CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - July 13, 2020

senate campaign for more news with a catholic perspective visit ewtnews.com i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation my sins to 1-833-288-3986 priest what's stopping you this is call to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome to the monday edition of call to communion here on ewtn the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the catholic faith maybe you weren't too sure to you know how to get those questions answered maybe the catholic church in your area is closed or they're only open during very limited hours well we can help you get those answers right here and right now here is our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three six also we have another number for you if you're listening to us outside of north america and that number 205-271-2985 be sure you put the u.s country code ahead of that and then 205 205-271-2985 also you can text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always shoot us an email we're going to kick off in a moment here with a couple of emails ctc at ewtn.com is the address ctc at ewtn.com all right i think we are back to uh almost full strength here we we have uh um charles berry as our producer had to think of you know what names to put in what order all right charles berry is our producer we also have celebrity phone screener rich jesse and jeff person on social media he'll pass on any questions you may want to pose via youtube or facebook live i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom price how are you today you know what i'm doing great you made it just in time you made it here in the studio with like ah about a minute and a half to spare well you know i'm i drive from the offices of the diocese of birmingham to ewtn every day and i usually leave at 12 30 central time and get here with plenty of time to spare but today they were doing road work closed one of the lanes so stop and go traffic and you know the worst case was uh one time i showed up at the network had like 30 seconds to go after you know a traffic accident or something and there were no parking spots at ewtn oh and you were you were circling circling circles i circled and circled let's just let's just say that we did the show and afterwards i got in trouble with security for where i parked oh whoops don't want to do that right all right we're going to lead off with a couple of emails here and this one is very interesting to me because i had never heard of this this is from ricky ricky says i have come to the conclusion that only the catholic church or the british israelite group is true have you any information on the british israelite group thanks ricky okay thanks well here's my question for you did christ establish the british israelite group and and convey unto them uh the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the power of binding losing and the church to hand on the sacred tradition of everything he taught down through all ages um is there i mean is that is that the way it worked is that the way it worked the answer is no right um and the catholic claim to be the church is based on its historic continuity and apostolic succession with the church uh intended mentioned and founded by jesus christ christ of course appointed the apostles saint peter at the head said to saint peter matthew chapter 16. you're peter on this rock i'll build my church gift you the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and said all the apostles whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven gave them the charge matthew 28 when he sends into heaven gives them the charge go into all nations teach them everything i have commanded you i'll be with you to the end of the age gates of hell will not prevail against the church and whoever hears you hears me whoever rejects you rejects me whoever sins you forgive forgiven whoever sends you retain or retain and so that's the church founded by jesus christ 2000 years ago we see it in the new testament uh we see it in the second century and you go read the second century fathers they don't know anything about britain well they know a little bit about britain they know some some uh you know celtic barbarians live up there who need to be evangelized right um and uh they know something about israel they know that that uh that the the israel of god of course is the church founded by jesus in continuity with the old testament and they're conscious of that tradition find it defended by the likes of saint irenaeus of leon who uh second century catholic theologian who speaks about the catholic church grounds its authority in the succession of the apostles and is extremely conscious of their continuity with old testament religion in fact he contrasts that with the uh with the the competing group the gnostics that tried to split with the old testament and says no no we're you know we're in continuity with the religion of abraham isaac and jacob and uh and then we find it in the third century uh we find it with the likes of saint ceprian and north africa for example we find it in the fourth century with the council of nicaea catholic bishops from around the world that met to decide a matter of consequence great fathers of the church like augustine jerome basil uh saint gregory of nessa gregory nazianzus john chrysostom and on down the line down to the present day and that's how we know that the catholic church today is a very same one founded by jesus okay so what is this group i've never heard of them uh i have a i have a little anecdotal information but i don't want to speak out of turn before i'll go back and reread my okay okay fair enough all right here is one then uh this is actually from cheryl who says i can see that protestantism is very divided but is the catholic church totally unified just trying to figure out what to do thanks cheryl oh thanks i appreciate the question so so uh the catholic church is unified in its its governing authority and that's the principle expression visible expression of the church's unity is our adhesion to the governmental structure established by christ all the bishops in apostolic succession from the apostles together with uh the head of the college of apostles namely the pope or he's the successor to saint peter so we're united in our in our governmental structure we're united in our faith in our profession of faith we have one profession of faith we have the dogmas of the catholic church and that's what it means to be a catholic is to profess belief in the dogmas of catholicism we are united in our liturgy uh in spite of the fact that there are differences regionally and between rights uh we have in common the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass or the divine liturgy given to us by christ in the upper rim and and so within that unity within that doctrinal liturgical governmental unity there is room for differences of culture and policy and political opinions and music and you know all the kinds of things that cultures differ about but they're united with those key elements of catholic identity we don't have to split into separate denominations as protestants do when they differ on those things yes indeed cheryl thank you so much for your call in a moment we're going to talk with cheryl in cleveland we have a line open for you right now if you have a question for dr david anders 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 for call to communion he was a mystic and reformer who died at the age of 33. matthew bunsen and the doctors of the church then catherine of siena accomplished something no one thought possible he convinced pope gregory the 11th to return to rome after the popes had lived in france for almost the whole of the 14th century they've been there ever since for more about the doctors of the church visit doctorsofthechurch.com [Music] and this is an ewtn bookmark brief i'm doug keck i just finished speaking with michael d graney about his book 10 battles every catholic should know that's an entire interview coming soon but tell us michael why should someone be interested in this book 10 battles every catholic should know the first question that pops into most people's minds is why are you glorifying war to which i would respond i'm not glorifying war and nobody should glorify war what we should glorify is our response to it if we meet it with courage and fortitude no matter how bad it is it does us good even if the war itself is not just very good ten battles every catholic should know michael d graney is the author look for the entire interview coming soon on ewtn look for the book through our ewtn religious catalogue ewtnrc.com is a place you can pick the book up this has been an ewtn bookmark brief we appreciate you stopping by we'll see you next time [Music] call to communion reminding you to stop by for catholic connection tomorrow morning at 9 00 a.m eastern teresa tamio will be welcoming michael vodka talking about the upcoming digital health care conference on july 18th it's hitting the air at 9 00 a.m eastern right here on ewtn radio hope you can join us for that if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin with uh john in cleveland listening on am 1260 the rock hey there john what's on your mind today hey hi doug hi dr andrews thank you for taking my call good the thing on my mind today is why are humans the pinnacle of god's creation over and above the angels and what about us makes this so okay thanks i appreciate the question so let's talk about the things that humans and angels have in common right and then we can talk about where they're different so they both have in common rationality which entails moral freedom right the freedom to deliberate between good and evil in in the angels they exercise that freedom at the moment of their creation and those that obeyed god were confirmed in sanctifying grace and admitted to the beatific vision those that did not were never admitted to the beatific vision and lost the gift of sanctifying grace and those are the devil and his angels um and uh and so uh in intellect the angel is potentially much more powerful than the human and i think a lot of us could could really get down with the idea that you may not only have to obey god once and then and then i get confirmed in grace for all eternity and get the beatific vision immediately after my creation that sounds like a pretty good deal i'd really like that you know and uh and so that's kind of neat that the holy angels had that experience so how are humans different right well first of all uh unlike the angels we get multiple chances right we have an opportunity even if we live a life of of of habitual mortal sin to repent and and then and this is the really neat thing about being a human when we receive the gift of sanctifying grace we are not immediately admitted to the beatific vision and so we are given an opportunity to merit right through repeated acts of virtue in cooperation with grace in a way that angels did not have they didn't have that one act of righteousness boom they get their eternal reward humans have an opportunity actually to grow in grace and godliness and uh and to cooperate with the virtues and to merit greater and greater greater participation and divine glory and i think we can see that there's something intrinsically beautiful about that that's a different kind of beauty right than the beauty of being that immediately confirmed in grace captured in the words of our lord who says there's more rejoicing rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance now to be in fleshed right to have a body is not necessarily to convey a certain dignity on the human that's denied the angel but it's definitely a different mode of existence and when we are finally admitted to glory and experience the beatific vision we will experience it extensively rather than intensively in a way that is different from the way angels do all right because the the the angelic intellect being immaterial does not have sense knowledge and the human being the resurrected body of a human will have both the immediate intuitive vision of the divine essence that angels enjoy but will also have an embodied experience of god and of one another right and uh it won't it will not necessarily intensify the glory or the delight of the beatific vision but it will extensify it it kind of variegated spread it out over more media if you will so there'll be a kind of beauty like that if the of light diffused through a prism has its own sort of beauty that pure clean undulated white light does not that's something that humans have that angels don't possess but the great dignity of the human being is the capacity right um to share in the likeness and image of christ because jesus did not assume the second person in the trinity did not assume the nature of an angel but of a human being and this course is surely an act of divine beneficence benevolence and condescension i mean god did not have to redeem us through the incarnation but he granted us this dignity out of his own good will right out of his own munificence uh to choose to do that now we didn't deserve that that was just god's design and so if if god himself creates children for himself and raises them to this dignity through no merit of their own but out of his own sheer goodness all we can say is to fall back in awe and praise god absolutely is that helpful for you john that's beautiful it is speechless all right thank you thank you sir appreciate your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 399 the monday edition of open line open line please uh the monday edition of call to communion here on ewtn last week i did open line several days i think i did it uh tuesday thursday and friday so well tom you're not the only one we've we've had situations in the past when we rolled the wrong theme music for the show yeah you remember that yeah thanks for reminding me of that but that wasn't on you oh good that was on an unnamed producer we won't we won't drop unnamed that's right we'll leave it at that here is uh tim tim is listening in peoria on the ewtn app hey tim what's on your mind today hello general it's a pleasure to speak with both of you my question is i have noticed some churches will burn incidents during masses and others do not burn it at all throughout the year i was just curious what the protocol was uh for that yeah sure so there are there are elements of the liturgy that are that are variable and allow for a certain measure of of uh prudential choice on the part of the celebrant and uh so a lot of it will definitely have to do with the with the preferences of that individual priest and and whether or not he thinks that's appropriate in his parish at that time and there are some who who might use incense around particular feasts today's that are that are very hallowed in in the church's calendar uh others that uh they think hey i just like incense and they might just use it all the time you know there's a religious community in birmingham near me that i we're often attend mass and there's always incense they always sense the altar uh every mouse and you know it's a beautiful it's a beautiful element of the of the tradition be able to bring all the senses into our experience of the liturgy so it's commendable but uh but it's also variable and there there might be times when it wouldn't be appropriate and then priest has that has that discretion tim thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on ewtn i received a text here from nemus who says the catholic church claims that the bread of life discourse in john 6 as a as a proof text for the eucharist well how can this be so when the lord's supper hadn't yet been instituted until sometime later thanks i appreciate the question i'm not real comfortable with the language of proof texting though all right um i i it's true that the catholic church reads the text of john 6 in light of its eucharistic doctrine but i wouldn't be comfortable with the language of proof texting because the proof of the doctrine is actually older and sounder than mere exegesis and that goes to the second part of your question john 6 was written after the institution of the eucharist okay john 6 was not written before the institution of the eucharist it was written after the institution of the eucharist and the gospel writer shapes his material directly to reflect upon the liturgical tradition and this is something that biblical scholars have long noted that there's a parallelism between the language of john 6 and the institution narratives and the synoptics it's it's it's conspicuous that john does not recount explicitly overtly the sacraments in his or the institution of the sacraments in his gospel the synoptics do matthew mark and luke do john mentions them only obliquely and and the tradition has always read john chapter 3 in light of the baptismal uh narratives and john 6 and light of eucharistic narratives so why the why this oblique this opaque mention of the sacraments why do it in that way well uh joachim jeremias lutheran actually biblical scholar very very famous german biblical scholar from mid 20th century offers this theory which i believe personally to be true that even embedded in the synoptics and of course we know this from the documents of early christianity there was something called the discipline of the secret the discipline of arkani and this was the practice of concealing the teaching about the sacraments from those that had not yet been initiated into the religion christ himself begins this tradition in the synoptics when his disciples ask him why do you speak in parables but explain things to us and he says well to you have been given the secrets the mysteries of the kingdom but to those outside i speak comparables so that they won't fully understand to keep the the secrets of the thing a little bit concealed from outsiders and that's exactly the meaning the original etymological meaning of mysterion in greek mystic case referred to the secrets that were conveyed to initiates right in a tradition and not something that's hard to understand but something that had been concealed and now revealed right yeah and so to this is the tradition in which john is writing he's writing to a liturgical community that already had the habit of celebrating the sacraments because of course the sacraments came the institution of the sacraments came before the written gospel texts by decades the church was celebrating the eucharist decades before they actually penned the gospels including the gospel of john which came very late in the first century so the gospel writer is writing to a community that has a decades-old practice of celebrating the liturgy and already knew what it meant and he writes in this veiled and coded way so for for members of a liturgical community who would naturally have received this language in light of their pre-existent tradition but in a way that would be obscure to those who would come to the text from outside and uh that remains the only way you can intelligently and coherently read any text you need to know something about the context of the writer and the community from which it emerged in order to make sense of it because language by itself without context is always ambiguous always ambiguous oh yeah all right well we thank you so much for your text we do appreciate that it is called a communion here on ewtn we have a couple lines open for you and that number is 833 288 ewtn that's hey mary 833-288-3986 on your mind today well i want to know about whether or not animals had souls thank you i appreciate the question yeah animals animals have animal souls they have animal souls they do not have immortal souls what's the difference so the word soul simply means this is in the catholic tradition the word soul means the principle that is to say that from which life proceeds and so there is there is a something that causes it to be the case that a living animal is alive and not dead all right there's a there's a structural organizational unity to an animal that causes it to be alive and and you and and and when that structural organizational unity dissolves or disintegrates or is somehow corrupt corroded to a certain extent to a certain extent the animal ceases to be alive and the word soul when applied to an animal just names that thing it just names that structural organizational unity that is uh that that that with sufficient biological information could be captured in an abstract formula right like uh you know analogous to to uh kind of a model of its dna perhaps it's not dna be kind of like the abstract model of the thing okay um and that's what that's what causes it but that's not the only thing you'd have to have kind of the living principle in there too but that's what it we mean by soul so they have souls all right but those souls um don't live forever and they don't have the capacity to see god what makes human souls different we also have a principle of life something that causes us to be alive rather than dead but we know the nature of thing from its operation and when you look at the operation of the human soul you note that not only does it have life as one of its operations but but cognition rationality freedom capacity for love and yearning for the transcendent and so there's something in the human soul that transcends the mere biological material life of the animal soul and that's what that's what we know can endure forever all right mary thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on ewtn several lines open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 stan is watching us on youtube right now stan says jesus said i am the vine and i am the door and i am the bread of life how do we know he is speaking figuratively and how do we know when he's speaking literally right well um first of all the the well the end of the day i'll say it but this way not first of all end of the day no scripture out of context is unambiguous the only way we can have certainty in our application of the bible to our liturgical life or our theological life or communal life is to read it in light of sacred tradition that's the only way that's how we know that otherwise the history of protestantism the attempt to to frame christian life on the bible alone uh is is horrifically unstable and leads to split and system upon split and system and there is no consistent interpretation of any passage of the bible right because it's every last interpreter's best opinion as to what it means the only way we can have unanimity and objective certainty about the meaning of the sacred text is in light of the tradition and rule of faith that christ gave us that's why he didn't give us the bible alone as our rule of faith he gave us the teaching church with the with the promise of infallibility whatever you buy it on earth is bound in heaven all right appreciate that and uh thank you so much for your uh question there via youtube all right in just a moment here we're going to be talking with pat in st louis checking us out on ewtn television uh there's a call being screened right now and there's a line open for you if you have a question for dr david anders the number 833288 ewtn we'd love to hear from you on this monday afternoon 833-288-3986 the monday edition of call to communion here on ewtn to stay with us dr greg popchak 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 it's time for family man with dr gregory popjam jesus told us that we must forgive 70 times seven but what does forgiveness require us to do saint augustine said that forgiving someone means surrendering our natural desire for revenge in other words when you stop wanting a bus to run over the person who hurt you you've pretty much forgiven them forgiveness giving up the desire to hurt someone for having hurt you is a gift we give ourselves and we can extend it whether or not the other person has asked for it or deserves it reconciliation though is a different matter if forgiveness can be accomplished alone reconciliation requires two people to again as augustine put it experience the tranquility that results from right order it's possible to forgive someone but still not be reconciled to them if the injury they caused still exists or they're unsafe to be around forgiveness can be hard but it may not be as hard as you think i'm dr greg papchak but you can call me family man to discover more ways faith can enrich your life visit catholiccounselors.com the ewtn home video highlight for july is the heresies gnosticism christianity has fought against this heresy from the beginning and its errors still infiltrate our culture today order your dvd of the heresies gnosticism at ewtnrc.com 24 hours a day seven days a week or call 1-800-854-6316 sometimes we need help from god right now what is your urgent prayer request coming up tomorrow let the take two with jerry and debbie family join you in praying for your intention now back to call to communion with dr david anders [Music] call to communion here on ewtn if you have a question for dr david anders we have one line open at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 let's go to pap now in st louis checking us out on ewtn television hello pat what's on your mind today uh yes i was wondering why no one seems to be talking about the end times and when i ask people that they look at me funny or just ignore me or whatever but i believe we are in the end times especially with what's happening with this disease now i think it's the beginning of the end who knows what's to come but why aren't people aren't they're just scared to death of it i know i am but uh i think we should know what we need to know okay pat thanks i really appreciate the question so let me offer a perspective if i might so you know our lord said matthew chapter 24 that no one knows the day of the hour no one knows the day of the hour uh when the end will come with the second coming or the resurrection of the dead or the judgment and uh there are of course many passages in scripture that give us images of apocalypse and cataclysm raining down plagues and wars and rumors of wars and so forth christ himself talks about these matthew 24 book of revelation thessalonian correspondence book of daniel ezekiel but one of the things you'll note in the history of interpretation of these texts is that in just about every generation of catholic history from the first century to the present someone picks up those books and says well this is obviously talking about today because i look around and i see wars and rumors of wars and plagues and cataclysms and persecutions and corrupt civil and ecclesiastical government and man it just really seems to describe what i'm experiencing and i know who the antichrist is it's that guy over there that's been going on a long time in fact every generation has produced some sort of apocalyptic interpretation of present day events and this this led saint augustine who's the doctor of the church and probably the most important catholic theologian of all time uh to conclude that has he put it the city of god the city of man right god's god's divine plan born out worked out in the hearts of men is something that's perennial right it's we find we find the growth of virtue and the ascent of the soul to god in every generation from righteous abel all the way to the end of time and we find the city of man the you know those on the side of the world that contend against the righteous we also find in every generation from the time of cain until the end of time and st john of course in his epistles said that he talks about the coming of the antichrist but said you know that many antichrists have come many antichrists have come and these texts are they're very valuable to the church they're perennial value because we can with truth say yes they do apply to our time just as they applied to our father's time okay as they will apply to the time of our children after us and i take our lord at his word when he said no man knows the day of the hour it may be that the son of god returns in fire tomorrow but it may also be the case that we still live in the early church and so we do what we have always been called to do which is to set our heart not on earthly things but on the things of heaven where christ is seated at the right hand of god pat thank you so much for your call love to hear from you and from other folks other listening in st louis on our great station there covenant radio or or also checking us out on tv or any any of the other platforms that we are offering called a communion to you on all right it's called a communion on this monday afternoon let's go to uh john john is in asbury park new jersey listening on domestic church media hey john what's on your mind today hi yeah dr anders can you explain to me or at least give me some clarification on the sin that will not be forgiven i've researched it and i seem to come up with two different answers one is to attribute the works of the holy spirit to a demonic force and the other is to reject final repentance at our moment of death so i'm quite confused okay thanks i i know these interpretations i'm familiar with them personally i think they're easily reconciled i mean i i think they're they're kind of flip sides of the same coin so the context of course of jesus's teaching on the unforgivable sin is in mark chapter three and those parallel texts in the synoptics when christ was casting out demons and the pharisees said he does this by beals above the prince of demons and christ says well first of all that's absurd because why would satan cast out satan i mean that wouldn't help his kingdom at all but but what really motivated them what really motivated them was not that they had their angelic metaphysics upside down but that they didn't want to accept the teaching of christ that's that's what really did it that they they were staring the messiah in the face and you know he he called them out on he said look if i cast out demons by the finger of god you know the kingdom of god has come upon you beautiful text about this i think that we can see how this thing plays out in the hearts of men if you read john chapter 9 which is the story of the man born blind christ comes spits on the ground makes clay puts it on the guy's eyes he heals him then jesus fades off into the crowd the pharisees come find the man and they say who did this to you on the sabbath even and he says well you know i don't know the guy but he did this and now i can see and and they don't believe him so they call the guy's parents you know is this your son was he born blind well yes he was well how does he now see well they didn't want to answer they didn't want to get in trouble so we don't know ask him he's of age so they asked the guy again well what do you think about the guy that did this to you he says well he's a prophet he's a prophet and they go well we don't know about that we know moses was a prophet but this guy we don't know where he comes from the man says well that's kind of amazing thing you don't know where he came from but he healed me no one has ever heard about somebody healing a blind man before if this guy weren't from god he could do nothing and then they say you were steeped in sin at birth out you go and they throw him out of the synagogue and then jesus shows up and says to the man do you believe in the son of man he says who is he lord that i may believe in him he who is speaking to you yes lord i believe and christ says this is why i've come that those who are blind might receive sight and that those who see might become blind and this is the the progress of this man's soul right as he encounters christ and he's opened up to the possibility of the transcendent opened up to the possibility of something radically different from his expectations opened up to the possibility of god and of conversion and of love but in a way different from that that his culture had anticipated and that same unfolding revelation this guy's as his eyes are opened his heart also begins progressively to open up more and more and more towards god that same event when the pharisees confront that of course that's a symbol phariseeism is not we're not talking about a specific religious group here we're talking about a a way of approaching questions of religion and god right it's that you can be a pharisaical christian pharisaical jew pharisaical muslim you can be pharisee atheist is just a type confronted with that possibility they double down and go well we don't know where he comes from well we don't know where he comes from and he can't be from god we don't know where he comes from he can't be from god and you're damned as they progressively harden their own hearts against the revelation of truth that's what jesus is warning us against let's be like the man born blind who opens up to the possibility of salvation not like those who claim they can see and so condemn ourselves in the process john thanks so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn there's another john out there listening to us today on youtube that particular john says um hebrews 6 verses 4 through 6 the peril of the of the sower first john 2 19 and matthew 12 22 through 32 all seem to suggest that falling away is permanent all over the new testament that is language of persevering until the end catholic teaching holds that those who fall away can be restored where does this doctrine come from is it not in direct contradiction to an explicit new testament teaching yeah thanks so what you've put your finger on is the reason for the the earliest internal theological controversy within the gentile catholic church so the first major controversy in catholicism of course was over the question of the inclusion of the gentiles the gentiles have to be circumcised that gets concluded in in acts chapter 15 with the council of jerusalem but the next major controversy that wasn't with the outsiders wasn't with gnosticism or some heretical group but what's internal to the catholic church was over this exact question is there forgiveness is there forgiveness for the sin of apostasy if someone apostasizes they give up the faith they deny christ in persecution can you welcome them back and there was a significant body of opinion in second century catholicism that you should not in this occasion what was called the controversy over the second repentance and in very early second century literature uh in the likes of justin martyr for example there's no indication that the forgiveness of sins could be extended multiple times he seems he doesn't really address the question but he just says well obviously once you're baptized and you're born again you're just not gonna sin anymore that's just obvious right that's just the position that he takes and so the question of repentance for future sons gets taken up by the shepherd of hamas by clement of alexandria and especially by the north african christian writer tertullian and they all say on the basis of these texts well obviously no second repentance or maybe once but that's it after that you're it's you know you're one and done and uh and you have to just excommunicate and move on and and in fact this is what led tertullian to leave the catholic church and go join the montanists he writes a treatise on this topic called on repentance or on yeah day penitentia and and his opponent of course is pope callixtus and the pope said sorry tertullian actually we're going to forgive apostates adulterers and murderers and we're going to do it multiple times and of course the pope had other texts on his side he had you know saint peter who goes to jesus how many times do we forgive once seven jesus says no 70 times seven i.e keep on doing it and uh and you know christ whenever christ was confronted with the question of mercy he always airs on the side he doesn't air but he always leans to the side of mercy the only time jesus is ever real hard-nosed is with people who aren't penitent and he does give explicit extractions about the seventy times seven and uh and so this is fascinating this debate because in it we find i think one of the earliest testimonies to the doctrine of the infallibility of the pope and it comes from the enemies of the church as is so often the case tertullian says i know what you're going to say pope callixtus you're going to say that you sit on peter's seat and that you possess the keys to the kingdom of heaven and what you've bound on earth should be bound in heaven i know that's what you're going to say alexis but let me tell you something mr pope and he runs off and leaves the church and pope of course is smiling you know all the way back to the altar yeah that's right exactly what jesus said all right appreciate that john thank you so much for watching us today on youtube it is called a communion here on ewtn i hold in my hand or as my mom used to say my hot little hand my phone with the ewt ab app on it and i use this thing all the time for example there is the live streams that we offer whether it's ewtn television ewtn radio any of our networks you can access it if for some reason you want to listen to the philippines feed or listen to the great britain and ireland feat you can do that on your phone with the ewtn app you can pull up any of our program schedules check out ewtn news you can you can you can even rent a movie or purchase a movie or a video there's also video on demand audio and demand i mean the list goes on and on and the cool thing is it is absolutely free now you can go to the app store of your choice to download it or you can go to something that we have set up it's very handy a one-stop shop if you will ewtn apps.com ewtnapps.com do check it out for the ewtn app it is a wonderful thing to have on your mobile device call to communion here on ewtn let's go to colleen now in rhode island watching us on ewtn television hey colleen what's on your mind today good afternoon um first of all let me say how impressed i am with dr david anders i've seen his program many times in the past and his intellect just fascinates me um i wish i had that same intellect to understand religion me too but um perhaps he could help with something i try to get my question narrowed down because it's so large and it might take forever to get it out but i'm going to try to keep it simple um basically let me start with i've been a member of a peace and non-violent community at the university of rhode island where i was taught the principles by martin luther king on a level 2.5 trainer in this program i've met people from all over the world many religions my roommates were from tibet one of them was the dalai lama's assistant um basically i'm fascinated with religion and i love people i'm more or less a humanitarian i guess and i have trouble with organized religion i have trouble with defining god in a certain way which excludes others i have met some of the most holy people in my life and they they are not christians i was raised catholic i went to catholic school when i was little i thought i wanted to be a nun um as i got older and more open-minded i um i am having trouble i actually have anxiety because i would love to have an unfair unshakeable face but every time i try to lean in one direction whether it's catholic or you know at one time baptist evangelist mostly within the christian realm uh there was time there was the time i was actually investigating sikh in the gurus and buddha and you know just kind of just trying to get a feel where is god calling me to be and i always have been centered on jesus and mary asking them to help me with this confusion why can't i define it in each and every time i consistently get this overwhelming feeling that god is too large the compartment to categorize him in one specific religion and it's how we as individuals relate to him and you know then i listen to your programs and in several other catholic programs and i guess what i've deciphered out of all the religions i feel like catholicism is the most intellectual religion out there and it's and they base everything very very accurately according to scriptures but then again who wrote the scriptures did not man write these scriptures and how do you determine who is i guess i'm with you i am so with you man am i ever with you so let me offer a few thoughts if i might um there is a tradition that is known as perennial philosophy philosophia perinus uh it's perennial because it's rediscovered in every age well not every age but in many ages in many cultures throughout the world because it's based on the recognition that there is a transcendent depth to the human person it's imminent in all of us and therefore discoverable by all of us and uh and that this transcendent depth in the human person is somehow continuous with the deep structure of reality and so saint augustine of hippo acknowledging this would say in one of my favorite quotations do not go wandering afar but return within yourself because in the interiority of man lives the truth and the closer we draw into this transcendent depth of our own personality from which and we feel that resonance with the truth and goodness and beauty that is that is emanating from every being every experience that we have of knowing and of loving we are left in awe and we are left incapable of capturing it in words and so we reduce it uh or we we attempt to we put this way we attempt to capture in the net of successive events through story ritual and myth something that in itself is not successive right and that is the that is the that's the mythic mode of knowing right but it's one that transcends just propositional knowledge because it's it's something that's con natural to us it's a knowing how and a knowing with that's beyond just a knowing of or a knowing that it stands to reason then that whether people grow up in india or china japan in sub-saharan africa greece rome europe or the americas that echoes of this transcendent wisdom would emerge in all the religious and philosophical traditions of the world there is however uh am i making sense to you so far so far yes okay it makes sense that you could characterize almost all religion and philosophy as taking one of two paths with respect to these transcendent depths either to listen to them and to say this is the real and that of course would be the path of platonism with you know with the big p uh philosophy of plato of course grounded in this and then materialism and that's why plato himself uh in his dialogue the sophist he says that uh really there are only two kinds of philosophy there are there are the friends of the forms people who recognize these perennial depths of the human person is continuous with the nature of reality and then there are the earthbound giants there are the materialists and and everything else is kind of fluff um now it's it's it's telling that when saint augustine who's probably the greatest catholic theologian in my opinion uh turns to the consideration of these depths he says the platonists got it of all the philosophical traditions in the world they they they got it that's where the truth philosophically speaking is going to be found he says that in his contract academicos if you want to look it up his streets against the academics against the skeptics um and uh and then he takes it up again in de vera religioni on true religion written about 390 i think and he says uh wouldn't plato have rejoiced to see christ stay because what plato only dreamed of right which was to turn the minds of men to the perennial philosophy and to these transcendent depths to call them out of the cave of shadows to the to the real christ did for the masses like he brought what plato only dreamed of and and so he he melds the two right we find it in pseudo-dionysius the areopagite the the 5th century syrian catholic mystic we find it in gregory of nissa in the church father origin in the modern 20th century catholic church if you want to pick up the texts of hanzo ursavan balthazar he writes a eight volume series all on the transcendentals truth goodness and beauty great commentaries on this tradition and uh uh and and you put your finger on a truth of this tradition which is that the truth transcends our ability to conceptualize this is called the apophatic dimension the via negativa the neti neti of the upanishads not this not that or the taoist position that you know the na the tao that can be named is not the eternal now all the great theologians and philosophers have recognized that this depth has to transcend language and symbol we might be able to approach it through language and symbol but it transcends it but it doesn't constrain god and so while it transcends our rational or verbal capacity what if those transcendent depths became incarnate what if the divine logos what if the word what if the principle of the intelligibility of the universe took on flesh and was born of a virgin in bethlehem two thousand years ago and not only spoke about or pointed towards but was the truth that's exactly what the catholic church says happened okay wow that's big thank you so much colleen for your call we're going to go quickly to uh cece in chapel hill north carolina listing on siriusxm cc we have about a minute what's your question today hello um if a person dies having had their first communion and being baptized in the church but not confirmation and is neither neither against the church or christ or for necessarily practicing catholicism or christianity at the time of their death what does the church teach regarding their eternal state thank you their position is the same as all of ours that if this is if the soul dies in the state of grace that soul is saved if the soul dies in the state of mortal sin that soul is not saved that soul is lost and fortunately for us we aren't the ones that make that judgment we commend the soul to god we recognize that a baptized soul who's received first communion uh and uh uh and and perhaps is not overtly against the teaching of the faith uh but for reasons known to them has had a hard time practicing uh has been exposed to elements of truth and sanctification that may be for that soul a path to heaven but at the end it's god who will judge the soul and not us and so it's appropriate to have hope and also to pray to pray for the repose of that soul all right and we do appreciate your call cece i'm glad that we were able to get you in here kind of at the last minute uh also on this happy note we're going to go out david this is a point here brought up by tam watching us on youtube tam says falling away from the church is not permanent i know because i was away from the church for 45 years there you go how about that all right hey dr david andrew it's a fast-moving show especially for a monday thank you my friend thank you tom we do the program monday through friday here on ewtn radio 2 pm eastern is our live broadcast monday through friday with an encore at 11 p.m eastern we also uh figure out which is the best show of the week which some twins is pretty tough but our producer charles does it and we'll play that for you on sundays at 2 p.m eastern on behalf of our fantastic team here i'm tom brice along with dr david andrews thank you so much and we'll see you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,595

Rating: 4.878788 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: tLbn5_n391I

Length: 54min 3sec (3243 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020