Called To Communion - 2/23/18- Dr. David Anders - Difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism

what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests one eighty three three two eight eight EWTN I don't understand why I have to turn selfie one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six why do I need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network hey everybody welcome to Friday's edition of call to communion here on the EWTN global Catholic radio network you know what this is your show if you are a non Catholic never been a Catholic thinking about becoming a Catholic but there's some things on your mind that you want to get resolved this is a great place to get those questions answered we'll do it right here and right now here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for the response from us and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply for some folks again our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN Michael Burchfield is our producer he's waiting to hear for him from you Matt Kaminsky is our phone screener he's definitely waiting to hear from you and Jeff person is standing by on social media he will pass along any questions you may want to pose via Facebook or YouTube I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews Tom how are you today very good happy Friday to you my friend happy Friday to you too you have a big weekend coming up I'm thinking well yeah I'm I'm actually gonna be not this weekend but next weekend I'm gonna be in Iowa City Iowa ah speaking at the Newman Center up there very good my alma mater and I'm excited about that so this weekend I think I'll spend a good bit of time getting ready for next weekend that's fantastic that's famous I'm gonna speak on the topic finding Christ in the Catholic Church it can be done it can be done absolutely and you're just the guy to handle that to here's an email looks like we're getting a lot of calls all ready here at 8:30 3 2 8 8 EWTN a text we got here from JD who says dr. Anders I've never understood why the perpetual virginity of Mary is so important in catholic catholic theology God created sex he intended it for marriage and given that why would sex in marriage have in any way diminish the role of Mary thanks JD ok thanks JD I appreciate it well um you're correct that God created human sexuality and he intends for for many women to to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and so in fact God values human sexuality in marriage so much that he made it a sacrament for well not sex specifically but marriage right is a sacrament for baptized people so that they could be given grace to live the marital life including the sexual union worthily and with holiness so yes absolutely it's good thing but sacred scripture tells us that perfect continents the life of perfect continents chastity and virginity is a better thing it's a better thing Jesus himself was perfectly continent he was a celibate he never married didn't have children and and he says in Matthew chapter 19 that that some people have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and and if you have this gift you should live this gift st. Paul says the same thing in the book of first Corinthians he says it's good for man to marry it's better for him not to is if you're engaged to a virgin to be married and you marry her you do well if you don't marry her you do better it's what he says go read the book yeah all right he also advises widows not to remarry this is if your spouse dies and you're widowed or widower and you and you can remain continent and chaste he says you do better to remain unmarried this is a view no if you're a young person and your spouse dies and you feel like you know I don't know if I have this gift of perfect countenance well then you don't do wrong to to marry again but but but you do better you do better not to and you know the same thing comes out with respect to the doctrine of ordination so in the pastoral epistles one of the qualifications for being a priest or bishop is that a man must be the husband of but one wife all right and the and the ancient church took that rule very seriously so if a man married that was no absolute barrier to him being ordained to the sacred priesthood and many of the early priests and bishops of the church were married men at the time of their ordination but almost universally they began to live a continent life at the ordination okay and and then of course when their spouse died they were not permitted to remarry and if a man had had multiple wives you know serially yeah he married and his wife died he married again well scripture says but the husband of one wife so two wives well you know you're not that's not what we're looking for all right looking for somebody's more given to the life of continents in perfect chastity okay it's biblical teaching okay and why why why is that important well an absolutely nothing wrong with marriage and human sexuality okay nothing wrong with that but the relationship with God to which we're all called all right is the relationship of spiritual friendship all right and and the fulfillment of that in the kingdom of heaven the fulfillment that the beatific vision is gonna be in a non-sexual way alright and so in the in heaven Jesus tells us men will not men and women will not marry or be given in marriage okay mm-hmm and and that there are intimations of that perfect spiritual friendship and that vision of God even in this life alright so that life those people that are given to a life of perfect continents figure in mirror the ultimate goal of spiritual friendship with God in heaven in a better way and are also more equipped to give themselves over to a life of service to the church hmm all right so for all those reasons perfect countenance is the more perfect way within the church now the Blessed Virgin Mary is the perfect disciple she's a perfect Christian discipleship him an angel ever said hail full of grace she had been graced to the full the fullness all right stands to reason that somebody had the who has the plenitude of grace would live the most perfect way of discipleship knowing which scripture tells us is the way of perfect continents in virginity okay very good Haga thank you so much for your text JD we carried that over from yesterday here's one more that we have and this is from LC and email here everybody at work is attacking the Catholic Church so do you have any suggestions on how to defend the Catholic Church in a work environment god bless ya I appreciate that thank you so can be kind of trick sometimes you know I'll give you my thoughts but this there's some John Martin Ernie who is a EWTN radio host and he's on Monday afternoons on open lawn mm-hmm has some funny stories about how he defended his Catholic faith when he was working in the banking and finance industry and and and people began to assault him about his Catholic faith and now so I'll tell you what I think but but call on Mondays and ask John to share his stories about good eyes he's got some good ones all right um you know most of the time at work people are not interested in having lengthy engaged theological dialectical conversations right maybe sometimes they are okay so I think a lot of times you just have to sit and grin and bear it all right and you have to be charitable and friendly and and and you know you're not trying to provoke people all right but I like the way of asking questions personally you know I mean you can't argue with a question that's true you know and so I try to pick out some of the if I'm really getting hammered about Catholicism just kind of turn it around on a little bit ask a question that will expose the vacuity of the anti Catholics presuppositions and for me personally the best question to put to a non Catholic who is attacking the Catholic Church especially if it's a non Catholic Christian like a Protestant Christian yeah is simply say well you know how do you know that how do you know that what's your warrant for saying that where do you get your idea of Christian faith from what's your basis for making any kind of theological claim in fact if you want to make a claim about the Christian faith what does Jesus say about understanding the Christian faith what provision did he make for handing on the contents of Christian faith and almost all the time the presupposition of the person making this criticism is that they go to the Bible alone for their answers about Christianity yeah well the Bible is the Bible itself doesn't endorse that notion scripture never says if you want to have if you want to answer your questions about the Christian faith go to the scriptures doesn't say that that's in fact the Bible itself doesn't even have a concept of a completed biblical Canon including an Old and New Testament to which you ought to appeal all of that the whole existence of the Bible all right as an authority and as a coherent body of literature is something that we receive from Catholic tradition yeah so if you're gonna throw aside Catholic tradition yeah throw aside the Bible too because it's a product of Catholic tradition what Christ actually says when he gives instructions about handing on the Christian faith he doesn't point to the Bible he points to the teaching of the church and to its tradition go therefore to all nations make disciples teach them teach them everything I've commanded you all of which was oral and I'll be with you to the end of the age a promise of divine assistance from Christ we have the principle of oral tradition the teaching authority of the church and a promise of divine assistance to the end of the age doesn't say a word about consulting the Bible there you go Elsie thank you so much for your email well yesterday at the end of the show we got a call from John in Louisville couldn't get to him then we're gonna get to him right now and I'm glad that John called us back we'll also be talking with Egbert in Lincoln Nebraska Judy in Alberta Canada and by the way this is our last live show of the week so if you've got a question this is a great time to call eight three three two eight eight EWTN eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six called a communion here on EWTN sharing the fullness of the Catholic faith 23 three two eight eight EWTN one eight three three two eight three nine eight six this is call to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network I'm morning-glories Brian Patrick and during this Lenten season we are all called to grow closer to the crucified Christ we pray that Lent is a holy and blessed time and we ask you to stay with us as we observe the season here on EWTN radio Gerry uh sure I'm really a reverts there are a lot of converts on Catholic radio a lot of reverts those who have come back to the faith well I would describe myself as a revert and ever since I came back to a practice of my faith that started praying the rosary going to even daily Mass God has led me on an amazing journey and used me in a lot of incredible ways that I never dreamed would have been possible take two with Gerry and Debbie Monday through Saturday noon eastern on EWTN radio CNA is the only fast reliable and free Catholic news source that brings blogs stories and opinions through your fingertips the latest Catholic news is at Catholic news agency comm an online service from EWTN news a Lenten reflection with father Dominick leg prayer fasting and almsgiving our three spiritual practices highly recommended for Lent usually we think of a Lenten discipline as giving something up that would count as a kind of fasting or maybe giving money to charity very important part of alms giving and we absolutely should do those things but according to st. Thomas Aquinas the most important practice to bring us closer to God is prayer that's because if we do these other good works like fasting or giving the charity but we don't have a connection with God we don't lift our minds up to him and they don't have a love for him in our hearts then all of those external actions don't have any merit st. Paul says the same thing in his first letter to the Corinthians if I give away all I have and have not love I gain nothing let's pray this Lent to give alms and to fast with love what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with dr. David Andrews to eight EWTN one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're ready now we'll go to our leadoff hitter the very patient John in Louisville Kentucky listening to us on Holy Family radio hey John what's on your mind today well thank you for taking my call sure the question I have is how do we as Catholics understand three things one original sin Baptist and the death nor resurrection of Jesus atoning for our sin the question comes from my son and who's a fallen away Catholic and the thought is why do I need to baptize my child if Christ died for our sins does that take care of original and like all the others huh okay thanks these are wonderful wonderful questions about dogmatic theology and I could hardly imagine more important ones to answer sure so briefly and I'm gonna go into more detail but briefly what Christ accomplished on the cross all right we can we can think of that as the redemption objectively accomplished all right is different from it's subjective application to me right so Jesus did something on the cross on behalf of humanity but somehow another I have to lay hold of that and make it my own all right okay it's not the case that Jesus's death on the cross is automatically applied to every single human being if that were if that were the case every single human being would go to heaven no we know that's not true okay not everybody goes to heaven all right it has to be applied to me personally so how we apply the effects of the redemption to our lives is through faith in the sacraments through faith and the sacraments okay and baptism is the is the principal means of initiating us into the life of Christ and into his body the church right st. Paul says that we die with Christ in Baptism and are raised again with him to new life that's Romans chapter six and he says in Galatians 3 that everyone who was baptized has clothed himself with Christ and st. Peter says in 1st Peter chapter 3 that his baptism that now saves you in Christ himself connects faith and baptism in mark chapter 16 when he says whoever believes and is baptized will be saved alright so Redemption objectively accomplished on the cross has yet to be subjectively applied to me in the application according the words of our Lord takes place through faith and the sacraments now let's talk about the nature of the death of Christ original sin what actually happens in the heart of the believer what he is connected to that to that that Redemption objectively accomplished on the cross well I think your son's question may actually imply a false doctrine of the atonement okay because there's a view of the atonement out there was invented by John Calvin the Protestant theologian and it's gotten a lot of traction a lot of people hold this okay but it's actually unbiblical and it's a false doctrine they tell me it's called the doctrine of penal substitution penal for punishment all right substitution that's obvious and it goes like this this is the Calvinist view the Protestant view not Catholic okay Calvin believed that that by sin we incur the wrath of God God's angry with us and that God in His justice has need to expiate his wrath upon a subject right he has to pour out his wrath on somebody is to punish someone for the sins of humanity and that Christ into the gap between us and the wrathful God and bears that punishment inflicted by God inflicted by God and and God having gotten it out of his system so to speak is then able to be Clement and merciful towards people who were not punished because Jesus punished in their stead right and so quite literally on this Calvinist view God punishes an innocent person namely Jesus so that he can be Clement and merciful to guilty people namely us all right and that one is linked up to that dynamic through faith through faith alone in fact all right and that the believer but through faith alone is a counted righteous right God treats him as if he were righteous even though he remains objectively a sinner all right so Luther's famous doctrine of simultaneously just and sinful Orin just by imputation Christ's righteousness counted as if it's mine Christ punished for since he didn't commit my sins imputed to him that's the Calvinist idea now if you believe that if you believe that then then you you could see how you could tease out of that all right this idea that your son has that you know if Christ bore the whole brunt of punishment on my behalf what is there left for me to do well their baptism or good works or anything else seems that if I'm connected to that by faith alone and nothing left for me to do okay that's the cut that's the Calvinist idea the Protestant idea salvation by faith alone all right that's not what the Bible says it's not what reason says either a lot of problems with that view one of them this is just in reason is that it seems to make God into a tyrant because you have a God punishing innocent people and acquitting guilty people and and we know what that that looks like in in you know human judge we call that an unjust judge now okay it's also very unbiblical doctrine so what does the Bible say about the death of Christ well says a lot of things one of the things that says is that the death of Christ is a sacrifice of atonement alright look at Leviticus chapter 5 and study up on a sacrifice of atonement sacrifice of atonement like all Old Testament sacrifices is something that the worshiper gives to God it's not something that God inflicts on a dying animal to to get his wrath out of his system alright and in fact God tells us over and over get in the Old Testament that he's not pleased with the death of an animal per se alright it's not like the emulation killing of a lamb or a goat or a sheep or a bull somehow you know God doesn't get his jollies by watching animals suffer and die alright okay what he cares about in the Old Testament sacrifice is the attitude of contrition or penitence or Thanksgiving that is that is expressed in the heart of the worshiper and the giving up of an animal is the sacrifice of some valuable thing you know it's like giving up my wristwatch or something you know this thing I don't have a wristwatch anymore but I used to really love my wristwatch you know if I gave it to you men I'd really really was giving up something valuable it's a king david says in second samuel 24 he says i will not offer the Lord a sacrifice that costs me nothing that's the idea the sacrifice was something the worshiper gives to God all right in token of reparation or Thanksgiving or what have you okay so that's what Jesus does on the cross Jesus obeys his own divine command which is to turn the other cheek not resist an evil person you know blessed are those who suffer persecuted for righteousness sake Jesus does all that he does all that he lets himself be killed by unjust men because he's bearing witness to the truth they put him to death it's not God punishing him it's the Romans and the Jews and we ourselves who are responsible for the death of Christ and because he willingly submits to this in martyrdom all right like a lamb led to the slaughter of the the the prophet says he doesn't open his mouth because he willingly submits to this ignominious death he is pleasing to God the Father rather than incurring God's wrath he actually pleases God and st. Paul says have this mind and you that was in Christ Jesus though being in very nature God he didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing and took on the likeness of a servant being found obedient unto death even death on a cross and therefore God exalted him to the right hand you see the exultation of Christ is a reward for his obedience not an imposition of punishment from about the Father st. Peter says in Acts chapter 2 that Christ having been exalted to the right hand has won for us the gift of the Holy Spirit which he not pours out on the church all right so totally different dynamic the death of Christ is a meritorious offering whereby Christ wins for his body the church the the the favor of God the gift of the Holy Spirit the forgiveness of sins all right also also by being mystically United to Jesus through baptism st. Paul says that we to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus so that our old man that tendency to sin which is within us dies with him that we might be born again to new life st. Peter talks about it this way he says that in Christ we become participants in the divine nature all right st. Paul says that we have the mind of Christ right he says that Christ is to be formed within us he says Christ in you the hope of glory right through our union with Christ we come to share and participate in this act of sacrifice all right and to imitate his virtues so Paul tells us in Romans chapter 13 he says offer your bodies as living sacrifices I'm sorry is that Romans 12th offer your bodies as living sacrifices this is your spiritual act of worship jesus says if anyone wants to be my disciple he has to take up his cross and follow me and aspire inclusion in him through baptism participating in his mystical death and resurrection that we're empowered to live those kind of sacrificial lives right so it's a totally different dynamic than then the Calvinist idea that we do nothing on the contrary the death of Christ is what empowers our moral life enables us to live the life of sacrificial love and thereby acquire salvation okay now with respect to the the doctrine of original sin in Catholic teaching original sin is not some positive it's not it's not something positive in us like an infection it's not like a germ that infects your system all right it is actually a privation that means we're identifying that we lack something not that we're possessing something right what is it that we lack what does original sin calls us to lack we lack the grace of God Adam and Eve were created with the grace of God they had a relationship with God when we come into the world we don't have that saving relationship with God we don't have that life of God in our souls call sanctifying grace all right that's what original sin is now we also are wounded we're wounded we're ignorant of our true end all right we're morally weak we are infected by can coop assents with an immoderate attachment to worldly goods and pleasures and were infected by malice all right we eat ISM we prefer our own good to the good of God good of others now there's there's wounds and of sin in us are not sins but they are tendencies to sin mmm so what what the grace of God that comes to us in Baptism does is number one it infuses that sanctifying grace into our soul that we were born without we don't have that grace where we're born all right it infuses that grace into our soul so that we can become purchases and divine nature secondly it it our sins are forgiven if we've committed any actual sins they were omitted all right it also begins the process of healing those wounds of sin okay it makes us members of Christ's body which is the church we become we become partakers of christ by being included in him through baptism and then finally we become priests in the catholic church this is another effect of baptism in our souls what is a priest to priest offers sacrifice was a book of Hebrews says and remembers Paul tells us this is our spiritual act of worship to offer our bodies as living sacrifices so the grace of the sacrament configures us to offer pure worship to God by offering our own lives and sacrifice and by uniting our lives to the sacrifice of the Holy Mass which is the supreme act of the church's worship so all of this is conveyed to us in baptism okay John we gave you kind of a lengthy answer there but it's a long question it is a long question and I'm glad that we were able to give it the time that it deserves so thank you so much for your call if you missed any of that I would recommend checking out the podcast Michael have that posted for you in a couple of hours or so go to ewtn radio dotnet ewtn radio dot net you know what I'm not gonna give out the phone numbers because we are sold out we are flat busy busy busy on the phones so when we come back from our break we'll be talking with Eggbert in Lincoln Nebraska has got a great question here Judy in Alberta Canada listening on Sirius XM 130 lisa is in harmony Pennsylvania also on Sirius Tiberio what a great name he's in Texas checking us out today on Facebook live we'll get to his question and also Erica in Austin Texas asking a wonderful question about Catholicism and if there's time we're also going to get to Cory's texts who sent us a wonderful maybe you can knock this off before the break here is the Sacrament of Penance a necessity or a privilege you want to take a shot at me yes I knew you would do something like that nib will carry that over sure sure through the break the question again is the Sacrament of Penance a necessity or a privilege we'll get to that we'll also hear from Egbert Judy Lisa Tiberio and Erica all coming up on this edition of call to communion here on EWTN glad you could join us you [Music] this is Matt Swain from the sunrise morning show penny folks this is Jimmy Aiken all of us at Catholic Answers live and EWTN are praying that you and yours have a holy and blessed Lenten season I'm Doug Keck and this is an EWTN bookmark brief I just finished speaking with father Terrence P Herman about his book man of God lessons for young men about life sex friendship vocation and loving with the heart of Christ published by our good friends at Catholic Answers now tell us what is this book about this book is about how to become as the title says a man of God how to be holy how to grow particularly for those who struggle with chastity and lust and pornography and those those types of issues it's how to how to form an identity that's rooted in Christ through prayer the sacraments relationship with the church and the community of the saints how to grow and ascend the heights of personhood right how to be able to be who you are and encountered another from that deepest core of who you are can count another person to heart to heart very good thank you so much father man of God is the book and the author is father Terrence P Furman lessons for young men about life sex friendship vocation and loving with the heart of Christ published by our friends at Catholic Answers available through the ewtn religious catalogue ewtn our c-calm and this has been an EWTN bookmark brief thanks have you heard about Church pop Church pop features new online Christian content that's fun and inspiring every day find it on snapchat Instagram and on the web at Church pop com EWTN teaching the truth thank you so very much first of all for this ministry you have no idea what a blessing you and EWTN have been in my life and for my life and I just thank you for that well first off I like to say God bless you for your ministry and I like pray daily for EWTN it it's a game-changer in our world ewt live truth live Catholic I'm Brian Patrick and I'm Gloria Purvis Monday Monsignor Charles Koch and we discussed gender dysphoria with dr. Anne Hendershot and morning glory on EWTN radio now back to call to communion with dr. David Anders what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with dr. David Anders one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six remember that your exclusive radio home for Catholic Answers live is right here EWTN radio the global Catholic Network tonight on Catholic Answers live father Hugh barber the chaplain of Catholic Answers will be along to answer your questions so whatever you might have for him he'll be here for you and in the second hour Matthew bunsen from the register and from register radio will be along to talk about the church in the news it all begins 6:00 p.m. Eastern only on EWTN radio before we get back to the phones that roll out quick text here from Corey is the Sacrament of Penance a necessity or a privilege David YUM it is both an yeah it's both out let's go so know it's not an absolute necessity in this sense first of all let's say that you know if I baptized my child okay okay they're boom he's a member of Christ's body the church original sins washed away he has no actual sons he's been united to Jesus through sanctifying grace if he if he dies we going straight to heaven no problems okay let's say you know let's imagine that that child grows up and and never commits a mortal sin okay all right which is which is possible which is impossible has happened it's a yeah okay lives his whole life and dies you know fully initiated into the end of the life of the church with conscious awareness and explicit faith but has never committed a mortal sin well penance is not necessary for him to enter the kingdom of heaven not necessary okay and but most of us are not so fortunate not so blessed that we that we never commit a mortal sin after baptism if you do commit a mortal sin after baptism penance is necessary in two ways okay it is necessary first by church law which which insists that we confess our known mortal sins at least once a year secondly it's it is necessary as the most fitting and convenient way with which to renew our relationship with God to rid ourselves of of our sons and to be and to be reintegrated into that love of God that we call sanctifying grace all right it's not the only way for that to happen but is the most fitting okay ah the most appropriate and the most efficient way to do so all right if I go to penance if I go to the sacrum of reconciliation even if I have imperfect contrition all right which is to say you know I'm sorry for my sins but I'm not that sorry you know I mean this is bad I shouldn't do this you know I don't want to go to hell that's all I've got okay I can make that act of make that confession and look you know when you make a confession you have to humble yourself you have to humble yourself it is unfair another human being who stands in the persona and the person of Christ but still your humble in yourself you make that confession and then you have the promise of God's assistance Christ promised that whatever the priest forgives is forgiven whoever sins you forgive are forgiven that's what he said to the Apostles in John 20 priests absolves me of my sins boom not only am i reconciled to God but I have objective certainty then I'm reconciled to God because of Christ's subjective word of promise all right now let's say you know I commit a mortal sin and then I drop out of the airplane and land in the desert you know and there's no priest around for 10,000 miles okay am i a delight no no I'm not out of luck I can make an act of perfect contrition that's I'm sorry for my sins because I have offended you oh my god and I should love you above all things yeah okay I'm sorry because I have ruptured this wonderful relationship of love that I have with my Creator okay that's perfect contrition but but keep in mind if I even if though I could I could regain the friendship of God in that situation I would not have objective certainty right I would I would have at most a hopeful conjecture that perhaps I've made an act of perfect contrition and but I wouldn't have that objective word of promise all right okay validated in an objective sacrament very good back to the phones now I'm privileged to it is indeed back to the phones now here on call to communion we go to Egbert in Lincoln Nebraska listening on a longtime radio partners spirit Catholic radio hey Egbert what's on your mind today yes I wasn't listening to a reformed speaker talked about the Reformation and his closing remark was the Reformation was warranted because in his eyes quote the church wasn't preaching the gospel in the lead-up to the break now among all the other issues going on at the time was this or was this not true did the church somehow quit preaching the gospel in the lead-up to the break but I appreciate the question so very much so I understand the position that your reformed friend has taken and I know what he means by the word the gospel okay and Luther was extremely clear that as he understood it the gospel quote-unquote was something very different than what the Catholic Church had always and still proclaims for 2,000 years what Luther understood by quote-unquote the gospel is something that nobody in the entire world had ever heard before all right what Luther calls the gospel is an invention of this saxon monk in the 16th century it is an understanding of the nature of salvation and of Christ's death and resurrection that neither in Catholicism nor in orthodoxy nor in the coptic church nor on this not not in the syriac church not in the ethiopian church not in the assyrian church not in the indian church the sarivola bar no place in the Christian world Catholic or not for 1,500 years had anybody the faintest notion of what Luther called the gospel because Luther's understanding of the quote-unquote gospel is something not found even in Sacred Scripture and certainly not in a sacred tradition he made it up he made it up okay now don't take my word for it alright I would point you to Protestant historical scholarship to somebody like the Anglican historian Alister McGrath who in is his to volume work on the history of the doctrine of justification probably the definitive work on the subject in English mm-hmm Scully used to see a day all right that's the title of the book it's a Latin title is an english-language book no McGrath makes the claim that Luther's understanding of the nature of salvation was a complete theological innovation a total theological novum is the word that he uses something that nobody had ever seen before okay so so is it true that before the Reformation nobody was preaching Luther's doctrine you bet absolutely true which is a good reason not to accept Luther's word for it all right stick to as Saint Paul said if someone preaches to you a gospel other than the one you have received let him be anathema all right take it from Scripture take it from sacred tradition don't take it 1,500 years too late from a saxon monk exactly Eggbert thank you so much for your call hope that's helpful for you called a communion here on EWTN we go now to Judy in Alberta Canada listening on Sirius XM 130 Judy what's on your mind today I don't thank you so much for your show I love listening to you and all that you do I'll try to make this quick because I know you've got a lot of calls on the line I'm yesterday you had said that the Eucharist was absolutely not the point of going to Mass no I said receiving Communion I said receiving Communion was not the point of going to Mass right story thank you for clarifying that yes receiving Communion was absolutely not the point of going to Mass not the primary point okay I thought yeah I didn't catch that primary part the point actually I believe was the point to go you'd said the point was to add our thoughts to the sacrifice of the mass and that but for the first thousand years people didn't even receive the Eucharist so I guess my question was in that case if we're physically able to go to Mass and we can just add our thoughts to the sacrifice whether were within you know 20 feet or am I what would be the difference and also didn't Jesus command us in John 6 to whoever eats and my you know whoever remains in me and I and you know thank you Judy these are wonderful questions I really appreciate them so you got the story mostly right there's a few details that are a little bit off in those details matter okay so first of all I never said that people didn't receive Communion for the first thousand years what I said was there was a thousand-year history a thousand year period in the church's history in which the laypeople did not receive communion frequently okay and the law of the church from the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 in fact was that the the laity should receive Communion once a year or at least once a year and so there was a very very long history in the Latin Catholic West of annual communion by the lay faithful and you will commute not not not that they never receive Communion but they were to receive Kimmi perhaps annually all right and if you will read the sermons of Saint John Vianney for example who's an 18th century French Catholic priest and and and the patron actually of all Catholic priests his his Easter sermons are instructive alright because he he's preaching to a congregation that is accustomed to the idea of rigorous self-examination in preparation for their Easter Communion all right that's the the whole the whole cycle of his Easter sermons is ordered or is his his his Linton sermons I should say is ordered towards you know prepare yourself for your annual communion that'd be a good example to kind of see how that spirituality played out in the life of the Catholic faith okay um so the question is first of all why is that the case why is it that for a thousand years or so Latin Catholics rarely receive Communion but say maybe once a year and then your second question is then also you said you you characterized my position as adding your thoughts to the sacrifice and that's not exactly the way I put it I'd like to qualify that as well how then are we primarily to to associate ourselves with the sacrifice of the mass if it's not uniquely by receiving Holy Communion and then what point in actual physical presence at the sacrifice those are the things we'll deal with alright so first of all the Council of Trent taught following sacred tradition that the Eucharist is two things it's two things this is why I stopped at the beginning and said no it's I didn't say the Eucharist I said receiving Communion the Eucharist is two things it is first of all a sacrifice offered to God in reparation for the sins of the world and it is secondarily a sacrament okay let's break those down a sacrifice is something of value that we give to God okay okay and Jesus uses the language of sacrifice when he Institute's the Holy Sacrifice of the mass this is my body which is given up as the language that Christ and when he speaks about the blood of the Covenant this is a this is a reference to Exodus 24 when Moses slaughters an animal to inaugurate the Mosaic Covenant and sprinkles the people and says this is the blood of the Covenant Jesus says the same thing this is the blood of the New Covenant essentially okay so uses sacrificial language in the institution of the right and the church has always understood the sacrifice the mass the Holy Eucharist to be principally and above all a sacrifice something that we offer to God there's all kinds of reasons for that one of them is that to offer God's sacrifice is the principal act of the virtue of religion st. Paul tells us that we must offer our bodies as living sacrifices and that this is our spiritual act of worship to offer sacrifice is of the essence of true religion all right if I'm not willing to give up something to God then my devotion means nothing right now the sacrifice of goats and bulls of the Old Testament they're not they're not proportionate to God's infinite majesty because they're just goats and bulls but the sacrifice of his very own son you remember we pray in the Divine Mercy chaplet Eternal Father I offer you the body blood soul and divinity of Christ all right all right in reparation for my sins and for the sins of the whole world okay so it's not simply a matter of adding my thoughts alright it's a matter of intentionally offering the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus mm to God in reparation for my son's and those of the whole world all right that that intentional act of saying God I offer you this sacrifice in reparation for my sense and of joining the sacrifice of my very life my Joy's my sufferings my sorrows and my prayers along with that it's the sacrifice of Christ which defies them and makes them worthy to be given to God as an offering of praise Thanksgiving reparation and so forth okay now my physical presence at the sacrifice is necessary because number one it is a corporate act right the sacrifice of the mass is the sacrifice of the whole church all right living and dead Saints in heaven are there too we call we recall them in the Canon of the mass and invoke their prayers as we offer this sublime offering to God so it's an action of the entire church all right and our corporate presence together is an expression of our identity as one body in Christ as we collectively offer our lives to God so it's very important that the church gather in worship to make this sublime offering now um the sacrifice and so right why did that faithful only commune now frequently and frequently in the Middle Ages let me get to that point the Eucharist in addition to a sacrifice is also a sacrament what is a sacrament a sacrament is a sacred sign that affects the thing symbolized in this case what is symbolized in the Eucharist is Christ's real presence with us all right how can you get how can you signify symbolically more intimately our need to feed upon Christ and dwell within him than by physical ingestion all right that is about as powerful as symbol as you can have of our need to dwell upon Christ and draw our strength and nourishment from him but like all the sacraments it doesn't only symbolize that reality it also affects it okay okay now how often do you need to celebrate the reception of that sacrament in order for it to work psychologically upon you to convey the truth of Christ's presence with us well you know that's a Prudential question that the church can engage in any era all right and in its wisdom the church decided that it wasn't entirely necessary that the faith the lay faithful actually consumed the the sacred host on a frequent basis in order to benefit from that from the sacramental nature of the Eucharist all right now Pius the tenth changed that and made it encourage the lay faithful to receive Communion very very frequently all right but but that's the Prudential judgment for the Nerra sure okay why would you do it infrequently well one reason is that in in the Middle Ages there was a much into into early modernity there was a much more acute sense on the part of the faithful of the Eucharist as a sacrifice and so the principal mode of engagement in the Eucharist was to intentionally approach the Eucharist with that sacrificial aspect in view as the as the primary mode of engagement all right and and and so that's that that's that's one of the reasons the other one is that the eating of the sacrifice is also part of the sacrificial act and so the consumption of the Blessed Sacrament by the priest completed the sacrificial action okay there you go okay hey thank you so much for your call Judy this is called a communion here on EWTN you know a lot of people ask us from from time to time how can we help you how can we help EWTN in in doing what you folks do well as you know EWTN stands with the church we do that all the time 24/7 100% we have no interest in starting up another church we like the one that Jesus started just fine thank you very much so keeping all that in mind you could help us by becoming an EWTN media missionary now what is that well EWTN media missionaries prayerfully take us to parishes and the community through the print and electronic media that we provide now if you if that seems to be something like something you could help us with give it some thought pray about it a little bit and then go to EWTN missionaries dot-com EWTN missionaries dot-com find out about it join us if you would please think about that sharing the Eternal Word with the world that is what we are all about let's go now to bury you hope I got that right Tiberio in Texas listening to us on Facebook live Tiberi you what's on your mind today I'm sorry for my English maybe you know it's okay to be you know that's okay many original you know you know Tiberius all the Caesar when when the Jesus Christ worth dying right that's right and that time yes I hope I'm you know I would be better then anyway I want a time warp the Christian Orthodox you know from Romania original but I'm here for Toni 21 22 years you know a live in Pennsylvania and I you know I was born and raised water that you know and you know for the first 1000 years I heard your you know guess you know I said you know about the first thousand years but you know when my whole humility really whatever he said about the protests and and I am hundred percent agree with whatever he said if everything hundred percent he can apply with a catalyst to I mean from my perspective you know I mean and I give you an example about the Immaculate Conception you know about the mother of God right yeah our sin once and you know st. John of my maximovich II from Shanghai know and he said with this dimmable attack on station actually he'd be nine all the way the mother of God she she have if she's born like we know seen you know I mean like it's going to become like God in the Holy Trinity who is going to be another for tricky I don't know how to call that okay generous I understand the question yeah thank you very much so with respect to the doctor of the Immaculate Conception particularly the couple of things I'd like to point out one of them is that even the Orthodox confess that marries without sin I mean that's that's never been in I don't know any Orthodox theologians that believes that Mary sent I mean that's that's that's beyond question between the two traditions so the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception within Latin Christianity with in Catholicism is the belief that Mary was conceived with the gift of sanctifying grace that she had the plenitude of grace as the angel said hail full of grace all right that she had the plenitude of grace from the moment of her conception now your objection to that doctrine is that that would seem to make her like like a fourth member of the Trinity so to speak okay well there's a problem with that view all right a number of problems with that okay so one of them is that God himself in his divine essence in nature does not need the grace of God in order to be United to God that's true okay you know grace as you as your own tradition teaches right is is a divin izing element all right this is why st. Athanasius said that God became men so that men might become God all right but not as if we were absorbed into the divinities essence but that we might we might share in likeness in a in a fuller sense okay and we might imitate Christ as virtues and be made like him in charity and so forth all right and that's that's actually the end of all of our redemption the goal and point of the redemption of all creatures is well all all rational creatures is that we might be made into the image and likeness of God that we might become God as God became man as Saint Athanasius the Orthodox and Catholic doctor the Church teaches okay the holy angels the holy angels were created with grace they were created with grace - yeah and they never fell into sin all right and yet they're still creatures and they don't they're not they don't enter into the into the essence of the Godhead because they share in the grace of God now how do we know the holy angels were created with grace well because they participate in the vision of God all right the holy angels gaze upon the face of God now we can't we can't gaze upon the face of God as mere creatures we have to be elevated by divine grace in order to do that right so they also participate they were created in grace as the Blessed Virgin Mary as Adam and Eve were created with grace if they weren't created in grace then there was then then then then the vision of God would have been proportionate to them in nature which clearly it wasn't okay so I think I don't think that objection holds now you know with respect to the first thousand years of the church I think the real key issue and dispute between between Catholics and Orthodox is really over the question of the the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome right whether or not the Bishop of Rome really has a universal jurisdiction over the church that's really the key issue all right and whether the PO receives that jurisdiction as the successor to Saint Peter okay and that is the ancient doctrine of the church of course not just among the Latins but even among the Greeks even among the cirrie acts even among the Assyrians even among even say the Maronite tradition which has never been never been Latin but never never broken fellowship with hope you find Universal acclamation of this idea that the Pope is the successor to st. Peter and has universal jurisdiction over the church and in fact the first time that we find Byzantine or Greek theologians who who want to take a different view right about the nature of the Pope the source I should say of the Pope's jurisdiction we found in the Council of Constantinople in 381 there were some Byzantine theologians that said you know what we acknowledge that the Pope has primacy but we want to say that now it goes to pause antium because the capital of the empire has moved east and you know how much traction that idea got it got none at all so they floated it as a novelty and it was rejected as a novelty now let me share with you a text from an orthodox theologian okay and about two seconds to pull it up hang on I'm about there I'm about there I'm working on I yes this is from an orthodox theologian named nicholas afanasiev now he's not Catholic and he says Rome's vocation in the pre Nicean period consisted in playing the part of the arbiter settling contentious issues by witnessing to the truth or falsity of whatever doctrine was put before them Rome was truly the center were all converged if they wanted their doctrine to be accepted by the conscience of the church they could not count upon success except on one condition that the Church of Rome had received their doctrine and refusal from Rome predetermined to the attitude that other churches would adopt there are numerous numerous cases of this recourse to Rome that's a Nicholas often us us excuse me often OCF to orthodox theologian in the primacy of rome in the first four centuries and of course that's the doctrine that that saint you're an ass takes in his book against heresies in the third book he says it's a matter of necessity then all the churches throughout the world agree with this church namely Rome on account of her preeminence I think that's the real major bone of contention between between the Orthodox so-called Orthodox and the Catholics is the nature of the Pope's jurisdiction which as we can see is an every ancient antique and biblical doctrine ok Tiberio thank you so much for your call we'll try to get to Lisa in harmony Pennsylvania listening to us on Sirius XM 130 just a couple of seconds here Lisa what's your question yeah hi I'm doctor could you just explain evolution and yes our Catholic faith is it against like kind of what the kids are learning in in biology class that we came from monkeys and and eights I mean it's kind of hard to swallow and try to explain it to thank you yeah this is a great question and I want to deal with it at great length because it's very very important unfortunately you hear the music running the there is a perfectly intelligible way to reconcile Catholic faith and the doctrine of creation with what with what modern biology teaches us but it's not possible to reconcile with an atheistic and materialistic biology right and if you want to call back on Monday we can unpack that a little bit more for you sure I would also recommend that you look at the website to Mystic evolution to Mystic evolution to Mystic after st. Thomas Aquinas okay for more information in the meanwhile but if you want to call back on Monday we can go into more depth we would love to talk with you then Lisa and dr. David Andrews thank you and have a great weekend my thumb don't forget we do the show each and every Monday through Friday 2:00 p.m. Eastern we'll have an encore for you on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. also I'm Tom Price you have a wonderful weekend as well we'll see you on Monday here on call to communion god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Id: rqfCrcNax0M

Length: 54min 57sec (3297 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2018