Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - June 10, 2021

have been vaccinated 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 is call to 1-833-288-3986 with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network so we posed that question this time every day monday through friday what is stopping you from becoming catholic uh perhaps it's a particular doctrine uh your understanding of a particular doctrine of the catholic faith uh perhaps maybe you were raised catholic or maybe you were baptized received your sacraments and had um some kind of a bad experience or maybe you just drifted away and haven't really given it much thought uh we want to hear the answer your answer to that question what's stopping you from becoming catholic uh the number to be on the program is eight three 833 288 ewtn that's 833.288.3986 if you're outside the united states and canada your number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two five you can always send us an email ctc at ewtn.com or you can text your question to dr anders tech the text rather the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name in your question message and data rates may apply i'm jack williams sitting in today for tom price enjoying some well-deserved time off with his lovely bride charles berry is producing the program michael birchfield screening your phone calls today and jeff berson handling our social media efforts so if you're watching us on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and our host as he is every day dr david anders how are you jack i'm doing fine how about you you know what if i were any better i would be indeed jealous of myself well i'm waiting for that to happen i'm looking for the day so i got an email here from leo and he says most of my protestant evangelical friends believe the quote-unquote church is biblically defined as believers and followers of jesus christ and not a visible institution as the catholic church proposes in addition they claim all christians in some way know only known only to god make up the biblical church how can catholics respond to what seems to be a sensible challenge yeah thanks well i don't think it's very sensible actually they said by definition it's not sensible right it's invisible that's the opposite of sensible um i think the church is sensible and i think that christ tells us that it is uh jesus when he founded the church said to saint peter you're peter on this rock i'll build my church gift to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth is loose in heaven what does that mean what's that language of binding and loosing mean that christ gives to saint peter well we get a little elaboration in matthew chapter 18. matthew chapter 18 jesus talking to all the apostles uh tells them what to do when a member of the community the christian community is obstinate about sin and will and won't repent and and come back to their obedience and he says in when this happens you take that individual in front of the church and if they don't repent then you kick them out you you eject them you excommunicate them treat them as a tax collector and as he puts it and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and so that language the institute by christ refers specifically to the public discipline of excommunication the power binding and losing refers to disciplinary action in the church where you distinguish this person as in this person is out you flip over to the to the epistle saint paul's epistle to the corinthians first corinthians chapter five we see this in action we see a fellow who's engaged in an incestuous relationship and it's scandalous to the community and paul says well if the guy won't come to his senses you have to you have to expel him you have to excommunicate him until he comes to his senses and so they do corinth kicks the guy out in second corinthians we learn about his readmission to the community and paul absolves him he exercises that power of absolution that christ said whoever sends you forgive are forgiven whoever said you retain or retain paul exercises that says i forgive him in the presence of christ and the guy comes back into fellowship now explain to me please how you can be visibly excommunicated from an invisible church how can you be visibly excommunicated from an invisible church i don't think that there's that's a coherent thing to assert now paul himself indicates what is the criteria what's the visible indicator that a person is a member of the church baptism galatians chapter 3 whoever has been baptized has clothed himself with christ jesus christ whoever believes and is baptized will be saved believes what what believes the creed in fact the the apostles creed what we call in the west the apostles creed emerged as the profession the baptismal profession of faith of the latin church of the roman church and from from the earliest ages baptism is understood to be the right of entrance into this visible society called the church and and the faith that's being professed is the one professed at baptism hence the origin of the creeds in the sacrament of baptism which is a public act declaring your membership in that body from which you can be excluded so the scripture just doesn't know anything about this invisible church that you're talking about saint paul again when he gives rules for worship liturgical propriety says if anyone wants to be contrary know that we have no other practice nor do the churches of god this first corinthians chapter 11 pointing to the catholicity of christian worship so if you want to set something up in your church you have to look to the church catholic the church universal for the standard the rule about what's appropriate or inappropriate well again how are you going to do that if the church is invisible paul says i insist that you agree on everything that's again first corinthians chapter one don't have factions when you come to mass and liturgy how are you going to determine a standard for agreement if the church is merely an invisible reality interior to each person's heart and there's no objective standard of christian identity what's the basis for this agreement that you're talking about what's the basis for this decree of excommunication what's the basis for identifying somebody as a member with whom you have to agree all of this is biblical theology this is the scriptures teaching about the nature of the church now let me tell you why this idea of an invisible church came from interestingly enough people will credit the present reformers with this idea but they don't actually read what the protestant reformers say now i know our producer charles berry is probably looking at me going we have to go to a break dr anders so maybe we'll have to come to that after the break if you'd like to talk to dr anders the number to be on the program is eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's eight three three two eight it's ewtn's call to communion asking you the question what's stopping you from becoming a catholic on ewtn radio [Music] hi i'm monsa alvarado this week on ewtn news in depth what's the catholic response to pride month plus experts discuss the underreported danger hormonal contraception poses for women and a look at the processions and arts celebrating corpus christi join us for ewtn news in depth tomorrow at 8pm eastern exclusively on ewtn radio and television [Music] it's amazing how uplifting god's word is he reveals that life has a purpose that our sufferings don't come to stay they come to pass that we can do all things through christ who strengthens us that his love defines us not our flaws saint paul had an amazing attitude in prison want to know why because he preached those truths to himself all the time and whenever self-defeating negative thoughts popped up he'd choose to dwell on the word of god instead listen not every one of your thoughts gets to vote not every one of them matters not every one of them is valid but god's word always is and he didn't reveal his word to you so you'd wait for someone else to preach to you in hard times he revealed his word to you so you start preaching to yourself you know whose job it is to remind you of the truth yours if you're always looking to everyone else to do that job for you you're going through life way too needy preach the truth to yourself this is christophanic from reallifecatholic.com [Music] it's ewtn's call to communion welcome to the program if you'd like to talk to dr anders today uh the number is 833 288 e wtn that's 833 288 3986 couple of open phone lines and plenty of time for your phone calls here on a thursday edition of ewtn's called to communion first up today is jason in the republic of texas he's a first time caller listening on red sea catholic radio jason you are on with dr david anders i really appreciate it sir thank you so much for having me um so i if you'll permit me i don't want to take too much of time i know you for the callers will take me a moment to set up my question um so in a word if i could be candid perfectly candid about my my issue with the catholic church just in general um i grew up catholic my wife grew up catholic we are we're we're practicing i don't like to use the word protestant because it is a misnomer really it separates from the body of christ in general but i'm using the word intentionally i identify as catholic because in my heart i i want to be i believe i am jesus wants all of us to be united as one body i understand that but to be perfectly candid about the problem that my wife doesn't really want to return to the church as much as i do because it's just boring can i can i say it out loud say it say it it's just boring but you know and i i don't hear this problem talked about nearly as much as i think it should let's talk about it yeah you know she wants to stay where she is because it's the rara yeah jesus mentality and there are quiet more deserved more respectful moments too in the church we go to but it's kind of like an all-encompassing of your emotions i feel like catholic is just so respective in the form of the you know the liturgy and you stand sit pray right now you know what i'm getting out i totally get it 100 i'm with you i absolutely understand so i have several things to say for you okay number one there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting to be emotionally engaged in christian worship nothing wrong with that and and you know look there are different ways to scratch that itch uh but i would understand if you tell me well look i'm in a parish i'm in a diocese where that itch is not being scratched and i feel frustrated by that i understand that and and i'm sympathetic uh but i also think we have to begin with another question and that is what is what does it mean to be a christian what is the goal of the christian life and what's the point of christian worship and uh sacred scripture tells us that the goal of the christian life is to offer our bodies in living sacrifice saint paul tells us romans chapter 12 this is your spiritual act of worship your rational act of worship when jesus calls for the the father seeks true worshipers who will worship him in spirit and truth that's john 4 what is that worship in spirit and truth it's not happy clappy it's not it's not a style of music it's the offering of ourselves it's the imitation of christ take up our cross and follow him and so the standard of whether or not we are offering god true worship has nothing to do with musical style or homiletical style but the character of our lives in in self-offering self-donation and and the progress in the christian life is measured first of all by our detachment from sin and that that can involve detachment from our own sort of neuroticism and immaturity and growth and holiness that's that's the ultimate goal and standard of christian life our likeness to christ now the logic of the mass and look you know is this well communicated often not the logic of the mass is the mass is not for disseminating information that's not what it's for the logic of the mass is that we offer the body and blood of christ to god and ourselves along with him that's the point of christian worship is to make a sacrifice to offer the body and blood of christ to god the father and ourselves along with him and everything else about the mass is a kind of embellishment or an adornment of that central fact the act of sacrifice and and so music is good homiletics are good scripture reading is good prayer is good all those all those aspects of the mass are good and they can be they can be celebrated in a noble and worthy manner they can be celebrated in an exciting manner they could be celebrated in a very boring manner but they're they're evaluated not by how do they make me feel subjectively but as they tend to that central act of worship which is sacrifice into the nobility and honor of god and and while the mass is the source and summit of the christian life i mean this is the liturgical center of our identity the the work of being a catholic takes place every day it takes place in the morning when i wake it takes place in the evening when i go to sleep it takes place all through the day when i'm engaging with my fellow man and my family and myself my own mind my own body and and i'm seeking to configure my life after the teaching of the church and the example of jesus and so so i don't want to say the mass is like it's not secondary it's central but it's but it's central because it orients my entire life and i'm not going to be evaluated jesus is not going to judge me based on my subjective appropriation of the mass when i read matthew chapter 25 and christ says you know many will come to me on that day and say lord lord now say away from me i never knew you well the criteria that he gives me are ethical criteria moral criteria because you didn't feed the neighbor to clothe the hungry give drink to the thirsty or visit the sick and the imprisoned this is this qual moral quality of my life not my my skill or aptitude or taste of of appropriating or enjoying the liturgy so like i'm totally with you on your your criticism is a valid one and you know we can always seek to celebrate the sacraments in a more worthy manner in a more engaging manner and so we should do so but that should not be our criteria for defining ourselves as christians well i am the kind of christian who goes to this kind of worship service no that's no that's no biblical criteria that's no christian criteria i am the kind of christian who seeks to imitate the lord jesus in the fullness of the christian faith that he gave me in the church that he founded and who exhibits that lives that an act of charity in front of the world and that's the criteria of holiness that i should be bringing to myself and and to the world now the question like where do i live that out where do i live out that vocation to holiness well you know for starters um what church is founded on the call to christian holiness and with that that has a sophisticated and nuanced and anthropologically sensitive elaboration of what that development and growth and holiness looks like well that'd be the church that christ founded the catholic church and it's it's okay to find fault with the programs of of your catholic parish or the style of worship or ministry or the lack of skill of some professional in the church all of that is reasonable right to say well that's a problem but that's not constitutive of the church in its identity i'm speaking personally now when i became catholic i did not become catholic because i was attracted to the worship style of my local parish or the homiletics of my local parish but because i wanted to identify first with the church that christ founded and secondly with the patrimony of catholic witness and tradition and development down for 2000 years and i attempt in my own heart to be as conscious of the fact that i am going to mass with saint augustine of hippo who died in the year 430 or saint thomas aquinas who died in the late 13th century or saint francis or saint gregory of nessa i'm as conscious of going to mass with those guys and girls too like teresa of avalor treasure of lisia as i am of the guy next to me in the pew with the squeaky boots does that help jason yes yes it it it does and that is certainly a very good point i don't refute or disagree with any of them the other the other unfortunate side effect of being less bored and more engaged is we feel like we're experiencing more spiritual growth at the place we're going and i want that so badly to be at the catholic church i do but maybe and maybe it just involves more of a dedicated time more supplemental stuff like you said that's not the purpose of the mass itself maybe try to get more involved in youth groups i guess or something like that well you know look you you can to a certain extent perish shop right i mean if you're in a if you're catholic you want to be catholic and you're in a diocese like you don't have to go to your territorial parish and um you know there are often a lot of uh sort of um pera parish ministries extra liturgical ministries and they may involve you know singing and worship of a kind um other ways to to me you know to it to address the spirituality that you're interested in those kinds of resources are available to you right they may or may not be available to you in the mass specifically um but the church is is full of spiritualities in the plural you know and and if if if sort of enthusiastic upbeat contemporary music is a part of your spirituality and that's what speaks to you or to your wife like it's okay to indulge that it's okay to to to pray that way what isn't okay is to say that's normative and that's what worship is no that's what my spirituality is and and you know the church encompasses many spiritualities and has over the centuries and uh and and as long as they tend to charity they're all good as long as they tend to charity saint augustine said that we should look on the elements of of this age this in space this dispensation the church and administrations the way that we would look at a road or a chariot it has a job description to convey us to the end and the end is of course christ and the life of charity but the means themselves are not what's ultimately important and there may come a day when you know i'm going to i'm going to put down this instrument or put down that book or or put down that spirituality and take up one that's more appropriate to my own spiritual development at my state of life as long as my eyes are on the question of the life of charity and communion with christ 833 288 e wtn is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six a little affirmation for you david donald is watching us on youtube and he says since your answer about papal infallibility a few weeks ago i have officially entered rcia for conversion into the catholic faith i i really appreciate that and i thank you and it's amazing how sometimes we have all these objections to catholicism and all it takes is for somebody to go yeah i have that same objection it's a good thing that's not what the church teaches exactly right exactly right um we have an email from alex in india and he said recently my wife and i tested positive for covid and were hospitalized i recovered and came back home but my wife never made it back as she passed away i'm so she suffered oh yeah she suffered a lot in her last days and her passing away was very sudden will her suffering here on earth reduce her time in purgatory will it be considered as her cleansing process yes entirely possible that's entirely possible right because the the suffering that is redemptive for us is the suffering about which we say to god not my will but thine be done when we willingly accept the cross that that christ sends us and and we understand in divine providence this is this is for some good that we may not presently understand but we trust god we trust in his providence and we accept what's what's come to us even though it's unpleasant even though we wouldn't choose it we we are we are like jesus you know not my will but i mean be it done to me according to my word that's redemptive that's redemptive and so you know with the proper disposition anything can be redemptive uh including an absolute tragedy like this and so yeah that that to be sure that god can make that happen again the number to be on the program is 833 288 ewtn it's a toll-free number a free phone call anywhere in north america eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six and this really this situation sort of harkens back to the discussion that you just had um because really what she was experiencing in many ways is is really true worship huh who yeah you're absolutely right i i didn't think about coordinating those two calls in that way but that's that is the heart and soul of it when you can say to the lord not by will but non be the on then you're really fulfilling the criterion of true worship we're heading out to rita in boone county kentucky she's a first time caller listening on sacred heart radio rita you're on with dr david anders hello um we have a very active saint vincent de paul society here which also they do lots and lots of good but they have their retail stores open in this local three county area on sundays i have written to our bishop and to the director i've heard from them yet but it seems that that is very contrary to keep holy the sabbath i mean the worst of it was mother's day yes so how can i help you well it's shaken my faith some sure because because the the because the leadership in the church is not valuing this the way you think they should is that why it's shaking your faith right okay sure yeah i think i can speak to that so first of all um it is perfectly okay for you to think that you know a bishop or a priest or or some ordinary or authority in the church has done something they ought not to do i mean that's an okay thing for you to hold that opinion and and in fact we know through history that sometimes catholic leadership makes really bad decisions and the first thing i would like to unburden you of is the idea that your faith should ever be affected by the competence or incompetence of someone in leadership because that's not what our faith stands on i'll have more to say when i come back after the break 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833 288 it's called a communion on ewtn radio [Music] jimmy aitkin marcus crodie father john ricardo the leading catholic voices are on the largest catholic media network in the world you're listening to the ewtn global catholic radio network here's today's quote from mother angelica's perpetual calendar we need to focus on the gift of knowledge filling our memory the gift of understanding filling our intellect and the gift of love filling our will in that way we are trinitarian these three gifts are direct gifts contemplating gifts that lead us directly to god mother angelica's perpetual calendar is available from the ewtn religious catalogue at ewtn rc.com 60 on 10 with monsignor charles pope the fourth commandment honor your father and your mother this commandment enjoins on us young children not only obedience to their parents and even older children great honor for them but also gratitude for all of our elders teachers employers and leaders it also directs citizens to a proper love of our country so it's a rich commandment and it also puts great requirements on those who are in those positions to be worthy of the honor that is due them this commandment is fundamentally given to us by god because without respect for our elders there can be no teaching and we cannot hand on the wisdom of previous generations this commandment is rich and it is for us the fourth commandment honor your father and your mother for more about the ten commandments visit ewtnrc.com [Music] hi this is sci kellet leader today on catholic answers live we've got jimmy aiken two hours of open forum catholic answers live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion [Music] it's ewtn's college of communion we're asking the question we ask every day at this time what's stopping you from becoming a catholic we're talking to rita in boone county kentucky and uh the fact that that some of the hierarchy in her area uh is not giving as much deference to the sabbath as she would like has kind of shaken her faith a little bit yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so before the break what i began to say was i would really hope that catholics would never question their faith because they question the judgment of their superiors because sacred scripture sacred tradition tell us that we do have to have we have to have order in the church we have to have hierarchy in the church we have to have leadership and governance in the church and the whole church clerical and lay owes a duty of obedience to their legitimate and lawful pastors but we don't have to sacrifice our intellect and you never you're never required to think that leadership just de facto has good judgment and in fact if history is any god if scripture is any god we we should be skeptical about that because there's so many examples both in scripture and and in church history of leadership that's had bad judgment and i think the most egregious example of all is clearly saint peter and and uh you know st peter kind of really blew it in antioch in a big way you know he scandalized the the gentile church and his behavior was pretty reprehensible so much so that saint paul had to come up and kind of let him have it and we've seen that time and time again in church history now if we're a lay person and we think that maybe leadership is doing something out not to do how do we handle that well one thing is the code canon law actually says that the faith will have a right and sometimes a duty to make their concerns known to their ecclesiastical pastor in a way that is you know has due reference to authority and respectful and and is proportionate to their position uh within the church if you're a person of public influence and so forth you have more duty than somebody who doesn't but still that's okay that's perfectly all right um but at the end of the day you know part of being catholic is saying you know um i'm not the decider and the bishop is the decider and if the bishop decides in a way that i think he shouldn't he's still the bishop and i owe a duty of of of respect and obedience but i can but i can maintain my own opinion and i can maintain my own intellectual integrity and i'm not obligated to agree with that judgment i just have to respect the fact that he's the bishop that's an acceptable position to take and i find it really really liberating personally because it frees me from this from this risk of scandal once i recognize that bishops and priests are human beings they can make mistakes and i don't have to necessarily agree with them well that's kind of liberating my faith is never in question it's never called into question because of that so that's the first thing i would say the second thing is while i i agree with you it's absolutely imperative that we honor the sabbath i think that that we we need to have a little bit as a church a broader appreciation for what the sabbath is where it came from where it fits in in the history of christian liturgy and our appreciation of what it means to honor the sabbath and how the sabbath could be could be broadened right beyond smear abstention from work although that's definitely part of it you know in in the ten commandments the the the command on the sabbath is a command to rest from work and really primarily in order to give laborers rest from their work that your servants and so forth would not have to go work seven days a week is this kind of a social justice aspect you take care of the poor and you give them a day off and the transition to the sunday first day of the week worship is not just a one for one we're not just kicking the sabbath day forward one day in the calendar right it's not a it's not a one-to-one correspondence the day of the lord the lord's day is much more meaningful than just abstention from work uh it is in fact the reason it's on the first the first day of the week or the eighth day if you want to figure it that way because in the mind of the early church christ recreated the world and so it's the first day of the new creation and we celebrate jesus resurrection from the dead this day of the new creation by offering him worship and so unlike the jewish sabbath which was not particularly a day set aside for worship the christian uh sunday the feast of sunday is particularly set aside as the day of the church to celebrate the risen lord in community and holy liturgy and so the best thing we can do to honor the sabbath as the people of god is to come together for sunday mass now in the first several centuries of the church it was not possible in civil society to set aside sunday as a day without secular engagement because the culture was pagan and there was no tradition there was no weekend you know hint in pagan society and christians would often meet uh you know say at dawn they would meet at five o'clock in the morning celebrate the liturgy and then go off to their jobs because that's the way the culture had they they really didn't have any choice you know they go to mass and then off they went to work because that's the way it went now over the centuries when the civilization became more christianized it became possible to actually create in culture and civil legislation an opportunity to incorporate the element of rest more fully now in the modern world obviously civil society has become more and more secular again and as civil society becomes more and more secular the pull away from celebrating the lord's day of course is more and more prominent and and it for many people it becomes harder and harder and harder to maintain that abstention from work the way work schedules work out their need to care for themselves and their families sort of militate against that and the church is sensitive to that as she was under the pagan roman empire now you know that's not the issue you're addressing really addressing what if this is a church agency and i'll you know i'm gonna leave that to the bishop but i think i think a deep appreciation for all the ways in which we can hallow the sabbath might help maybe lower the temperature in the room there's a great encyclical from john paul ii or apostolic exhortation i forget which called ds dominate day of the lord and it's a rather lengthy treatment by john paul ii saint john paul about the meaning of the christian sabbath and all its rich nuances and i recommend it to anybody interested in this topic 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number plenty of time for your calls at 833-288-3986 next up is sean in florence kentucky also listening on sacred heart radio and also a first-time caller sean welcome to the program oh hi thank you what can we do for you today hello oh hi good thank you thank you for taking my call um i love your show and i i learn something every time i listen i have a question for you that involves my 22 year old son i'm catholic and he was my son was raised catholic and um he is in the marines now he's overseas and he has a friend in the in the corps that has turned him on to some what i consider dangerous uh um things uh he's watch watch this youtube video that some friends cite and it talks about how religion's just sort of a made-up thing over the over the millennia to um cause the powerful institutions to retain their power and it sounds like a bunch of hoopla but uh he cites something that um i wanted to get your opinion on when he uh compares the life of jesus and all of the things that we've been told about uh how jesus was born of a virgin and uh started his teaching uh ministry at age 30 and he was baptized and of course he began to kind of at the age of 12 he began to show signs of of having you know divine instincts whatever the word is but he refers to these greek gods of uh horus 3000 bc how he in this video the guy describes all these attributes of horus that sounds exactly like the attributes of jesus uh and he goes on to describe other gods addis of 1200 bc and krishna of india 900 bc dionysus i think is how you pronounce it of greece 500 bc and mithra of persia 1200 bc and when he describes these different mythological gods they all have very similar attributes of of jesus christ for example he's referred to as the light of the world and the truth and the life and things that we yes yes sean let me can i stop you for one second so sean why do you think that is why do you think that that the that the the image of christ in his divine person is so resonant with so consonant with pagan myth what do you think is the most plausible explanation for that fact because that's god's way of trying to infiltrate humanity sure absolutely yeah i appreciate the question a lot it's not like the church fathers didn't know this like what you're telling me your your son or his friend may think they've made some great discovery the church has known about this from the beginning and there's ample commentary in the writings of the fathers about the about the how we can coordinate how we can cohere the elements of the gospel with pagan myth and rather than seeing this as somehow a threat to christian identity the fathers of the church went woohoo would you see jesus fulfills the religious aspiration of the nations now you know the church believes in something called natural law what is natural law natural law is the the notion that we all share a common humanity we have a common nature you know we're rational animals the same antibiotic is going to work on you whether you are indian or north american or or european if you get an infection take this antibiotic is going to cure you why because we have a common human nature um and uh you don't have to have a different kind of medicine depending on what culture you're in and our soul is the same way our soul is a the sort of constituent principle of our life is part of our common human nature and so the same things are going to pertain universally in the moral life and the imaginative life as you're going to find in say physiology and therefore the longings and the aspirations and the moral mandates that are laid upon us by our nature are going to find expression in similar stories myths pictures aspirations now in the ancient world the way of engaging religious and philosophical moral questions was through narrative stories and you call them myths if you want as you move into the period about 800 bc up to say maybe 300 bc what some historians call the axial age you see the emergence of theoretical wisdom as opposed to just sort of you know narrative and story theoretical wisdom and introspection to deal with the problems of morality and meaning in life and the development of the great religious traditions whether whether second temple judaism christianity eventually islam uh hinduism and the great religions of india buddhism jainism and the like confucianism in china and taoism neo-confucianism all these begin to emerge around the same period of time and as humanity and different cultures turned their their intellectual and moral imagination to a sort of theoretical account of the human person and not just a narrative account you see the same thing you see when they begin to formulate axioms of morality things like the golden rule don't do unto others what you wouldn't have them do unto you do unto others what you would have them do unto you these kinds of principles emerge across cultures they're not unique to christianity why why is that the case well for the same reason that the myths and stories when when this kind of introspection and self-discovery and cultural development was expressed in narrative myth would show similar elements not not because of direct influence but because they emerged from the same human nature when you begin to develop this in the in the in the aspect of theoretical wisdom philosophicalism same thing happens and you can point to these commonalities now the catholic position has always been yes yes yes that's what the book of romans says in chapter one that's what natural law would predict if we in fact share a common humanity you would expect the myth and story and philosophy of the nations to cohere around a central point not that they're all identical they're not all identical but they would emerge from a common core of human aspiration and longing and we would see those commonalities now where is christianity unique in that where is catholicism unique in that well in its central claim that that all of these aspirations all of these longings that found expression in myth and story became incarnate in a historical person jesus christ who was born of mary in bethlehem now you can't say that of vishnu or krishna right or a mazda or whoever right um the the great mythographer historian of myth and religion merci iliade had a word for this he said you know myths take place in what he called in illo tempore in that time once upon a time once upon a time uh you know um utnapishtim traveled with you know in kedu to go recover the lost secret of youth once upon a time uh this happened to um to aeneas or to or to odysseus but we don't say that about we say when kiranis was governor of syria right when pilate was governor of judea these are located in time and space and jesus as an historical person is identifiable on the map and rather than keeping these in the element of myth and story they incarnated them into a society the catholic church is the extension of the incarnation the presence of christ in history actually working out these transcendent principles in real time in real visible human society and it is not because of vishnu or krishna or mazda that that things like human rights and the institutions of benevolence like education and hospitals universities that the moral progress of the human race in the modern world across cultures is the fruit of the incarnate lord in history in the per in the place of the catholic church you can't say that about the nations and so you don't you don't have to believe prophecy you don't have to have any metaphysical opinion to recognize what is the incarnate emphasis of influence of catholicism in world history the the aspiration of the nations finally finds realization in a real singular individual c.s lewis once said that christianity is true myth yeah it's mythic it's mythic in the way that a great story and a great narrative is mythic it's true myth it's incarnate myth it's myth you can put your hands on and that's the difference thanks so much sean we appreciate the phone call 833 eight ewtn is our toll-free number you know dr ray guerindi sat in with dr anders uh for the program yesterday and he's got a brand new book out from ewtn publishing jesus the master psychologist listen to him and uh in this book uh dr ray points out that every tool and counseling guideline worth pursuing can find its roots directly in the words of christ and um you know dr ray is a father of of 10 and uh has studied scripture extensively and he helps you when you're dealing with these daily issues like methods for overcoming jealousy and other passions what it means and doesn't mean to turn the other cheek and truly understanding the old adage know thyself and much more jesus the master psychologist listen to him by dr ray gurendi available now at ewtn r c dot com um we have an email here from nancy and she says my son says that one of his objections to catholicism is the use of latin in the mass i have explained that not all masses use latin however this is the objection to our particular mass that is part of the ordinary of the chair of saint peter which actually uses more english than latin can you give me a reason why we place importance on the use of latin and the mass yeah sure so first of all if someone said well i object to the catholic church because it uses latin in the mass uh that's only true of course of the latin right and we've got what 22 other rights at least you know so i mean you take your pick right that's only that's only true of the latin right and of course it's not universally true of the latin right here i mean like the the the new order of mass politics mass is it makes specific provision for the use of the vernacular so it's it you know if that offends you somehow it's easy to avoid if you want to but as to why would you do it why would you do it um well why would you pull out pictures of grandma and grandad at a family gathering probably it's on you know grainy photography right but you do it because you want to be connected to your heritage you know not not because it's a particularly good picture because you want to be connected to your heritage we we will encourage the knowledge of an appropriation of the latin tradition in the latin west because this is our heritage and it is important to be connected to our fathers in the faith uh in our in our imagination in our memory in our language um and uh you know in in when when the missionaries from rome carry the gospel into the barbarian lands celtic europe and frankish europe many of the many of the christians who were becoming catholic asked for wanted to conform their worship to the liturgy of rome specifically as a way of signaling their unity with the pope because they wanted to be with peter in the celebration of the mass and that sense of belonging to something that is old and noble and august and transcendent can be doesn't have to be but it can be conveyed by that use of a liturgical language and that's beautiful and that's worth cultivating um we got another email here from from gary that i think you'll find interesting david he says in a recent conversation with my sister and her husband i learned more about their beliefs that align with those of english missionary e.h broadbents the pilgrim church published in 1931. i had not heard this theory from the time of the apostles to today there have been hidden groups of bible-believing christians that claim to be the true church that interprets scripture correctly under the guidance of the holy spirit they do not consider themselves protestant as they claim to have history that goes back to the apostles their view of church is a living body of individual believers who have received the gift of the holy spirit and the church is present wherever two or three are gathered together in his name are you familiar with this idea and how might i have a discussion with them about this yeah sure of course this is a very common idea especially among some baptists uh the idea that there has been an actual uh continuity of independent but visible congregations that have more or less held to a sort of baptist polity a congregationalist form of church government and self-conception and uh and it's a it's a political claim to try to establish the historicity of that form of church organization and argue that it goes back to the apostles well first of all when you make an assertion the burden of proof is on the one who asserts right the burden of proof is the one who asserts and i have certainly studied this issue and the evidence for such a continuous existence of independent congregationalist churches from the apostles to the present day is absent there is no such there is no such evidence that i have found and i've spent my life studying church history i have i have read the arguments for such churches existence but what they usually do is they go back and identify what there have always been dissenters you're never gonna have any trouble finding dissenters throughout church history so they go pick out some like like the obviously the waldensians are an obvious obvious target but also uh the albigensians from southern france and different heretical groups or dissenting groups down through the centuries and they simply claim those as bedfellows or as progenitors or as ancestors but in doing that they completely present from what those groups actually taught and i would encourage anyone who who maintains this theory to actually study what these various dissenters held down through the centuries and you will not find a coherent baptist doctrine you will find any number of wild and varied beliefs the only thing they all agreed on was not being with the pope that's basically the only thing they agreed on on their metaphysics their ethics their hermeneutics everything else they hold radically disparate views and that's exactly what you would expect right because to the extent that any of them maintained that the bible was the rule of faith which they don't all hold that of course that's a modern protestant idea but to the extent to which they attempt to found themselves just on scripture you would expect them to have radically divergent beliefs because the bible itself does not present itself as a coherent body of doctrine that's not how the bible presents itself the bible is that was never intended by christ to be a rule of faith for the church to give us a sort of comprehensive manual on living the christian life jesus made an entirely different provision jesus didn't give us the bible as our rule of faith he gave us the teaching church as our rule of faith and so when people defect from the rule of faith given by christ and make up their own rule of faith of course they're not going to agree with one another sean's watching us on youtube and i hate to spring this on you with just a couple minutes left but he says how can you counter someone who says that as society becomes more intellectually advanced people become less religious and i hope he's not talking about our day and time being intellectually advanced yeah thanks i've only got two minutes to answer this so first of all historically that's clearly not the case you can look back through history and find out that i mean you can trace intellectual history from civilization to civilization and you find a kind of consistent patterns of engagement with religious and philosophical and metaphysical ideas and typically there is a great increase in interest as as as intellectual culture advances people become more engaged in asking the big questions giving sort of deep philosophical and scientifically sound answers to those questions the more they become philosophically interested i also think that it's important to distinguish different kinds of use different kinds of use of of the intellectual faculties and you can distinguish say algorithmic syllogistic mathematical reason from wisdom right and the ability to calculate uh is not the same thing as sort of broad rational activity and what's happened in the modern world is that intellectual activity has become restricted to positivistic categories simply to sort of mathematical calculation and syllogistic reasoning things like you know law practice or computer science and uh and those are not areas that investigate philosophical metaphysical or ethical questions so you know in other words to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail you know to a mathematician uh or a statistician everything looks like a number and if you can't reduce uh you know the broad range of typical religious questions within to within the tools of analysis that modern man uses it's no wonder that a modern man might deflect from those questions and then consider them to be irrational it's not because he's rationalist because he's restricted the scope of rationality to only those areas that he's interested in david thanks as always for being so gracious with your time thanks jack so we asked this question again every day at this time we'll do it again tomorrow what's stopping you from becoming a catholic here on ewtn's call to communion on behalf of our host dr david anders our producer charles berry call screener michael birchfield and our social media maven mr jeff person i'm jack williams sitting in for tom price uh back at it again tomorrow at 2 p.m asking again that same question what's stopping you from becoming a catholic until we get together then god bless [Music] you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 4,330

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: rDBnpjuLML4

Length: 54min 5sec (3245 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021