CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - May 15, 2020

Italy will be required to limit the number of people present and congregants must wear face masks for more news of the catholic perspective is at EWTN news calm I'm Teresa Tomeo when called 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 eighty three three two eight eight three nine eight six why do I need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network and somehow we made it to Friday the Friday edition of call to communion here on EWTN the global Catholic radio network wherein we stopped away from our regular Catholic programming for an hour and bring you a program for non Catholics if that is you if you have questions about the Catholic faith that you would really like to get answered we are here for you and my wreck my personal recommendation for you is because it's the Friday show call early 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 please dial the us country code and then 205 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 if you would rather do that CTC at ewtn.com is the address CTC at ewtn.com all right we have the a team in place ready to take a tackle your questions and tickle yeah we're gonna tickle your questions no you you pose the question we will be glad to do our very best to get you the clearest answer as quickly as possible we may or may not be tickled hopefully not Charles berry is our producer we also have Ryann penny is her phone screener and Jeff person is on social media he's the one doing the tickling on the keyboards there and he'll be glad to pass on any questions you may want to pose via YouTube or Facebook because we're streaming there right now I'm Tom Price glad to be about twelve-hour at 12 12 feet away from dr. David Anders hopefully 12 hours would not work you doing okay today my friend thank you big weekend plans uh well if you call painting the upstairs a big weekend could be good be hopefully good you have a roller well yeah we do have a roller and evidently we're removing the cats oh now that is a big thing so we can't spend the night in one room we're gonna change the cat room good luck with that all right we're gonna lead off here with an email as we're getting some of these calls screened and looks like the phones are filling up right now here is an email from Kimberly how can I speak to Mary's Immaculate Conception and that she was sinless when we were taught as primarily Baptists that Jesus was the only sinless human to walk the earth doesn't the sinless nature of Mary equate her as a quote Savior and is praying the rosary praying to Mary accepting Mary and doctrine seems like a major hurdle to conversion is there scriptural support for it or is it all from tradition thanks Kimberly yeah okay so there are a lot of questions here and to get at him let me I can answer each one specifically but I can't back up to something even more foundational right okay first principles and that is how are we saved how are we safe what does it mean to be saved how does Christ save us and what the scripture teaches and what the Catholic faith teaches is that Christ makes atonement for us by his death on the cross but what that means is that in offering his own body and blood on the cross Jesus gives up something of value right that's the nature of a sacrifice many Protestants think that the sacrifice of Christ is Jesus stepping in and taking God's punishment on our behalf that's not actually what the Bible says rather God Christ makes gives God a gift like the gift of in various of his very self and as such he merits a word from God so the dynamic is not God angry and wrathful punishing it's of Christ loving and self-sacrificing giving it's a very different sort of dynamism involved in the atonement and of course Christ brings us all along with him st. Paul says we die with Jesus in Baptism rising in with him to new life and having one for us the gift of salvation the forgiveness of sins and the outpouring of God's Spirit he then pours that spirit out on the church and our lives are changed were transformed were born again Jesus says in John chapter three made able to to live a new life in him and and thus to merit eternal salvation you say well do we really merit salvation absolutely we merit salvation with the help of God's grace we then fulfill the divine commands that Christ gives us like to be poor in spirit to be to be hungry and thirsting for righteousness these kinds of things purity at heart and now Christ says that even the tiniest little thing done for the love of God if you give one a cup of cold water even to one of these little ones because they belong to me he says you will not lose your reward see reward merit basically mean the same thing we live that love of God and love of neighbor and genuinely fulfill the the commands of all the demands of the law the law of love love God love neighbor that's how we're saved now another really important aspect is what role does the body of Christ the church or the Saints play in this salvation well Christ of course makes for us the ultimate sacrifice and it's only on account of Jesus's self donation on the cross his gift that this salvation is given to us and yet the prayers and merits of Christ's people are not of no value they still have a value it's connected to the death of Christ but we can still merit for ourselves Jesus says if you do this you won't lose your reward and we can merit and suffer and sacrifice on behalf of others so Paul will tell us for example in Colossians chapter 1 I fill up on my own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body the church and so the graces that God extends to us as individuals one for us on the cross are actually distribute in response to the prayers and the merits and the sacrifices of the people of God that's why you can pray for your neighbor you know God give the grace of salvation or faith or repentance to Joe Blow over there you know even as you give it to me and the prayer of a righteous man st. James says avails much right so more the more righteous you are the more meritorious your life the more powerful and effective your prayers on behalf of others that's all biblical teaching off sided text to demonstrate it so if that's true even of you and me if we can participate in the distribution of God's grace there are prayers and merits and sacrifices how much more effectively can the holier and holier Saints be in the distribution of those Grace's they continue that work of intercession even in heaven so the book of Revelation chapter 5 tells us that the Saints in heaven are offering up our prayers before the throne of God and if I had more time before the break I could talk to you about how we did this in the Old Testament I could take you from Genesis all the way through revelation but time how much time we got left until the break all but three - I'll come back one you sure you won't do it that way yeah I'll come back sounds good alright Kimberly we'll continue your question on the other side of the break and you can hear the music we'll do that we'll also get to a bunch of phone calls here we've got several queued up ready to go Donna and Nacogdoches Anthony and Cedar Rapids Zachary and Miramar Florida where we were last weekend we've got a line open for you right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six [Music] I am father Thomas Lila and this week on light of the East on EWTN in the Liturgy of the church and only in the liturgy I'll be mystically transported from this life to the next from the present time to timelessness the Feast of our Lord's ascension is not only Christ's ascension to glory but ours as well on EWTN Sundays at 11:30 a.m. Eastern when I begin my prayer time I always enter into it with the expectation that God wants to teach me something and it has to start with my willingness to share my heart with God not just say words at him so whether I'm using more formal prayers or a more conversational style of prayer I have to bring my heart and my life and my real self to God and by having that dialogue we're able to enter into a deeper relationship and he's able to show me how to use all the events of my life to draw closer to him here's today's quote from mother Angelica's perpetual calendar every day we need to pray because there will be some hard times times when your faith will be attacked and when your doubts will be increased what will you do persevere in prayer now what will happen in the future doesn't matter mother Angelica's perpetual calendar is available from the EWTN religious catalogue at ewtn our c.com [Music] great show for you on Saturday evening here on EWTN radio the great register radio and Jeanette de mello and we'll be talking with musicians Jim Jordan and sister Christine helfrich about music from Stabat Mater should be a great program register radio Saturday night 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on EWTN radio before we get to the phones and I'll give you that phone number one more time here 8 3 3 2 8 8 EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six before we go to the phones we're gonna finish up this guy emailed here that we received from Kimberly she asked a whole bunch of stuff about Mary yeah thanks so I gave a longest answer because a lot of her questions dealt with specific man dogmas but as they related to the question of the uniqueness of Christ's work of atoning redemption for us so I decide to actually talk about the Catholic doctrine of redemption the way Christ saves us the way he merits for us the grace of redemption and then the way those graces are actually distributed in answer to the prayers and merits of individual Christians so I can pray on behalf of Tom price I can pray you can pray for me I can pray for my son or daughter and my prayers for their for grace in their life for their salvation for their faith whatever it might be are more or less effective as I am more or less holy and st. James tells us in chapter 5 it's the prayer of a righteous man that's genuinely powerful that availeth much and that relationship of mutual prayer love support intercession continues even after death so that the saints in heaven continue to pray and and offer up our prayers before the throne of God Revelation chapter 5 would be one example where we find that also second Maccabees 15b another text where we see that sort of thing happening so so has all that play into your questions about the Blessed Virgin Mary well you know when you said well if Mary is sinless does that make her into another Savior that was one of the questions right right okay well well first of all the answer is both no and yes simply being sinless being sinless does not merit for anybody the reward of eternal bliss doesn't so mean you imagine Adam and Eve that never partaken of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good needle well does God is God obligated thereby to grant them the grace of the beatific vision by no means like you think like simply not eating the fruit of the tree is adequate is proportionate to a life of infinite bliss no no it's not proportionate at all all right ultimately the gift of salvation is a gift it's something that God graciously gives us we can't compel God even by a life of perfection to to give us the grace of eternal life and the beatific vision we can however if God gives us something that is proportionate to that and that is the gift of his very own self and so the grace that God pours into our heart actually infuses a supernatural love for God within us so something that's greater than our natural capacity creating that sort of proportionality between our acts our merits and the reward that he gives us but God gives us himself so that we can in turn win the grace of eternal life and the and the reward of redemption so simply being sinless doesn't make anybody a Savior right however we've already shown that from Scripture we are all small s saviors in a small very very limited way insofar as we participate in the redemptive work of Christ there's only because of Christ but st. Paul himself says that we are Christ's co-laborers as if God were making his appeal through us God makes use of human instruments he makes use of their merits he makes use of their prayers in order to bring about the the unfolding of his purposes and so in that very very subordinate instrumental way he does cooperate with us allows us to cooperate with him in that work of redemption and so we all not just the Blessed Virgin Mary all Christians participate in that communion of saints that brings the work of salvation to fruition our behavior our cooperation is not is not inconsequential but Mary does so in a particularly imminent way because she is the holiest of all the Saints but it is a as a member of Christ's body the church is someone who herself was the recipient of God's grace that she is made a cooperator in that way you asked at first about the grace of the Immaculate Conception the Immaculate Conception is a grace it's not something Mary merited for herself he was something that God gave her in anticipation of the dignity of becoming the mother of God now I know I've gone quite a bit long and I hadn't hit all your individual questions but Tom's giving me that look so maybe we should go to the phones could be well luck in burly thank you so much for your email we do appreciate that and if you'd like to send us an email for a future show the address is CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we'll begin with Donna in Nacogdoches Texas and she is the first-time caller hey there Donna happy Friday what's on your mind today my question is why does the Catholic Church have all crucified crosses and the Protestant churches have just the bare cross yeah thanks I appreciate the question so there is a historical reason for that that most Protestants have forgotten about in the sixteenth century when the Protestant Reformation began the the prominent leaders of the Reformation in Switzerland and France and England not in Germany Germany's different okay but in Switzerland and France were part of the reformed tradition that's the name of their denomination if you will they were men like ruler x-wing Li in Zurich and John Calvin and William Farrell in Geneva and swingley and Farrell and Calvin believed that any representation of a human form or of or of the divine nature or of the person of Christ was a form of idolatry they were wrong about that but that's what they held and so they were very adamant on eliminating crucifixes because they had a depiction the corpus on a crucifix is a depiction of the physical human person Jesus Christ they wanted to eliminate that in all sort of tokens visible tokens from Christian worship because they believed that it was a violation of the second commandment and of course the devotion to the crucifix as an image is a very important part of Catholic spirituality and so in doing that the reformed theologians swingley and Calvin in particular were very very intentionally trying to separate themselves from the history of Catholic devotional ism and they wanted to put in place of that a conception of human worship of Christian worship that was far more textual they wanted Christian worship to be about the expounding the expository preaching of the Bible primarily and not the use of images so that's that's where that tradition came from within Protestantism most Protestants today don't realize that they know that Protestants don't have a corpus on their cross and Catholics do they don't understand the history by day and so they make up a fake story and the fake story goes like this well Catholics leave Jesus on the cross but we Protestants know he was raised from the dead that's not actually what all Catholics know that Jesus rose from the dead horse way Easter is our most solemn feast in fact we celebrate Easter a heck of a lot longer than you guys do we're still at Easter right you guys have forgotten about Easter week Alex are still celebrating we know Christ rose from the dead why do we venerate then the crucifix why is this such an important image in Catholic devotional life well because you know st. Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 6 he says but as for me may I never boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ the cross was the price of our Redemption the cross is the form of our Redemption Jesus Christ Himself says if you want to be my disciples you must take up your cross and follow me if you eliminate the crucifixion from either our conception of Christ or our conception of the Christian life then you do away with the power of redemption Catholics are the most Christocentric christ focused christians that they are we don't just isolate one singular moment in the life of Christ but from his from his incarnation to his resurrection we we venerate and worship the entirety of Christ's human life and focus in particular on the moment of his death because this was the price of our redemption Donna thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six the Friday edition of call to communion here on EWTN let's go to Anthony now in Cedar Rapids listening on K mmk 88.7 FM Anthony is the first time caller hey Anthony what's on your mind today sure so my question is I was talking to another Catholic friend of mine and I got on this conversation now I go to confession regularly and so my question for him and for you was this let's say I'm a married man and let's say I commit a mortal sin such as you know doing pornography and whatnot with that and let's say I I truly let's say I'm driving I truly I pray to God and I asked for forgiveness and I really mean it and I I tell him I'm sorry for giving in to my sinful nature and I'm going to strive to never do it again when I talked to this gentleman I said do you believe that I would go to heaven and he said no so and I hear all the time on there on this radio that you must die in a state of grace but I guess if I'm praying straight to God shouldn't he be able to forgive me of those sin in case I died on the road sure and I wasn't sure that I understand the question thank you so your your friend was incorrect actually but there's something lacking in your position as well all right what you have to have to go to heaven is you have to die in the state of grace now there are a number of ways to go from the state of mortal sin to the state of grace one of them the first one the most important one is baptism so if you're baptized you go from the state of sin to the state of righteousness boom in an instant now if after baptism you commit a mortal sin there are two ways to be restored to the state of grace one of them is to make an act of perfect contrition an act of perfect contrition is when we tell God that we are sorry for our sins because we have offended him and we do not want to lose our relationship with God that's an act of perfect contrition a good model for an act of perfect contrition is Psalm 51 where David prays against you and you only O Lord have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight and what David desires is to be restored to fellowship with God because that's the objective good I mean that's the best thing for David is to be in relationship with God and that's what he wants act of perfect contrition that can restore God will hear that prayer he will forgive your sons and you'll be restored the state of grace you can also go to sacramental confession now you shouldn't you shouldn't neglect sacramental confession even if you've made an act of perfect contrition but you can go to the you can go to sacramental confession in the sacramental confession perfect contrition is not necessary for the sacrament to be effective you can have imperfect contrition imperfect contrition is Oh gee-whiz I hope I don't go to hell you know you may not be oriented you know according to like the perfect love of God but you don't want to go to hell that's sufficient no and in virtue of the promise of Christ to the church that whoever sins you forgive it forgive are forgiven you are objectively forgiven now there's this added benefit to the sacrament also and that is that we have an objective tangible sign namely the word of absolution from the priest guaranteed by Christ's Authority so that we really know that our prayer was heard and that our that we've received that forgiveness we can never be certain about the quality of our contrition so if you're in your illustration if you're driving down the road you make it act of perfect contrition you don't hear that verbal promise coming from heaven saying hey it's cool I got this you know you hope so you hope you've made an act of perfect contrition but we don't have that objective certainty outside the confessional so it's you still must go to the confessional but yes you can be forgiven through an act of perfect contrition in fact anytime you're conscious of grave sin you should automatically make an act of perfect contrition and then you should go to confession all right very good and we thank you so much for your call Anthony as we're going to a quick break here a question from Facebook Candice wants to know what does it mean to be what does it mean to hope I am finding myself falling into apathy yeah thanks okay so you know faith is believing what God has revealed because God revealed it that's what faith is okay now you can have faith and not have hope so for example God says I desire all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth and I've sent Christ and appointed the Catholic churches the means of the salvation of the world and you I believe all that I believe it I believe it but that just seems like too hard a row to hoe I mean that's true but man I just I just can't do it mmm well you have faith but you don't have hope right hope is really the application of the truths of faith to my life trusting that they can be fulfilled in me it's the confidence to say you know what I believe it because God said it and I'm gonna get up and do it by golly and he's gonna help me and I'm gonna I'm gonna run the race and I'm gonna get this thing done that's hope okay very good we hope that's a helpful for you and Candace thank you so much for watching us today on Facebook I want to go over some of the ways that you can check us out here on EWTN it's called communion first and foremost because it is a live call-in show we invite you to call in eight three three two eight eight to EWTN is that phone number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six again for those of you living outside of North America you'll want to dial the US country code in many cases I believe that is the number one then two oh five two seven one two nine eight five two oh five two seven one two nine eight five and you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero that's five five zero zero zero all right as we're moving into a break here in a moment we'll be talking with Zachary Zachary one of our younger listeners he is 11 checking in from Miramar Florida also Eduardo in Houston and as we say there's a couple lines open right now recommend that you call so that we can get everybody in on the Friday edition of call to Communion eight three three two eight eight EWTN is at number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six two stay with us Mother Angelica we have to get back into our hearts and mind the value of life if you don't care about the unborn I don't think you're going to care about the elderly the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio I didn't take my face seriously now which probably means I I never really got it to begin with no I didn't want to give up saying this and the reason we saying is cuz sin is fun but it's it's self love sin but it's amazing with God's grace how easy trying to not sin it really is if you've been away from the Catholic Church for whatever reason we invite you to take another look visit catholicscomehome.org today an exorcist I know so that God's got the devil on a very short leash demons are only able to do things that God allows them to do that's true of any trial of any demon in our lives God doesn't cause them but it does allow them so why would God allow bad things to happen spiritually or physically to someone he loves because resistance makes you stronger that's weightlifting 101 if God is allowing you to go through any trial it's specifically to bring the strength out of you that he wants you to glorify him with forever st. Paul said that everything and by everything he meant everything works together for the good of those who love and serve the Lord you need to stop seeing life is something that's happening against you or happening to you and start seeing it as something that's happening for you that little shift in perspective turns you from a victim to a Victoire and that might not change your outcomes but it does change who you become for more text Chris at 4 for 144 this is Krista fanuc on EWTN radio I'm Geri Asher and I'm Debby Georgie honey join us for take two with Gerry and Debby at noon eastern with an encore at midnight Eastern now back to more of call to Communion [Music] glad you're with us for the Friday edition of call to communion here on EWTN two lines open right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six well we've been keeping him on hold here for a little while but let's get to Zachary right now he is living in Miramar Florida listening on YouTube hey Zachary what's on your mind today hello Zachary exactly hi how are you I'm good how are you doing fine thanks how about you my question is I was the Catholic perspective of gay marriages okay thanks yes yes I appreciate the question so so you know here's what the Catholic Church teaches and not just the Catholic Church but this is kind of you know common sense to a lot of people for most of human history the world needs babies babies are good we like babies and and it's the best thing for culture for civilization for a society that we that we have children and and when you have children you need to take care of them you need to love them and you need to raise them and teach them and comfort them and help them grow up to be you know good people that can take care of others and you know if if a baby just dropped out of the sky and we were trying to figure out what to do with it you know we might have a little bit of trouble but that's not where babies come from they don't drop out of the sky all right and so when we're thinking as people about well who's who's really best equipped who are the best people to take care of babies well makes a lot of sense to say the people that brought them into the world the mother and the father that brought the chalak that's that's the only baby babies get here they come from a mother and a father mm-hmm they don't drop out of the sky they don't grow on cabbage leaves the mother and the father all right they've they're really best equipped to take care of babies a lot of reasons for that so one of them is that they have a natural bond for that child that's really different you know when my children were born man I I burst into tears and laughter when I saw my children come out you know and they were my children are my kids I can't wait to teach him about st. Thomas I can't wait to teach him how to play guitar I can't wait to watch my favorite movies with him and read my favorite books over and over and over and over and over again right I could they're my children and like I like other people's kids but my children oh I love him so much and you know my wife oh they came out of her body they're almost like a part of her almost she feels like that you know so much so a mother loves her child so much the child stubs his toe oh it's almost like mom's toe hurts that's how much mother's love their children well who's who's better at taking care of children than the people who brought him into the world that love them that much and so you don't need a law you don't need you don't need a court case you don't even need a scientific study to tell you the all things being equal and these are the people that really need to take care of these children and provide for them now as a society we just right we're not creating this we're recognizing that it's true and so we say well when we do make laws and customs and institutions let's make some that really support and sustain and and give importance to that relationship of mother father child and it's not just Catholics basically all civilizations through history have a word for that that's what we call marriage that's what marriage is marriage is the institution the cultural legal institution that singles out Parenthood as a particularly important institution in culture there are other institutions tennis playing people play tennis test planes a good thing but it's not as good as Parenthood Parenthood's more important and so what if you had two guys that really liked to play tennis together they loved tennis they got together every week and played tennis what would be the purpose and saying I'm just gonna start calling that marriage you got two guys on the tennis court they play tennis every afternoon at three o'clock let's call that marriage what's so special about mothers and fathers ah nothing no different from tennis players I doesn't make any sense tennis playing is a good thing but it's not as important as parenthood and so when people come by and they say we're gonna change the meaning of the word marriage because we think that tennis players need to have the same dignity as mothers and fathers doesn't make any sense because it's really not speaking to the same issue marriage is about the best institution for bringing children into the world and nurturing them now what's sometimes called gay marriage is what that's about it's not about what's the best it's it's you institution for raising children what we have is we have people in our society in our culture that like to be bonded to one another in ways that are generally not healthy not constructive not in their best interest and and this this tendency to be bonded to one another in this way is a kind of wound in their nature you know that the normal way the vast majority of people men want to be bonded to women women want to be bonded to men and they want to make babies together and if you if you if you're not oriented that way it's painful it's difficulty and so the Catholic Church looks at people who suffer from this condition and we we love them and we recognize that they have a hard lot in life it's tough when when something about your personality or your upbringing or your biology or your brain or your psychology or whatever it is it really doesn't function in a way that enables you to reach your true flourishing your real good and you know if you if you're a gay person you have a really hard time bonding in that way to a member of the opposite sex that's tough it really it's tough for you it's historically it's been tough in a lot of other ways too and Church recognizes that we said we love these people they have a hard lot in life hmm and we want to do what we can to love them and help them but that doesn't mean we should start calling what they do marriage because it's something very very different from marriage marriage is about bringing children into the world and raising them up what these folks do doesn't bring children into the world it's not about children it's about something totally different and so we want to love them and help them but we shouldn't call what they do marriage because it's about something completely different great question Zachary you'd be sure and call us back another time we would love to hear from you it is called a communion here on EWTN we're gonna roll on with Eduardo now in Houston Texas listening on Guadalupe radio hey there Eduardo what's on your mind today yes I have a question about I guess the Bible it's a two-parter I guess the first part is the Bible perfect as written and I guess if yes then how does it justify you know slavery and and and you know the abuse of women or you know yeah man let me speak to that if I can so it really depends on what you mean by perfect so the the definition that I'm gonna offer for perfect a perfect thing is something that that fulfills its purpose or that fully actualizes its potential okay so let me give you an illustration a billiard ball you know like the cue ball pool game mm-hmm a perfect billiard ball is one that is more or less spherical it's not you know weighted more within one way than the other and it fulfills its function of being able to be hit by a pool cue and knock the all silly that's a perfect billiard ball it's one that fulfills its function as a billiard ball okay all right is the Bible perfect the Bible is perfect insofar as it fulfills the function the purpose for which God gave it in that respect the Bible is perfect what is the purpose of the Bible that's really the question is the Bible supposed to give us a comprehensive manual on Christian ethics that answers every ethical question in and for every age the answer to that question is no that's not the purpose of the Bible that's the purpose of the church's Magisterium Christ did not give us the Bible to answer every ethical question for every culture and every age rather Christ gave us the teaching church and a living Authority that is able to respond in real-time to doctrinal and moral challenges that's the rule of faith for the church not the Bible the purpose of the Bible is to give us an inspired account of the life of Christ the Apostles and the prophets it is to give us edifying texts like the Psalms or the wisdom literature it is to provide us with moral exhortation in passages like the epistles and with a perspective on time and eternity that we would find and say the apocalyptic texts like revelation it fulfills those functions and in that respect it is perfect but the Bible is not there to answer every question of social ethics that could ever arise in any human culture okay and we appreciate your call Eduardo it is called a communion here on EWTN get to as many calls as we can for the balance of the show about 15 more minutes or so so do stay with us right now I want to tell you about a new book available now from EWTN publishing you may have heard about it how the Catholic Church can restore our culture by archbishop gay organs Vaughn he is the Secretary to Pope emeritus Benedict the 16th this is a sublime collection of essays homilies and interviews talks about all sorts of interesting things why pope benedict xvi resigned i would like to know also how pope benedict interpreted the assassination attempt of pope john paul ii in relation to our lady of Fatima's message and here's a very important one what Europe can and should learn from the history of the Catholic Church a lot of provocative stuff here you'll want to get it how the Catholic Church can restore our culture it's available now at ewtn our c-calm by catholic shop ewtn our si.com back to the phones right now on the Friday edition of call to communion here is Maria in Pasco Washington listing on K H s s 100.7 hey Maria what's on your mind today thank you for taking my call dr. David that's it I just want to thank you first of all for your great book how the Catholic Church saved my marriage and also just your clear concise kind and foundational answers on your show it's some enlightened a lot of my Catholic and Protestant friends thank you so much my question yeah you just you'd have no idea I'm sure you do but just you're just a real nugget anyway my question is and I'm not talking about young I'm talking about seasoned Catholics does and I like your answer that you gave before regarding reconcile regarding absolution of sins so my question is does a Catholic who goes to confession but does not apologize I apologize in an action-oriented way to the people he has heard or she has heard or sinned against so in other words they don't they don't show any apology to those that they hurt or sinned against are they getting it right or are they somehow disordered I mean I guess I'm saying well my Protestant friends will say no you have to go to the and you have to be sincere and I have Kappa trans who say no I went to confession so I want you to clarify this a little bit yeah thanks I appreciate the question and I think there's a little bit of misunderstanding on both sides and the way you've depicted the question when when when we receive the word of absolution from a priest there is only one condition for the valid reception of that sacrament and that is contrition we have to be sorry we we have to recognize it what we did is objectively wrong we have to go to will not to do it again and and if we if we bring that that condition to the confessional when the priest says i absolve you you are at that moment objectively forgiven for your set objectively forgiven for your son now and independence the priest composes is not a condition of that forgiveness so if a person walks out of the confessional and does not perform their penance they are still forgiven they're just gonna have to as my old football coach used to say you can pay me now or pay me later it's coming in in purgatory all right but you're still objectively forgiven it is not possible it is not possible for me to make a proportionate reparation to every human being against him I have sinned that is an impossible standard I will never meet it I can't even know all the people to whom I might have to make reparation so one of the great goods of the sacrament of confession is it it makes up the difference if you will now that being said natural justice requires that that we that we make reparation to people for faults yeah I mean if I go steal Tom prices coffee cup and and I walk away and he goes hey Anders that's my coffee cup and I go oh oh sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry Tom and I just walk out the door I mean what kind of a jerk am i I'm like oh okay here's your coffee cup Tom I gotta give the coffee cup back right is that necessarily a condition of my reconciliation with God in the life of heaven no but it is a condition of natural justice and if I really am reconciled to God then I'm gonna have the virtue of justice of natural moral justice infused into me supernaturally such that I have this tendency to do the right thing by way of my neighbors and I would I would I would walk around with an uneasy conscience it would violate my own sense of equity as well as charity not to seek to make some kind of reparation when I can to people for for offenses against them you know I mean charity is what we get in reconciliation it's what we get in all the sacraments and it forms us not just in some sort of pushy cushy mystical way towards God but in an actual concrete acts of justice and charity towards our neighbor and so you know your Protestant friends are not wrong to say that we have to we have to seek to do justice in our common life and your Catholic friends are not wrong to say like to do that perfectly as an impossible standard and we can be forgiven just out of the benevolence of God I mean think about the thief on the cross st. Dismas there's no way he's gonna make reparation for everything he's done wrong in fact he says on the cross I'm getting what my deeds deserve have mercy on me and Jesus says you got it first canonized Saint in the church how about that we appreciate your call Maria it is called a communion here on EWTN glad you're with us on this Friday afternoon let's go to Jamie now Jamie is in Midland Texas listening on Guadalupe radio a first-time caller hey Jamie what's on your mind today hi thank you for taking my call beneath who is heavily into yoga and Reiki and and just that that sort of stuff and I'm I'm wanting to explain to her how it's completely different from us Christians when we say we're laying on the pans and in that form does that make sense yeah sure so of course the the the theory behind the practice of Reiki is it's basically Jedi science you know from Star Wars it's the idea that there's a kind of vital energy or force that pervades living beings and that you know some Reiki Master Jedi Knight types can can learn to magically manipulate that and and bring about healing in the human body that's the theory that's pseudoscience it's just magical thinking is false it doesn't work there's absolutely no evidence either that there is you know some mystical force pervading all living beings I'm sorry I'm with Han Solo on this one right but or or that any of the so-called therapeutic techniques of Reiki practitioners are actually effective is zero evidence of the thing right and in fact it's it's flat contrabass that this there's no detectable you know life force or vital energy like that and and and it doesn't seem to cohere with what we actually know about you know the atomic structure of the world and physics and biology and chemistry and the rest of us so so this is just a this is just a pseudo scientific magical belief now the way Matt any kind of magic the way any kind of magic differs from Christian spirituality is magic is entirely predicated in aside this idea that I can manipulate the unseen world through formula right that I can learn a technique and make the world of the unseen do my bidding that is entirely different from the dynamic of Christian prayer which is one of em prakasha it's one of invocation it's it's asking favors from a superior and intelligent agent namely God and we are dependent on God's initiative for their efficacy and and so you know the Christian does not think for example that the laying on of hands or the prayer for healing is is is magically or automatically effective in the same way but it's really up to the providential design of God okay Jamie thank you so much for your call we hope that's helpful for you here is Patsy now Patsy is in Phoenix Virginia listening on the EWTN app hey Patsy what's on your mind today I go to confession regularly it just think that my confessions are becoming more and more repetitive with venial sins the impatience and this stuff and I'm wondering is that common with the senior citizens of really fine because you I've been absolved of all the crap in my shoes and I truly do feel that I say that I you know you firmly resolved to sin no more but you're doing the same repetitive impatience you know sort of thing and as a senior citizen is it common to have a lack of depth in my confession or is it something internally me that I'm crazy because my priest seems bored with me okay so Patsy I really appreciate the question now I'm not a priest and I've never heard a confession in my life thanks be to God all right so I can't tell you from personal experience what's common or not common in others confessions except by way of anecdote right I can tell you by my own life and and you know to be sure many of us have habitual faults and and we confess them with some regularity now what I really think it responds to your question is it sounds to me like what's lacking perhaps is is a really sort of magnanimous ambitious goal in your own life with respect to your spirituality it's not uncommon that's not uncommon for people to at any age not to realize that there's a lot more we can do in the Catholic faith there's a lot deeper that we can go and and you know most people don't know the church teaches that the spiritual life falls into three distinct periods right there's there is the there is the purgative way of beginners the illuminative way of the proficient and the unitive way of the perfect most Catholics have never of this they don't get it an RCA don't get in catechism plus but it is it is central to the church's spiritual doctrine and and if if you are a you know pious believing faithful Catholic who's done the same thing your whole life my guess is in your catechesis you have only been taught the purgative way of beginners and you are ready for bigger stuff you're ready for bigger stuff you're ready to plunge into the illuminative way of perficient's you may already be in the illuminative way of professions and not know it most people are not good judges about their own spiritual life Jonathan cross said many people think they have profound prayer and have very poor prayer mm-me people think they have poor prayer and may have very profound fare you may be one of those so what do you need to do what you need to do is I would recommend at this your state life see if you can find a spiritual director not a confessor is the difference a spiritual director who knows about the three ages of the interior life and say look I'm a senior citizen I've been going at this thing you know 50 60 70 years I just found out there's a deep end of the pool I want to get there let's work and you know we got some good resources for you divine intimacy radio a co-production of spiritual direction calm and EWTN I think we broadcast with Sunday afternoons Sunday mornings and Sunday evening to start in in that exploration and of course Dan Burke's apostolate spiritual direction calm is all about that so lot you know a lot of good resources father Thomas Dube a good friend of EWTN passed away a few years ago great retreat priest on this topic number of talks available in the EWTN archives as well of his as well as his books like fire within for example mm-hmm I would say that probably a really good solid spiritual director would be delighted to hear anybody Patsey you too to hear them say I'm ready to go swim in the deep end right absolutely all right we're gonna go to Kay real quick here Kay we've got about 30 seconds or so you're in st. Paul what's on your mind today Kay yes question about the Transfiguration what was Jesus talking about with Moses and Elijah all hang up and listen yeah he was talking about his coming passion month coming passion he's talking to them about the coming of the kingdom of God right in his own ministry see the reason Moses and Elijah show up with the Transfiguration is that they stand for the law and the prophets respectively because all the law and the prophets testified unto Christ and so he said I'm it I'm here is happening what you guys talked about this is the fulfillment and it's really coming to fruition really soon okay okay thank you so much for your call we do appreciate that I'm sorry we couldn't get to Elaine Oh in Houston and also Susan and also there was one there was a chat over here from a Dayanara we're gonna have to hold that over until Monday so dr. David Andrews thank you my friend IQ Tom and I hope that you David have a wonderful weekend you do appreciate that keep in mind we do the program Monday through Friday here on EWTN radio at 2 p.m. Eastern with an encore at 11:00 p.m. Eastern we also bring you a best of call to Communion on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on behalf of our great crew including

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 3sec (3243 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020