Called To Communion - 1/3/18 - 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 earn salvation 2805 eight five nine three nine six why do I need to confess my sin to a pre 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 this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith and maybe you just don't know who to ask well you can certainly ask us here we are live for you on this Wednesday afternoon our phone number is 1-800-585-9396 jeff burton is our producer today filling in for Michael McCaul will tell you more about that in just a moment Matt bubinski is our phone screen or Jeff is also handling social media today so you can ask your questions via Facebook live or YouTube I'm Tom price along with dr. David Enders Tom how are you today very good merry Christmas to you my friend thank you very much missed you it is still okay isn't it to say such a thing it is it is it is up until epiphany right Bethany I believe you Saturday yeah okay so I mentioned Michael McCaul who is now the proud father of little Sebastian yay how about that I believe he was seven pounds how many ounces do you remember Jeff seven pounds and several ounces okay how's that that's a respectable size yeah yeah yeah Michael and his beautiful wife Alicia are very excited and very happy and they send their best to everybody in the called a communion family we're gonna lead off today with a couple of emails actually this came from social media yesterday we weren't able to get it in we had a very busy day yesterday so here's one from Nathan who asked his question via YouTube he says if I'm not able to drive due to a physical disability and attend a Catholic Church is there a way I can still become a Catholic absolutely yes okay thank you very much I appreciate the question so what you do is you begin with the parish your geographical parish the Catholic Church that's closest to you yeah call the parish office tell them I mentioned in the Catholic faith I'd like to become Catholic I'm physically disabled in some capacity I don't know what the details are I'm not physically able to come to mass but it's my desire to receive the sacraments can you help me and and generally speaking I mean you're gonna find that the church wants to be there for you the this parish staff and secretary the priest oh we'll make arrangements and I don't know the form that that will take in your particular case because I don't know what the pastoral resources are of the church that's nearest to you but let me spell out a possible scenario it's it's conceivable that a priest or a deacon or perhaps a catechist would be willing to come to your home and and see that you receive adequate instruction in the faith so that you could make a profession of faith and then and then on an appointed day a priest could come out to your house here your profession of faith receive you formally into the church and admit you to Holy Communion hear your confession absolve your sins you know and you're good to go and then going forward in your Catholic life if you're if you're physically incapacity getting incapacitated and unable to go to Mass then you wouldn't actually have the obligation to go to mass on Sundays a great thing if you could make it when you can um but you know if you're sick or homebound or whatnot Church usually makes provision to bring the Eucharist to those that are in your circumstance and then you can you can you know unite yourself remotely if you will to the Holy Sacrifice of the mass you might tune in and watch the mouse on EWTN and you can participate in the prayers and graces of the church to the best of your ability you can always if you're able to read you can take up the Bible you can take up the Catechism you can take up the writings of the church fathers and the doctors and there's a lot you can to avail yourself of the goods of Catholic spirituality even if you're physically incapable of actually regularly attending Holy Mass and you can also still receive the sacraments that's what pastoral visits are there for you know Catholic priests spend an enormous amount of their time doing just this kind of stuff going to people's homes meeting with those that can't come to church you know hearing confessions counseling giving comfort and so forth now I also want to tell you every every Catholic parish is different and sometimes you know you've got you've got the priest you got the church secretary and and that's it yeah and and I know of one instances where you know where they had they were so short-handed that the church secretary for like 20 years had been keeping baptismal records and stuff in the cabinet in her kitchen you know I mean it was and it was just kind of a mess you know because there's just there's so much to do and so few people to do it sure and so if you if you begin the conversation you through parish and you feel like you know hey I feel like I'm being kind of dropped between the floorboards here and I'm not getting attended to that that could just be a function of the the administrative overload you know on a tiny parish with one priest who's got more to do than he can possibly keep up with and so don't take that is any kind of indication that hey you know they don't want me that's not how it works and you can either a be persistent if you don't get initially yeah the follow-through that you're looking for or you can always reach out to a parish that has more pastoral staff and resources in time you always call the diocese to we're there for you once you in the church and you know but there's the there are only so many priests to go around sometimes so just keep that in mind as well absolutely there you go Nathan thanks for checking us out on YouTube sorry we couldn't answer your question yesterday when you sent it to us but we do the best we can here's one now from vitaly in ukraine watching us on youtube yesterday he says in the Orthodox Church it is said that Catholics must pay 10 percent of their income in all Catholic countries is this true this is not true this is not true now you're talking about paying 10 percent of your income to the church are 10% of the income in some sort of civil tax now you know there are there are countries in the world that have a historically large Catholic population I'm thinking about Germany right now yeah yeah where the where the church is actually supported by the government all right it's not through the direct donations of the faithful my understanding is in Germany and this is this is their own civil law this has nothing to do with canon law this is not catholic law this is German civil law if correct me if I've got this wrong anybody but I think that the government taxes the whole populace a kind of religious tax and then they dole out that tax to the various religious communities Catholic and non-catholic Lutheran's to get a chunk of that just as yesterday just based on on on census data just on demographic data all right and that's not the norm all right that's not the norm and there are problems with that way of doing business sure I think spiritually I think it's of more value to the faithful is my own personal private opinion I think it's more valuable to the faithful to be directly engaged in the support of the church so they can give their tithes and offerings to the church and feel like you know I'm doing this to support the work at the ministry it's not something that the government's taking out of my back pocket is something that I'm giving to get on the game you know I was gonna exactly and and at least in the American Catholic Church you know that all all Catholics are bound by the precepts of the church these are laws that bind the conscience of every Catholic one of the precepts of the churches that we support materially support the work of the church but that's as specific as it gets all right and so you myrrh the story of the the woman with the two mites you know going into the temple and she you know she throws in a penny and some rich guy comes in and you know dumps in his Rolex and Jesus says she gave more because she gave out of her poverty yeah and I remember one time I was I was kind of on hard times and I went to confession to father Angelus here at EWTN and I said you know well I was raised always thinking in the Protestant church how you give 10% of your income all the time you know that's just what you do this is good policy generally speaking I don't oppose that and I said you know father I'm just I'm kind of just flat out of body and he's like well then you wait wait you have some you know I mean don't lock yourself dead sure the principle is support the work of the church now does that mean am i advising that everybody should put their wallet back in their back pocket no you know John the Baptist said he who has two coats gifted with a guy that has none last 50% of your income if you think about that two coats this tie one you know and the principle is you know did st. Paul deals with this too and he would take collections for the church in Jerusalem he would say I'm not going to compel you to give I want you to give out of your charity and your generosity God loves a cheerful Giver you know pressed down shaken together and flowing over well God pour into your bosom if you give out of the generosity of your heart so I you know I know of some cases of Christians who have given a reverse time give 90% of their income keep ten really yeah okay and and and that's okay too sure you know the bishops advise as a helpful rule I mean it's not it's not as a guide it's not not mandatory people that can do so think about giving 5% of their income to their parish and 5% of their income so the charity of their choice just so that they're involved in materially supporting the poor the the needy and also the ecclesial ministry of the church yeah it could be could be ministries like EWTN you betcha absolutely and if you're into that reverse tie thing well we'll get you set up I'll give you a website to go to anyway thank you so much for your question there vitaly we hope that is helpful for you when we come back we'll be talking on on the phone with lots of folks at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six if you have a question for dr. david andrews do call now [Music] [Music] I'm Brian Patrick from Morning Glory have a holy Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at EWTN radio I'm morning Glory's Brian Patrick a holy Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at EWTN radio Raymond Arroyo part of the success we've had on the world over I attribute to the audience my relationship with Mother Angelica and her teaching me that when you sit with someone you talk to them and you create an environment where they will tell you things they wouldn't tell anyone else that ease that humor that warmth she gave me that and that's what I try to impart and make a part of every interview we do on the world over the world over tomorrow 8:00 p.m. Eastern on EWTN TV and 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 could subscribe later in to 35% savings off the newsstand price visit NC register.com today the reason for our hope with father Larry Richards every day of my life since I was 17 years old I've spent an hour a day minimum with the God of the universe I would die for him that which I'm most afraid of I would die for him in an instant because he's the most important thing in my life I know him and see that's what it ultimately comes down to what about you where are you at with this God coz that's the ultimate question does God exist doesn t exist is Christ God is nee God is there life after death is there not is this all waste of time or is this all for a purpose what's the purpose of life and so in the Catholic Church the church has taught us in the beginning who made me God made me why did God make me God made me to know him love him and serve him in this world so I can be happy with him forever in the next the first purpose of life is to know God 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 if you're ready now let's get to the phones at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six we begin with Richard and Wabash Indiana listening to us via the EWTN app hey there Richard happy new year to you what's on your mind today thank you happy New Year to you thank you I'd like to ask dr. David question on baptism my brother goes to across in church and they just believe in full immersion for baptism and you know they even talk about Jesus being merged so anyway I'd like the question is at what point in the church history did did the Catholic Church start doing the pouring instead of full immersion okay thanks well first of all there's no evidence in the Bible that Jesus was fully immersed when he was baptized no Bible done ever says that it says he went down into the Jordan River and was baptized by John came up out of the river all right and and the scriptures actually give us absolutely no instruction whatsoever at all on the specific mode of baptism we just Christ commands in Matthew 28 that his disciples baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit that's it we know that Trinitarian formula but there's actually there's no instruction in scripture on how much water where you put it how long you stay under nothing like that in the Bible at all okay and and the iconographic evidence the archaeological evidence that we have from early Christianity suggests that full immersion was probably not uniformly done and not practically impossible to do in some contexts so you look at some of these baptismal fonts and they're just not big enough to submit to submerge the whole human in and then you look at the iconographic evidence about the baptism of Christ the early icons painted of the scene and they usually depict Jesus standing in water with John and pouring it over his head use a you know like a clamshell or something right right you see that that image very often repeated so that's an extremely ain't practice okay now I have heard Baptists make the argument well the word baptism or baptism as the Greek means to submerge okay and that the the problem with that is what it's what you call and I actually learned this from a Baptist exegete all right a Baptist the illusion who pointed out that this is a this is a species of the etymological fallacy it's a it's a it's a it's an informal fallacy of reasoning where you assume that the meaning of a word can be reliably derived from its etymological origin all right but they're just all kinds of places in language where that's not the case a word can have an origin in one context and come to mean something very very different you know I'm trying to think of an example off the top of my head I mean think about how often people metaphorically use the word dog to refer to something that's not a four-legged canine you know all the time it happens all the time all the time you know that that car was a dog you know whatever you know you see that see the point or so lemon now mythology behind the word has nothing to do with this actual meaning and and so that that that argument doesn't get you off the ground all right so by appealing to the Bible alone you're just never going to answer the question about the motor baptism it's just not in there the only way we can know with certainty about the mode of baptism is to look to the contradiction of the church which by the way is what Jesus told us to do he never told us to restrict our liturgical practice to what could be derived from the express words of Scripture Jesus said teach them everything I have commanded you that was oral tradition I'll be with you to the end of the age st. Paul says the same thing the tradition and I receive from the Lord I hand onto you Thessalonians pondan st. Paul says hold fast to everything that I've communicated to you the oral traditions as well as what you've received in writing all right and so the only way we can know the proper worship of God has instituted by Christ is that we not only look at the scriptures but we also look at the tradition received from the church that comes down to us from Christ okay is that helpful for you Richard I like appreciate good stuff you thank you Richard that opens up a line for you now one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six is our number one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six Caesar checking us out on YouTube right now he says please kindly clarify what st. Paul meant when he said he was taken into the third heaven are there different levels in heaven okay thanks so st. Paul in second Corinthians talks about a soul that he knows and we all infer these talking about himself but he doesn't he doesn't say that it was who was translated into the third heaven and heard unspeakable mysteries and so forth so what's he talking about well he is really referring probably probably all right to the the common notions about about astronomy present in the current age so we shouldn't infer too much deep metaphysical content from that statement I think the idea is you know the first heaven would be like air above our heads and then you've got the firmament above that then the third heaven alright but again that that's this is not meant to convey you know some sort of you know profound mystical information about the nature of the afterlife of the abode of God he's really appealing to sort of common astronomical notions in cosmology that would have been present in his own day okay and the way the people you know considered the spheres in their relationship to them you know the fixed stars and things like that and that none of that is know that is binding dog I'm in the church so that's the way I would read that very good our phone number here one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six it's called a communion here on EWTN Kalen listening to us now in Louisiana hey there Cowan what's on your mind today Cowan are you there yes sir go go right ahead dear yes this is Kalyn jack Louisiana and I was calling to find out about communion with Catholics I've noticed that they drink the priest drinks something in the mug and the members just get bread and I was wondering if that was real wine that they drink Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding not grape juice okay thanks Kellan I really appreciate the question so in communion that Christ gave to us in the upper room of course he took bread and he took wine and he said this is my body and this is the blood of the new covenant which is poured out for you so he took bread and wine and he turned to them into his body and blood when the Catholic priest offers communion when he says Holy Mass he begins with real bread and with real alcoholic wine but after the words of institution when he says this is my body and this is my blood Catholics believe that those elements ceased to be bread and wine and they become the body blood soul and divinity of Christ but they do so in a mysterious way in a mysterious way so that they still appear to us as bread and wine and if you are to drink from that chalice after the priest has consecrated it what you taste would be the taste of wine including the taste of alcohol all right because it's alcoholic wine that we begin with and normally in the Western Catholic Church the laity the laypeople receive the consecrated host you know what was formerly bread but has become the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus and the priest receives the host and the content of the chalice the precious blood now there are occasions when laypeople also drink from the chalice when you watch the mass on EWTN that's not the normal procedure in the televised mass but you will see that more frequently in your parish Catholic Church only people are permitted to drink from the chalice also but yes we do begin with real wine because as you pointed out Jesus used real wine he said do this in memory of me he didn't say do something similar to this in memory of me right and so we follow the command of our Lord and we and we use alcoholic wine in in the most sacred Rite of Christian worship which is one of the reasons that Catholics are not teetotalers right we don't think that people ought to drink to excess we think that drunkenness is a sin and sobriety is a virtue but an absolute ban on the consumption of alcohol would make no sense whatsoever at all given that our Lord Himself consumed alcohol and used it for the most sacred Rite of Christian worship absolutely Kalyn thank you so much for your call and call us back sometime this is called a communion here on EWTN we have a line open for you at the moment 105 eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eighty five nine three nine six Raz sent us a text yesterday via Facebook wrasses and Yakima Washington says can you please explain free will which Calvinists are objected to with regards to irresistible grace okay thanks very much we got a couple things we have to unpack here so first of all it's a dogma of the Catholic Church that humans have freedom freedom we have free will you have the power of self-determination okay and and what does that mean what does it mean to have freedom well I think it's you know last night I had my oldest son over to my house for dinner I said after dinner I said would you like tea or coffee all right you pick okay and he said well I'd rather have coffee you know actually they he said D I didn't compel them to either decision right and we all experience this every day it's the most common common sensical everyday kind of thing that we find ourselves deliberating between possible courses of action between different descriptions of good things and and it doesn't involve any necessity of sin it's not sinful to drink tea it's not snuffle to drink coffee I can pick either one either decision is good okay that's freedom okay now where to send come into the picture well sin comes into the picture when I start choosing things when I start freely choosing things that that that deflect somehow from my true and ultimate good all right when am i if I choose some good thing but in the wrong manner or at the wrong time okay so you know young man and a woman get engaged to be married they think they're gonna get married they're looking forward to building a family together and then they they get busy too early all right and and they they give themselves to one another in a way that should be reserved for the gift of matrimony when one's made up made a pledge of one's whole life to one another right and now I'm not exploiting the other person from my pleasure but I'm but I'm actually cooperating with them and the sublime work of raising a family well you take that sacred act outside of marriage now it can become exploitive it can become selfish it could become an occasion of an abuse those people split up they go their separate ways and something that could have been glorious and beautiful has bassam has something painful and difficult and maybe the children came out of that now they don't have parents you know you see so something that was meant for a very very beautiful context done in the wrong time in the wrong manner right for the wrong reasons become something that's been the act itself not bad wrong time wrong place wrong manner that's what makes it bad now why do people do that why do people sometimes choose a good thing but in the wrong way all right well because we have a weakness in our souls wounds of original sin that incline us to pride to canoe Pacis that means in moderate attachment to bodily pleasure to egotism to malice to weakness all right and and and so much so so much so that if we're left without grace they were gonna inevitably sin we're gonna do something wrong if we're left without grace grace comes in it heals our soul it gives us the power to consistently and reliably choose the good if we cooperate we can resist grace but with through baptism through faith through participation the sacramental life of the church grace is there to heal our souls and help us to good okay no our friend wants to know about the Calvinist doctrine on freewill so Calvinists teaches not Catholics these are the calvess they teach that grace cannot be resisted all right doctrine of irresistible grace that God chooses to give you grace boom he's gonna give it to you you can't stop him all right Catholics believe that we can resist grace all right that we could use our freedom to operate against God all right and so while God may may choose to give us grace not because we deserve it all right we do have to cooperate with that grace and persevere unto the end to be saved all right in the Calvinists that the Protestants in general are uncomfortable with the idea of human freedom uncomfortable with the idea of our cooperating with grace they want to assign everything exclusively to God's activity and and to take it away from the realm of human free cooperation all right and I would argue in doing so they really they really deny us a tremendous opportunity for meaning in our life because our actions no longer become our own okay brass thank you so much for your question we do appreciate that when we come back from our quick break we'll get back on the phones here our phone number is 1-800-543-8242 and advocate is one who builds you up he's got your back and he'll go to bat for you the opposite of an advocate is an accuser revelation calls the devil the accuser an accuser deflates you and rips you down you are in the midst of an epic spiritual battle between the Advocate and the accuser and the battle front is your mind have you been listening to the accuser who tells you you're broken and can't be fixed your marriage isn't worth fighting for you don't matter the whole story of your life is defined by the worst page the advocate wants you to face today with the confidence and security that comes from knowing you're a beloved child of God a God who has your best interest in mind and it was destined you for eternal glory which voice will you listen to whose side are you going to be on today this is Krista Fanning from real life Catholic comm on ewtn radio [Music] EWTN helping people grow and their love and understanding of God you know I was raised Catholic but then went to the other side and tried to commit suicide a couple of times several years ago my Savior happened to be a Catholic priest here locally and I wanted to say the surrounding myself with people like yourselves in this radio station this morning I felt kind of alone and then I was like oh yeah he WTF I love it what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic this is called to communion with dr. David Andrews one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six a great radio straight-ahead father Mitch is gonna be here in about thirty minutes to take all of your calls on church teachings that's a wtn open line Wednesday with father Mitch Pacwa 3:00 p.m. Eastern right here on EWTN radio and then today on a Cresta in the afternoon al is continuing his best of 2017 countdown and he will have interview number two - - - and interview number one one one one it's like going back to 1967 but that's okay some great interviews that Cresta is bringing back for you be sure to tune in for p.m. Eastern here on EWTN tonight at 6:00 on Catholic Answers live father Hugh barber the chaplain of Catholic Answers will be answering your questions and father Alan Bennett er talking about the Eucharist in Scripture that'll be on Catholic Answers live tonight 6:00 p.m. Eastern Catholic Answers right at 20 years on the air absolutely amazing I can remember getting the phone call from Jerry usher in nineteen golly toward the end of 1997 and he said we've got this idea for a live radio show are you guys interested I said yeah so that that began back in January of 1998 and here it is 20 years later stronger than ever looking forward to the next 20 years we're going to get back to the phones in a moment here one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six first a quick email from Bernadette in Temple Texas she says dr. Andrews when I came back into the church in 1994 I confessed my two abortions my parish priest absolved me but I heard recently that there was another step in the process that mere confession absolution and an assigned penance was not enough is this true also one of the question for those of us who have had marriages annulled and had our current marriages blessed are we in the state of grace given that we are not living in mortal sin for some other reason thanks Bernadette Thank You Bernadette I appreciate the question so a abortion is a as a grave sin because it's taking a human life okay and there are a few sins which because of their gravity are also specified by the church as crimes right you know sin is offense against God yes a crime is is a violation of some positive law of some of some organizations some some human lawgiver like the state likes taken mandate it's against the law to drive a hundred miles an hour on the highway okay that might not be intrinsically immoral protect you particularly you own the highway you know if you're some rich guy you have your own private Iowa you can go 100 if you want to all right nothing intrinsically wrong with it right but it's imprudent and therefore the government makes is reasonable to make a law saying you can't go 100 on a public highway okay and then so that's a crime if you go hundred on a public highway you get sins you got crimes some things are both right so murder even in civil law is both an immoral action it's a it's a sin but also against the civil law so it's a crime well the church has crimes that is specifies also crimes against canon law abortion is one of those things it is a sin to kill a child right but also a crime in canon law and it's sufficiently grave that the church attaches certain penalties to those crimes and and for in some circumstances and some circumstances cooperating in procuring an abortion can incur this the canonical penalty of excommunication all right can incur the canonical penalty of excommunication now I am NOT an expert on canon law alright and and my few attempts to actually get into the thicket of canon law on the radio usually result in eliciting numerous comments from trained candidates that tell me to shut up I don't know what I'm talking about how's that inbox doing it exactly okay but but as near as I have been able to get discern all right the the excommunication attaching to the crime of abortion is specified with enough clarity that for most people in your situation it does not apply okay all right now it would definitely apply to say the abortionist you perform the procedure to the nurses that cooperated and certainly but in most instances of the individual woman it doesn't apply now again canonists go easy on me if I got it wrong you know okay I also know that Pope Francis made it specifically easier to have that that penalty of excommunication lifted all right and in in your own case like I would go forward with an utterly clean conscience on this and not even to worry about it all right because there's that that's that's what you heard about that's the difficulty I don't think it applies to you one way or the other in any way it's the priests job to deal with all that in the confessional so he absolved you you're good to go go on receive Communion have a great Catholic life now with respect to the the second question you were in a marriage or you were in a conjugal relationship the church granted you an annulment right all right and then you were you were validly married in a sacrament marriage in the Catholic Church mhm good to go you're you're you have sacramental marriage you're in the state of grace presumably presumably right and and you should participate as fully as possible in all the work of the church the the the the decree event of nullity the annulment was just a statement that this is the church's judgment that you are not validly married before now you are good to go okay sounds good Bernadette thank you so much for your email if you'd like to send us one for a future show we do tape those mailbag programs where we answer a whole bunch of questions all in one hour you can send that to CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com we'll probably taping another one of those sometime in January back to the phones now at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six Ivan listening to us in Lincoln Nebraska via spirit Catholic radio hey there Ivan what's on your mind today good afternoon doctor I appreciate your show and I look forward to seeing you in Omaha next month for the spirit celebration there oh thanks can't wait to be there appreciate it yesterday you were talking about unit where Jesus is talking about how some people come unique for the church when you're talking about virgins and different levels of priesthood and vocations well and I don't know where I'm getting this wrong but in Deuteronomy yeah Deuteronomy 23 1 I am perfect what they're talking about this eunuchs as being told that they were not enter the kingdom and I can't put together how the Holy Spirit would stand fill up to the Ethiopian eunuch to quote go for a ride into baptism if he wasn't going to get to heaven so where is my disconnect okay thanks yeah a couple things we got to clear up here first of all let's talk about the law and Deuteronomy and then we'll talk about Jesus's words in Matthew 19 in Deuteronomy 23 1 no one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting they enter the Assembly of the Lord okay so there are a lot of rules in the Old Testament about about ritual purity okay they're not about moral purity some of them are but many of them are not about morally about ritual purity okay and in in in the the system of Hebrew worship everything was set up as a kind of symbolic demonstration of the holiness of God and the need to approach him with great reverence okay and so there was a lot of symbol and ritual structure that meant was meant to convey that okay and and there were there were three conditions and these are not moral conditions these are cultic conditions that a person could be in or that an object could be in something could be designated or consecrated as holy okay set apart for the for God's user gods worship something could be clean all right and the clean was something that could come into the presence of the holy and we're not talking morally clean here we're talking about ritually purified through ritual ablutions washings the consecrations things like that okay and then there was the unclean again unclean is not the same thing as sinful unclean is a as a as a visible kind of state of being within relation in this cultic community designated as you not to come into the presence of the holy alright so for instance lepers lepers people that had skin diseases that disfigured them yeah we're considered unclean okay now that didn't mean that God hated them or considered them sinful we're talking about visual representation so if the whole point of the Hebrew cultic system was to visually represent spiritual realities right but those visual representations themselves are not perfect analogues to the underlying spiritual reality okay now in Hebrew law the two things that could never come into contact were the unclean and the holy you couldn't you get the clean and the holy together the clean and the unclean you get together with the unclean and the holy couldn't be getting out so some of the ways this would work out would be let's say you're a priest okay and you have to go make sacrifices in the temple that's your job okay well you come into physical contact with something that's designated as unclean all right and there are a lot of things that could qualify like a dead body yeah the bodies aren't immoral okay a leper nocturnal emissions I mean they're all kinds of things that would qualify a priest as being unclean not not not sinful ritually unclean what did he have to do to prepare himself to come back into there he had to become ritually clean usually by various forms of washing and ablution okay acts of reconsecrated and so forth did those things remove sin from his life did they change his moral character no not at all not at all all right they just just moving from a state of ritual impurity to ritual purity so that you could perform a cultic Act okay that's that's the context that's the context okay now Jesus himself makes it patently obvious in his teaching that they the rules about ritual purity and cleanliness is something very different from the holiness of heart that God requires okay which is why you see all through the Old Testament while God demands absolutely demands ritual sacrifice there's also this consistent note that I don't desire the blood of goats and bulls but he commands them and this says I don't desire them alright and the and the the paradox is resolved in Psalm 51 where David says you don't desire the blood of goats and bulls the sacrifice that you desire is a contrite heart and a pure spirit you will not despise wash me O Lord and now he's talking about his interior life mm-hmm and then I will offer sacrifices and challah costs on your altar you see so and Christ draws us out tremendously that yes there were these ritual occultic laws all right but to enter into the spirit of them properly one also had to reform one's interior life okay in that context in that context the the eunuchs of of the Old Testament those who are fit right actually physical eunuchs like they'd had their testicles crushed okay or cut or whatever were rendered ritually impure alright and so they couldn't participate in certain acts of public worship alright but that doesn't mean that they were morally impure or that they were excluded from the heavenly kingdom and so there's a passage in Isaiah I think it says a UH 56 verses 3 and 4 that an assistant wearing the Old Covenant here that is on point so did them to them to them know that sighs I want I want 56 I don't want 53 hang on okay I've lost my passage in Isaiah I think it's 56 but in any event the the the prophet says don't let the eunuch say I have no share in God hmm yeah alright because God's there save you - all right just like David resolves the conflict in Psalm 51 I'll pull the passage up later but it's a nausea don't let the eunuch say I'm cut off okay okay so now let's transfer this forth into Matthew 19 seat to see what Jesus is talking about all right you 19 Jesus's some people have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God now it's arguable here and I think plausible that Jesus is not intending people who have committed acts of self-mutilation that's not what he has in mind okay because well while the eunuch in the ancient Near East yet typically was somebody that had had been physically castrated they also took over a place in society where sexually impotent men were considered necessary to do a certain job all right so the the keeper of the Kings bedchamber for instance in the in ancient Near Eastern Kingdom well that job was typically assigned to a eunuch for obvious reasons because he couldn't mess with the harem right he was physically incapable him sure and so there's a sort of broader valence to the term than just physically castrate it also includes basically the idea here somebody someone who's whose virginity has been consecrated to some task all right and that's really the way the church has always understood this passage not that Jesus is advocating self-mutilation but that he's holding up as an example the life of people who have who have consecrated their virginity and their sexuality entirely for some sacred office in this case not taking care of some ancient near-eastern monarch you know despots harem yeah alright but those who have given themselves are symptom selves over entirely to the work of the church sure alright and and that's the way the church has always lived that command there was an early Christian writer in the third century in Alexandria named origin who got a little bit overly literal with Matthew 19 and that that action was not approved by the church hierarchy of the day they were like Origen not going to go don't do that don't do that okay hey Ivan thank you so much for your call we do appreciate that this is called a communion here on EWTN our phone number 1-800 five eight five nine three nine six one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six I want to tell you for just a moment take a moment here to tell you about church pop now if you're not familiar with Church pop it is something really cool that you'll want to check out each and every day to see what is new and what's going on let me give you some of the headlines that you'll find right now on Church pop calm here's one was Jesus really born on December 25th here is the intriguing evidence now if that's not clickbait I don't know what is here's another one four things every Catholic must know about pornography and the Church's teachings here's another one is the popular Christmas song mary did you know heretical huh how about that and here's one The Forgotten Catholic origins of the Christmas tree there you're gonna find all this and lots more - on snapchat on Instagram and on the website Church pop com Church pop dot-com I found that I found that text in Isaiah okay let's say Isaiah 56 verse 4 and following the Lord says for the for thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath who choose the things that pleased me and hold fast my covenant I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off very good back to the phones now at one eight hundred five eight five nine three nine six Craig is listening in Northern Kentucky via Sacred Heart Radio AM 740 Craig what's on your mind today gentlemen thank you so much for yourself thank you I was talking to a Protestant friend of mine and we're going over solar fee day in Sola scriptura as far as the Bible alone when I asked him to show me you know in the Bible where it says that he actually pointed out revelations 22 18 where it talks about the book and not changing it so two-part question number one could you just go over you know what the book was being referred to was it the book of Revelation or the Bible and then second part he kept referring to you know the Catholic Bible you have a Catholic Bible like we add it to it as far as the books of you know Sirach wisdom Maccabees so the second question is just where did did the Catholic Church at those books or did Martin Luther take them out or just kind of the the origin of the books that they the Protestants don't have in their Bible okay yeah thanks very much appreciate it so a couple things here if I had your friend with me and he made that claim to me the first thing I would do is say well you know your man Martin Luther did not think a lot of the book of Revelation he had questions about whether the book of Revelation should be included in the list of canonical scriptures and not not not only that but there's several they're called anti legume and he's worth a disputed texts of the New Testament books like 2nd Peter 2nd 3rd John Hebrews James all these were disputed texts in Christian antiquity and Luther you know not not overly confident in the guidance of sacred tradition was willing to call them into question so in his preface to the book of James for instance he said I won't have James in my Bible ok so I would ask my buddy I would say well ok so you're quoting revelation can you prove to me that revelation is inspired Scripture and the we ought to regard it as the Word of God just how do you know I mean yes and if not in if revelation why not James why not Roman's why not mark their marks anonymous this tradition tells us it was written by st. mark how do you know that's true I mean once you eliminate the principle of ecclesiastical tradition and authority you throw the whole canon of Bible into doubt alright this there's no objective basis for saying I know with certainty that these books are the Word of God now typically the Protestant will respond and say oh yeah but when I read them you know the Holy Spirit witnesses to my heart that these things are the Word of God and I'll say several things to that okay so first of all when did Jesus ever tell us if you want to know what Bert what books belong in the Bible consult your subjective religious experience about when you get funny internal feelings and you don't write that whole principle is not an objective Authority that's an entirely subjective rule of faith right right and it's one that lacks divine authority Jesus never directed us to consult our phony internal feelings to come up with a list of scriptural texts second of all I just think that's a Dodge it's a huge Dodge because that's not the way Protestants come to understand the Bible's Authority when I was growing up as a Protestant kid I didn't read the book of Esther and get goosey feelings and go this must be the Word of God I believed Esther because my parents told me it was in the Bible I believed on the testimony of tradition I believed on authority all right and that's the only way we can know what's in the Bible we aren't the only way we can know is if some Authority tells us alright the Bible itself and even if it did it would be testifying about itself and that would that would be of no value at all I mean a lot of books claim the Quran claims to be divinely inspired yeah I don't believe that claim you know just because somebody presents themselves as I'm divinely inspired well why should I believe you you know David Koresh said the same thing with the Branch Davidians I mean inspired why should I believe somebody's testimony about themself that they're divinely inspired give me some objective evidence ok and and so when we actually go back into the teaching of Jesus Jesus never mentions a canon of Scripture especially in New Testament Scriptures he doesn't say if you know if you want to know Christian faith consult these 27 books he directs us to oral tradition and teaching authority of the church he says go and teach them everything off command eg which was all oral I'll be with you to the end of the age whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven it says principle of apostolic teaching Authority the guidance of the Holy Spirit and his own sacred tradition all right the reason we know that there is a New Testament scripture at all is because the Catholic Church handed these texts down to posterity and said of them in a formal and in an authoritative way these books are to be regarded as Holy Scripture ok and in multiple places I mean definitively in the councils of Hippo and Carthage in Rome in the late fourth century up till that time there has had been some dispute about hey should we even include the book of Revelation and so church met and gave an authoritative answer which they then repeated the course of the Council of Trent you you dismiss that you dismiss the whole Canon of the Bible now with respect to the the second part of your question what about the seven deuterocanonical texts that Luther took out of the Bible I mean these books were written in the intertestamental period they were written in the Alexandrian Jewish exile community you know after the fall of Babylon so they're massively anterior to the coming of Christ and they were included in Greek translations of the Old Testament and circulated in the ancient world this is the this is the Old Testament that the Apostles knew this is the Old Testament that the early church circulated and read from in the churches and we find citations from those deuterocanonical texts in the New Testament documents I mean I'll just give you a cup illustration book of Hebrews mentions Maccabees the Saint Paul in Ephesians we talked about the armor of God is referencing a passage out of the book of wisdom I believe this book of Revelation chapter five alludes to Tobit chapter 12 I mean you could go on in numerous other instances you to look them up online there's a Google you search you'll find them all all right and so these have always been part of the Catholic tradition part of the Catholic patrimony and and there were church fathers that raised questions about the relative canonical status of different books that's that's true of almost every book in the Bible right which is why the church then had to definitively rule on the question it wasn't until the sixteenth century that Protestant theologians really tried to make concerted arguments and efforts to take those books out of the Canon of the Bible why why because they teach Catholic doctrines the process didn't like it was really special pleading okay if you want a good book on the subject go get Henry Graham's book where we got the Bible our debt to the Catholic Church there you go Craig thank you so much for your call we've got a call from Tom in Omaha he could not hang on hold but he did leave us with this question how do I know what a grave matter is is there a list of grave matter yeah okay so sort of there's a list but I want to give you a principle okay think about the the two greatest Commandments love God with all your heart love your neighbor as yourself okay if you got if you got that if you understand that God's honor and dignity is the greatest thing all right we should we should love truth virtue holiness that that's number one all right and the dignity of the human person love your neighbor as yourself the your neighbor is the second self alright do unto him what you'd have done unto you alright I I think it doesn't take a lot of imagination or intellect to figure out when I have gravely assaulted the dignity of my neighbor okay so you know let's say I you know I hand him you know those trick Bubblegum's that would pop your finger oh yeah I hand him some trick bubblegum that's a pretty trivial assault on you made a big did he if anything at all or the candles that won't blow out you know I buzzer joy buzzer well that's pretty tres pretty trivial alright what what if your wife comes to says how you like my new dress do you have to tell the truth you better have the right answer buddy yeah that's trivial that's trivial case of not telling the truth perhaps okay what if you know but what if I get angry at my neighbor and I shoot him in the head I think you see there's a there's a vast difference sure okay vast grave offenses of human dignity are kind of intuitively obvious these are these are things that radically contradict the intrinsic dignity of the human person or the honor of God you know a couple other test cases so like telling a little white lie not a good thing not a good thing but in a very different category from say taking a false oath swearing under oath in such a fashion that I ruined the reputation of my neighbor and destroy his life see how vastly different is vastly different okay and and you know st. Paul does give us some guidance in places like Galatians chapter five he will he'll give us lists of vices and say things like fornication adultery disobedience to parents factions hatred jealousies is if you live like this you want in here at the kingdom of God drunkenness okay and so yeah there are and in books of Catholic moral theology we'll go into those and sort of detail them but I think it's more important that you grasp the principle all right of our duty to love God above all things in our neighbor as ourself and then and then and then we introspect you know we self examine against those standards right and and I know I know the difference in my own life between you know a casual peccadillo and when I've just basically thumbed my nose at God visit and which I've done god forbid but I've done it you know and that's why I have to go to confession you know the difference absolutely there you go Marielle sorry we couldn't get to your question but we're gonna try to tackle it at the beginning of tomorrow's program dr. David Andrews thank you my friend thank you Tom see you tomorrow right here on EWTN radios call to communion for Jeff and Matt I'm Tom price we'll see you then god bless you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,615

Rating: 4.6923075 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: AM0tgBl0c6A

Length: 54min 20sec (3260 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2018