CALLED TO COMMUNION - 1/25/18- Dr. David Anders

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 learn salvation one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six why do I need to confess my food to a brief what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network happy Thursday to you welcome again to call to communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith maybe you don't know who to turn to well hey you've come to the right place here's 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 message message and data rates may apply again the phone number 1-800 five eight five nine three nine six we have the a team in place ready to take your calls Michael Burchfield is our producer Matt Kaminski is our phone screener Jeff person is on social media so he will snag those questions of yours that you post via Facebook and YouTube I'm Tom Price along with dr. David Anders Tom how are you I'm great how are you my friend you know I've been under the weather this week you've but you've had the flu this week so you were kind of a walking wounded flying flying solo yesterday you know take it slow and easy kind of show yeah so well I'm glad you're back I'll try not to cough on here good to be back I do appreciate that and we're gonna lead off here with an email as we're getting these calls screened at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six here's one from Terry who says I'm wondering if the souls in purgatory can pray for other souls in purgatory at our dinner prayer we also say the eternal rest prayer and we add and we pray for all the souls they are praying for hope we're not taking things for granted thanks god bless all of you Terry yeah thanks Jay I appreciate the so we are now in the realm of what we'll call speculation okay rank speculation so we don't have any there's we have no information from divine revelation or the authority of the church answering this question so we're left basically to speculate and I'll just throw something out there based on my own private theological reasoning and you can take it or leave it okay we know that the souls in purgatory are united to God and charity okay they weren't they wouldn't be in purgatory they're you know all right so they have sanctifying grace we know that there are part of the church part of the mystical body of Christ if they're united to God and charity they want what God wants God wants the salvation of souls and he wants the purification of souls in purgatory and he wants the church to pray for the for the suffering Church all right so it stands to reason that if they know all that they would be doing it that does make sense okay very good here's one now from Richard who says I have a Protestant friend who wants me to read the Book of Enoch what is that all about are we to read it or not thanks Richard um yeah you can certainly read any book that you want to read it can be a canonical book or a non canonical book it can be an apocryphal book this is a apocryphal book it's not part of the Canon of Sacred Scripture and but I think it's it there's a certain utility and reading intertestamental Jewish literature and and Second Temple apocalyptic to get some sort of idea of the general culture and me'll milieu of you know early Christianity you know so yeah just as long as you read it with that in mind you read it as a historical text of a you know particularly pokken period and don't necessarily ascribe you know in particular religious authority other than just historical interest okay fair enough here's one now from Michelle and she says dr. Andrews could you please explain the meaning of this verse where the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints would fall into sleep were raised so were they raised at this moment and if so how could they have been raised before Christ's resurrection thanks Michelle okay sure so we're talking about Matthew 27 here at the time of the crucifixion when we read that many of the holy souls in Jerusalem came out of the graves and walked around we're seen by people okay we don't know much about those folks we don't know much about them so you know obviously this was a mighty sign of God about the the August mystery that had just taken place on Calvary and Christ raised people from the dead in his own ministry in his life number of people you know not the least of which was Lazarus and so we don't know how long these people lasted we don't know where they went you know but but they were seen by some there you go when we come back from our quick break we'll be talking with Greg in Indianapolis he's got a great question for you Dominick is in Washington Missouri checking us out today on Facebook live we have one line open 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] Teresa Tomeo it's our goal to help each and every listener take this beautiful faith of ours out into the public square with great ideas on making a difference through engaging the culture the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio this is sy Kellan join me for Catholic Answers live it's two hours dedicated to Catholic apologetics and evangelization designed for Catholics and non-catholics of life it's your opportunity to hear from and talk with some of the leading apologists and theologians in the church today you've got questions we've got Catholic answers Catholic Answers live weekdays 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern on EWTN radio EWTN National Catholic Register is America's most trusted Catholic news source try six free issues with our compliments if you like it you can subscribe later in to 35% savings off the newsstand price visit NC register.com today the reason for our hope with father Larry Richards the talents that God has given you have you multiplied them have you used them for his glory or for your glory have you used the gifts of the god of the universe for him have you multiplied those gifts or have you buried them life isn't over yet if you haven't been using them it's time make a decision that not one of those gifts are wasted that you use them and you multiply them because that's what's important huh have you been a man of love do your wife and children know that your love them do you tell them that today look at you and they look in your eyes what do they see when they look in your eyes what do they see they see a man of love do they see a man of love because again as st. John the Cross said in the end we will be judged in love what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic this is called to communion with dr. David Angela [Music] five eight five nine three nine six glad you could join us here on called the communion here on EWTN very glad to welcome a brand new radio station part of our EWTN radio family now over 350 stations strong and hey hello to everybody listening to us for the first time on FM 97.7 KRG you serving Del City Oklahoma and a very special thanks to our friends the Knights of Columbus and st. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church they helped our friends at Oklahoma Catholic broadcasting get that station on the air I think we've got something like a baker's dozen of radio stations in Oklahoma now again welcome to all of our new listeners hearing us on FM 97.7 KRG you serving Del City Oklahoma the newest member of the EWTN radio family and what did they used to say on hee haw salud do you remember that do you member hee haw well she knew I wasn't a big hero found it is what it is if you're ready now let's get to the phone's one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six we'll begin with Greg in Indianapolis listening to us via podcasting hey there Greg what's on your mind today yeah thank you taking my call sure I believe it there's the Catholic doctrine that says I got it Tommy person things everywhere I also heard from some saints or something that I'm the worst thing about how that God isn't fair supposing how to play sure yeah it's a great question appreciate it so gods in Hell Psalm 139 verse eight the psalmist says if I go to the heavens you're there if I make my bed in the depths you're there if I descend into shell which is the abode of the Dead right you are their God God is omnipresent in a lot of ways we can talk about the Lord's presence in a number of ways God is present to everything by His omniscience he God knows everything that happens anywhere that happens he knows even our secret thoughts nothing is hidden from the eyes of God God is of course present in his immensity and what that means is that all of God is present in hits in his entirety to every inch or particle or square of creation because the material world that will even the immaterial world the the the created world exists only in dependence upon God um he sustains us in our being at every second that also goes for the souls in hell and of course God's since God has no body has he has no spatial extension you can't think of there being more of God in one place and less of God and another it's not like there's more of God and an elephant than in a mouse all of God is present to to each and every particle of creation so you've got him that's his immense remove a his immensity and it's what sustains us in our in our being God's conscious willing decision to cause us to continue to exist at every second at every moment you know there was a great Protestant theologian named Jonathan Edwards who captured this I thought beautifully in a metaphor he said God hums the world you know that's that's the the way that's a good metaphor to picture the way in which we depend upon God we're like a song you know that God continually calls into being he stopped singing poof we're gone alright and that's true for the gold for the souls in hell also alright but God is present in a few other ways to us now in which he won't be present to us in hell if we are unfortunate enough or sinful enough to end up there one of those ways course the most imminent way is that God is present to the souls of the just through charity and grace alright and and that comes with the indwelling gift of the of the Divine Trinity alright so the souls of the just are indwelt by the Trinitarian presence of God Jesus says in John 14 if you love me keep my Commandments my father and I will come to you and make our dwelling with you alright and that's the dwelling that we have of a friend in our hearts you know so your your friend dwells in your heart like a the the beloved in the heart of the lover that known in the heart of the knower all right your friend dwells within you that way well God says he can dwell on us that way we love him we know him we desire what he desires we desire to be united to him in friendship he do also like that in the hearts of the just well he will not dwell like that in the hearts of those separated from him inhale all right and that's that is the principle absence that we will we will know the truth about God long and yearn to be united to God in friendship and yet the souls in Hell hate God they will despise God they will resent God and they will hate themselves because of the loss of the possibility of the beatific vision and it we remain in their despair and self-hatred for all eternity so it's that particular lack of God that absence of God that constitutes one of the prime sufferings of Hell there are other ways that we can experience God in this life even if we're not united him and charity you think about how God is present in His goodness in all of the good things that we enjoy I'm drinking a pretty good cup of coffee right now that is a kind of a distant reflection of the goodness of God it's good because God is good it exists because God exists his being is present in a very small and remote way in the being of this cup of coffee or in a piece of music or in the tenderness between you know my child and his little five month old puppy all those little intimations and hints of goodness those trends and dentals truth beauty and goodness that we experience in the good things of the material and created order those also will be alienated from in in the pains of hell don't know everything that we'll experience in hell but if we did have any knowledge of the transcendentals in hell it would only serve to call to mind what we had lost and not serve as any solace for the Soul Greg thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you now one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six and I actually found out something I did not realize you know on this program I've been saying if you get a busy signal call us back well guess what I checked with our engineering department you're not going to get a busy signal it's just gonna ring and ring and ring until the line low lights up so our line loads up so therefore you're not going to get a busy signal just give us a call 1-800 I think it did one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six not more here we go here is Dominic in Washington Missouri listening to us via Facebook live hey there Dominic what's on your mind today a Dominic Dominic turn your could turn your computer down buddy are you there yes yes I am glad go ahead you're on the air Thanks I've been are there any scripture verses that can help prove that Mary was sinless I've been getting criticized a couple times on Facebook because I I've talked about my love for her and then she was sinless but some people are saying that she wasn't um yeah absolutely I appreciate that so the the the strongest scriptural evidence for the sinlessness of the Blessed Virgin Mary comes in the angelic salutation in Luke chapter 1 when Gabriel speaks to the bus virgin and he says hail full of grace now the particular word now in if you look at the English Bible you'll find the phrase full of grace a couple of times in Sacred Scripture but it translates different Greek words right the Greek word translated full of grace in Luke chapter one is only used one time in the entire Bible all right so if you look for the English you might find it more than once but that one Greek word is only use once an entire Bible it's kakarrot Amon a it's a it's a it's a middle voice or passive voice part participle right and and essentially if you break it down etymologically it means one having been graced to the full alright one having been graced to the full and what is the end and purpose of grace grace keeps us from sin grace unites us to God and charity st. Peter tells us 2nd Peter 1:4 that through grace we become participants in the divine nature right which is of course love and holiness itself well here the angel tells Blessed Virgin Mary she's been graced to the full she's got the whole package all right and and of course the end and purpose of grace is to keep us from sin T and ice to God and charity so much so does she have this grace that he says hail now notice something here what happens usually when humans meet angels in the Bible the humans look at the angel and say hail that's right that's right and they fall down terrified right this is the only time in all of sacred history that an angel has that response to a human why why well he knew it was coming she was going to conceive and give birth to God the mother of God and it's in view of her divine maternity the greatest dignity ever conveyed upon a human person or any creature that God gave her this great gift of being confirmed in the fullness of grace from the first moment of her own conception now there's your scriptural war now there's there's more we can say about the doctrine of Blessed Virgin Mary Jesus our Lord hails Mary as the woman in John chapter 2 in John 19 what woman what was he talking about well in Genesis chapter 3 we have a prophecy of the Messiah it's called the protoevangelium the very first announcement of the gospel when God says that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent the devil seed of the woman which woman is that well Revelation chapter 12 pictures it we see an image an apocalyptic image of a woman in battle with the serpent identified as the devil with the moon and stars around her head and the Sun clothed with the Sun and so forth under her feet uh-huh and she gives birth to the child that will rule the nations with a rod of iron a reference to the messianic psalm which is Psalm 2 and she's also identified as the mother of all those who believe in Jesus well we know who gives birth to the child that rules the nations with a rod of iron that's the Blessed Virgin Mary yep right and so she is typologically also the mother of the church all right identified as woman so she's this she is this glorious figure in Sacred Scripture identified in prophecy from the Old Testament into the New Testament and in a fight of such power divine son Jesus alright for this reason the Church Fathers looked at this imagery saw the parallelism with the first Adam who said no that's been his wife Eve who says no to God and gives birth to the human race all right and the second Eve Mary who says yes to God and becomes the mother of all those who believe in Christ and from that parallelism between between Eve and Mary we can also infer the doctrine of her sinlessness even as the first Eve was created in a sinless state and then fell second Eve created in a righteous state and preserved in chastity holiness purity and so forth now that their arguments in the scriptural evidence I've just given you do I think that that will convince someone who was antecedently committed to the doctrine of her sinfulness if you talk to a Protestant and they're there they have a have a ideological ax to grind which is to take down the Catholic doctrine of Mary do I think that'll be persuasive to them not probably not honestly it might not persuade them and so then you have to back up a step more and you have to back up and ask this question so you've asked me to prove Mary and to augment from Scripture well I've given you some scriptures to think about but let me ask you a question why do you think Christian belief has to be tested and proved by the words of Sacred Scripture where'd you get that idea does the Bible ever tell us that we have to prove every one of our doctrines from sacred scripture does scripture itself say that no it doesn't so that's not a scriptural idea it fails your test right all right when Christ tells us how to know the faith he never mentions the New Testament he mentions the teaching authority of the Apostles guaranteed by the Holy Spirit and the church that he founded conveying sacred tradition in other words the Catholic Church exact that's the authority that Christ identifies so we can't limit ourselves to the scriptural data and we have to interpret the Scriptures in light of the tradition of Christ passed down through the church which which includes the Marian dogmas that are there embedded in the tradition from the very beginning Dominick thank you for your call this is called a communion here on EWTN glad you could join us today let's go to a stand now in Harrisburg Pennsylvania listening to our great radio station their Holy Family radio Stan what's on your mind today I have a question for you it has to do with the Protestant interpretations of Johnny Sauter 28 verses 19 through 23 the other day I was confronted by a Protestant friend of mine that he contended to join chapter 20 verses 19 to explain to me was pertaining to the forgiveness of sins better than you personally but it doesn't seem that that's the case because and in Matthew 18 where he says to Peter there is anybody have anybody sins against you forgive him seventy times seven or seven times seventy I was just wondering what you thought of that or that that particular interpretation so so let me get this straight you're your friend believes that when Christ breathed upon the Apostles and said receive the Holy Spirit whoever sins you forgive are forgiven that what he was in fact doing was simply exhorting them to forgive one another and not and that they he wasn't really giving them authority to forgive in the name of Christ is that what is that what the position was other people per se like third parties in a name of Christ he was just contending that they're forgiving other people that sinned against them personally oh okay right thank you I appreciate that so of course there's absolutely no warrant for that position whatsoever at all in the text of scripture I mean the Bible doesn't say that one whit and in fact everything about the context militates against it so Jesus begins by saying as the father sends me so I send you receive the Holy Spirit who sent whoever sins you forgive a forgiving know in what manner did the father send the son well as the Lamb of God and the propitiating sacrifice that would reconcile all men to himself alright Jesus came to do a lot more from the father than simply say y'all be nice now okay and and so so there's there's nothing in the context of the passage that suggests your friend's interpretation right and and of course there's a lot more scriptural data that we can bring to bear on this you know in Matthew 18 it's tied specifically to the exercise of church discipline if you find your brother insanity doesn't repent you take him to the church and if he doesn't listen to the church then you treat him as a tax collector you know in a center and I tell you for sure what you bind on earth and be bound in heaven st. Paul uses the same language in the in 1st Corinthians when he D with the problem of excommunication and he says don't judge people that are outside the church we're not worried about them God's gonna take care of them but you have to judge people inside the church you drug you drive the evildoer from among you and and then he he deals with a specific case he talks about the fellow who was sleeping with his mother-in-law and aunt or excuse me a stepmother and Paul says cast this guy out hand him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his soul might be saved in the day of judgment in other words extra commands the to the discipline of excommunication all right and then after the guy comes to repentance in 2nd Corinthians Paul readmits him to the Fellowship of the church and to the Eucharist and says I forgive him in the presence of Christ right so you you can't you can't separate the the the sacrament of reconciliation or penance or forgiveness of sins from its connection to the exercise of church discipline and is very clear that the that I don't absolve you right the the withholding of absolution and the casting of someone out of the church all right is to remove them from the means of grace and potentially to excuse me to expose them to the threat of damnation otherwise Paul wouldn't say hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh right right and then you know and then finally anytime you contend with somebody that says well you know what this passage really means is right you know you can always assert of course you know I mean Descartes once said well what if we just imagined that we're just brains and vats you know tormented by some evil demon and everything that we think we experience is an illusion like in the movie The Matrix you know well you can just you can assert anything well every time the Bible says you know elbow it really means elephant you know and if you just do that you'll see that elephants appear everywhere you actually thought that many elbows you see my point you know you can just you can just take some arbitrary interpretation for sit on the Bible and say if you make this one little mental twist everything else will fall in line with my system but I don't want to make your little mental twist right right and but but because you can do that because there's an almost infinite number of interpretations that you can arbitrarily assign to a passage right and you can always gain say any response that give you no matter how rational it goes to the underlying point which is it to interpret any text really we need access to the mind of the author we have that in the Catholic Church it is appreciate your call stand that was a great great question we'll come back in a moment here talk with Cory in Omaha we'll also talk with Melissa in Kansas City we have a line open for you at the moment one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eight five at nine three nine six called a communion here on EWTN this is all about a school right Harleys let's get quiet and go into contemporary printer real Christians or Cowboys if you're sold out for Jesus there's nothing more masculine you can do bear wozmak leads a rolling retreat across the United States join these real Catholic men as they ride from the Atlantic coast of Florida to the Pacific coast of California all the while going deeper into their relationship with the Lord long ride home Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern on EWTN TV it's time for family man with dr. Gregory pop Joe what better behaved kids here's a simple tip to instantly correct almost any inappropriate behavior instead of lecturing or wasting time developing increasingly strict or creative punishments use do overs to help your child learn to speak and act more appropriately on the spot for instance if your child speaks disrespectfully insist they choose better words in a better tone and make them say it again until they express themselves well another example if your child does a chore sloppily require them to start over from the beginning as many times as necessary until they can demonstrate they know how to do the chore to your expectations you don't need to yell let the do-over do the talking for you and when they succeed remember to compliment their effort good discipline teaches kids what to do instead of just telling them what not to do for more tips to make parenting easier check out parenting with grace i'm dr. greg pop check but you can call me family man to discover more ways faith can enrich your life visit Catholic counselors comm why do we need Catholic radio because not everybody's sitting in front of a computer or watching their television set at home how about when driving to work Catholic radios there for you I may be a Catholic priest but I'm still a student of the faith and Catholic radio helps apply good material whether it be a question-and-answer format show whether it be a show itself on doctrine or theology I myself as a priest am always learning father Wade thinks 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 hey I want to bring two great radio programs to your attention then they're both coming up this coming Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern it's a life issues special all about human trafficking which is something that it's just getting worse and worse every year the title is victims in the shadows and it has a great great program dr. Brad mattis and his team at life issues worked very hard in getting interviews from people experts actual victims so again it's called victims in the shadows a life issue special that it began two p.m. Eastern here on EWTN radio on Saturday and right after that it's the walk for life West Coast coming to you live from San Francisco that'll be anchored by our own Doug Keck and father Joseph Mary and I believe father Mark Mary is going to be there on the streets of San Francisco talking with everybody there live from San Francisco again that begins at 2:30 in the afternoon Eastern Time here on EWTN radio it'll also be on EWTN television as well before we get back to the phones here at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six I want to get to a quick question from Andrew who's watching us right now on YouTube Andrew says what does the Catholic Church teach about salvation for Jews who deny Jesus thank you I appreciate the question the only way that anyone can get to heaven whether they're a Christian a Jew a Hindu a Muslim an atheist to pay and you know an ancient Israelite yeah is through the grace of of God yes conveyed to us through Christ in the Catholic Church that's the only way anybody gets to heaven so Enoch the Old Testament patriarch who walked with God was taken away well he went to heaven by the grace of Christ transmitted through the Catholic Church Moses went to heaven through the grace of Christ transmitted to the Catholic Church you know if if some pagan on the other side of the planet who's never heard of the Catholic Church makes it to heaven it'll only be because of the grace of Christ transmitted to him through the Catholic Church okay now the most obvious manifold plentiful in evident way to come into contact with the grace of Christ present in the Catholic Church is in the Catholic Church visibly all right card-carrying Catholic yeah the sacraments right so the fullness of the truth fullness of the means of grace fullness of the visible unity that Christ desires is present to us in the catholic church but the church tell itself tells us that outside those sort of formal demarcate 'add limits of catholicism there are elements of truth and sanctification elements of truth and sanctification which can become for the individual efficacious means of sanctity all right so obviously outside of of Catholicism the the church that has the the closest adherents to Catholic truth and the most means of grace would be the various Orthodox communions of of Christianity that okay you know date all the way back to the first century and in those periods and they split away from Catholic unity beyond that we might think of the product various Protestant ecclesial communities you know your typical excuse me your typical Protestant Church doesn't have the Eucharist all right they don't have ordination they don't have they don't have the Sacrament of Penance and they don't have all the Bible when they certainly have sacred tradition but they had a lot of the Bible yeah you know they got 66 out of 73 bucks ago and and they got a couple of the sacraments they got baptism you know they they they could potentially have marriage okay sacrament of marriage and you know I've told the story about this old Baptist preacher I knew one time whoo-hoo he got his whole career out of John 3:16 that man got he got miles and miles out of John 3:16 so one time is his congregation says pastor we love you sermons but you think he can preach on something other than John 3:16 he says sure I'll do it next week they come back next week John 3:16 now he didn't have very much of the scriptures he didn't have much doctrine he didn't have your probably thing but baptism I have known some crusty old Baptist preachers that got some serious holiness out of John 3:16 you know you see my point all right they didn't have the whole shooting match they'd have been better off if they did but I'm not gonna presume on their salvation that's for God to judge all right now you know outside of the the various Protestant ecclesial communities the church would regard the Jewish people as those closest to us in the faith because of course they have the Oracles of God which are the Old Testament and more than that they have the covenants in the promise right in st. Paul when you read the book of Romans especially chapters 9 to 11 is deeply solicitous towards the Hebrew people and towards the Jewish people and believes that there is an incredibly special role for them and the outplay of salvation history now you know Paul himself agonizes over their alienation from Christ in the gospel and he says I myself would be cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren the Jews okay now you know that kind of language for a long time led to a kind of deep skepticism in some Catholic circles about the possibility of Jewish salvation and and and the church has has thought long and hard on this question and said look in a certain sense we're skeptical about everybody you know we're all in sin we all need grace we all have to have repentance yeah we're not gonna presume the salvation of anyone okay on the other hand on the Ayhan we deeply respect the fact that the Jewish people are united to God in a special way through the promises to Abraham the doctrines and the covenants and so forth uh-huh not that actions and the governance that's a Mormon book but the promises and the covenants and which you know what I meant you know and and that God hasn't cast off his own people does that mean that we presume their salvation no we don't know we don't the Turk still prays for the reconciliation of all people Jews and Gentile like to the fullness of the faith in Christ alright but we hold them near and dear we not we're not gonna judge the individual soul we leave that up to God and we respect that at least in st. Paul's mind God had a plan for the Jews there you go Andrew thank you so much for checking us out today on YouTube we hope that's helpful for you this is called a communion here on EWTN we go now to Melissa in Kansas City where everything is always up-to-date listening to us on ke XS a Melissa what's on your mind today hi dr. Anders a few weeks ago someone called in to ask when the Catholic Church actually started was it at the Last Supper when Christ ordained as priests Elisabet Pentecost and I believe you said you thought that it started at the Annunciation but my question is why wouldn't it have started when the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah since that was before the Annunciation okay yeah thanks I appreciate it so I think this is a little bit of a semantics you know dispute about you know what do we what do we mean by the beginning of the church I mean in there's a tradition to date the birth of the church to Pentecost really okay because that's when the spirit fell upon the believers he minded them together into one body under the teaching of the Apostles and so though know you you had the you had the church in its visible manifest fullness at Pentecost okay nevertheless I think there are some there are some important antecedents to that that we can identify you know in a real sense the king excuse me the kingdom is present in the king the kingdom is present in the king and and that's clearly a very Old Testament idea you know when when the Northern Kingdom of Israel rebelled against the southern kingdom of Judah during the reign of Rehoboam all right the the Israelites who rejected Judas reign over them said we have no share in David all right no David was long dead yeah they saw David present in Rehoboam and in in in Rehoboam the whole kingdom of Judah all right and they said we have no share in David are you thinking about when when King David well at that time the boy David went to represent all of Israel yeah in in battling the Philistine Goliath you know that's a very biblical idea that the kingdom is prized the king the Quinn was the king present not the incarnation yep absolutely appreciate you call there Melissa this is called a communion here on EWTN let's take one more real real quick here here is a Corey yes Corey listening in Omaha on spirit Catholic radio Corey what's on your mind today hi dr. David I appreciate you taking my call sure my question is in regards to eternal assurance or lack thereof and the context is debating a Protestant friend of mine that on Eber is chapter 10 verses 26 and 27 it says for if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries so I raised that verse to my friend and he said well he's obviously talking to people that weren't saved and so my question is how do you refute where are some tools we can use to sure to address that topic of whether or not people were right I appreciate it so there's a there's some enormous category mistakes I appreciate the question by the way Corey thank you there are some enormous category mistakes that are being that are being made by your friend who makes this assumption of this assertion okay let me tell you the first one the first category mistake or the huge huge theological error is is the assumption that that regeneration a regeneration is being born again by the Spirit of God all right that regeneration and election or predestination right predestination is God marking out in advance those whom he knows will be saved right presuming that those things are coextensive all right the idea that anybody who's really received the Spirit of God been born again that that person will necessarily persevere to the end and go to heaven all right now that idea is a very innovative modern idea it's got no basis in the Bible it has no business and sacred tradition we don't even really find that believe it or not it's not clearly stated in art Luther's writings that shows up is in John Calvin all right the idea that the elect that the predestined are the same as the regenerate you know that someone who's really been born-again necessarily persevere is in his states that is that that is an idea that John Calvin made up in the sixteenth century and it enters into kind of the Protestant theological imagination in Calvinism and impurity nism and then kind of passes into you know modern American have a Jellicle ISM but it's got no basis in the Bible whatsoever at all okay now let me let me just demonstrate that all right so st. Paul deals with this issue in an oblique but very very powerful way in the book of Galatians now what happened in Galatians right is that you had people that had received the Spirit of God been born again joined Christ and then they turn away to the judaistic heresy all right and and this auspice st. Paul speaks of them he says he says you know first of all in Galatians 3:27 he says whoever has been baptized has clothed themselves with Christ Romans chapter six same idea he says we die with Christ in Baptism and rise again with him to new life so that's you you Galatians you guys have you guys have clothed yourself with Christ and baptism and you've received the Spirit of God the regenerating Spirit of God is by the spirit that we know we belong to Christ that's what he says in Romans eight now listen what he says he says let me ask you this did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith no they did receive the spirit that's why he's asking the question yeah are you so foolish having begun with the spirit are you now going to end with the flesh all right so these are folks that have been baptized join to Christ have the spirit right and he says now I Paul say to you that if you receive circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you I testify every man who received circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law your severed from Christ you who would be justified by the law have fallen away from grace Wow so st. Paul clearly believed that it was possible to fall away from grace now you mentioned the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 10 is not the only passage that deals with this hebrews chapter 6 verse 4 says this it's impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened tasted the heavenly gift shared in the holy spirit and tasted the goodness of the word and the powers of the age to come st. Paul says that it we are those upon whom the end of the ages have come we who have tasted of Christ all right it's impossible for those having fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once again the son of God to their own harm and holding him up for contempt Wow so he here manifests clear passages people that have been born again by the Spirit of God United to Christ through baptism that have faith and either through apostasy heresy or immorality lose grace very very clear in Sacred Scripture you keep going in Galatians chapter 5 and Paul warns these same people that have the spirit he says walk by the spirit the spirit that you've received and don't gratify the desires of the flesh because if you do you will not inherit the kingdom of God well that warning makes no sense that warning makes no sense of your Calvinist okay so there you go okay appreciate your call Cory this is called a communion here on EWTN we've got a line open right now one one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six by the way if you're looking for a unique setting for spiritual renewal perhaps a retreat maybe you want to take a couple of days and just spend some time alone with the Lord you might consider the shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament you can visit the final resting place of our foundress Mother Angelica and you can tour the EWTN campus it's only an hour away start your Catholic pilgrimage today with EWTN call two oh five two seven one two nine six six or you can go to ewtn.com slash pilgrimage ewtn.com slash pilgrimage it is wonderful really really wonderful back to the phones right now it's talk with Michelle in Ogden Utah listening via the EWTN app hey Michelle what's on your mind today hi so I have the RCIA program that I'm in and we just met tonight and the topic was marriage and so here in Utah with all the Mormons their belief that marriage goes on into eternity in heaven and so one of the people that's in there you know she grew up here and I think her dad was like Mormon and her mom was Catholic well anyways he's chosen to be Catholic that so she was talking about when her husband like proposed to her and how he said we're gonna be together forever in heaven and all this stuff and so I was like kind of like okay it's anybody gonna like correct this because this isn't a Catholic belief and nobody did and there's a deacon in there and then there's these other people that are part of the RCIA program that was that are like Catholics that'll take turns presenting on certain topics and absolutely no one no one said anything and so I felt you know like I had to because that's just not what happens leave and and so I spoke up and it really didn't seem like people were happy to hear that and I'm just like well I mean what am I supposed to do you know it's like that's not true that's not what the Bible says so I'm just really I wish you could console me somehow because my priest is off today so I can't go meet with him to talk with him and I'm just it's really it's making me disheartened and yeah okay well I appreciate it hey listen there's a lot of disheartening that goes around sometimes in the presence of catechetical malpractice be not afraid all right and so i'm commiserating with yes because i've also have set in through cringe-worthy moments of catechesis before and said what somebody you know and uh Jimmy akin one time told a story about going to a mass where the homilist preached a heretical homily in which he made the claim that Jesus didn't know he was divine which of course is false Jesus absolutely knew he was Devon Earth and an akin said he was really happy because at the end of the mass they had one of those opportunities where the lay people can stand up and and announce their prayers or intercessions you know during the general recession and so Jimmy akin gets up and says you know what's your intention well I I let us all thank God that Jesus always knew he was divine Lord hear our prayer love that was his opportunity it's great to set people straight so you know this is this this stuff happens these things happen you are absolutely correct right that that marriage is indissoluble up until the point of physical death after that you're free okay and and there's very very important reason for that okay very important reason for that and the reason is ultimately the the happiness of heaven is the happiness of spiritual friendship with God and with one another for God's sake it's the beatific vision okay and there are intimations of that of that life of perfect countenance and chastity even in marriage on earth what who had the perfect marriage Joseph and Mary yeah I may never consummated the marriage forever virgin that's ever virgin okay um st. Paul talks about this in 1st Corinthians he says you know it's better to be like me and be perfectly continent and he says but if you you know if you can't control yourself and you don't have that gift and then you can marry and that's a concession really so he treats it to human weakness better the more perfect way is the life of total obedience consecration poverty chastity and obedience mm-hmm and and in Christ of course was the perfectly continent celibate who didn't give himself in human marriage and he's the model of human holiness and we're gonna be conformed to his image now so marriage is primarily for the bearing of children bearing offspring right that's why marriage exists to replenish society now if you're a Catholic if you're a baptized person marriage also is a sacrament it's also a sacrament but what's the end of the sacrament that the spouses be united to one another in authentic love for the sake of raising a parent for the sake of raising children alright in the August task of being a mother and a father so that they can perfect one another's personalities and come to God okay and and you know as long as we're the moaning catechetical malpractice and cringe-worthy things I will give you a pet peeve of mine all right now that's relevant I think is relevant what is the biblical metaphor that describes human marriage the biblical metaphor excuse me that marriage is likened to something in Scripture in revisions chapter five well marriage is a symbol of the of the wedding of Christ to the church right and st. Paul says husbands love your wives as Christ love the church gave himself up for to wash her with the washing of the water of the word and bring her to God you know pure and spotless and so forth cleanse from every impurity all right the way in which husbands are to love their wives is is the same way that Christ loved the church in giving himself up to a death of torture on the cross to make her holy okay so so the biblical picture of sacramental marriage is one of extraordinary self-sacrifice a extraordinary self-sacrifice like Christ to make my wife or your husband if that's the case United to God in spiritual friendship all right now there is a lot of times in in in katha catechol circles today you'll often hear people drop that metaphor out of the discussion and instead they talk about how marital love is supposed to image the Trinitarian love of the of the Godhead uh-huh and I'm sure that's true I mean we ought to love like the Blessed Trinity loves but that's not the biblical metaphor the scriptures don't use that metaphor the Scriptures talk about the love of Christ on the cross first church and that the difference is that that you know the there's no there's no struggle in suffering in Trinitarian love you know that the son doesn't die for the father the father doesn't die for the son you know the Holy Spirit doesn't set up at night biting his fingernails you know wondering who's going to get the the feverish kid you know that's kind of a romantic I mean it's true it's a true vision of God's love but it doesn't capture the the the sort of you know iron in blood and sweat and toil kind of sacrifice that marital love actually requires you say and in the end of all of that is to bring us to God and holiness in spiritual friendship so the Trinitarian love is the reward you know and of course that's an utterly a sexual love there it is Michelle thank you so much for your call hope that's helpful for you Timothy is in Eugene Oregon listening to us on Mater Dei radio and if I'm not mistaken that was our affiliate number one way back in the day in Portland hey Timothy what's on your mind today yes hello okay I'm not going to a Bible study afternoon and we're studying the Eucharist and we've been looking at transubstantiation and how the body and blood soul and divinity of Christ is in the appearance of bread and wine there's a several people are kind of confused about transubstantiation and one lady in particular said she looks at it as if he's his spirit is there meaning and I'm not sure quite what but we were going to discuss it against afternoon I was wondering if doctor a nurse has anything to say oh yeah thank you very much I appreciate it so there's a big problem with what your friend said and I and I can appreciate what she's trying to do is she's trying to take something that's that's that doesn't seem intelligible and trying to make it intelligible by taking away the mystery well all right and you know a time you encounter a dogma of the faith and someone says look I have the perfect way to understand this just look at it like this you know they've just gone off into heresy that's right because what they've done is they've just taken away the mystery all right that's why the claudemir they've taken away the mystery all right if it was just his spirit well there's nothing nothing hard to understand about that right all right no no that doesn't capture it now so first of all let's look a little bit about who Jesus is all right Jesus is a person that has two natures he has a divine nature at a human nature now what is a human nature human nature is body and soul all right so to have the whole human Jesus you have to have body and soul right gotta have body and soul and then of course body and soul in Christ are hypo statically United to the Godhead so if you have one of them you got you got if you got body you got body soul and Godhead all together body blood soul and divinity is the language that we use now does Jesus say this is my spirit he didn't say that right does he say this is my Godhead he doesn't say that he says this is my body that's right all right that the the the proper term the end the goal the the direction of the the supernatural action in the Eucharist it terminates in body and blood body and blood now you get spirit and divinity along for the ride the fancy theological word for that is concomitant if you get body and blood divinity and spirit come along for the ride all right but but the emphasis body and blood Jesus says this is my body this is my blood now so strong is the emphasis on body and blood that st. Thomas Aquinas poses a purely hypothetical question it's just hypothetical this didn't actually happen which is hypothetical Thomas says what would have happened if the Apostles had celebrated Holy Mass when when Jesus was physically in the tomb what would have been in the elements Thomas says you would have had body and blood but you wouldn't have had spirit because his spirit had descended to the dead in Hades you know it's a shedload of the day you would have had body and blood but not spirit yeah you would have had divinity too along for the ride but you would not have had spirit right that's how much the emphasis is on body and blood right because it's Christ it's not Christ dead 2,000 years ago who's present in the mass it's Christ in his proper person as he presently exists at the right hand of God and of course it's United body blood soul and divinity all there at one time so it's the whole Christ hypothetically you needed to the Godhead in his entire humanity which is body blood and spirit no how do you fit all that into a teeny tiny host yeah all right I would tell you but here comes the music the long and the short of it is not in the normal way not in the normal way transubstantiation is a mysterious mode of presence in which the whole Christ body blood soul and divinity is present under each and every article of the chalice each and under every article particle of the host so if you break the host in half you don't have half of Jesus here at half of Jesus there you have all of Jesus here and all of Jesus there now that's a mysterious mode of presence one that I can't rationally grab you make it intelligible you just destroyed the mystery and you're you launched off into heresy sorry yeah but you meant well so we you know indeed Timothy thanks for your call sorry we couldn't get to Anthony in Riverside or Dave in Northern Kentucky you guys call us back tomorrow we'll put you on at the head of the show hey dr. David Andrews thank you my friend

Channel: EWTN

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Id: AkbmabXnDYY

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2018