Called To Communion - Mailbag for 4/13/18 - Dr. David Anders

what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests I don't understand why I have to earn salvation why do I need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network and here we are again this is called a communion the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith maybe you just don't know where to turn to get those questions answered this is a wonderful program for that purpose this program is specifically for non Catholics those of you who are maybe a fallen away Catholic maybe never been a Catholic you've got some interest in the Catholic faith but you're just you know again looking for somewhere to get those questions answered now today we're not going to be taking your phone calls because we're doing a special mailbag edition of call to Communion wherein we answer some of the questions that have come to us over the past couple of weeks that we haven't had time to get to during our normal Monday through Friday show so today is all going to be questions that we've received from you either texts or emails or people who have jumped in via Facebook live or YouTube any of those things so Michael Burchfield is going to put it all together along with me Tom Price and dr. David Anders Tom how are you today great glad to be getting to some of these mailbag questions we have been having out done a mailbag in a while so the mailbag is actually getting rather full so we're emptying let's do that we'll begin with James who is a former Catholic now a Protestant James says what if a person had committed a mortal sin but did not think it was a mortal sin and did not sense any disruption in their relationship with God how would then the be volunteering for Hell okay thanks first of all being able to conceptualize the distinction between mortal and venial sin uh-huh is not necessary in order to commit a mortal sin and so it's not you know if I do something that's gravely wrong mm-hmm and even if I don't have you know a well-developed moral theology all right that doesn't stop the action from being gravely wrong so let's like torturing and eating babies all right it's just really really grotesquely and absurdly and manifestly wrong regardless of whether or not I think of torturing and eating babies as a grave son okay okay secondly it is possible for a person to be to misjudge the gravity of their moral actions without thereby removing their moral responsibility okay often this happens in the case of people who are captive to some sort of ideology so you think about the prison guards that worked in Auschwitz or someplace like that for instance who may very well have believed the ideology that they were being peddled by the Nazi administration and felt felt morally justified in perpetrating the acts of atrocity that they were committing right but I don't think anybody probably not our Protestant friend here would want to take the position that that let him off the hook in terms of their moral responsibility all right certainly in the Nuremberg trials which they did that the judges didn't take the position that either acting under orders or acting under ideological conviction was a sufficient defense against the atrocity of those acts so you don't have to be able to conceptualize something as gravely wrong for it to be gravely wrong nor will ideological possession get you off the hook all right now if if someone there is such a thing as invincible ignorance okay now you can be ignorant of your moral duty because you don't want to know it you don't want to know your moral duty and this is the case that in people I think who are often victims of ideological possession there's the I suspect I can't say with certainty my suspect this some level at which they they must feel a certain degree of unease at their actions but they are involved in the process of rationalizing their decisions based on whatever their ideologies I'm not talking about that all right now let's think about somebody who is who is in a genuinely ignorant position and has done everything they can possibly do to inform their conscience and they're really seeking with with faith and goodwill authentically to do the right thing but they've been misinformed okay okay we actually we had a call on the radio here just a couple of weeks ago about a you know a woman was calling about her husband and he had been given bad instruction by somebody concerning his duties towards the Catholic Church and they were they followed the instruction that they were given and it was a person of authority who had had told them you need to do this that the other thing huh and and they had really gone out of their way to try to do the right thing and they listened to counsel and they'd salt Council and they were you know trying to but they've been misinformed and I advised them I said well courting the Catholic Church you're objectively in error here but you're not culpable because you you did your best to try to figure out the right path right okay well now you're now you're no longer off the hook now you're back on the hook because we've you've learned the right way to do it all right so now you're responsible again but you can be invincibly ignorant now if you're invincible ignorant there's no mortal sin yeah mortal sin is not is a is a is a condition that a person is in respect to the relationship with God it's not it's just because you've done something objectively wrong doesn't mean you're in the state of mortal sin you have to do it objectively wrong and be morally culpable for your action and invincible ignorance relieves you of that moral responsibility now the the scope of things about which we can be invincibly ignorant I think are really quite small okay st. Paul tells us that the dictates of the natural law are inscribed on our consciences by God okay so we might be it might be fairly easy to be invincibly ignorant about say the church is positive law like you know but if nobody ever told you you have an obligation to fast prior to receiving Communion okay well you're not know that simply by introspection by concerning you know considering the dictates of the natural law that's something you can have to learn positively by instruction okay don't murder don't steal don't commit adultery don't bear false witness these are the kinds of things that are gonna be very difficult for you to be enviable so it's impossible it's much more difficult to be invincibly ignorant of those things okay now finally let's address the question about whether what if someone doesn't feel disruption in the relationship with God okay well I understand that within the Calvinist tradition in the presbyterian tradition and I know this because I was raised Presbyterian and I wrote my doctoral dissertation on John Calvin so I know a lot about Calvinism Calvin thought that authentic or saving faith was all wrapped up with a certain set of authentic religious emotions okay and he could distinguish he believed between authentic faith that saves an inauthentic faith it doesn't buy the quality of religious emotion that was attached to it really yeah and that is not the way Catholics understand faith or our relationship to God at all okay Catholics believe that that the emotional life the life of the passions is good it's not a bad thing all right but something we share with animals okay I just got a new dog in my house I now have three dogs I got I got small dog smaller dog and small e si ma okay teeny dog okay and small a SEMA is only about I don't know six or eight weeks old weighs about two pounds and smelly SEMA is terrified of medium dog okay well not terrified but a little bit skittish and kind of cautious around medium dog all right and and big dog feels motherly and and middle dog feels bossy and they all have feelings you have emotions fear anger wrath you know lust greed hunger you name it they've got passions okay those things are morally neutral they're not morally relevant in an animal because animal lacks reason right right and and so feelings emotions passions condition our moral life they condition our relationship to God but they don't define it and they're not the essence of the spiritual life for Catholic and it is perfectly possible in fact it's almost necessary at points in the spiritual life to feel nothing to feel nothing and in that there's a kind of a desert of emotion that the Catholic enters into when he is drawn he or she has drawn deeper into the spiritual life st. John of the Cross talks about this called the dark night of the soul where we come to be detached from our emotions our feelings our idea and even our ideas about God all right and approach him in a kind of pure and darkened faith alright it which is to say that we cannot judge the quality of our spiritual life by the positive or negative or intensity of our emotional states all right and so it's perfectly possible for a person to go forward in an activity that is gravely wrong mm-hmm and feel really good about it and go to hell yeah all right again let's go back to our Nazi prison camp guards all right I think it's entirely possible that someone that is possessed of a bit of horrid ideology and becomes really really attached to it could could derive an exquisite pleasure from from doing things that were objectively very evil and then justifying them using an opponent ideology so merely feeling good about oneself or thinking that I have you know religious feelings towards God is no proof that I'm in that I've been a gracious state James we hope that is helpful for you coming up in a moment here we'll get an email from John in Missouri Max and Louise and lots more in this special mailbag edition of call to communion here on EWTN this is called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network the Holy Fathers prayer intention for the month of April is that young people may respond generously to their vocations and seriously consider offering themselves to God in the priesthood or consecrated life Christ is the answer with father John Ricardo John chapter 8 verse 51 Jesus is in a discussion with some of the leaders of the Jews they're talking about Abraham Abraham lived fifteen hundred years before the time of Jesus so in the course of the discussion Jesus says truly truly I say to you if anyone keeps my word he will never see death he says that often in the Gospels he who keeps my word or believes in Me will never die to which the Jews say now we know you have a demon they say Abraham died as did the prophets all the patriarchs the great men and women of the history of Israel all these people died and you say if anyone keeps my word he will never taste the death are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets who died Jesus says your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day he saw it and was glad to which the Jews say you are not yet fifty years old and you've seen Abraham and Jesus answers truly truly I say to you before Abraham was I am father Larry Richards God is the God of life God is the God of love so when we conform our life to his life in his will it's always life-giving always the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with dr. David Anders and welcome back to a special mailbag edition of call to communion here on EWTN by the way I just want to put in a plug for our mailbag mailbag is a lot like pac-man in that it's always hungry so if you would like to send us an email for a future show here is the address CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com David Andrews just gave me a funny look when I mentioned pac-man did you go to a pacman phase not a huge fan but I understand that the inventor of pac-man was Japanese and to honor him and his contribution to world culture of the city from which he hails has an annual pacman contest this may be apocryphal I don't know if this is true but I've heard they have an annual pac-man festival where people of the streets dressed as ghosts or little pacman and they chase each other around going Wacka Wacka Wacka Wacka Wacka that's that's pretty obscure I like it a lot before we get back to our email I was always kind of a Galaga guy Galaga I'll still play Galago like the only video game I play at the arcade with Mike I like I liked Frogger back in the day Frogger was a lot of fun but made me very nervous well so here's something feel flattened sometimes every now and then before before we get back to our emails here I want to put in a little bit of a plug for a wonderful show that you may not have heard if you're up early in the morning you probably love morning glory well on Saturdays our producer Alisa Murphy picks out the best of the week and puts it all together and we have a best of morning glory and that airs at the same time as the daily live show 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time right here on EWTN radio so if you haven't checked it out and you've got a little more time on the weekend I would certainly recommend that here's a very interesting question now from max and I'm not sure but I think max is not a Catholic so but I'm not even tax qualified there you go max says I have been with my girlfriend for over 18 years I am now a senior citizen my girlfriend said she would never become Catholic and would not get married in a Catholic Church okay my Catholic friends say we can get married outside of the church and then I can convert is this true also I am very comfortable with her and she has helped raise my son but I am Not sure even though this has been great for us and for our family if this is God's plan what are your thoughts thanks max okay thanks max appreciate it so it sounds like max has an interest in becoming Catholic yeah that's that's what I got yeah and Max is concerned that if he if he marries his girlfriend excuse me if he if he becomes Catholic without marrying his girlfriend he would then be required canonically if he got married to marry her in the Catholic Church but she is opposed to the idea okay well so he's wondering how he can kind of subvert the law of the church basically okay I have a number of thoughts about this by the fact that you've identified her as your girlfriend and I sounds like your cohabitating I am presuming here that normal conjugal relations are entailed by the nature of this cohabitation well if that's the case you need to stop that okay because if you have an instrument becoming Catholic one of things you know about the moral teaching of the Catholic Church does the Catholic Church teaches that that fornication is gravely wrong okay so presumably if you're interested in becoming Catholic you're interested in reforming your moral life in accord with the teaching of the objective teaching of the Catholic Church if that's where your conscience is you need to stop fornicating this instant right now period okay and an in point of fact you you can't become Catholic unless you stop fornicating you know you can't print if you haven't been baptized for us so she can't present yourself for baptism and say Here I am ready to renounce sin except one you got to renounce it exactly no does that mean you got to be you know at picture perfect well I mean that's the expectation that's the goal is to be picture-perfect will you fail along the way of course we all do we all do alright but you can't renounce the goal just because of human frailty you can't say because I'm weak I'm not gonna shoot for perfection Jesus says be perfect as a father in heaven is perfect you gotta aim for perfection means you gotta you got to intentionally renounce every attachment to every known sentiment all right if you don't do that you don't have Catholic faith you're not ready to come into the church okay and I want you to I mean I'm sensitive to the relational situation okay and I don't I'm not trying to tell you you have to move away from girl you've been with for 18 years whatever I'm not but you have to quit fornicating okay if if if this relationship is something that you would like to preserve and sanctify and make holy all right well we need to figure out how we can do that all right I'm not sure starting out with how can I subvert the law of the church is the best way to go not help okay now if you were civilly married to this woman all right mm-hm and you suddenly get interested in Catholicism all right I don't I don't know the state if whether you're baptized or not baptized I mean I just there's a lot of unknowns here okay but you you can contract a valid marriage outside of the Catholic Church it's it's a conceptual possibility that you could be validly married apart from the sacramental action of the Catholic Church and then become Catholic know whether or not that's a sacramental marriage or a purely natural marriage I mean to all kinds of questions uh yeah I have here okay but it is true let's let me maybe your Protestant I don't know if your Protestant let's say you're to baptize people well if you're to baptize people and you renounce them and you decide to stop fornicating become legally and validly married you pledge want to what yourself to one another yeah that can be a valid marriage outside the sacramental life of the church outside the the I should say the canonical authority of the church but if you already have Catholic faith if you I mean and that's and that happens to a lot of people you know Protestants they get married twenty years ago and so one of them becomes convicted to the truth of the Catholic Church and they want to come into the church but if you already have Catholic faith alright then then it seems to me that your your your number one priority is to align your life with the objective teaching of the Catholic Church not to subvert it okay yeah and and so there you go now what about the question of is this the the girlfriend who has helped raise your child is that a is that a magically good thing no it's not an objectively good thing but it might be objectively better than other alternatives okay objectively good like objectively the best is for a child to be raised by that child's biological parents you and I knit together in a lifelong into solvable Union that's the best that's the best okay is it better to be raised by an unmarried heterosexual couple that love the kid in one you know at least in a human sense in a natural sense want the well-being of that child is that relationship preferable to about 10,000 other options of course of course all right and in and so if we can if we can sanctify and prolong and deepen and purify that that natural love that exists between your girlfriend and your son and perhaps grace it with the dignity of the sacrament well then that's great that's fantastic I mean what you know the Church recognizes a reality called gradualism all right and in the development of the moral life John Paul talks about it Pope Francis talks about it here's how I define gradualism it's better to kill one person than 10 if you go from being a mass murderer to just an occasional murderer you're not in an objectively good situation all right but you're a heck of a lot better off than you were when you were a mass murderer yeah all right if you go from you know being a real so-and-so to being a fornicator you're not an objectively good situation but you could be a lot better you could be a lot worse all right and the church applauds you for every step along the way that you make it okay and recognizes that there are there are ways to move objectively in the right direction without getting all the way there well let's get all the way there let's get all the way there okay max we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your email and i know that dr. David Andrews got to a lot of information there you can always listen to the encore the podcast if you will by going to EWTN radio net EWTN radio dotnet click on the podcast area here's one now this is John from Missouri who says I was recently reading Hebrews six verses four through six what does it mean can you reach a point where you can't be reconciled I'm thank you very much I'm a big fan of the show so when we talk about hearing Hebrews six versus four thumbs read the text for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened who have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the word to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing that they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him into an open shame okay now read at face value it sounds like apostates cannot be reconciled to the church that's what it sounds like right at face value we're not gonna read it at face value okay now let me give you some background on this text first of all the that that prima facia reading that face value reading that seems pretty stark in terms of the situation of apostates inspired a number of Christian thinkers in the second century to lead to read it quite literally and to take the position that if a person was apostate they couldn't be reconciled Tertullian the north african christian writer actually broke with the catholic church over this because the Pope I believe it was Callistus said no anybody can be reconciled to church for anything if they repent do penance and receive absolution you know seven times seventy times they can come back into the church whether it's apostasy or adultery or murder or whatever and Tertullian was incensed by that so he left the Catholic Church went off and joined the modernists and again again because of verses like this that inspired him to take a really hard line mm-hmm there were others in the ancient church they took a hard line as well but you know the rule for interpreting Sacred Scripture is never to read one passage in isolation but to read the passage in light of the the analogy of the faith the coherence of all the truths of the faith including the infinite mercy of God and the gift of forgiveness and grace and in the context of the whole biblical canon and sacred tradition all right that's how we read it so then how would I come to this text well I would look at the book of Hebrews in general and say what's the what is the author trying to accomplish he's trying to persuade Jewish Christians not to abandon the practice of their Christian faith all right don't do it don't leave the church don't leave the one that's called you don't leave the Messiah and go back to you know ways that were temporary now stick with the permanent plan of God for the salvation of the world that's the goal of the sacred writer now as a as a kind of phenomenological reality it is often true that apostates when they leave stay left hmm all right so he's dealing with a concrete specific historical situation like Jewish Christians that were becoming apostate and going back to Judaism and in his experience when that happens you don't get him back all right we see something similar I think in in modern modern America very often like Catholic kids kids that grow up Catholic once they get to say college age if they quit practicing the faith in college it's objectively really difficult to get them back oh and I could see you know you know in a pastoral not a strictly dogmatically but in a pastor always saying hey don't let those kids slip if you lose them now you'll never get them back and I don't mean that literally of course but it's a it's a word of caution it's kind of an urgent exhortation sure that's really how I would read this the sacred writers saying hey y'all split you might not come back so don't split okay now obviously dogmatically speaking yeah the possibility of repentance remains open to everybody as long as they have breath the only unforgivable sin is final impenitence staying away until you're very dying breath and then dying unreconciled to god you're not gonna come back from that yeah okay but up until the moment of actual physical death yeah the possibility of repentance rain remains open for everybody for any son very good John thank you so much for your email glad that you're listening to us there in Missouri and when we come back on this special mailbag edition of the program we'll get an email here from Louise we also have one from Chuck a confirmation teacher in upstate new once your input on a couple of things here you're listening to a special mailbag edition of call to Communion here on EWTN if you'd like to send us an email for a future show the address CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com back in just a moment father Robert Spitzer first of all you will get a much deeper awareness of your faith much deeper awareness of the evidence for your faith explanations of tough theological issues how science and reason and faith come together and above all a deeper awareness of how to practice your faith and how to live it father Spitzer's universe with father Robert Spitzer Friday 8:00 p.m. Eastern on EWTN radio it's time for family man with dr. Gregory pop Joe want to be more successful be humble a study at Duke University found that successful people tend to exhibit more humility than less successful people in the same field being humble doesn't mean beating up on yourself or denying real gifts or talents that's self deprecation which is neither a strength nor a virtue exercising true humility in both the theological and psychological sense means being willing to see that you don't have all the answers and you can learn a lot from listening to the people around you researchers found that humble people did a better job of adapting to new circumstances and soliciting support from others both of which contributed to the increased success of more humble participants in the study jesus said that the meek will inherit the earth well science and the Bible agree let humility be the secret of your success done dr. Gregg Papa but you can call me to discover more ways faith can enrich your life visit Catholic counselors dot-com the wisdom of Mother Angelica I come from the other side of the tracks my uncle used to have slot machines but one nickel in an attempted hmm I brought him home in a bag and my mother looked at me where did you get all that money I died one you didn't win him he fixed the machine I didn't care if he fix the machine or not no EWTN live truth live Catholic High this is cycle it later today Catholic Answers live to superstar Catholic women first our dr. Stacy Chris anko's on religion and science second our Gloria Purvis from EWTN Morning Glory joins us to talk about being authentically free at last Gotha Gantz was live 6:00 p.m. Eastern here on EWTN radio and now back to call the communion with dr. David Anders what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic you are called to communion with dr. David Anders okay we're not taking phone calls today it's a special mailbag edition of call to Communion here on EWTN again if you would like to send us an email for a future show the address is CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com here's an email David from Louise who says hello gentlemen our priest has recently asked our parish council members to look into the Alpha for Catholics program after viewing the preview I was very excited about having a tool that addressed the basic personal relationship with Jesus however I also found several sources that warned about not only the lack of Catholic doctrine but also contradictions to Catholic teaching within the program I have since found out that our new youth director has started using the program with our teens so what are your thoughts on this program your input would be greatly appreciated thanks god bless you and your wonderful program okay thanks I appreciate it so I confess I need to kind of dig in probably and study it in depth I have not done an purse an in-depth personal study of alpha-alpha for Catholics I'm vaguely familiar with and I have talked to people that have worked with the program so I my most of my knowledge is secondhand and anecdotal and I know that you know the genesis of the Alpha program I believe was an Anglican community with a kind of evangelical right and so as I understand the focus of the thing is really on the dynamics of developing a personal relationship with Jesus etc okay Catholics all need to have personal relationship with Jesus all right but we need to define that relationship in Catholic terms okay as as a kind of adjunct as an aide as you know as well you know programs are not the be-all and end-all of Catholic spirituality programs can be useful locally to accomplish specific purposes and goals they they are not sufficient to address the total catechol katha catechol needs of the church okay now if you read the general directory of catechesis which is the the the formula basically that the Vatican puts out instructing how you do categorical ministry the GDC says that the aim of catechesis is very interesting that that the aim of a catechist ought to be to enable the student the learner the the catechumen mm-hmm to come to the living practice of lectio divina like do Divina is the devotional reading of Scripture where in thinking with a mind of the church and aided by the Spirit of God we can encounter God directly in his word all right to do that to really to properly practice lectio Divina it's more than just you know evangelical devotional Bible reading well hey what does this first say to me it's more than that it's really being able to come to understand the sacred text in in light of the church's tradition thinking with the mind of the church which means you have to have an understanding of the dogmatic structure of Catholicism according to the hierarchy of truths you have to have an appreciation for the sacramental life for the distinction of mortal and venial sin you need to know something about three ages of the interior life moving from the purgative to the eliminative to the unitive way all right the the ultimate aim of contemplative union with God through charity you have to have a for the dynamics of mental prayer and contemplative prayer and vocal prayer you have to have all you have to have the moral teaching of the Catholic Church embedded in your mind so you understand how to properly discriminate right from wrong all right I mean there's a you you really have to engage the thing fully and then give your heart in your soul in your life to it so that you've come not just to think about or imitate but actually to embody and recapitulate the sacred mystery of Jesus's human life the humanity of Christ being the the latter that we mount up to union with God and so that we seek in all our actions to recapitulate in our own lives the mysteries of his divine life which had been made present to us in the sacraments that's that's what relationship to God looks like for a Catholic with the Eucharist of course and the sacrifice of the mass being the source and summit okay not the Alpha course okay I'm not saying you can't use the Alpha course alright but I think it's all it's all in the presentation sure it's on the presentation you know somebody hands me the off of course and says hey this is the thing this is the thing that is gonna radically transform your life and unite you to God this is the be-all and end-all and yada yada yada I'd say that's overblown you know significantly all right and for that matter that's gonna be overblown with anything somebody hands me the the next latest and greatest book out of EWTN publishing you know and says hey this is the thing that's gonna you know just set you on the straight and narrow and make you run your life with God right there's no book that can do that there's no program that can do that okay there's no talented catechist radio host or priest or pope that can do that but in the right hands exactly but these things are tools sure these things are tools you know and and so I would you know I listened I met with a guy the other day who explained to me about a decision personal decision he'd come to that I think he operated often he was operating with sincerity and goodwill and he was made to do the right thing but I didn't I didn't I didn't really jive with the conclusion that he drew okay and I don't think it really reflected where the Catholic Church would want to sit this fellow uh-huh and he told me about his decision-making process it was grounded in a categorical lecture he'd heard from a priest that I know to be very very faithful in Orthodox Catholic priest right and I sat back and I listened and I went I didn't say this but I was thinking mmm that's not where father so-and-so was going no you you heard that and you went in another direction all right you you're not you're not drawing from the lesson what the priest actually wanted you to draw okay and and so any tool cata chemical methodology or otherwise is needs to be informed by really really good pastoral practice I know that father Larry Richards host of EWTN open line Thursday has spoken about the Alpha program and and its use in his parish but I also know that if father Larry is gonna implement anything he's going to keep an eye on it and make sure that it's implemented properly that's exactly the eyes of the church now you know whether it's alpha or anything else what I would caution against in in any kind of practical spirituality that's urging Catholics to personal relationship with Jesus which hey I'm all about that okay but I would caution against the temptation to kind of subjectivism okay that makes a personal relation to produces into essentially an affective or emotional experience of warmth or intimacy with you know with some sort of pictured or imagined reality of Christ that we that we unreflective ly identify with the Spirit of God you know this is the kind of what I call the you know the the Harvey the invisible rabbit error I've met Catholics and non-catholics of light who when you asked him about relationship with Christ present their relationship with Jesus is kind of like Jimmy Stewart's relationship with Harvey the invisible rabbit you know it's you know he's the he's this invisible friend that walks with me and talks to me and I have little locations in the back of my head and you know and and I tell him my troubles and he tells me his and and it's a lot more than that and there's no guarantee that relationship with Christ is going to come with these kind of you know audible locutions in the back my relationship with Christ is about really it's about first of all Christ as the exemplar of holiness Christ is the ultimate model for Christian faith and he spells out for us not in a program but in a in a very descriptive way in the Sermon on the Mount what the essence of Christian holiness looks like it's essentially cultivating certain interior dispositions that are divine like poverty of spirit and hungry and thirsting for righteousness and so forth and then he shows us what that looks like in his own divine life and then trusting that through faith in the sacraments the mysteries of Christ's divine life can be recapitulated in us supernaturally whether or not we feel anything whether or not we hear anything that's what authentic relationship with Jesus looks like for Catholic Louise thank you so much for your question we appreciate it this is a special mailbag edition of call to communion here on EWTN Matthews submitted a question via YouTube Matthew says a Protestant friend of mine asked whether or not we as Catholics can trace an oral tradition back to an apostle in a way that can be verified thank you very much yeah thanks okay so I guess it depends on your criteria of verification all right and and and what sort of well yeah I guess it depends on your criteria verification can we trace oral traditions back to the Apostles absolutely you bet hands down no doubt about it verified to within which canons of skeptical historical reason that's the question but let me let me give you one right off the bat okay st. Paul wrote the book of Romans yes that's an oral tradition all right internally is there anything in that document the book of Romans mm-hmm that proves proves with a kind of deductive reason that's it's not only unlikely to be doubted but becomes like absolutely just logically impossible to doubt no no I mean to believe that Paul wrote Roman requires me to trust well oral tradition historical testimony you know internal and external criteria I mean I have to approach that claim with the canons of normal historical investigation but it's not it's not so certain that it's beyond any possibility of doubt all right I think it's it's extraordinarily probable you know that Paul did write Romans and and and there's clearly an oral tradition confirming that he did I think it's reasonable to trust that oral tradition can I prove you know beyond any possibility of doubt to skeptical historical reason historical reason that that Paul wrote it no probably not but I think that would be kind of like the paradigm case the authorship of the biblical documents themselves that they in fact come to us by episode Kothari would be an outstanding example of oral traditions that are that are reliable and and to the extent that you can verify historical data or verifiable Matthew thank you so much for your question it's an a a special mailbag edition of call to communion here on EWTN we're not taking your calls today but we're going through some of these great emailed and texts that we've received and also some from YouTube and Facebook here's one from Nathanael checking in on YouTube who says is there any truth to the oft asserted position that the church has once taught geocentrism doctrinally to what degree can doctrinal teachings be abrogated or removed thank you Anna fan yeah thanks I really appreciate the question so I I'm gonna answer the question but I'm also gonna direct you to a source to a little bit more reflection on that topic if you would take a peek at the article in the catholic encyclopedia about galileo okay and read the catholic encyclopedia article on galileo to get a lot more context and and again let me let me let me build some context around that question specifically with geocentrism if you read st. Thomas in the Summa Theologica on the seven days of creation it's in part one of the same mode I think it's his article on the second day his article on the second day of creation I could be wrong about that but I think it's his commentary in the second day and he he sets out to say well how can we reconcile what the scripture seems to say about God's act of creation with what we know from scientific investigation alright and they had scientific investigation I mean Saint Saint Agustin talks about in the 4th century talks about apparent conflicts between the book of the first eleven chapters of Genesis of what the science of the day demonstrated origin of Alexandria in the second century does the same thing so early Christian writers were rare aware of difficulties and biblical interpretation posed by natural science it's not something new to the modern world but the way Thomas handles it in that passage is he says look let's take some scientific theories about the origins of the earth and he lays out you know three or four of them he takes Plato and Aristotle and impetus and kimber who else is in there he throws out you know several ancient philosophers and writers who give different views about the origin of the world and that you know we're plausible at the time and and then Thomas says all right let's let's look at how any one or all of these might be compatible with the sacred texts and then he kind of throws out different interpretations of Genesis he's not he doesn't say that these ancient philosophers are incorrect cuz he can flick to the Bible that's not the way he approaches that's the way fundamentalist operates that's not the way Thomas operates the way Thomas operates is to say okay these are all plausible natural explanations let's see how we can tailor our hermeneutics our biblical interpretation to accommodate the scientific data and his principle is that the unity of reason that there's the that revelation is true because God revealed it but what natural science discovers is true too because God reeled it and when you're faced with an apparent contradiction you start drawing distinctions and you start qualifying until you find out how to harmonize you don't just throw one under the bus okay and that's always been the way the Catholic Church is operated all right except I mean Origen went even further in the in the in the direction of natural science he just believed that the whole Genesis narrative was nothing but allegory st. san agustin in book 13 to the confessions says that the creation narrative is an allegory for the creativity and freedom of the human soul I mean it's really going for our field okay so what happens in the 16th century when you get to Galileo and Galileo proposes a heliocentric model of the universe well really instructive is the response of Cardinal Bellarmine at the time in Beller men who was a doctor of the church and he's one of the he's one of the chief Catholic theologians of the early modern period says well a Galileo I kind of think you're wrong okay I think you're wrong because I think the sacred text suggests otherwise but but if you can demonstrate scientifically that your theory is true and in fact Galileo had not demonstrated that his theory was true he proposed it as a model uh-huh and he had provided some evidences many of which were not conclusive and some were flat-out wrong like the view Galileo's view that that the rotation of the earth is which calls the slinging of the water around the planet and that was the source of the tides all right he had some funky ideas about tides which scientists rule then and now we're like yeah not so fast okay but Bellarmine says if you can demonstrate scientifically that your theory is true then I'll go back and rework my interpretation of the sacred text okay all right so I'm not I'm not so committed to my interpretation of Scripture that that I won't change it in light of new evidence right it's just the same principle that st. Thomas had applied okay and so the geocentrism which look was a common philosophical opinion and was derived phenomenologically from from empirical science I mean Aristotle was the GS interest because hey if you when you stand on out in the front yard you see the Sun move in the sky I mean phenomenologically the sun's moving the star is moving we don't feel the turn of the earth right so it was a it was a rational position to take until such time as the development of astronomy called it into question right all right so it's not just based on the interpretation of Scripture it was just that was just common opinion all right interestingly it was the Pope Urban the eighth I believe at the time who took a really interesting position on Galileo he said Galileo Galileo Galileo you're smart guy the math works the math works I grant to you the math works maybe you're right but maybe you're not maybe you're right but maybe you're not yeah wouldn't it be better to take an instrumentalist position what's an instrumentalist position an instrumentalist position is the one that says I have a model and the model can explain the data so let's use it as a model okay but we'll remain open to the possibility that there are other models subsequent models that might explain the data better or might explain more data and so I'm not claiming that I grasp the intrinsic reality of nature I'm simply seeking mathematical models to describe it that was the Pope's position right and Galileo said nah I'm just right this is just the way it is okay and interestingly in philosophy of science today who was not not correct on geocentrism versus heliocentrism but who was correct about the philosophy of science and the way you should approach claims about the intrinsic nature of reality all right well Niels Bohr right he's one of the great progenitors of the of quantum physics and the atomic model and all this proposed well I think it's the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics which David Merman has summed up as shut up and calculate he shut up and calculate you know we don't really know the intrinsic nature of matter because the the further down we drill at the at the subatomic level the more we encounter just a set of probabilities you know rather than then concrete realities that we can lay hold of and the best we can do is to try to model them mathematically without making dogmatic claims about the intrinsic nature of matter okay and and so we're approach more and more towards pure potentialities rather than stuff right interesting is kind of the resurrection of Aristotle that's what Aristotle thought about matter he thought the the more you drill down into matter the more you you approach just pure potentiality what he called prime matter yeah and so in other words the Pope took a position that was really really modern really really really modern he took a position that was pretty much Niels Bohr's position the Copenhagen interpretation of modern physics was Pope urban view Galileo took this very mechanistic in early modern sort of deistic view that has since been dispensed with by by modern physicists okay so there we go Catholic Church always old always new there you go Nathanael thank you so much for checking us out today on YouTube this is a special mailbag edition of call to communion here on EWTN you know earlier in the program we mentioned the possibility of listening to the show later via podcasting if there was something that you didn't get or you want to hear it again let me amplify that if I could for just a moment not only this show call me a you know called a communion but also what about register radio maybe you heard a great interview that Matthew Bunsen had with a Jeanette de Melo or open line something that father Larry Richards mentioned on the program last week or call me Catholics something that Peggy Normandin mentioned last weekend morning glory women of grace the list goes on and on and on you can get them all and you can subscribe to them just like you would subscribe to a magazine go to ewtn.com slash podcast to find out all about it EWTN dot-com / podcast let's get to another email or two hear hear is that Chuck I mentioned Chuck earlier in the hour he's a confirmation teacher in upstate New York who says greetings my friends dr. Anders on a recent show you referred to a teaching from the Council of Trent defining the importance of mass attendance now I probably won't state this quite correctly but I believe you explained that mass attendance is more important for our offering of ourselves in sacrifice than it is for reception of Holy Communion could you please explain the skin so I can get it right point me to the specific decree from Trent where I can read more about it thanks again for all you do Chuck in New York okay remember all that yes he's got a he's changed around my emphasis a little bit okay okay so let me back up okay it is the dogmatic teaching the Catholic Church that the mass is an actual sacrifice offered to God in reparation for the sins of the world okay that's the dogmatic teaching of the church and each mass has a distinct push Ettore value which is why you can ask your priest to say Mass for a specific intention my Monday he can offer a mass for your grandmother and on Tuesday he can offer it for you know your mother-in-law and I Wednesday he can offer one for you you know and one time my wife actually requested a special Mass for a particular intention at our parish and and then you know a little while later I got a call from a priest friend of mine who is a priest at another parish in the Diocese of Birmingham at some distance from our home parish uh-huh and he said hey I just I just said your wife's mass intention I went oh they farmed it out they farmed it out you know it's funny I have a friend who's a Dominican he's an Irish Dominican mm-hmm he lives in United States all right and he's more or less retired he's getting on up there and he's 101 years old but he still says Mass every day and then I met his Dominican buddies in Ireland are always getting mass stipends and mass intentions and and so they farm him out you know to some of these Irish Dominicans around the world who were in retirement and they you know they've they've got the time on their hands and they say Mass every day so he'll say Mass for somebody in this out of the world you know has every mass has this distinct patient or evaluate sure and and the it was actually the Second Vatican Council in sacrosanct in Concilium which is the dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy that said that proper instruction in the liturgy should entail teaching the faithful to unite themselves to the Holy Sacrifice of the mass by offering the sack Feist along with the Ministerial priest okay not just by the reception of Holy Communion but also by uniting himself to the material priests I mean to the young emselves to the sacrifice themselves because every Catholic is the priest mean we could were appointed to all for sacrifice and Saint Paul teaches us that our spiritual act of worship this is in the book of Romans chapter 12 our spiritual act of worship consisting in the offering of ourselves okay so I'm drawing together multiple lines of reasoning in Catholic spiritual theology one that the mass is an actual sacrifice to that the which is which is the dogmatic teaching of Trent to that the Second Vatican Council teaches that to offer that sacrifice is the duty of every Christian even though only the ministerial priest can affect it alright to actually offer it intentionally in our hearts is the duty of every Catholic person and in doing so we help fulfill the exhortation of st. Paul that we offer ourselves all right in that same language we find in the Vatican Council and it's not something that that that Vatican two made up you find the same emphasis all throughout the tradition I mean another great example would be go read Francis DeSales introduction to the devout life we talks about the right way to attend at Holy Mass and that you know the correct disposition to break when you find it all throughout the tradition so in terms of the specific doctrinal decree of Trent I hadn't got the document memorized okay you're working about yeah I mean a good little summary if you want to read the Catechism of the Council of Trent sometimes called the Roman Catechism huh on the doctrine of the Eucharist I think you found that tremendously fruitful very good Chuck thank you so much for your email and dr. David Anders thank you my friend thanks Tom remember that we do the show each and every Monday through Friday 2:00 p.m. Eastern with an encore at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and then the best of the week on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern for David and Michael and me Tom price we'll see you next time here on call to communion god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 30sec (3270 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 10 2018