Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - March 18, 2021

can't women become priests why do catholics worship mary why do i need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the bible i think the pope has too much authority what's stopping you you are called 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's the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters what is stopping you from becoming a catholic we'd like to talk about that today here on call to communion our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of the well north america usa canada 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 uh for those of you watching on tv today you can participate as well our email address ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you sir oh i'm hanging in there thank you couple of great questions for you to lead off here uh gus is watching us on youtube gus says why did the pope own and sell slaves okay thanks so you know the relationship with the pepsi to slavery is complex a 2 000 year old institution we would expect it to be complex there are some early popes like callixtus who who were slaves prior to becoming pope um and then there were others who who were instrumental in canon law that uh that would seem to regulate if not condone the existence of slavery now i'm not conscious you can correct me i'm not conscious of i don't have any information on slaves being owned like in the vatican by popes but there were popes who came from the roman nobility uh at a time in history when it would have been almost unthinkable for somebody in that social class not to own uh slaves and it's highly probable that many of those popes bishops and like grew up in households that probably had slaves so how do we reconcile that with what the church presently teaches on the grave immorality of shadow slavery well uh you know in the history of the human race slavery as an institution is as old as civilization and there have never been a a a place on the planet pretty much where where people didn't oppress one another and force others into forced labor of some kind and that's just that was part and parcel of warfare and and tribal conflict you subjugate the other person and force them into slavery and that was an evil to be sure grave evil at that but it was one that was viewed by many people including early christians just sort of endemic to the human condition and uh and it didn't occur to the church uh you know at the level of say social policy of trying to change that any more than it would occur to them to um uh uh you know then it occurred to us today to like get rid of employment right it was just sort of the fabric of the universe so to speak and and in the teaching of christ christ it has teachings profoundly significant for social policy but jesus wasn't teaching social policy as such you know he was overt about the fact my king the king is not of this world render unto caesar what's caesar what god's gods and christ's ethical teaching really is lodged in the human heart how i am an individual and thinking about my neighbor and when it came to the question of slavery the way that worked out in new testament christianity was that you know i as a human being need to be kind and merciful to all people and and and it's an act of generosity and charity to emancipate slaves but the new testament documents don't address the social problem as such because the church was in no position to do that i mean that just wasn't your tiny little minority community in judea i mean how are you going to change the imperial structure of the roman empire it's just not on there not on their plate so to speak over time of course as the church began to gain more social influence across society the implications of the christian doctrine of the human person get spelled out and so early on christians were instrumental in regulating and bringing some humanitarian concern to the institution of slavery so for example roman patrons would have no qualms about say raping their slaves christian nobility did not do that or at least they were told not to do that um and uh and emancipating slaves was seen as an act of great charity and of course once the civilization began to be christianized it became against canon law that for christians to be enslaved at all and so by the high middle ages slavery as an institution had more or less vanished from uh from european christian civilization and of course with the discovery of the new world and uh on the age of exploration it became a question again and from the beginning when the popes engaged that they said don't do it don't enslave natives uh don't enslave african people don't engage in shadow slavery and it didn't stop people from doing it they you know even today the pope can say don't do that and everybody goes thanks pope and they go do what they want to do right we've had that problem for a long time but the popes were opponents of transatlantic slavery and shadow slavery in general and it was the catholic church that first in response to this question articulated the world's first doctrine of universal human rights coming out of the salamanca school of theology in spain uh thinkers like francisco de vitoria uh argued explicitly that native peoples indigenous peoples uh were possessed human rights and the catholics were theologians really the first people to make that claim and therefore shouldn't be oppressed and of course the conquistadors wouldn't oppress them anyway yeah but the church was saying no no all along all right very good gus thanks so much for your question here's a quick one from danielle i started attending rcia classes two months ago well i'm wondering since i cannot do confession at this time is it okay for me to confess my sins in my own prayers while listening to or attending mass oh you absolutely should i mean the lord commands us to the lord's prayer contains within it a confession of sin forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us yeah we should always be confessing our sins and asking god for his mercy all right very good and a quick one here from mary you say the catholic church is the first and real church what about the orthodox church from antioch antioch was mentioned in the bible even peter was there yes guess what peter did there he was bishop and hatha for a while before he ran off to rome right yeah so there's definitely a petron connection to antioch and of course the catholic church recognizes antioch as one of the patriarchal seas so uh understand that the while while the sea of rome is is essential to the constitution of the catholic church the catholic church is not reducible to the sea of rome right antioch is part of the catholic church constantinople was at one time part of the catholic church jerusalem part of the catholic church paris part of the catholic church heck irondale alabama part of the catholic church definitely all right thank you so much for your question mary we do appreciate hearing from you today in a moment we're going to get to the phones here we would love to hear from you on ewtn's call to communion our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn what's stopping you from becoming a catholic that number again eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six call to communion here on ewtn to stay with us [Music] lent a season of grace with father cedric pesagna the same holy spirit that drove jesus into the desert has to drive us to lead us to control us to push us motivate us and empower us to change and to be illumined and i pray that this lent the spirit will touch you in powerful ways lent a season of grace with father cedric passania sunday 8 p.m eastern on ewtn radio this is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan over the past year many dioceses have given catholics a dispensation from attending mass because of the pandemic this has led to a certain amount of confusion regarding the importance of the lord's day the catechism tells us the institution of the lord's day helps everyone enjoy rest and leisure to cultivate their familial cultural social and religious lives so celebrating sunday isn't merely a time for us to go to mass though that is the most important thing you can do that day but the church tells us to also invest in our familial life spend time with your kids play games watch a family movie or take a day trip develop your cultural life by visiting a museum or attending a festival or going hiking together cultivate your social life by having other families over spending time in service of others let's use the lord's day to be refreshed and renewed as a family through prayer and cultivating true leisure for more ideas on developing your family culture visit us at messyfamilyminute.org [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn if you have a question for dr david andrews especially if you're thinking about the catholic faith and you're wanting to get this one question answered what is stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 the meantime logan is watching us on youtube right now logan says my wife is not baptized apparently this is his current wife and she is divorced must be from a you know previous marriage she does not want to be baptized but has no problem with me becoming a catholic so petrine privilege appears to be the best method for me to deal with my marriage situation what does this entail okay thanks so i'm not an expert in the law on the petron privilege which if i understand it is the dissolution of a natural marriage not a sacramental one between a baptized and a non-baptized person so that the for the sake of somebody entering the catholic church so um and i'd have so it's not clear to me that this applies in your wife's case she's not baptized i don't know if she was married to a baptized person or an unbaptized person there's some details in there that i'd understand what i do know is that your wife's previous marriage would be presumed to be valid but not sacramental not sacramental because she's not a baptized person valid because she represents herself as having been married now um the you know the the bar is a bit lower for getting an annulment um if you're not a baptized person because it there's no expectation that the marriage is accompanied by grace and and all kinds of you know other concomitants so i don't think it would be difficult for her to obtain an annulment in that situation um but that's this these are questions to raise with your pastor who is skilled in negotiating these waters shall we say okay and then uh when you do enter the church you will have you know presuming this all you know kind of washes out the right way uh you have your your marriage con validated in the catholic church you will have a valid but natural and not sacramental marriage okay very good uh thank you so much logan for checking us out today on youtube if you would like to give us a call looks like uh three lines are being screened right now three lines are open at eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six i want to get to an anonymous email here david uh this person says animals do not have the same inherent worth as human beings they do not have eternal life and they are not moral agents so does our relationship with them affect our spiritual merits i ask this because some people devote their lives to the well-being of animals are they wasting time and resources that would be better spent taking care of humans alternatively do we go to hell for animal cruelty yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so um there are a lot of things that are naturally good that are not intrinsically ordered to eternal life right that are not you know oil painting okay you know abstract oil painting okay is it worth is it worth learning how to oil paint doing that for a living expending an awful lot of time you know this morning before i went into the office i picked up my guitar which i played very badly by the way i might add and i spent about 20 minutes learning a chopin piece uh you know arranged for a guitar really played it very badly but with some enjoyment is that worth doing not intrinsically ordered to eternal life you know by its very nature you know sure don't think chopin was all that religious a guy and it didn't have any words was it worth doing well here's what the catholic church says about these sorts of things any naturally good thing naturally good not supernaturally good just naturally good thing that you do in the state of grace you can buy that act merit salvation okay we all have a different vocation in life right god made the world diverse on purpose right because all of the the myriad of diverse good things there are in the world from chopin pieces to puppy dogs to uh you know to to to deepwater squid all of them reflect the goodness of god in a different way and and you could multiply those differences endlessly and you'd still never exhaust the infinite goodness of god but uh but a great variety of good things is fitting to express this this plenty potential goodness infinite goodness of of god's very nature and being so is it worth is it worth spending your time you know scuba diving for conch shells or oil painting abstract figures or saving puppy dogs yes yes the all of these things can be even salvific for us if we do them in a state of grace for the sake of the love of god now your question could you go to hell for cruelty to animals yeah you could you could all right um because sort of wanton cruelty and destruction for its own sake motivated by hate is intrinsically evil now the object you know if you're being cruel to an animal the object is not as morally relevant as cruelty to a human being right um but but the intensity of a person's own perversion in that act the the hate and the malice that motivates that act could be such that it would could in fact be damning yes okay and the catholic church teaches that cruelty to animals is immoral and should one should not do it and saint thomas aquinas speaks explicitly about this issue in the summer and the scriptures in fact uh even in the mosaic law instituted strictures against cruelty to animals and wanton destruction even of trees when the israelites moved in and took territory they weren't supposed to cut down the fruit trees all right yeah well there we are uh anonymous thank you very much for your email appreciate hearing from you today all right if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin with doc in denton texas listing on guadalupe radio a first time caller hey doc what's on your mind today how are you today thank you um i am my grandson's a seminarian and uh i've been going i haven't been able to go to rcia close to the cove but i've been studying the catechisms completely i mean i'm good what bothers me the most is is that i don't see any action toward our leaders who i'm supposed to i'm rap i'm totally against abortion i'm totally against anything that you know been that way my whole life i was raised to baptist my grandfather was my other grandfather was a baptist minister but i don't see any accountability i'm supposed to in other words i'm supposed to be against this i could you know be denied the sacraments if i do this and i could be denied a lot of things why is it the president and the speaker of the house held and other politicians held account because it says there's no you know it's it doesn't stay anywhere because i'm you know i'm a politician yeah thank you okay i really appreciate the question thank you so much so of course the teaching the catholic church is clear on the evil of abortion the grave evil of abortion and if a person formally cooperates with the act of abortion meaning that they they themselves are willing that abortion they're desiring they're wanting they're facilitating that abortions should take place and that's their goal they're like they're trying to make sure people are out there boarding people that that that that intent in anyone's mind would constitute a grave grave sin and uh and that'd be something to deal with now you know pastorally the question what should a bishop do if a prominent person in his diocese is publicly flagrantly violating that um you know that's a that that's a that's a difficult prudential decision that that bishop has to make about how how am i what is the most curative thing i can do in this circumstance for the for the for the salvation of souls all my parishioners those on different sides of political issues how do i handle this issue should i go to this politician privately should i handle this publicly and uh i'll tell you one thing i'm glad i'm not a bishop oh man because it's a dicey time to be a bishop it's tough and you know making those disciplinary calls in public under intense scrutiny from everybody from all sides is a very hard position to be in and i'm you know i don't envy the bishops now you know for my purposes well what if a bishop handles some public scandal differently than i would like it to be handled is that a threat to my faith absolutely not absolutely not because i i don't i'm not catholic because i necessarily trust the judgment of this or that bishop or this or that priest or even this or that pope i'm catholic because this is the church founded by christ to whom he gave a promise of divine assistance the church is not going to lose the faith it's not going to lose the truth regardless of the pastoral skill of her leaders and i know the truth i know the virtues that i'm supposed to cultivate i i know the sacraments where i can find christ i'm answerable for my own soul i'm not answerable for the soul of my bishop or this priest and he's not you know he is that sort of answerable for mine in a sense he has a duty of care and solicitude for me and he'll answer to god for that but that's his that's on him yeah i gotta i gotta do what's on me okay yeah our screener mentioned that that is what is stopping doc from becoming a catholic so doc we hope that is uh helpful for you thank you so much for your call hey that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833. 288 398 and let's go to marianne right now in arnold missouri listening on covenant network hello marianne what's on your mind today well right now i'm having i have the question so how do we know that god is real yeah thanks that's a great question marianna i really appreciate it so let me let me see if i can give you an illustration um if you walked into your living room and you found a turtle like a live turtle sitting in the middle of the living room you might ask the question where did this turtle come from how did it get here how did it show up in my living room it wasn't there one minute and here it is well you might you might look around and see if there was a door open if you've got a brother you might ask your brother if he brought it in in a box but you'd know there there needed to be some explanation for the turtle being there and not just your turtle but your house where'd your house come from but it hadn't always been there somebody built it well okay what about the lumber the house was built out of and you see where i'm going you can keep doing that with everything that you run into whether it's your house or a turtle or your mother or father or you know the ground you're standing on there's a reason that it's there it wasn't just there for no reason it hasn't always been there but it came from somewhere it had a cause it had an origin and we can keep doing that with everything we can keep saying where did it come from why is it here and eventually we start looking at the whole universe where did it come from why is it here it changes so it hasn't always been this way and when you keep kind of going backwards and backwards and backwards you you get to like the the thing that was always there like the reason that everything else exists and that's what we call god god is the reason the explanation for everything else that exists so we know there's a god because we know that the things we meet every day puppy dogs and turtles little brothers and houses everything came from somewhere they they they didn't always exist they had a cause and the cause of all causes to that we give the name god okay marianne is uh seven that's a pretty pretty astute question for a seven-year-old wouldn't you say that's a great question for a seven-year-old he really is hey marianne thank you for calling us today you call us back another time call to communion here on ewtn we have a line open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here's molly from leonard town maryland listening on siriusxm channel 130. uh molly what's on your mind today hi yes i love listening to your your your phone call as i uh your show as i drive to pick up my daughter so i'm in the parking lot and it's coincidentally my question has to do with the walking with purpose we're doing touching the divine it's interesting because today in the catechism clip at the back they talk about quote the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the church in such ways that whoever listens to them is listening to christ so my question is um about receiving communion on the tongue i know that the president of the catholic medical association in the united states and the president of the catholic medical association italy said that it is far healthier they've done studies now i my husband and i take communion in the tongue not because it's a healthier way but because of reverence so my question to you is we're going down at easter to spend easter sunday in the church where my parents were both buried and have been members and i called and i was told that in that the bishop for that area has denied all communion in the tongue by the tongue now i've talked to my spiritual director who's a priest obviously we are coming up on a break here molly what is your question today what does dr andrews have to say my question is can a priest deny coming in on the tongue okay yeah thanks so the the the church of course has the holy see has complete and total authority over the administration of the sacraments that the pope can can he can promulgate a code of canon law he can change the the lectionary he can change the rubrics of the mass uh he can impose laws of regarding the celebration of all the sacraments that is unilaterally at his discretion you know without taking a poll that is within that is within the jurisdiction purview of the pope and uh you know there there are provisions in the law about the proper mode for receiving communion now in the present pandemic as people have tried to make prudent choices about the public health uh they haven't gone and updated the code of canon law accordingly but there's a fair amount of leeway obviously the holy see is is granting to bishops to make these kinds of uh judgment calls and uh you know in many places the the bishops gave the priests the option at times of even suspending the mass altogether for the sake of public health and there is a there's a principle in the law if the greater there the less therefore the lesser right if you have the if you have the authority to not even celebrate the mass then you by implication can set the conditions under which you can celebrate it prudently you know the best judgment of the of the relevant authorities sure amalie thank you so much for your call sorry we had to move things along there a little bit uh but as you can hear here comes the music we have got a lot more straight ahead here on ewtn's call to communion give us a call 833 288 ewtn jimmy aiken 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 people often wonder about the power of prayer why do we pray anyway if we end up having to do so much work for ourselves so the reality is we find ourselves up against a wall and we pray it's like god turns a light up on the other side of that wall brighter and brighter and brighter until the light shines through the tiniest cracks god might not do it all for me but he shows me how to make my work more efficient so that together we can accomplish all things through his grace and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who are lonely lord jesus christ we praise you and love you you call us friends and your friends we wish to be console those who are lonely by making known to them your presence let the love of your sacred heart give them consolation bring into their lives good friends who will help them to grow in holiness [Music] show them how to be a good friend to those who are in need make them rich in charity ready to serve others amen tomorrow on more to life father's day we'll celebrate the feast of saint joseph by helping men be great dads that's tomorrow on more to life now back to call to communion [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn we have one line open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it right here on call to communion here's a email that we received from john in mississippi hello dr andrews and tom on numerous occasions i have heard dr andrews describe the doctrine of quote once saved always saved as narcissistic could you please explain thanks love your show john in mississippi yeah thanks i appreciate the question no didn't say that it was narcissistic um i said that uh there were aspects of of luther's personality and theology that were a kind of cultural training and narcissism didn't actually make that claim specifically about what the doctrine of once saved always saved but to get to that point luther luther himself was a kind of a deeply neurotic individual who was profoundly obsessed with the question of his own soul of his own salvation and uh in the in the in the 1510s while he was still an augustinian monk he he in one of his texts said that if a person wants to be saved he should act as if nobody else exists in the world except himself i mean that's a that's an almost exact quote from the writings of luther um well that's i mean that's like the definition of a narcissist right somebody who thinks that i'm the only person exists or i'm the only one who matters and luther thought that that disposition that attitude that self-regard was precisely where somebody ought to start from if they wanted to be saved which is very different i think from the catholic attitude which is that we should really concern ourselves with our neighbor and love our neighbor and love god above ourselves and not be so self-obsessed and uh and luther actually when he came to his unique uh position on justification formulated that into a doctrine so if you read article four of the augsburg confession when it defines the doctrine of justification for lutherans it's not just salvation by faith alone most people think of lutheranism as salvation by faith alone it's actually the faith that regards oneself as saved right that was that's baked into the definition the person who says kind of like the little engine that could you know i know i'm saved oh no i'm saved that's the faith that saves according to luther and and for for luther it was nothing that i would do nothing that i would merit no change intrinsic within me no no orientation towards the other or self-donation or gift or charity in fact luther once wrote in his commentary on galatians that god never smiled on a man for his charity or virtues this is an astonishing thing right that god doesn't smile on you for your charity or virtues that was luther's position and in spite of your utter worthlessness worthlessness and self-loathing that in an act of of radical benevolence god just accepts you as you are uh you know for for uh for nothing intrinsic to you well that's that that's what the narcissist wants right he wants the the ultimate validation without any kind of interior transformation and so that's why i made that that analogy that there is something kind of profoundly narcissistic at the heart of luther's spirituality now the modern sort of baptist fundamentalist action of once saved always saved uh is a historical development out of lutheranism but it wasn't actually luther's position and that's not the one that i was critiquing okay very good appreciate that and it's called a communion here on ewtn let's get back to those phones at 833 288 ewtn here is caleb in fort wayne indiana listening on redeemer radio a first time caller hello caleb what's on your mind today hello i wanted to talk to you guys about uh specifically the the prayer to saints i mean obviously jesus is god and uh he teaches us to pray in the bible how we should pray and uh he has all the power and we get to the father through jesus right and so if all of his power is invested in jesus and he taught us to pray to the father i'm not sure uh where the origin of praying the saints is or the usefulness of it yeah thanks i really appreciate it well we pray to the saints we ask them for their prayers and intercessions because because christ commands us to do so and the reason he commands us to do so is that we're not saved as sort of radical individualists but we're saved as members of a body members of a community the body of christ and when we become christians when we're baptized into christ we're baptized into his body and into this communal identity saint paul says in first corinthians 10 that when we partake of the eucharist we all become one loaf one bread together in him and uh and in fact that's the proper disposition for partaking of the sacraments and he st paul condemns the attitude of the person who goes forward to receive the sacraments without regard for one's neighbor and says that attitude actually sacrifices the son of god all over again it's it's sort of treating as the thing unholy uh the ultimate holy thing which is the body of christ in the eucharist that makes us to be one body and because we're all one body we share in one another's sufferings and sorrows as well as one another's prayers and merits and when one you know one limb of the body suffers we all suffer when one rejoices we all rejoice when one merits we all benefit and you go back in the old testament passage like genesis 18. abraham puts this question to god i mean are you going to really wipe out the righteous along with the wicked god says on the contrary i will spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous right kind of lump you all into one group and uh and if there's ten righteous people in the bunch i'll save everybody ever save all the wicked along with the righteous that idea that we can benefit participate in the righteousness of a few you know kind of an allegorical picture of this in david's battle with goliath right all of israel is saved in the victory of the one young king david who goes out on the on the battle and uh and defeats the philistines and when uh when rehoboam pulls away from the southern kingdom of judah i'm sorry the north pulls away from rehoboam's kingdom they say we have no share in david right they sort of view israel as a collective and that's that's intrinsic to the catholic self understanding we all belong to this one body and we love one another and st james says we have an obligation to pray for one another right it's built into the fabric of christian faith and ethics that we bear one of those burdens we pray for one another and those prayers are more efficacious as we are more righteous st james again says the prayer of a righteous man avails much is very powerful and so we have the needs we have need of the efficacious prayer the powerful prayer of those few among us who are saints who are righteous and saint paul teaches us in colossians chapter one that he can fill up in his own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of christ for the sake of his body which is the church see all this is deeply embedded in the biblical view of salvation that that the the righteousness of the few can overflow to the benefit of the many our sufferings our prayers our merits and our uh and our offerings can benefit can benefit the many now does that relationship of the communion of saints continue after death does that continue after death or is it only the church militant down here on earth that has that relationship well scripture shows us that even after death the saints in heaven continue to pour out prayers and sacrifices and offerings on behalf of the church on earth and to offer our prayers to god that's what revelation chapter 5 says revelation 5 8 we see the saints in heaven offering the prayers of the church on earth as incense before the throne of god revelation 8 verse 3 says the angels do the same thing tobit chapter 12 second maccabees chapter 15 we see the holy and righteous dead and the holy angels praying and offering an offering on behalf of the church on earth heck even in second kings chapter 13 the relics of the saints the relics of the dead have powerful efficacious miraculous effects uh among the people of god on earth this is a deeply biblical teaching deeply biblical practice and it's one embedded in the fabric of christian worship from before the writing of the new testament goes back to judaism as a biblical scholar joaquim jeremiah says so ably shown and continued in early christianity when the first christians were martyred our earliest martyrologies we see like polycarp for example the church was gathering up the relics the bones of the martyrs to venerate them and trust in their intercession and the earliest christian churches were actually built on the shrines of the martyrs mass offered on top of their bones saint jerome in the 4th century would write does the bishop of rome do wrong when he offers the holy sacrifice on top of the bones of peter and paul and not only the bishop of rome but all the bishops throughout the world this is the universal practice of the catholic church for 2000 years everywhere always and by all and you know when the when the whole church does something together and always has done it luther himself martin luther himself said it is a dangerous thing to contradict the universal practice of the christian faith even if there were no scripture to contradict that would be dangerous because saint paul says in first corinthians chapter 11 he says if anyone wants to have another practice know that we have no other practice nor do the churches of god the universal consensus of the catholic faith the the tradition of the church the scriptural teaching all confirm this beautiful biblical belief that we can pray and offer for one another share in our prayers and merits and that relationship continues from this life into the next caleb great question thank you so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn our phone number 833 288 ewtn let's go to linda now in bella vista arkansas listing on catholic radio network a first-time caller hello linda what's on your mind today hi how are you i really enjoyed your show every time i drive through kansas i'm able to get to you well thank you i was raised in a lutheran tradition but my soul keeps going back to catholicism the one thing that really bothers me as i consider becoming a catholic is my catholic friends who say that they have the hopeless salvation but i feel that they they don't know that they are genuinely going to be with christ in the next life and so having been raised in in a lutheran tradition and i could not hear all of the last caller i lost my transmission uh i just want to understand uh the faith and works issue i know martin luther and the book of james don't get along well i understand that faith without works is dead but if i depended on my ability to live in christ and uh and perform works uh that showed that my faith was genuine uh i would not have any assurance either so my faith has always been only in that great atonement fully uh is my only merit yes yes so i'd like to understand that yes well let me let me untangle a few things that are wrapped up in your question one of them is what is the relationship of our faith to good works and how are we saved and another one is is what is the ground of our assurance with the ground of our hope that we will be saved and those are these are connected but they're slightly different and and one thing that you said is if i had to if i had to depend on knowledge of my works to give me hope and salvation then i would just fall apart because i could i could endlessly criticize my own moral behavior and find fault with it i'd never be able to get any assurance that way well you're dead right of course you're dead right and and the catholic church does not say well the way to have hope of salvation is to examine your own works that's not the catholic teaching we've never taught that and uh in fact john henry cardinal newman saint john henry cardinal newman great catholic theologian of the 19th century regarded this as one of the chief faults of evangelical protestantism namely that tendency to quote introspect for signs of election he called it self-contemplation he says ah don't do that don't do that rather look to christ the assurance of your salvation doesn't come from the examination of your own faults or merits it comes from the objective promise of grace in jesus and you look to him for what he's done for you and what he's offered you in the sacraments and so christ gave us a rule for assurance of salvation he said whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life you know saint paul says we die with christ in baptism and are raised again with him to new life peter says baptism now saves you christ said to the apostles whoever sins you forgive uh forgiven whoever sins you retain are retained instituting the sacrament of reconciliation so when the catholic wishes to have assurance and hope of salvation he doesn't look inside well what am i gonna find in there you know that's pretty dark place in there no i'm gonna look to the objective uh sources of grace in the sacraments of the catholic church that christ has given me and i can ask i don't i don't come asking the question you know am i a great guy that's not the question i start off asking i come saying am i absolved what did that priest say when i left the confessional he said i absolve you and when he said that it's not just a sign it's an efficacious sign it's a sign that actually accomplishes what it signifies because christ gave him the power to forgive sins so i really am forgiven i really did i go to holy communion did the church say i could after that absolution that the church admit me to communion that's not my judgment that's the church's judgment right whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven jesus said to the church and the church says come on come to communion you've been absolved you can do it and jesus says whoever eats my flesh has life so that's the ground of my assurance now does going to communion today guarantee that i'll go to heaven tomorrow no no it does not persevering in the faith guarantees that i'll go to heaven tomorrow jesus said whoever perseveres to the end will be saved so the catholic position is can you have assurance of salvation absolutely but it is a conditional assurance it's conditional on persevering in the faith now the tangible signs of god's grace are available to me at every moment the confessional baptism the eucharist my marriage the priesthood anointing confirmation they're there tangibly in my hand as it were right now every day let me just stay there let me just remain in him if you remain in me jesus says and my words remain in you you'll bear fruit let me remain in him remain in the sacraments remain in the church and as christ i'll persevere to the end and i'll be saved does that assurance yes is that hope yes but it's hope that moves it's hope that acts it's hoped it perseveres it gives me something to do with my life not just once saved always saved then go back and eat nachos right i can live this christian life with hope and assurance so that's the that's the psychological disposition of the catholic when i became catholic having grown up a calvinist the assurance and hope i had of salvation went up exponentially like my my own psychological position was strengthened by becoming catholic not not the otherwise not always been raised thinking that you know all catholics were like the young luther you know who beat himself up and was endlessly kind of neurotic about this stuff and then i found out luther was just kind of an outlier the catholics had pretty robust consciences as it were and and were very hopeful of salvation and eternal life so that's the kind of psychological side now to the theological question faith works how does this all how does this all work out well look i think luther got it wrong i really do and the way luther read the bible was brand new in his own day and nobody for 1500 years had ever read the bible the way luther had it luther made some stuff up that nobody had ever heard before this justification by faith alone stuff nobody ever heard that before it wasn't what augustine thought wasn't what thomas thought what what ear and ass thought or polycarp or ignatius or any of the fathers is brand new stuff and uh and uh and and even most modern biblical scholars today even lutheran scholars like christopher stendahl will tell you that luther didn't get paul right luther was motivated by this question how can i know for sure i'm saved and that's the question he brought to saint paul when he read romans and galatians and paul says we're justified by faith and not works of the law luther came to that with the question how can i know i'm saved that wasn't paul's question that's where luther went wrong that wasn't paul's question luther was asking the wrong question so he misunderstood the texts paul's question was this do gentiles have to follow the mosaic law are gentiles also members of israel that was paul's question how is it that we are constituted members of god's covenant people is it by following the mosaic law or is it by faith in christ it's a completely different question and paul's answer is it's not by following the mosaic law because look you if you you can follow the mosaic law it's not going to deal with the concupiscence and pride in your own heart that's not going to get the job done mosaic law is not going to get the job you can circumcise yourself and avoid pork all day long it's not going to deal with that inner wound faith in christ however brings an outpouring of the spirit the love of god shed abroad in our hearts poured abroad into our hearts that's what romans 5 5 says and that's that's the circumcision of the heart that he talks about in romans 2 verses 25 to 29 not all who who are jews outwardly are real jews paul says but those who have that inward circumcision of the heart done by the spirit in such a one the righteous requirements of the law are fully met to love god above all things and to love our neighbor as ourself is given to us by grace as we believe christ his love is poured into our hearts then we walk in the spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness gentleness self-control flow from within us against such things paul says there is no law so that's that's the question paul's asking how are we made members of christ's body through faith through faith and then the gift of the spirit enables us to love god and love neighbor and to be saved um so it's a it's it's not it's there's no it's not a conflict between faith and human morality see that was luther's misunderstanding it's faith as what makes us a member of christ's body versus obedience to the mosaic code which was meant to separate jew and gentile linda thank you so much for your call do appreciate that let's go to geneva now here on call to communion geneva's in abilene texas listing on guadalupe radio hey geneva what's on your mind today well the thing that keeps me from being a catholic is that i don't think that babies infants should be baptized unless they're accountable for their sins we are all born in into sin because of the world and because of adam but we're not accountable for our sins so why do babies get baptized yeah because they're they're not sinners i appreciate the question well uh is the simplest answer is because god commands it christ commands it the apostles commanded it in the book of acts chapter three when the people came to saint peter so what must we do to be saved he said repent and be baptized for the remission of sins the promises for you and for your children promises for you and for your children and so we see whole households including children being baptized in the book of acts acts chapter 16. and uh and it's because baptism is the door into membership in christ's body now just as in the old testament circumcision was the sign that israelite children were included in god's covenant well the new covenant of christ does not restrict the flow of god's grace and mercy more than the old rather it opens it up expands it to more people and if god didn't exclude children in the old covenant from participation and his graces and benefits how much more is he going to include the children of believers now you're correct that little children don't have any actual personal guilt they haven't done anything right or wrong but as you correctly noted they they come into the world wounded by adam's sin and so they need god's grace as much as the rest of us now they don't necessarily need forgiveness of actual sin but they definitely need god's grace and we want them to have all the the privileges and benefits of being members of the church they can participate in the church and receive its prayers and holy sacrifice of the mass on their behalf and that's why scripture commands us to salvation is for you and for your children geneva thank you so much for your call let's go from abilene now to fort worth and talk with julian julian's in fort worth listening on the ewtn app hey julian what's on your mind today hello uh well it just sort of occurred to me that there seems to be a contradiction um when we when we our sins are forgiven in reconciliation and you know we hear in scripture that god remembers them no more and i understand that you know we we do penance and we at the end of you know when we die we may go to purgatory because it's like you break a window you're forgiven for breaking the window but that window still has to be paid for so we so we have some recompense that we have to do in purgatory so but if god remembers our sins no more it seems like a contradiction that he remembers them enough that we have to do um that we have to uh pay back or recompen have recompense for what we've done in our lives and then how and how do we how do we can we work out some of that here on earth you know prayer and so forth so anyway is there a contradiction there yeah thanks i appreciate the question so this gets a little bit into the catholic doctrine of god uh because catholics understand that god doesn't actually change at all ever in any way he's immutable and eternal and so uh you know god god there's not like a human person who you know like i can remember what i ate for breakfast this morning but i can't remember what i ate for breakfast you know two and a half weeks ago right god's not like that right god doesn't have passing states of like memory and forgetfulness and so when we use this kind of language about god well he doesn't remember your sins where this is really kind of uh this is an anthropomorphism right this is a metaphor this is a metaphor uh that says god's not going to hold these things against you you've been reconciled you're back in communion with him right but the change takes place entirely on our side like there's not nothing in god that's that's changed and so the necessity of penance it's not that god is somehow needs you know he says to king david or he says to isaiah like sacrifices and offerings i don't need these like i own the cattle on a thousand hills it's like no skin off my back dude i mean like god's utterly infinitely happy in himself right this is this is this is a sort of a curative thing that we do to to open ourselves up more and more to to the divine love and to become more like him to purify our own hearts of attachments you know jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god and making an act of reparation it's not for god's benefit it's for ours you know like when i my son breaks the window and i say you have to clean it up it's not because i need his help it's because i love him and i have respect for him as a moral agent that i grant him this dignity that he might participate in his own reformation all right very good julian thank you so much for your call appreciate that we're not gonna have time to get to joe in henderson uh nevada because uh the music is about to come up here in about three two one oh there it is see also nick on long island couldn't get to you either but uh if you folks would please call us back uh either tomorrow on our or on a future show i promise we'll put you at the head of the line hey dr david andrews thank you so much thank you tom don't forget we do the program here on ewtn on the radio side anyway monday through friday 2 p.m eastern with an encore at 11 pm eastern also you can check out the podcast anytime by going to ewtnradio.net ewtnrt on behalf of our fantastic team behind the glass here i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks for joining us today here on ewtn's call to communion see you next time god bless [Music] hello this is father brian malady please join me for

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,197

Rating: 4.8620691 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: F3fa79c0cJw

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021