CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - May 18, 2020

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 hey everybody welcome again to called a communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith trying to get those questions answered is very important to you guess what it's also important to us here's our phone number if you have a question about the Catholic faith especially those of our listeners who are not currently a practicing Catholic there you go alright here's that phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six outside of North America please dial the u.s. country code and then two oh five two seven one two nine eight five also you can text the letters EWTN two five five zero zero zero wait for our response and then Texas your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always send us an email CTC at ewtn.com all right Charles berry is our producer we also have Ryan Penney at the phones he will be the first voice that you hear when you call that number also Jeff person not with us today so we will be handling all sorts of emails I think Michael McCaul is going to handle a call to communion emails or perhaps Charles not sure about that we'll figure it all out anyway I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrew Tom how are you today very good how was your weekend my friend oh it was tolerable alright good we're still doing the social distancing that's right so all is good we're gonna lead off here with an email that actually confused me a little bit I wasn't quite sure that I was understanding where the email or was going but David you can clear it up this is from Joseph Joseph says are we born pagan and then become Catholics through baptism or by virtue of the sacrament of matrimony of my parents we are not born pagan but rather Catholic okay thanks no it was a the writers name again Joseph Joseph okay so here Joseph Joseph is presuming that you can either be pagan or Catholic this is position right and he assumes well you're gonna fall in one of the other and he wants to know if you're if you're Catholic is it just in virtue of your baptism as opposed to pagan or or is being born into a Catholic home does that place you in so sort of different category you know then somebody born into say you know a Hindu home okay I think that's how they think is what he's saying okay so first of all understand that in the like the current code of Canon Law the category pagan I don't think occurs anywhere like I don't think canon law thinks of people as you know your pagan and therefore you fall into this category in your Catholic and your that we have a category Catholic but uh you know from the point of view of the way the church thinks about its members and those outside I don't you know pagans not a big theological category for us historically of course the word pagan just meant a country bumpkin it was a rustic who lived outside the city of Rome okay and they were you know obviously the further out you were from the city though the longer it took those folks to be evangelized so sort of the remnants of ancient Roman and Greek superstition worship endured there longer and so eventually the word pagan became kind of a catch-all for people who still practice the old ways and haven't come into the church yet and that's you know how it does kind of become a theological category so now we talk about pagans as being people who aren't you know Christians Jews or Muslims so from the church's point of view you can be in a couple different states the most important one is you can be you can you can be baptized or not baptized and of course if you're baptized then you've been made a member of Christ by to the church you've had original sin and actual sin washed away given sanctifying grace do you become a priest in the Catholic Church you offer the sacrifice of your own life along with the Holy Sacrifice of the mass all kinds of privileges come and obligations come with the sacrament of baptism and and so anybody who's not baptized whether they have Catholic parents or not you know it does not have the the fruits of that sacrament doesn't have that baptismal character and printed on their soul and and needs to be baptized nevertheless nevertheless there is still a difference between a the unbaptized child of Catholic parents and the unbaptized child of a non-christian parents and I a Catholic parent has a canonical and a moral responsibility to bring that child for baptism and so that child has a kind of you know first in line sort of right mm-hmm to the sacrament of baptism that would not pertain exactly the same way say to the child of two Hindus Hindu family has a baby that that family has no sort of overt explicit certainly no canonical obligation to bring that child for a Christian baptism and that child would would have no expectation of receiving it right unless some Catholic person stepped into their life and and was seated the responsibility and authority of bringing that child up in the Catholic faith so it is it is good to be born in a Catholic home because even before you are baptized you have a claim and a right and an expectation of baptism and your parents have an obligation of giving it to you okay well we thank you so much for your question Joseph here's one now from Erika who says could you please recommend an in-depth Bible study to me there is a Christian website with an in-depth Bible study which I enjoy very much but it's not a Catholic website thanks Erika so you know I have some places on where you would go to find what you're looking for I don't have a specific well the Jeff Cavins material great adventure great adventure yeah that's that's good stuff if you go to the beach and religious catalogue I know we've probably had a number of resources the st. Paul Centre for for biblical theology out of stupid Ville with dr. Scott Hahn publishes a lot of that kind of material mm-hm so those are all some places you could go all right very good and we thank you so much Erica for your question and keep in mind that we do these emails Oh golly well we'll do two or three pretty much every show that we do and then once every so often or so I guess about every month we do a mailbag program in fact just before doing our live show today we put a mailbag program in the can that will air on Memorial Day in any event if you would like to send us an email for a future show the address is CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com of course you can do that 24 hours a day all right when we come back we're gonna get to the phones and talk with Charisse in Moore Oklahoma listening on Oklahoma Catholic radio lines are open for you right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN if you have a question for dr. David Andrews eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six the Monday edition of called to communion here on EWTN to stay with us I used to wonder if God really care why it mattered what church I went to or why even bothered with faith at all then I started praying more often and going to church what happened my relationships got stronger and I felt a peace that I never had before I realized that God in my life was the difference between occasionally being happy and finding lasting joy if you're looking for something more check out Catholics come home calm hi I'm Doug Keck and this is Annie wtn bookmark brief speaking with Jimmy Aiken moments ago about his book the Bible is a Catholic book published by our friends at Catholic Answers and available through our EWTN religious catalogue Jimmy tell us what is this book about why did you write it I respected the Bible I accepted the Bible but I didn't really know how we got the Bible and that's a fascinating story there most people don't know it they hear the Bible read at Mass every week or every day but how did we get it that's a really intriguing question and so I wrote this book in an easy accessible way so that everybody can find out the amazing story of how God gave us the Bible and the crucial role that the Catholic Church played in it Jimmy akin from Catholic Answers again available through our religious catalogue EWTN our c-calm look for the entire interview coming soon on the network I'm Doug Keck this has been a bookmark brief thanks for stopping by and we shall see you next time thanks [Music] as you might imagine we care an awful lot about the Holy Sacrifice of the mass here at EWTN radio and television but especially on EWTN radio essentials our newest service week broadcast the mass every two hours beginning with the live broadcast at 8:00 a.m. Eastern followed by an encore of that at 10 a.m. noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. and on and on all throughout the day so if you're not familiar with EWTN radio essentials we invite you to check it out you can hear it on our EWTN app you can also hear it on the smart speaker of your choice and by going to EWTN radio dotnet alright if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN will begin this time with Charisse Charisse is listening in Oklahoma at in Moore Oklahoma on Oklahoma Catholic radio a first-time caller hey there Charisse what's on your mind today hello huge fan of the show dr. Anders you have recently quoted James a righteous at the prayers of a righteous man avails much could you define biblically and traditionally how we would be a righteous man and does that definition differ slightly for a woman yeah thanks I appreciate the question so in a nutshell the righteousness that is required is the life of virtue and traditionally you can describe the life of the virtues in the in the three theological and the four cardinal virtues faith hope and charity justice fruit ins temperance and fortitude and you know st. Paul is the one that gives us the categories of the theological virtues uses you know these the these three remain faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love and and the the the moral virtues and natural moral virtues of justice and fortitude and temperance and prudence we can discern these there's a tradition of reflection on those but and also discern something about those just by our natural intuition about about moral activity we we need a set of virtues of habits to regulate our behavior with respect to our own interior life the actions that take place sort of in my own soul and prudence regulates the intellect and and fortitude and temperance regulate my life and respect to my passions and whether it be you know fear anxiety can keep us since what have you and justice of course regulates our actions with regard to our neighbor so that's a comprehensive set of categories there it's kind of you can't really think of any other options that that would come into play so those seven virtues really describe the life of the righteous person and of course those they're general enough that they apply to men and women now if we can drill down to the specifics a little bit and we can discern some differences in in what say an act of justice might look like for man or for a woman and I you know I think in particular husbands and wives have duties to one another that are reciprocal but not identical and there are certain things that pertain to say a father or husband state of life that are somewhat different than what would pertain to a wife a mother's state of life but both of them can have the habit of justice and have to have that habit of justice to be virtuous Jesus Christ of course opens up for us a quite a bit more what the the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of a just person looks like when when we are renovated in our character according to the likeness and model an image of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount and particularly the Beatitudes would be a beautiful picture of that the poor in spirit hungry and thirsting for righteousness the purity in heart the peacemaker all those Beatitudes that Christ delineates of course really describe the the interior life of the soul animated by the Spirit of Christ but that's essentially what it means to be righteous and that's what we should all strive for we can't do this thing however it's very difficult to be righteous in those ways without possible in fact without supernatural help and that's the life of grace and so how do you get the life of grace well it begins in faith begins in faith and then the sacraments Baptism and Confirmation and sacrum or marriage and ordination and the Eucharist and so I start with penance and and an holy anointing these are the tools the instruments that God that Christ has given us to bring the grace of God into our lives and to transform us we have to have a life of prayer Jesus tells us we have to go into our inner room and pray to our Father who's in secret the father who sees in secret will reward us and I think that's where a lot of people myself included tend to fall down because you know it's a prayer doesn't require a lot of technique doesn't require a lot of expertise but it's just really hard to do it's tough to keep it up it really is you know and we know we ought to do it and we always neglect it but without prayer with lb no holiness Alphonsus Liguori said that he who prays will be saved Mary who does not pray will not be saved ouch Charisse 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 Monday edition of called a communion here on EWTN let's go to David now in Pittsburgh listening online ewtn.com a first-time caller hey there David what's on your mind today good afternoon from you dr. Anders hi welcome to for you i we had a Bible study last Wednesday and we were reading in Acts it was chapter eight and right around verse fourteen or so the the reading was talking about the people of Samaria some of those folks were baptized but they did not receive the Holy Spirit and we none of us could understand that we we were all taught and thought that when we're baptized that we do receive the Holy Spirit at that time and the symbol is the white dove coming down from heaven and I just wanted to know your thoughts on sure yeah really appreciate it so the the coming of the spirit in Sacred Scripture takes place in a number of different contexts in the Old Testament the spirit would be sent upon individuals to empower them for some particular work of ministry it could be government it could be a prophet who is gonna speak the Word of God with boldness you know could even be on someone like the Judge Samuel not not Samuel I'm sorry Sampson he's gonna go out and and and and carry out warfare right on behalf of the people of God and Sampson if you know his story it was not a particularly good guy you know he had he had he had trouble with women big time you know and had cost him it cost him he's not someone to be emulated and yet the Spirit of God came on him for a this sort of specific act of ministry if you will you know to fight Israel's enemies and um and so you know this is a kind of charismatic empowerment and it's characteristic of the spirits coming in the Old Testament but we find another description of how the Spirit will come in the Old Testament and I really the heart of it is in Psalm 51 when David prays to God for renewal of his interior life give to me a pure heart O Lord give to me a pure heart O Lord renew in me a right spirit and the the prophets prophesy this interior renewal in the Holy Spirit as characteristic of the New Covenant in Christ so Jeremiah 31 talks about God by his spirit writing his law on our minds and placing it in our hearts or Ezekiel chapter 36 when he talks about God's circumcising us in the heart and changing our character interiorly but the first kind this sort of charismatic empowerment is also envisioned by the prophets concerning the New Covenant in Christ so the Prophet Joel talks about it now excuse me I keep hiccuping an outpouring of God's Spirit that will be manifested in signs and wonders and prophecies and dreams and this kind of thing but you can see at a glance that they're not the same they're not the same right you can you can prophesy and have dreams and do all kinds of fancy stuff just like Samson did and yet not have that interior innovation in the heart so when we are baptized as Catholics we die with Christ and baptism we're reborn with him and the work and the Holy Spirit definitely comes to us in that interior renovation of heart and so st. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 6 he says we die with Christ and baptism and are raised again with him to new life and the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and so that is the birthright of every baptized person now but but not every baptized person at the moment of their baptism it receives a sort of visible manifestation of this empowerment to bear witness and testimony for Christ in the public sphere if you will that would sort of correspond to that other mode of the spirits coming in the Old Testament and that is what the but the sacred author of Luke and acts seems to have in view and and when you look at Luke's historiography historiography horses sort of the science or discipline of history writing it seems that Luke is influenced heavily by the historical texts of the Old Testament and that's kind of the that's kind of the paradigm that's the idiom that he's operating within and and when Luke views the coming of the Spirit he usually has that other mode in mind and in Acts in particular you'll note that when the Spirit is given in acts it's almost always for the manifestation of some form of inspired speech could be speaking in tongues could be prophesying sometimes they're just told that the people of God spoke the Word of God with boldness but it's usually some sort of manifestation of spirit guided or inspired speech because it's this testimony this bearing witness to Christ mm-hmm and and so the that's where we get the Sacrament of Confirmation now confirmation does deepen the graces and of baptism in our life but there is this particular orientation towards bearing witness publicly for Christ you know how Jesus says if you've led before governors and Kings don't worry about what you're gonna say the Spirit will give you those words to speak that's really what we have in mind so do we receive the spirit in baptism yes absolutely we do but is there another sacrament that that not only deepens that reality but specifically Orient's us fits us for that public testimony that bearing witness to Christ in our state of life yes that's the Sacrament of Confirmation all right David thank you so much for your call called a communion here on EWTN here's a question now from Ricardo watching us on YouTube who says did the Pope ever say that it is a sin to convert unbelievers okay thanks appreciate the question so the multiple popes have told us that that our approach to Christian evangelism should not be one of proselytism mmm and and but we must evangelize so what's the difference between proselytism and evangelism proselytism says hey here's the gospel of Christ here's the Catholic faith it's good stuff let's talk about it let's answer objections let's show why it's reasonable let's show why it's necessary you know I'm inviting you to come along you want to come to Mass with me you want to listen to our radio program you want to talk about Jesus you want to dialog in the Catholic faith I'm here all day long let's dive in let's do it let's even talk about where you were not differ let's let's let's hash out some of our differences let's have conversations let's have arguments let's do it in love let's do it in charity and that's Evangelos Evangelos you want to do that yeah we're great we're good we're all good here's proselytism I'm going to do everything in my power to manipulate this other person into making a at least a verbal or nominal commitment to my way of looking at the world and from the inside they the two of them feel very different because one of them is really about my own self-aggrandizement it's about you know can I get a feather in my cap for winning a convert you know look how many I I nailed today for Catholicism that's proselytism and it's motive is not love it's not charity right it's usually some sort of self serving on the part of the one doing the proselytizing you know Jesus talked about this he says you guys you know across the oceans to make one proselyte then you make the guy twice the son of hell he was before right we don't want to do that we don't wanna be like that we want to evangelize share the truth of Christ invite people to understand ask questions to participate call them in you know but we're not trying to compel them at the point of a sword or by any rhetorical technique or psychological manipulation possible because that's a dehumanizing okay hope that's a helpful for you Ronaldo thank you so much for your well for checking us out on YouTube today called a communion here on EWTN kwikki now from Gerald who says dr. Anders where does the account of the revolt of the angels appear in literature that is what is the origin of the story of their revolt and fall yeah thanks appreciate the question so so question the in Christ says that he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven and and the book of Revelation has a description of and it's very cryptic a course of the of the fall of the evil angels and then of course reflection on this emerged in the writings of the fathers and then in quite explicitly in the Scholastic theologians okay all right well that's where we'll leave that Gerald thank you so much for your email we're gonna get to lots more on this edition of call to communion unfortunately we're like a minute before the music comes in and I just I didn't realize you would answer it that quickly David you kind of blew me away three oh three or four a loop Tom I'm sorry you did well you know we'll just have to figure things out anyway it is called a communion here on EWTN we're very blessed in that we have sold out phones at the moment that doesn't happen too often but it does happen so in the next a couple of minutes here we're going to be getting to Jeff in Dallas in Guadalupe radio also Charles in Laguna Niguel California beautiful area there Judy in Crowley Texas also a Willie in Sierra Vista Arizona checking us out on EWTN television today and Connie in Valley grand Alabama so certainly lots of folks checking us out today on EWTN it's called a communion when a line does become available it should happen fairly soon here's the phone number write it down eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six or you can text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero lots more straight ahead on the Monday edition of call to communion here on EWTN stay with us father John Ricardo when you and I wake up every day do we strive to know Jesus or not quick question to you and me right now is that what you and I are doing every single day the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio one of my favorite Saint stories is of a great missionary Saint John de Bree buff on one journey he set out to share the gospel with the Native American tribe he'd never met before and they wanted none of it so they told him to wait while they had a meeting to decide if they were going to execute him or not when they came back to tell him the good news that his life had been spared they were shocked to find he was taking a nap think about that for all he knew he was about to be tortured and killed and he was peaceful enough to doze off listen it's perfectly natural to worry especially with life-and-death situations but when worry plagues your thoughts breathe in Jesus and breathe out mercy until you remember that your life is not in the hands of your problems you are ultimately in the hands of a loving father who's got your back and no matter what happens he has a plan for your eternal victory and for your good for more text crisp chri s24 for 1:44 this is Krista fanuc on ewtn radio rings is the weekly newsletter that's packed with program info features and updates of all that's going on at the global Catholic Network just go to ewtn.com slash wings fill out your name and email address and you'll start getting your wings every week when you get yours send it to all your friends and they can send it to their friends and pretty soon we're covering the whole world with the good news about EWTN wings the weekly newsletter from EWTN the global Catholic network have you regretted not saying or doing something how often do you think about that type of sin we want to know tomorrow at 12 p.m. Eastern on take two with Jerry and Debbie now back to call to communion with dr. David Anders hey it's the Monday edition of call to communion here on EWTN glad that you are with us let's go now to Judy in Crowley Texas listening to us today via YouTube a first-time caller either Judy what's on your mind today Hank good afternoon dr. Anders thank you for what you do and thank you for taking my call my question is regarding Mary and Joseph at their betrothal it's my understanding that Mary was a consecrated virgin and most likely out of respect for her that Joseph was also a consecrated virgin that their betrothal and if that's correct and then my question is would that have been public knowledge in their community and I wondered if when Mary became pregnant would this have carried also repercussions for she and Joseph within their community yeah thank you appreciate the question so first of all the question of Joseph's virginity is a little bit contested right because there are there are second century traditions in the church that suggests that Joseph was married prior to the Blessed Virgin and actually had biological children by a pre his wife who would have died right so it's not as clear that Joseph was a consecrated virgin though he did agree to enter into what we now call Joseph's fight marriage with the Blessed Virgin one that was never consummated sexually and so she was perpetually a virgin died a virgin not so clear that Joseph did he would totally chaste utterly pure but not necessarily a virgin to the day of his death in terms of the question of whether whether their decision to enter into a Joseph I'd marriage would be public you know there are some reasons to be doubtful about that and one of them I think is the perception by Jesus's contemporaries that Joseph was his biological father now that perception was misguided but John chapter six for example they said is this not Jesus the Son of Joseph whose father mother we know now I guess you could read that either way I mean maybe he was recognised as legally the son of Joseph not biologically but at least at least like in the context of John chapter six seems to me that people are taking offense at Christ's claim to divine authority or to be the son of God and they're their responses we know where this guy came from we know what his parentage is how can he make these kinds of claims so I would my presumption of course I'm you know I mean like I'm open to evidence to the contrary would be that this was not this is not widely known it also would would Coe hair with what we know about the personalities of Mary and Joseph they were quiet people they did not talk about themselves they treasured these things up in their heart they were not out they were not out to draw attention to themselves or to their acts of heroic chastity or virtue okay appreciate your call there Judy it is called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Connie now who is in Valley grand Alabama live checking us out today on EWTN television hey Connie what's on your mind today thank you dr. Anders I am Catholic but I'm visually impaired it's hard for me to look things up like in the catechism so I wanted to ask you I have a lot of Protestants asking about why we have repetitive prayers such as the chaplet of divine mercy or the rosary and they say you know Jesus said don't pray as the pagans do it's vain repetition and I want to be able to explain the difference you know what did Jesus really mean when he was talking about how the pagans prayed and how that differs from the way we pray when we pray something like the chocolate yeah thanks really appreciate the question so first of all Jesus never told us that we should not pray repetitively he told us that we shouldn't pray like pagans who believe that they will be heard because of their many words now there were pagans who would who would pray litanies to a variety of gods in the hope that one would stick you know if you name enough divinities you know that one of them might be awake and hear what you have to say and do what you want right and and really you know if you remember the account of the prophets of bail-in in the Book of Kings when they are slashing themselves and dancing around and you know banging on cymbals and tambourines and so forth and calling i'm bale to send down fire from heaven and elijah of course mocks them and he's like you know why'd you get a bullhorn yeah right that's that's really what we're talking about that's what jesus don't do that don't do that but clearly clearly Christ not only did not forbid but he positively prescribed repetition in the life of prayer and repetition and life of prayer is is endemic to the biblical tradition and if you don't believe me I would encourage you to read or listen to Psalm 136 the thing is so it's so repetitive that it will drive you mad if you're not in the mood for it right you know it's his love endures forever his love endures forever his love endures forever you just go on on on all day repeating this this this antiphon in the song over and over and over again and of course the Salter was pre-eminently the form of of Israel's prayer life taken over by the earliest Christians as well and would've been prayed by Jesus in fact the Psalms are the most quoted book of the Old Testament in the new so so it's absolutely a very apartment very much part of the biblical tradition to engage in repetitive prayer in Christ's course commands repetitive prayer when his disciples say how shall we pray how shall we pray Jesus could have said well you know you just say any old thing that pops in your head the spirits kind of guide you you just say any other thing that pops in your head tell god what you want talk to him when you're in the shower you know ask him for a parking spot whatever you like that's not what he did it's not what Jesus said he gave us an extremely formulaic highly precise prayer the Lord's Prayer the our Father said this is how you are to pray just like this now interesting thing about the Lord's Prayer how many petitions in the Lord's birth are there for a change in material condition benefiting me materially one I'd like a lunch please God give me my daily bread every other petition in there is really about conforming my will to God to be forgiving to be penitent and contrite to to desire the fulfillment of God's purposes to be protected from evil and temptation there all spiritual petitions mm-hmm right only one asks for a change in material condition that benefits me specifically and it's pretty modest is God give me a Ferrari no no lunch yeah and and look I'm just eating bread daily right that's all I'm asking for right and and you know so so he does give us a highly specific form of Prayer commands us to pray and Christians have of course for 2,000 years obeyed the words of Christ we pray the Lord's Prayer every day Connie thank you so much for your call we do appreciate that called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Willie now in Sierra Vista Arizona also checking us out on EWTN television a first-time caller hey Willie what's on your mind today Catholic been in Protestant Bible studies for 30 years and because it's so hard to find a Catholic Bible study and listening to Table Talk on TV they were talking about revelations and all that now they kind of betrayed me and turned it against the early Roman church how demanding they were how corrupt the Pope's were how they burned people who didn't believe what they believed at the stake and how you earn indulgences and the importance of works and how we get into a higher place in heaven by working for God here rather than faith I'm wondering what your reaction to all that is and how perfect Luther was with the Reformation okay Wow so this is a lot to deal with here Willie and I probably can't get to all of it because you raised a lot of questions but let me let me just back up for a minute and talk a little bit about how we're saved because at the end of the day that's what this all boils down to like how how does Christ want us to be saved and one thing we find for certain is that if you read the words of Christ Christ tells us that we have to be changed in our interior and moral lives and he tells us what that you know John chapters we have to be born again he tells us what that change is gonna look like and you read it in the Sermon on the Mount the Beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed are the meek blessed are the pure in heart the peacemakers those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and so on and in a person who lives that way with that interior renovation by grace does things that merit merit means when you you do something that earns a reward and Jesus talks about the rewards for the just all the time he says if we you pray to your father pray to your father in secret and he will reward you when you give alms give alms in secret and your father will reward you right when you fast and pray fast and pray in secret and your there in heaven will reward you so the idea that Christians need to merit do good deeds for which we will be rewarded or recompense is taught by Jesus himself it's taught by the Apostles and every single time we find a passage in the Bible about the final judgment every single time we learn that we are judged on the basis of one thing alone and that is our works that's what the Bible says I would encourage you to go read Revelation chapter 20 great white throne judgment when Christ will judge all people according to their deeds whether they were good or bad that's what the Bible says doesn't say anything else and you say well how can I do these good deeds how can I do these things that will merit eternal salvation for me well we can't do them without the help of God so we need God's grace and we receive that primarily in the sacraments so st. Paul tells us that we die with Christ in Baptism and are raised again with him to new life if we stumble and fall we can be restored to grace through the Sacrament of Penance so that's why Jesus says in John chapter 22 the Apostles received the Holy Spirit whoever sins you forgive are forgiven whoever sins you retain are retained now that my friend is the contours of the Catholic doctrine of salvation laid out for you in the Bible the Catholic Church did not make this stuff up the Catholic Church did not depart from some pristine Protestant purity this was the teaching of Jesus that the churches handed down faithfully for 2,000 years now your question about Luther and his integrity and is the work of the Reformation and so forth I would like to suggest a point of analysis for you where did the Reformation happen where in the world and when did it happen it happened in Germany in the 16th century Luther you know nailed his 95 theses or he didn't actually nail them that's kind of a myth but he wrote the 95 theses 1517 right Germany Northern Europe 16th century now the Protestant position yeah is that that the Catholic Church has gone off the rails from their tradition and their papal Authority and they ought to go back to just the Bible alone if you go back to the Bible alone then you're gonna get this good Lutheran stuff and everything gonna be all right well let's just look at that for a second if that's true if it were true that you know the Roman Church introduced all these traditions and the Pope got in the way and obscured the plain sense of the Bible and I guy does go back to the Bible alone then wouldn't you think that something like Lutheranism would have been visible in let's say 3rd century Egypt you'd find all kinds of Lutheran's running around in 3rd century Egypt because they had the Bible and you know some of them were pretty far away geographically from Rome didn't talk to the Pope a whole lot you would think that you know the the monks out in the desert they were really were by themselves they had the Bible you'd think they'd organize themselves into little little Lutheran churches out there in the desert and yet and and you can North Africa Persia India sure you know Celtic Europe I mean you go yeah no where does this Lutheran stuff happen until 16 essentially German yep that's a clue it does not emerge out of the pages of the Bible it emerged out of Luther's peculiar historical imagination all right Willie thank you so much for your call a few minutes ago David we were talking about the our Father you'll recall that one of our listeners was a little confused and that's Chris checking us out on Facebook Chris says I thought that the phrase daily bread concerned the Word of God okay well I'm not that might be a that might be an application and interpretation that you could place on the text uh-huh but of course you know the words of Christ our daily bread you know that's true daily bread daily bread there it is all right it is mmm call to communion here on EWTN I want to tell you for just a moment here about EWTN media missionaries we talked about media missionaries from time to time you may think of EWTN us being one big media mission and indeed it is but there's an awful lot of folks people just like you who assist us in our mission and that is the role of the EWTN media missionaries what these great folks do is prayerfully take EWTN to parishes in the community through the print and electronic media that we provide what are we talking about find out more by going to EWTN missionaries dot-com and join us in sharing the Eternal Word with the world give you that website one more time here EWTN missionaries dot-com back to the phones right now here on call to communion here is Jeff in Dallas listening on Guadalupe radio hey Jeff what's on your mind today yes well I'll do my best okay so the Church teaches scriptures teaches that God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of his truth right and that would be the antecedent will of God but we also know that that from the beginning when God created the world he knew that some people would be lost and he knew that some people would sin and uh so why did he allow that well he allowed the possibility for sin and damnation because he intended to bring a greater good out of it then then then would have been the case had he just created a world of angels already confirmed in grace that's mysterious to us but we can get a clue from the words of Christ who says there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety-nine righteous people that don't need to repent so there's something about the good of conversion itself that is worth the possibility of sin so that we could realize the good of repentance and redemption and you know God could have made a world in which Adam and Eve never sinned and you know and lived out their days uh you know playing golf in Augusta or something but instead because of the fall of Adam o happy fault the Easter liturgy says we can anticipate we anticipated the great good of the Incarnation and and God entering into human experience with us and opening up the possibility of the beatific vision which is a far greater reward than a lifetime of playing golf at Augusta so you know that's doesn't fully resolve the mystery for us but it shows that there's an intelligibility and even though it is in an abstract and general sense better that no one sin you know in my individual life the possibility that there would be sin in Redemption opens up whole domains to fulfill the purposes of God now when it comes to the question of of sufficient and efficacious grace the Church teaches that God offers grace to every soul that would be sufficient to get them to heaven but it is evident that not every soul gets to heaven and and so it's also the case that the soul that gets to heaven gets there only by God's grace I cannot merit from God the initial gift of grace you know it's not like I'm sitting down here and you know God's just watching to see what I do and then one day I I perform some act of charity or repentance and then guy goes off okay I want to respond give me as grace no that's not how it works because then it would be in me the ultimate explanation for my salvation would start with maybe my initiative reaching out to God no scripture says tradition says is God who reaches out to me Jesus says no one can come to me unless the father draw him you didn't choose me I chose you the initiative starts with God once I get grace I can't say I'm such a great guy we'll hang on to this grace I'm not gonna let it go it's all up to me no no the scriptures and sacred tradition teach that if I if I hang on to the Grace and I maintain it to the end and I die in God's grace that maintaining that persevering in the life of grace also a gift of God that I cannot merit I cannot merit the gift of final perseverance I could ask for it I can't merit it so I say God please grant me the gift to final perseverance please grant me the grace of a happy death you know Blessed Virgin may pray for me now and at the hour of my death I can ask for the grace of final perseverance I can't merit it those are God's grace from getting in efficacious grace is the grace given by God that sees me clear to the final end if I have persevered to the end and I am saying in fact saved you because God granted me the gift of efficacious grace something that I cannot merit and I cannot demand from him I can only ask for it okay well we thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN appreciate that Jeff I think we can get to perhaps one or two more before we have to call it a day here here is Charles now in Laguna Niguel California our first-time caller hey Charles what's on your mind today oh thank you for having me on sure and I was born and raised a Catholic actually went to altar boy school but didn't graduate but my question is this and I talked to many theologians about this and never had a satisfactory answer in fact it's they say that God is the Alpha and the Omega the beginning of the end he knows what has been and will be he knows even though he gives every soul free will he knows in advance how that person is going to use it now logic would dictate that that makes freewill moot because if he knows someone's gonna go to hell even before he's created their soul why would he create it to what end are those people sacrificed for a greater good of some kind okay thanks so I appreciate there are really two different questions that you've raised right one of them has to do about how can you reconcile missions with human freedom and the other would be what purpose can be served by creating humans with freedom if some number of them will neces will go to hell in consequence not necessarily but will go to hell in consequence of that freedom those are two different questions let me answer the first one first the the fact that God has omniscience does not mean that I don't have agency in my own activity one way of construing understanding human freedom is to say the ability to act for a reason right human freedom is a function it flows from my rationality it's because I can conceptualize differentiate goods and deliberate between them it is in virtue of that fact that is precisely that in which my freedom consists and that's different from the life of animals that don't have the power of reason or conceptual knowledge and so they do not act under a description you know my dog might go to the food because it's hungry but it doesn't go to the food because it knows it as food it acts instinctually is driven to it by instinct not by rational deliberation okay well you know this is a this is a kind of truism of our experience that humans act for reasons they act under a description they deliberate between conceptions of the good and and we know that we have that kind of freedom you know with the same kind of certainty that I know that I'm sitting in this chair right and and physicalists interpretations of human action always neglect their reductive and they leave out you know essential components of our experience and they don't explain them they just reduce them so we know we have freedom it's that that our moral responsibility consists and we know we're more responsible because we're free if we weren't free we wouldn't be morally responsible at every criminal justice proceeding ever taken place presumes that people could have done otherwise now that the more authority our question is well why would God create a world free beings if he knows that some of them in their free agency are going to choose sin and be lost and all we can know with certainty an answer to that question is that does intend to bring out of that reality some greater good that you know it's more right more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than ninety-nine righteous people that don't need to repent and that the ultimate fault lies in US and in our free deliberation not in God not in his he's not directly responsible for evil but to patch all that together in a way that fully satisfies our our rationality is very very hard it's very very difficult and there's an element of mystery there okay and I think we have time for one quick question opponent this is gonna be a tough one to answer that quickly this is from Sam watching us on YouTube what is the difference between Catholics and Methodists okay the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago the Methodist Church was founded by Charles Wesley and George Whitfield in the 18th century that's that that's a that's pretty good right you're right and you know Catholics believe that Christ gave us the church as the sign and instrument of salvation for the whole world and Methodists by and large de-emphasize the note of the church in in comparison Catholics in the drama of salvation and make it more about the individual experience of god in one's interior life dispensing to a certain extent from the from the externals of church and sacraments to the same extent that Catholics would okay well we did it's a whole bunch of questions in only 55 minutes and got through it without any visible wounds I think that's a wonderful thing dr. David we're working on it that's right thank you so much for joining us today and we'll look forward to seeing you in again tomorrow absolutely thank you whole bunch of calls we could not get to today Maricela on Staten Island Ethel in hazel Kentucky Janis in Grand Rapids Ohio Marcel in Hamilton Ontario Canada just could not get to you as you can hear the music we've got to get out of here but if you will please call us again tomorrow at the usual number eight three three two eight eight EWTN we will put you at the head of the line I promise on behalf of our great team Charles Ryan and today Michael McCall I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews thank you so much for joining us today call to communion see you tomorrow god bless

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,789

Rating: 4.7377048 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: 4jtM-yYKEO8

Length: 53min 43sec (3223 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020