Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - April 6, 2021

victims worldwide for more news with a catholic perspective visit ewtnnews.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 why do i 1-833-288-3986 to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is call to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn it is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the catholic faith why not get those questions answered here we are in uh easter week the octave of easter i'm sure you've got questions about the catholic faith and maybe you'd like to tell us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight 288-3986 if you're listening outside of north america please dial the u.s country code 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 of course you can always send us an email we're going to lead off with a very interesting email in a moment here ctc at ewtn.com is the address ctc ewtn.com all right we have the a team in place ready to roll here charles berry is our producer ryan penny our phone screener and jeff person is on social media if you want to uh send a question to us via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now just put that question in the comments box jeff will shoot that to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders hey tom how are you sir oh i'm hanging in there thank you i'm doing well are you are you eating any differently because we're in a a feast week the octave of easter or are you pretty much eating the same kale infested diet well i have a double serving of kale oh gee how appetizing that must be for you oh actually i love it i'm glad you do here's that interesting uh email this is from robert in colorado canyon city colorado he says greetings in response to the question posed what is stopping you from becoming a catholic i would like to reply that in my 50 years as a follower of jesus and a student of the bible i am convinced beyond all doubt that the catholic church is not the true church founded by christ for all of your encyclopedic knowledge and keen scholarship regarding church history and catholicism dr anders i maintain that your arguments and support of the distinctive catholic doctrines can be shot down in every instance by sound exegesis of the biblical text four videos on one prominent bible teacher's website under the heading catholicism refuted are an excellent respon a resource for explaining why millions of jesus followers reject out of hand catholicism's claim for ultimate authority and go to the scriptures as their final and sole source of divine truth can you see then the reasoning behind non-catholic believers position as guided by their consciences thank you robert yeah thanks robert i really appreciate the question and the comments and the resources and all of the above uh can i appreciate non-catholics feeling persuaded in conscience that they should not become catholic of course of course absolutely yeah i mean luther himself i mean he's the one that articulated this position at the uh the the diet of worms when he said my conscience is held captive to the word of god and to disobey conscience is neither right nor safe and so here i stand and i can do no other so luther became persuaded in conscience that he had to defy the pope and so defy he did that doesn't mean that he made the right decision doesn't mean that his conscience was well formed i mean people's consciences can be persuaded of the most crazy things i mean you know i mean i imagine that there were some well i won't say be defensive there's some people who hold there are people who hold wild ideological positions i'll put it that way all right i was going to name some but i'm going to refrain okay they're people who hold really wild ideological positions uh that do a lot of harm to the public good and to individuals that maintain that they're doing the right thing and they they may operate in good faith uh they're wrong you know they may hold something this erroneous but nevertheless they're they're charging ahead uh confident and assured that they're doing the right thing so yeah can people be persuaded in conscience uh of of you know the truth of this or that and move forward of course they can of course they can't now you know god's the one ultimately that's the judge not me and uh and i'm not in the business of judging consciences i'm in the business of trying to lay out the truth claims of the catholic faith and the wisdom and the resources and the riches of the church and invite people to consider them um you know whether they accept it or not is not on me that's that's on their conscience and and the leading and guidance of the holy spirit um now i do i can't let this go i have to have to touch on something that you said it wasn't directly behind your question 50 years of exegeting the bible has led you to this conviction well that's interesting that's very interesting why the bible where did you get the idea that scriptural exegesis is the way to come to an understanding of the christian faith who told you that the bible didn't there's no place in scripture that says if you want to understand the christian faith spend 50 years exegeting the bible it doesn't say that where'd you get the bible i assume you're protestant you probably have 66 books in your bible why 66 why not 65. 164. one at 73. why not 88. a lot of good books out there some of them claim to be inspired a lot of books in the bible don't claim to be inspired they are they don't make that claim for themselves why these 66 where'd you get that list not from the bible where'd you get that idea so i'll tell you where you got it you got your particular list from protestant tradition the 66 books that you regard as canonical scripture and the soul rule of faith you got that list from the protestant tradition you got that conviction mainly that the way to understand the christian faith is to exege the bible you get that from the protestant tradition what do those traditions have divine authority did god reveal them did christ reveal them no luther revealed them does luther have divine authority no he has his own conscience so you're going to be beholden to luther's conscience all right then all right then i thought it was interesting well first of all robert thank you so much for your email it's always good to get everybody's opinion on you know where they're coming from but i thought it was interesting that he he's he's maintaining that your arguments can be shot down but he's not giving any examples you know let's take a shot oh yeah i mean that's really what this show is all about i just made an argument yes let's come shoot it down love to hear from robert anytime love to hear from you as well at 833 288 ewtn we have lines open for you right now essa standing by in jacksonville florida also aj in peoria peoria and four lines open at the moment kind of rare this early in the hour uh 833 288 ewtn for call to communion beyond damascus with dan demete and aaron richards is our show for young adults everybody's talking about encounter everybody's talking about that mountaintop experience what we fail to often talk about is what happens after what happens beyond that damascus moment jesus christ is calling all of us to be missionary disciples disciples of jesus who are on mission to bring the kingdom of god here and now on this earth beyond damascus with dan demete and aaron richards saturday at 8 eastern on ewtn radio father benedict rochelle brothers and sisters we got to tell the truth in this country for heaven's sakes i wouldn't want to go to a synagogue and find that they were having a muslim service i wouldn't want to go to a mosque and run into a baptist service i don't want to go to a baptist church and find out that they're having mass we've got to be honest to ourselves we've got to be what we are i'd rather a good old-fashioned honest agnostic than a phony christian any day of the week there are reluctant diagnostics there are atheists who are searching for god and they may find him but somebody who says they're doing something in the name of god and the name of christ and god and christ have nothing to do with it is violating this commandment i am the lord your god you shall not take my name in vain the people you know and trust are on ewtn [Music] call to communion in progress on this easter tuesday our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six i know we have a lot of new listeners uh because uh we have a lot of new catholics so we would like to welcome you first of all to the catholic faith and to ewtn and then this particular program called to communion glad to have you on board uh you can certainly keep asking questions even though you are now a catholic because we all want to keep learning keep growing in our faith that's that's what we're all about last night i was at the kitchen table i wanted to keep growing on a particular item in the news so i'll tell you where i went i went to the register ewtn's national catholic register to be exact it's america's most trusted catholic news source with a comprehensive view of the world from a distinctly catholic perspective right now you can give a gift subscription or subscribe for yourself and save up to 42 percent in the process on ewtn's national catholic register here's how you get started visit ncregister.com today ncregister.com and by the way you can receive daily weekly or alert emails from the national catholic register throughout the day or throughout the week visit ewtn.com for that click on the button that says subscribe and if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with essa in jacksonville florida a first-time listener hello essa what's on your mind today hey uh i i was wondering why why catholics exercise devotion to mary and like praying to mary whenever that's not clearly outlined in scripture yeah thanks so uh let me point you to a couple verses of the bible that i think are relevant one oddly enough comes to us from the book of job chapter 42. if you remember in the book of job job has some companions that are they're not so great they're not so great right and they they don't understand the lord's ways or job's righteousness and after god has revealed himself to job he actually turns to eliphaz the temanite and he says my wrath is kindled against you for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant job has now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant job take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant job and offer for yourselves a burnt offering and my servant job shall pray for you and i will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly now this is one of many many many instances in scripture where uh one person a righteous person intercedes on behalf of someone else and god is merciful to the lesser party because of the fidelity or the righteousness of the greater party another one would be genesis 18 where god abraham challenges god and says will you will you do away with the righteous along with the wicked god says no for the sake of the righteous i'll spare the wicked but here in job god actually commands that they seek job's intercession on their behalf he won't hear their prayer he's not going to hear eliphaz's prayer but he'll hear job's prayer on behalf of eliphaz now flip over to the new testament book of james chapter five james says pray for one another it's command it's an admonition it's non-negotiable christians pray for each other but james goes on to explain most of you not getting your prayers answered why not well you ask with wrong motives but he says the prayer of a righteous man availeth much righteous man's prayer is more effective so put all this together we're obligated to pray for one another most of us not being all that righteous maybe don't have such efficacious prayers james tells us the more righteous the more efficacious your prayer and scripture clearly tells us that those prayers can be efficacious for others those whose own prayers are not efficacious go to my servant job get him to pray for you i'll listen to him but not you that's a biblical principle there in job 42 now does that does this relationship of mutual prayer and intercession and the righteous interceding on behalf of the less righteous does that endure in the church after death well yes it does and we have scriptural evidence of that revelation chapter 5 tells us explicitly that the saints and angels in heaven offer the prayers of the church on earth to god well are they more righteous or less righteous up there they're a good bit more righteous their prayers can be more or less efficacious than ours a bit more efficacious because they will only the will of god perfectly that's why they're saints that's why they're in heaven yeah um book of second maccabees chapter 15. jeremiah the prophet dead and gone is shown praying for judas maccabees and the people of god on earth booker tobit chapter 12 archangel raphael depicted praying for tobias and his wife offering their prayers to god offering their prayers on their behalf to god so this is a deeply scriptural idea the righteous pray for the less righteous we share in one another's sufferings and sorrows and bear one another's troubles to each other the lord in prayer saint paul says in colossians chapter one i fill up in my own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of christ for the sake of his body the church conscious that his own life of sacrifice could be efficacious could be powerful on behalf of the church that he served these are biblical principles which is why seeking the intercession of saints it's not something that the catholic church made up centuries after the fact it's something that goes back into the old testament we know this both from scriptural and extra scriptural archaeological evidence it's something that's been part of the christian church from the very beginning you know the earliest christian churches the actual physical buildings were built on the shrines of martyrs because the veneration of the martyrs and their relics predated the construction of the church buildings several centuries later saint jerome in the fourth century a.d still a long time ago discourse is on this phenomenon and he says does the bishop of rome do wrong when he offers the holy sacrifice of the mass over the bones of peter and paul but not the bishop of rome only but all the bishops throughout the whole world pointing to the universality of the practice the catholicity of the practice that everywhere you go in the ancient world and of course historians have confirmed this like you can't look in ancient christianity anywhere and not find the intersection of saints including the blessed virgin yeah it's ubiquitous it's it's it's in it's built into the fabric it's essential it's not it's not accidental it's not a nice add-on it is of the essence of the christian faith that the body of christ the church prays for its members one for another and that we share in this communion of saints as part of what it means to be saved it's like saying i'd like to have a good relationship with my wife but i don't want to live with her it's like it doesn't make sense like i'd like to be a member of christ's body but don't you dare pray for me i won't have recourse to your prayers i won't seek your help i won't offer mine to you but we'll all be saved like behind our little screens virtual salvation wow not collective as scripture depicts it it's essential it's integral to the net to the to the nature of salvation that this communion of saints be manifest it's what it means to be safe share in the fruits of christ's body present to us in his church on earth and in heaven now the blessed virgin mary is just the greatest of the saints because of the unique privilege she enjoyed of being the mother of god she's not the mother of babe ruth she's mother of god she herself said all generations will call me blessed all i mean we're fulfilling prophecy here we ask for her prayers and intercessions as a uniquely potent uniquely efficacious intercessor not to the exclusion of our worship of christ it's in fact our seeking the veneration the the intercession of saints in fact displays expresses exemplifies illustrates the mode that christ transmits his grace to us the lesser perfecting the weaker through instruments that's how christ operates essa thank you so much for your call we appreciate hearing from you that opens up a line for you we have one line open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 david i don't know if we've ever had a listener checking in from malta have we mm-hmm really it's like the most catholic country in the world oh i know that yeah i know that it's way up there like the like the philippines that's where paul got bit by snake i think so i think myself yep no no anyway albert is in the val valletta malta albert says is the doctrine outside the catholic church there is no salvation is that doctrine still valid and how can one interpret it yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so of course it's still valid and i'll tell you how we should interpret it um you know the formula comes to us from saint ceprian's treatise on the unity of the church it's a third century text ancient christianity and uh even in cyprian's day the fathers of the church had a consciousness that there are those in heaven or will be those in heaven who were outside the physical boundaries of the of the hierarchy catholic church especially the old testament saints and they were very conscious that david elijah and elijah and isaiah and jeremiah these guys are saved they didn't have recourse to the sacraments of the catholic church so at least in that respect there's an understanding that like actual sort of card carrying membership in the catholic church is not a it's not absolutely necessary for salvation um and uh uh and they also had an awareness that they they saw that they were the saved even among the pagans they particularly had uh predilection for the philosophers um justin martyr clement of alexandria considered socrates plato um aristotle christians before christ because they saw them as inspired by the same divine logos that became incarnate in jesus and they they talk about this dynamic right so there's that awareness in the father's when cyprian writes his treatise he's really dealing with the problem of schism he's dealing with the problem of those who would break the visible unity of the catholic church over heretical or schismatic doctrines and wound the church you know wound against charity and charity ultimately is the most important thing that's how we're united to god and so and that's still valid so if somebody you know within the catholic church decides to set up a sect you know a party apart and we we get these people we do know from time to time and uh uh and and you know i i'm the guy that's going to give the official interpretation and you know don't listen to those bishops and they're barbara you know i'm i'm the man i'm the guy you come follow me i've got the stuff right that's pride and hubris and it wounds against charity and uh and that's not that's not good and that fellow may lose his soul by taking that attitude right i don't care how good his exegesis is if he doesn't have humility and charity and fidelity he's not going to be saved and it's interesting so mark think about the number of saints in christian history who have been prescribed under obedience uh from uh from writing or speaking you know they were right i mean history has proved them right magisteriums proved them right by canonizing them but in their own day some authority some ordinary says well you can't teach or write anymore because i don't like what you're saying and they go okay okay and they shut up yeah they go in their closet and they write like 10 books you know and then you know a century later the band gets lifted and all of a sudden we make them a doctor of the church all right that happens but see the attitude is it's not about me it's not about my doctrine i'm just trying to serve the church if the church tells me to shut up i'll shut up it's obedience it's a virtue it's not about me it's not about me being right right it's a bit me trying to live infidelity so that's still true um now you know so if you formally defect from the church you know the church is the church founded by christ and you step outside of it out of pride or hubris or hatred or malice or something yeah you're not going to be saved but those who who don't necessarily belong to the church there's no fault of their own they can still lay hold of elements of truth and sanctification that's the way the second vatican council puts it that that actually point towards catholic unity like you know take for example protestants who don't have benefit of all sacred tradition or the whole bible but they got 66 books yeah that's pretty good stuff 66 books you can get a lot of mileage out of 66 books and it can be for them a path to salvation right elements of truth and sanctification and that's why we understand it also anyone who's saved is safe through the mediation of christ which means the mediation of the church so if you're saved you are in kind of a remote way made a member of the church you might not even know about it yeah how about that very good and uh thanks for listening to us in malta good to hear from you today albert it's called a communion here on ewtn let's go to aj now aj is living in uh peoria listening in peoria on saint bernadette radio hey aj what's on your mind today well i apologize i'm driving so i'll do the best i can with this connection okay um my question is i think i believe it's in john 6 when jesus talks about uh the eucharist and how you have to eat his body and blood and a lot of people couldn't understand that it was too hard of a teaching at the last at the last supper he gave us an instruction and the le that was about the eucharist again my body he was in memory of me so my question is i'd like to with the church the great church theologians thought about this when he first comes is resurrected he's walking amongst the people but they don't recognize him does that tie into the eucharist uh excluding eucharistic miracles does that tie into the eucharist as jesus being with us but not being recognized but until he's revealed to us was there a connection with his not being recognized and the eucharist is my my question for the day oh yeah oh yeah absolutely so you're talking about the the uh the emmaus road incident right when the resurrected christ see finds himself among some disciples walking to towards the mass and they begin to talk and discourse and he unfolds the scriptures to them and they say their hearts were burning within them as he unpacked the scriptures now let me come back to that after the break aj said tight we're going to continue with your question in just a moment here we'll also be talking with dan and st louis tricia in martinez georgie georgia might be martinez jeff and dallas bailey in melbourne florida lots more straight ahead at 833 288 ewtn on call to communion in this year of saint joseph join us and make the 33-day consecration to saint joseph tonight nine eastern after the rosary with father groeschel on ewtn radio brothers and sisters listen to me very carefully right now for the christian this is something we have to keep in mind no matter how bad your suffering gets in this life it all comes to pass eternal glory comes to stay saint john deere buff one of the most brutal martians in the history of the church as he was being tortured and killed said to that people who are being tortured with him my brothers the trials we're enduring will pass in a moment the glory that follows will never end listen the trial that we're in right now will pass statistically for most people even if you get this virus you're going to be home with your family again but even if that doesn't happen even if you end up going home to your heavenly father no matter how bad it gets remember this all pain and suffering come to an end god revelations tells us wipe every tear from their eye the final word is he is risen the end of the story is eternal glory god bless you for more text chris at 44144 this is christophanic on ewtn radio wings is the weekly newsletter that's packed with program info features and updates of all that's going on at the global catholic network just go to ewtn.com wings fill out your name and email address and you'll start getting your wings every week when you get yours send it to all your friends and they can send it to their friends and pretty soon we're covering the whole world with the good news about ewtn wings the weekly newsletter from ewtn the global catholic network hi this is psychelette join us later today on catholic answers live as we do our best to explain and defend the catholic faith catholic answer is live 6 p.m eastern on ewtn radio now back to call of the communion with dr david anderson it's called a communion here on ewtn glad you could join us on this uh tuesday afternoon tom price along with dr david anders uh before the break we were talking with aj in peoria he had a very specific question about the eucharist david oh yes so he wanted to know if the fact that observers did not understand christ's teaching on the eucharist in john 6 and the disciples on the road to a mass not recognizing christ when he spoke to them if if that gives us any insight into our experience of the eucharist today or if that plays into the doctrine of the eucharist and i absolutely it surely does in the account of the emmaus road disciples luke 24 they don't recognize christ as he appears among them but he begins to expound the scriptures to them in a way they've never heard before and it it fires their hearts their hearts are burning within them and then they persuade him to come in and and take food with them and as he breaks bread their eyes are open they recognize christ for who he really is and then he vanishes and most of the scholastic and patriotic theologians see in the story of the road to a mess a profound allegory for the liturgy right because it is christ who unveils to us the meaning of the old testament scriptures their they their they find their fulfillment their completion and their their deep sense in christ and we don't really we don't know how to read the bible right we don't read it from the perspective of the risen christ and then of course we don't have christ's human flesh visible to us today we don't have his human flesh visible to us to it today we do have his real presence though manifest to us made present to us in the eucharist and so it's telling in the story that they only recognize christ at the breaking of the bread which of course is is uh is a a figurative language for the eucharist and that's when he vanishes as if to say you may not have the visible physical body of jesus with you but you do have him present in the eucharist so this dynamic of hidden and revealed or hidden and manifest is intrinsic to the sacramental activity and uh you know thomas aquinas's famous hymn eucharistic hymn where he talks about this you know i can't trust my eyes can't trust my nose can't trust my my taste or my touch but hearing i can trust because truth himself speaks truly there's nothing true right this is really christ's body but i hold that by faith because jesus christ has revealed it not because i sense it and so that dynamic of of not actually being able to sense you know with my five senses the presence of christ is is intrinsic to the nature of a sacrament the reality that is conveyed by grace is invisible to the senses but available to faith fascinating hope that's helpful for you aj thank you so much and uh stay safe out there on the road call to communion here on ewtn let's go to st louis right now and talk with dan listening online ewtn.com a first time caller hey dan what's on your mind today yes hi dr anders i really enjoy your program very informative i had a question that was asked me about the early church i was told that well the catholics didn't allow any other churches to form and i didn't know how to answer that you know i didn't i didn't know how to explain that to them that you know we're trying to keep the same teaching and you know pass it on yeah thanks so so first of all i'm not even sure that this the question makes any sense or the statement makes any sense in this sense right um in say the first four centuries of christianity i mean catholics didn't have any ability to stop people from forming religious communities nope i mean more than we do today i mean like my bishop's not going to stand up and say like don't start a first baptist church in that town i mean he wouldn't say that but if he did they would go start it anyway you can't stop them from doing it right and there have always been competing interpretations of jesus we find them in the new testament in the new testament itself bears witness to their being competing interpretations of christ and most of the new testament letters were written to correct false understandings of jesus and his ministry and so clearly the apostles taught against you know heretical understandings of christ they they they wrote and spoke and taught against errors but you know what takes place outside the household of faith is really sort of out of their jurisdiction if you will right and so the catholic bishops have always taught the truth handed on to us by jesus and preserved by apostolic succession taught that this is the church founded by christ and these are the sacraments founded by christ and if you want to be saved and hear the truth about jesus and have the fullest expression of his grace come into the church and receive these sacraments and that teaching you know but if you want to go off and join the valentinian gnostics i can't stop you i mean i would advise against it you know but you know off you go if that's what you want to do you know i can't stop you now you know under constantine who was not a bishop he was a roman emperor christianity was legalized edict of milan the christian was made lawful it wasn't made mandatory until the tail end of the 4th century then became the official religion of the roman empire and but even that didn't stop there from being competing interpretations their sects and groups and you know different bodies and systems and so forth that continued you know down to the centuries and always the bishops said well you know don't don't join one of those come you know be with the church that christ founded but you know again we can't really stop you okay there you go dan appreciate your call and uh thank you so much for it it's called a communion here on ewtn let's go to trisha right now in martinez georgia listening on st paul radio hey trisha what's on your mind today hi first tom thank you for inviting new catholics to ask questions um my question is about when jesus was on the cross and he said my god my god why have you forsaken me um when i was a protestant i definitely knew the answer to that um you know god was angry he turned his back poured his wrath upon him you know but now i don't know yeah thanks i really appreciate it you're referring to jesus's famous cry of dereliction that's the kind of the technical term for that for that utterance and of course he's quoting psalm 22 right he's quoting psalm 22. now is an interesting thing about the timing of jesus's death he dies at you know three o'clock in the afternoon which we know from the book of acts and other passages is in fact a time of liturgical prayer in the temple by the jews during at which time they would recite the psalter so as jesus is giving up his spirit there are there are jews in the temple that are that are praying the psalter so it's telling it's interesting that at the moment of his death christ decides to identify with the jewish old testament liturgy with the prayer of the people of israel and he chooses the psalm to recite this this cry of dereliction now if you go read the psalms they're full of this kind of thing they're full you know the psalms are not all like god you're great and awesome thanks there's a lot of that in the psalms but there's also a lot of confusion sadness grief alienation loss loneliness brokenness in the psalms psalm what is it 89 i think the psalm the psalmist's complaint is that you know god you seem absent you used to do these great things for our fathers you're not doing anything for us we're getting our heads handed to us by the babylonians my one companion is darkness amen that's the psalm you know it's uh it's a it's a desperate sort of thing isaiah 53 something one of the servant songs of isaiah which is understood of course allegorically to apply to jesus describes the servant of god is someone who enters fully into this experience of alienation and loss and loneliness and brokenness the jews of jesus day believed themselves to still be experiencing a kind of exile even though they had returned from babylon they didn't have their own place so their own nation the romans were oppressing them they couldn't you know freely live the way they wanted to live and they they felt themselves to be very much uh sort of under the gun and they were really looking for a messiah who would come and save them he would come beat up the romans and chase them out and so forth and christ of course is the messiah but he he repudiates that kind of messiahship instead instead he enters fully into their experience of alienation and loss and loneliness and and uh and dereliction owns it so to speak for himself uh solidarity with the suffering and it's by his identification with the suffering and the alienated and the lost and the lonely that he manifests his great charity right by by choosing this identity with with the suffering people of god you know you think about the prophets of the old testament uh they all said you guys better shape up or god's gonna send the babylonians and assyrians and you're all going to get carried off into exile and you should worship yahweh alone and do his sacrifices and be good to the poor if you don't do that god's going to come and take it out on you and of course the people did what they wanted to do and then god sent the babylonians and what happened to those righteous prophets when god sent the babylonians well they got carted off into exile too right just because they were righteous they weren't spared they suffered along with the wicked and that was part of their righteousness that's how jesus's prophetic identity is right he he is crying out for people to return to the lord and to live a life of holiness and and fidelity and the spirit of the law um and uh and yet he shares in that alienation and loss that was the lot of the people of god but because he didn't deserve that right this is a martyrdom on his part and rather than than incurring god's wrath he actually pleases the father his activity his self-offering is is gracious and pleasing to god the book of philippians chapter 2 says that because of his obedience unto death on a cross god exalted him rewarded him and he merits for us the grace of redemption so it's an entirely different kind of action from protestants who believe that god is wrathful at jesus at this moment pouring out his wrath on christ no christ is is choosing to enter into israel's experience of dereliction and alienation he signals this by quoting from israel's very psalter at the moment of the hour of prayer accepting this messianic identity accepting this identity as the suffering servant of isaiah who by his righteous suffering will make atonement for many so it doesn't express any wrath of god but jesus's own identification with wayward israel trisha thank you so much for your call it is called to communion here on ewtn you may get the idea and it would be a correct idea that we have a pretty high opinion of the holy sacrifice of the mass around here that's why we broadcast it every day seven days a week every day right here on ewtn radio and television check it out at 8am eastern and here's some good news if you listen to our other channel uh ewtn radio essentials which you can listen to on the ewtn app which is a free download you can hear the mass every two hours you can hear it at 8am eastern 10 a.m eastern 12 noon eastern 2 p.m eastern on and on and on throughout the day and the evening so do check it out holy sacrifice to the mass every two hours on ewtn radio essentials and again you can get that free download by going to ewtn ewtnapps.com back to the phones now here on ewtn's call to communion here is jeff in dallas listening on the great guadalupe radio am 910. hey there jeff what's on your mind today hi good afternoon gentlemen uh dr anders my question concerns vatican ii and the acceptance of vatican ii um i have been reading a lot lately in catholic publications uh catholic news report comes to mind about groups that are seem to be splitting up into liberals and conservatives and they have they say things that you know vatican ii was a bad idea and and it shouldn't have been done and a lot of things about it and vatican ii was a council it was a validly called council attended by bishops documents were decreed doc 16 documents came out they uh pope closed it was a it was a council so how can i help period well well why why why is there there's such this disagreement yes yes why is because of our because of ideology of course because of ideology that's why because of ideology i mean i what is ideology ideology is when i have a theory about how to explain or correct some sort of social phenomenon and if everybody would just get on board with my theory what a happy place the world would be that's ideology and you can have religious ideology you can have political ideology and it's a it's a perennial temptation i mean it's it's deeply embedded in our cognitive machinery that we want to be able to give definitive answers to questions and wrap everything up in a neat tidy little bow and uh and you know we we people will tend to focus in on one aspect of a problem that's very salient to them it really stands out to them as being meaningful and they sort of glom on to that and say well that's the ultimate thing and then they attempt to impose that interpretation on others now you don't have to be i mean there's a this is not limited to people who would take issue with the second vatican council you can find this across the political and religious spectrum against a host of ideas liberals do it conservatives do it everybody you know is has a sort of temptation to do it right and uh uh it's it's kind of how we're put together now pope john paul the second is i think more than any other pope recognize the danger of ideology as a way of engaging reality and identified it as an evil he wasn't necessarily pegging you know left or right he just says this is this is the wrong way to attack the problem um in an uh an encyclical in uh solicitudo ray one of his social encyclicals specifically on political ideology talking about the church's social teaching he says look social teaching of the church is not ideological it's not left or right it's not midway between the two ideology is almost always divisive and harmful the church's moral teaching is moral theology it it it propounds principles principles it doesn't prescribe you know a juridical order derived from revelation to be imposed rigidly on society it proposes principles like the dignity of the human person or the common good and then you have to work out in real time prudently how to live those principles but that's also always a kind of dynamic moving activity as as society and challenges change and new things pop up you bring those perennial principles to bear but fluidly with prudence and a kind of equanimity right and epica the virtue of sort of being able to moderate your you know your attachment to the strictness of the letter of the law in the moment as as necessity arises jesus practiced this of course when he his disciples eat the heads of grain and they go through the field on the sabbath you know pharisees hey why are you working on the sabbath and jesus says chill out you know i mean that's that's as part of the faith right the lord gives us grace the dogmas of the faith are not ideologies the catechism describes them as lights dogmas are lights they illumine our path they give you guidance and insight and wisdom to live in christ and with your neighbor in charity and then hopefully if we have the infused and acquired virtue of prudence and some political savvy and intelligence and wisdom we can make good choices in the moment about how to live well together but anytime we try to reduce that to an ideological formula then we distort the truth and we wound people yeah okay and uh jeff thank you so much for your call appreciate hearing from you today in dallas call to communion here on ewtn let's go to bailey now in melbourne florida listening on divine mercy catholic radio a first-time caller hello bailey what's in your mind today hello so i'm sure you've gotten this question before but it confuses me still um why can't women be pleased yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so first of all let's emphasize that any baptized woman is a priest all baptized women are priests because there are two orders of priesthood in the catholic church the ministerial priesthood baptismal priesthood what does a priest do the principal offer office of a priest is to offer sacrifice that's what a priest does right now you know sometimes if you've if you've only ever gone to a catholic parish and you may think of the priest as you know the the guy who gets to decide what color paint we use in the in the sanctuary the guy who calls the shots in the parish that's only one kind of priestly activity yeah there are priests who have jurisdiction over repairs there are a lot of priests who don't you know religious priests for example who may never be in a parish in their entire life what they do their principle job the principal job of every priest all kinds of priesthood the priesthood of melchizedek is to offer sacrifice that's the number one job of a priest but that's also the number one job of a christian number one job of a christian is to offer sacrifice what sacrifice do we offer the offering of our very lives our bodies saint paul says in romans chapter 12 offer your bodies as living sacrifice this is your spiritual act of worship now when we are baptized male or female we we acquire the dignity and the power to make this offering of ourselves and of the holy sacrifice of the mass along with the ministerial priest to the glory of god and for the salvation of souls the second vatican council excuse me second vatican council following 2000 years of sacred tradition was very keen to teach uh in psychosanctum concilium which is the church's dogmatic declaration on the liturgy that the laity along with the ministerial priests offer the immaculate victim namely jesus in the eucharist offer him to god reparation for sin for the salvation of souls that is the dignity of every woman in the catholic church to offer christ to offer herself in sacrifice to god and to be a witness and a mediator between god and man that is the dignity of every woman in the catholic church and every baptized man in the catholic church and and women are uniquely qualified to do this in unique ways pope john paul ii wrote an encyclical on the dignity of women it's called dignity of women we talked about the feminine genius and uh and and uh you know that women have have a giftedness particularly in the area of human relationships and solicitude for the suffering that many men lack that enable them to live this life of sacrifice to an heroic extent who's more likely to get up in the middle of the night go after the crying child or the cry or the needy person pretty much every time yeah you know i my uh i've got a friend who's a married priest he's got a wife he's a priest but he's got a wife says she's the one that kicks him out of bed in the middle of the night to make sure he goes give give sacraments you know when somebody needs them in the middle of the night you're a priest you got to go up up up up you know the women are the ones who are attentive to these things so we have a profound need for the female baptismal priesthood in the catholic church now when it comes to the celebration of the liturgy the ministerial priest the one who affects the sacrifice of the mass in that context the ministerial priest stands liturgically in the place of jesus he represents christ in the in and in fact it's through his intention that christ's intention to sacrifice is made manifest and for that liturgical function you need a man in that job because of christ's masculinity and so a woman cannot be a priest in that context any more than she can be a father or any more than a man can be a mother but that that dignity conferred upon men in that context can in no way must in no way be interpreted chauvinistically to diminish the equal dignity of women in the catholic church and in some instances their their superiority with certain kinds of giftedness the dignity of women in the church includes their administrative and governing competence they are not to be denied positions of power and influence in the church if they were we would not have ewtn that's true founded and governed and ruled by a woman yep all right one who had a lot of power yes indeed appreciate your call bailey i think we have time for one more here is annie in oklahoma city listening on oklahoma catholic radio excuse me annie what's on your mind today uh hello thank you for your ministry i would like to ask something about why is um the jewish people and the viruses and the the priests were all very they all knew very well the the old testament and all the prophecies from isaiah and and others uh prophets why they didn't connect the or or don't connect the dots that that jesus christ is the fulfillment of all the prophets yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so christ himself sort of alludes to an answer uh in a couple passages where the people question christ's messiahship and they say well why do the prophets say that elijah must come first they see they recognize that the prophet elijah has not returned from the dead and christ says well if you're willing to accept it elijah has come and they did to him whatever they wished speaking of course of john the baptist now what's interesting about that is that christ admits that there was no literal fulfillment of that prophecy but seen within a certain point of view it could be understood to be fulfilled and that goes for the rest of the messianic and new kingdom prophecies and new covenant prophecies that one has to sort of enter into a paradigm or a perspective on christ in order to recognize him as the fulfillment of these prophecies and to enter into that point of view one has to actually come and live with christ and engage with him that's why the crawl was always come and follow me right and uh and that even that even the disciples themselves did not fully understand the way in which christ fulfilled prophecy up to the very end really not until the emmaus road did christ fully open their eyes to see him in the old testament scriptures even even up to that point they continued to have questions all this points to a reality that ultimately the act of faith while there are reasons for the act of faith it is a grace and a gift as well and the church does not condemn or look down upon or reject in any way the jewish people who maintain fidelity their own traditions but understand that they have a dignity and a call of god that is uniquely their own the gift of faith is wonderful it is on offer but it cannot be compelled annie thank you so much for your call dr david anders thank you sir thanks tom see you tomorrow right here on ewtn's call to communion i'm tom price we will see you then god bless

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Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021