CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - June 19 , 2019

come I'm Teresa Tomeo and call to communion with dr. David Anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests one eighty three three two eight eight EWTN I don't understand why I have to earn salvation one eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six why do I need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network and it's the Wednesday edition of call to communion here on EWTN the global Catholic radio network we are delighted to have you with us each and every day Monday through Friday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern that is when we do this show what is this show I'm glad you asked this is a Catholic radio network and we have a program for you the non Catholic listener we know that there are a lot of non-catholics perhaps never been a Catholic perhaps fallen away Catholic who have questions about the Catholic faith and they're they're thinking well gee Here I am in 2019 I would really like to come home to the Catholic faith be an active Catholic again but there's this one thing that I need to work out in my head in the mind and in my heart as well what is that thing we'd like to talk about that here's 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 to us outside North America that would be the US and Canada please call well first of all the u.s. country code wherever that is for you 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 and of course you can always send us an email any time of the day or night CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com Charles berry is our producer Ryan Penney is standing by at the phones he's actually probably sitting by at this point but he is there and we also have Jeff person on social media to pass along any questions you might want to pose via YouTube or Facebook live we are streaming on those great platforms right now I'm Tom Price along with dr. David Anders Tom how are you today you know what I'm great and we're hot we're only what ten days away from the Birmingham Eucharistic Congress is that right June 28th 29th yeah Jefferson Civic Center please come on down it's free did you get that free fre all you have to do is get yourself here and then you know you'll have you'll hear great speakers like dr. Scott Hahn for one he's one of several that are gone we also have the the papal nuncio so Pope Francis is personal representative of the United States about that Archbishop Christophe Pierre is gonna be given one of the keynote addresses mm-hmm and many others as well and music and activities and vendors and and other displays of Catholic stuff and coolness like religious order is an EWTN will be there and we will be there on TV and radio we'll be doing some live interviews from the Convention Center and you know something very cool that I think doesn't happen often enough and that is on Friday evening which would be not this Friday but the following Friday there will be a Eucharistic procession through the streets of downtown Birmingham that is correct you know the point of a Eucharistic Congress is to really take the treasures of the church Eucharist being the greatest and and put them out there in the public square for the world to see and and you know it's not something we just keep inside the church but we want to put it out there for everybody to kind of see the goods of the Catholic Church and and be interested in be motivated to to come take a look and for Catholics to be proud in their Catholic identity and understand that this is something to share with the world and Bishop Baker who of course called for the Eucharistic Congress three years ago really wanted the missionary impulse to be foremost in people's minds as they attend this Congress and empowered by the Eucharist to go forth and spread the gospel for the salvation of the world you know I know this has been going on in many cities for a number of years Atlanta in fact Kansas City has a huge Eucharistic procession that goes through downtown Kansas City I can't imagine anything cooler than you know being in a procession with the Most Blessed Sacrament the body and blood of Christ walking past you know various bystanders and you know in front of office buildings you know printing presses whatever that's that's got to be a very cool cool thing to do well you know in a manner of speaking the eucharist processed once prior to Holy Week you know Palm Sunday right South Lord came in and he'll I think he'll be riding in a truck not a donkey not a donkey right and and the throngs of course called out Hosanna in the highest blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord all right very good we're going to elite off here with an email as we're getting some of these calls screened at eight three three two eight eight EWTN Lazlo says how can I answer the objection that Christians just go to Mass and pray and do good works in order to get plus points from God isn't that bribing God okay thanks so when when you as a parent want to motivate your child to activities that are good for him or her and you you reward their good behavior you know you give him a quarter give him a candy bar give him a sucker a lollipop give him a pat on the back give him an attaboy is that a bad reason for the child to comply with parents wishes I don't think so so does God bribe us no God crowns his own gifts because the things that God rewards are the things that we need to do for our own happiness right we God rewards the life of virtue but the life of virtue is in what our happiness consists yeah okay so think about that laslow we do appreciate your email here's a quick one now from Ken how does the sacrifice of Jesus occur during the mass what acts of the priest and/or the congregation acts constitute the sacrifice thanks the sacrifice of the mass is precisely the offering of the body and blood of Jesus that is present by transubstantiation on the altar ok but there is not an actual emulation of Christ on the altar Jesus is not killed on the altar nor is the worshipper translated in time to the past of Calvary as if the sacrifice was numerically identical to Calvary that's not the case Calvary occurred once and for all never to be repeated the sacrifice of the mass is the is the unbloody non immolated sacrifice of the risen christ present by translation age 2 transubstantiation on the altar now in one sense we represent Calvary through the separate consecration of blood and wine which figure Christ present in a state of victimhood body over here a blood over there but his actual body and blood are not separated in the mass nor is he emulated very good and we thank you Ken for your email in a moment we'll be speaking with Jason he is in Amarillo Texas also Jonathan in a very beautiful town Concord New Hampshire we've got lots more coming up on this edition of call to communion here on EWTN to stay with us the wisdom of Mother Angelica the only thing new about the heresies in the church and the schisms in the church today is it mixed with satanic worship we in the church have gone from anagrams to centering prayer to solstice worship to goddesses then you buy it something new for more information on mother angelica visit religious catalogue at ewtn our si.com father John Ricardo when the Word of God is proclaimed in an especial way when the gospel is proclaimed it's an event happening in our midst which is calling forth from you and me very concretely today as whatever it is that's going on in my life I come to Mass I hear the word and now I have to respond to it always every time whatever it is my response is called for it's not just listening to someone read who then make some comments one of the best things that lay people can do on their way to mass is pray that those of us who are going to preach will say something inspiring if for no other reason for your benefit pray for us I know many of you do but those of you who don't pray for us pray that the Lord would open up our ears to hear what it is he wants to say to us to communicate to you otherwise you're gonna sit through something really tedious which none of us want to do the people you know and trust are on EWTN [Music] tomorrow morning on morning glory Gloria Purvis Deccan Herald Berg severs and Father Vincent DeRosa talked about the blessings of Mass and communion they'll also be talking about the power of eye contact that ought to be very interesting check it out tomorrow morning 7:00 a.m. Eastern right here on EWTN radio and a quick shout out here to Susan who's checking us out today on Facebook she says I am spending an hour of my 60th birthday with two of my favorite Catholics thank you very much isn't that nice thanks for checking us out and happy birthday to you Susan all right if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Jason and Amarillo Texas listening on the EWTN app hey Jason what's on your mind today how are you doing great thank you taking my call dr. Andrews um I mean you know I've been a cradle Catholic and my brother who's no longer Catholic he doing a Bible study with his nondenominational church I'm actually going this weekend to go see him he wants to have a dialog about the Canon of the Bible and how there's only 66 books in the Bible and Catholics added books can you kind of give me a justice start of where I can start off talking to him about it with open dialog and maybe just references that I can reference to I'm also going to go to Catholic Answers the website as well so but if you can help me out there that'd be greatly appreciated I'm going to go ahead and hang up and let you answer thank you okay okay Jason yeah this is a great question and I'll tell you how I would conduct the conversation and you might want to do it differently but this is the way I would proceed it is it is irrelevant to get bogged down in a discussion where we're quoting proof texts from say the Church Fathers about whether or not the book of Maccabees was regarded in some circles in the second century as canonical or not that that's the wrong way to go about this here's the way I would go about it I would ask the question of your interlocutors do you believe that the Canon of the Bible that is to say the list of biblical books that that list itself is an article of faith what do I mean by an article of faith well not article of faith is something that we must believe on divine authority like say the dogma of the Trinity is an article of faith it is an incumbent upon us because revealed by God that we believe in the dogma of the Trinity to to to defect from that dogma is to commit the sin of heresy do you think that the the list of canonical books the list as such as a list is an article of faith and so that if someone dissented from the proper list of canonical books that they would be guilty of the of the sin of heresy that God has revealed this authoritative Lee it's very important to get them on the hook one way or another all right okay and let's let's look what happens however the answer I think if they've got any sense they've got to say yes the list of biblical books itself must be an article of faith that there is a that there is a a correct answer to that question as to which books we ought to believe and that we believe this on divine authority all right if that's the case if that's if they hold that then you say okay what divine authority revealed the list of canonical books hmm is it an article of faith is it something we believe on divine authority all right if so what divine authority reveal the list of biblical books now here they're stuck they're stuck because you see instantly the problem that they've got the Bible does not specify its own table of contents you read each individual book of any list of canonical you like and you know we're in the book of Genesis does it tell us that revelation should be included in the New Testament you know no place in the book of Jude does it say that Esther ought to be included in the Old Testament you said i'm saying like you you can't get out of that circle the only way you can answer affirmatively is if you advert to some authority outside the text what authority are you going to advert to well the only one you can go to is sacred tradition okay so that that they're hung on that side and then the conversation moves back a step what is authentic authoritative sacred tradition and how do we recognize it and then we got to get into the whole question of the Catholic Church and doctrine of apostolic succession and so forth let's say they say well no it's not an article of faith it's not an article of faith it's not been divinely revealed okay then well then I have no certainty an act of faith and and there's no there's no compelling argument from purely historical grounds that I should regard any particular book as authoritative or not no matter what evidence you can bring forth so let me illustrate let's say somebody says well we we know you know we're not so sure about you know first Clement but at least we're certain about Romans okay how are you certain well Paul wrote it all right well let's let's just presume that's true for the sake of argument why does that make it authoritative well he's an apostle okay so everything in apostle rights is an authoritative and it's not written by an apostles not authoritative you see you see the rabbit-hole you go down you got to defend each one of those theses and all of them are just hanging in the air all right so that's that's really the question is this an article of faith is it has it been revealed by divine authority if so what divine authority okay okay now if you want to get down and dirty with all the edge exegetical details and go through the church fathers and look at the whole process of composition and all that kind of jazz then just before you have your mating it's not that long go read Henry Graham's book where we got the Bible our debt to the Catholic Church that'll give you all the ammunition of that sort that you need but I would advise that to be the second level of discourse begin with the first-order question then deal with the second-order questions Jason good luck to you hope that all goes well for you and thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it is called a communion here on EWTN Jonathan listening in the beautiful town of Concord New Hampshire listening on hope fm hey Jonathan what's on your mind today good afternoon David and I appreciate you taking my call today turn on I'm calling with a question about last rites so my grandfather was diagnosed a number of years ago with Alzheimer's and has been continuing to deteriorate and there was an issue when my father was still very young that caused my grandfather to rather enthusiastically leave the church and he remained vocal about that throughout his adult life but after having started to enter into the deterioration that comes with Alzheimer's he's been asking about what's going on in my life and I'm pretty active in my parish I'm involved in a renovation project that we're working on right now and recently he started becoming more open to asking questions and having active conversation about the Catholic Church and I feel compelled to try to make sure that before he reads too much further he received last great but I'm not sure how to do that respectfully given that it was his explicit opinion that he did not want to be a part of the Catholic Church from motives and don't like and I'm just not sure how to approach that okay thanks so you you can always ask him you can simply say you know this is what's going on my life grandfather I'm benefiting tremendously from my engagement with the church you know I'd love to have make this opportunity available to you if you'd like me to bring a priest by be happy to do it you don't want me to I won't do it and I don't know you can be any more diplomatic than simply coming out and asking and without imposing it on him and he can say no but you'd be shocked sometimes people who seem to be utterly indisposed to coming back to the church when you know faced with these end-of-life issues or other concerns will simply come around yeah sometimes when people have that end zone you know in their view they start rethinking things even though they haven't talked about it maybe they're at least thinking about it right I know I know of one case of priest friend of mine who was talking to a woman who had left the church and showed no interested coming back and and he said let me talk to her and I said okay he said don't you think it's time to be coming home she said yeah okay say you just never know so there you go Jonathan good luck to you it is called a communion here on EWTN or phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that is a free call for you eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here is a quick text from John why do Catholics call their priests Father thank you so we call our priest Father it's a term of respect and endearment and we find the practice and Holy Scripture of referring to religious leaders as father think about prophet Elijah who when he sees Elijah I going up to heaven he says my father my father when his father my father my father chariots and horsemen of Israel a New Testament refers to Abraham is our Father father Abraham Paul says to the Corinthians that he became their father in the faith and he refers to Timothy who was not as biological son as my son so this is a common convention scripture Lee and and and down through history I know sometimes people will raise the objection well didn't Jesus say not to call any man father and yeah he did but let's look at the context of that remark Christ was certainly not talking about the Catholic priesthood in that context he was he seems to have been talking about biological fathers and in the same way he says if any man doesn't hate his father or mother his children his wife his lands as fields in his very own life he can't be my disciple well Christ doesn't want us to hate our parents or our wives on the contrary he's making hyperbolically a point about preferring nothing to the honour of God in the same way we shouldn't let titles and conventions and human respect stand between us and and and the greatest Commandments in following God that's what he's talking about okay very good and thanks so much John for your text we do appreciate that you can text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero and just follow the instructions from that point forward mario is listening to us in Geneva New York on the great station of the cross hey Mario what's on your mind today yes my question was with regard to solafeet a and some of the people I talked to of various Christian denominations believe that were saved by faith alone and I said well so I try to give support that were saved not only by think the works and by the grace of God and I was just wondering if you could comment and I man and why they seem so rigid with that one passage yeah thanks I appreciate it so in the sixteenth century the theologian Martin Luther who began his life as a Catholic and a Augustinian monk and a Catholic priest left the Catholic Church and started the Lutheran Church and the rallying cry of his departure from Catholicism was this doctrine of salvation by faith alone the origins of the doctrine really lie with Luther prior to Luther for 1500 years throughout the world you don't find anybody that holds something that is as absurd or on Biblical Luther proposes it and he did so I believe having studied his life quite extensively because he himself suffered from the psychological debilitation known as scrupulous attea or obsessive-compulsive disorder this is my interpretation of Martin Luther and and therefore he was he was obsessively concerned with this question of his own moral guilt and he could never acquire a peace of conscience no matter what he did and and he was a brilliant man but given to two extremes like a lot of ideologues and so the only way he could cope with the sin of his own impending moral doom was to chunk the whole concept of morality out the door insofar as it had anything to do with his eternal life and then I believe he went to the texts of scripture to try to find justification for that position and I'm not when I when I give this interpretation I'm not blowing smoke here Luther himself said that he did not learn his doctrine by reading or studying but by by living and dying and being damned those are his words I'm quoting him and he and he insisted that it wasn't simply a matter of exegetical study but if his own the crucible of his own tortured experience that led him to his doctrinal conclusions and then he thought he found what he needed in the book of Romans and Galatians um in particular in particular in Romans 3 and 4 st. Paul says that a man is justified by faith and not by works of the law now what Paul means by that text is that Gentiles who become Christians do not have to follow the law of Moses because the law of Moses doesn't make men righteous it's it's faith in Christ and the love of God in our hearts that makes men righteous not the law of Moses but that's not how Paul read it Paul read Luther excuse me it's not how Luther read it Luther read Paul as if he were saying that the quality of our moral life has nothing to do with our status before God but that's not at all what the Apostles talking about that's something Luther read into the text now it was an effective rallying cry against the Catholic Church it was a convenient polemical tool and it caught on because of the particular social conditions of the sixteenth century and that's too long a discussion to go in right now but it entered into kind of the Protestant formulation of of the faith and was handed down by Protestant tradition and because it is the key on which their whole system revolves and the principal justification they have for rejecting Catholicism a Protestant cannot cave on the doctrine of justification by faith alone without conceding that Luther was wrong and to do that would be to cut the feet out from underneath them and that's something they can never tolerate I speak in from personal experience because I was in that camp at one time and you know the the doctrine on which my faith stood or fell was this doctrine and I understood that to pull that brick out of the wall would be to destroy the entire edifice of my Protestant religion and that was a place I was unwilling to go for many many years do you think Luther was at peace with his own viewpoints I think Luther had the conviction of an ideologue that's different than being at peace yeah it is for sure Mario thanks so much for your call in a moment we'll be talking with Oscar in San Antonio we have a line available for you right now if you've been wanting to give us a call here's your opportunity eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's called a communion on this Wednesday afternoon on EWTN 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 Doug Keck this is an EWTN bookmark brief I just finished speaking with Al Smith compiler and editor of the cries of Jesus from the cross a Fulton sheen anthology published by Sylvia Institute press available through our EWTN religious catalogue EWTN our see.com so al tell us was it about Fulton sheen was one of the best delivers of wisdom timeless truths and this anthology contains classic works that many people are familiar with but there's three lost works in here that many people are interested books that haven't been seen in 80 years the rainbow of Sorrows the seven virtues and the seven words to the cross the cries of Jesus from the cross a Fulton sheen anthology we all love Fulton sheen Sophia Institute press available through the EWTN religious catalogue EWTN our see.com look for the entire interview I did without coming soon on the network this has been a bookmark brief thanks for stuck and there is power in prayer because prayer is more important than breathing prayer can change the circumstances you are in prayer can change the world the most important thing you ever do is pray and so when you prayed God you can do anything and I know you love me more than I love me so God I'm handing this all over to you and I know miracles can happen in my life and they will hi I'm cycle it later today on Catholic Answers live Carla Broussard will be here to talk about Jesus was TV Emanuel or just a prophet Catholic Answers live 6:00 p.m. Eastern on EWTN radio now I'd like to call the communion with dr. David Anderson it's called a communion here on EWTN we have a couple of lines open for you right now if you've been wanting to call here's your opportunity eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six the internet David Andrews is a repository of bad jokes so I ask you my friend where did Noah keep his bees hmm he's thinking he's thinking I'm give up in the archives all right let's go to Oscar in San Antonio listening on Guadalupe radio that's that's pretty bad Oscar what's on your mind today if you become a saint you can get the same thing we all want to be with Jesus yeah thanks I appreciate the question so to be sure with we if we die and we go to heaven and then that is what the Catholic Church means by a saint however we don't from this side from this side of eternity we don't know the whole list of everybody that's in heaven all right there are a lot of people up there we don't know we don't know about them every once in a while the church will declare that a particular individual is in heaven so that they can stand as an example to the rest of the Catholic faithful and when she does that its she'll declare somebody to be a saint now that that doesn't mean that the only people in heaven are those the church has declared to be Saints there are a lot of people in heaven the church has never said a word about right they're Saints too they just haven't been publicly recognized as such so there's a there's a special sense of the word that we sometimes use to refer to those people who the church has specifically identified as being in heaven so they can be examples for the rest of us and and intercede for us with their prayers but clearly anybody that makes it like a few grandmother you know if she went to heaven when she died she's a saint even though the church has not canonized her even though the church hasn't said so she's really a saint if she's in heaven all right and say sacred scripture uses the word st. in a different sense to refer to the whole company of the people of God because we're sanctified in virtue of our belonging to the church that's why we believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is sanctifying but it's important to recognize not everybody who's in the church will necessarily be in heaven okay and Oscar we thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN slight diversion here we got a text from an anonymous listener does dr. Andrews ever get frustrated with answering the same questions over and over um no I don't and you may notice that from time to time I'll put a different spin on an answer and you know I'm always reading new in different books and thinking about different ideas and so that that enters into the kind of the character of the show sure enough I'm on a particular topic one week you might get Thomas Aquinas the next week you might get Saint Agustin and you know just kind of whatever is in my head that always keeps it fresh and interesting for me and that's that's kind of the nature of radio being a one-on-one medium we're just talking to one person and you know so we do want to keep it fresh and as fresh as we can and you know sometimes I'll get a call and I'll answer it then I get off the air and I think that was okay but I wish I'd said this other thing a little bit different sure and then next time around I might and we but because I get the same question over and over again sometimes I'm able to come back around the second time ago well let's try this new approach then that falls flat and I try something else there you go called a communion here on EWTN a couple lines open at the moment eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six let's go now from San Antonio to Dallas staying in Texas talking to Jim also listening on Guadalupe radio Jim what's on your mind today hey guys dr. Andrews you were answering the question earlier about Martin Luther's position on salvation and I tend to get in discussions with Protestant brands quite often who don't see the value and going to church but yet they they feel like they've been sitting you know because Jesus died on the cross their sins are forgiven and it doesn't really matter what they do going forward how would you respond to them yeah I appreciate it so um I got several things to say about that first of all from the point of view of the Catholic Church sin is simply an inordinate act by an ordinate I mean an act that is against right reason when we do something that is against you know how reason understands reason rightly informed the good of a human person if I act in a way contrary to that that sin that's just that's all sin means okay so so let me take an extreme example shooting up heroin is really bad for you it's really bad for you and it's gonna make your life miserable it's gonna alienate you from your family you're gonna lose your job you're gonna spend all your money you're gonna turn into a blue the ring idiot and die on the streets more than likely right I mean it's just a bad way to go don't do that it's dumb it's really really stupid and it also happens to be a sin precisely because of how stupid it is of how harmful it is what would you think of someone that said hey Jesus died on a cross so it doesn't matter if I shoot up heroin I'd say that's a lunatic physician and it doesn't follow like Jesus dying on a cross is not going to stop you from from dying a lunatic addict if you shoot up opioids it doesn't follow this is just crazy to intentionally do things that are harmful take another example if you are such a so-and-so that you leave your wife and children and run off with your secretary I mean your family is going to suffer and you're gonna suffer your kids are gonna grow up disrespecting and hating their father and being alienated and bitter cynical people your wife is gonna be abandoned needy and feel awful about herself and have to bear the whole weight of raising these kids by herself society is gonna be weakened at the root and you yourself are gonna go off an unhappy selfish egotist and and and die guilty and alone in a cave no to speak all right it's a terrible way to go but hey Jesus died on the cross so I'm gonna do this it doesn't make walking around sense it's in it's a lunatic position I'm gonna take a hammer and hit myself in the head because Jesus died on a cross so it doesn't make it's it's illogical that's number one number two sacred scripture tells us unambiguously that born-again spirit-filled Christians who sin and don't repent go to hell that's what it says yep all right st. Paul speaking to born-again spirit-filled baptized believing Christians in galatians chapter 5 among many passages says if you commit adultery fornication homosexual acts murder apostasy hatred of parents factions etc etc so he lists all these grave sins you do this stuff yeah going to hell all right your aunt period and paragraph and I mean you can multiply citations from holy scripture that say the same thing all right this book Hebrews chapter 6 what is it 2nd Peter chapter 2 this is better not to have entered the way of righteousness whew think about that then once entered to turn back to this kind of worthless stuff that's how bad it's going to be for you on the day of judgment Romans 9 to 11 Paul says hey if God did not spare Israel he angle spare you either gent you believe in Jesus if you fall away yeah so it's illogical is unbiblical okay Jim appreciation yeah don't do that for him it isn't taking a hammer and hitting yourself on the head which is not a good thing it's a call to communion here on EWTN eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our phone number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six there's an email from John in New York who says my question concerns the concept of the one is there any Catholic teaching on the question of soulmates does God intend for those of us who are called to marriage to find one specific individual whom he has set aside as our future spouse or is this question itself the result of a faulty understanding of God's providence oh thanks I appreciate the question at first when you started talking about the one I thought we were gonna have a conversation about the about the late antique philosopher plutinos that's just how your mind works yeah yeah in the Aeneid has this concept of the one being like the first principle of Oliver II right oh this is gonna be a fun philosophy call but no we're talking about the one I'm supposed to marry yes yeah personal opinion this based on my judgment of the Catholic tradition the Sacred Scripture that's crazy that's nuts that the the idea that that my happy marriage or a future or destiny depends on finding some providential soulmate hanging out there for me to have the perfect romantic life with that's a bunch of malarkey and that's a recipe for misery alright um there's nothing in Scripture nothing in tradition that represents it that way so marriage exists as an institution for the replenishment of society because it's there because men and women and intimate union create babies and babies need families and mommies and daddies to care for them and you need some social institution to solidify that relationship for the for the for the welfare of society not not just the people involved not just mother and father in the child but the whole culture hangs on the solidity of the family life and so it's a public institution marriage is a public institution is not about my private gratification it's about a institution for the replenishment of society that's why culture Society has an interest in civil law guiding and protecting this thing all right throughout most of human history romance attraction personal aggrandizement has had nothing to do with the selection process I mean it's it is a it's about kinship bonds inheritance laws family relationships and to this day there are many cultures that continue to practiced arranged marriages now I'm not I'm not advocating arranged marriages and I'm not denigrating at arranged marriages I'm just pointing to the institution as an illustration of the fact that the the I mean if that I've got plenty of Indian friends that have had great marriages mm-hmm and they didn't know their spouse till the day they got married right so the idea that you're you have to go out there and find the perfect person otherwise you're doomed to failure is nuts you're doomed to failure if you think the purpose of marriage is to gratify your romantic impulses if that's what you think you're doomed to failure because guess what it ain't gonna happen not permanently right I mean I was just talking to somebody the other day and they said well so-and-so is having trouble in their marriage and that was like hmm been married how many years that's about time that's about right yeah it's not troubles not the trouble the trouble is are you committed to staying through the trouble pulling out the other side and making it work like a Pentecostal pastor friend of mine once said I'll counsel you on one condition you burn your parachute burn your parachute and that's that that's what matters not the soulmate fiction but have you burned your parachute all right do you mean it when you say for better and for worse yeah till death do us part till death do us part you don't have that conviction I will hang in there for worse I'll hang in through for worse till death do us part you don't have that conviction you'll bail yeah every time appreciate that and John thank you so much for your email it is called a communion here on EWTN you may be listening to us on a smart speaker right now and if not please know that we are available on the Alexa device we're available on just about every smart speaker out there so if you're sitting in your kitchen like my wife probably is right now and they and you say Alexa play EWTN radio she knows that it's going to come up or she can she can listen to EWTN radio classics just by doing the same thing it's one more way that EWTN is everywhere here now is Sydney in Rochester New York listening on the station of the cross Sydney what's on your mind today about I'm a Baptist Christian a born-again Christian ful our price and I just want to say first and foremost that I love you guys and I love you as a sister in Christ and I think what you guys are doing on the air is amazing he's singing separating and everything like that so the thing that I had a question about was it seems like in today's day and age or whatever you want to say there is a lot of pent up or underlying animosity between born-again or you know Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians so I just wanted to know what you guys take was on that my brother-in-law was actually raised Catholic and his whole family is Catholic and he actually converted to Christianity like a Baptist Christianity and there was a lot of issues with that there's a lot of regression towards that and I just wanted to know why you guys think that that is there because at the end of the day we're all so close to you like worshiping God and that's what we're on this earth for and okay I can respond to that thank you you know what city before dr. David Andrews jumps in here with with his questions there let me just ask you a real quick question do you see that animosity going the other way do you see Catholics that you know with that same kind of man animosity toward people like like you yeah definitely both ways it really you know Christian Baptist Christians being like really aggressive towards Catholics and I see Catholic seems really aggressive towards Christians that was the problem with my brother-in-law's family they were really angry and upset that he wanted to convert they didn't talk to him for a little while so yeah okay thanks yeah I think I can speak to that and I appreciate it so first of all we love you to City as a sister in Christ and I don't have any animosity towards you in the slightest I know Tom doesn't either no in terms of the history of animosity you know let me just take one figure at is illustrative Martin Luther you've probably heard of Martin Luther he was the founder of Protestantism in the 16th century and Luther said this this is one of many similar quotations Luther said I am entirely of the opinion that the Pope is the Antichrist but if anyone wants to add the Turk then the Pope is the spirit of the Antichrist and the Turk is the flesh they help each other in their murderous work because the latter slaughter is the body by the sword and the former the Pope slaughters spiritually by his doctrine so he was a friendly guy Martin Luther and they called down everybody for condemnation right he identified the Pope as the Antichrist and that was typical typical of the Protestant movement the 16th century Westminster Confession of faith which is the bedrock doctrinal statement of the Presbyterian tradition that's actually the tradition I was raised in has as part of its confession of faith the doctrine that the Pope is the Antichrist the Pope is the Antichrist and I grew up in that tradition taught that the Pope was the Antichrist and in the church I grew up in if we if we met someone who had come from Catholicism into the Presbyterian Church we would say did you grow up a Christian and if they said they grew up Catholic we were like well that doesn't count Catholics are not really Christians you didn't become a Christian that you joined our little group and so I definitely experienced that animosity towards the Catholic Church when I was a Protestant and and I was taught Catholics are not Christians and and that in that the Pope is the Antichrist and they serve Satan and not God that's what I was taught and in my experience becoming Catholic was when I became Catholic I had Protestant friends that stopped talking to me about it I mean they wouldn't talk to me they like wrote me off like cease to be my friends and I had relations that were very angry with me about it and gave me a very hard time my experience becoming Catholic was that it was the attitude of Catholics towards Protestants was different that the Catholics I knew and in becoming Catholic we didn't hate Protestants we weren't angry at them and in in our doctrinal statements you can read all of the council's of the Catholic Church and you you won't find like anti-catholicism e anti Protestantism is not like built into the fabric of our identity and the way that anti-catholicism is built into the fabric of the Protestant tradition and but that there was animosity there's no doubt so you know I mean Catholics are alive to the knowledge that say in England in the 16th century Catholic priests were drawn and quartered and tortured to death by the Protestant monarchs and Catholics had their property taken away and their children taken away and their right to vote and participate in civil society taken away that continued into the United States so in the city of Birmingham where I live father Coyle was an Irish priest in our city and he was shot dead in broad daylight by a Methodist minister because he performed the Catholic sacraments between a Protestant girl and a and a Catholic man marriage that is to say so definitely a history of animosity now and I think the origins really are in the 16th century it's it entered into the fabric of the tradition that you reject the Catholic Church and and as the Antichrist now I'll tell you the attitude of the Catholic Church today towards Protestants we regard Protestants as brethren in Christ who possess some but not all of the truth of Christ some but not all why say not all well most Protestants I know believe that everything they need for life and godliness is in the 66 books of the Protestant Bible that's what they think all right Catholic Church doesn't think that the Catholic Church first of all thinks that there are 73 books in the Bible and in addition to the Bible there are all those sacred traditions that Christ handed on by his own authority that are not written down and and another time I'll make the case that such traditions exist in that they possess divine authority and we think you need everything you need the whole package you know Christ sent the Apostles out he said go teach them everything I've commanded you he didn't just limit it to the 27 books of the New Testament and and so it's very important to us to maintain the whole thing the whole shootin match and and so you know if I had a relative or someone that I cared about who left the Catholic faith and gave up the whole truth about Christ for a portion of it I would personally regard that as going from the better to the good yeah from the better to the good and when I became Catholic I regarded it as going from the good to the better yes is that a reason for there to be animosity no no and we should have goodwill towards one another and we should have Christian charity and we should celebrate those things we have in common but that there is a history of animosity there can be no denying yeah hey yeah Sydney thank you so much for your call and for your kind words we do appreciate both of those it is called a communion here on EWTN Joanie's watching us on youtube right now Joanie says how our Catholic saints canonized is this due to miracles that the church is able to verify um yes thank you so it's a it's a multi-step process and the first step basically is that someone has to come to the attention to the of the Church of having lived a heroic life of charity and and the the the issue of their Candida's ation has to be raised in an official capacity and then an investigation has begun and and there they have their whole life and all the records of their life are gone through and if there are witnesses that can be interviewed witnesses are interviewed thorough examination is done for the purpose of discovering you know is this person's sanctity real right did they really live the life of heroic charity that they seem to have is there anything in their life or teachings that's contrary to the Catholic faith and that's pretty rigorous process mm-hmm and if they get through all of that then we wait then we wait we wait to see if this person responds to intercessory prayers of the church for miracles and and if they do so respond if there are miracles that are performed in response to specific invitations of that saint and those miracles can be independently verified independently verified is very important so the church will actually go out and get outside counsel they'll get medical experts and scientists and so forth who may not even share the Catholic faith to verify that something has taken place that defies natural explanation and it's almost always a healing of some kind you know someone's you know Stage five cancer that was declared incurable suddenly goes into remission when someone has sought the intercession of a saint that kind of thing right that's miracle number one and then they can be beatified right which means they're not quite not quite a saint but they now they're declared blessed all right and their and their public veneration in the church is allowed all right you get another miracle then you get you can have canonization and they can be declared a saint we got a saint coming up he's just had a second miracle that's Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman will be Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman very soon isn't it is it October I think it is October and I can't wait for that yeah that'll be a good one hey Joni thanks so much for checking us out today on YouTube one last question from Wes I know superstition is a hot-button issue for you so it prompted me to do some further research on the subject the Catholic Encyclopedia says there are four species of superstitions one being in proper worship of the true God granted as Christians we should be on guard to avoid all forms of superstition but I'd really like to get your thoughts on Protestant forms of worship and whether or not they might be superstitious not not a contentious or hot-button question at all is it yeah so the s interesting you should ask I actually wrote a chapter of my doctoral dissertation on the on the doctrine of superstition in the sink scenes in the 16th century as it informed the Protestant critique of Catholicism all right now and it was a very big part of John Calvin's arsenal that he declared Catholic worship to be superstitious and as a big political point for him I I did less work on whether the same term was used to describe Protestant worship now it clearly 16th century Catholic polemicists did not like the Protestant liturgy an obvious right did they use the word superstitious to describe it I'd have to go back and double-check I think that it would be not very ecumenical today to say the least yeah for Catholic theologians to use that terminology but I myself would not hesitate to identify features features of Protestant worship and for that matter some Catholic devotional ism as well with the label superstition you know in particular I think the tendency in some Protestant worship to identify sensible experience as the voice of God in my conscience I think that's a very superstitious act so for example you know someone says well you know the Spirit of God was really moving today well how do you know that yeah well you know brother so-and-so was preaching hot and the music was great that kind of conclusion strikes to me is very over balloon now and smacks of superstition caveat emptor right hey dr. David Anders thank you my friend thanks Tom we'll see you tomorrow at the same time 2:00 p.m. Eastern for EWTN is called to communion I'm Tom price and we will see you then have a great day and bless

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,070

Rating: 4.9047618 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: qGDLWudZ-Sw

Length: 54min 6sec (3246 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019