CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - May 28, 2020

for more news with a Catholic perspective visit EWTN news.com I'm Teresa Tomeo and call to communion with dr. David Anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests why do Catholics worship Mary why do I need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the Bible I think the Pope has too much authority what's stopping you you are called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network everybody welcome again to called a communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters are you yourself you who are watching you who are listening are you a non Catholic maybe were a practicing Catholic many years ago but gave it up for whatever reason maybe you've never been a Catholic in any event you probably have some questions about the Catholic faith so here's what here's what we recommend give us a call at 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 the US and Canada please dial the u.s. country code and then two oh five two seven one two nine eight five you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and for those of you watching us today on TV you can participate as well our email address ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com Charles berry is our producer we have Ryan Penney standing by the phones and Jeff person is on social media he can pass on any questions that you might want to pose via YouTube or Facebook live because we're streaming there right now i'm tom price at least twelve feet against away from dr. david andrews hey Tom how are you today doing very well how are you my friend thank you glad to hear that we're going to lead off today with the text as we're getting some of these calls screened here's a text from Bob when did God establish sacrifice as the basis of worship after all Cain and Abel made offerings without any prior mention of sacrifice in Genesis thank you so the the doctrine that we ought to offer sacrifice to God is of the natural law right so it's something the natural law is the human beings rational participation in the eternal law right meaning that there's a there's a there's an intelligibility a pattern a reason behind the nature of the human person about our biology our physiology as well as the operation of our rational intellect I mean these things are the kind of things that neuroscientists and psychologists study the human person is one way not another and certain things are good for a human person right right good to eat your veggies definite it's a biological good but there are moral goods that function the very same way the things that accord with our spiritual nature they're not just laws that God arbitrarily wrote and drop down on a parchment they're actually written into the very fabric of our nature just like our biological needs are encoded into our DNA we have certain spiritual and moral needs that are encoded into the into our nature as spiritual persons one of those is the need it is good for us to worship God now why would that be well you know God is the greatest good God's the greatest good he's the first calls the final end and the source and origin of everything that's good and we in him we live and move and have our being and we depend on him at every moment and he is intrinsically praiseworthy and so it's good for you to orient your life around a praiseworthy object and the more worthy the object the better it is for you so the highest good is your highest happiness and the inclination to recognize that and to put other things aside in preference to that highest good and that's really what sacrifice is right it's giving up of something of value in preference for something of greater value that's actually encoded into our DNA if you will and that's why sacrifice we find sacrifice as a part of religious pride in every culture of every time and throughout the world even people who haven't heard anything about Christianity or Judaism practice rights of sacrifice of one kind or another you know and even those who make a god if you will out of their physical fitness hold to the mantra no pain no gain all right they sacrifice their comfort now for you know like bigger muscles tomorrow or something but the notion of delayed gratification in the pursuit of a greater good is written into our very nature it's of the natural law all right Bob thank you so much for your text here's one now from Andrew watching us on YouTube Andrew says considering so many biblical Patriarchs were polygamists what Bible verse prefers monogamy over polygamy Thanks so starting with the teaching of Jesus coast is very clear now we begin to see a movement in that direction in the Old Testament so look at the book of Tobit for example as a beautiful Testament the Old Testament - to the value of loving monogamous marriage but of course Christ really puts it on the map when he says that the pattern for marital relationships should be patterned after the creation ordinance when God made one man one woman for one another for the raising up of children and he says you know the Jews had other practices he says God permitted these because of your hardness of heart this was a concession to human weakness but it should not be so with you he says right but as God made in the beginning what God is joined together let man not separate one man one woman for life and so the apostles of course taught that message and that that's the pattern for for really for all marriage after the created order but especially for Christians very good Andrew thanks for watching us on youtube a quick email here from Gerard what is the benefit of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue and what is the spiritual benefit of praying in Latin okay thanks so so no physical posture or practice is in itself magically or intrinsically efficacious for our salvation so however you receive communion whatever mode of reception you practice the communion will be of no value to you if you receive it without faith charity and contrition all right and and so it's it's subjective efficacy in you depends on those on those spiritual dispositions more than it depends upon the outward mode of your behavior now the church has always prescribed certain outward modes of behavior in in the liturgy both for priests and the lay faithful in an effort to encourage those dispositions right and so that's the value in in any sort of liturgical posture that you take the purpose is to encourage you with the right disposition of heart so that you can fruit freely receive Lord but if you depend on the posture itself in a kind of quasi magical way well that would be an act of superstition all right and Gerard thank you so much for your email and a moment we'll get to the phones if you have a question for dr. David Andrews do give us a call at eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six four call to communions stay with us hello family our world has been turned upside down by the corona virus pandemic concern for our loved ones economic uncertainty and of course social distance it's easy to understand why there's such great anxiety and fear in the world I'm convinced that God is using this moment to bring us closer to him and to strip away the distractions of our normal daily lives and that He is calling us to place our trust in him in this difficult moment EWTN is a great spiritual resource that can help you your family and friends make sense of the chaos of course EWTN is where you can turn for Mass every day in addition to our television and radio channels you can also find the mass live Eucharistic Adoration the rosary and other devotions on our web and video on-demand platforms and of course EWTN news will continue to provide you with the latest updates on the pandemic as well as other current events around the world from a Catholic perspective please know that we're praying for you and let's also join together in prayer for our EWTN family around the world thank you and may God bless you he was a doctor of the church a Carmelite and one of the most famous mystics of all time Mathieu Bunsen and the doctors of the church st. John of the Cross wanted to help all Christians to become Saints one of his most important teachings was to encourage us all to learn how to love where there is no love he said put love and you will find love he died in 1591 for more about the doctors of the church visit doctors of the church calm [Music] thanks for joining us here on call to communion on ewtn our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN if you have a question for dr. david andrews anything at all regarding the catholic faith why does the church teach this but they don't teach this thing over here eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our phone number or you can text the letters ewtn two five five zero zero zero an email here from Rosa who says would you please explain from my Protestant husband that the Roman Catholics are not the same people who crucified Jesus that yeah that's a bizarre claim never heard that one yeah so I guess the to explain that the Roman Catholics are not the ones that crucified Jesus I would like to know why he thinks they are them right because you technically speaking we we date the birth of the church to the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost so you know obviously Christ had begun to gather his community of elective followers the disciples the twelve and the 72 and the other sort of hangers-on with the crisis ministry and but most of them ran away when when Christ was was arrested by the Romans in the Garden of Gethsemane only you know Peter followed at a distance and then when they asked him about it he ran away I know and you had the Blessed Virgin and and the other Mary and you had Saint John at the foot of the cross but everybody else was gone as the Romans who arrested him and the Sanhedrin with the chief priests also as well they took them to the temple before the chief priests that said he was worthy of death and they took him to a Pilate and said you need to crucify him but the church such as it existed sort of an anticipation in the apostolic band had disbanded so they weren't there really it is a matter of historical records a matter of historical record right right well Rosa thank you so much for your email we hope that's helpful for you here's a text that just came in this is from let's see here Dan who's actually watching us right now on YouTube he says why do most Bibles translate Luke 1:28 as Hale favored one instead of hail full of grace isn't this what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception rests upon what do you think sure thinks so I do think that Bible Translators today probably want to avoid language that they associate with the Catholic devotional tradition hmm and because they have a prejudice or a bias against it and because Catholics have made this salutation central to our veneration of the mother of God hail full of grace they they don't want to be associated with that so I think it's a kind of prejudicial sort of thing right okay and the the Greek word kakera tahminae is a middle or passive participle that means one having been graced to the full so you do the math as they say yes indeed all right dan thanks for watching us today on youtube our phone number at Fatih w TNS called a communion eight three three two eight eight EWTN if you have a question for dr. David Anders eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six called a communion in progress here on EWTN here's an email a very thoughtful email from Bill who says where does a person stand who is battling addiction whether with drugs alcohol porn or other sex additions anything of this sort they know they're an addict and these behaviors are wrong they participate in weekly mass and the sacraments of the church like weekly reconciliation before the Eucharist is it reasonable to believe he or she is choosing such behaviors with a full act of the will therefore would such a person go to hell if he dies after committing one of these grave sins and honestly praying the act of contrition but before going to reconciliation thanks Bill okay thanks I appreciate the question fortunately we're not in the job of passing judgment on people's souls before the throne of God that's up to God to do all right you and and so how but so I think but we can't advise people both on the morality and the psychology of addiction and I'm not an expert in the subject there are people out there who are but let me give you what I've sort of come to you on my own some people just flat-out choose to abuse substances in a very selfish kind of way a decision for which they're morally culpable now they may once they begin get further and further into it find that the the deeper they go into sin the less and less freedom they have now that's actually the Catholic doctrine on sin that sin is a kind of slavery in a bondage mm-hmm and it gets a hold of you and and sometimes you get so deep in you really can't get yourself out and well always really without the grace of God you may be able to self out so at all we it always has that pattern now other people fall into addiction in ways that I won't say they're innocent but far more naive you know miss many people experiment with drugs or alcohol for the first time in adolescence because of peer pressure quite honestly and and that's also a weakness but one that's it's kind of mild I mean to want to have the desire a desire for your friendship and approval your friends and so forth this it's it's culpable but it's not that culpable and and they may innocently do this thing and not even understand how harmful it is and then if they have an addictive personality I have the genetic disposition the next thing you know boom they're an addict and they certainly didn't choose to dive into that maybe they may be struck struggling for a lifetime so pastor Lee we would approach such people with deep compassion with deep compassion loving them and encouraging them and and really taking seriously how difficult it is to get out of that rut at the same time we're all kind of all in that rut you know we're all we're all in the rut of being plowed under by our own sinful habits and our pathologies and our neuroticism xand and childhood wounds and so forth and the temptation is always to palliate those wounds in sinful ways with with illicit pleasures of some kind and I may not be it's not a substance abuse maybe maybe I'm gonna palliate that wound by pouring myself into professional accomplishment and try to win honors right that's the pride of life that the Scriptures worry about warned about maybe I'm gonna try to apply myself into my job make a bunch of money and build a big fancy house that's the that's the lust of the eyes you know maybe I'm gonna try to chase all the best-looking women in high school that's the bust of the flesh right those may or may not be addictions per se but they all follow the same pattern and we're all stuck in that rut none of us are gonna get out of this rut without grace right and one thing you can't do is you're not gonna be able to pull yourself up by your own moral bootstraps and I think I can I think I can I think I can tad I'm out of that problem and we know that from addiction but we know it from our own life Ascenta man how many priests hear the same confession from the same person every week every week week after week after week for years and years yours and I do think talking about addiction that the key to the 12 steps which has proved effective for many people to get out of the addiction is the recognition that I can't do this thing I'm licked I'm beat this thing's got me you know I'm out for the count I need the 12-step people say a higher power but we know who that is yes we know who that is I need God to come down here and and fix this for me but I'm not passive I'm gonna make a searching moral inventory I'm gonna really be brutally honest about my faults no look that's a lifetime process doesn't happen overnight then I'm gonna be willing for God to take away those faults that's the kicker right there that's the hard part now I may not be may or may not be morally responsible for my jet genetic predisposition or ignorant mistakes I've made when I was 13 or whatever I mean those things are long gone but I can do that I've got that much freedom of will I can say God I need your help and I know what I need help with this this this and this yes go get yourself in a 12-step support group go develop a good confessional life and the sacrament of reconciliation use those means that are available to you use those means right and you can do that much absolutely bill thanks so much for your email thanks to everyone who sends out emails to us if you would like to send one for a future the address 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're going to begin this time with JC in Portland Oregon listening on the great modern day radio hey JC what's on your mind today hello yes my mother was Catholic and I was raised Catholic my father was not mom always said if he is dying and if he hasn't been baptized and there's no priest close enough get whatever water is available and make the sign of the Cross on his head with with water and said baptize you and the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost my husband's not Catholic and I was wondering if I ever got in that situation is that does that work is that okay yes well let me ask you a question you said your husband is not Catholic is he some kind of Christian he he he was baptized Catholic he got all the sacraments okay okay in that case you cannot rebab touch him he's been baptized we only get baptized once that's it one and done no more baptisms for him now so what you want to well I mean I hope he comes back to church like that's really what I don't want to put this thing off till he's on his last breath you understand I'd like him to come back today but let's say you've got a Catholic who's been away from the church for some time and and it looks like they're in their final days well I mean first thing I'm going to do is make an appeal to this individual hey could I send for the priest looks like you're not going to be with us a lot longer can I send for the priest he can give you last rites it really would be a good idea that's what you want to do now let's say that he has made he's hemmed and hawed about it well maybe but not today well and you get a lot of that I mean I've been around the nursing homes with old people that aren't far from death you know Miss Smith you want to go to confession not today not today and but they don't realize they're gonna be dead next Tuesday mm-hmm all right if he's made some kind of inclination that he would be willing some kind of willingness there on his part you know in the future even to receive the sacrament that much of an inclination on his part that much receptivity is enough that if he lapses into unconsciousness the priest can still come and anoint and absolve him and and if he you know revives a certain extent give him by I to come and and get those last rites in so that's that's what you aiming for not not baptism but those last rites and even if he's unconscious you can still do something for him if there's any kind of suggestion that he's got an inclination to be receptive to it okay and JC thanks so much for your call hope that's helpful for you and 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 called a communion in progress here on EWTN let's go to Kerry now in des moines listening on youtube a first-time caller hey Kerry what's on your mind today good afternoon I was just going in to a question about natural family planning I'm kind of been researching some different possibilities with that but I guess I feel like I've been getting conflicting information when it's okay to practice NFP as far as meeting like a grave reason I don't know I guess okay thanks mate let me ask you a question may I ask you a question you're you're struggling with whether or not it's as opposed to NFP whether you should just make no provision for family planning at all are those your alternatives just just throw the whole thing up in the wind and let happen what happens or practice in FP is that your dilemma right now right practicing NFP to avoid pregnancy and if I have a just reason or if it's a grave reason to be able to do so okay I got you now look I don't know your situation I don't know your situation but I know I know the cultural situation and my personal opinion personal opinion I think just about every Catholic in North America has got a sufficient reason to practice in FB I don't think we're not obligated to just take as many kids as God can give us now I know a few families that are just tremendously gifted in the Parenthood domain and they have the emotional psychological spiritual and financial resources to welcome families of eight nine you know ten eleven kids that is rare that is rare very very rare today I believe for a couple reasons one we're not living on the farm anymore that's an and and well it used to be a financial asset to a family is now a very very great responsibility that weighs on parents in ways that are much more than just financial and so that's one reason another reason is that we ourselves as parents in this in this generation are deeply wounded people who may not ourselves have grown up in you know very strongly faithful functional virtuous sound reasonable households and and we're dealing with just mountains of of emotional wounds and immaturity that we haven't worked out ourselves as adults and I've known a lot of young Catholics who are very ideological about their faith and they really want to be super Catholics and they bite off a lot more than they can chew in terms of taking on responsibilities that they're really not equipped to carry and the people who are going to end up bearing the brunt of that are the 12 13 14 15 16 18 year-old kids down the line and and I've just seen it over and over and over again and I would say you really need to focus not just on having as many kids as possible but on trying to live a healthy sound psychologically balanced sustainable holy catholic marriage thirst right and then you understand that you can bring kids up in the kind of sound stable warm supportive loving home that will enable them to thrive and just having the right religious ideology is not going to make that happen you got to work on your own life of virtue that's my humble opinion Kari thank you so much for your call and there are some great resources out there you can start by going to ewtn.com and clicking on pro-life we've got a lot of stuff for you so does Catholic Answers that would be Catholic dot-com some great great resources thank you so much for your call when we return we'll be talking with Kathy in Fargo North Dakota listening on the great real presence radio we have a line open for you right now if you have a question for dr. David Anders eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six called to Communion and progress here on EWTN do stay with us [Music] Teresa Tomeo it's our goal to help each and every listener take this beautiful faith of ours out into the public square with great ideas on making a difference through engaging the culture the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio check out ewtn official youtube channel just follow the link on her homepage at ewtn.com or go to youtube.com slash EWTN watch EWTN live shows or today's homily from the daily mass click the upload button to see our most recent clips you can also find all of EWTN youtube content by clicking the playlist button it's all on the official EWTN youtube channel at youtube.com slash EWTN today 60 seconds with Archbishop Fulton J Sheen it must be understood at the beginning that the Eucharist may be considered either from the point of view of a sacrament or from the point of view of a sacrifice in order to understand this distinction because it is rather a technical one we go back to the analogy of nature every day of your life you partake of certain food the products of wheat vegetables fish meat they all enter into the sustenance of your life they nourish you they feed you but have you ever thought of this other side before they can ever nourish you they must be submitted to some kind of sacrifice before they can be the sacrament of your physical life they must die or be sacrificed the people you know and trust around ewtn we're unscripted on tomorrow's tape too with jerry and debbie call and share or ask anything you'd like with us at noon Eastern now back to more of call to communion with dr. David Anders [Music] Pledger with us here on call to communion here on EWTN our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we're gonna get to Cathy in Fargo in just a moment first a quick text here from Maria who says is it a sin to be upset or actually mostly sad at my husband for not wanting to pray or go to Mass with me Wow um I'm first of all I'm really sorry for your dilemma and I'm sympathetic and that's painful so no it's not a sin for you to be sad not a son because you ought to you it's right that you should want to share your Catholic faith with the person with whom your most intimate in the world because actually yeah it actually says to continue with this I should have read the whole thing she says I'm confused he was a Baptist and then converted to Catholicism I feel obligated to stay with him because of his conversion but he seems very cold spiritually speaking that's the remainder of it yeah so no you're not you're not wrong to to to feel that there's a loss here and unfulfilled expectations I mean I think that's that's reasonable for you to feel that way now the question is how are we gonna deal with it how are we gonna deal with it and you're not the first wife in the history of the world to have a language slothful husband who does not want to go to Mass you'd be not the first and there are some great Saints who have been in this position one comes to mind of course Rita of Cascia she's the poster girl poster girl's a grandmama of all these women and and you know her her fidelity to her faith ultimately want her husband now that's not a promise right you can you can live your whole life and be faithful to the church and never win your husband so it's not not a guarantee that will happen but what's the alternative I mean not going to be bad in your own practice and you're gonna st. Paul tells us that the unbelieving spouse can be sanctified through the believing spouse doesn't mean it'll get them to heaven but it means that God's grace can flow into your home and to your marriage and work on him in unseen ways because of your fidelity to your vocation right but also think that at the human element it probably means y'all need to really dig down deep and do some good communicating and there's a wound here and it's not unrelated to your own communication right and because he maybe gave you some false expectations some false promises and and and that that sense of betrayal if that's lying there that's a relational issue that's really profound and I would caution you against using the question of the faith and church attendance as a kind of cudgel or maybe a symbol to mask underlying relational problems in communication that that are really the root of the thing right and that's so it might be a good idea in addition to continuing to the practice of your own faith to maybe find a good Catholic family counselor and and sit down and have a conversation with a third party and about a whole bunch of stuff will come out other than just whether or not we're going to Mass together mm-hmm as you were sharing all this David it made me think of a couple that I know and it's almost exactly the same here as Maria's case the husband converted to Catholicism and all was fine for maybe a year and then he just went and then just stopped going and her answer was to just say oh well but that's not a good answer either no oh well no no I mean like so so we we have to keep the lines of communication open yes and in fact the secular research on relationships if I've read it correctly suggests that particularly husbands when husbands emotionally withdraw from a relationship that's one of the most devastating things and it stuff goes like I'm a guy I get this it's tough to get guys to actually tell you how they're feeling in the moment and honestly without bringing anger or guilt or minimal manipulation into it but to be conscious that that's a goal right we need to learn how to communicate openly and honestly expects preciate one another's opinions and and deal with these underlying issues when what we really want to do is we're trying to be passive-aggressive you know set up some sort of litmus test you better do this for me you better do that for me and then we shut down and walk away with our feelings hurt you know and go to our separate rooms and our little you know our little hobbies to stay away from the pain that we're causing each other sure and it's hard work it's hard work and you got to keep at it every day all right duh Maria we hope that's helpful for you and please know that we'll be praying for you and your husband called a communion here on EWTN our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six alright as promised the very patient Kathy in Fargo listening on real presence radio hey Kathy what's on your mind today hello thanks for taking my call I am looking for some recommendations that you maybe might have for young teenager questioning her faith and staying away from confirmation classes because she's just not sure that's what she wants and I'm just wondering if there are any books or resources you could recommend yep I sure can thank you very much appreciate the question so the book for you is by dr. Peter Kreeft kre EFT title of the book is because God is real sixteen questions and one answer he wrote this book dr. Kraft course is a very well-known Catholic philosopher who teaches at Boston College and has made a career out of writing popular apologetics and philosophy to make that available to a wide audience and this book he wrote specifically for kids that are around confirmation age who may be wrestling with their faith and the reasons for their faith so dr. Peter Kreeft God because God is real that's that's where I would go you know also I think there are just a world of visual resources audio-visual resources it also very accessible a lot of the stuff that that Bishop Robert Barron has produced three word on fire you know he's a father used to be father Byrne Bishop Baron is very engaged in popular culture he's a student of popular culture and so you know he'll comment on the latest superhero movie that kind of stuff and bring in the relevance of the Catholic faith to all these cultural issues and in that way he's been able to reach an awful lot of people who would not sit down and read a book by by dr. Peter Kreeft but they might listen hey what's this Bishop have to say about the newest you know Marvel superhero movie and and that's an avenue as well and things like that are also helpful you are so right about being plugged into the pop culture I mean I remember when he actually went to Facebook went to the physical headquarters of Facebook and just wanted to chat with the people there I thought man oh man yeah yeah he's he's all about engaging the culture with the claims of the novel and he does it in a very ironic you know non-combative way yeah she's so attractive there you go Kathy thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on EWTN our phone number is 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 Rita just texted us she says what are your thoughts on this pandemic for those who are struggling like myself to have faith while at the same time being told to read the book of Revelation and see that the end is near oh I absolutely think you should not read the book of Revelation seeing the end is nigh all right I think you should read the book of Revelation the way the Catholic Church has always read the book of Revelation which is to say that it is a it is an apocalyptic and that's a genre of literature right genre of literature it's an apocalyptic meaning uses lots of symbolic imagery and metaphor description of the state of the church in every age we are always in a life-and-death struggle with the forces of good and evil with Christ and Satan battling for our souls it takes place not only at the level of our interior life but it also takes place at the level of powers and principalities and in government and media meet all these kind of think popular entertainment there's always a struggle there and there are those that would like to destroy the gospel and destroy the face of the church and and so you know st. John says that many antichrists have come many antichrists have come you know Dietrich von Hildebrand who was one of the greatest Catholic philosophers of the twentieth century and beloved by several of the Pope's in fact right john paul ii thought he was just thought he was the greatest Paul the 6th autumn off a lot of him as well and von Hildebrand was a great opponent of Hitler and his book my battle against Hitler I strongly recommend to people and of course he'd never hesitated to call so-called Hitler the Antichrist he didn't think Hitler was like the historical hey guys like there was just one but that the spirit of I am against Christ that that attitude was was very much characteristic of his whole regime and it's the kind of thing we would see represented in the book of Revelation well the church has always been up against these kinds of forces and whether it be in Nazi Germany mother of B and Soviet Russia you know the Rwandan genocide or the the conquest of the church in North Africa and in in the early Middle Ages by the advances of Islam or you name it I mean there's always some kind of Cataclysm around the corner and the church has lived through cycles of these things for centuries and centuries and centuries but our Lord Himself says no one knows the day or the hour so all of us are going to confront these kinds of challenges at one time or another in either a life or parents lives or our children's lives and so we always have to put on the full armor of God and be prepared but you know it's not time to empty the bank account and you know and dig a hole in the side of the hill right okay and Rita thank you so much for your call let's go now to Don and Georgia listening on our great station there the quest hey Don what's on your mind today well I'm turning my phone in the minute but yeah I just was listening and I like the show I've been listening to it quite a bit from the quest radio but the comments that were just coming out about natural family planning and you know the that too many people can't handle a big family I just thought the way that was was a little dangerous I just didn't really appreciate that okay well I'm so sorry didn't mean to offend anybody what did you find dangerous about it well it just you know you were saying that in you know family has eight or nine kids they have to be emotionally equipped and they have to be able to you know do all these things but a lot of times a family that has two kids you know one of those kids could easily commit suicide or have any other problems and it might even be more so in that case a family that I know that have seven eight nine kids or you know the kids are pretty happy and you know there's problems but I mean I don't think you've contradicted Church teaching at all and saying that you know we are you know anybody can limit the size of their family for good reasons and you know but you also have to be open to God's will and maybe you know you it seemed like to me that you were saying maybe if you got six kids you would just be you know abnormal almost it just coming across wrong to me okay thanks well I really appreciate the corrective so let me let me reframe all right and try to respond to what you said in a sensitive way so the question that prompted my answer was a woman wanted to know if she had sufficient reason to practice natural family planning that was really what prompted the question right right and that's got to be a individualistic not named realistic but individual and prudential choice and and there cannot be a single hard and fast rule that applies in every case because everybody's situation is different and you know if you're I have I have met people who can get quite scrupulous on this question right and they can second-guess themselves all the time and create a lot of guilt and anxiety and so my intent is to to be gentle with people and and and not not set up the goal of a very large family for them as a kind of expectation that this is what they need to attain holiness and if they feel like they have a decent reason to space the birth of their children in a you know more acceptable way that they'd be at liberty to do that and not be laboring under an ideological commitment that well you know good Catholic families have to have eight or nine kids and I've seen that I've seen people and not just the children in question but you know we all the religious people all people have an ideal in our head of what we think you know outwardly what perfection might look like whether in the religious sphere or the political sphere or the economic sphere and if we set up those kinds of expectations sometimes we may not we may not be attending to where the real battle of the spiritual life lies which may not be in the question of do I have eight or nine kids but do I have the moral resources to be kind to even one of them and I'm speaking from experience here right I'm I didn't get into this in the call before but you know we went to the break and Tom and I kind of chatted about this I got married when I was twenty-one I'm glad I did try to love my wife love my children I can guarantee I wasn't emotionally ready for it I guarantee I won't go read my book the Catholic Church saved my marriage and you can read about some of the torment that I went through and and I had this experience of having an image in my mind of sort of the ideal Christian family you know just pumping out babies right and left and I've got five kids and I'm happy I do but they came one after another in quick succession and I naively thought that you know my knowledge of the gospel in Scripture and church history would be sufficient for the arduous job of being a Christian parent what I found out is actually that's very little value what matters is a life of virtue and that's what I hadn't bothered to cultivate and first because I grew up in a tradition that didn't teach virtue but also because I didn't have the moral resources to do it in my own life and and I suffered and my children suffered and my wife suffered because of my own lack of virtue and and so that's really I where I think the emphasis needs to lie and and you know as a great Catholic family writer James Denson father protector is one of his books and he has others and who talks about this dynamic that the you know the really successful Catholic families it's not a matter of how many kids more or less it's a question of what are the parents building into the lives of the children are they building in an adventurous sense of of life as a cooperative project you know in the in the virtues you know is we're building good things together for our own sake and for the sake of our neighbor and the kingdom of God and that's really what that's what I think how were the emphasis has to lie when we respond spontaneously and joyfully living the Christian life with openness and Trust God will give us the number of children we need but let's not set up an ideological standard and then fail to attend to the real moral needs that I may have with even one kid that's just the point I'm trying to make done appreciate your call we really are very appreciative that you called back and so we could provide a little more clarification there for you call to Communion here on EWTN let's go now to Shaun Shaun's listening in Des Moines on Iowa Catholic radio hey Shaun what's on your mind today hi hey dr. Anders I I love your work I love watching your stuff and I've been watching you on YouTube a lot recently I just wanted to say I'm a big fan thank you so I'm a Protestant in transition and so I'm just kind of doing the the termite inspection right now before I buy into the whole thing sure sure and so one question that I have is I know from reading Luther's Ling Li and Kelvin were they had their differences on their opinion of what happens in the Eucharist boy the only thing they were united on is that it was not a sacrifice and so that really seems to be where the battle line is drawn but you mention Catholics and Protestants what is the earliest attestation to the Eucharist being a sacrifice okay thanks all right so I thought at first I thought you were gonna ask for purchasing citations and I was getting my mind already to start quoting right then when you say earliest then I've got to like pick one out and go that's the first attestation I'll have to think on earliest for a minute I'll have to think on earliest for a minute although really I guess I have to say the earliest citation is going to be in the Gospels and and and the letters of st. Paul that's really the earliest right Christ Himself uses the language of sacrifice in the right of institution and you're a good Protestant you've read the scriptures you know when he talks about the blood of the new covenant it course called recalls our mind immediately to Exodus 24 when Moses says this is the blood of the Covenant kills the animal and sprinkles it on the people so Christ is using that like but but biblical language of sacrifice the language of given for you and offered for you is of course the language of oblation and the words of sacrifice are used there in the in the Greek text though even the language of memorial recalls the memorial offerings of the Old Covenant and and so that that's that's kind of packed into the language of the words of institution itself and then st. Paul who analogizes the Eucharist to pagan sacrifice in first Corinthians when he says that you can't partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons the comparison is unintelligible apart from an understanding of the sacrificial nature of the right and then I would ask you as you're doing your study right - - this is what first came to my mind look at the anaphora that's the Eucharistic prayer in the earliest extant Christian liturgies of Hippolytus or or of the decay or of the anaphora of st. James or the Roman canon and and these of course these liturgies are handed down by apostolic tradition from the very earliest and you'll find the language of oblation and offering is absolutely ubiquitous you cannot get away from it and they're they're replete with prayers to God to accept this this pure oblation right so it's all through the literature and that's why I'm having such a hard time settling on just one now let me back up and talk a little bit about the theology of the thing because I think that this can be helpful Protestants obviously have stumbled over this doctrine for a very long time beginning with Luther and I think attending to Luther's reasons would be would be significant right so Luther lived in a very different cultural moment from the one that we live in and he lived in a very different liturgical environment from the one that we lived in and beginning with around the Carolingian era there was a progressive separation of the spirituality of the laity from the actual right of the mass and some of that had to do with linguistic features right because as Latin became less and less of the lingua franca and more and more a liturgical and ecclesiastical language remote from the people and of course the language of the liturgy itself didn't change but the people's language did change it became more difficult for them to immediately enter into the meaning and significance of the act and and so what happened in terms of the history of devotion by the late Middle Ages is you began to have the development sort of parallel liturgies if you will there was the clerical liturgy that would take place behind the Rood screen on the high altars of places like Notre Dame and then you had the devotional practices of the lay faithful and so the Phillie faithful would come into mass they'd go into the church building but they might be praying their their their rosaries or something like that while the priest is doing his thing and you really kind of have parallel situations going on and in in those lay liturgies in those lay devotions sometimes they began to be practiced sort of outside the the the Liturgy of the mass so you would have confraternities that would gather to to pray devotional prayers sometimes the leaders of the Confraternity would actually wear vestments and engage in what looked like sort of quasi liturgical practices really yeah exactly and it's it's that sort of sort of lay voluntaristic ethos that actually helped produce some of the theology the Protestant Reformation um but we're not in that cultural moment right now and nor were the Church Fathers so what do we mean by Eucharistic sacrifice that's really the key issue and the Reformers contention that we are sacrificing Jesus over again all right nonsense nonsense the church's dog mind you can read the Council of Trent on this is that the bloody sacrifice of Christ occurred only once the bloody sacrifice of Christ occurred only once at a distinct historical moment done finished insufficient what we what we do in the Eucharist today is an unbloody sacrifice in which Christ is not immolated he's not killed he's not destroyed right as this body was on the cross it is an unbloody sacrifice it is the glorified Jesus the glorified Jesus in heaven who is made present in the altar by transubstantiation through the words of institution and it is that Christ who is being offered in an unbloody manner to God right it's the same priest who offers it Jesus it's the same victim once in a bloody manner now in an unbloody manner and for the same intent mainly to make reparation for certain records aisles to God and so forth but the manner of the offering is entirely different now some partisans say well if Christ died once for all why have any sacrifice at all but to offer sacrifice is the very essence of the virtue of religion st. Paul teaches that very doctrine in Romans chapter 12 when he says offer your bodies as living sacrifices this is your spiritual act of worship right so the death of Christ does not obviate does not eliminate the need for sacrifice right it's it the scripture says so like you can't live a worshipful life to God if you're unwilling to make sacrifices to have imagine telling your wife like I love you but I'm not going to make any sacrifices for you I mean well that's not love right what sacrifice is the language of love what Christ has given us is a sacrifice of Thanksgiving that's what Eucharist means as the centerpiece of our act of worship this is very different from the Protestant idea or practice that we go to church to be recipients of the dissemination of information right I if the Protestant goes to church to hear a sermon to have doctrine preached at him passively the Catholic goes to worship to offer something to God and ourselves along with him that's the heart of biblical religion Shawn thank you so much for your call we appreciate that a quick question here from Nina watching us on YouTube she says I'm just now learning about Catholics offering up suffering for the holy souls in purgatory can we offer up past sufferings um no not not in the same way not in the same way because the the essence of offering is in the intention all right and you can offer up present sufferings and your past sufferings sometimes kind of come back to bite you if you will you know I mean the memory of a past event can be experienced as a form of suffering and you can certainly unite that to Christ but the propitiatory value of the act of sacrifice is in the intention and if you suffered if I broke my leg when I was five you know probably at that time I didn't have the intention of breaking my leg for the sake of God you understand yeah but if I'm limping today because of it sure it could be all right thank you so much for checking in with us on YouTube Annina thank you for that and a dr. David Anders a very fast moving hours Sam sir hey thank you Tom we do the program right here on EWTN Monday through Friday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and they will repeat that same program at 11:00 p.m. Eastern with an encore that is the best of call to Communion we play that for you on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time you can also check out the podcast any time of the day or night by going to EWTN radio dotnet on behalf of our fabulous team here I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders thanks for joining us this time here on EWTN is called a communion we'll see you next time god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 11sec (3251 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020