Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders 02/22/21

law to permit women to exercise a lay ministries of lecture and acolyte for more news with a catholic perspective visit ewtnews.com i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation eight eight 1-833-2888 nine eight six stop it 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 hey everybody welcome back to call to communion here on ewtn as we kick off another week of programming uh regarding this one single question what would it take for you to become a catholic or if you want to restate it what's keeping you from the catholic becoming catholic what is stopping you from the catholic you you get the idea here we'd like to know what is keeping you from becoming a catholic and if there's any uh stumbling blocks or you know little diversions along the way that can uh that we can clear up well that's what we're here for here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 if you're listening to us outside of the us or canada please dial the american country code which is normally one and then 205 271 2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and you can always shoot us an email ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer ryan penny is our phone screener jeff burson's on social media he'll be glad to forward any questions you might want to pose via youtube or facebook live because we're streaming there right now i'm tom price along with dr david anderson how are you today very well how was your weekend sir you know it was bright and sunny isn't that nice it sure is i mean it was a little on the cool side but it was definitely bright inside uh you know i enjoyed it i got out in that brighton sun and took a walk and just happy as a clam got to do some yard work cut back the crepe myrtles and all that i don't know if i was late early or on time but they're they're cut all right done with that here's a question that we received from israel via youtube israel says when the holy spirit came on pentecost god gave the apostles the gifts of speaking different languages if they were to spread the gospel in latin they couldn't achieve it so why is the mass in latin okay thanks i appreciate the question so a couple different this this question sort of combines a lot of different answers it does it does well first of all talk about pentecost and the pouring out of the spirit of pentecost and the gift of speaking in other languages so the way many interpreters and myself included understand the significance of pentecost pentecost is the birth of the church and the church is universal in its in its scope and intent and this is a major point in new testament theology that abraham had been given a promise by god that his progeny would would be a blessing to the world inherit the covenant blessing but of course they were hebrews and and they were restricted you know ethnically and nationally uh within that frame of reference and there was a stark differentiation between the the hebrew or the jew on the one hand and the gentile nations beyond and that barrier wall of hostility that the mosaic law set up between jew and gentile is eliminated with christ and now it's no longer physical parentage it's not physical dissent that connects us to the promise of abraham but the faith of abraham faith in christ the messiah and that's every language and nation and tongue male female slave free north south you name it where it can all be one in christ and by this expression of the the multiplication of languages in a way it sort of undoes the curse of babel if you remember in genesis chapter 11 when the people had said we're going to make a name for ourselves by building a tower to heaven and that's how we're going to use technology effectively essentially you know and create our own unity and god said that's not going to work out so well for you right and so the story of the multiple languages and scattering the people all over the world well this is this is the opposite damn this is god actually gathering in all those scattered people into the one holy catholic and apostolic church which includes multitude of languages that's that's really the point of that of that expression of the multiple languages not so that everybody could hear and understand because like many of the speakers would have been unintelligible precisely because somebody's speaking syrian and you you know you speak hebrew or whatever now insofar as why has the mass been celebrated in latin well first of all it's not celebrated latin throughout the universal church but only in the roman rite of the catholic church and and then because latin is the the language of the sea the the episcopal see of rome which is the you know has universal jurisdiction and primacy all over over the rest of the church and going back for a very long time in the roman rite in the latin church uh people from different languages and nations and cultures whether they be celts or franks or goths or germanic or iberian whatever said we want to worship in the same way that the pope does because we want to be one with the holy father if he if he does it this way that's how we want to do it to express precisely our uniformity our in in in our loyalty of the holy father now the purpose of the language of the mass is not primarily to be evangelistic it may have that effect but when christ instituted the mass he didn't say do this to proselytize he said do this in memory of me and he established the mass as a memorial offering a sacrifice that the church offers to god in reparation for their sins and and the the language of liturgy is that of a sacrificial ritual right and in the principle celebrant the one who affects the sacrifice is the priest who who wants to follow the forms prescribed by the church and handed down by sacred tradition with with with reverence and devotion and the people can participate their own act of participation in a form that is appropriate to the particular right in which they find themselves now obviously there is an evangelistic aspect to the celebration of the mass though it's not the primary one and also a chemical aspect and out of sensitivity to that of course the church also allows the vernacular celebration of the mass in different languages but whether it's offered in in english or french or latin its primary function is to be a sacrifice that we offer to god and that of our very lives as well and not not primarily to be a catechetical event fascinating thank you so much for that uh i was i was explaining it was very interesting at a uh dinner party just the other evening i was explaining to a non-catholic family member you know the whole idea of the friday penance during lent and this person grew up in a very catholic town and he said well didn't all that change in the 60s i said well yes and no it did and it did and it didn't catholics still have to give up something on fridays but it doesn't have to be meat it could be something else right well you know christ himself when speaking about religious ritual and law particularly the sabbath commandment says that the sabbath is made for men not man for the sabbath sure and so the rubrics of the church the law of the church is there to guide us in our in our union with god and we need to have a penitent heart repentant heart the precise form can change exactly in a moment we're going to be talking with julie in st louis there's a line open for you on call to communion 833 288 ewtn for call to communion [Music] you need to pray there's two things i want you to do keep close to our lord in the holy eucharist he's really and truly present body blood soul and divinity stay close to his mother with those two loves you will always have the light to see what is right and what is wrong this is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan through our lenten fasting and prayer we learn how to control ourselves and thus give ourselves more freely to others and since we have all been called to the married vocation the first people we need to give ourselves to is our family instead of giving your family what you owe them lavish them with love above and beyond what they deserve as our father does with us the first person to love lavishly is our spouse take time to ask them how you can show mercy to them this land learn how to love them even more maybe rid yourself of a habit that they find annoying these habits may not be wrong but it shows that you are ready to give above and beyond what is required you can also create healthier habits regarding things that are not desirable for your family maybe it's refraining from negative humor and sarcasm maybe it's not raising your voice making a resolution to change how we relate to our family is an effective use of time this lent maybe even more than giving up chocolate for more inspiration and encouragement visit messi family minute dot [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 you know many folks not just catholics but many christians all sorts of people enjoy praying the stations of the cross especially during lent well if that's you we've got something that can help you along the way a beautiful purple bead stations of the cross bracelet now available from ewtn rc this beautiful and devotional bracelet features 14 small round metals each depicting one of the stations of the cross and a small crucifix to mark the end and between each metal is an eight millimeter purple facet cut glass bead it is beautiful now the metals are made of silver ox metal and the bracelet is elastic so it's easy to slip on slip off offering you the opportunity for prayer and reflection anytime and anywhere it's gorgeous it's imported from italy and it's available right now at ewtnrc.com there is free standard shipping on online orders of 75 or more all you have to do is use the code free at checkout again do check out the purple bead stations of the cross bracelet from ewtnrc.com if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin today uh with julie in st louis listening on the great covenant radio hello julie what's on your mind today hi good afternoon um well i was born a catholic and raised catholic and my children all attend private catholic school but they are traveling to that age now where like some things about ltd gq and birth control and um having sex in marriage without trying to procreate um or coming in to call and i'm wondering if i'm just cursing and not an athlete uh okay you're wondering you said you're wondering if you are christian and not catholic or if your children are christian and not catholic well all of us because my older kids agree with me about those certain things which are not really accepted by the catholic church okay yeah sure sure i really appreciate the question so um well from the from the catholic church's point of view i mean like you're catholic right you're a baptized catholic and you've you've received the sacraments of initiation so the church regards you as catholic and we love you as a sister in christ and you know uh you know we don't we're not we're not judging we're we're loving and we're accepting right when it comes to the question of human sexuality and that's really what you're asking about you know do i need to think what the church teaches about the nature of sex and and so forth well then obviously the church has a pastoral duty of care towards the people that she loves and this is not to impose some arbitrary command on individuals to make their lives miserable that's not the reason for catholic moral teaching but to try to help people realize their true humanity and to live healthy fulfilled meaningful lives loving god and loving neighbor and you know and i'm speaking in my own voice now i'm not i'm not quoting some papal document i'm just talking as david anders you know i think that a lot of the sort of politics of of sexuality that have so invaded our culture in the last 20 30 years are are based on a false idea and what is that false idea the false idea is that that if i have an urge or an inclination that in order to be happy i need to gratify it and so if i have a strong inclination to this kind of sexual activity or this kind of gender expression then then i can't be an authentic human being if i don't uh if i don't follow that inclination and one thing that strikes me about that position i understand it right is uh it seems to me so so bizarrely modern and uniquely western and it really doesn't capture the way most people in in most cultures have thought about human identity yeah i read some anthropology and and what i note in other cultures is most most people throughout history have sort of thought about the question who am i what's my identity yeah in terms of their relationships which are deeply embedded in their family systems family structures and their culture their tribe and they don't necessarily default immediately to you know my essential me is some very intensely private inclination or experience and everybody else can you know go to hell in a handbasket because that's all that matters and i i really think this is kind of a symptom of of a lonely people right a lonely culture people that have been broken away from their families and from their spouses and you know we live behind screens and and uh you know had a young man tell me early earlier this month actually he he felt very alienated from his culture and he said to me david i feel like i live in a world that that no longer has a place for men because he's a real macho machisma guy who you know likes to go out and box and beat up bears and climb trees and stuff and he's like this is just and i would have made a good hoplite in ancient greece or legionary in ancient rome but i feel like my masculinity is is hated on you know by my culture he says to me it's no wonder that people don't understand what their gender is or their sex because they feel so alienated from their own bodies and from the world around them i i appreciate that so you know i don't we're not we're not hating people that struggle with these sexual issues or these identity questions we really see this as a symptom of a kind of a of a culture that's sort of gone mad and and lost the capacity for love and connection relationship and forgotten that like my body is an expression of of my person and enables me to be in certain kinds of relationships you know like as a man i can i can be in a in a procreative relationship with my wife and bring children into the world and create that society called the family and that's not something secondary or outside my identity like that's part of my identity my body is who i am and it's a gift from god and so you know when you ask questions like well do i have to believe these things i sort of feel like it's asking like well do i have to believe that vegetables are good for me you know i mean it's like we want people to learn to how to how to love themselves in the body and and the in the society and the culture that god has given us and to heal those aspects of our culture that are causing people so much psychic distress about these things and we don't hate on them we mourn for this loss of connectedness sure absolutely thank julie thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3 the monday edition of call to communion here on ewtn radio let's go to mary in methuen massachusetts right now watching us on ewtn television hey mary what's on your mind today am i on the air now yes yes you are mary go right ahead okay all right david i want you to answer me two questions okay first of all the first question i have is i know that we were made in the image of god but where did god come from and the angels that were there before he created adam and eve and so is the devil in the garden the second part is this i'm a 95 year old lady and at four years old my grandmother told me that the world would never end and she told me why because she made a pact with jesus that she went out to the sea and and back then all the women used to wear a fun apron and she put a handful of sand into her pocket and she told jesus the world will never end because every day i'm going to throw out a grain of sand and when the pocket is empty then you can have the end of the world now i'm 95 years old and the world is still here it's still going strong so i don't believe that there'll ever be an end of the world so maybe i'm wrong and maybe i'm whatever but until i live the world is going strong the only thing jesus doesn't know is that when the pocket was going empty his mother would go out to the seashore and put another handful of sand in her pocket okay that means the world lady never ends yeah thanks mary i really appreciate both of these questions so let me deal with the first question first okay the question is where did god come from now i want you to think with me a little bit about the language of your question when you say where did god come from what you're asking is what is there that i could give as an explanation for god right you know when i when i look at other things in my experience if i you know the other day somebody brought a pound cake into my office and when i asked where'd that pound cake come from well i know how to answer that question i could say well you know so and so baked the pound cake and brought it in and they used ingredients and a recipe i could give you uh events and principles that came before the pound cake that would explain it and when we when we give an explanation for things that's the way we work we we reason back to what had to come before it to explain it okay now with god we're not we're not talking about something that could be explained in terms of something else that came before because if you go backwards in time or you go backwards in physics or you go backwards in independence at some point that chain going backwards hits a first cause there is that before which nothing all right and that's really what catholics mean by the word god god is the is where the buck stops in explanation uh and so you know if you think about you could explain something with a cause but the one thing you can't explain with a cause is causality itself like the fact that things can be explained by causes is something that is even more important than any particular cause well that's where god resides god is is like the fact of being able to explain things with the cause he's the ultimate explanatory principle and so god exists eternally and without change and god is the explanation for the existence of everything else catholics say that god is not a being like you have a horse and a giraffe and a dog and a cat and a god no it doesn't work that way god is not one being among many god is being itself saint paul says in him we live and move and have our being now when it comes to the second question will the world have an end okay well uh the catholic faith teaches that the world will have an end that the world will have an end because christ will come back again and raise the dead judge the living and the dead and and then establish a new heavens and a new earth that's something that we can only know by faith because christ has revealed it uh what we could but we can know some things from philosophy and science one of the things we know is that suns burn out you know our sun is a star and we can look up in the sky and look at other stars and see stars that have burned out gone away they're not there anymore and any worlds that were floating around those stars that may have may or may not have had life on them without life is going to die out well we may not be able to foresee the second coming of christ from a microscope or from a telescope but we can see the the heat death of our own universe and the extinguishing of all life that much even the scientists can tell you yeah what faith tells us is that before that happens jesus is going to come back but tell you what you're 95 i'm 50. uh i i hope you outlive me you know by 50 years but i figure my end of the world is coming you know the actuary the actuaries would tell me probably within the next 30 years uh you know i hope you got to get another good 20 in you right but for both of us you know we're not going to make it another century so i don't have to worry so much about the end of the whole universe i got to worry about my the end of my universe sure you know for me it's coming within 30 years and maybe year or two sooner for you mary thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on ewtn uh let's go quickly to charles charles is in indianapolis listening on facebook hey there charles what's on your mind today um you know thank you david and i just had a couple questions i'm a former catholic lutheran working my way back to the catholic church through some friends i certainly believe in what's in the creeds i believe the pope i believe in the real presence but i have a couple of issues that relate to it just seems like some of catholic doctrine or practice is just man-made like i do not observe holy days of obligation it seems like the church should be trying to help us get into heaven not creating who more hoops to jump through number one and number two i just uh yeah i i just you know have a little bit of a problem with the idea of uh mortal versus venial sins that dichotomy in fact i've talked to priests and you get different opinions on what's immortal and what's a venial sin so those are my two questions okay thanks yeah i appreciate them so first of all the question are holy days of obligation man-made the answer the question is of course of course they are and we never represented otherwise i mean the church has never declared that that you know that we celebrate christmas on december 25th if that's somehow revealed by god as an obligation of conscience no no it's it's a tradition of the church of course it is so is the speed limit right when i drove to ewtn today there was a man-made tradition represented by a sign on the road that said i think was about what is it 30-40 miles an hour you know if i go faster then i'm gonna get busted is that unreasonable for the for the state to put up a speed limit and say you can't drive a hundred you know and you're in your toyota on the way to ewtn no it's not unreasonable because it's for the sake of the common good and you say well does that help me get to heaven well it helps me to not get there too soon and i can and i can you know have some care for my neighbor in a general way sure and many of the precepts of the church work like them and the church is a society it's a visible society like a state like a government and it has precepts that are for the sake of the common good and one of them is there's some things we had to do together you know when you're growing up your mother probably said like you don't get to eat dinner when you want you have to come at six o'clock and eat with the family right well as catholics we get together and eat with the family that's a holy day of obligation god didn't reveal it yes the church imposed it as a precept for the good for the common good now let me come back and deal with morty and mortal and venial sins after the break stick around there with us charles we'll be right back lots more here straight ahead on call to communion don't go away [Music] the words of blessed carlo ogutis the more eucharist we receive the more we will become like jesus so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven 60 on 10 with monsignor charles pope the fifth commandment you shall not kill at the heart of this commandment is an absolute insistence on the sacredness of human life we read in jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 5 before i ever formed you in the womb i knew you says the lord so every human life is sacred because it's caught up in the mind and the heart and the will and the love of god and no matter how we're conceived or any circumstances god has always known and loved every human person and for this reason we are to hold sacred every human life we are therefore to never murder never kill never seek vengeance of course we have issues of abortion and euthanasia today and we have so many ways where we in some way disrespect the lives of other human persons and even our own life we have to learn to respect it as a great gift from god the fifth commandment you shall not kill for more about the ten commandments visit ewtnrc.com [Music] here's the quote from mother angelica's perpetual calendar i put all my trust in the power of the holy spirit to give me strength his inspirations are quiet and gentle so i must keep my soul in peace in order to hear his voice he is ready to assist me immediately with his powerful grace if only i cry out for help when i feel my weakness mother angelica's perpetual calendar is available at ewtnrc.com that's ewtnrc.com hi this is psy keller later today on catholic answers live we've got trent horn answering atheism catholic answers live 6 p.m eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david anderson [Music] it's called to communion here on ewtn glad that you could join us on this monday afternoon uh before the break we were talking with charles in indianapolis who is a fallen away catholic and uh was had some questions about what he was referring to as man-made traditions but he was also asking about mortal and venial sins yeah thank you and part of his question dealt with the fact that priests that he had spoken to couldn't give him a consistent answer as to what counted as a mortal or what counted as a venial sin and that ambiguity is by design right so that that's not that doesn't point to a problem in the doctrine of mortal and venial sin it actually goes to the very nature of the distinction properly understood so let me let me spell this out for you as to the existence of mortal and venial sin as revealed by by god coming from sacred scripture and tradition clearly the bible establishes that there are some acts that disqualify you for participation in the kingdom of heaven saint paul frequently gives vice lists in in his epistles and different epistles will give slightly different lists galatians chapter 5 is one of them and he'll say things like fornication adultery factions disobedience to parents drunkenness hatred carousing this kind of business you watch out you carousers and then he follows it up by saying that you know if you do such things you cannot inherit the kingdom of god cannot inherit the kingdom of god no immoral greedy or licentious person can go to heaven paul says and uh and in fact paul paul imposes disciplinary uh action on church members who fall into these categories a little case in point is first corinthians chapter five where paul insists that the corinthians expel a sexually immoral person from their midst and not readmit him until he comes to repentance and paul's language he says hand this man over to satan for the destruction of his flesh and most commentators think this is a reference to this to the discipline of excommunication so that his spirit may be saved on the day of judgment so it is a curative thing you excommunicate him in the hopes that he'll come to repentance and then he instructs them further you know don't don't associate with the sexually immoral person or for that matter greedy or swindlers or idolaters um and uh and he says it's not you shouldn't do that it's bad for you bad company you know we'll will corrupt your moral character so um now is the existence of a venial sin well you look at a passage like james chapter 3 where he says look we all stumble in many ways and the man who's never at fault and what he says you know would be perfect and that's what you're aiming for but the the implication is that look it's hard to keep the whole body perfectly and checked and never utter you know a a an untoward word but he's not calling for the discipline of excommunication against people that hit their hammers with thumbs and you know let out a four-letter word or something right just watch yourself is the idea and yeah of course in in uh in first john uh chapter chapter five we read that there is sin that leads to death and they're said that doesn't lead to death right so there's the distinction in scripture in canon law in disciplinary practice in theology it's a biblical idea right now can we actually boil it down and delineate this specific action counts as a mortal sin and this one does not and the answer is no and here's why the church says that to really sever the life of grace in the soul you have to have three conditions one is the act itself should be gravely wrong second the person committing the act has to understand what they're doing you know paul says i was shown mercy because i acted in ignorance you have to know what you're doing and third you can't act under any kind of compulsion it needs to be a freely chosen act where you kind of you know what you're about you know what you're doing and you know that it's wrong it's gravely wrong when all three of those conditions are met then then the thing really does sever you from the life of grace in your soul but but to to really know that with specificity you'd have to be god right i mean because god doesn't know i mean oh man does not know i couldn't tell you for sure that you know tom really knew what he was doing and he was not acting under compulsion right only god would really be able to judge the state of the soul that way that's why the church really is not in the business of judging the interior life of its members except their repentance right so when the penitent goes to the priest and says i'm sorry well the priest takes that as evidence of contrition and absolves that's about the only judgment you know but they don't dig down to the level of well i can tell you for certain that this was mortal or not more right now and that's a good thing too right that's a good thing because we know with the ten commandments we know the beatitudes we know the virtues look i know that i know that adultery is gravely wrong like don't do it don't murder is gravely wrong don't do it no lying is gravely wrong don't do it there's no there's no point in like more fine-grained distinctions like you know what's good go do good don't do evil and then and know that like your soul is in peril it's a it's a genuine risk that you could lose yourself and uh and so don't do that all right charles thank you so much uh for your call good to hear from you in indianapolis today on call to communion here on ewtn one line open at the moment 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here is a manual in toronto listening on youtube emanuel what's on your mind today hi dr david uh i i stumbled upon this bible verb because i was reading the bible now i'm in exodus uh exodus chapter 32 verse 14 and it says and the lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people i couldn't wrap my head around this because i knew why would god be capable of doing evil and repenting you know yes can you explain it absolutely so so first of all let me give you the catholic way of understanding all these kinds of verses is that the scriptures sort of literal denotative sense um it is not the the most important way to understand the bible uh that scripture uses kind of the tool of accommodation to language and culture it will sometimes ascribe anthropomorphic characteristics to god uh in a way that was adapted to the culture of milieu of of you know ancient um bronze age or or iron age israelite culture um but don't really capture the essence of the catholic doctrine of god right that god is unchanging and a spirit and he cannot change and he doesn't repent um and he doesn't regret and uh and of course god god does not directly will evil i mean none of those things are consistent with god's nature and character is taught by the catholic church and so we read these allegorically and we read them as accommodative language figurative language to really express a couple things one would be um uh that that human repentance and contrition does in fact change our relatedness to god and so they're not they're not they're not to no account right we we can uh be in an alienated condition with respect to god and and experience that alienation as wrath and we can repent and turn back to him and uh and and thereby expose ourselves to the the flood of his grace and mercy and experience that is an act of of forgiveness and reconciliation um but god himself has not changed in all of that and i like to use this analogy metaphor of if you imagine the sun sort of with its rays beaming down on us and warming the earth and you're outside walking in the bright sunshine and it's beaming down on your face well you can put up an umbrella put it over your head and block out the light of the sun that's kind of like sin and you can sit there obstinate with the umbrella over your head all day long and then you can say i repent of this umbrella you can fold the umbrella up put it down all sudden boom here comes the sunlight again well the sun never changed in all that it's the same sun but you put up the obstacle you put down the obstacle that's really the way the church understands our relatedness to god his mercy and his goodness right he's he's infinite unchanging unqualified goodness diffusive uh throughout all of reality but we through our sin can put up barriers to that and we can experience changes in our relationship with him that come from our side right uh so that's really that's that's really the answer now when it talks about the evil that he intended god does not will directly will evil especially moral evil but god might will the suffering of sentient beings for their correction but of course that's not a moral evil like to to will to will retributive punishment and curative punishment is actually to will a good mm-hmm okay and we thank you so much for your call emmanuel it is called a communion here on ewtn here is uh rosanna now rosanna is in spring hill florida listening on ewtn television a first time caller hi rosanna what's on your mind today hello dr david hi uh a special question yes about limbo uh when when a baby little babies do not get baptized isn't there a place that our lord made special for the little souls to go to uh because they were not baptized yes thank you very much i appreciate the question so the existence of limbo is a very common theological opinion and many catholic theologians and doctors of the church have held to the existence of limbo not because god revealed the doctrine of limbo but because it seemed like a way to reconcile god's justice and mercy because jesus taught that you have to be baptized jesus repent and be baptized and believe the gospel to you'll be saved yes and uh and so the catholic theologians of course hold to the words of our lord we have to baptize people and they all well you know how can you go to heaven without baptism but of course god wouldn't punish somebody who didn't have any actual sin so maybe there's a place called limbo that's an allowable opinion you don't have to hold to the existence of limbo because it's not a dogma of the faith and there are catholic theologians including recent popes who have said that well well limbo is an allowable opinion it's not a probable opinion and uh it might be more sound to hold that god takes those unbaptized children directly to himself extending grace to them in a way that only he knows but you know the important thing is that god's merciful yes and that and that uh that these children don't suffer the hell of the damned yes indeed rosanna thank you so much for your call we appreciate hearing from you in spring hill florida call to communion here on ewtn if you're listening to us live on this monday afternoon i want to let you know that coming up next is going to be open line monday with our guest host today the dynamic deacon harold burke sivirs should be a rock and rolling show that's coming up next at 3 p.m eastern on this monday afternoon here on ewtn radio right now let's go to teresa in pierce city missouri also watching us on ewtn television teresa what's on your mind today well i have a question that i i would like to have answered when we begin the mass and when it comes up to the um the penitential act and to tell god we're sorry for our sins the confeder why is that taken out of the masses it's some masses okay thanks the the the roman missal actually allows for some variations in the ordinary of the mass the prayers that we say in every mouse and there are different uh penitential acts that can be used and some include the configure or and some don't and the the missile allows some variability in the celebration of the mass at the celebrant's discretion at the priest's discretion so i like you i really appreciate the configure and i would like to always say it and uh you know you can certainly make your wishes known to your parish priests and then and then he'll do what he wants there you go appreciate your caller teresa it's called to communion here on ewtn ray is watching us on facebook today ray says how do you respond to protestants when they say the blessed mother was not without sin and was just another woman because scripture says very little about her okay i i'd say that the the premise of the question is bizarre like you're going to reason to something positive about the blessed virgin namely that you know that she's a sinner from the fact that scripture doesn't say that yeah i i think that that's a badly put question that seems to be a logical inconsistency there and that if if they're really going to argue from the principle that you should stick to the bible alone then they should follow their principle right and if the scripture is silent on something then they shouldn't affirm the contrary right but of course i don't hold to the principle of soul of scripture and i don't think the scripture itself tells us to uh now this is why interestingly that early protestants including 17th century protestants like francis turiton who was no friend of the catholic church believed very strongly in the perpetual virginity of mary and and and others also in her sinlessness not so much on the testimony of scripture but the universal witness of the ancient christian tradition and they themselves recognized that look it's if you if you set yourself against these doctrines you're setting yourself against the belief of the universal church going back 2 000 years and that seems like a dangerous place to be you know luther himself actually said one time with respect to the doctrine the real presence he said even if we had no scripture on this it would be very dangerous thing to go against the witness of the holy catholic church throughout the world for 2000 well 1500 years at that time and i wish he'd been more consistent in that conviction but i mean they recognize the principle of of catholicity and sacred tradition like if you throw that out if you don't recognize tradition and catholicity and uniformity and faith as a standard we better throw out the bible yeah right because the protestant belief in the canon of the bible is itself a product of sacred tradition okay um but you know um we believe these things about mary because they've been revealed divinely revealed obliquely in the bible but much more explicitly in the very same sacred tradition that reveals the canonicity and inspiration of the bible called communion here on ewtn ray thanks for watching us today on facebook let's go to joann now in tulsa listening also on facebook this afternoon joanne what's on your mind today hello and dr anders i love your show you're my favorite ewm show ewtn show um i've often wondered how it can be that so many people lived hundreds of years in genesis for example and then also what about the incest factor with all of the brothers and sisters marrying each other and sure yeah absolutely so as a catholic you are permitted you're permitted but not required to regard these texts of genesis as a kind of factual historical chronicle that gives us realistic history you can see it that way and that's an allowable opinion it's not the dominant opinion among catholic biblical interpreters for 2000 years and the what the church teaches about interpreting the old testament is that the most important sense that the bible conveys is what we call the spiritual sense of the bible the spiritual sense is the one that immediately connects our interior lives to to the eternal god and that spiritual sense comes to us in a variety of modes one of them is the allegorical that the types and figures of the old testament figure spiritual realities that are revealed to us in jesus and that we read these texts as allegories also in the anagogical mode which is the mode that directs our attention lifts our hearts directly up to god or the moral mode that that kind of constrains and governs and directs our moral lives these are the ways in which we we engage these texts and uh they're grounded in the literal sense but literally again doesn't mean sort of the strict denotation of words and sentences but rather the the intent the sacred author had what did he wish to in to evoke in the mind of the reader by these types and figures and uh and so that's really where we want to put our emphasis not so much on you know can i do the can i do the human genetics or the anthropology that can find me some 900 year old guys you know that's not really the question but what from up from uh from the point of view of story from a kind of literary analysis what do these texts mean to convey what are they what do they signal to me right and uh i'm not going to give you the definitive answer but i'll give you a few points right one of them is that uh in the account of noah and the flood god says yeah i'm going to limit the days of humanity to 120 years and then he turns around and we find all these characters living longer than 120. and so there's an ambiguity built right into the text at the beginning and you kind of scratch your head and go what's that about how is that possible right and uh and the first character from every service me correct whose age at death is actually recorded in sacred scripture at 120 is moses moses and moses is a kind of archetypal character he sort of stands in the old testament as the as the perfect universal man who's whose burial is place is known only to god and that's a very significant thing in the old testament mentality that he's he he is himself expressive of a kind of deep intimacy with god the shekinah glory of god emanating from his person really an anti-type excuse me a type of christ who would be the antitype come later and uh who is for us the the true atom the new atom the second adam in whose likeness and image we are recreated and the sort of physical longevity that may have been connected in the story to the tree of life in the garden of eden that seems to sort of dissipate over time um is renewed for us uh in in another garden right that of gethsemane uh where um uh where christ rises again and and and opens up to us the possibility of everlasting life so these things are types and images and figures that evoke in us a sense of wonder and all and maybe a desire for long life um and uh but their fulfillment ultimately is points to us points us to christ there you go joanne thank you so much uh for your call here's an interesting email from jake who uh says that uh jake says you provided helpful answers and resources in response to a question about prayer that i emailed in last week thank you for that dr anders now to follow up you said at the time prayer is primarily an act of the mind but you also mentioned mental prayer and how we do sometimes target the emotions for motivational purposes could you please elaborate or provide more resources on mental prayer and how do we incorporate our emotions while avoiding the temptation to make them a kind of idol and also on a related note when scripture refers to the heart is it referring to the emotions or something deeper what does it mean to quote love god with all your heart thanks again peace and grace to everybody at call to communion and that's from jake okay what a great question and lots of detail here we can kind of dig out a lot of different aspects so yes there are many churches non-catholic churches i'm not talking about catholics here many non-catholic churches that that believe that the purpose of prayer is to experience god sensibly and they might not think of it as sensible because they're not we're not talking about eyes ears and you know fingertips but uh but really like bodily sensations emotions passions uh you know weeping crying sort of a sense of electricity passing through you a kind of transcendent wonder at all maybe the sense of oneness of all things or deep elevation of spirit or happiness or joy or profound peace these kinds of emotional states um uh you know maybe even something as specific as feeling goosebumps and think that's the holy spirit's agency in your life that kind of thing sort of picking out some aspect some item of interior uh emotional experience or or mental experience and as a token or sign of god's of god's presence with you and saying and then translating that and say well you know the holy spirit really showed up or i felt god or gosh the spirit moved powerfully today when the worship leader cranked up the band and they they put all the guitars on 11. and then we could really feel it you know that kind of oh the drums went through me i knew god was with us today yeah and you've seen this it's very common and that's really not what scripture teaches about prayer it's not what the catholic church teaches about prayer because you don't feel the holy spirit and i will say again holy spirit is a spirit he's not not a sensible object you don't feel the holy spirit holy spirit can work in your life in ways that are entirely insensible to which you have no sensory contact right um and the goal of prayer is not to generate that kind of experience saint john of the cross in his famous treatise sent to mount carmel recognizes that people have these kinds of experiences in prayer and they can be quite moving and powerful you know this profound sense that god loves me or deep happiness or deep joy or goosebumps or you know that funny internal feeling he writes about this recognizes that people have them that they can be quite pleasant they can be quite moving and then he goes on to say they should be almost entirely avoided or ignored because they're not the essence of prayer the essence of prayer our lord showed us in the garden when he said not my will but i be done and keep in mind that he said this not under conditions of like goosebumps and deep profound joy and peace but agonizing anticipation of his own crucifixion such that he sweat blood you know not not the state of mind that most people are looking for when they go to their local mega church and i'd like to sweat blood today in the agony of death please no that's not what they're looking for but that's the condition that christ was in when he surrendered himself utterly to god not my will but thine be done you know it was no party for the blessed virgin mary when the angel gabriel showed up and said uh you're gonna get pregnant you know in your early adolescence and all of your relatives are gonna think you've been up to something and people are gonna hate you for it and you're gonna run away and hide in egypt with a man who's you know three times your age and you're gonna have a josephine marriage and never consummate it and then you know you're gonna give birth and the king's gonna try and kill your child and you know it's gonna be really awful and then you're going to watch him die the death of torture as a young widow how does that sound to you and mary's answer was be it done to me according to my word yeah that that's the essence of christian prayer now uh you ask how do the emotions get involved in that well ancient christian tradition advocated a virtue that the ancients called apathea we related to our word apathy but it doesn't mean apathy it means dispassion that i am not the slave of my passions and uh and that i regard my passions my emotional life is as the context in which my moral decision-making takes place and i recognize that the passions can aid or hinder me but ultimately it's the act of the intellect and the will deciding for virtue that is really the morally relevant act and so i want to relate in a kind of a mastery to to my to my emotional life to my passions so that they are helping me choose the life of virtue not hinder me and that can only mean through disciplined practice and and the acquisition of virtue so you can be a continent but not virtuous person where well excuse me you can be you can be an incontinent person who finds it difficult to live the life of virtue but you can do it kind of through gritting your teeth and then through practice you can acquire continence and the full flowering of the virtue where your passions cohere nicely with your intellectual decisions hope that helps you jake dr david anders thank you sir thanks tom see you tomorrow right here on ewtn's call to communion god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Id: 4GXLcWlOcD8

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021