Called To Communion - 2/26/18- Dr. David Anders

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 earn salvation one eighty 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 and here we are happy Monday to you there is such a thing as a happy Monday it's because you're with us here on call to communion on EWTN radio this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith maybe you just don't know where to go to get those questions answered well that's why we're here it is our raise on debt right a little French there for you raise on debt there you go okay here's our phone number it's eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six love to hear from you today and get those questions answered that you have about the Catholic faith you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for us to give you sort of a robo answer and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates for some people may apply again the phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN we're waiting to hear from you Michael Burchfield is our producer Matt Kavinsky is our phone screen or Jeff person is on social media he'll be sure to pass along any questions we get from you via Facebook or YouTube you may be watching us right now and that's a good thing I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders Tom how are you today couldn't be better I was successful in my weekend quest which was to take the dryer apart and fix a belt or some it was it was a mess but I was able to get through it I couldn't believe it well you know that's one good thing not the highlight of the weekend I guess but I got a little bit of enjoyment a highlight of my weekend was getting to talk to my wife for several hours oh that's nice that is a wonderful thing and we're at that stage of life where you know it's way too easy to be like ships passing in the night and so when we can actually tie each other down for an hour - it might happen at four o'clock in the morning you know we both wake up for some reason but we had that time together that is wonderful I am so happy look at this calls coming in right now we're gonna get to those in a moment here's an email that we received from Ray who says why is it okay for a Catholic to participate in a Protestant service but not receive their Communion it's my understanding that by participating in a Protestant Communion a Catholic is proclaiming a shared belief but wouldn't participating in the service have the same effect or or should a Catholic attending a Protestant service simply sit as an observer not participating in prayer song etc for example Protestants means something very different when they say one Catholic Church what are your thoughts there yeah I appreciate it well the Eucharist is a very very special case alright because it's the sacrament of the church's unity mm-hmm and and so the the the ultimate sign of our participation in the one body of Christ is our participation in the one Eucharist so if you for a Catholic to receive Holy Communion in some ecclesial body is to affirm that the Church of Christ exists in plenitude in that place all right which we don't believe about the the non Catholic ecclesial bodies especially the Protestant churches now we think that they have elements of truth and sanctification and we're happy to celebrate those all right but they don't have the fullness of of Catholic unity or truth or the means of grace and secondly we don't we don't actually believe that their Eucharist is a valid Eucharist it's not the Eucharist that Christ instituted it's something else and and we believe that they're actually an error about their doctrine of the Eucharist so I don't want to signal my adherence either to a false understanding of the nature of the Eucharist or to a false understanding of Christian unity okay very good here's one now from Jennifer who says dear dr. Andrews recently my sisters and I have been have an ongoing discussion regarding the Calvinist view of justification salvation grace and freewill versus the Catholic view one sister says that she is quote powerless against the Holy Spirit that God chooses that God chooses who goes to heaven the elect so my question is first are we truly powerless against the Holy Spirit and if so doesn't that conflict with free will secondly how do Catholics understand who are the elect Thank You Jennifer okay I appreciate the question so Catholics believe the Catholic Church teaches that God does predestined the elect salvation all right but it denies that God predestined anybody to hell the Calvinists believe in a what's called double predestination that God by a positive decree determines a certain portion of the human race to salvation and the vast majority to damnation in fact that he created the vast this is a Calvinist belief no not the Catholic that God created the vast majority the human race for the express purpose of deeming them all right sending them to hell Catholics reject that okay it in Catholic teaching what it what it means for God to be dust in the elect well if you're elect that means you're going to have him okay not everybody's like because not everybody goes to heaven predestination is God's determination to give the grace efficient for salvation to those whom he for knows will be saved all right it leaves undefined the Catholic faith leaves undefined what is the basis of God's decision to give that efficient grace to solve it not to others okay and there's room for theological speculation about that all right that may soften or mitigate the what you might consider the harsh edges of that doctrine okay whereas within within the galvanized tradition is pretty obvious why God does it God desires positively to display his justice through the damnation of the vast majority of human race that's his purpose okay all right Calvinists also teach that if God determines to give you grace grace is irresistible that's what your sister-in-law is talking about the Catholic faith teaches that while we can't get to heaven without grace grace is resistible you can resist the offer of grace okay and so so while also our salvation is a matter of grace from beginning to end it is effective in us through our free co-operation with that grace we have to freely cooperate with grace okay we can resist grace and then also the Calvinists teach that that not only does God determine who will be saved and essentially compel them to believe but it also teaches that Christ didn't even die for the whole world Christ only dies for the elect so it's a metaphysical impossibility for most people to be saved whereas the Catholic Church following Sacred Scripture teaches that God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth all right and the Christ's death was for the whole world that's what st. John says in his first epistle not just for some small body and you're absolutely right that the Calvinist doctrine definitely interferes with with both the experience and the doctrine of human freedom that we have a moral responsibility to respond to God's offer of grace that were morally responsible for not responding and and that we can freely cooperate with that grace so you know the the fact of human freedom is first of all even apart from what scripture might say I mean this is something that is evident to introspection and to experience you know there was a physicist named Arthur Holly Compton early part of the 20th century important theoretical physicist who was also something of a philosopher and and he recognized the the determinism that was implicit in a lot of the philosophy of modern science and he once said something along the lines of this is a rough quotation he said basically if all the laws of physics and chemistry were to tell me that I don't have the power to move my little finger when I want to then we'd better go back and rewrite all the laws of physics and chemistry because nothing is more evident to me that I can move my little finger when I want to you know and so first of all we have the evidence of introspection and we certainly act and we certainly legislate we certainly love and hate and and and forgive or don't forgive and we make we make decisions they left based on the presupposition that people are morally responsible for their actions and can do otherwise than they do I mean to deny that would essentially vitiated the entire legal tradition of just about every civilization known to mankind okay so we certainly act like we have human freedom all of our social interactions are predicated on it our own self-awareness is predicated on it the whole notion of planning for the future taking care for what you're gonna do I mean you're in school why well I mean because you think that you can exert some sort of control over your knowledge of the world and develop a more sophisticated conception of reality and go out and perhaps find a job or a spouse or whatever it might be I mean all of our actions are predicated on the idea that we can be responsible for what we do and and and take charge of our lives to a certain extent even if we can't control everything all right and then sacred scripture would certainly seem to employ the same thing God lays commands on the human race and then holds them responsible for disobeying them and you know their passages in the text that really seem to strongly imply God's expectation that humanity can freely respond to his to his imperatives think about the the story of Cain and Abel Cain kills Abel and God talks to him and says you know sin desires to master you but you must master it hmm okay uh which Cain doesn't do and he's held responsible as a result so you know you could multiply examples now I think it's helpful to to talk about the Catholic view of human freedom right and the relationship if you're in the freedom to grace because I think it's one of the most illuminating and inspiring doctrines of the Catholic Church Catholic Church recognizes that sin is a real problem and sin interferes with our capacity to make free choices and you know the more egregious the sin the more deeply embedded it is in our in our will and in our character actually the more we're in slavery all right st. Paul says the one who sins is the slave of sin you think about an addict someone who's hooked on drugs they have a pretty restricted domain of freedom you know am I gonna put the needle here or six inches farther down the arm you know I mean that their domain of freedom is pretty limited oh yeah and they're really compelled to do a lot of the things that they do now freedom from that no that's real freedom freedom for good freedom for excellence freedom instead of spending my life on a couch you know zoned out on opiates now I can get up and I can play football or if I like football which I don't particularly soccer I can shoot pool or I can play cars or I can read a book or I can court a woman or I can get married or I can have children or I can you know think about the all the good things that I can do when I'm freed from my compulsions and my neuroticism sure right and that's what grace does the more grease you have the freer you are how beautiful is that awesome thank you so much for your email there Jennifer glad we could answer that for you here and now on call to communion when we come back from our quick break we'll be talking with Larry in Kenosha Wisconsin also Brett in Delaware Ohio Molly in Cincinnati and also Troy who is driving through Indiana there's also two lines open for you right now eight three three two eight eight EWTN eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six back in a flash with more call to Communion here on EWTN sharing the fullness of the Catholic faith 23 three two eight eight EWTN one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six this is call to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network this is Dan Dimity and Patrick rice from encounter this is lauren ashburn EWTN news nightly anchor and managing editor have a blessed Lent from all of us at ewtn radio Debbi Georgie ami please encourage your your siblings and and you to constantly be aware of this and heal from it because you deserve to have a great relationship with both your parents when you came into this world you deserve that my prayers are with you and and you sound like a great great person and I'm just happy you had enough I mean I'm happy you had enough courage to call in because a lot of people don't want to call in about this Jake - with Jerry and Debbie Monday through Saturday noon eastern on EWTN radio how about this Apple TV allows you to instantly stream EWTN to your TV get EWTN today it's easy all you need is a high-speed internet connection a TV and the Apple TV player Bishop Robert Barron on the priesthood Adam is construed as a priest Adam before the fall is in the stance of right relationship to God and so he's seen as a priest in the Garden of Eden is a kind of primordial temple right a place of right praise what happens in sin is we lose that priestly role we stopped being priests we start worshipping ourselves and worshipping creaturely things so Jesus now is seen as the new Adam he's the fulfillment of law and Torah and temple and sacrifice hence he's the high priest and so we see the cross as a place not just a Roman execution but it's a place where the supreme sacrifice has been performed and so the priesthood in that sacrificial sentence continues in the mystical body of Christ so to the present day when I as a priest celebrate the sacrifice of the mass I'm standing in that great tradition participating in the high priesthood of Jesus the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with dr. David Anders to a8 EWTN one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six and if you're ready now let's get back to the phones one eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Larry in Kenosha listening to us on Wi-Fi hello Larry what's on your mind today today great I echo when Paul's writes in his epistle my grace is sufficient for you but my problem is with dr. David last week there was a guy who called in and his daughter was wondering how she could believe the Scriptures and you went through this long orientation which I completely agree with but two weeks before that somebody wrote in our called in and said about where Romans where all have sinned and you said that's not true so either Scripture is true or it's not true the second problem I have is you quoted that these are there are doctrines that every Catholic must believe and there was a fellow who called any sire problems with the Marian doctrine and he said come on in and you'll come around so either you must believe everything to be Catholic or you don't have to okay so I'm not sure I see the question well why the contradictions okay so lay out the contradiction what are the what are the two propositions that are in contradiction okay last week when the young when a man called in about his daughter and you went through this long orientation why scriptures are true and a week before Ted or two weeks before that somebody called in and talked about for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and you said that's not true so yes script your chores not oh I see I see so you believe the contradict that from do you think that I've contradicted scripture and I've denied the teaching of st. Paul okay I understand understand no I believe the teaching of st. Paul I think but like every passage of Scripture you have to know what is Paul shooting it what's the purpose of Paul's narrative here what's he trying to communicate all right that that's that's good hermeneutics so if I pick up a letter written to me by Tom Price I want to know what he's talking about where he's coming from all right what's he trying to communicate to me and what point st. Paul is communicating in the text is our need for the grace of God in order to be saved absolutely all right is is his purpose in that text to communicate an absolutely exhaustive description of the moral character of every human person that ever lived well I don't think so I don't think that's what his purpose is nothing in the text that suggests that because obviously there are many other texts of scripture that confess the sinlessness of particular individuals pre-eminently Christ himself all right who never sent know Christ as a human person Christ was born of a human mother he had a human nature he lived he died a human death all right obviously st. Paul's description that all have sinned doesn't apply to Jesus so can't be literally true but that doesn't mean it's not true it's true insofar as it communicates what Paul wanted to say namely his audience those hearing his message need to learn how to depend upon the grace of God to be saved and not rely upon the Mosaic law for their justification I completely affirm that okay very good hey Larry thank you so much for your call do call us back sometime this is called a communion here on EWTN that opens up a line for you now one 800 nope one eight three three two eight eight EWTN eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six let's go now to Molly in Cincinnati listening to us on Sacred Heart Radio AM 740 hello Molly what's on your mind today okay yes thanks for taking my call sure I just struggle with this concept so as a Christian we're supposed to be as a Catholic we're supposed to be excited about going to heaven when we know full well in our hearts that those that we love and those that we are close to in some cases you can say probably not be going to heaven and in fact will may be might be burning in hell even you know people who are very close to us our children our parents so as a Catholic how do i reconcile this how do i how is the Christian heart supposed to be so excited about going to heaven okay this is a wonderful question I really appreciate it so first of all let's talk a little bit about what we mean by heaven alright to make sense of this and in in Catholic doctrine heaven is not primarily delightful because of anything material or physical okay it's not like heaven as a place where you know you have I mean I like you know dark roast coffee it's not like the place where there's like this angelic barista who just serves me infinite dark roast coffee you know that's not that's not what makes heaven you know heaven is not it's not where you have you know infinite golf greens to put on I mean that's not the there may be wonderful things materially in the in the creation of the new heavens and the earth but that's not the essence of heaven the essence of heaven is the vision of God alright you say well just looking at God no that's not what the church means um the church talks about the beatific vision we're talking about an intuitive knowledge right a direct and intuitive knowledge of God's essence alright now I know thing I know intuitively my own mind okay I know without reflection without deduction the content of my own mind I don't know God anywhere near that intimately in this life from reason I can deduce that there must be a God there has to be a source and origin of this of this passing temporal universe but I don't know what it is I can't lay hands on it okay from revelation I know that that God has revealed himself to me in the history of Israel the people of God and and above all in Jesus who is God all right you know in a way that escapes my rational faculties okay and I can learn things about the moral life and the journey to God like the law of love and the life of the virtues and the grace that's made available to me to be United to that God of love but of his essence in nature I know nothing and I'm and I'm and I'm distant from him and so there's a longing there that's on fulfilled okay but the church tells me something else about the nature and essence of God and that is that every good thing that I experience in this life every beautiful thing every true thing is good or true or beautiful only because of its participation in the source and origin of all things good true and beautiful that is the very nature of God himself so I can have some sort of shadowy intimation about the essence and nature of God by thinking about the goodness truth and being of the good things that he's made okay and so you know if I like dark roast coffee or golf greens or my wife or whatever it might be all the relationships and loves and Joy's that I have in this life are these but shadowy intimations of of their fulfillment of their in their source and origin which is God all right so you take those things and you multiply them literally to infinity all right literally to infinity and now we're talking about the nature of God's being in essence that is bliss itself and to be united to that in my conscious mind right to have the the knowledge and experience of God's ultimate infinite goodness blessedness beatitude and truth translated directly and immediately into my interior intuitive conscious life so that every waking moment of my existence were in whatever direction I turn is imbued with this infinite plenitude that is the B attitude of heaven okay okay and it is an experience to which nothing can be lacking by definition okay so this there can be no sense of loss because I have literally everything okay now part of that literally everything will be an understanding of how all the disparate pieces of history and the universe fit together in a way that makes sense now I will freely admit to you that the doctrine of hell is a mystery there are a lot of mysteries in the Christian faith the doctrine of the Eucharist is a mystery the doctrine of grace is a mystery the doctrine of the Trinity mist is a mystery the doctrine of hell is mystery and I freely admit to you that it's a mystery all right but I know that it is ultimately reconcilable in the one God who is the source of the intelligibility of everything and so part of the joy of heaven will be to make sense in my own mind of a world in which both the possibility of beatitude and the loss of beatitude are constituent parts of reality and and so I have to you know believing in how the dogmas are the Catechism disguised them as lights they're not they're not rationalistic propositions that explain everything we experience okay but they illumine our experience their mysteries that illumine our experience so the doctrine of Hell keeping that in mind as a truth that escapes reason reminds me of the awful necessity awful in the literal sense in the etymological sense of inspiring all in me the awesome reality of moral obligation that I have to take seriously my moral life my spiritual life the duty to evangelize all right and live in adherence upon God's grace and seek holiness and purity of heart those things are real they matter and the consequences are eternal all right so that illumines my experience but it doesn't but but but I'm not given within the contents of the faith the rational explanation for how the doctrine of hell can can make sense given the doctrine of God's infinite goodness and love that's that part is a mystery now there are things we can do to cut and mitigate the mystery to kind of pull back the veil a little bit make sense of them one of them is that hell is the freely chosen reality the church teaches that God makes the offer of grace to every human being every human being whether or not they've heard the gospel explicitly every human being encounters in some form or fashion in their life the offer of grace right and if they resist that offer of grace is their choice and so in a very real sense hell is only filled with volunteers okay and again can I fully understand that no okay but I can in my own experience reflect on the many times in my own life when I have been confronted with a choice between something that I know will bring me light and peace and happiness and joy it's something that will bring me destruction and sorrow and despair and I have freely chosen the latter Wow Molly thank you so much for your question we hope that's helpful for you when we come back we'll talk with Brett in Delaware also Troy driving through Indiana bill in Texas caller Conrad and Denver will also get to a text here from Melissa keep it right here on EWTN is called a communion eight three three two eight eight EWTN this is a Lenten journey with Timothy cardinal Dolan oh my god I am heartily sorry for having offended thee and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments but most of all because they offend thee my god you are all good and you deserve all my love I firmly resolve with the help of that grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin you recognize that don't you the act of contrition we got a beautiful one in the reading at mass for this Monday of the second week of Lent this one comes from Daniel the great leader the Jewish people when he simply says to God were sorry Lent is still teaching us about prayer prayer praises God prayer thanks God prayer asks God for the blessings and graces that we need and prayer also apologizes to God when we tell him we're sorry those are acts of contrition a Lenten journey with Timothy cardinal Dolan is available on DVD through the EWTN religious catalogue this DVD includes all 47 segments for each day of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday to get your copy log on to our website EWTN religious catalogue comm 24 hours a day seven days a week or call one eight hundred eight five four six three one six [Music] EWTN communicating the faint I feel that God has been really doing a work in me in the last 5-10 years I'm a convert to Catholicism and I started to just really feel a passion to know more about the Catholic faith and I started listening to radio all day I'm not doing great things but I'm doing small things with great love EWTN live truth live Catholic I'm Brian Patrick and I'm Gloria Purvis tomorrow I'll be in Buffalo speaking at the st. Gianna banquet and March for Life GD Mancini joins us for 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 Andrews - 80 wtn one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six very cool guest today on Preston in the afternoon Bob shoots will be along talking about his book be healed a guide to encountering the powerful love of Jesus in your life do check it out Cresta in the afternoon beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on EWTN radio let's get to that text that we were talking about earlier this says Melissa listening to us in New York City she says if you have a godparent from baptism or confirmation who is no longer practicing their faith or god forbid is in prison or is just not carrying out their godparent roles can you request a new godparent through the church yeah so I am I am not aware of any provision in Catholic liturgical practice or canon law for D God parenting somebody okay and and that doesn't mean that you can't ask someone to enter into your life or your child's life in a way you know in a mentor type relationship but but the godparent tradition is specifically attached to the institution of baptism alright and you're not gonna you can tree baptize people right so you can't go back in time and redo that but you know that this is not this is not a tragedy I mean first of all I think if you could de God parent people it'd be kind of it would create all kinds of difficulties ya know and actually I know of some Catholic people who have just taken it upon themselves to D godparent and re godparent sometimes it happens in response in kind of a petulant way and you know sort of a sort of a you know this pitiful small-minded response to the perception of personal slights and someone's and I think that that makes a mockery of the institution and the solemnity of baptism so I strongly I would strongly urge against that kind of thing also you know at a certain point in time a child reaches a certain age maybe the thing can work reciprocally I mean I'm just I'm just sort of shooting from the hip here I was making it this up as I go along quite honestly but I mean I'm thinking my my wife has a godparent who's dead now who really didn't do much for in the in the sort of big God parenting Department but after my wife finally came into a sort of vigorous practice of her own Catholic faith she began to consider this woman in a way that she'd never thought of before and realize you know there was a sacramental bond of a sort you know kind of liturgical bond established between us I don't know that that woman ever did much for me but you know maybe I can turn it around now and begin to pray for her and pray for the repose of her soul sure and so it's not like these relationships in the sight of God will cease to be fruitful in some way that escapes our capacity to currently experience you know and and you never know maybe this may be one of these godparents who's suffering or in prison or whatnot may come to a place in their life when they realize that these things these sufferings these sorrows these difficulties perhaps they could be offered you know as a sacrifice for the benefit of the person to whom they swore this this this care and duty of solicitude and and the fact that you have a godparent who's kind of gone AWOL certainly doesn't prevent you from seeking out other friends and mentors you know who can you know offer you spiritual direction counsel friendship or whatever what have you we have I believe and my wife could give me the exact number nine God children Adrian and I but several people young people have approached us basically asking if we would be their virtual godparent as it as it were one of them that you know and and so we're able to offer them you know you know to help answer their questions to be there for events you know to do things with them and it's been a wonderful a wonderful thing for it for all concerned I think beautiful yeah let's get back to the phones here at eight three three two eight eight EWTN let's go to a Brett in Delaware Ohio listening on the blowtorch there am a twenty st. Gabriel radio hey Brett what's on your mind today I think you're taking my call sure um first of all dr. Anders this is one of my favorite shows and I think God has blessed you with the real charism I guess for the edification of the church so thanks for sharing that with so much thank you my night yeah so my question I was recently asked by an evangelical friend of mine that we've known each other for five or six years and he seems to be much more interested in the Catholic faith as time has gone on and I don't know what God is doing in his life but the question that he keeps coming back to is one about apostolic succession and I haven't been able to really grasp that what exactly he's getting at I think he desires to just define the Apostolic Church you know it's it's reality in the world today but I think he he sees the the understanding that the Catholic Church has of episodic succession in a very literal sense so I think he understands it as perhaps he thinks it's impossible for us to prove that all of our bishops and priests have a connection to the Apostles and and in a way I think that is impossible to prove you know we don't have a paper trail of provenance to to prove all of that but I'm wondering if you can point to some resources that do bolster the claim of the Catholic Church of apostolic succession any books or articles or I think Ignatius of Antioch would be a great one I haven't mentioned that yet but any any other things that you think would point him in the right direction yeah absolutely I've got a number of things to share with you first of all of course your friend is absolutely correct that we don't have a paper trail documentary that that establishes the order of succession for every single Bishop on the planet I mean we know the genealogy of of all of the modern Catholic Bishops and the trail kind of goes cold in early modernity and late into late late Middle Ages all right and but we know that the bishops that ordained them were ride Lyra guarded in their own day right by the Catholic faithful and by the Pope and by other bishops is also possessing apostolic succession so the fact that somebody didn't keep a record doesn't mean that the reality didn't exist okay and we know that the doctrine that Christ promised the number one that Christ established the Apostles as authorities and gave them that authority and the promise of divine assistance to the end of the age of course that's a biblical doctrine that the Apostles transmitted that to their successors the bishops is also a biblical doctrine and well in evidence in the second third and fourth century when they said it was clearly believed now it's not like you know that the bishops of say that the the early fourth century before the Edict of Milan when you know the Roman Empire's persecuting Christians employing the death it's not like they they uploaded all the recent ordination stats into their you know their Word document or you know what's the Google app I'm trying to think a Google Doc yeah they didn't they didn't upload it into their Google Doc okay it's not like it wasn't present in the mind of the church such that they could state these things with confidence you know and so that apostolic succession emerges as a real sort of apologetically scoring point when the Catholic Church is in competition with other versions of Christianity you know the the common retort the second third and fourth century was hey well we are the ones with apostolic succession which everybody knows you know not like you guys who are new to the party you see them saying all right and so really I mean even if you had a absolute paper trail that extended from you know say Pope Francis all the way back to the first century without a single break in the line that in itself wouldn't prove the dachshund to be true right because ultimately it depends not on the accuracy or the of the of the historical transmission but if the divine authority of the guy that started it all right that that's where your faith lies is in the authority of Christ right because there are other religions that claim forms of what called apostolic succession but but claims some form of religious succession from a founder I mean this is part and parcel of Zen Buddhism you know I mean there are other the the the the ordination the transmission of ordination is something you find in other traditions all right it's not unique to Catholicism so the real question is did Christ have the authority to create the structure and to guarantee it by his divine authority and then do you trust that he in fact did so that Christ kept his word well that's that's where you have to play and then is there sufficient evidence so that the act of faith in the doctrine of episodic succession is not irrational all right now if we had if we had positive evidence that the line of succession had been interrupted which of course that's lacking all right then that'd be a reason to disbelieve the - sure sure all right I don't have any memory of of my birth all right most people don't have any memory of their infant baptism I actually remember mine but most people don't okay that's funny reason for that um but it doesn't make it all irrational to believe that I really was born to the parents that claim me I have very good reason to believe that right because they're trustworthy and they said you're our son we were there it happened we saw it okay I don't remember it happening but their testimony is credible right and the Catholic Church's testimony is credible all right and there's no there's no positive evidence contradicting it and Christ is credible and there's a lot of positive evidence that he's really credible I'm going to believe so what's some of the evidence that Christ actually established the church to set it up on this basis well okay classic text Matthew Matthew chapter 28 well he says all power in heaven and earth has been given to me to the apostles he says go make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all I've commanded you and I'm with you to the end of the age um John chapter 20 as the father sends me so I send you Luke chapter 10 whoever here is you here is mu they're here with me whoever rejects you who rejects me whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven now if you want a good article that actually connects the dots pretty well from Christ to the present day and deals with some of the higher critical objections about the history of the second century church I would recommend it's pretty technical and it's responding to some very specific objections which may you know beyond be beyond your present needs but the article is called the bishops of history the bishops of history and the Catholic faith it's authored by my friend Brian cross who's a Catholic philosopher professor of philosophy and and actually one of the founders of the call to Communion website which which pre-exists this show yeah so the bishops of history in the Catholic faith by Brian cross available at call to Communion calm there you go Brett thank you so much for your call this is called a communion here on EWTN I want to tell you about something that I look forward to quite honestly every Thursday what is that well I know that when I boot up the computer and go to my inbox there's going to be something there waiting for me not for Tom price the EWTN employee but Tom price the Catholic the Catholic who is you know trying to learn to live a better life and that is wings it comes out every week and all you and it's absolutely free it's an it'll show up there in your email inbox generally every Thursday or so but you can find out about new shows on EWTN television new shows on EWTN radio you can learn about books and art and CDs and DVDs from religious catalogue there's blogs information about bookmark with Doug Keck and his current guest news events it's all there it's absolutely free you can sign up for it by going to ewtn.com that is the television homepage and look for the little box that says wings you click on that give them your email address and you'll start getting it boom boom boom each and every three they do check it out it swings a free thingy from EWTN thingy that is a technical term did you know that I say that all the time thingy thingy are our son when he was a little kid he would he would say thingy due to log I don't know where he came up with that word but I've always liked that thing you doodle which thingy do to log oh I thought I know let's go to Troy in Indiana listening on Redeemer Radio Troy what's on your mind today yes thank you for taking my call sir my question has to do with a passage Genesis 15:6 mm-hmm and it's dealing with Abraham as the morrow that the New Testament uses to model how a sinner is made righteous and so I understand that this doctrine is the maker break for salvation and so my question is just according to this verse what did Abraham have to do and when what God can try to do him okay thanks so all Catholics believe that salvation comes to us through faith and not by works of the law and it is also a result of God's grace from start to finish these are Catholic doctrines Catholics are the ones that put the book of Romans and Galatians in the Bible Catholics are the ones that promulgated the book of Genesis is part of the candidate scripture over against other early Christian bodies that wanted to reject the Old Testament so these are all these are Catholic books it's not like Catholics don't know about these I understand them very well what's at stake between Catholics and Protestants is not whether God credited Abraham's faith to him as righteousness we believe that to look to to believe God is a good work all right it's a meritorious thing and God rewards it abraham believed the promise of God all right not but he wasn't following the Mosaic law God commanded him to do something God made him promises Abraham believed it and that was a righteous thing to do God says you're righteous you believed me good job well done okay what's at stake between Protestants and Catholics is whether Abraham was accounted righteous because of the impute of Jesus's obedience that's what's at stake all right the Protestant belief is that when I believe Christ Jesus has righteousness is imputed to me and my sins are imputed to him and that Christ suffers death on the cross as a punishment for my sins all right that God is punishing an innocent person Jesus for since he did not commit but which have been imputed to him and that God then acquits me and counts me as righteous even though I remain objectively sinful because Jesus as righteousness has been imputed to me okay that's the Protestant view now that view is no we're taught in Sacred Scripture and of course the book of Genesis here in Genesis 15:6 says absolutely nothing about the imputation of Christ's righteousness the idea of imputation is utterly missing what we find is Abraham engaged in a human act namely the act of belief and in response to Abraham's faith God calls him righteous all right not a word about imputation not a word about imputation okay and in fact if you continue to read in the book of Genesis and you go on and you engage Abraham living out the act of faith the preeminent act of Abraham's obedience is when God commands him to sacrifice Isaac and of course Abraham believes that God can bring life even out of the death of Isaac and so he goes forward in radical obedience to the Word of God and is willing to sacrifice his son and of course the angel stops him and Abraham says and got excuse me and God says because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son from me therefore you know I will grant to you this boon this promise this grace this benefit all right clearly in response to it to an active obedience on the part of Abraham again Abraham's not shouldering the burden of the Mosaic law but he's got trust in faith in God and goes forward in obedience to God's command and then God specifically promises to reward that act of faithful obedience okay now so what does it mean to be saved by faith and not by works of the law because that's really what's motivating this question and what's the context when when st. Paul quotes Abraham as the model of righteousness what's at stake is the the number one religious question in the first century for early Christians and that is what do you do with Gentile converts when Gentiles come into the church do you have to impose the Mosaic law on them do they have to circumcise their children or themselves do they have to avoid pork and shellfish and follow the laws of kashrut do they have to separate themselves from Gentiles and table fellowshipped away the way the Jews did they have to do all that stuff and st. Paul says no no remember that righteousness the righteousness that comes through faith predates the imposition of the Mosaic law and so he takes Abraham as model as his model right the the path of righteousness through faith according to st. Paul especially in Romans chapter 2 verses 25 to 29 is that by faith the love of God shut abroad in our hearts our hearts are circumcised all right and in the essence of the Mosaic law okay of course the this the spirit of the law is to love God and love neighbor that love is given to us through faith by the grace of God not interest but not as a response to obedience to the mosaic code and so that's the Catholic faith that faith is absolutely essential to salvation it is the path to receiving that grace of God that renews us on tiri interiorly and makes us not just imputed righteous but actually righteous yeah Troy thank you so much for your call we do appreciate that called a communion here on EWTN for those of you who are on hold right now we'll get to as many of you as we can in the program today if we can't get to you please call back tomorrow here is bill now in Bluffdale texas listening on guadalupe radio bill what's your question today yes first of all thanks for your work I appreciate it thank you I visited across the church and they had the 10 commandments posted in the gathering area the second commandment was thou shalt not have graven images something that before thee or make them and this differentiates from the Ten Commandments I have in it as the second commandment that I study is thou shall not pick name the Lord God in vain so my quest as what is the origin of in the context I should say sure the graven image sure so if you open up a Protestant Bible like the NIV or the King James Bible or whatnot and you open up a Catholic Bible I've got a Catholic Bible in front of me it's the RSV Catholic edition you open them up to Exodus chapter 20 which is one of the two passages where we find that Ten Commandments listed and you read you put them side by side and read them you will notice no difference in the text I mean the translation language is a little bit different but in terms of the essence of the command you'll find absolutely no difference all right the other thing that you'll notice is that in the text of the Bible itself the commands are not numbered it doesn't say number one number two it doesn't say that it just says do this do this do this do this don't do that don't do that don't do that do that they're not numbered out okay and the actual number of imperatives listed in the text is more than 10 right I mean if you read just the first commandment you know you're not to have other gods you not to make graven images you not to make images of anything that's above or below the heavens you know you're not to bow down and serve them if each one of those was a distinct command I don't know be kind of like Mel Brooks - 15 - no the Ten Commandments all right so the tradition of numbering them is a just that it's a tradition it's a convention of of Christian history how we number them all right but it's actually nothing in the sacred text itself that tells us how we're supposed to number them okay now the Catholic tradition is exactly as you stated that all of those prohibitions on having any God other than God is all assimilated under the first commandment so the first commandment according to Catholic tradition is God and God alone and nothing else all right so not in your mind not in your attitude not in your ideas not in your worship not in your not in your accoutrements of physical worship whether they be images or icons or whatever they are nothing that you make nothing that you conceive of in any way can be a rival to the adoration that is due to God alone all right now what happened in the 16th century in the Protestant Reformation especially in the Calvinist formation of Geneva all right and in Switzerland and in France the reformer John Calvin and and before him Erlich swingley who was in Zurich in the 1520's decided that they wanted to eliminate Catholic devotional art all right they wanted to eliminate Catholic devotional art and it seemed to serve their political purposes to break the first commandment in two and so to suggest that making graven images as such making images for religious use as such was somehow prohibited all right and so it was a it was a polemical and philosophical decision to reorder the commandments to - to aid and abet that particular political program okay very good bill thank you so much for your call let's go to Conrad in Denver listening to us on Denver Catholic radio hey Conrad what's on your mind today hi good afternoon how are we doing today great great thanks what's on your mind so well first of all I'd like to clarify if I may just a couple things in the original text in the Bible - one of the commandments says thou shalt not murder however today in all the Bible's it does say thou shalt not kill so if you could just let me know I'd like to get some qualifiers here before I get to the death penalty which is better hurry because we minute left state the question what do you do believe thou shalt not murder that is that one of the Ten Commandments rather is the question if I believe you shouldn't murder yes I believe you shouldn't murder is there another question yes until the but so will be my yeah the question is the death penalty what is your take on a death penalty the the that the death penalty is in principle licit that one might actually execute a person is a judicial punishment for a grave crime is a dogma of the Catholic faith that all Catholics are bound to believe all Catholics are bound by in conscience with divine and supernatural faith to believe that governments have the right to use the death pin in egregious cases that is that's my conviction as a Catholic and studying the history of Catholic dogma that is a position that is not widely disseminated because Pope John Paul the second argued in an encyclical in a non infallible way that it might be unnecessary to use the death penalty in the modern era and there might be good Prudential reasons not to all right in so political opposition to the death penalty as it's currently exercised in the modern world is something that many Catholics following the Pope take that position but when it comes to the principle of the thing the death penalty is in principle lawful and grounded in natural reason and divine revelation okay very good appreciate that we have time for a quick text here this is Scott from Rochester New York who says please comment dr. David on the Catholic view of foxes Book of Martyrs a Protestant friend recommended to me Oh propaganda propaganda propaganda is really yeah propaganda propaganda propaganda yeah much better book she could read that one's just anti-catholic propaganda so um I'd pick up evenlyn walls book camping on st. Edmund Campion really yeah it's about the cut that the Jesuit Catholic priest who entered into England in during the Elizabethan reign in order to to offer the Catholic sacraments secretly because of course Catholicism was illegal and how the English government forced him to die the death of martyrdom by torture and ripped his guts out and burned him in front of his face well in did all kinds of horrible things to him because he was Catholic priest Wow so a better book yeah better book okay very good dr. David Anders thank you my friend thanks mom Matthew in st. Louis and rich and Portland please call us back tomorrow we'll put you on at the head of the show I'm Tom price please join us then for more call to Communion have a great day god bless

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,909

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: L4Pk4waj3T4

Length: 54min 45sec (3285 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2018