Called to Communion - Dr. David Anders - February 10, 2020

and you've left the faith and now you're maybe want some questions answered let's try to get those questions answered right here and right now here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six or if you're listening to us outside the US and Canada you'll want to dial the US country code and then two oh five two seven one two nine eight five you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for our response in the text is your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply those of you watching us on EWTN television can participate as well here's our email address CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com Charles Bering is our producer Ryan Penney is our phone screen or Jeff Burton is on social media he can pass on any questions you may want to pose via YouTube or Facebook live we are streaming there right now along with all of our other fabulous platforms I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders Tom how are you today you know what doing great how are you my friend doing well thanks we ever going to lead off here with an email as we're getting some of these calls screened there's one from Jarrett is it permissible for me once I have gone through the Sacrament of Confirmation is it permissible for me to attend my wife's church in order to appease her feelings of abandonment do you believe it behooves me to do so in order to keep harmony in my marriage at least for a time and again that's from Jared yeah thanks Jared I appreciate the question so I assume your wife is not Catholic she belongs to some non Catholic Church perhaps as a Protestant Church I don't know yes you can attend worship with her you must still go to Catholic Mass you still have an obligation to go to Mass every week and on holy days of obligation and you may not receive the putative sacraments at your wife's church because they don't have valid sacraments and they're not in union with the church that Christ founded which is the Catholic Church so you know if you were to receive the sacraments of that church it would be tantamount to saying and there's no difference you know between these two and there is a big difference big difference so but for the sake of your wife you can go in accompany her because you want your wife to have a relationship with God you want her to live a virtuous life you want her to have faith you know as she understands God even though she doesn't have the full truth of the Catholic faith what she's got is good and you want to encourage her in that good yet ultimately we hope that she also will come to full communion with with the Catholic Church and your love and charity and acceptance is gonna go a long way towards making that possible absolutely Jared thank you so much for your email here's one you're gonna love this David this is from Cole how can we know that the Catholic Church is the one true church thanks I appreciate the question so when you go back to the teaching of Jesus which has got to be our foundation for our understanding of the Christian life Christ speaks about the church he talks about his intention to establish a church he said this the st. Peter in Matthew chapter 16 yura Peter the rock on this rock I will build my church give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven what have you bind on earth is bound on heaven whatever you loose on earth loosed and seven and the gates of hell are not gonna prevail against the church and he uses similar language to the Apostles in Matthew 18 binding and loosing and so forth and then to the eleven also in Matthew 28 he gives them the command to teach all nations making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit so we actually look to the teaching of Jesus he talks about the foundation the establishment of an institution a society those who've been called out by believe in Christ namely the church with Peter as the Rock foundation the Apostles exercising a juridical authority an executive authority of binding and loosing with a charge to actually teach the traditions of Christ the oral teaching of Jesus to all nations and a promise of divine assistance down through the ages right so if Christ is the son of God if he has divine authority and he establishes a church and he intends for that church to be the means and instrument of spreading his message throughout the world he's promised to be with and to guide that church so that what the church binds on earth is bound in heaven then we would expect that that institution would endure that it would fulfill its mission now you know maybe it's run by incompetence maybe it's run by human beings that have personal faults as st. Peter did right as st. Peter did he goofed up a number of times even after the Ascension you st. Paul had to come by and kind of give him what for when they were in Antioch because he buta ho did a major faux pas when he was in Antioch nevertheless it was Christ's power that would cause the church to endure now what institution stands in direct historic continuity to that society founded by Christ what institution was it the Lutheran's no wouldn't be the Lutheran's because they didn't exist until Luther right right 16th century was it the Calvinists who couldn't have been the countess for the same reason how about the Baptist's no couldn't have been the Baptist cuz John Smith founded him in 1609 right couldn't have been the Anglicans founded by King Henry the eighth couldn't have been the Christian Church with Barton stone and Alexander Campbell couldn't have been the Latter day Saints Joseph Smith you know 19th century guy all right go down the list which one has been around for 2,000 years it's Catholic Church miss Catholic Church the last man standing and 1st man standing absolutely all right well we hope that is a helpful for you Cole and we do appreciate your email now if you'd like to send us an email for a future show the address ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com one of the questions that we're going to get to right after the break here David so you can be thinking about this this actually came in from father John a couple days ago father John says I am a frequent listener to you on call to Communion well thank you Father John he goes on to say I have heard you speak often of the Beatitudes as the heart of the Christian message have you David written something on this and if so where might I find it and again that's from father John so you may want to think about some of the things that you've read written rather either on the call to communion website or maybe elsewhere and we can give father John a a full answer when we come back from the break how does that sound okay all right very good also when we come back we'll be talking with Jay in Spokane Washington also Patti right here in Birmingham Alabama listening on Guadalupe radio we have a couple lines open for you as well if you have a question for dr. David Anders the number 8 3 3 2 8 8 EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six four call to Communion now we have today's quote for a mother Angelica's perpetual calendar the real Christian lives in an atmosphere of prayer for him prayer is not a spiritual exercise that he performs on occasion it is a way of life there are times he says prayers but those are times he asks for things he needs most of the time is spent in preparing himself to live in God as God lives in him mother Angelica's perpetual calendar is available at EWTN our sitcom that's EWTN our c-calm this is an EWTN bookmark brief just had the pleasure speaking with Jeff Cavins about his book the activated disciple taking your faith in the next level tell us Jeff what's this book about and why did you write it well the activated disciple taken your faith for the next level is really about challenging people to go from studying the faith and and being interested in the faith my would daresay maybe it's a hobby to some people to actually following Jesus taking what you've learned putting it into practice faith really is two things an intellectual assent yes I believe these things but it's also a personal entrusting of yourself as Pope Benedict you know spoke about and and that involves getting up and actually following him on a day-to-day basis the activated discipled taking your faith to the next level by the one only Jeff Cavins available through our EWTN religious catalogue look for the entire interview coming soon on the network this has been an aw ten bookmark brief thank you [Music] thanks for joining us today on call to communion here on EWTN if you have a question for dr. Dave for dr. David Anders our phone number is eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six okay here's that email that we got from father John again I am a frequent listener to you on call to Communion I have heard you speak often of the Beatitudes as the quote heart of the Christian message have you written something on this and if so where might I find it yeah thanks I appreciate it I don't know that I've written an article or anything directly addressing that question but I can tell you who has okay and and where I would send you so there's a Dominican I'm sure you know him Dominican moral theologian very famous for his book on the sources of Christian ethics I'm going to mispronounce his name because I don't know that I've ever heard the last name said aloud but serve a pink hairs pinc que a er s o P all right Oh P for Dominican Order preachers and you might look at his book on the pursuit of happiness which is an explication of the Beatitudes the teaching of Christ about happiness his book morality the Catholic view is another great introduction he's going to talk about the role of Beatitudes in the Christian life and of course father father pink Harris is just following the teaching of Augustine in st. Thomas Aquinas in explicate nice so the prima segunda of the of the Summa Theologica of st. Thomas he talks about the Beatitudes and of course st. Agustin's commentary on the Gospels and commentary on the Beatitudes another great place to go okay and the Father John thanks again for your kind words about the show we do appreciate that hope those resources are helpful for you if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Patti right here in Birmingham listing on Guadalupe Radio AM 1480 hey Patti what's on your mind today hey mornin made me think something a question I've had for a long time yesterday the event we had for a Monsignor O'Connor we prayed for the repose of this soul but I think I recall we also pray to him now he's not technically in quotes of st. you know but we don't know so and I don't recall ever learning anything in the Catechism about that sure sure so thanks for the question is a good one so the if if you have a private opinion that a loved one of yours was a saint was a holy person who died you know lived a life of heroic charity died in the grace of God it is okay for you in your private interior devotional life to ask for that person's prayers and intercessions but that the church universal does not establish public veneration unless the church declares that person to be venerable or to be beatified or canonized Saint that's the point of the canonization process that that the Holy See validates that this person can be publicly venerated within the church right and commemorated in the church's calendar and so forth so it's not appropriate yeah this is my judgment like based on how I understand the law of the church at the level of the parish you know or the diocese or so forth for there to be public veneration of a holy person unless that's been given the approval of the church but in your private devotional life in your private life there's nothing wrong with that I mean like for example well I've got some holy relatives and priests that I've known that have died and I get all my bases covered so I pray for the repose with their soul and then I flip right around and I asked them for their prayers on my behalf and here's the great thing about that no prayer has ever wasted just not like if you misfire like God's not gonna know what to do with it right so the prayers going to get answered one way or the other and and so it's a pious missus but this is the way the process of canonization works it usually bubbles up from below right there's some holy person that's known to the people of God we go this this guy is great this woman is fantastic what an example of Christian charity there ought to be public recognition so let's start the cost for canonization that's how it works okay very good patty thank you so much for your call and that opens up a line for you right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six call to communion here on EWTN let's go now to Jay in Spokane Washington listening on the EWTN app hey Jay what's on your mind today hey I just wanted to say thanks dr. Andrews for Tom you gave me the book recommendations several months ago and that's partly why I came back to the Catholic Church so Hank thank you Church from the Orthodox Church and you know go to Mass I see you know I go to a Norma's novus ordo Mass and it's generally a you know reverent awesome Mass but something bothered me and I was worried if you could explain kind of logic at the teaching behind it I noticed that there's a large number of people who distribute the Eucharist you know along with the purview and I did a little reading on it and I'm unclear because I've heard conflicting things from different clergy from different you know areas of the church pitching behind the that Eucharistic ministers or the laypeople to hand up Eucharist okay thanks so the proper term is extraordinary ministers of the Holy Eucharist not Eucharistic minister because the ordinal excuse me the ordinary minister of the Eucharist is the priest right is the priest and the law of the church is that if there are enough ordinary ministers present priests and deacons to distribute Holy Communion that's what you do as I was at a mass yesterday knew priests had just come into our diocese a religious priest from another country and he was kind of getting shown the ropes by somebody and so he came in and Kahn celebrated at the parish and he didn't say Mass but he was along there he's long for the ride so to speak and the celebrant was distributing Holy Communion and here comes a other priest along with him and the two of them were given out Holy Communion you got you got double the priests it was great you know and if you had a deacon present he should do so also now what if you have you know 1500 people and you got one priest and you got another mass and you know 20 minutes hello right you don't have time to distribute holy one person to distribute communion to everybody and so the church has said we can have late people as extra ordinary not ordinary extra ordinary ministers of holy communion so that we can you know people have the opportunity to go to communion and in a reverent and orderly fashion and of course to do that there they have to be vetted by the church they have to be trained they they should do it in proper fashion and their role should in no way be confused with the proper role of the ordinary minister so is this institution subject like any institution to abuse could it be done badly could it be done irreverently yes it could be and if you saw something happen they shouldn't happen then you should bring that to the attention of the pastor or the bishop and say this this person didn't know what they were doing they did something they shouldn't have done but that's why they have to be trained they have to be vetted they have to be approved they should you know shouldn't be involved in some kind of scandalous thing they should be exemplary members of the people of God so that can be done decently in an order there you go Jay thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN glad that you're with us today here is Ruthie now in st. Louis listening on covenant radio hey there Ruthie what's on your mind today hi thank you so much for taking my call so I have a question we were I was in a Bible study of Catholic young women and we were discussing Jesus as back to them and the question I posed did Jesus need to be baptized or did he choose to be baptized as an example for us was there I don't know another question yeah thanks appreciate this so we read about this in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 when when John is baptizing people in the Jordan and lo and behold he looks up and here comes the Son of God he's in line and John felt like you did he looked at Jesus and said what are you doing here you don't need to be baptized by me I need to be baptized by you so he had the same sense that you did what is this guy doing showing up in what is in other regards a baptism of repentance he's got nothing to repent for why is he here and Jesus says let it be so now it is fitting it is fitting it is proper to do this to fulfill all righteousness what does that mean let's unpack that who is John the Baptist he was the last of the Old Testament prophets what was his role he was the herald of the coming kingdom of God the one that would come before the Messiah and make a way for him where was he doing his work at the Jordan River what is the significance of that when the Pharisees and the scribes showed up all right he said to them you guys don't say you have Abraham for your father because God can raise up children for Abraham from these very stones rather bring forth the fruits that are in keeping with repentance that's a very significant language on John's part because the the promise of the gospel was that the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob would become the common possession of the whole world right Malachi 1:11 God says you people in Judah in Israel sick of all your worthless offerings and sin I'm going to make sure that the Gentiles offer me a pure offering everywhere throughout the world right that's why st. Paul in Romans chapter 15 verse 16 can say my priestly duty as the apostle to the Gentiles is to prepare the Gentiles as a pure offering to give them to God this is what John the Baptist's ministry means he is showing us that God was was symbolically reconstituting the people of God passing them again through the River Jordan remember the first time the people of Israel went through the River Jordan into the promised land by standing there at the River Jordan John is saying as if we are now passing again into the new promised land of the new kingdom of God no longer constituted simply by genealogical descent but by faith and repentance in God's Messiah and and what is Jesus's name Joshua that's what his name in Hebrew means the one who led the people of God across the River Jordan into the physical promised land of Canaan the new people of God those reconstituted at faith and holiness not by circumcision not by physical descent from Abraham but by faith and holiness led by this new Joshua into this new reality of the kingdom of God and what's the first thing Jesus does after the baptism he goes on into the desert right just like Moses led the people into the desert then he comes back and as Moses came back and and gave the Ten Commandments gave the law of Mount Sinai Jesus gives out the new law of the Sermon on the mountain the Beatitudes and as Moses had twelve tribes to work with Jesus calls twelve disciples twelve apostles who are symbolic of this new covenant reality so was it necessary for Christ to be baptized not for the remission of sins not for the remission of sins but to but to establish him as the head of this new body which would be called the church he passed as our as the firstfruits of our Redemption through the waters of baptism through the waters of death burial and resurrection that we might - might be joined to him in newness of life Ruthy we hope that's helpful for you and your friends as well thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN we have one line open at the moment eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six that's one eight three three two eight eight EWTN here now Gordon in Houston hey there Gordon what's on your mind today yeah how you doing I'm fine thanks yeah I teach the Bible in Houston uh I'm a Catholic been one since I was born tell you a little bit about my problem I have problems with Mary and I have problems with the you know praying to Mary like a lot of people are doing nowadays and it's a big controversy across the world not just in Houston but that and also adding and subtracting to scripture you know which is a horrible sin in the Catholic Church Magisterium has added and subtracted so much and Mary's not the mother the church she's a sinner she's not sinless Oh Lord is this a question is there do you have a question responding this is my this is my question how can you how can I figure this out and still be a Catholic is my question sure yes thanks Jordan I really really appreciate the question so so let's start with first principle shall we when when Christ came and he taught the people to believe in God and he laid out the way of salvation for us did he give us any provisions any instructions about how he wanted the faith to be handed on down through the generations did Jesus tell us anything about the way the faith was to be transmitted well again see I don't even believe that the Pope was given that authority well that's not that's that's that's beside the point my question is did Jesus himself give any instructions about how we were to hand on the faith how we handle the place in its entirety how we are to transmit it through the world how the teaching of Christ is to be transmitted and to be communicated down through the generations did Jesus give any instructions about that Jesus gave us teachings that said that his word was everything God gets all the glory so when did Jesus know I understand the Word of God is authoritative my question is did Christ actually give instructions about how to communicate that message well he told the Apostle he started Paul in Corinth and and what did he say What did he say to the apostles he told him exactly thank you I appreciate it you made my point Christ of course taught orally he never wrote anything down and he course he also taught by his example in his holy life and his death and resurrection and when he instructed the church to hand on that teaching that example the rituals he instituted like baptism and the Lord's Supper in confession he never mentioned anything about writing them down never mentioned not once not one single time he never mentioned any particular books like Matthew Mark Luke or drawn Romans or Corinthians Galatians Revelation of Thessalonians or Hebrews never mention those instead he gave the message of salvation to authorized individuals to the eleven right because Judas was already gone and said you guys take this message teach it to all nations I will be with you to the end of the age now the Catholic faith starts and ends with trust in that promise that Christ established authorized individuals to hand on his oral tradition the words of the scriptures were written by those apostles they and they were recognized by that church as authoritative on that basis lots more straight ahead stay with us dr. Greg Papa we want listeners to see that God has a unique and unrepeatable plan for their lives and how to rejoice in the work God is doing in their hearts and in their homes the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio this is a messy family minute from Mike and Alicia Hernan the deepest desire for many of us as parents is to pass on a faith to our children and to do that parents need to be very intentional first me to look at ourselves and live our faith authentically because more is caught than taught most kids especially teens sense hypocrisy quickly so we need to live a life of humility by asking for forgiveness acting with charity and loving generously next create a unified Catholic culture in your family we are called to be in the world but not of the world so we cannot be afraid to be countercultural and last don't protect children from every failure because suffering brings maturity we need to remember that Christ promised us the cross but he also promised to be with us every step of the way when we teach this to our children we are guiding them into mature faith in Christ who will satisfy all the longing of their hearts for more information and resources visit us at messy family minute org rings is the weekly newsletter that's packed with program info features and updates of all that's going on at the global Catholic Network just go to ewtn.com slash wings fill out your name and email address and you'll start getting your wings every week when you get yours send it to all your friends and they can send it to their friends and pretty soon we're covering the whole world with the good news about ewtn wings the weekly newsletter from ewtn the global catholic network hi this is Janet Williams you don't have to be a woman to enjoy women of grace tomorrow at 11 a.m. Eastern here on EWTN radio now back to call to communion with dr. David Andrews [Music] hey what's keeping you from becoming a Catholic or do you want to return to the Catholic faith well if so in either case this is your show called a communion here on EWTN with dr. David Anders and before the break we were talking with Gordon in Texas yeah brought up something very interesting and and he actually went through a whole bunch of things but basically he's concerned about Mary and why do we believe what we believe and yeah Gordon made two claims was that praying to Mary was wrong and the other one was that the Catholic Church adds to and subtracts from the Bible yes and so I began to kind of roundabout way with Gordon asking him if Christ himself had given us any instruction in how the faith is to be handed on and the reason I lead with that question is because oftentimes when I'm in a dialogue with someone like Gordon and they sort of presume the authority of the Bible and then they they want to test the claims of the Catholic Church against their understanding of Scripture my question to them is but before we get into an analysis of what the Bible says I think we should we should first look at what the Bible is like what is the but what's the role of the Bible in the Christian life and where did it come from right because a lot of people don't appreciate the fact that we would not have a Bible if the Catholic Church had not compiled it had not put it together and promulgated it and pulled the world hey these 27 letters of the New Testament right in these 73 books in the old this is the Word of God the reason we even have a coherent body of Scripture is that the Catholic Church declared it to be thus so if you if the beginning of your argument is I don't trust the Catholic faith well you better throw away the Bible too because you're not gonna have a Bible if you don't have a Catholic Church you throw away the Catholic Church you better throw away the Bible because the Bible was produced by the characters can't trust Church can't trust the Bible that they put together so that's the first thing I wanted to say so the claim that the Catholic Church adds to or subtracts in the Bible is incoherent right it doesn't make any sense well yeah they added they added mark to Matthew and then Luke to John and then the Paul item yeah did they added them all up we got 227 and the church said stop right that's the Bible that we have the one the church put two right now um you might make me say the Bible have search adds to the Bible well maybe what you have in mind is that in addition to Sacred Scripture the counselors also acknowledges the oral teaching of Jesus oral tradition of the church as well well yeah absolutely you have to because if you don't acknowledge oral tradition again you can't get back to the Bible how why do you think the church picked those 27 books because the oral tradition of the Catholic Church had already come to recognize them as divinely inspired and to distinguish them from other pretenders there were a lot more than 27 books floating around in the ancient world all right so how did the bishops know which ones to pick the tradition of the church was the criteria that they adverted to so if you reject tradition as an authority in addition to the Bible again you have to throw out the Bible tradition is the witness that gives us the Bible and so if the sacred tradition acknowledges other truths as well well we can't we can't pick and choose in the tradition of the church and call the whole thing into question if the same people who promulgated the Bible also held that Mary ought to be venerated as the mother of God or that she was perpetually a virgin and those doctrines are actually older than the Canon of the Bible yes and you say well you know the guys who put the Bible together not to be trusted when they talk about Mary well they better not be trusted when they talk about the Bible either all right so so yes we hold two traditions outside Sacred Scripture we have to otherwise we have to throw out the Bible yes those include teachings about the Blessed Virgin Mary now do those teachings themselves actually contradict the Bible no they do not no they do not Gordon made one assertion about the Blessed Virgin Mary namely that she was a sinner and I've I know the Bible I think Tom you do to imagine Gordon does the Bible never a search that about the Blessed Virgin Mary never says she was a sinner on the contrary the Bible says that the bless Virgin Mary was full of grace having been graced to the full kakera tahminae is the greek word one having been graced to the full nother end and purpose of Graces to preserve us from sin that's what it does saves us from Sun if she had the plenitude of grace do the math buddy do the math she was the holiest person that ever lived mm-hmm no what about praying to her well again we have if you want to go with the Bible I'm happy to do that do the saints in heaven get involved in our prayers though they offer them to God on our behalf the Bible says that they do Revelation chapter 5 verse 8 says precisely that they are offering the prayers of the church as so much incense before the throne of God so not only does the Catholic teaching about Mary it doesn't contradict the Bible not at all it it it doesn't it it so rounds out and fills out the teaching of Scripture but also it's important to recognize that if you don't if you're Jack Catholic tradition you also have to reject the model okay Gordon thank you again for your call we do appreciate that it is called a communion here on EWTN we're going now to Lisa in Waukegan Illinois listening also on the EWTN app today hey Lisa what's on your mind my husband six years ago I and and the Catholic Church seek Atticus so I'm you know I'm trying always to learn my religion and but we always are you or like no are you but like you know have a conversations about the Holy Bible yeah the Bible and he always brings that Bible is just a history book and that is not it was written by nice people and I always have a hard time just explain him that it's not that okay thanks yeah sure I appreciate the question so um your husband claims that the Bible is a history book written by people you claim that it's divinely inspired and and you are loggerheads y'all are kind of in contention about this why can't you both be right why can't you both be right why can't the Bible Bible be a history book written by people in a process that was guided by the Holy Spirit to ensure that what that history book written by people says is precisely what God wanted said because that's the way the Catholic Church understands the Bible was the Bible written by people yes does it show the marks of the history and culture and world view of the people who wrote it yes was that by God's design yes so is it both human but also supernaturally produced yes that's the teaching of the Catholic Church so whatever your husband points to goes well that looks very human well that would be the case given that God used humans to write it exactly so nothing you can find about the humanity of Scripture counts against what the Catholic Church says about Scripture Lisa thank you so much for your call hope that's helpful for you and for your husband as well it is called a communion here on EWTN what's going out of John in San Antonio listening on Guadalupe radio a first-time caller hey John what's on your mind today hey not too much I just had a confusion so I know somebody was mentioning it earlier about how Jesus uses baptism and so my question I confused was if Jesus was baptized by submersion why in the catholic church there's a baptism by the sprinkling of water thanks John what makes you think Jesus was baptized by immersion it says when he came up out of the water a dove ascended on him so that means he walked down into the Jordan right so he we know that John was standing in the Jordan River and Jesus went to John but doesn't say anywhere in there that Jesus was immersed I see so in fact when you look at the iconography of Christ's baptism in the ancient world most often they depict Jesus standing in the River Jordan and John pouring water over his head but the Catholic teaching on this question is that immersion is valid baptism pouring buckets full of water over somebody's head could be valid baptism sprinkling is valid baptism what's necessary is water flowing on the scalp now you can get that done by putting the guy all the way under you can but you can also get it done with a little bitty conch shell yes indeed John thank you so much for your call called a communion here on EWTN let's go now to a Francis in Deerfield Beach Florida and Francis what's on your mind today I'm calling about dr. Neale Donald Walsch he is not Catholic but he he is saying that he is communicating with God and I wondered what the Church's comments on his teachings are because he's written several books on it which are called conversations with God and I wondered if the church has any comments on what he has written yeah sure I appreciate the question so I am not aware of any specific teaching from a bishop or from the Pope about these books in particular but in anticipating your call I did a little research myself so I research that I did in the last five minutes I don't claim to be an expert but I've read a little bit you know fortunately your internet age and all that kind of filler and I'm able to discern a few things about these books that give me some pause some concern first of all there is his claim to have experienced revelations from God all right now he's not the first person in history to claim this Muhammad claimed this Joseph Smith claimed this Zoroaster acclaimed this you know lots of people have been claiming all kinds of things sure yang say I went into cave and God talked to me right who's gonna know the better right so so just the fact that someone claims to have heard the voice of God that that's that's not compelling to me in five my default position when someone claims to have heard from God is that they are deluded or they are a liar that's my default position you got to prove the otherwise to me I'm skeptical before I believe it right because most of most claims to profit ISM are false and self-serving or or madness one of the two that's just historically true most of them are not to be trusted so then how do you actually evaluate when someone claims to have heard from God well you have to evaluate the teaching itself and you have to evaluate the messenger now if they do something really outstanding like fulfill a thousand years of Hebrew prophecy die get buried in a tomb rise from the dead appear to 500 people and ascend to heaven in the cloud found a church endowed with holiness and sacraments and changed the world that's kind of compelling evidence that maybe they really had the goods on what they were saying right this guy I don't think he's got those kind of bona fides so let's then turn to the message itself and does the fellow say anything that runs contrary to reason or to the Catholic faith and again having only done about five minutes of research my initial inclination is to say yes he teaches some things that are contrary to the Catholic faith and to reason he's a proponent of reincarnation he is a proponent of non-dualism meaning he doesn't action does not actually believe in the separate existence of entities and there's a big problem with non-dualism philosophically namely I'm talking to you right now and you're not me all right I'm talking to you and you're not meeting that we may share a lot of things in common we may have our humanity in common both children of God you know we're both made out of meat you know there's a lot of things that we have in common but you're Francis and I'm David and you're in Florida and I'm in Birmingham but we're not the same person and so when someone says well you know you're just fundamentally the same thing well you know that kind of flies in the face of reason right so that that's a problem right and and I could go through and enumerate other difficulties but I would I think that if you're interested in people who have had private revelations and heard from God in special ways we have got Catholic Saints whose experiences of God have been validated by the church by reason by tradition by their holiness in the lives of the people who spoke them and those who have heard them so someone you might look into for example Saint Catherine of Siena right you might read you might read blessed Raymond kapuas book on the life of Teresa of st. Catherine of Siena or perhaps sigrid undset great biography of Catherine this is a person as Catholic mystic who used to hear from God all the time but the fruit in her life and her holiness validated by the church very very different and very very outstanding all right and we thank you so much for your call Francis it is called a communion here on EWTN if you're looking for a unique setting for your own spiritual renewal you might consider the shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament right here in Alabama you can visit the final resting place of Mother Angelica and while you're in the neighborhood tour EWTN s campus it's only an hour away from the shrine in hanceville so I think about it pray about it and then start your Catholic pilgrimage today with EWTN just call two oh five two seven one two nine six six or you can go to a very nice website we have set up for folks just like you EWTN comm / pilgrimage do check that out we'll go back to the phones just a moment here a quick question from an anonymous viewer on YouTube David this person says is purgatory in heaven um no no it's not okay but I like the question I like I like the question it makes you think yeah the ultimate reward of heaven is the vision of God now that can't be something that's spatially located right because God is not like he's not in Birmingham and not in Tuscaloosa you know so it's not like to see God I've got a I've got a leave Tuscaloosa and drive to Birmingham huh all right and I could I could see God in either location all right because God is everywhere and all of God is everywhere the vision of God that we look forward to in heaven is an intuitive vision in in the interior where our soul is made supernaturally capable of knowing God in his totality God st. Paul says we will know him even as we are fully known now we see us through a glass darkly then we will see face to face and it'll be the fulfillment of all desire because in God is infinite good infinite beauty what is left to be desired when one knows God intimately in the interior life in this way Christ said blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God without purity of heart the vision of God is not possible must be purified and so purgatory is that state of being in which we are radically purified making us capable making us making it possible for us to experience this vision of God now you know to think of them as spatially located you know like heaven is here and then you know purgatory is like you know the southeast corner or somehow if that helps you whatever but the idea is purgatory is kind of an antechamber to heaven insofar as it is the last purification prior to our entrance into this beatific vision all right thank you so much for checking us out on YouTube we do appreciate that let's go to Carolina now in Augusta Georgia listening to us on st. Paul radio in Carolina what's on your mind today okay thank you so much I love listening to the show I have one comment in two questions if that's okay the comment is both of my family is not Catholic anymore I am still Catholic and they don't believe that that the Bible was formed by the Catholic Church they believe was called quote/unquote the primitive Church so when I was listening to some of your callers that's what they keep telling me it was not a Catholic Church that started the Bible it was not the priests it was it's a premium it was the primitive church I was I'd like to know how to respond to that at the same time I have a dear friend that said that if our Pope is showing signs of our being truly religious and being political being you know in summation that he's a socialist she knows I'm against socialism she and she's like you should not be a Catholic anymore you you know you're you're gonna be judged and so will your children if you continue to be Catholic with the with the Pope like that and then she formation the rapture you're not going to be going up I know I don't believe the Catholics believe in the rapture right right you're right correct there is no rapture there is no rapture so I appreciate these questions and let me speak to them one by one if I can and let me let me start with the question about the Pope and his political philosophy and all the rest of it okay so I don't know what all the Pope's political philosophy is and to be honest with you I don't care all that much it's not that important to my Catholic identity but let us say for the sake of argument that the Pope belonged not to the Socialist Party but to the inanimate objects party all right which is a real joke political party that actually exists okay or to the green cheese party or some some you know way off the wall crazy political party with a strange ideology and let us say for sake of argument that I thought you know my priest or my bishop but my Pope had had crazy political ideas that made absolutely no sense would I be obligated to follow my priest or my bishop or my Pope's political opinions answer no no I'm not obligated to follow any any clerics personal political ideology and the history of the papacy is in large measure a history of people disagreeing with various Pope's and their political philosophies julius ii as you know his political philosophy was that he would get on a horse and you know take out a sword and go on the warpath and go to war on behalf of the church i don't know any catholic that thinks that was a great idea it was his political philosophy let's lead an army and go beat people up I don't think people think that's a good idea you're not obligated to follow any clerics private political opinion right you're not obligated to so how does the church actually interact in the political sphere well primarily by teaching moral theology so let me give you an example Church says absolutely marriage ought to be respected it ought to be the bedrock Society this is an institution founded by God it's essential for the well ordering of civil life in any polity in any culture all right but doesn't actually tell you how to Institute that precisely at the level of civil law all right and so in different jurisdictions in different times different places that may have to look different so you know there are still countries in the world like in India where they have arranged marriages and I don't know enough about family law in India but I would be willing to bet that there's some provision for that cultural tradition in their civil law we don't do that in the United States there's no provision for arranged marriages in you know Alabama civil law family law right Church is not going to get down to that level of granularity in specifying how the laws are to be written just to say you have to remember these principles the church says that we ought to have a preferential option for the poor but doesn't actually tell us precisely at the granular level how that preferential option should be lived out and there's a room for disagreement so you have one Catholic that says look I think that that a really aggressive policy of welfare socialism is the best way to care for the poor and somebody else comes by and says no no I don't I don't actually think that's a good idea because it has all these negative consequences for the poor themselves I think instead we had a work to invigorate the entire economy and lift all boats and and the first guy says yeah but that leads to all kinds of crony capitalism and then they start arguing back and forth and you have two political parties that's what you got Catholics in both parties but in principle we ought to be open-minded enough to one another to recognize we could in good faith both care for the poor and have divergent ideas about the best way to help them sure that's allowed but you can have disagreements within the Catholic Church about political policy and you don't have to hold the policy of your particular cleric and and you know what one Pope has one political philosophy and the next pope may have a different one you don't have to change allegiances between between Pegasus what you have to hold to is the universal unchanging teaching of the church about the dignity of the human person and the moral theology that should inform any political discussion now let me go to your other claim about the primitive Church versus the Catholic Church well who on God's green earth do they think those primitive Christians were like who were those primitive questions this is not a hidden question this is a very open public question don't read the history we know who the primitive church were they were Catholics go read the history books I mean you don't need me to tell you this there were no Baptists in the fourth century there were no Presbyterians in the fourth century there were no Lutheran's in the fourth century and it's it's not like this stuff happened in a in a hidden room it happened in church councils that were public in hippo in Rome in Carthage organized by whom Pope Damasus Saint Agustin we know the guys it's out there for public viewing okay and then is there a rapture there is no rapture there is no rapture the rapture doctrine was made up John Nelson Darby in the 19th century it's not in the Bible it hasn't been in nineteen hundred years of Christian tradition Carolina thank you so much for your called we're gonna close with a question here from Allison who's checking us out on YouTube in Northern Ireland Allison says what is meant by rest in peace for the deceased given the particular and general judgment is this resting in peace kind of a Protestant way of thinking so Catholics pray for the repose of a soul we do pray for the repose of a salt yes well and that would we are we are hopeful that the soul of the deceased is saved that this person died in the grace of God but we are we have a realistic fear that this person may actually be experiencing the pains of purgatory and so we would our prayers are efficacious for the for the souls in purgatory the suffering souls that they might be kind of get through that process faster more efficaciously helped by the prayers of the church and so enter into that be a vision I see it all the time on social media where you know someone is announced as having passed and then there will be like you know 50 replies saying may they rest in peace I'm praying for the repose of their soul so-and-so want them to rest in peace so I think people understand absolutely all right on that note a fast moving show thank you so much David Andrews my dear friend thank you Tom appreciate it looking forward to our next visit together and that will be right here on EWTN we broadcast the radio show Monday through Friday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern we also have an encore for you at 11:00 p.m. Eastern also on EWTN radio our great producer Charles berry pulls the best show of the week in his humble opinion and then he'll post that for you on the radio as the best of call to communion on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern hope you can join us for our next visit together on behalf of our fabulous team here Charles Berry also Ryan Penney phone screener to the stars and with Jeff person who does so much very good work for us on the social media side I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders see you next time right here on EWTN is called a communion god bless [Music] this is John Martin Oni open line Monday is next here on EWTN radio I would always hear from different people at none

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: OiD3JJ4YkWY

Length: 53min 35sec (3215 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020