CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - July 3 , 2019

why do I need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network and a happy feast day to you the feast of st. Thomas the Apostle is who we celebrate today and we welcome you to the Wednesday edition of call to communion here on EWTN the global Catholic radio network this is a program for non Catholics now why would we do that why would a Catholic radio network put up a program produce a program now going on for years for non Catholics well simply because everybody who listened to this network has questions about the Catholic faith even people who have been solid Catholic all their lives so we know that our non Catholic listeners definitely have questions about the Catholic faith and they're looking for some place to get those questions answered that is our raise on debt so here is our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're listening outside of North America you'll want to dial the u.s. 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 and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply again the phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN our phone lines are open right now Charles berry is our producer Ryan Penney is our phone screener and Jeff Burton is on social media if you want to pose a question via Facebook or YouTube he's the guy that'll pass those on to us here in the studio and we are live streaming on both of those video platforms right now I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders hey Tom how are you sitter um I just saw yes right now yes that Norman Geisler has died and and you don't know who Norman Geisler is he was uh he was a Protestant apologist yeah but one of the few Protestant apologists who was very fond of Saint Thomas Aquinas and an Aquinas methods he was kind of a Protestant Toma stuff so to speak really um yeah a strange and animal as that might be but you know good man and and did a lot to promote classical totemism actually among Protestants and he may he rest in peace absolutely so an email just came in and you're gonna love this email you're just gonna love it it is gonna make you smile I'm sure even if you don't smile on the outside you're probably gonna smile on the inside this is from Clint in Atlanta Georgia I am a recent convert and I would like to know how can I practice my faith in an authentic way rather than going through the motions oh great wonderful question that great so first of all let's not knock going through the motions all right the motions are very important and the motions can be an occasion for you to develop a truly profound spirituality I I'm gonna get around to the the profound spirituality too but you know I have a friend who has who's got a spirituality that is utterly unlike mine in that it is it is just from my point of view almost like hysterically devotional right like the man never met a devotion he didn't like and it's it's one it's one devotional formula after another from the moment the Sun goes up to the moment the sun goes down you know who I'm talking about right and you know I'm much more textual in this guy's just you know one devotion after another yep loves the processions loves the statues loves the whole kit and kaboodle on but you know you can't hang out with the guy for too long and not be edified because if his evident charity right because he's put his heart and soul into it he loves the Blessed Mother he loves the Saints he loves the Mass he loves all of it you know and and a lot of forms right a lot of motion so the devotions are one the Liturgy of course is the preeminent one and the liturgy the hour is the bravery and there are there many different spiritualities within the church forms if you will of life that one can that one can take and they can all be occasions for us to encounter God in His grace and the the secret in all of this of course is to maintain a disposition an interior life of faith hope and charity faith hope and charity and if we bring that to bear on on whatever form of spirituality we practice then we're then we're not just going through the motions and so you know there are some tools for doing that examination of conscience and frequent confession and a sincere purpose of amendment like I really want to I want to follow Christ I want to do right I want to change my life where it needs to be changed and grow in faith hope and charity sincerely ask God for help in that and the sacraments are an enormous help in that endeavor some commitment to to regular daily prayer spiritual reading the countless classics of spirituality in the Catholic tradition that address exactly this question introduction to the devout life by Francis DeSales classic text on this exact question how do i penetrate through the forms into the reality beneath imitation of Christ Thomas a Kempis another great devotional classic works of spiritual theology I think of Father Dube Thomas Dube his book fire within or it for that matter any of father do base books on spirituality a great place to dive into that stream you know ewtn s got some wonderful resources dan Burks radio show divine intimacy radio is all about this question you know so do some spiritual reading do some spiritual listening and and then practice the sacramental life and can give yourself to prayer and then and then have at it man it's a it's a giant buffet table of options really within Catholicism some of the great boons of the Catholic faith and great blessings of Catholicism and find that spirituality that that motivates you to charity if I might recommend one other book time with God I always forget it's either time with God or time for God by Jacques Philippe Jacques Philippe another one on this precise topic like how do I you know move past the just the forms and rituals of religious life really penetrate into the inner marrow if you will great great book on that topic by father Jacques Philippe okay some wonderful resources for you there clint and we're very glad that you are a recent convert if you would like to send us an email for a future show here's the address CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com we do mailbag programs from time to time and maybe we'll answer yours live on the air maybe it'll go into a mailbag in any event the address CTC at ewtn.com in a moment we'll talk with Christian in Casselton Vermont we have a line open for you right now don't wait til tomorrow because will not be here tomorrow on the 4th of July call now eight three three two eight eight EWTN the wisdom of Mother Angelica I went to Las Vegas years years ago for one of these cable shows and and I was shocked to see all these old ladies in their 70s and 80s getting off that plane running first slot machine you don't have a chance to win they're all fixed I know my uncle your dad slot machines EWTN live truth live Catholic father John Ricardo again the only reason that you and I are here cuz he wanted us to be here he didn't want us to be here you wouldn't be here how do you know God loves you you're breathing right now I don't feel like God loves me I know God loves you you're here you wouldn't be here if you didn't care even if you've ignored him your whole life even if you're the most heinous of sinners he loves you he may not be pleased with you because he loves you he won't let you stay that way because he loves me he won't let me stay the way I am but the fact that I'm still here tells me that he loves me whether or not I feel it or not which is very comforting cuz I don't feel it a lot so I know that from my experience of exisiting right now but even after the fall even after Adam and Eve turned their backs on God rebelling against God God shows himself he reveals himself we're talking about Revelation which gives us access to the father he reveals himself by repeatedly breaking into people's lives the people you know and trust are on EWTN [Music] hey tomorrow morning it is the sunrise morning shows fourth of July special be sure to check that out guests include Thomas far on the founding fathers commitment to religious freedom and also our friend father Charles Conner he'll be talking about Catholics in the American Revolution it's a great show it'll be even better tomorrow 6 a.m. Eastern right here on EWTN radio and if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Christian in Casselton Vermont listening on w o PG 89.9 FM hello Christian what's on your mind today hey guys just calling to council of the holy roman catholic church firmly believes professed increases that all those who are outside the catholic church not only dues but pagans asthmatics will go into the fire of hell unless join into the bosom of the church before the end of their lives this curious how that applies for non Catholic and Protestant in general yeah thanks I really appreciate the question so you know in in medieval Catholicism so this is not just a modern development and in patristic Catholicism we have precedent for the idea that those who are not formal you know fully communion communing card-carrying Catholics can be saved the Fathers of the Church believed that the logos right the second person of the Trinity inspired the work of some of the pagan philosophers is a kind of anticipation of the gospel they st. Thomas Aquinas when he treats on the nature of the old law of the Mosaic law opens up the possibility of grace being distributed to the Saints of the Old Covenant but not through the efficacious means of the Christian sacraments right and of course they were saved in the Old Covenant and there were those outside the household of Israel like Jobe for example righteous man in whom there was no fault but of course you know outside the household of faith so to speak not not a card-carrying member of the Jewish people of the Israelites and yet highly regarded by God and the Ninevites who repented at the preaching of Jonah I mean you could multiply examples and in the New Testament Christ himself mark chapter 9 Luke chapter 9 the disciples see people casting out demons in the name of Jesus but they're not of the company of the apostles in Christ says don't don't stop them because whoever is not against us is for us John chapter 10 Christ says I have sheep that are not of this fold now I want to get them to bring them in so there's one Shepherd and one flock but he identifies them right as his people Galatians chapter 3 verse 27 st. Paul says all who have been baptized have clothed themselves with Christ and it's been a Catholic dogma from the beginning that even heretics can validly baptized in that was one of the big debates in in 3rd century Christianity was do you have to rebaptised heretics when they become Catholics and you know there's a significant party that wanted to but the church determines no we're not going to do that we're going to accept that it's Christ who baptizes and that that even the baptism of heretics can be a valid baptism and so the obviously there's no public revelation from God there's no provision there's no sign an instrument for salvation in the world other than the Catholic Church to which we call all people to communion right that's what this shows about called to communion with Christ in the church he founded which is the Catholic Church and yet there's always been an awareness that that the grace of God can extend and in in God's own way to those that are outside that as as as sources impelling to Catholic unity that's the way the Second Vatican council talks about it so elements of truth and sanctification outside the Catholic Church now if you lay hold of those elements mm-hmm say you're Protestant you lay hold of the 66 books of the Bible that you happen to hold and you've got baptism and you've got marriage right that the the graces and the truths that you receive thereby will compel you towards Catholic unity they were the motion of the host Grace's in those throughs is going to be towards Catholicism and we see this right I mean this is this is evident I think in the history of of Protestantism you you keep seeing these movements that emerge every generation or so of a group of Protestants saying you know we have to rediscover the sacrament so we need to rediscover you know ecclesial Authority or we need to put more emphasis on this and and you know as oh this tendency happens over and over and over again and even the churches that at one end would seem as far removed from Catholic impulse as possible will spontaneously emerge sort of quasi Catholic elements I think about for example look at Pentecostalism yeah this is a tradition which in origin you would think this is so remote you know within the world of Protestantism this is as freeform as it gets man there's nothing sacramental in hierarchical about that and yet if you've ever spent any time in Pentecostalism you know that they they evolved all kinds of rights and signs and tangible tokens laying on of hands and anointing with oils and and all these kinds of ritual expressions of divine agency in their lives and and many times they do evolve into these sort of quasi apostolic forms of governance where one charismatic leader exercises a kind of quasi Episcopal jurisdiction over a number of associated might call them parishes you know and not a few not a few Pentecostals have come up in that kind of spirituality and said hey the Catholics have been doing this a lot longer than we have and these things become bridges right between those traditions I'm sure and the Catholic faith and and so the church says look outside the church there's no salvation in so far as we have to have graces through Christ and the church that he established and but of course the principal means of entering into that life of grace is through baptism which the church has never said has to be performed by a Catholic minister in order to be valid so every baptized Protestant is at that moment made a member of the Catholic Church in virtue of their baptism right now and if and if they never know better if they never know better and through faith and repentance they remain in a state of grace then they will be safe through the Catholic Church of which they are remember Wow but in a wounded capacity because they're not enjoying or participating either in all of the sacraments or the full visible communion that Christ is ours for the church we do thank you for your call Christian that opens up a line for you now eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six tomorrow is the 4th of July will have a mailbag program for you a brand-new one that we've recorded recently so if you want to get in live today is your day eight three three two eight eight EWTN we'll get to Cathy in just a moment here first a quick email from Dennis in Indiana I am a Protestant who stumbled upon Catholic radio by accident about seven years ago that's dangerous you better believe it I cannot seem to get away from feeling the pull towards Catholicism all that feels just talking about that so dr. Andrews I'm currently reading your book the Catholic Church saved my marriage my wife is a confirmed Protestant who thinks my interest in Catholicism borders on idolatry or is akin to joining a cult I have attended RCIA this is all sounding very familiar to me I believe it I have attended our CIA I find myself becoming a Catholic apologist with my wife and my two grown sons in addition my biggest hang-up is Mary and the same how can I move forward that's from Dennis oh great thanks Janice I really appreciate all of these questions and and the end the story so for me for me what helped me wrap my head around Mary was first of all not Mary but the Saints in general wrapping my head around the question of the Saints in general okay let me ask you a question do the saints in heaven pray for us and that's just a fundamental question they either do what they don't and what does scripture reveal scripture reveals they pray for us that period end of paragraph Revelation chapter five verse eight revelation eight verse three Tobit chapter 12 second Maccabees 15 these are all very evident that the Saints and the angels in heaven pray for us not only do they pray for us but these very same texts reveal in Scripture that they are involved in a in a intermediary way between us and God with respect to our prayers they are offering our prayers to God they're asking God to be Clement to us in answer to our prayers all right so their merits are availing for the efficacy of our prayer lives that's all scriptural and when you add 2nd Kings chapter 13 in Acts chapter 19 we see that even the relics of the saints first-class relics and third-class relics of the saints also get involved in this intercessory activity right in this in this communion of saints right because Christ so in so in Bews even the bodies of His Holy Ones with His divine presence that that has that has power and efficacy in in the communion of saints all that's scriptural I haven't done anything outside the Bible here so that explains a scriptural basis explains why asking the Saints for their intercession has always been a part of Christian devotional practice from the very beginning I mean you look back at the foundations of the earliest church is the actual buildings of churches what came first the church buildings or the shrines to the Saints the shrines to the Saints they came first right Catholics pagans all thought Catholics were necrophiles because they would go out into cemetery and have loved feasts with their brothers and sisters seemed creepy weird to the pagans right but what they were doing they were going out and having mass in tombs right because they wanted to say the mass over the the tombs of the martyrs st. Jerome and his text against vigilancia s' says does the Bishop of Rome do wrong the Bishop of Rome does he do wrong when he offers the Holy Sacrifice of the mass over the bones of Peter and Paul and not the Bishop of Rome only but all the bishops throughout the world the universality the catholicity of this practice so that even even non Catholic archaeologists tell us and I'm thinking of guys historians like Ramsey McMullen Peter Brown that you can track the progress of Christianity in the ancient world by looking at the advance of the relic cult you you look where Christians went and built shrines to the relic to the to the martyrs and venerated the relics that's how you track Christianity moving through the ancient world you cannot separate the communion of saints and the veneration of saints and martyrs from the Christian Church you can't do not two different things is one thing for 1500 years right not until the Protestant Reformation did they try to drive a wedge into that relationship and the theology is so sound that you wouldn't want to because the nature of the redemption we have in Jesus is such that he wills for us to be participants in his work of reconciliation right st. Paul says we have become Christ's laborers colabor errs as if God were making his appeal through us we also participate in the reconciling Ministry of Jesus and that includes the offering of our merits and prayers for our brothers and sisters Paul says Colossians 1 I fill up in my own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body the church right you see so so the logic of the thing is that by by invoking the prayers of the saints and angels like I'm associating with their merits in this one great chorus of praise to God in the same way you ask your friend on earth to pray for you hey Sam pray for me I got a test on Friday you ask your friend in heaven for you hey you know Agustin you know I'm trying to marry this work woman can you get things moving along right it's the same thing as you ask your buddies on earth to pray for you because we share love with one another and the principle way we love one another's bear each other's burdens up before God and prayer it's a beautiful teaching nothing idolatrous about it in the slightest now you got the picture of the saints you just throw the Blessed Virgin Mary in the mix as the greatest of the Saints and voila there you go so I've got a couple articles on the topic if you want to go to the call to Communion website called a communion calm and and read what I have to say about devotion to saints and angels and the Assumption of Mary a couple articles there and we're delighted that you stumble across Catholic radio there where you are in Indiana Dennis thank you so much for your email this is called a communion here on EWTN looks like one line open right now eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six let's go now to Kathy in Grand Rapids Michigan listening on Holy Family radio hello Kathy what's on your mind today hi um I I have a nephew who is and was baptized as a baby Catholic recently he's been visiting a non-denominational Church with his girlfriend just this last week we found out that he got baptized again he did a water baptism through their church his mother understandably was was pretty hurt and upset and her reaction kind of pushed him away she was pretty upset by it as I think we all were his argument was that it was a water baptism which is different it doesn't do away with his first baptism which I do understand that but I told him there was no need for that because he already had one baptism and to do so was kind of like saying the first baptism was invalid I feel like he has maybe a lot of Kings being put in his head by you know family of his girlfriend his girlfriend you know he made a comment to her about Catholics Kathy we are we were coming up on a break would you have a question for us sure yes so my question my question is how do I go about kind of trying to understand our trying to have him understand that you know his his first baptism what the meaning of it was and I guess okay Kathy hang hang tight we've got to go to a break I've got no control over this when we come back we're going to answer this question so stick with us for just a couple minutes yes sit tight Kathy we'll also talk with Edie in Melbourne Florida Dan in Washington DC and Tina just down the road from DC in Laurel Maryland all coming up on this edition of call to Communion here on EWTN - stay with us Lauren Ashburn I've always been pro-life but have never been able to talk about it in the news and now not only do I share it internally but I share it with a global audience the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio and this is an EWTN bookmark brief I'm Doug Keck I just had the pleasure of speaking with father Timothy Gallagher omv about his book a layman's guide to the liturgy the hours how the prayers of the church can change your life so let's get people an overview of what this books about and why they should pick it up so the book asks is this prayer of the Liturgy of the hours this return to praying the Psalms at various times throughout the day is this something just for priests or is it something for laypeople we ask a concrete question are lay people praying it and the answer is increasingly yes we look then specifically at each of these different times of Prayer the word hour doesn't mean 60 minutes in this case it means the time of day and the Church invites to lay people to consider praying one two or some of these and then we look at practically how do you get started okay very good thank you so much father Timothy Gallagher author of a layman's guide to the Liturgy of the hours and this has been an AW TN bookmark brief I'm Doug thanks for stopping by EWTN communicating the faint what makes me happy is listening to Catholic radio I'm by myself a lot kind of concussions and satellite I can't see very well but I do work I go to church and I'm a non-fire convert and as it child more or less I would learn I have a good sense of humor whenever I can and I'm very appreciative everything I have and especially Catholic Radio truth live Catholic this is Jerry Usher and I'm Debby George Gianni join us for take two with Jerry and Debbie tomorrow at noon Eastern now let's return to call to communion with dr. David Anders it's the Wednesday edition of called a communion here on EWTN glad that you're with us and before the break we were talking with Kathy in Grand Rapids Michigan she said that her nephew was baptized Catholic back in the day but he was sort of rebaptised or baptized again at a non-denominational Church David yeah thanks so I'm sorry this happened and I'm very appreciative of your desire to open up a dialogue with your nephew and you know to be honest with you I would love it if he would call me and talk to me about it I would just be thrilled to death to the fellow by didn't meanwhile I feel like we don't want to shove him away we don't want to beat him over the head but the Catechism so that he runs into the arms of these people that are quite frankly trying to pull him away from the Catholic faith and they don't have to explicitly attack Catholicism in order to implicitly attack a call to Catholicism and let me explain what I mean by that so the Catholic Church says that we have to reorient our lives we have to reintegrate our lives around God and Christ and be reformed in charity and that that's not easy to do and that the that the the work of the sacraments is essential to that process and remaining in communion with the church for our whole lives right that that all of these things are a necessary part of this of this work of interior transformation that we call sanctification it's necessary for us to be saved right and and without explicitly attacking any of that his nondenominational friends may approach him with something like all you have to do is just commit your life to Jesus and that's it you're on the path and nothing can pull you out of his hands that kind of language well without ever openly attacking Catholicism that that kind of commitment just radically undercuts the whole rationale of Catholicism yeah and if you make that kind of interior move then Catholicism quickly becomes irrelevant to you because Catholicism is about what are the structures that I need in my life to persevere in this work of ongoing interior transformation in charity and if it's if it's just a one-shot deal where you pray a prayer then all that becomes irrelevant all right so this is dangerous and I'm worried about that I'd like to ask him what do you hope to gain we put the question to him what what did you seek to gain by doing this and do you think you know are you looking just to signal to the people around you that you are you know that you're committed to Christ are you trying to witness to God in some way that you're committed to him do you think that by this action that you're going to receive some special infusion of grace or us or establish a new kind of relationship with God on the basis of this act is this a kind of conversion for you right and get him to start talking about it it seems to me evident to me that that the young man has an insufficient conception of his own Catholic faith in what's being offered down now Catholics are all about conversion all about conversion I have a habit of trying to be converted at least once a week right I go to confession generally about once a week sometimes every other week so I'm having a religious conversion you know pretty faithfully a couple times a month making an examination of conscience figure out the stuff I've done wrong you know confess it get on the path again and keep going all right so if that's what he's looking for he's looking for a kind of recommitment moment does he not know that this is available to him in the sacraments of the church in confession that you know baptism is where we definitively set out to become disciples of Jesus but conversion is something that we can do every week and should do in fact every day in a certain respect so I'd like to open that dialogue with him and you know many people are drawn into these non-denominational churches we had a call an earlier show from somebody who was confused by you know this appeal of a kind of happy clappy freeform open worship and we got electric guitars and drums and you know people waving of the hands and that seemed to them to be just much more spiritual then you know the drab frozen Chosin and the in the Catholic faith you know as they understood it and and so that's not that's worthy of a conversation like do you well as is uh you really think that's the essence of relationship to God you know and probably if he was raised Catholic he may be familiar with some Catholic saints that he regards highly like maybe mother Teresa a great example I use in this conversation and you say well you know what you think Mother Teresa's relationship with God do you think that's exemplary oh yeah that's exemplary you see her waving the arms jumping up and down right what about her interior life was it characterized but this kind of freeform you know highly effective you know emotional relationship you know was it characterized by kind of deep interior crucifixion of darkness and yet a fidelity to service and to love and charity in spite of the fact that her own interior life was a was was a bit tortured right which of those do you think more corresponds to the image of Christ on the cross my God my God why hast thou forsaken me take nutmeat take this cup from me but not my will but thine be done what which of those spiritualities you think is more reflective of Jesus and the Gospels or you know what did you want to gain by this activity and and then I'd love to talk to him maybe that can happen I certainly hope so Kathy thank you so much for your call we appreciate that it is called a communion here on EWTN we're going now to Edie in Melbourne Florida listening on divine mercy Catholic radio hello ed what's on your mind today oh good afternoon thank you Tom thank you dr. Andrews for taking my call my question is regarding Perpetual Adoration I'm Catholic and I'm a bit conflicted on something I was hoping dr. Andrews could address it I'm wondering we have Perpetual Adoration that our parish and the person that runs the ministry manages the schedule people sign up for it and I'm wondering is there any merit and taking an hour that's difficult just for the sake that it's difficult like for example 3 a.m. or 2 a.m. when you work 9:00 to 5:00 or my conflict comes in it occurs to me sometimes is that something like you know people that hurt themselves on purpose for the sake of the pain and think that that might Eric Eric Merritt I sort of think that there is some merit because you're sacrificing your sleep perhaps or for the sake of adoring the Lord so I was wondering if you could address that yeah thanks I really appreciate it so the principle of merit is charity the principle of merit is charity not suffering per se st. Paul in first Corinthians 13 says if I surrender my body to the flames and give all I possess to the poor but I have not love I gain nothing the principle of merit is charity now there's also penance there is there is the virtue of penance which is motivated by charity the desire to make reparation to God for my faults now we all know what that looks like in human relationships when when if I if I you know this morning I was on an exercise bike my wife came in the room and I and I was Curt with her briefly right and she experienced it as Curt I didn't mean it as current she experienced as Curt she walked out of the room and I went oh boy now I gotta go I don't go make reparation so it's a very minor sacrifice and I'm telling you about it so I just lost all merit right letting my right hand and my left hand is illustrative so I hopped off the exercise bike right that was a kind of a penance little tiny one you know but I gave up that moment to go make reparation and and reconcile with my wife make sure she wasn't mad at me for being Curt all right penance is something we all do we understand the logic behind it you make a little sacrifice out of love for the sake of for the sake of union with God and and penances you know and there is a charism that people can have about doing extraordinary penances out of love for God and for the sake of his body the church Paul says I Philip in my own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body the church and and so there's there can be value in that now that being said you are rightly concerned with the problem of neurotic self-hatred masquerading as penance but guess what that's not motivated by charity and the principle of merit is charity so the man or the woman who who is involved a kind of masochistic neurotic self-hatred and self-harm masquerading as penance gains nothing if I surrender my body to the flames Paul says but have not love I gain nothing now a lot of ways this charity could be manifested let's a that you know Bob down the street has had three o'clock a.m. you know for the last seven years and you know Bob's getting a little bit up there and age and you know he's got other things on his plate and maybe Bob would like to rotate off the 3:00 a.m. slot and out of charity for Bob you decide to take that slot well it's another way that charity could manifest and yet would that be meritorious of course but the principle of Merit is charity and thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN glad that you're with us today if I told you lately about the register if I haven't I'm going to right now EWTN National Catholic Register that's what we're talking about here it is America's most trusted Catholic news source with a comprehensive view of the world from a distinctively Catholic perspective distinctly as what I'm trying to say it is distinctly Catholic try six free issues with our compliments and if you like it you can subscribe later on at a 35 percent savings off the newsstand price so do check it out to get started visit NC register.com today that's n c-- register.com you will be very happy that you did called a communion here on EWTN on this wednesday before the fourth of July hard to believe it here now is Dan in Washington DC listening to Sirius XM 130 hey Dan what's on your mind today yes good thank you for taking my call jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me so is it okay in the Catholic religion for a Catholic to pray directly to Jesus and number two can they ask for forgiveness of sins praying directly at Jesus okay thank you not only is it okay it is obligatory it is mandatory that Catholics pray directly to Jesus do directly to God both for all of our needs and desires and wants and so forth and for forgiveness in fact Jesus commanded that his disciples do this when he gave the Lord's Prayer the our Father forgive us our trespasses we are we are ordered to pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us some Protestants they forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and and so we we have to do this we have to ask God directly for forgiveness we have to ask Christ directly for our needs and the Catholic liturgy is is filled with these direct invitations to Christ for His mercy Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us this kind of thing build throughout the catholic prayers so yeah we can and we must here's the interesting thing though while we go directly to Christ does Christ send us intermediaries who speak in his name and are authorized by him to forgive sins in his name yes he does in the Gospel of John chapter 20 verse 21 Christ says to the apostles receive the Holy Spirit whoever sins you forgive are forgiven whoever sins you retain are retained Christ sent mediators to us who had his authority he said as the father sends me so I send you he was talking to the Apostles whoever sins you forgive or forgiven Christ sends out mediators to speak in his name and to forgive sins in his name why would he do that if we can pray directly to Christ it's because that way we have a human face in a human voice speaking to us that we know possesses divine authority and that word of forgiveness that word of absolution coming to me specifically David I'm my name's David David I forgive you right I hear that audibly from a living person that I know has authority from Christ to say that and that way I can have objective certainty that my sins are forgiven no what's the difference imagine I pray directly to Christ and I say Jesus please forgive my sins well I just trust that he's getting the job done I just have to trust that he's getting the job done but maybe I'm insincere maybe I don't know if I'm sincere maybe I'm worried about that wouldn't it be nice wouldn't it be nice if when I prayed directly to Jesus and said Jesus please forgive my sins if if audibly a voice came and said sure thing but I forgive him wouldn't that be nice mm-hmm that's the Catholics experience every day of his life every day all right Dan we hope that's helpful for you we appreciate your call it's called a communion here on EWTN we're gonna go from Washington DC down the road a bit to Laurel Maryland used to live in Laurel Maryland did you know that David I didn't know that back in the day just can't keep track with you Tom I know wow this was before the earth cooled when I was in the army a long long time ago lived in Laurel Maryland a beautiful city here is Tina in Laurel listening on Sirius XM 130 Tina what's on your mind today yes thank you for taking my calls I received a birthday gift the other day some clothes for me funds at a party and it's a very popular bracelet that a lot of people are wearing today by Alex and Ani and the creator of this jewelry how's your Charmin blessed this Julie before it goes to manufacturing and if you go to their website in order to that you're all kind of charm you want on your bracelet or necklace they have a series of on numerology questions and astrology questions to help guide you and then Alpha talked about spiritual guides that will help you in your life with some of these symbols that you can put on your jewelry so welcome I didn't know if I should accept it where is it back tell these people what they are okay have you have you received this thing yet I receive it at a birthday party in front of a lot of people all right get rid of it immediately get rid of it immediately and absolutely you wanna you wanna burn it if possible bury it throw it in the garbage yeah I mean I would burn it if I had the option to burn it I would get that thing out of my house I wouldn't wait two seconds before I had that out of my house and then I would I would go to the church and I would go to confession and I would receive Holy Communion and I would get some holy water and some exercise salt I would prayer to pray prayer pray the prayer of st. Michael I would take I would take active steps to clothe myself and my family in the grace of Christ and the sacraments of the Church and the intercession of Our Lady and I would specifically renounce my involvement in this magical charm and I would a one practice you could do in addition st. Michael prayer is the renewal of your baptismal promises the first statement of which is I renounce Satan and all of his empty charms and promises and so forth yeah I would get rid of that sucker as fast as possible this is a form of sorcery magic which is a grave sin against the first commandment and a grave superstition and opens you and your family up to two deeply malevolent spiritual harm so yep that is uh sending us the first commandment bad stuff bad stuff bad stuff yeah rid of it we take that seriously don't we I always say so absolutely all right Tina thank you so much for your call here is John in Boise Idaho listening on assault and light radio one of our longtime affiliate partners hey John what's on your mind today gentlemen I just wanted to touch on the nature of the atonement of Christ I understand that that dr. Anders and presumably the Catholic Church rejects the notion of feeling substitutionary atonement and I find that interesting in the light of Isaiah 53 where the fathers pleased to crush Christ on him was laid the iniquity of us all it was pierced for our transgressions second Corinthians about twenty he was made sin who knew no sin first Peter 2:24 he bore our sins in his body on the tree so given those clear teachings how can you possibly reject the notion of penal substitution area Thomas thanks I can I can respond to that John I thank you none of the texts that you cited not a single one states that God imputes our sins to Jesus and that God Himself is wrathful with Christ and expiates his wrath upon Christ as a subject so that he can then impute the righteousness of Jesus to us none of the text that you cited say that and Isaiah 53 in particular in particular does not say that Isaiah 53 says that we regarded him we regarded him as afflicted by God punished by him crushed and so forth and that's precisely what the Catholic Church says occurred in the death of Christ the Apostles themselves the Jews the Romans all of Jesus's contemporaries saw the crucifixion as evidence that God had rejected Christ but the great secret that was revealed by the resurrection was that God actually was pleased with Jesus and vindicated him giving proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead I read the the Petron passage in exactly the same way right what is the New Testament understanding of the death of Christ what does scripture positively teach about the nature of the atonement st. Paul tells us in Romans 3 that Christ's death was a sacrifice of atonement sacrifice of propitiation not a penal substitution after the manner of Calvinism the sacrifice of atonement read about in Leviticus chapter 5 was the worshiper giving up something of value to make reparation to God now the the the victim immolated in the sacrifice of atonement was not hated by God and and punished directly by God for sins it did not commit the victim was an irrational animal in that God's not getting his wrath out on an irrational animal so that he can then go and forgive the worshipper it's the worshiper himself who was offering up something of value now that notion of the offering of something of value in reparation is clearly in view in Philippians chapter 2 when st. Paul says that because of his humility and obedience unto death on a cross because he was obedient to death on a cross God exalted him you see God is pleased with the soft offering of Jesus it's not an expression of God's wrath but of Christ's merit Saint Peter says the same thing in Acts chapter 2 that that but because of what Christ did because of what he merited God pours out on him the gift of the Holy Spirit that you now see in here see this is the reward for Christ's good behavior the death of Christ was not an expression of God hating Jesus and being displeased with him it is on the contrary precisely the domain where Christ pleases God by his meritorious activity you know Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount said turn the other cheek if somebody strikes you on the right cheek he turned in the other also that's exactly what he did at Calvary unjust and wicked men put him to death he says no one takes my life from me I lay it down on my own authority he willingly submitted to this unjust treatment being reckoned among sinners and regarded by us is cut off from God and afflicted in humility and therefore merited from God the reward of eternal life now the passage that you saw it from 2nd Corinthians 5 about about he who knew no sin became sin for us is rendered even in many Protestant translations he became for us a sin-offering he became for us a sin offering that we might become the righteousness of God does that mean that God imputes Crites Christ's righteousness to us absolutely not nothing in the text demands that interpretation of impute of imputed righteousness the Protestant biblical scholar NT Wright regard that as a statement that the Apostles who are the subjects in mind in second Corinthians five are the fulfillment of Christ's of God's covenant promises of fidelity to Israel in the in gathering Gentiles and that they are the righteousness of God insofar as they are a demonstration of his reconciling will not this notion of imputation that Calvin and the Reformers read into that now you know the reason that penal substitution becomes such a dominant motif in Protestant atonement theology is because it grounds Luther's understanding of justification by faith alone it's the it does the metaphysical heavy lifting to allow for juice for Luther's theory of justification I don't have time to go into a whole refutation of justification by faith alone but I would exhort you and other listeners to go back and reread Romans chapter two the neglected chapter in the book of Romans from my point of view in Protestant exegesis or the dismissed chapter is maybe a better way of putting it Paul says explicitly in there that we are justified and accounted righteous by God when we obey the commands Romans chapter 2 verse 13 which we do when our hearts are circumcised by the spirit Romans 2 25 to 29 alright and John we thank you for your call glad that you're listening to salt and light radio couldn't get to Laurie in Portland Oregon just ran out of time as you can hear the music is making its inevitable crescendo dr. David Andrews sir thank you so much you Tom you've got big plans for the 4th of July

Channel: EWTN

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Id: wbDfKQ-F_WM

Length: 53min 4sec (3184 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 03 2019