CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - October 29 , 2019

to visit ewtn news.com I'm Teresa Tomeo and Paul to communion with dr. David Anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests one eighty three three two eight eight EWTN I don't understand why I have to earn salvation one eighty three three two eight eight three nine eight six why do I need to confess my sins to a pre what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network everybody welcome to the Tuesday edition of call to Communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith maybe since high school maybe since college or working early career or or who knows and you've got questions about the Catholic faith that you really want to get answered but you but you really wanted to have the real answer what does the church actually teach about this this and this we can help you here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're listening outside of the North America that would be the US and Canada then you'll want to dial the u.s. country code and then two oh five two seven one two nine eight five you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for our response which will just take a second and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply again the phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN we have the a team ready to take your calls today Charles berry is our producer we also have Ryan Penney as our phone screener and Jeff Burton is on social media he can pass on any questions you may want to pose via YouTube or Facebook because we're streaming there right now and of course you can always email us anytime you want CTC at ewtn.com I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews Tom how are you today fantastic saw a wonderful movie last night on the life of st. Faustina quite good I I appreciate st. Faustina and I appreciate her well the chaplet of divine mercy that comes to us yes through her spirituality and with Christ absolutely good stuff you doing okay today you know I'm hanging in there I'm glad to hear it thank you we're gonna lead off with a very interesting question a very thoughtful question that we received overnight on the lis wtn listener comment line Kati calling from Georgia I was thinking about evangelization and proselytizing and the differences between those two things and if it's true that most people read their way or marry their way into the Catholic Church how do we go about evangelizing as Catholics to our Protestant friends do we just set the example it seems like there's so much to the Catholic Church just talking with someone about it seems kind of discouraging because there's so much to the Catholic Church whereas in the Protestant denominations everything seems so simple and easy and pain-free so I just don't know how to go about talking with people about the Catholic Church mental life do I like this question I knew you would so much on this okay so first of all of Angela's and proselytism evangelism means putting the good news out there and showing that it makes sense that it's attractive that it meets our needs that that it's inspiring and drawing people to faith in Christ in the Catholic Church proselytism as I understand it is trying to coerce people into becoming Catholic by manipulating them and obviously the one is a very beautiful activity and the other is not a beautiful activity and you know I used to be someone who was engaged in proselytism I once proselytized a Catholic when I was a non Catholic I once talked a Catholic woman out of being Catholic I regret that very much today right and for me it was a matter of a feather in my cap right I was trying to make myself feel good it was self aggrandizing not really concern for her her soul but to make my feel make myself feel like I had you know one one for the team right and which is the wrong motivation because I really wasn't motivated by charity it was motivated by MO and pride so that's kind of the difference in spirit between evangelism and proselytism I I couldn't agree more when you say look the in many non Catholic churches the the appeal is fairly straightforward and fairly simple hey you know sing our song you know dance our jig sign on the bottom line and you have eternity for free I mean it's just kind of an easy pitch right transcendence and a tiny little package and the catholic hypothesis if you will is is is harder to assimilate there's just there's just more of it because the healthiest heart it's more difficult to to kind of swallow the package sure and yet simultaneously that is the appeal like that's the difficulty but it's also the appeal because the catholic church boasts 2,000 years of wisdom and insight and rather than transcendence in a tiny little package rather than comforting religious emotions or ready-made social networks what the catholic church proposes as a path to wisdom and holiness i said again the catholic church proposes a path to wisdom and holiness if you think wisdom and holiness are cheap you are deceiving yourself they are hard-won so what's the best way to engage that conversation with somebody well I think to begin with it's it's important to know your faith and to live it generously I also think it's important to understand where your contemporaries are coming from so you know you're Catholic instead of what you need to know what the instead of what is when I look at the greatest Catholic thinkers in history who have done the most by way of evangelism in particular Saint Agustin st. Thomas they were polemicists they they their theology was written in a polemical context of refuting error they knew what the other positions were and they took him down now they did so in a fair-minded generous spirit with with a lot of sympathy for their in walkie tours but they were they were very conversant with the spirit of the age and I think that's important that that we recognize that now we can week if you have the benefit of the Catholic faith in the Catholic tradition you can see things about your neighbors experience that your neighbor himself may not see and one of those neuralgic issues of our age if you will is the the ideology that says my freedom my choice my autonomy is the highest good how dare you impose any kind of morality on me well you know guess what that ideology doesn't make you happy because we're made for the transcendent we're made for the eternal were made for something bigger than ourselves and if the highest authority I answer to is my own will by definition I'll never get outside of myself and then what I find is I'm really for nothing at all and that lens leads ultimately to either a shallow meaningless life or despair the Catholic faith is I believe the answer definitely and we thank you so much for your call to appreciate that in a moment we'll get to the phones here at 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 on this Tuesday afternoon on EWTN the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio part of the success we've had on the world over I attribute to certainly my relationship with Mother Angelica and her teaching early on that when you sit with someone you talk to them you share with them and you create an environment where they will tell you things they wouldn't tell anyone else the world over with Raymond Arroyo Thursday night 8:00 Eastern on EWTN radio it's time for a family man with dr. Gregory pop Joe what better behaved kids here's a simple tip to instantly correct almost any inappropriate behavior instead of lecturing or wasting time developing increasingly strict or creative punishments use do overs to help your child learn to speak and act more appropriately on the spot for instance if your child speaks disrespectfully insist they choose better words in a better tone and make them say it again until they express themselves well another example if your child does a chore sloppily require them to start over from the beginning as many times as necessary until they can demonstrate they know how to do the chore to your expectations you don't need to yell let the do-over do the talking for you and when they succeed remember to compliment their effort good discipline teaches kids what to do instead of just telling them what not to do for more tips to make parenting easier check out parenting with grace I'm dr. Greg pop check but you can call me family man to discover more ways faith can enrich your life visit Catholic counselors calm [Music] tomorrow morning on the sunrise morning show Julia Gilberto of the National Catholic partnership on disability will talk about the partnerships upcoming national symposium should be a very interesting program the sunrise morning show with mats Wayman Anna Mitchell tomorrow morning 6 a.m. Eastern here on EWTN radio if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with Gerry in Boston listening online a first-time listener and Gerry what's on your mind today hey how are you can hear me yeah sure can go right ahead great so I've had a story I've kind of wanted to get off my chest for a long time some people say I build it up too much and it's been possible a little bit of hype but I think the big one and it's kind of made me question just the Catholic religion in general so I've I can backtrack my father passed away I'm sorry someone recently thank you very much and I was giving his speech I was giving his eulogy actually at his funeral and I gave I mean what a lot of people say was a very powerful speech I don't want to brag or anything but a lot of people said that is the job and as I was leaving the podium I'm walking away and I'm kind of in an emotional state and kind of collecting myself so I didn't personally hear this but people told me afterwards that the priest went up and he's kind of a little munchkin of a guy snuck up there and he said to everyone in out in the audience that he goes you know Jerry just said that my his father loved his family but more importantly you loved the church much more and I found it to be kind of a I don't know a kind of a questionable thing to say when I'm in that state you know I'm a little hot dog boy a little bit and later we we go to is Ashley Barry my father is cemetary and we had in mind that the bagpipes will play the song Danny Boy and the priest says no absolutely not as we're about to do any time he's kind of he's just this kind of a guy that he wanted to control the whole thing and he was a little maggot if yeah it not to be okay how can we how can we help you Jerry well so anyways I mean I know things take time but this has made me question sort of the Catholic Church like I've talked as I just wonder like do they have what's best in mine for me or they just want me to respect like the king of the crazy you know yeah okay I appreciate the question a lot and I'm sympathetic Jerry honestly because when I work for the church in two capacities both here at EWTN and also in I work for a Catholic Diocese but I understand what it's like to kind of come up against the machinery of Catholicism if you will in in the face of people with whom I may have conflict or maybe like I don't particularly care for this individual if they don't care for me and that kind of gets in the way of the apostolate which is ultimately to serve souls and so like huh I'm a Catholic and I'm a convert to the church so how do I deal with that well first of all it appears to me that Jesus Christ criticized almost nothing more than he criticized this kind of attitude right not my attitude not your attitude but like the attitude of religious authority when it runs roughshod over human beings and they criticize it in the person's of the Pharisees right but it's but it's a temptation in every age and look I'll be honest with you I'm not a priest but you put you put me in a position of authority where where I have people's respect and and I have to make decisions and I start looking at my own reputation and this will become a temptation for me right it'll become a temptation for me in some particular it maybe not all the time to every human being but I will be at risk of running roughshod over someone's humanity and their feelings and their their personhood because I'm more concerned with my agenda whatever my agenda might be and look my liege it might be a good agenda might be a bad agenda doesn't matter but the agenda should never take priority over a human being right and it seems to me that Jesus talks about that all the time it makes that a major priority that the love of God ought to be embedded in our hearts and that's where the kingdom of God dwells not in our ideology not what's written on stone or constitutions you know or or procedures but what's written in our hearts but I'm also conscious that that's always the case and and so when I confront that in whether it's another Catholic or what not do I do I question the faith because some representative of the faith is failing to live up to its principles no I don't question the faith because it's in light of Catholicism that I'm able to criticize that behavior right because the my founder is Jesus Christ is the one that told me that's the wrong way to do religion and oh by the way people are sinful so as long as there are human beings they will always be the temptation in the church and out of it to run roughshod over human beings I myself have done it I have run roughshod over people so what do I do about that well first of all I try every day not to run roughshod over people sometimes I do and then I repent and I get up and I try to examine my conscience and see seek grace and start again and when I look at the greatest Catholic saints the ones who have inspired me to be Catholic many of them are people who got run roughshod over all the time who were criticized by Authority whether secular or religious and they had the temptation well I'm you know to become cynical but instead they took another path which was to become Saints to overcome evil with good and themselves to become exemplary members of the church and to show that the grace of God could really be at work in a human life and and the problem with cynicism as an option is that like there's no end to that right eventually what what you'll end up doing is you'll you'll you'll dig yourself into a hole from which there's no escape because you're never gonna find a community about which you can't mean a cynicism is an easy answer because there's always something to criticize in every political religious or social environment and you'll end up even becoming cynical about yourself either that or blind hearer and false one of the two and it's stepbrothers sarcasm I would add that as well I don't know that phrase well no I'm just saying cynicism sarcasm they're both toxic oh yeah they're both toxic and no and they'll bring you down it's something I remember praying about early on in my conversion I said lord please deliver me from cynicism and sarcasm sarcasm and always looking at things that way the Lord came through for me and and so I don't I don't go there so you know I guess my my challenge to you would be your reason for being a Catholic ought not to be the character of one priest any reason for leaving the church shouldn't be the character of one priest it should be rather like you know is there a god is he the god of justice and mercy and truth has you revealed himself to us in Christ did Christ established the church with saints and sinners as the means of grace to bring us to union with God and charity have people been brought to union with God and charity through the church of course they have not all some will fail some will go to hell but many will come to holiness through the administration's of the church can I see can I be one of them and if so that's the path for me to take right is to follow Christ and the Saints of the path of holiness in the church and not be concerned except out of passed from charity about whether you know my brother is on that path or not sure and Jerry we do thank you so much for your call we appreciate it very much glad we could get things going with your call let's open up the lines some more here Jerry's call opens up a line for you right now eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it is called a communion here on EWTN Jeana sent us an email how do my religious studies reconcile the atrocities documented throughout the Bible certain books in particular with our modern moral compass how do these reconcile how does one take the Bible as the Word of God and truth when the Bible itself depicts a God who either commits or supports acts of murder human and child sacrifice infanticide animal sacrifice rape genocide harsh punishment for trivial crimes etc if you actually read the Bible cover-to-cover it's all there and is one reason I started to lose faith reading it as a child yeah I really appreciate the question it's a very old one yeah it's the reason that scene Agustin left the Catholic Church as a young man and only returned in his middle adulthood when he was 32 the challenge of the Old Testament and it's a real challenge it's of what you talk about is a difficulty now I'm gonna nitpick over a few of the accusations that you made God nowhere in the Old Testament commands rape and child sacrifice I'm sorry it's quite the contrary he forbids these things and it's these are the kinds of activities that actually justified in the mind of the prophets the Hebrew conquest of the land of Canaan because the Hebrew religion the Israelite religion was markedly different from the fertility cults of the ancient Canaanites so I I'm not gonna agree with your whole characterization nevertheless the Old Testaments a difficulty for some people um and there are a couple ways we can handle this one well first of all you have to understand the entire Bible in light of Christ so Christ is the center of the whole scriptures and we read old and new Testament together in light of the full revelation in Jesus Jesus himself depicts certain aspects of the Old Testament as a concession to human weakness in Matthew chapter 19 he actually talks about the Mosaic law on civil divorce and of course the Mosaic law on civil divorce permitted a man to divorce his wife well look that's not good divorcing your wife is not good and and particularly in the ancient world when the opportunities for women to support themselves were you know nigh on to non-existent so when the Pharisees come to Jesus and say is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife and hey you know Moses let us do that Christ's responsibles yeah but that was a concession to your hardness of heart mm-hm and so there's a kind of built-in obsolescence to the Old Testament and anticipated within the text and and fulfilled in Jesus and so the perfect Christian charity the perfect charity to which God calls us is exemplified in the life of Christ which is one of heroic self-sacrifice so you have to you read that read it in light of it read this as progressive revelation building up to something different and so you shouldn't take everything that happens in the Old Testament as an example to follow in many cases were given examples of human failure folly and weakness right so that's point number one point number two many of the church fathers read some of these passages of the Old Testament as the difficult ones in particular as allegories now in it which is to say that they are there are pictures of spiritual realities you know when you read the Psalms there's a the in the the imprecatory psalms in particular are psalms that call for the destruction of enemies and they use vivid language violent language but from the perspective of the New Testament our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in the heavenly realms church fathers reading these imprecatory psalms and particularly the Desert Fathers see these as pictures in the spiritual life of our confrontation with demons with our own sinful tendencies and that perspective gains credence gains credibility in light of modern critical study on the Bible that holds a lot of the historical passages of the Old Testament to have been post-exilic creations in other words writers after the Exile go back and imagine I kind of mythic past to a historical Israel that didn't exactly exist digging it actually exactly happened that way and and they're writing stories right about their own confrontation with the present state of Babylon and reading that backwards into Israel's history and so they may not and this is a speculative hypothesis but they may not actually describe real events and the life of historical Israel nor should they be taken to provide historical models for how civil society ought to be governed today but read instead as allegories of the spiritual life all right so that's another point of view and then and then finally there's a there's a possibility and this kind of goes with 0.1 of understanding the process of Revelation and God's self-revelation the people of Israel in the context of their own history as the people of Israel themselves come to a deeper and deeper understanding of what fidelity to God would look like and so you know we now can see in light of the full Christian revelation the temptation to things like nationalism and ideology what we now understand those and in light of all of sacred history as false solutions as false solutions to human dilemma and so you know there's a state as a stage of development in Christian revelation when those things seemed like viable solutions to social conflict and to the problem of evil and people could impute those to God and now in light of Christ we can see no there's far better way right which is the renovation of our own hearts in charity Gina thank you so much for your email we do appreciate that and by the way if you'd like to send us an email for a future show we tried to get a couple of emails in every show and then we'll occasionally do a mailbag program probably about once or twice a month where we answer a whole bunch of questions via email anyway the address ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com we would love to hear from you in a moment we'll talk with Molly in Lincoln Nebraska Tobin also listening in Lincoln Nebraska what are the odds of that and John Paul listing in Norman Oklahoma we have three lines open for you if you would like to speak with dr. David Anders eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six bacon harold burke sever's we do this kind of work we're not afraid to talk about a faith no matter who we are out there people are gonna call you names and the reason why they do that is they want you so caught up in the emotion that you don't think and we're a thinking church the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio Bishop Robert Barron toll Keys reached out to you know Nordic culture and literature and Icelandic sagas and all sorts of things he learned a lot about the good the true and the beautiful from his study of pre-christian cultures he used narrative forms that were accessible to the culture he adapted that to evangelical purposes so that shows you that flexibility it shows you a certain creativity in evangelical art he did not proselytize rather he very delicately and indirectly and cleverly evangelized through the imaginations so there's someone taking in these great stories of Tolkien or his friend CS Lewis they're gonna say oh yeah I get that I recognize that pattern so that finally when they hear the gospel they'll say yeah I understand that I learned that from the Lord of the Rings I learned that pattern from the Narnia stories and that was the genius of those fellows the people you know and trust are on EWTN EWTN is now on Twitter yet short timely messages from EWTN on your computer or cellphone it's easy to stay up-to-date on a wide variety of topics pro-life news Vatican announcements catechesis apologetics those latest EWTN programming and more you can link to EWTN on Twitter from our home page or go to twitter.com slash EWTN at work at home at school and on the road stay connected to your world with EWTN Twitter page hi this is Janet Williams we embrace the essence of feminine spirituality on women of grace tomorrow at 11 a.m. Eastern here on EWTN radio now back to college of communion with dr. David Andrews called a communion here on EWTN on this Tuesday afternoon glad that you're with us here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN we have one line open right now eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here is Molly now in Lincoln Nebraska listening on her Alexa device hey Molly what's on your mind today hi thank you so much for taking my call of y'all I am wondering so I'm a Catholic and some non Catholic Christians have said to me before and you know in passing as I have done a good work or whatever they have said your your work oh you're going to be you'll have many jewels in your crown in heaven and I'm wondering where that comes from where they get that and if there's an emphasis on work having you get a reward in heaven but having nothing to do with salvation in any way here just can you talk to me a little bit about what that's all about there we go yeah okay yeah thank you very much so within within Protestantism there are multiple schools of thought alright there's not just one but they tend to share the conviction that once one's eternal life is in no way dependent upon the moral quality of your life on earth that's the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone like you you saved you're justified you're accounted righteous before God on the basis of faith in Christ's righteousness imputed to you not on your own works that's kind of standard Protestant fare but are there is there differentiation in heaven based on you know something that would happen after you came into that relationship with God and many Protestants will admit that there's a kind of merit that applies for the saved so there's a way of differentiating you know Christian from Christian in the next life and and not all of them in MIT that but some of them do I look at that and I go you guys are more Catholic than you think right because there's an analogy to the it's not it's not exactly the Catholic position but it's an analogy to the Catholic position Catholic Church teaches that of course with grace when once God has given us his grace which he gives in response to faith that we can cooperate with that grace and and so we can acquire merit and those things will be rewarded Jesus says many places in the Gospels he talks about reward for good works he says if you give alms in secret if you pray in secret if you fast in secret your father who sees you in secret will reward you and those are kind of the standard the traditional works of penance prayer fasting and almsgiving and and so there is merit in the Christian life and Catholics also believe that that initial grace of salvation that initial grace of justification cannot be earned cannot be Arendt it's God's initiative reaching down touching us and so in that respect Protestants and Catholics are very similar we both agree that initiation into the life of grace comes at God's initiative and cannot be earned at least some of us agree that once you've received that grace of God you can cooperate and and merit reward so where did the two systems differ well in a couple of ways first of all Protestants tend to believe that salvation itself has no intrinsic relationship to the state of our moral life that the like get you get on the train for free right to get to heaven and and nothing you do on the train is gonna get you off the train right that you can be a complete bad guy but if you've got grace and and faith in your life that you'll you'll make it all the way to heaven Catholic Church does not agree we think that that yes faith gets you on the train but but mortal sin or apostasy will kick you off the train and you got to get back on again and you can you can still be lost and then when you get to heaven on what basis will God in fact admit you and the Protestant position is that God does not admit you to heaven because of anything that you have done but only because of Christ's righteousness imputed to you mechanic position is different the Catholic position says that because of the merits of Christ infused within us the quality of our moral life is actually changed we become new people and so God can admit us injustice because of who we are in him not just because of what Christ did on our behalf but of how Christ's benefits have in fact changed us and made us into new and holy and righteous people so but but you've hit on something good and when you have a Protestant tell you they're gonna be many crowns in and you're maybe jewels in your crown in heaven you can say okay so you you accept at least part of the Catholic doctrine of merit that's great so we've got something to talk about and I are you go alright Molly thank you for your call we appreciate that let's go to Toba now also in Lincoln Nebraska listening on our great partner their spirit Catholic radio hello Tobin what's on your mind today hey I had a question just kind of wanted to know or to get your suggestions for next book to read I guess in kind of a grew up Catholic my entire life went to a Catholic grade school Catholic high school but haven't really decided to be a Catholic or learn about becoming a Catholic myself and so I was kind of that decision and I'm really engulfed in it now and after reading like CS Lewis near Christianity and reading Lee Strobel case for a miracle kind of wanted to see what your suggestions would be for next good books reading oh yeah gosh I've got tons I could talk to you all day about next good books to read so many people appreciate the works of Frank Xin who was an early 20th century Catholic writer an apologist and publisher he's got he can't go wrong with any of them one that a lot of people like his theology and sanity is the title of the book and so he's great someone who was inspired by Frank she'd to actually start a Catholic radio apostolate was Carl Keating his book Catholicism and fundamentalism X is has been a help to great many people kind of helping them sort out the differences between the Catholic faith and one of the major alternatives and American religious see a lot of people relate very well kind of year stage of the katha catechol process to the works of dr. Scott Hahn and he's got more he's got more books out than I have fingers and toes right pick one I think his most popular book is probably the one on the mass which is called the Lambs supper his conversion narrative is also very popular it's called Rome sweet home so a lot of people really respond well to Scott Hahn the in terms of the going back a little bit to early 20th century again you said you like CS Lewis one of the sort of Catholic answer to CS Lewis is GK Chesterton Chesterton also has a lot of books both fiction and nonfiction that have helped a lot of people along Chesterton's book orthodoxy is a kind of a general case for Christianity his book the everlasting man is an apologist an apology for Jesus Christ he also has a lot of novels like Lewis did and Chesterton has helped a lot of folks in terms of audio-visual resources I really hope you'll listen to this radio show we do a lot of catechesis here and other programming on EWTN as well Catholic Answers is great place for people who were trying to get basic questions answered you bet objections to the Catholic faith that would that would helped me into the Catholic Church to be honest with you listen to Catholic answers for many years like those guys quite a lot and also in the kind of audio-visual space the the word on fire apostolate from Bishop Robert Barron and his many books and videos his Catholicism series as kind of a introduction to the beauty of the church down through the centuries and in his word on fire podcast and and YouTube series he has you know five to ten minute videos on matters typically of pop culture analyzed from a Catholic point of view and it's they're very kind of a good foray into the relevance of the Catholic faith in the modern age that's also helped a lot of people of course you know there's no reason you can't dive into the deep end of the pool the Catechism of the Catholic Church obviously should be on your shelf the there is a Catholic dogmatic theologian from the 1950s named Ludwig OTT OTT his book fundamentals of Catholic dogma is exactly what it purports to be it's a it's a kind of a manual of Catholic dogmas it's not in a systematic theology but it's basically what Catholics believe on the major issues and why you know it's not it's not a it's not brilliant prose but it's good solid substantive content Ludvig on for what CAC flicks actually believe and then if you really want to dive into the deep end of the pool everyone everyone everyone should read the confessions of st. Augustine of Hippo the first autobiography in world history and one of the greatest works of Western literature and a magnificent work of theology and and the narrative of a Christian soul in the fourth century coming to faith and the questions that he wrestles with in the fourth century are precisely the same questions that we wrestle with today Augustine had a long had a very long struggle coming to the Catholic Church because of the challenge of Natural Science people think that was a new issue no it's been around since the 4th century you can read Agustin's brilliant answer to that difficulty also the problem of his own libido right he really liked having he liked fornicating a lot and didn't want to give it up and how he came to terms with the true meaning of his sexuality and of his whole person of course st. Thomas Aquinas the common doctor of the church great scholastic theologian greatest scholastic theologian in history you'll never exhaust Aquinas and a copy of the Summa Theologica also and many commentaries on it also belong on your bookshelf so that ought to get you going for a few weeks definitely Tobin thank you so much for your call if you missed any of those you can check out the podcast EWTN radio dotnet EWTN radio dotnet it is called a communion here on EWTN earlier we took a call from a woman who was listening on her Alexa well you know EWTN is available on audio platforms and smart speakers like the Amazon echo family you can listen to EWTN radio just by saying Alexa ask ewtn to play call to communion or you could say Alexa ask ewtn to listen to the previous episode of call to communion it's a very cool thing check out the smart speaker of your choice and check out all the options you have with EWTN and of course EWTN is everywhere called the communion here on EWTN let's go to John Paul now in Norman Oklahoma listening on Oklahoma Catholic radio John Paul is a first-time caller hey John Paul what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my call I really love your show thank you I have a question about how do you go about obtaining the help or intercession of a saint I'm particularly looking for help from saint i believe his blessing his name is pronounced KJ keen the patron saint of people looking for work and i was wondering because there were specific prayers or how do i go about looking for his help yeah i think you're talking about catch him and and thomas catch but in any event the easiest way to obtain the help of the saint is simply to ask and the intercession of the same works through the Providence of God right so it would not be in the power of a saint to respond to our prayers if God did not make our conscious prayer intentions known to that saint so it happens through the miraculous power of God and it for that matter it's not even necessary that the saint be consciously aware of our prayers because the Saints by definition are constantly praying to God for on and on behalf of the church and and they have the intention that those who seek their intercession should have the merits of that Saint avail in their case right and that's a general intention that every saint has and so God knows all of our prayers he reads our hearts he reads our thoughts in minds as if I pray to God for the intercession of Saint Agustin you know st. Augustine has already formed the intention may all those who seek my intercession be aided you know through my merits and God will apply that in my case or you know for all I know God may say yo san agustin Andrews is down there praying to you get to work right you know like you know one of those who's gonna get the job done so you don't have to worry about how it actually gets up there right you just form the intention you just make the request you ask God for help through the intercession of Saint keratin and and that's all you need to do now there are there other things you can do most Saints have a people have formed a specific devotion to that saint because of that particular Saints you know charity and path to holiness and and there will be vocal prayers composed prayers that people have written to Saints for particular intentions I don't have one in my back pocket right now to catch it in but I bet you could find one quite easily if you just you know research devotions to catch them um that's another way now you know a kind of a more involved way of expressing devotion to a saint is to venerate the relics of that saint and someone probably in your diocese someplace has got a relic of the saint and you know and in extreme cases if you can afford the time off from work some people like to make pilgrimages to the shrines of saints one of the earliest devotions that we find in the Catholic Church goes way way way way back to the second century maybe the first century right to to actually make pilgrimages to the shrines and the burial places have seems to seek their intercession but you know all you really have to do is just ask John Paul appreciate your call thank you so much for it it is called a communion here on EWTN couple lines open at the moment 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 here's John now in Tallahassee Florida listening on Guadalupe radio hello John what's on your mind today hey guys I had a question about one I'm sort of touching I'm really struggling with this honestly yeah and I'm touching on this question as previous previously I asked about the Old Testament and some of these things God commanded my questions I just want to go to a specific one we could talk about a number of them it was that guy mentioned but the one I would just specifically go through the Battle of Jericho and the band that they put on the community there and Jericho so yes there were a facility called and completely different than the Hebrews and this is what bothers means because why would God to man than to go in until well well given the women okay you wanna kill the woman won't kill the human being but I tell the babies why kill the the animals and it just seemed gratuitous violence me to do that when there was a great opportunity means that were dark it set a precedent so yes these are peculiar people they're going to show mercy and they're going to kill who they have to kill and do what they have to do but look they're different than these L because we're different we're not like you we don't go in and kill babies we can't kill animals we don't you don't it's like an act of terrorism yeah thanks I really appreciate the question and I understand the dilemma that you're dealing with so let me this is the the answer is complex got multiple parts let me try to build a case first of all God is in control today just as much as he was in control in Jericho and and so there's no human tragedy that occurs today that God's not in control of now that doesn't mean he causes it directly he's in control I mean he could intervene and stop it but he doesn't and so the problem of human suffering and suffering of animals and children and and horrific suffering is it's not exactly the same but it's analogous right it's the problem of evil and it's a problem today even as it was a problem in Jericho right so we got a we got to deal with it's actually bigger than the one you've asked that's my point all right and and the the the highest order answer right is that God allows evil because he intends to bring out of it some good and it may be a good that transcends our present perspective our present ability to conceptualize and so there's always an element of mystery in suffering the highest truth is that of God's being and His goodness in light of which the mystery of our present historical circumstances find their meaning and intelligibility and the horizon is eternity not next week so that's how we we have to look at all of suffering in in light of that things that make absolutely no sense to me and my present experience will make sense in light of eternity not it not the the the course of my present human existence but my eternal existence in light of God's wisdom and Providence that will transcend mine elect alright so that's kind of the big picture we also have to keep in mind next you you do have to recognize the the the depravity of Canaanite religion and culture that it needed to be eliminated now I'm not I'm not having gotten to the case of how are we going to eliminate it are we gonna go in there and kill everybody I haven't gotten to that I'm just talking about the fact of Canaanite culture some culture is bad in in in the historical existence of the church you know I'm thinking about the the cannibalistic human sacrifice cult the Aztecs look whatever you think about colonialism vast text with the worst colonialists in history because after they conquered you they ate you and you might not like Spanish colonialism but they were colonizing a culture that was eating the people they were colonizing yeah right and I doesn't just I'm not justifying Spanish aggression I'm just saying that's bad eating people is bad sacrificing them to your gods is bad all right the bad and and we know is archaeologically demonstrated that Phoenician Canaanite and in Carthaginian culture I mean some of the largest sites of mass burial of human sacrificial victims including those of children are in the Phoenician culture of the Middle East and then you know the Carthaginian Empire in North Africa that's bad stuff bad stuff nice we need to get rid of that no don't need that in the world I mean today if we had that UN would be passing all kinds of resolutions to get rid of that kind of stuff right make it illegal and and so if if God chooses to eliminate that what he could do it through pestilence he could do it through war he can do it through eating number of devices right including including human agency like the end goal of that is not a good culture that still holds okay now that doesn't mean that the people that are sort of prosecuting that war are themselves innocent and this gets this kind of gets us into the whole mystery of evil and suffering to begin with like there are Wars today and I already mentioned you know God's in control of all of human history that doesn't mean he's giving the evil of war a pass it just means that there are human events that are transpiring even today that are a mixture of good and bad over which God is in total control even though he's entirely good I already mentioned earlier in the show that from the point of view of the New Testament the Old Testament is not set before us as a perfectly exemplary case but in many kinds is times as a kind of concession to human weakness and we're talking at a in at a much more primitive stage of human cultural development and ethical awareness God working through that culture in a way that was ordered ultimately to a very different development which was the coming of Christ in the kingdom of God in the New Testament and so you know it didn't take much to get ancient near-eastern people to perform acts of genocide of violence like they were gonna do that anyway mmm okay but to harness that cultural force for like a longer endgame without giving the perpetrators a complete pass is something that would fall within the scope of God's providence now was there in fact a historical conquest of Jericho exactly as written maybe not I'm not asserting that I'm just saying maybe not I'm telling you that modern critical opinion in Old Testament studies would say no no that this is a historical reconstruction in the imagination of post-exilic Jews looking back on a mythic past and does not exactly reflect events as they historically transpired and as such from the point of view of the New Testament are best interpreted as allegory allegory for what allegory for our own spiritual battles with the forces of evil in our own hearts certainly not as models of civil government yeah you know now yesterday I think I mentioned on the show a lecture by theologian Matthew Ramage mm-hmm of Benedictine college that he gave for the two mystic Institute the title of his lecture was is the god of the old testament evil and he'll go into the themes that I've raised but in much more depth if you'd like to you know hear like an hour-long discussion of that topic very good John thanks for your call let's go to Christopher now in Roswell Georgia listening on the quest Chris we just have a couple of minutes here what's on your mind today thanks for taking my call real quick doctor enters the column before when you're mentioning the relics of the Saints idle Catholic here and I mean I can get behind transubstantiation that makes sense God created the universe he can do whatever he wants but it's always seemed very sort of pagan or accomplished to me to kind of worship like pieces of bone or the tooth of a saint or something you hold that fault I got about 30 seconds let me jump on that thank you so much so I really recommend you read the book the cult of saints in Latin antiquity by Peter Brown and also Christianity and paganism by Ramsey McMullen those are two secular historical studies of the period the reason I'm bringing those up is because you read those books you'll come to realize that devotion to the Saints is not pagan at all and the pagans of Rome and Greece found the practice to be repulsive in very contrary to the spirit of pagan religion which was had a had a kind of an importance of the dead as something that was unclean and those very characteristic of care of Judaism and Christianity because of the sanctity of the human body right particularly the body reborn in Christ and made it a member of Christ's body through baptism and classic answer to this is that in venerating the bones of the saints the church venerates Christ in his members remember when Saul's on the road to Damascus and Jesus is why are you persecuting me you know Saul was persecuting Christians and Jesus is notice an assault on me in my body and we can talk about the doctrine of the body of Christ and greater depth but this is a testament to a the sanctity of the body v the dignity of the body and the and looking forward to the resurrection and veneration of the relics being kind of like you know in anticipation of the resurrected body all the way back in the Old Testament second Kings 13 we see the relics of the prophet Elijah bringing a dead man back to life that even our bodies are imbued with the sanctifying power of God you know we're not just we're not just souls in flesh suits right we're in we're embodied spirits body and soul together one organic unity redeemed by Christ and raised again with him in the next life and we seek in the intercession of the saints merely the intercession of Christ through his members thank you so much doctor Anders we do appreciate it yeah thanks Tom see you tomorrow here on call to communion god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: Td_EbUVUgTo

Length: 54min 9sec (3249 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019