neighbors okay and the form is less important than than the goal all right and and the end the disposition of openness to God in what he wants to do in our life now there are many prayer practices that the church encourages liturgical prayer is primary the mass all right they're there they're very lots of different kinds of spirituality in the Catholic tradition but they're all there is instruments to serve an end ok and people scrupulous people will become tied up with the form and they will obsess about the form oh I only did nine Hail Marys instead of 10 you know and and in doing that they draw themselves away from the real end of the life of prayer which is which is which is open childlike trust and reliance upon God in relationship with the church ok Natalie thank you so much for your call this is called a communion here on EWTN if you love this show and we know that an awful lot of people do love this show please know that you can listen to it anytime you want by checking out the podcast another way of saying audio on-demand you can either subscribe to the program you'll get it right there waiting for you next time that you go online go to EWTN - excuse me EWTN comm slash podcast to check out this program and all of our podcasts today ewtn.com slash podcast back to the phones now let's talk with Joseph in New York listening to us via Facebook live hey there Joseph what's on your mind today well hi good afternoon sorry yes I am former evangelical grew up as an evangelical I also spent time with the seventh-day Adventist Church for over 10 years and I am now back home to the true faith my question is this I had a discussion with my dad recently he was questioned we were talking about Saints already being in heaven a lot of Protestants like him believe however that that's not the case I tried to explain to him and maybe you can correct me on it I tried to explain to him the scripture where I believe it was when Christ resurrected that there were there were dead Saints or dead people that rose with him during that point now they they claim that when those things rose from that point and stop me if I'm confusing you but they say that those things that a walk from the grave began to walk on earth and did not ascend to heaven with the Lord now and he kept asking me where is that in Scripture maybe you guys can help me with that and also they also mean we're also talking about when you pray you're not supposed to they say that you're not supposed to repeat or do repetitions according to the Bible maybe you guys can clarify to me on that and help me with that sure sure I got you Joseph thank you very much I have several things to say about this first of all the passage that you references Matthew 27 50 - and it says that when Christ rose from the dead that there were a number of holy souls whose tombs broke open and they were seen walking around Jerusalem okay that's fascinating we don't know a lot about what happened to those folks that's irrelevant to the question of what happens to the individual soul upon death as they look forward to the resurrection of the Dead all right so this is this is a unique case I mean the resurrection of the of the of the holy dead in Jerusalem and Matthew 27 was a one-time event okay so that doesn't have anything to do really directly I'm not expecting that in my own life well I'm not going to get out of my tomb and walk around before the resurrection day okay so that that's it's irrelevant let's talk about what happens to the soul at death according to Scripture in Catholic tradition so in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 st. Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord all right and but he describes it as a temporary state longing to being naked being being without our physical body and longing to be clothed and the Catholic Church is always taught that upon physical death the soul of the individual believer can be if they died God's friendship can be won't necessarily be but can be admitted directly to God's presence to the beatific vision to the vision of God but in a disembodied state all right without their physical body however at the end of time the second scheme to the general resurrection and in the general judgment we read about it in Revelation chapter 20 for instance Christ will come back and the dead will rise on the last day and then the souls of the just will be reunited with their physical bodies in a glorified state and enter into eternity into everlasting life in the presence of God but now in an embodied white with their physical body so that's that's Catholic eschatology we find both of those truths taught in Sacred Scripture right that that that the souls of the just deprived of their bodies can be admitted immediately to the divine presence as they await the resurrection from the dead now other scriptural warrant for the for the conscious presence of the Saints in the presence of God you did you reference Matthew 27 will you have a look at Matthew chapter 17 which is the account of the Transfiguration for instance we see Moses and Elijah present with Christ amount of transfiguration they were conscious they were alive Jesus himself in confrontation with the Sadducees says that God is not the god of the dead but of the living because everyone is alive to him and we see other depictions of that like in Revelation chapter 5 verse 8 we see the souls of the just offering the prayers of the Saints before the throne of God in Revelation 83 says the Angels do the same thing in second Maccabees chapter 15 we find two characters of the Old Testament of a former high priest of Jerusalem as well as the Prophet Jeremiah both of whom have died represented as standing the presence of God offering prayers on behalf of the people of God on earth so a number of texts and holy scriptures that teach that lesson now one thing I have to say whenever someone comes to me with a challenge like this and says can you show me in Scripture where okay I will I will do that I will engage and talk about the teaching of the Bible in the example of the Bible about these issues but I can't let that question stand without without attacking the premise yeah because when someone says to me can you show me in the Bible where what they're really saying is if you can't show me something in the Bible then I'm not obligated to believe it hmm now that assertion is not biblical I'll turn it around and say to them can you show me in the Bible where it says that I must limit my belief to what can be found in the Bible and the Bible itself never says that that's not an article of faith in the Christian religion all right the idea that we should restrict our Christian belief only to those things that are found in Scripture is an idea that the Protestant Reformation made up that Martin Luther made up but itself is not a biblical idea and if we believed that we wouldn't even know what the Bible is as the Bible is a disparate collection of books 73 books by the Catholic reckoning 66 by the Protestant reckoning and the list of books itself is not given to us anywhere in divine revelation the reason we know what books to put in the Bible is because of Catholic tradition the Catholic Church put the books of the Bible together and then handed them on to the world and said this is the Word of God if you don't recognize the authority of tradition you don't even have a Bible so we derived the content of Christian faith first from sacred tradition alright which includes by the way a list of biblical books that we consider beans fired now the second question was about repetition and Christian prayer right okay and whether or not scripture and we've already dealt with whether that's even a valid criteria but whether or not scripture admonishes us to engage in repetitive prayer well description fact commands repetitive prayer when the disciples came to Jesus they said teach us how to pray and Jesus said well you know what you do is you turn on the praise music and wave your hands back and forth and jump up and down no he never said that alright when Jesus gave instructions on prayer he gave us extraordinarily repetitive very formulaic prayer he said for instance pray like this our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done tada okay he also gave us the elements of the liturgy do this in memory of me he said baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that's a formula okay and we find the same thing in the Old Testament if you read the Psalms and the canticles of the Old Testament they're extraordinarily repetitive you know there's the one canticle in daniel and i can't remember the chapter off the top of my head this is it's a litany essentially you know you know angels and heavenly creatures praise the Lord you know it's birds of the air praise the Lord you know water creatures praise the Lord you know skateboard fans praise the Lord it's just this litany of all the created beings on and on and on and on it's incredibly repetitive the Psalms very repetitive in that kind of couplet format that they always take so the idea that scripture forbids repetitive prayer scripture commands repetitive prayer yeah one thing Jesus does say is he says don't like don't be like the pagans who believe that they will be heard because of their many words because of their many words God doesn't care how many words you enunciate he cares the charity with which you say them and a similar principle if you look at Psalm chapter 51 King David says God you don't desire sacrifice and offering cleanse my heart and then I'll give you sacrifice and offering mmm you say it's not the the ritual prescription as such yeah that God is pleased with but that the but the charity and the contrition of our heart that motivates it that matters and the same thing is true about repetitive prayer I could pray 500 our fathers or half an hour father and the one that I pray with the greater charity is the one that's the more meritorious okay seems to me that the question about repetitive prayer pops up on this show and awful lot why do you suppose that is well I think because the the the patrimony of Christian liturgy all right the heritage of Christian liturgy liturgy means that prayer that Christ told us to pray especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the mass uh-huh um is something that is remote from the from the cultic experience of a lot of evangelion fundamentalist Protestants that have a pretty heavy representation and in English being speaking culture throughout the world and this is an English language religious radio show so can't argue with that boy I just you know we ran flat out of time here I just wish we could get on Linda hello Linda in San Antonio please call us back tomorrow you've got a very very important question also Steven Spokane has a great question as well and Kyle and Spanaway Washington has an awesome question as well so hopefully we wouldn't get all three of you on at the beginning of tomorrow's program if at all possible do call us back dr. David Andrews thank you my friend thank you Tom also appreciate rich Jesse Matt Kavinsky and Jeff person doing a super job on the other side of the glass you know we do the program each and every Monday through Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern with an encore at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and then our producer normally Jeff or Michael or whoever's fly in the plane this this day will choose the the best show in his opinion and we'll air that on Sundays at 2 p.m. I'm Tom price have yourselves a wonderful day see you tomorrow right here on EWTN s called

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,348

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: QaMbZmpaSV0

Length: 54min 40sec (3280 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2018