Called To Communion - 3/2/18 - Dr. David Anders - Isn't there only one Universal God?

I supposed to say it's not as strong you know the reason get stronger I think it's I think it's I like that title I think it's pretty strong treasure in the field it's a metaphor taken not only from Scripture but from encyclical our marriage by pius xi ready to cut you off there 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 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 everybody happy Friday to you welcome again to call the communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith you you should know that this is a great place to get those questions answered here is the number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's pretty easy eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six you can also email us at CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com and here's another way text the letters ewtn excuse me two 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 again that phone number eight three three two eight eight e WT n michael Burchfield is our producer he is ready to get things on the way here we also have let's see Jeff Burton is handling social media and he will pass along any questions that you may want to pass along to us via YouTube and Facebook and I believe we have who is who is screening the phones today who is that rich rich Jesse is our celebrity phone screener so I think we're in pretty good shape and this is the final day for our live program for the week we'll be back with you live again on Monday but if you want to get those questions in right now is a great time eight three three two eight eight EWTN I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews how are you today couldn't be better how about you hanging there I'm getting ready for my trip to Iowa City Iowa tomorrow and that's gonna be a great thing what are you gonna be talking about well the title of the talk is finding Christ in the Catholic Church but it's going to be part total biography and in part inspirational hoopla for college kids because this was my alma mater this is where I did my graduate study and was there that the seeds were sown that eventually led me into the end of the Catholic Church hence though it's the title so you'll be going back to all the old pizza places and sporting goods stores that you had inhabited back in the day well you know I was a I was a PhD grad student with with a couple of kids when I was in Iowa so I wasn't too big on the pizza place sporting goods stores I was big on big on the third or fourth floor of the library got it okay very good so while we're waiting to get studies if you're in Iowa City or in there abouts and you want to come out to the Newman Center and Iowa City downtown Iowa City I'll see you there sounds like a plan here's the text we received from Susan this came in late in the day yesterday we couldn't get to it then so we're gonna get to it right now Susan says was God considered a father figure in the Old Testament I am pondering Mary's reaction to Jesus when she found him in the temple when he was 12 he said at the time he must be about his father's at work Mary didn't understand what Jesus meant might it be because Jesus said his father and maybe Mary and other Jews of the time were unfamiliar with this kind of reference to God thanks Susan yeah thanks um no so yeah god is considered a father figure in the Old Testament and in and all a lot of metaphors are used to describe God another one is a husband to a wife and Israel is often compared to an unfaithful bride to the faithful husband but so I don't think that's why the Blessed Virgin was having difficulty I think what you know what what tripped her up was her question about why he had abandoned a seemingly had abandoned Mary and Joseph and the and the troop that had that had come from Galilee to write to Jerusalem to worship and I thought he was you know he need to be with his his natural family and adopted father and he's like no there's a I got a higher priority god okay very good here's one now from John also texting us late yesterday I heard you state that you can't judge your own contrition so you need the so-called sacrament of confession if you can't judge your own contrition how could a priest to possibly judge it objectively thanks John okay thanks well that's that's uh that's where the beauty of the sacrament okay because the Catholic teaching is that you don't have to have perfect contrition in order to be absolved of your son in the confessional okay outside the confessional you need perfect contrition alright so if you if you're if you're just you know walking down the street and you get overcome with an urge to go shoot somebody set off and you do and you get in mortal sin and you're a thousand miles from the nearest priest you can be reconciled to God with an act of perfect contrition alright what you lack in that moment is any objective assurance that you are in fact absolved ah right usually have the assurance right right and and so in the confessional you don't actually have to have perfect contrition to be absolved you just have to have like gosh I don't want to go to hell you know that was wrong good and then and then the priest sort of absolution is objective evidence that you are reconciled to God okay very good here's an email before we get to the phones this came in from Brian he says doctor hinders our marriages of non Catholic couples whether civil or in Protestant churches are these considered to be illicit invalid or just not a sacrament not just not a sacramental that's interesting thank you Brian thanks Brian totally depends totally depends so let's say you take two atheists or two Buddhists or two Hindus or two pagans and they they contract to give one themselves one to the other for the purpose of lifelong fidelity and raising a family okay that is a valid and a licit natural but not sacramental marriage that's a valid marriage it's illicit marriage but it and it's and it's you know it's subject to all of the natural moral law that would pertain to human sexuality and reproduction and marry fidelity and all the rest of it okay inscribed in our nature by God at creation but it's not a sacrament in that it is not accompanied by any promise of divine assistance nor is it a symbol of Christ's fidelity or self-sacrifice on behalf of the church that's a good thing yeah natural marriage is a good thing most almost every society regulates natural marriage and civil law as they rightly should because it is through natural marriage that society is replenished and children are brought to maturity and taught how to live in culture and so forth and they inherit the culture of their of their fathers and it's a good thing natural marriage now when to baptize people get married it is in principle a sacramental marriage okay so into Protestants if they're both baptized people marry in a Protestant Church they have the possibility of achieving a sacramental marriage okay now that because that possibility is present at them doesn't mean they actually achieve a sacramental marriage okay and there are some potential defeatist okay so many Protestants for instance don't actually believe that marriage is indissoluble I think it's usually indissoluble all right but they may allow exceptions and they may enter into the into the into the so-called marriage with a with a kind of mental reservation about I'll be faithful under the following circumstances okay well if that marriage were brought before the judgment of a Catholic marriage tribunal the tribunal would judge that that was not sacramental not because they're Protestant but because they lacked the requisite intent okay but potentially potentially a Protestant couple in a Protestant Church can achieve a sacramental marriage that you don't need theologically you don't need a the presence of a Catholic priest because it's actually the couple that confers the sacrament on one another that's right now in a Catholic marriage you have to baptize Catholic people they do need the presence of the Catholic priest not absolutely but because it's been mandated in positive law the church the code of canon law requires the presence of a Catholic minister to witness the exchange of vowels all right but it's not the priest that conveys the sacrament it's the cup that conveys it I want another and the priest is there simply to establish that everything's been done right and Justin and do order and so forth very good John thank you so much for your email if you'd like to send us an email for a future show we'll be glad to take a look at it our phone our email address CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com in a moment we'll be talking with Aaron in Kansas City also Rex driving through Texas that's a long drive man oh man Ellen in Grand Rapids Zahid driving through Indiana a lot of great calls coming up on this edition of call to Communion on EWTN sharing the fullness of the Catholic faith twenty three 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 dr. ray guarendi be grateful that you came to the faith when you did let the children see what mom is like now compared to how they were raised before mom and dad came to the faith the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio the Trump administration rolls back the Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate US bishops calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons Francis offers prayers for the victims of the California wildfire US House of Representatives has passed a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks and Pope Francis says the death penalty is contrary to the gospel your link to news headlines Catholics count on at the top of the hour we days on EWTN radio be touched by the sacredness of the Most Blessed Sacrament the resting place of Mother Angelica Plus tour the EWTN campus start your Catholic pilgrimage today with EWTN call 205 270 129 66 hello this is Brian Kemper of priests for life with pro-life update today is the first Friday of the month and we give special honor and worship to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and reparation for the sins of the world this heart is the core of the pro-life movement which is a movement of self-sacrificing love nothing can stop the love of the Heart of Jesus which is the meaning of the flame we see this love is met by rejection and hatred symbolized by the wound in the heart pro-life activist experienced the same thing our love for the unborn is met with misunderstanding ridicule shunning and persecution of all kinds yet nothing can extinguish the flame we continue to love those who cannot love us back and cannot even know we are loving them and that is the gift of the Sacred Heart this is Brian Kemper the EWTN global Catholic radio network [Music] 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 tonight a great show on Catholic Answers Live Father Vincent Serpa will be along with us talking about your spiritual life and care egress talks about Marian devotion for children how cool is that that's tonight on Catholic Answers live 6:00 p.m. Eastern here on EWTN your exclusive home radio home that is for Catholic answer is live if you're ready now let's get to the phones here at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Aaron in Kansas City listening to us on Sirius XM 130 hello Aaron what's on your mind today I think for taking my call sure I I am a Catholic and my mom is not in she and I were talking the other day she said that how does he know that Christ was not speaking in hyperbole when he said this is my body says he also said I am eight and we don't think hinges or I am the vine yeah great question and I appreciate it so there are several things I want to say about this the first one is there is a presumption that your mother is making all right that that the way we come to know Christian doctrine is by reasoning on our own from the text of Sacred Scripture all right and that given that scriptures can be taken in a variety of senses therefore we cannot have certainty about the interpretation of any particular sense but that's the that's the premise of your mother's question okay now that premise is entirely wrong now I'm gonna argue in a moment that even given her premise we can still know that Christ is present body and blood in the Blessed Sacrament all right but but I but I can't let the premise stand okay and let me give you an illustration of why this distinction is important Martin Luther who was not a Catholic he used to be a Catholic he left the Catholic Church he started the Protestant Reformation and Luther articulated a view of Christian life and salvation that was entirely novel and had no basis or precedent in Christian tradition whatsoever at all and essentially what Luther argued was that okay for 1,500 years Christians believed that the grace of God changes us anteriorly and and empowers us to love God and love our neighbor and therefore to be saved and Luther denied that and said no that's not how we're saved at all were saved by faith alone not by the transformation of our moral or interior life and and but there was a problem with Luther's interpretation of salvation and the problem was Jesus all right because you can scan all the Gospels jesus never speaks about he never uses the word grace price doesn't present the Gospel as a message of free justification through faith alone just know we're in the teaching of Jesus and in fact he Jesus does the opposite he's incredibly ethical in his orientation he gives all kinds of moral commands and says do this and you'll live do that and you go to hell I mean Jesus is pretty kind of a tough character all right and Luther understood that that posed a deep problem for his interpretation of the Christian faith because well the founder seemed to take the opposite point of view so what does Luther do well he posits an interpretation all right he just kind of pulls it out of his head and says well maybe Jesus is speaking tongue-in-cheek okay right maybe Jesus is so he doesn't just he doesn't just take John 6 or the Luke 22 he takes all of the Gospels and says we shouldn't take them at face value we shouldn't take them in so he just eviscerates the entire thing in one fell swoop now I can do that you can do that we can you can assert anything and say if you will allow me this one little intellectual twist I can I can eliminate your problem all right with whatever this text is or do this passage or whatever and I'll make the entire Bible something different you know do you follow where I'm coming from Aaron yeah okay and so and so anybody can play that game anybody can play that game all right so you know I could even assert okay Jesus says he's a sheep door well okay he's really a sheep door you know maybe he's transmogrified like like Calvin from the cartoon strip and do it into a sheep door I mean anybody can play that game all right the question is whether the whether this these variety of interpretations are credible okay now the ultimately the only way around that problem is we have to have some in interpretive philosophy that we bring to the Scriptures in order to understand them rightly now again Luther brought an interpretive philosophy it was the one that he pulled out of his head to justify his doctrine of salvation by faith alone why should I believe Luther's interpretive philosophy well I shouldn't right I mean his he has no divine authority if I'm gonna understand and the Bible is a book that's got 73 different books and even those are composed of multiple parts and that covers thousands of years and hundreds of authors and disparate points of view to make coherent sense of that entire body of literature I've got to read it within the context not of a single author but of a tradition all right yeah and and and if that tradition is to have any say-so it has to have divine authority right and that's precisely the Catholic point of view the way you read the entire Bible or any part therein is to see it as the product of a tradition that is possessed of divine authority because it's established by God all right and so whenever I have a question of it I mean you can raise historical and critical questions about individual texts but understanding the Christian faith as a whole can only be done from within the context of the divine institution called the church that Christ founded to whom he gave promises whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven so it's within the interpretive tradition of the Catholic Church because that tradition has divine authority that I can even make sense of Scripture or any or any part therein all right so I the premise of the question at the outset that the way to understand this or any passage is just to read it and then eliminate you know all but the unquote obvious interpretation because there is no quote/unquote obvious interpretation all right apart from sacred tradition now let's bring sacred tradition to bear on this question what a sacred tradition tell us about the meaning of the Eucharist by the way which existed first the text of the Bible or the Eucharist the Eucharist of course okay now now I'm going to actually start getting into some exegesis of Scripture the Eucharist existed before the texts of the Bible that record the Eucharist what what did the communities in which for which and to which those scriptural texts were written think about the Eucharist well we have we have extra biblical evidence we have sources outside the biblical data that tell us exactly what those communities thought about the Eucharist okay one of those is Saint Ignatius of Antioch all right who was like the second bishop after Saint Peter okay who was known to the Apostles and and we have his letters and he deals with non Catholic early Christian non Catholic movements called the de Cetus all right these are people that didn't think that Jesus had a body all right so I mean they're totally disallowed if in terms of Catholic Orthodox and these are folks that thought that Jesus was basically a space alien who only appeared to be human okay so whacked out stuff here and and in his in his letters against the deceased Ignatius says well you know the the decedent's don't think that Jesus has a body so they're crazy and they deny that the Eucharist is really the body of Christ which we all know to be the case and it is for us the medicine of immortality in the guarantor of the resurrection of our bodies all right and there's multiple testimonies like that in antiquity so we know exactly what these communities thought we also know how they themselves interpreted those very biblical texts that are in question all right whether it's John 6 or the institution narratives of the Synoptics all right so that's another way of looking at it now now let's actually look at the text themselves and see are they really of the same character as these metaphorical statements like I'm the door of the Sheep okay well no they're not they're of an entirely different character when you look at the words of the institution themselves Christ uses the language of ritual sacrifice and draws on the Covenant language of the Old Testament he he references Exodus for Ramos's slaughters and animal sprinkles the blood on the people and says this is the blood of excuse me this is the blood of the Covenant that's exactly though and and of course Jeremiah 31 where Jeremiah promises that in that in the Messianic age will have a new covenant that will be written on our minds and on our hearts Jesus references both of those ideas and says this is the blood of the new covenant so you get ties them together this is the blood of the new covenant which will be poured out for you this is my body will should be given for you all right so it's the language of sacrifice and the institution of a covenant all right there's a larger context there now in and this is in fact one of the principle reasons why Christ is president body blood soul and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament so that the sacred victim who's offered in reparation for the sins of the world is truly and actually present on the altar all right so he can be offered ritually to God and sacrifice all right as is the case in the institution of any covenant and Scripture write in the Gospel of John it's it's Jesus looks up and gives thanks you Christine it's the same word that means Eucharist all right so he he begins the narrative of the the bread of life discourse with liturgical language and when you follow through the text you can see the parallel isms between John 6 and the synoptic accounts all right it's fairly obvious that John is using cryptic and veiled language so obvious I think to me and to even Protestant biblical scholars like Joachim Jeremias that he's using the language of Eucharistic liturgy in John chapter 6 and he's pretty upfront about it this my blood is real drink my my my body is real food I mean my body and drink my blood you'll have life otherwise you won't in the disciples and of course the Jews hear this and go well that's pretty nuts and they split and he says see uh sayonara yep it's hard stuff when I'm given out here sure and and so that we have a what a st. Paul say of the same question he says that we who eat of this one bread are one body because we're partaking of the one body of Christ and if you partake in an unworthy manner then you're guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord and you eat and you drink your own condemnation no this this is all extraordinarily strong language for if we're meant to take it in a metaphorical sense like you know the door of the Sheep okay Aaron thank you so much for your call hope that's a helpful for you this is called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Rex in Texas driving through Texas listening on Sirius XM 130 as well hey Rex what's your question today Matthew Mark Luke and John you'll see that Jesus only called Jews he told the following didn't never said anything those Gentiles that's what Paul was designated for to be the apostle to the body of Christ today and only Paul mentions the body of Christ Matthew Mark Luke and John here is that is the question Rex is this a question do you have a question right did you have a question yeah I mean my mother just died last year hardcore Catholic she went screaming she was terrified that she was going to hell she did all the Catholic stuff she was you know I'm so sorry for your loss Rex and for your mother's disturbed state of mind I really am I will pray for for her and for you but I'm wondering if you have a question if you died right now would you spend eternity let me ask you that are you sure you're going to heaven I know I'm going because the death burial resurrection of Christ I've put my faith in that alone never in baptism or church membership walking yeah that's great Rex let me ask you a question all right do you think it is possible for a person to have the subjective experience of assurance to believe with certainty that they're going to heaven and yet to be wrong in that conviction is that is that an intellectual possibility that a person could have a spurious or false assurance is that possible I'm not asking that question I'm asking if you think it's possible for a person to be subjectively persuaded that they're going to heaven and yet to be in error about that judgment I think a lot of people think they're going okay great I appreciate it thanks that's the point I want to make all right that I understand this the position this is a classic paratus belief that a person can have an absolute assurance that they're going to heaven and yet that very same tradition now I'm not talking about Catholicism I'm not talking about Protestant tradition in particular thinking about the reformed tradition the Calvinist tradition presbyterian illustrated by something like the Westminster Confession of faith will teach actually the Westminster Confession teaches that it's possible to have an infallible assurance of salvation I don't Catholics don't believe that and yet it also acknowledges that people can be deceived in that judgment what that means is that even on presbyterian terms somebody knows for sure they're going to heaven but i can't know if i'm that someone no wow right so the the promise of absolute assurance is a false one because one can't know that one is the one of those that has absolute and rock-solid faith thanks for your call rex our short meditation for Lent for the friday of the second week is taken from the parable of our Lord in the 21st chapter of the Gospel of st. Matthew where our Lord says to his hearers hear another parable and he tells about a plantation owner who built a great vineyard and as the season for pegging the fruit drew near he sent his servants to pick the fruit from the tenants were taking care of the vineyard and they stoned and even killed some of the servants then he sent back more when they did the same thing then he sent his son he said surely they will respect my son but they did not they said this is the heir coming let us kill him and we will have his inheritance and they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him therefore the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants and the people listening to the parable said he'll put them to death a miserable death and he'll give the vineyard to the service of others and our Lord said this parable about those who rejected him at his time he was very clear he speaks about the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and this is the were Lord's own doing not very many people in our society ask the question of the rich young man what do I need to do to be saved not too many asked the question and even not too many of those who ask it stop and listen to the answer very seriously I think our whole country needs reform I think the whole Christian community in this country from Quakers to Catholics and people all along the line I think we need to take Jesus much more seriously I'm worried about the Christians I'm worried about the Catholics because we have the Word of God and do we listen to it I'm Brian Patrick for Gloria Purvis Monday on Morning Glory Jeremy dice discusses religious liberty and Monsignor Charles Pope is our godly counsel join us from morning glory Monday 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 - aw tn1 8 3 3 2 8 8 3 986 before the break we were talking with Rex in Texas and Rex told us that his mother had passed away which is very sad we've been praying for her and for the salvation of her soul one thing that Rex brought up before the break was this the whole issue of assurance how do we know for sure or or can we know for sure you know where we're headed so Rex put the challenge to me whether or not I knew for sure that I was going to heaven and he asserted that he had absolute rock-solid certainty he was going to happen mm-hmm and and that's a key difference between the Protestant and Catholic traditions the Catholic Church does not teach that it's possible for me to have today an absolute assurance that I will go and go to heaven when I die it gives me a sound basis for hope but not an absolute assurance and I'd like to explain that and I'd also like to explore a little bit the Protestant claim to have absolute assurance the question I put to Rex before we got off for the break was Rex do you believe it is possible for a person to be persuaded that they're going to heaven and yet be wrong is it possible to be convinced I'm going to heaven and yet be mistaken in that judgment and he admitted that that was a intellectual possibility but denied that applied to him okay now here's the the difficulty with that position if you acknowledge that it is possible to be mistaken in your judgment that you are going to heaven well then you've just vitiated the claim of absolute assurance do you see well if i if you say okay it's possible for me to say I'm going to heaven and be wrong well then it's possible for Rex to say he's going to heaven and be wrong and therefore the the claim to have absolute assurance is is a fiction all right even even within the paradigm of Protestant theology even that's not even considering Catholic theology even within the system of Protestantism no one can claim to have an absolute assurance because they could always be mistaken in their judgment mmm all right within well anyway so there you go now let me give you the Catholic view on this the Catholic view says Christ never promises us absolute assurance st. Paul doesn't promise us absolute assurance st. John and his epistles don't promises absolute assurance they promise us assurance but not an absolute and unqualified assurance they qualify the assurance all right so Jesus says for instance those who persevere to the end will be saved those who persevere to the end will be saved st. Paul speaking to those who have received the gift of the Spirit and regeneration and justification by faith says but make sure you continue to walk in the spirit and do the deeds of the Spirit and fulfill the fruit of the Spirit because if you turn back to fornication adultery hatred jealousy factions and the like you will not inherit the kingdom of God all right so st. Paul says st. John says how do we know that we have received the Spirit of Christ but if we walk like him because the one who claims to have received a spirit of Christ and does not abide in love is a liar and the truth is not in him this is how we know we received the Spirit of God that we walk as Jesus walked and that's when and it's in that context that st. John Paul that not st. John Paul that st. John says that's why I've written these things that you may know you have eternal life well how is it that you're to know you have eternal life according Jon that you walk as Jesus said that you live the life of love but you have to persevere in that right as Jesus said he who persevere to the end will be saved now Christ also gave us some other qualifiers and and basis for hope he said whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and my word abides and you you'll bear much fruit and you'll have life all right but to eat his flesh and drink his blood is an ongoing relationship all right it's it's the relationship to the Blessed Sacrament to the to the sacramental system of the church it's there as a basis for hope you know if I ask myself the question where do I stand in relationship to Christ today and I and I investigate that question well hopefully all right I'm standing in relationship to the means of grace that he's established where the offer of grace is objective and made to me on a daily basis and I'm in communion with the church now the church who has the authority to adjudicate these things deems it appropriate for me to come to Holy Communion now there are people the church says no you can't come mm-hmm right there are people the church says no you can't come if you if you are manifest known mortal sin Church says you can't come you're not disposed to receive Communion that doesn't mean we're casting you out into outer darkness and saying you're gonna go to hell but it does mean it's not safe for you to come now but if I'm if I'm confessed up and in the sacraments and the church forms the judgment that it's appropriate for me to come then it's appropriate for me to rely upon that judgment as a sound basis for a confident hope in my salvation provided as Jesus says I persevere to the end so is the key is the Catholic filled with crave and fear kind of a neurotic scrupulous terror that I'm gonna go to hell absolutely not no in fact much in my experience that kind of neurotic tendency was more common in Puritanism and certain forms of Protestantism than it is in Catholicism I have a close relative who nearly went mad from the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination because of course what the Calvinists held was that God elects a small number for salvation and condemns the vast majority to help mm-hmm and and given the possibility of false or spurious faith this particular individual took the position how can I know that I'm elect and not damned that was what drove the whole Puritan movement how can I know that I'm elect not damn chew on fingernails chew on fingernails uh-huh you know and hence and hence the whole New England Puritan experiment of which ranged from radical antinomianism to to radical moralism because they were so tortured by this question of predestination in an election the Catholic doesn't worry about all that Catholic says I know Christ died for all men God desires all to be saved he's made the offer of grace to everybody and he's right there in front of me in the Blessed Sacrament and the priest has said to me your sins are forgiven I've absolved you the name of the Father and so on the Holy Spirit go forth and be not afraid yeah that's where we wanted not having lived in both camps mm-hmm I can tell you psychologically I have far more assurance as a Catholic than I did as a Protestant thanks be to God this is called a communion here on EWTN let's go back to the phones here for Ellen in Grand Rapids listening to us on Holy Family Radio hey Yellin what's on your mind today yes thank you for taking my call I kind of got nominated by our Bible study group to ask this question and your first caller and kind of touched on this a little bit but we just finished a study of Philippians through the formed Bible study series oh yeah and in Philippi in Philippians chapter 2 verse 4 it says let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others and the presenter was like saying boy st. Paul would just hate this so much because he it should be like put the interest of others first before your own interests so then we wondered why it doesn't say it that way it does the Bible's get revised every now and then or you know it's just anything that I don't really know what the you know what I want to say is it is it a permanent kind of thing or would there be a day where maybe some people study together and in the church and decide that they need to reword something okay thanks I appreciate it so so first of all there's there's there's no going back and rewriting the Bible okay that that's not how it works and I I'm not gonna bother to pull up the Greek text in front of me right now but I'm fairly confident that the translation that you've read is is a is a reasonable and accurate rendition of the original Greek text now the Latin Vulgate as well and and so st. Paul said what he meant he meant what he said all right I think however that you're reading you're reading too much into it and imagining that Paul is has in mind some sort of hierarchical ordering of values here and that there's some sort of absolute moral principle at stake I don't think that's the case I think Paul takes it for granted in this text that people look out for their own interests hmm yeah all right and he says and oh by the way you got to look out for your neighbor - all right that's the principle of solidarity and that's something that Jesus says as well he says you know it's no credit to you that you look after your your own family pagans and and tax collectors do that but you should also look after your enemies all right now that the Scriptures don't tell us to ignore our own interests and neither does Catholic moral theology and and we're supposed to look after our own interests were supposed to take care of st. Paul says physical training for us is of some value godliness has immense value but physical training is of some value and and we have to look out for you know scripture tells us that a man who doesn't take areas family doesn't care for his children is worse worse than an infidel infidel as you know pretty bad stuff oh yeah to take care of my kids I've got to look after my own interests I've got do I have a job to have an education you know can I provide health care and food for them and this kind of thing and if I don't do that then I'm a terrible guy I'm an awful guy and in fact one of the conditions for being a priest or bishop is if a man has been married and has a family how did he do was he good husband was he good father and he'd take care of his family all right the scripture says if not no he's not qualified to be a bishop or a priest cuz how can he take care of God's church can take care of his own family all right now our highest if our highest ethical priority course is to honor God above all things all right and that's not even in view right here we're just talking about social relations but again I think I think you're reading more into the passage than it's warranted and in answer to the other question we don't go back and revise holy scripture scripture is divinely inspired and in an inerrant infallible you we can revise translation all right but we should never revise a translation because we're trying we have a theological axe to grind right all right Luther did that you know Luther went back and retranslated the New Testament in German to stick in the word alone when when st. Paul says were saved by faith and not by works Luther says well I'm just gonna stick in the word alone so we're saved by faith alone well we're not saved by faith alone Luther had a theological ax to grind he changed his translation accordingly and and trust me you don't want you don't want Mike to people you don't want your translators to monkey around and put their own opinions under the Signet test don't do that hey thank thank you so much for your call Ellen this is called a communion here on EWTN glad that you're with us today if you love EWTN and you love the programs that you hear here on EWTN you may want to think about subscribing to podcasting because you know great programs like women of grace and take two with Jeri and Debbie this program called a communion open line morning glory all these programs are podcast and if you missed a show you can always listen to it again on demand and that means whenever you want to hear it so here's how you can get that set up here's just do this go to ewtn.com slash podcast you can subscribe to a podcast just like you would subscribe to a magazine or a newspaper ewtn.com slash podcast and check them all out today back to the phones right now for Zahid who's driving through Indiana listening also to Sirius XM 130 hellos ahed what's what's on your mind today yes sir I was just wondering that you know we the whole universe has one common sustained of God and somehow we we have a best reason to unite the whole world on the common God and we believe all the Jesus was born out of the womb of mother Mary and we can always say Jesus son of Mary but somehow we believe that he's another God and why don't we talk of Abraham who was before all Jews and Christians and modems and some of the juices Christian oh nothing and Christians say Jews are women or nothing and do well no knowledge they say similar talk but whereas if we somehow unite the whole world on one common college and I have to stick together and find out because that Lord always respects anyone who believes in him and he'll tell judgment no matter what religion he has if he is taking care of do two things that God is watching me and I'm going to be accountable for my deeds and as long as he's doing good deeds he will be rewarded he may not know any messenger you may not know Jesus Christ he may not know Musa so similarly like a bomb he was absolutely devoted to that Lord he was and he was one of the true Messenger of God and all the we are all the offshoots of him and we have somehow forgotten his religion and we have created bits and pieces whether it is of theology it's a religion we are divided and that doesn't stop some Protestant and Catholic and so many other face but actual enemies are devil i I think I understand the position and I really appreciate it and I agree with an awful lot not everything that you said but I agree with an awful lot of what you just said to be sure there's only one God that is a core conviction of the Christian faith there's one God and that all people have at least some knowledge of this God through the natural world that he made and in saint paul writing in the book of Romans says that the knowledge of God available in nature is sufficient to condemn the whole world if we don't if we're not obedient to the natural all written in our hearts there is a beautiful story of a Catholic saint named Josephine vaquita all right Paquita was in lived in the southern sudan and when she was seven years old she was captured by muslim slave traders from the north and she was taken away from her family it sold into slavery and horribly abused and mistreated raped and beaten and all the rest of it and eventually she was redeemed from that horrible life by an Italian diplomat who was present in the Sudan and I was taught that God was her loving father who cared for her and sent His Son Jesus that she might have eternal life and she tells us the number of things about that experience one of in her agra fee and she became a catholic of course and then died a catholic religious in italy one of the things she said was that the god that she learned of in the christian faith she recognised to be the same god that she had that she had glimpsed remotely through the beautiful things of nature long before she had ever heard of the christian faith she said she would look at the sun in the moon and the stars and she would think who made these beautiful things and she was filled with a profound desire to worship that God and to give him homage but from her contemplation of the created order she knew that there was a god and that he ought to be worshiped what she didn't know was that that God cared for her personally all right that he loved her and wanted to have a relationship with her of love like a father to a child and that's not something that is necessarily apparent from the created order nor is that something that all of the religions of the world teach there there are religions that teach that God is not our Father and that his relationship to us is more like that of an owner to a pet alright and that we are God's property to be disposed of as things and that it is the arbitrary will of God that is to rule our lives and not his fatherly concern expressed to us in the face of his son Jesus and so those are different conceptions of that one God one the loving father who cares for us one the arbitrary tyrant who rules us by his will alone their different conceptions of God but I would agree with you in principle that there is one God and to be reconciled to him is the is the end of all religion and the destiny of the human race regarding Abraham I also agree that Abraham is the father of all those who believe but if you go back and read the account of Abraham you'll see that there was a lot of specific content in the revelation that God gave to Abraham God told Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham all the nations of the earth he didn't say Abraham you worship me and all the nations of the earth are also called to worship me and so you'll all come to worship the same God he actually identified Abraham as a messenger and an heir to a promise not just a messenger not just a prophet but a father a progenitor of a community of people namely Israel through whom a special revelation would come to the world by which they might become not just reconciled to God but intimately United to him with detailed knowledge in part of that revelation as you continue to read through the dachshunds the Old Testament is that from the seed of Abraham would come forth a divine Messiah one who would be known as Almighty God who would suffer and die and rise again to make reparation for the sins of his people and through him to reconcile all things to God the Father and of course we know that to be Jesus Christ now you said something about Christian belief that there's God and then Jesus another God and that's false the Christians do not believe that Jesus is another God that is false Christians believe that there is only one God there's only one God and and God does not have parts all right so it is a it is a false understanding to imagine that Christians think that there's a God divided into three parts we don't believe that God is divided into three parts what we believe is that in the one God who has one divine essence in nature that there are three relations that we call Father Son and Holy Spirit now that's a mystery because for most human beings we have one nature and one person or one relation in God they're three because in him we see not only unity but also the communion of love because that is as very nature as to love all right and that love becomes incarnate in the in in the man Jesus Christ who is not another God but the one God now revealed to us in the flesh that through him humanity in its flesh might be united to God not just in knowledge but also in charity because men lack charity and they need divine grace to be reformed in their lives to be drawn away from concern for temporal things and to and to love that which is eternal and moreover to love not only those close to him to them but also to love their enemies a thing naturally impossible to us but made possible by divine grace given to us in Jesus Christ so he there's a lot of information just put out there if you want you can go to EWTN radio dotnet and listen to our podcast EWTN radio dotnet I would recommend checking that out either later this evening or perhaps tomorrow sometime I thank you again for your call this is called a communion here on EWTN we go to Curtis in Columbus listening on st. Gabriel radio AM 8:20 hey Curtis what's on your mind today hey guys thanks so much for taking my call sure my question is basically I've been a Catholic my whole life I'm 22 years old and I found a lot of great truth in the Catholic Church and one thing that my family and I have been running into in the past few month is the church getting very political about certain things and I guess my main question is what does Catholic doctrine say about when the church should get involved in politics when the church should stay out I guess but specifically what I'm referencing is at my home parish and at my parish that I go to when I'm away at college there's been a lot of references and a lot of prayers that homophobia and xenophobia could can be cured from our society and a lot of I hear a lot of the political language that I hear on the news and I'm not really one sided either Republican or Democrat or you know I I define myself as a Catholic first but it does put me in my family a little bit at odds we do come from a more conservative background and I'm kind of just wondering what where is it sort of where does it where is the Catholic Church supposed to be on these issues you know I really appreciate this a lot thank you very very much okay so it sounds to me like if I had to guess from your description that you or you're in a church that is heavily involved in a in a in an ideological vision of of society and it sounds to me like it's a sort of typical leftist identity politics that divides the world into the oppressors and the oppressed and identifies all marginal groups with the oppressed and and then tries to make the claim that Catholic doctrine is on the side of the oppressed and therefore or you know if you follow your into one of these marginal groups then we have a sort of de jure and de facto obligations to take your side no matter what the issues involved so that ideological vision is not Catholic it could be some people in the parish right that are espousing this rather than the official Church teachings well he says this is the narrative in his parish got it all right and could be as priest - right but this is a deeply ideological vision of of the Catholic faith and you're certainly by no means obligated to hold to their ideology all right now the there is instruction on this from the Holy See john paul ii wrote an encyclical called solicitude array so Cialis which is on the churches of social doctrine and one of the things he says in there is that the church's social doctrine is not an ideology all right it's not on the Left it's not on the right it's not in the middle all right and and attempts to conflate Catholic moral theology with any ideological vision or illegitimate or illegitimate now that doesn't mean that Catholic social doctrine doesn't have some bearing on ideological questions all right but but it's a it's a it's an entirely it's a category mistake okay now you'll certainly find other Catholic moral theologians who are who are also ideological that take the opposite point of view - the one that's represented in your parish and would and would take you may rather extreme positions on the right now guess what they're all Catholic they're all Catholic okay so what you need to do the way we think about moral political questions as Catholics is we ought to embed ourselves in principles in principles and not and we don't want to select only those principles that fit with our ideological vision all right we want to get as as comprehensive and deep and and and wide understand if Catholic moral teaching as we can all right mm-hmm and and that doesn't mean we don't start with with some moral theologian who lived yesterday we start in the doctrines of the New Testament all right and any Old Testament for that matter and we read our way through the tradition we read st. Thomas Aquinas we read st. Augustine of Hippo we read our Cardinal Newman read our Cardinal Bela we read the the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent we read the canons and decrees of the Council of Nicaea of the first Vatican Council of the Second Vatican Council we pick up our Roman catechism from the 16th century we pick up our catechism of the Catholic Church from the mid-1990s we read the moral and cyclicals of john paul ii let me tell you he's not taking the position that your friends are taken right we read the moral encyclicals of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis and we try to gain eye deep and comprehensive understanding of the whole Catholic moral tradition I mean this is the work of a lifetime I'm giving you but I'm trying to help you think through how would you rationally engage the civil order ok and then and then when we have that good moral foundation and we've got good moral theology and we're we're critical and rational then we try to make the best Prudential decisions that we can in in the here and now the concrete here and now about about these various political and ideological questions that may arise but you know I think right now just the way you're describing this they're leaving out a tremendous tremendously important part of the Catholic moral tradition on human sexuality when they when you when you hear prayers calling for an end to homophobia well sure that's valid but we should also call for prayers for people who are suffering from same-sex attractions that they might live to chaste lives yeah all right we should pray for things like the solidification of marriage and that marriage should be elevated in in in the cultural moral milieu and that parents should recognize that they have a moral obligation not to divorce one another and to raise their kids what if your what if you're married you're a man you marry a woman you have two kids and then suddenly you decide you're gay what's your moral obligation stay married yep raise your kids yeah don't abandon your wife it's not about your sexual pleasure it's about replenishing society in the church for the glory of God even if you're unhappy yeah Curtis thank you for your call while you're at it don't be a homophobe yeah that too dr. David Andrews thank you my friend thanks Tom have a great weekend for everybody that couldn't get in today please call us back on Monday we'll put you at the head of the line I'm Tom price have a great weekend god bless

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,276

Rating: 4.9069767 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: sTOFVuT_7gI

Length: 54min 59sec (3299 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 02 2018