Called to Communion - 12/14/20 - with Dr. David Anders

response for more news from a catholic perspective visit ewtnnews.com call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation 1-833-288-3986 why do i need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion on this uh monday of the third week of advent hard to believe well you know what on this on this program called a communion we answer questions from non-catholics you may think that's quite a novelty but it's actually not true that only this show is of interest to non-catholics because we have non-catholics listening to our network 24 hours a day for whatever reason they want to know what catholics are thinking what the catholic church teaches officially and you know maybe they can answer the question themselves why i am not a catholic or or maybe i should look into the catholic faith so that's what we do on this program we answer those kind of questions from people just like you so if you'd like to get in today here is our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's outside of north 833-288-3986 please dial the u.s country code and then 205 271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response it'll come back at you right in a flash there and then just text us your first name and your brief question you might also tell us where you're calling from so there you go message and data rates may apply for some folks also you can send us an email ctc ewtn.comctc.ewtn.com charles berry is our producer ryan penny as our phone screener jeff berson is on social media he will be glad to forward any questions that you might want to pose via youtube or facebook just put those questions in the comments field and jeff will shoot those to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anders hi tom how are you today very good how was your weekend my friend uh it was pretty decent it was pretty decent you know when you were talking about non-catholics listening to all the ewtn programming all i could think of was that was me it sure was i was me i used to be a non-catholic listening to ewtn programming and you had a lot of questions as i recall i i did i did and i i i called the network i mean i remember more than once calling up jimmy akin and carl keating from catholic cancers when they were being broadcast on my ewtn affiliate asking my questions and then when i actually got to the stage of the game where i was like the radio thing is good but i need live people i need to know some real catholics and i really wanted to meet former protestants who had become catholic you know and i had grown up in birmingham and i was living in birmingham but i didn't know any catholics in birmingham i said how am i going to find a how am i going to find an ex-protestant who's become catholic well i'd been listening to marcus crota and i the guy's got roll the decks of experts oh yes you know and uh so i called up uh you know the coming home network and i was like i need you guys to put me in touch and they did and that was actually my first trip to ew10 wow it wasn't to come out here and do radio or even to go to mass it was to meet a fellow who worked at the network who had converted from the methodist faith to the catholic faith and so i needed i needed some converts and that's where they put me in touch we met out here in the saint michael hall so and the rest is history and the rest is history and a very very wonderful history it is too here's an interesting uh question here an email to lead us off dear dr anders this is from gerald on thursday the third of december you got a call from a girl in nigeria she asked whether god can change his mind and you then gave a list of all the different ways that god is changeless according to the theology of the catholic church well your answers seem to squeeze all the fun and humanity out of god doesn't god respond to us as a father responds to his daughter kindly gerald okay thanks appreciate it so uh first of all the the only humanity in god is the humanity of christ now we've got humanity going on all day long with god but it's the it's the humanity of the person jesus in whom divinity and humanity are both fully present uh without but without confusion without separation in the person of jesus and that's why god became incarnate that's why the second person assumed a human nature and became a man was so that we could have that human connection to god in the humanity the sacred humanity of jesus but because he's also fully god when you when you touch smell taste hear love hug the humanity of jesus you are also hugging god you're not you're not just hugging a human who represents or stands for god that's god's hand those are god's toenails that's god's hair right because he's god he's god but divinity as such is not humanity divinity as such is not humanity and in the godhead as such we don't speak about humanity now fun fun is characteristic of of uh humans it's also characteristic of animals you know i mean i've got i've got three dogs and three cats i've got at least four more animals at home than i need right and they have lots of fun all right play is characteristic of humans now uh insofar as dogs and cats and humans are good and so far as we were made by god everything about us including our capacity for play or enjoyment or humor is in there because god put it in there and insofar as it exists in its good in that respect alone it reflects or is analogous to god all things are like god insofar as they exist and they are good uh but anything that we find that's good in a human person or in a dog or in a cat or in a tree or whatever it is that that goodness that's in that human or that cat or that dog if we try to predicate that of god right to say well you know god is is good in the same way that humans as are good as risible creatures capable of laughter or fun if we predicated of god we can do so only by the weakest analogy and we are we are analogous to god but fourth lateran council of the catholic church teaches that insofar as there is in any analogy between god and creatures the disanalogy the ways in which god is unlike us are infinitely greater okay well uh gerald we do appreciate hearing from you thank you so much for your question in a moment we're going to get to the phones here we'll begin with andrew in harrisburg pennsylvania you know what we have several lines open this would be a great opportunity for you to get that question that's been uh maybe on your mind for who knows decades maybe 8 3 3 288 ewtn is that phone number 833-288-3986 it is the monday afternoon edition of call to communion here on ewtn do stay with us i'm kimberly hahn and my new show beloved and blessed will soon be coming to ewtn radio i'll share scripture and my personal experience to speak to the desires and strengths of all women so that each of us can better live out our vocations as daughters of god don't miss beloved and blessed with kimberly hahn premiering sunday january 3rd at 9 pm eastern 6 p.m pacific only on ewtn radio this is mike and alicia hernan with the messy family minute saint john paul ii tells us that family is the school of virtue but for many parents it feels like a school of warfare siblings no matter what the age tend to have conflicts with each other over an endless number of issues we're here to tell you first of all even though it feels like your children will never get along they can be best friends someday the fighting doesn't last forever but you will need to be proactive in developing strong ties between siblings first of all give them the tools they need to resolve conflict that means teaching them how to listen to others how to ask forgiveness and how to take responsibility for their own actions second resist rushing in to solve every conflict for them they need to learn how to figure things out for themselves and last keep perspective these children will be in relationship with each other for a long time and if they aren't getting along when they are four or six don't lose heart they will have years to figure it out with your guidance for more resources and ideas and resolve the conflict with kids visit us at [Music] we are delighted to wish you not only a blessed and peaceful advent but also a very merry christmas from all of us here at ewtn radio and this program called communion with dr david anders i think you're ready for christmas aren't you david uh i am i am and that was lovely intro music although you took me by surprise because i was like that's not our theme song oh oh this is christmas music i get it now get with the get with the program here david all right if you're ready now let's uh go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin today with andrew in harrisburg pennsylvania listening on holy family radio hey there andrew happy uh happy advent blessed christmas to you what's on your mind today sir i have a question regarding a statement that's put out by the usccb recently regarding uh vaccines my question is not about whether or not it is permissible to make use of a vaccine that's been tinted compromised by abortion cell research i i know that there are grave reasons where that can happen my question is if i want to withhold taking this vaccine for myself for my family because i believe that in the future there will be a vaccine developed that is not involved in any state of the process abortion cells i i simply uh uh and am skeptical that it's absolutely necessary at this point to follow the usccp's council okay yeah thanks i really appreciate the question and obviously we're going to be thinking more about these things as the months roll on and i'm sensitive to that so uh look with with uh with an awareness of how critical this is as a social and policy issue and theological issue i'm going to refrain from giving you concrete specific direction about what to do i will talk about the theology around these issues at a remote level we cannot disobey conscience you can't disobey conscience even a wrongly informed conscience uh provided we're not responsible for uh that that malformation uh it needs to be obeyed because if you don't obey conscience at the end of the day you destroy your capacity to live a moral life altogether conscience is as cardinal newman put it the aboriginal vicar of christ we haven't we have a unqualified obligation to obey conscience we also have an obligation to inform our consciences and you know we are not lone ranger catholics and and one of the things very authoritative sources that christ has given us to inform our consciences about the prudent course of action is the teaching authority of the church and uh and it would be it would be it would be imprudent i believe assume in fact this is church says this explicitly to assume that the magisterium of the church is perpetually imprudent right you know i mean this is not an infallible declaration that the usccb has put out but it's a reasonable one informed by by conscientious well-formed moral theologians and in concert with the holy see uh and so i i i'm not telling you what to do i wouldn't presume to tell you what to do but i would say that the reason that we have a teaching office in the church it's not just to crank out an infallible dogmatic statement once every century but that's not the function of the that's not the ordinary function of the magisterium the ordinary function of the magisterium is to help us live our catholic lives and that includes not only understanding that the doctrines of the faith and the sacraments but also making concrete moral decisions in the here and now are those immune from error no right but the teaching office of the church informed by by sacred tradition and reason uh is a is a very reliable guide uh to making prudent choices and uh you know if i i also can't assure you that you have an invincibly ignorant conscience if you if you decide otherwise you know i mean we have to obey conscience consciousness has to be well formed if it's not well-formed are we responsible for that if we're not responsible then we're invincibly ignorant that's a tall order what am i going to do i claim to be invincibly ignorant you know i mean that's kind of hard to argue yeah um and i'm not saying you're making that claim you'd be just claiming you think that the usccp is incorrect or you don't think there's a grave reason that the degree of gravity versus how remote is the cooperation with evil doesn't justify the choice that the or the decision the usccb has made these are these are thorny questions right to hash out of those details um but uh you know what you have to weigh is is there a grave reason for the remote cooperation with evil and uh and clearly uh those who have the care of the church in north america the bishops who are the teachers of the faith believe and they've they've drawn distinctions they've said they think this vaccine is okay we think this one's not okay all right uh but it is permissible in catholic moral theology that we for a grave reason uh or a sufficient reason can uh can participate remotely and materially but never formally and evil but you do have to obey conscience you do have to obey conscience andrew we might refer you to uh open line friday uh last friday's program uh whatever that was the uh today's the 14th to the 11th then uh colin donovan answered this very question uh and and had uh quite a bit of guidance and wisdom on that so do do check that out check out the podcast for open line friday on uh december 11th thanks again for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 we have several lines open for you so grab it while you can here is elaine now in kitty hawk north carolina listening on i heart radio a first-time caller hello elaine what's on your mind today uh yes hello i i think the two of you are great and i try to listen every day i'm trying to distinguish between the will of god and the evil one guiding you may be in the same direction with some different options how do we distinguish between the two of those in our minds and in our hearts yes thank you very much i really appreciate the question so so god's will for us is very clear and very manifest in sacred scripture in sacred tradition in the public teaching of the catholic church and uh and even in the natural law uh whose voice psalmist says goes out into all the earth saint paul tells us in romans 1 that that pagans and those far from the household of faith have certainty about moral questions um you know basic fundamental moral guidance principle of the golden rule um and some of its elaborations like don't take your neighbor's wife don't take your neighbor's car you know don't lie don't dishonor your parents don't kill people don't hate them don't speak ill of them these things it does not require a degree in moral theology to know the truth of these things and uh with with respect to sort of uh the concrete decisions of day to day life you know do i am i gonna eat hamburger or pizza for lunch uh i i you know god doesn't offer us a specific direction about these kinds of things and saint augustine's guidance i think is very helpful his his teaching is love and then do what you will so you know that the disciplines of the christian life uh assure that we can live in accord with the will of god because the will of god becomes our will we become penetrated by the spirit of god and we want to love god and we want to love our neighbor and we want to be virtuous and and we form habits of life and those habits are a protection against doing uh stupid impure or imprudent things but when it comes to those sort of concrete decisions that are themselves morally neutral we're not we're not waiting for divine revelation to decide between the hamburger and the pizza we love and we do it we'll feel like a hamburger today that's that's illicit choice right um of course the evil one is going to uh inspire us to do the opposite of he's going to ask us to to disobey chastity or justice uh or or fortitude or temperance or charity or hope and those acts are manifest again paul tells us they're not hard to discern they're things like fornication adultery factions hatred disobedience of parents murder lies uh detraction i mean these are the acts of the evil one they're obvious again you don't have to have a more a degree in moral theology to discern them okay appreciate your call elaine it is called communion here on ewtn we have lines open for you at the moment 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 alex in mumbai india listening on youtube this afternoon alex says what happens to the souls in purgatory when catholics offer mass for their souls do they then go to heaven okay thanks so the church teaches that prayers offered for the dead are efficacious they're valuable the mass is the most valuable prayer we can offer for the dead they help them on their way through purgatory and onto heaven beyond that we don't really know so you know we don't have some sort of guarantee that you know if we say you know five masses and twice on sunday that you know you'll get out in two and a half weeks in five minutes we don't have that sort of guarantee uh and and you know i imagine this is my own personal opinion every soul is in a different condition you know and and the and the prayers themselves are of they're all meritorious if they're set in the state of grace but they're not equal and the charity in which a prayer or sacrifice is offered has some effect on its efficacy and so to sort of work out the moral calculus of that if you will is beyond us and we leave that up to the mind of god to determine that because he knows what's just appropriate he knows how to he knows how to bring the prayers of the faithful to bear to help the suffering souls and he will do so and we have that assurance all right appreciate that call to communion here on ewtn here's a question from denise in erie pennsylvania hey mr price and dr anders quick question if god is a spirit but we are made in his image how does that work if there is no image to see i am a second grade catechist and this was a question from my class thanks for everything you do to help us understand and grow in our faith to him through her denise yes so the classical catholic answer to that question is that we are made in god's image and likeness insofar as we are spiritual beings ourself made with the capacity to reason we have the gift of intellect and also of will so we can we can discern the good and the true and then we can deliberate and we can act on that knowledge and choose the good and the true and it's precisely insofar as we are spiritual beings ourselves with intellect and will that we are like god now uh pope john paul ii um liked to add a wrinkle to that particularly in his theology of the body pope john paul suggested that we are also made for community and god of course is a community of persons and in our capacity to love and to live in a communion of love we also image god and i think these are all great insights insofar as we have a body god doesn't have a body um but insofar as bodies have being and are good they are like god who is being and is goodness okay thank you so much for your question denise i hope that goes well for you and your second grade catechism class very cool here's a very interesting question that we received let me uh scroll up here a little bit where is it one more one there we go david in virginia is listening on youtube he says i'm having trouble with the catholic concept of grace seems to me like god's love but different somehow could you please explain what exactly grace is absolutely saint peter tells us in second peter chapter 1 verse 4 that through the promises of christ we become participants in the divine nature that is what we're talking about when we talk about grace grace is a participation in a created manner not an uncreated manner in the divine nature of god uh grace is a quality it's not a substance it's a quality a supernatural quality that god imparts to our soul that makes us to be gracious that makes us proportionate to god pointed towards him like him god is love grace makes us loving all right god is spiritual grace gives us the gift of faith orienting us towards eternity grace brings with it the fruit of hope as well pointing us towards our true home grace becomes in us an inner principle a supernatural principle motivating our activity saint paul says in one place i worked harder than all of them all of the other apostles and yet not not yet not i but the grace of god within me you see an active principle that motivates supernatural activity on my part this is what we mean by grace okay appreciate that here's a quick one taking us to break christine from las vegas listening on youtube what are the verses in the bible that explain jesus establishing the catholic church yeah so the biggie of course is matthew chapter 16 verse 18 where he says to saint peter you're peter and on this rock i will build my church he tells us explicitly manifestly that he intends to found a visible society on the rock of saint peter he gives to peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven this is a sign of executive authority and the power to bind and loose what he binds on earth will be bound in heaven what he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven jesus says whoever hears you hears me says that to all of the apostles tells them in matthew 28 go therefore into all nations make disciples baptize them in the name of the father son and holy spirit teach them everything i have commanded you he says and i will be with you to the end of the age so christ tells us he's going to build a visible society saint peter and the apostles will be at the head of it they have the power of binding and losing peter's got the keys of the kingdom of heaven jesus promises to accompany them to the end of time and they and whoever hears them here's christ and there you go christine thanks for listening to us in vegas glad to hear be hearing from you today in a moment we'll talk to uh kathy in canada listening in vernon british columbia looks like we have three lines uh full right now three lines are available for you at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 it's called a communion on ewtn [Music] the words of blessed carlo ogutis the virgin mary is the only woman in my life and this i offer all the suffering i have to suffer for the lord for the pope and the church father benedict rochelle i must tell you that from what i observe from very young people all of these blasphemers all of these mockers are in for a tough time because the devil bites his own tail and i find among young people a growing reverence and longing for god i find decline in the cynicism and skepticism around because it had to destroy itself no one can live on being an enemy of god it's too crazy it's too absurd it's too dark it's too bleak god is beautiful god is holy why in the world mock god the people you know and trust are on ewtn check out ewtn's official youtube channel just follow the link on our homepage at ewtn.com or go to youtube.com ewtn watch ewtn's live shows or today's homily from the daily mass click the upload button to see our most recent clips you can also find all of ewtn youtube content by clicking the playlist button it's all on the official ewtn youtube channel at youtube.com ewtn visit today hi this is psychelette join us later today on catholic answers live as we do our best to explain and defend the catholic faith catholic answer is live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call of the communion with dr david [Music] anderson it's called a communion here on ewtn if you have a question for dr david andrews we have two lines open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's here 833-288-3986 kathy now in vernon british columbia listening on ewtn television hey there kathy merry christmas to you what's on your mind today oh same to you thanks for taking my call um if if there's a politician or many politicians who are destroying the country are we allowed to ask god to pray that he removes them from office or do we just pray that they get light and and and remove themselves or leave yeah i think so i really appreciate the question so this is a this is a question that comes with the various nuances all right and i'm going to try to hit on a couple of them first of all when i study sacred scripture in sacred tradition i don't see a lot of precedent for this kind of activity and and the the church has always had a consciousness that civil rulers may be a very evil people and jesus himself had to address this question about whether it was lawful to pay taxes to caesar for example now whatever you might think about our current crop of politicians and and look you know they're a fine bunch i mean you're not i mean we got some humdingers in there i don't deny it okay uh we ain't got nothing on imperial room for corruption and abuse and immorality well that's true you know or or even ideology imperial rome is about as bad as it gets and and you don't want to recreate that today not by a long shot uh and yet jesus really resisted that way of understanding his ministry that somehow another what he was called to do was to overthrow or eliminate the corruption of imperial rome on the contrary when he was called out really kind of provocatively to take a stand his position was render to god what is god's and to caesar what is caesar's and saint paul in the book of romans he look the roman empire put paul to death nero had his head cut off and when paul addresses the question of the proper disposition of christians towards the empire he says pay taxes pay custom to whom custom honor to whom honor taxes to whom cast texas because god has appointed the civil power with the sword for the sake of the common good and again whatever abuses and corruption and immorality and evil ideology you think pervades our own government and there's plenty all right it doesn't hold a candle to imperial room okay um now the scriptures also tell us that we should pray for those in power we should pray for them we should pray for the peace of the community we should pray for justice we should pray for truth we should pray for these things but it dissuades us from uh from i think the course of action that you're that you're recommending um now that being the case that that being said yes uh there's also a prophetic strain running through sacred scripture that is very conscious that individual people sometimes need to be called out for censure and that can include civil leaders it can include members of the church you know i think one of the most arresting and surprising illustrations of this is in acts chapter 5 when saint peter confronts the couple ananias and sapphira for their duplicity really rebukes them and they drop dead ananias and sapphira and great fear came on the whole community we read the hebrew prophets of course never hesitated uh to to really speak truth to power at risk of their own lives and even within the catholic church the code of canon law tells us that catholic uh faithful have a a duty and obligation and a right sometimes to speak truth even to the power within our own catholic society when our own bishops or priests or those in authority over us don't do what they're supposed to be doing don't fulfill the vocation that god has given them as pastors of souls then in a manner that's appropriate to their station and their dignity of all those involved even the catholic faithful sometimes have to speak up and say we're not you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing and that can happen at the highest echelons of the catholic faith when someone like catherine of siena goes over to rome and says to the pope you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing you know um and so uh you know the prophetic voice of the church to criticize corruption and abuse and immorality and bad ideology we should definitely do that right but at the same time we need to remember what our lord taught us that his kingdom is not ultimately of this world appreciate your call kathy it's called a communion here on ewtn let's go to anna now on long island listening on ewtn television as well hello anna what's on your mind today oh my question is when somebody died and he's not catholic he's a angelic but we celebrate mass walking because this is what the catholic we usually do when somebody dies we celebrate the mass and they received the mass that he imported for example he can receive the blessing of the mass yes thank you very much i appreciate the question uh so the catholic church teaches that all of the baptized and that includes your evangelical friend all of the baptized are members of christ and have the right to be called christians and many of those who are in non-catholic denominations uh they they are in those denominations through their own ignorance of the truth of the catholic faith and we don't hold it against them and we believe that god wants them to be saved god loves them and it is possible for such souls to of course die in the state of grace and yet need the purification of purgatory and because they are in a sense remote members of the catholic church they are they have been baptized and so they are they are incomplete members of the catholic church the mass can be said profitably for the repose of their souls now that's different from the question of a catholic funeral the funeral is for catholics but you can always have a mass said for the repose of their soul there you go appreciate your call anna it is called a communion here on ewtn uh let's see here we've got a question now from edward in lindale texas who says hey dr anders one of our rcia candidates approached me after yesterday's class he asked the following question why do christians not observe the jewish feast days that god said to observe for all time well i don't didn't have an answer off the top of my head so i told him i would do some research and get back to him now for what i can tell this question was settled early on in colossians 2 16 and 17 saint paul seems to speak directly to the question quote let no one then pass judgment on you in matters of food and drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or sabbath these are shadows of things to come the reality belongs to christ end quote now i understand this to mean that jesus is the fulfillment of all that was foreshadowed under the old covenant however it does not seem to fully address his question about god saying that the old covenant feasts were to be observed for all time am i even on the right track is there a more complete answer thanks edward in lindale texas yes thanks edward i appreciate the question so it's necessary to understand the the purpose and function of these rituals and and cultic laws in uh in the people of israel they were precisely to distinguish the people of god from the nations i mean it was one of their major points right that the israel was called out as a prophetic people uh and and precisely by that distinction by these markers that were visible people would recognize this is a this is a people group who's been called out for a special priestly vocation to be a priestly nation to the world and these things separated them and showed that they were distinct and many of the laws were designed it would seem to make it difficult for the people of israel to have commerce with the nations i mean the dietary laws are a huge impediment to actually fraternizing with jews and that's they're supposed to i remember one time inviting an orthodox jewish couple to come have dinner at my house and you could look at them kind of grinning sheepishly with great discomfort and they were like um you mind if we bring the food you know i mean they can't sit down and break bread with you which is one of the principal ways in which people make bonds of friendship that was by design now the truth of the gospel of jesus christ is that christ has come to destroy the dividing wall of hostility between jew and gentile that's what the book of ephesians says in ephesians chapter 2. and it is the principle of faith in christ by which god has constituted a new people jew and gentile the two now made into one people of god and for that reason gentile converts are absolutely not required to follow the prescriptions of of jewish law because the the law was there to distinguish the jew from the gentile but in christ there is no distinction and those who misunderstood that principle and thought that it was necessary to circumcise themselves or stay away from pork and shellfish and things like that in order to be saved paul tells them you have completely misunderstood the gospel and cut yourself off from christ he has the harshest possible language for what were called judaizers not for jews but for jedeisers gentiles that thought they needed to do these things to be saved he tells us in galatians chapter 3 verse 24 that the law was our tutor our pedagogue our schoolmaster to lead us to christ but now the shadow has passed all things have been made new in jesus now at the time of christ's coming in the early church jewish christians were not asked to give up the practice of the mosaic law gentiles did not have it imposed upon them but jews were not asked to give it up and there were many in the early church saint paul among them in particular when he said when he was with the jew he was like with the jews when he was with the gentile he lived like the gentiles and out of respect for their ancestral traditions there were many jews that continued to practice lawfully illicitly to practice the mosaic law as a sign of their belonging to abraham and the covenants but they needed to do so in a way that would not be a stumbling block to their gentile neighbors now that the church is a predominantly gentile church uh you know that's obviously no longer pertains and uh uh and so there you go all right edward thank you so much for your question glad that you're listening to us in texas call to communion here on ewtn don't forget to join us tomorrow for take two with jerry and debbie that'll be at noon eastern tomorrow's program what religious items adorn your home david i've been to your home you have a number of items uh beautiful items if you were to come to our home and you have many times it's more like a catholic bookstore but we love it we love it because we need those holy reminders around us and we'd love to hear from all of our listeners to the take two program to tell us uh what's in your home what's on your walls i think it'll be a lot of fun noon eastern tomorrow right here on ewtn radio let's go to joe now here on call to communion in fort littleton pennsylvania listening on sirius xm 130. hey there joe what's on your mind today hello doctor it's a it's a bit of a uh convoluted question and i don't know it might be crazy to you but uh you know how like people go out and they're doing their things and somebody dies maybe accidentally in an accident or a fall or this or that and they say well you know and everybody can't get over it and believe it and people say i end up saying it's god's will okay it's god's will but like now hypothetically what if people lock themselves in their houses for a day or a week and none of these accidents happened and nobody could die that way are you circumventing god's will or is it god's will that you lock yourself in your house or i mean it's just like it's just something that's kind of been bugging me for a while and uh i don't even know it's a worthy question yeah it's a worthy question or maybe it's not god's will that these people would have died in these accidents absolutely absolutely okay so so uh what the church teaches is that god is in control of everything i mean jesus himself says not a sparrow falls apart from the will of god but but god's providential care for the world that he made includes his control of free human action let me say that again god is in control of free human action and he said well if he's in control how can it be free anybody who's ever had a two-year-old knows the answer to that question your two-year-old can act with perfect liberty without you ever not being in control right you're in total control well depends on the two-year-old but you know god's the perfect parent of course god's in total control of free human action so much so that he can he can guide the course of human history so that free human action accomplishes his purposes right and uh and in fact he does so now here's the beautiful thing about the way god operates in the physical world god's in control of everything but he operates through secondary causes you know like god god uses the laws of chemistry in physics he made them he uses them they're his servants they're his instruments you know god doesn't directly cause the chemical reaction in the test tube the chemicals cause the chemical reaction but god undergirds and and structured the universe in such a way that that would be the result that comes about in the same way he can use human human free action as a secondary cause to bring about the unfolding of his will and the whole thing is a beautiful symphony that god's in control of but we are genuine agents and and participants in so you know if i were to rationally or irrationally deliberate that you know well maybe god wants me to do so and so and maybe i'm wrong about that and i go out and do an irrational thing uh based on my misunderstanding of the nature of divine providence and some some result happens in consequence well god brought about his purposes by allowing me to reason badly about his purposes oh okay makes sense to me joe thank you so much for your call appreciate that call to communion here on ewtn's go to tom in colorado springs now was listening also on siriusxm 130 a first-time caller hello tom merry christmas to you what's on your mind today yes merry christmas good afternoon i would like to know what the church's view is on the new provide 19 vaccine which they say a lot of them are produced with aborted feet of sales yes thank you very much so the u.s conference of catholic bishops has just issued a statement on this that i have not had a chance to read in full but i have read the headlines and the the long and the short of it is that the vaccines produced by by pfizer and modena have been accepted approved by the u.s bishops for for catholic use the one produced by astrazeneca not so much and it has to do with the question of the proximity to uh to evil in the production of the vaccines uh some cooperation with evil not intending the evil but but you know i'm i'm maybe participating materially although very remotely and evil uh happens all the time you know happens all the time i had a i had a college professor one time that pointed out well you know if you if you take you take title to land maybe in a very remote way you are implicitly sanctioning the seizure of land from the indians that happened you know a couple hundred years ago right well that's a bad thing all right but i'm very remote from that and i can still take title to the house i live in it's not immoral to do that even though i'm remotely connected to some evil that happened a while back um you know if uh if a surgical supply manufacturer manufactures a scalpel and then some abortionist uses it in a procedure well the scalpel manufacturer is materially complicit in the abortion but not but not formally uh complicit and their participation is very remote and so they're not guilty of any immorality and in that way things that are remote from us we can sometimes participate in evil and that's the way they pass judgment on the pfizer and madonna vaccines that the the the use of uh fetal material and in the nature of the production of the vaccines very remote um astrazeneca a little bit more proximate and therefore more morally suspect okay we appreciate that tom thank you so much for your call and for listening to ewtn in colorado springs call to communion here on ewtn let's go to kane now kane is in ozark right here in alabama listening on siriusxm 130. hey there uh kane what's on your mind today uh hey good afternoon uh dr anders uh i uh my question uh is has to do with justification um i'm a part of the anglican tradition and i have a lot of questions about the catholic church um and i i guess for today's purposes i wanted to ask you about justification uh kind of a two-part question one is could you give a little i guess kind of cliff notes uh version of how you uh as a protestant um sort of analyzed that doctrine uh as part of your journey and then second i wonder if you could maybe provide a few resources for further reading on the topic thank you absolutely man i'm glad you asked this question it's probably my favorite question because justification is the issue that made me catholic when i was protestant i learned that justification was the doctrine on which the church stands or falls you to get this doctrine right saves you to get it wrong damns you no ifs ands or buts about it this was the this was the bee's knees of christian doctrines as i understood it and what i was taught about justification in the protestant tradition was as follows that i was i was taught i was justified by faith alone all right and and what justification meant was that god accounted me righteous god considered me to be righteous accepted me even though i remained objectively a sinner so luther's doctrine symbol eustace at piccata are simultaneously just and a sinner god regards you as if you are righteous even though you are in fact objectively sinful now what grounds the protestant doctrine of justification is the theory of imputation and that word right there imputation imputation imputation imputation i mean my seminary professors beat that into my head with a stick all right they said this is it that is the one word that of all words that that that classifies the difference between protestants and catholics protestants believe that the reason god can account you as righteous even though you are wicked is because he imputes to you the righteousness of jesus that when he looks at the believing center he sees instead the righteousness of jesus luther used the metaphor of a dunghill covered in snow god just sees the white snow even though there's dung hill underneath it that's the protestant view now uh i i believed that with all my heart and soul and i believe that that was what scripture taught and i believe that that was what the early church taught and i thought that was the doctrine of which the church stands or falls what a rude awakening i was in for because the first thing i did was i went and i dangerously read about two three four five thousand pages of saint augustine all my protestant teachers had taught me that augustine was the stuff he was the man if you want if you want the source you go to augustine he is the exemplar of christian thinking on on these issues and of course i read augustine and was powerfully disturbed to learn that the man was thoroughly and entirely catholic oops and that the way he conceived of justification was at one with the way saint thomas aquinas described it and ultimately dogmatized at the council of trent and uh so i said well augustine's out he's a catholic he's definitely not a lutheran he's not a calvinist well if augustine got it wrong maybe somebody earlier in the tradition did better so i began to read earlier in the tradition and it just got worse he was you know fourth century fifth century the earlier i got in the in the sacred tradition i realized that second century writers third century writers of the catholic church nobody believed anything remotely similar to luther or calvin and a profoundly ethical and moralistic understanding of salvation which was very disturbing to me so i said okay early church is out maybe i need to go back and reconsider saint paul so i went back to paul with very protestant blinders on and very much determined to save to preserve my protestant faith and determined that i would be accompanied by the best in pauline scholarship to really understand what the apostle was talking about and so i went back to paul accompanied by and here are the books i'm going to recommend to you okay nt wright n.t wright i would really recommend his book what saint paul really said or his book on justification christopher stindall the book paul among jews and gentiles absolutely fantastic book james dunn in his commentary on romans e.p sanders paul and palestinian judaism these are the books i took with me by protestant scholars and i found out much to my chagrin that luther got paul deadly wrong he absolutely did not know what he was talking about in explicating saint paul and uh so augustine was wrong excuse me augustine was not protestant the earlier church was not protestant st paul wasn't protestant and the best in protestant scholarship of the day was convincing me of that fact so with gut with justification out the window uh you know after that it was it was short work to get me into the catholic church now what did i actually come to hold about justification and salvation well uh you know christ of course tells us without purity of heart no one will see god and that it's not what goes uh into the body that makes a man impure it's what comes out of the body that makes a man in pure out of his heart out of his mouth evil thoughts adultery fornication these are the things that make a man impure and so just simply following the law of moses just following the laws of cash root or circumcising ourselves or not eating pork these things are not going to make us pure in heart but when we believe christ and follow him as our teacher and lord and we receive the gift of the holy spirit and we are circumcised in our interior man saint paul tells us in romans chapter 2 verses 25 to 29 that that guy is the real jew who has fully met the demands of the law the mata tunamu he says the righteousness of the law is fully met in one who has been circumcised in his heart which comes through the spirit by faith so the catholic church teaches following saint paul following jesus when i believe christ when i'm baptized when i receive the gift of the spirit it's not by following the mosaic law but but thy interior renovation and charity that the real work of following the law love of god and love of neighbor is accomplished in me by god's almighty power all from grace but not by faith alone it's it's faith that brings an inward ethical transformation such that paul says romans 8 if i keep in step with the spirit if i walk in the spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness gentleness self-control flow from within me the the the beatitudes are manifest in me in that way i the demands of the law are fully met not by imputation not by imputation but by the infusion of christ's righteousness into my person that is the biblical that is the patristic that is the augustinian that is the catholic that is the saving doctrine that is the bomb that is the bomb kane don't be a stranger to the show we hope that you call again we'd love to hear from you dr david anders thank you sir thank you tom do the program right here on ewtn radio 2 p.m live eastern right here every weekday on behalf of our great crew i'm tom price along with dr david andrews thanks so much for joining us see you tomorrow on call to communion god bless

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,000

Rating: 4.8235292 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: EXBSZYcKM0g

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020