Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - March 23, 2021

catholic perspective visit ewtnnews.com i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation what's 1-833-288-3986 you this is 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 by golly if that's you we would love to hear from you please explain why you you yourself are not a catholic even though you're listening to a catholic network and and you want to learn things okay that's wonderful but maybe there's something keeping you from making that final step into the catholic faith or back into the catholic faith whatever the occasion may be here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 also we have a phone number for those of you listening outside of north america please dial the us country code and then 205 271 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always send us an email we're going to lead off with one of those in just a moment here the address ctc at ewtn.com you can do that anytime ctc.ewtn.com charles berry is our producer ryan penny is our phone screener jeff burson on social media if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook just put that in the comments box and uh jeff will shoot that to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you my friend you know i was thinking about your little opening salvo about why aren't you catholic since you're listening to catholic radio well there is that yeah i used to be in that boat yeah you know i mean i was a non-catholic guy driving around in my car and the privacy of my own automobile i would list that would furtively flip on catholic radio and living in the bible belt of the south i always felt like i was doing something just a little bit devious and transgressive a little naughty well naughty listening to these catholic people that i've been warned off of my whole life and but of course it was uh it was powerfully attractive this catholic stuff it was transcendent it was it was life affirming it was virtue empowering and it was the transgressive power of holiness in the catholic church and of course you know you know how the story ended yes i do and and to me just kind of a simple guy it all makes sense it all works it all functions it you know it's logical to me yes but it's the kind of logic you can keep going back to over and over in your life and get new insight out of it you know two plus two equals four is logical but you know you figured that one out in second grade and you're like okay got that one and that's that but with the catholic faith it's rational it's logical as sensible but it's deep and you just keep plumbing that well all your life long you'll never exhaust it absolutely so here's an email that is right on point with the focus of this show thomas uh has a question for us he says what is keeping me from becoming a catholic well one major reason is the lack of emphasis the catholic church has on the bible i have heard dr andrews many times used the argument that quote jesus never wrote anything down as justification for tradition at least as important as scripture however i think most catholics agree that the bible was inspired by the holy spirit i think most of them also agree that the holy spirit is god and again most of the time they agree that jesus is god dr anders has stated that quote god is never in conflict with himself which seems pretty logical as to what we were saying earlier so my conclusion thomas goes on to say would be that jesus did in fact write something down since he is always one with the spirit he passed along many gifts to the apostles forgiveness of sins binding on earth and in heaven etc and before their deaths the spirit inspired them to write down jesus's teachings thus making the bible all we need what is the hole in this argument okay thanks i really appreciate the question so uh first of all let's let's begin with the the claim the holy spirit inspired early christians the apostles their successors to write down the words of jesus let's start with that claim how do you know that how do you know that who told you that did jesus tell you that who told you that did saint paul tell you that did matthew tell you that no no no none of them did jesus never said at any time that the holy spirit was going to inspire the apostles to write the books of the new testament never said that the apostles themselves didn't say it that claim that you just made your entire argument is based on the claim that the holy spirit inspired the writers of the new testament that claim is a is a datum of catholic tradition scripture doesn't bear witness to itself in that manner say take take the book of jude okay jude doesn't claim to be part of some canonical scripture it doesn't it doesn't make it doesn't overtly claim to have been inspired by the holy spirit that that's that's a belief you bring to the text and where'd that belief come from well that's that is a dogma of the catholic tradition now my my my speaking about christ not writing something down is not an argument against the authority of the bible catholics believe in the authority of the bible i mean we're like you have your bible because of the authority of the catholic church because of catholic tradition you have your bible it's a product of catholic tradition we believe in the bible the bible's inspired it's divine it's authoritative it's just not authoritative as a rule of faith what i mean by or the rule of faith what i mean by that is what is the purpose of the bible what's the function of the bible in a christian's life now martin luther's view was the bible is there as a kind of textbook a kind of user's manual on the christian life intended by god to answer any question you might have about what to believe and how to live as a christian well the bible doesn't say that about itself that's not the testimony it gives about itself that's lucha's belief that he's imposing on the bible the bible presents itself as a lot of things this narrative from the people of israel and the life of christ and the apostles as moral exhortation as theological reflection uh as instruction as wisdom literature it it presents itself as a lot of things but nowhere does it ever claim about itself that it is the be all and end all single repository of everything you need to know about the christian faith or a rule of faith for the church that defines how we're to live or what we're to believe it's not how the bible presents itself does it present itself as an inspired document of of of edifying reflection on essential aspects of the christian faith yes yes and that's what catholics believe it's central to our act of worship in the holy mass all right but but the authority to actually define the contents of the christian religion normatively christ entrusted that not to a book but to the sacred magisterium of the catholic church okay thomas thank you so much for your email very thoughtful on your part all right in a moment we're going to get to the phones and talk with jack in bismarck north dakota gary in northport florida and three lines open for you at 833 288 ewtn here on call to communion 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 length the spirit will touch you in powerful ways lent a season of grace with father cedric pesagna sunday 8 p.m eastern on ewtn radio turn to mary the mother of god for help bearing witness to the gift of life with the national life rosary designed exclusively for ewtn by premier italian rosary maker guerrelli in collaboration with renowned catholic sculptor timothy schmaltz this beautiful rosary features milk white bohemian glass beads with a gold pearl gift of life bead nestled in between the first three hail mary beads much like the gift of life is surrounded and protected by the mother and father mary and joseph and the domestic church the unique centerpiece and crucifix express the sacredness of life that begins at conception both created by figurative artist timothy schmaltz help build a culture of life with the national life rosary available now at ewtnrc.com for just 37.95 to order go to ewtnrc.com and search for item number 41303 order your national life rosary [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn two lines open if you have a question for dr david anders eight three two 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 this month from ewtn publishing couple of wonderful books that i think will help your lent immensely first one making a holy lent 40 meditations to prepare for the church's holiest season father william casey you know him from the fathers of mercy he turns our attention to jesus in brief reflections on all sorts of topics uh that are geared to help your lent be a little bit deeper than it was last year and also another priest from the fathers of mercy father wade menezes our friend from open line tuesday he's got a great book called the four last things that focuses on the differences between the particular judgment and the last judgment the church's teaching on heaven chief characteristics of the risen glorified and transfigured human body the existence of hell growing nearer to god these are all vital things that you really need to know so check out both these great books making a holy lent and the four last things they're available right now at ewtnrc.com by catholic shop ewtnrc.com if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn here is jack in bismarck listening on fm 91.7 a first-time caller hey jack what's on your mind today hey how are you doing very good thanks for your call what's up well you know i was just arriving in the car getting ready to uh get to work here and i heard the program come on for non-catholics well i'm that guy you know i'm uh i work in a catholic hospital i've been there i'm going on my second year now i left my business my father died in the catholic hospital i just felt that i was pulled in so i've got some wonderful people that i work with some younger people that you know have been you know trying to explain catholic faith a little bit more to me and i'm actually a closet catholic i think you know non-catholic i listen to ewtn all the time i'm listening to uh take two with debbie jerry i'm always listening to mother angelica she puts me to bed at night you know um i listen to you guys you know i just my my radio is always on real presence radio and so that's all i listen to and i watch my news with raymond arroyo so i'm being you know dealt all the stuff that i seek but there's something that holds me back you know um i even sold my home from god's blessing to the catholic church you know the cash sale i mean how much more blessing can i get because i want to pay off some debt and god did god delivered all this to me and this i can go on along with the story here but you know i feel like i'm a blessed man every day although i suffer you know uh and you know because that's what what life's about i understand all this but there's one thing that holds me back and i've been trying to pinpoint it like when i talk to my brothers for example it's like oh my gosh you know you can't you can't be praying to saints you know uh you know you mother mary shish you know he says the rosary you know i could put a quarter to my hand get the same results you know and so i get this kind of blasting and i and i get i go to a bible baptist church but i work a lot a lot of days at the hospital here so i don't get there all the time but pastor jeff's been there for me all along but just when i bring up catholic you know it's like oh you know so which is the bigger which is the bigger obstacle for you is it is it your your brother's uh language about the prayer to the saints or is it just the fact of their criticism well it's the fact of the criticism you know when i look at it you know you know i was even reaching out the monsignor from by the catholic church where i sold my house because i lived right across the street for 14 years i don't even think that was an accident getting there but you know he says we can help you we can help you uh and then i and then i hear a program that he has on this radio station as well he's talking about the goddess okay i'm a little confused there and so i hear out outside information well what do you mean regardless we're talking about jesus you know and and so i love all this stuff and mother and father and all this stuff but i i just want to make sure that i'm not disappointing god by going down this road and talking about saints when i should be directly to jesus and god okay well i can i can address that to be sure yeah thank you so i'm obviously speaking as a catholic from my heart my full conviction i believe i think i'm going to tell you and i'm going to base it on scripture and say and sacred tradition and history but of course you have to be clear in your own conscience all right i was once like you are i was once in your shoes i was a protestant raised presbyterian and had a lot of baptists in my family my granddaddy was a baptist great granddaddy founded the flatwood baptist church in northport alabama i mean we got this you know it's kind of in our blood down here in alabama you know and uh and like you i was raised thinking that the catholic church was just the worst thing on the planet i mean you'd almost be better off you know doing anything rather than become catholic and uh and like you i began to get a taste of catholicism and i was deeply attracted to what i saw and this question of saints was one of the things that held me back because all of my life i've been told that you know to pray to saints is idolatry and and it really felt wrong to me because i had been conditioned to think that it was wrong and i was very intent to get to the bottom of this and i i did so much research and went and got a phd to figure it out and you don't have to do that but i mean i really did my homework and and i was reading and studying a lot about why did the earliest protestants reject this practice of the catholic faith and where did it come from and of course a lot of protestants will tell you that prayer to the saints is something that the catholics brought into christianity from paganism that's the claim so i said let's let's investigate that claim i started reading into the early history of christianity and one of the things that i found was whatever else might be true that claim was not true that claim was not true that that in fact the pagans themselves the romans hated the christian practice of prayers to the dead and the veneration of the dead and their relics they hated it because an ancient roman religion the two things that never mixed you never mixed the dead and the sacred you kept them far apart ancient rome you had put the burial places outside the city you had the temples and stuff in the city and you put the dead people outside and the christians are where are they worshiping well they're running out to the cemeteries what are they doing they were digging up dead people's bones and carrying them around and bringing them into holy and sacred places and the romans thought ooh yuck and you know these christians are gross because christians were really comporting with the dead and uh in fact the earliest christian churches were built on top of the shrines to the christian martyrs so shrines to the martyrs actually came earlier in christian history than did church buildings and they would offer the mass in the catacombs and among the dead and they would remember the dead in their prayers from a very very early date the earliest martyrology we have in church history martyrology is a book about the martyrdom of some saints the martyrdom of saint polycarp and polycarp has this glorious martyrdom and the book concludes with this is you know like very early second century with the church gathering up his bones as as profound treasures you know to be venerated this is very very early in the tradition and it's not only early it it's everywhere it's ubiquitous it's everywhere you go in ancient christianity you find this practice of prayers to the dead and for the dead so much so that the historians who study this guys like peter brown will tell you you can actually track the progress of christianity in the ancient world archaeologically by tracking the veneration of saints and their relics the two things are co-extensive you you don't find christianity without it and you don't find it without christianity they go together right it's not a pagan import it was deeply christian um saint jerome who's a fourth century latin church father says addresses this question in a book called against vigilantes and he says does the bishop of rome that's the pope does the bishop of rome do wrong when he offers the holy sacrifice of the mass on top of the bones of peter and paul and not only the bishop of rome but all the bishops throughout the world all the bishops throughout the world so like you i'm i'm processing this stuff and i'm thinking okay so what i'm learning is every christian everywhere always did this everywhere always throughout the world up until the reformation not just catholics catholics orthodox oriental orthodox you know in the fourth century there was a huge debate over the divinity of jesus is jesus really god what do we mean when we say that jesus is god and the church just about split down the middle in the aryan controversy over the divinity of christ that was a big controversy you know what was not a big controversy praying to saints nobody questioned it everybody did it it was an uncomplicated fact of christian life the divinity of christ was more contentious than the veneration of saints and i said all right i got a problem i got a big problem and here's my problem if i reject the veneration of saints if i say no to that i can lay no claim to christian antiquity i cannot claim to be with the early church i certainly can't i i can't claim no continuity with ancient christianity if i reject the veneration of saints in fact i can't claim any continuity with christianity at all for 1500 years if i reject this practice but if i absorb this practice i've got to make sense of it so how does this make sense in light of the bible how does this make sense what i found out is it's a biblical practice that's what i found out i found that it goes back to ancient judaism in ancient hebrew religion the christians didn't invent it they inherited it from israel all the way back in the book of second kings chapter 13 we find the powerful intercessory effects of the relics of the martyrs and the story of elisha the prophet who dies and his relics do miracles for the people of god on earth read about it in the book of maccabees ii maccabees chapter 15 where the prophet jeremiah comes back and appears to judas maccabees in a dream and says that he's praying for him from heaven book of tobit chapter 12 where the archangel raphael is praying for the people of god and offering their prayers uh unto god and then i turned the book of revelation and i see real direct allusions to these passages from the old testament where saint john tells us that the saints in heaven are involved in offering our prayers before the throne of god and and and so it's it's deeply embedded in the scriptures it's deeply embedded in christian history and the logic this is what finally won me over the logic of the thing is this st james and his epistle chapter 5 says pray for one another pray for one another genesis 18 god tells abraham i'll be merciful to the many on behalf of the righteousness of the few st paul tells us in colossians chapter 1 i fill up in my own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of christ for the sake of his body the church the communion of saints means that christ distributes his grace to us through instruments through members of his body because what he wants he doesn't just want to save us as individuals he wants to save us as members of a community as a of a family so that we share in the prayers and merits of of our brothers and sisters because this is what charity means when you love someone you bear their burdens you pray for them you care for them that doesn't diminish christ's unique priesthood or intercessory power it glorifies it because it's precisely this that christ died to bring about the love of the people of god for one another so powerful that it endures even beyond death i think one thing that confuses some people is you know when we say uh you know praying to mary praying to a saint we're not worshiping that person we're not worshiping mary as a deity or a saint as a deity that's you're right we're asking for their prayers the only reason they think that is that they have been told in their tradition that to ask something of an invisible person is the same thing as an act of worship we deny that's not true to worship is to offer sacrifice to pray just means to ask yep you know and if if if asking invisible people for things were were idolatry then we could never use the telephone uh oh i hadn't thought about that you know what telemarketers couldn't call you either be pretty nice now you may be onto something there jack we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call hope you uh keep listening to real presence radio it is a wonderful radio station right there for you in bismarck that opens up a line for you right now at 8 3 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here's lynn in oklahoma city listing on oklahoma catholic radio hey there lynn what's on your mind today hi there i have a question so i have a son-in-law who is not catholic and he's he's really intelligent and he's right on the verge of potentially seeking the truth of the catholic church so um he's given me one shot at providing him some sort of concrete evidence of everything that i have shared and of the catholic faith and i don't want to get it wrong so there's so much out there so much literature so many books um and it's taken me many years of even myself to learn but if i have one shot at convincing him of the truth of the church what would that book be what would that literature be what would that podcast be because i'm afraid if i give him uh something that's too maybe in depth or doesn't uh get right to the point then he may lose interest pretty quick um and so that's my question yeah thanks well i really appreciate the question and i'm going to make some suggestions but but it sounds like he's manipulating you um because these are really false terms i mean like if he's willing to consider the possibility that the catholic faith is the way ordained by god for him to get to heaven and he suddenly he and he has construed this as your responsibility to convince him you know like while he's walking and chewing gum and standing on one foot like that's that's manipulative right fair you know i mean he's he's put you under this burden his soul is his responsibility you know and you feel this guilt and this burden like you've got this opening and you've got to you've got to sort of strike while the iron's hot and convert him like i would i would say look converting him is not your job he has to he has to respond to god's grace and the truth that god's given him and be responsible for his own soul and uh and i'm still giving you some suggestions don't worry but one of my favorite stories from my own life as a priest i know is very wise and converted a lot of people to the catholic faith another friend of mine went to him for council one time and said i'm interested in catholicism but i don't want to be brainwashed you know and my priest friend said uh well i'm not in the brainwashing business i'll just put the truth out there and whether you take it or not there's no concern of mine that's your own responsibility before god and so i think that's the disposition we need to have you put some stuff out there for him to investigate whether he picks it up or not is not on you right here comes the music hang on and i'll give you those books when we come back said tight lin we will continue this call in a moment we'll also talk with tim in guilford indiana jim in greenbelt maryland lots more on this tuesday edition of call to communion here on ewtn do stay with us mother angelica scott hahn father wade menezes you'll hear the leading catholic voices on the largest catholic media network in the world this is the ewtn global catholic radio network it's time for family man with dr gregory popja we all know that consistency is important for our children's well-being but a recent study in the journal of child adolescent psychiatry shows just how true that is researchers found that young children who experienced multiple moves and school changes had up to a 60 percent greater risk for exhibiting serious mental health problems in adolescence including psychosis consistency in a child's life isn't just key it's critical our church teaches us that human beings need ritual to be healthy and happy rather than being boring repetitious actions rituals bring order meaning and peace to our daily lives multiple moves and school changes disrupt the rituals that allow children to develop the ability to regulate their emotional psychological and relational lives to give your kids an advantage work hard to keep up rituals like family meals game nights family prayer family days and of course sunday mass as a family i'm dr greg popchek but you can call me family man to discover more ways faith can enrich your life visit catholiccounselors.com check out ewtn's official youtube channel just follow the link on our homepage at ewtn.com or go to youtube.com ewtn watch ewtn's live shows or today's homily from the daily mass click the upload button to see our most recent clips you can also find all of ewtn youtube content by clicking the playlist button it's all on the official ewtn youtube channel at youtube.com ewtn visit today tomorrow on more to life unglued do you feel like things in your life where relationships are coming apart we'll help you keep it together that's tomorrow on more to life now back to call to communion [Music] glad you could join us for the tuesday edition of call to communion here on ewtn call now if you have a question for dr david anders what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it at 833 288 ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight nine david before the break we were talking with lynn in oklahoma city uh looking for a book that she could give her non-denominational son-in-law yeah thanks so uh you know to answer this well i'd need to know exactly what his interests are what his formation is like what his objections to catholicism are whether he's more motivated by biblical study by philosophy by the history of theology by personal spirituality i mean and all of those things are deeply subjective and i don't know him as a person so it's i've got to kind of poke around the edges a little bit um you know there are some standard sort of classical works of apologetics that present the doctrines of the catholic faith in a straightforward manner right some of those would be things like theology insanity by frank sheed or the belief of catholics by ronald knox or even a book like catholicism and fundamentalism by by carl keating all of those are you know sort of one volume you know one-stop shops for here's what catholics believe and why we think that that's the best way to understand the christian faith uh now you know those are those are effective in that genre they are not necessarily the the best exemplars of the the brilliance and depth of catholic tradition right there there are applications of that tradition to contemporary apologetic issues uh you know my own personal favorite work in the entire corpus of catholic literature is the confessions of saint augustine uh it's a fourth century book written by the greatest of the latin church fathers now the confessions of augustine are not strictly a straightforward apology for the catholic faith that's going to answer all the claims of a protestant objector what they are going to do is display for you the most beautiful elements of catholicism by its most sublime and profound and influential thinker and so in terms of being drawn to the beauty of the faith augustine's is a book is absolutely fantastic um among conversion narratives that are modern um st john henry cardinal newman's book apologia pravida sua has a latin title but it's not a latin book is his account of his passage from evangelical christianity through anglicanism high church anglicanism and then on into into the catholic church in the 19th century by the greatest theologian of that of that of that century um so of course the the greatest the greatest theologian in catholic tradition systematic theologian of course is thomas aquinas so anything buying about st thomas is uh is absolutely outstanding works of gk chesterton about thomas would be helpful in chesterton's own book orthodoxy uh which details his intellectual development up to his conversion into the catholic church would be another great work to study now if it just comes to sort of q a dealing with the the standard objections and and dialogue points between protestants and catholics the website called the communion.com is and i i'm not the sole contributor to that website so i'm not taking credit here but i genuinely believe is one of the most helpful resources for people who are exploring these questions at some level of depth now if uh if if reading is not your thing and and none of those appeal to you um you know marcus grodi's uh coming home network and the journey home television show on ewtn is just a wonderful wonderful resource of people giving their own reasons for becoming catholic from a variety of traditions many of them non-denominational protestants i i was on the journey home a few times uh as were many other uh catholic writers and and uh and people of note so those are all good resources but what i'd really like your non-nominational son-in-law to do is to call me all right i mean you've got he said you said he gave you one shot well i'd like him to give me one shot right i'd like him to call up and tell me why he's not catholic and i'd love to talk to him about it and if he does call tell him to remind me of who he is and that you know you put him up to it there you go lynn thanks for your call and if you are checking out the podcast of this program so you can get all those titles that dr anders was laying out for you there when you go to the podcast ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net just click on podcast find today's show and go into about the 30 minute that should get you very close to where you need to be thanks again for your call call to communion here on ewtn uh what's on your mind what is stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that 833 288 ewtn that's 833. 288-3986 david before we go back to the phones i wanted to bring a little something to your attention here this is uh from brian watching us on facebook this afternoon brian says i am waiting for confirmation i am now 75 my only regret is not doing it 60 years ago oh that's beautiful that's beautiful that's beautiful that just made my day yeah you're not you're not the first 75 year old i've known to be confirmed in the catholic church never too late thank you so much for that uh tim is listening in guilford indiana online ewtn.com hey tim what's on your mind today hey thanks for taking my call sure um can you can you hear me all right yeah yes go right ahead okay my question is from hebrews chapter 8 verses 8 through 12. uh would you like me to read it i don't know no i know the text i know the text okay uh so i'm a baptist and as a baptist uh here's my question if roman catholics believe that infants come into the new covenant at baptism then in what sense is it true that they shall not teach each one as fellow citizen and kinsmen saying know the lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest how is the new covenant different than the old covenant in this regard yeah thanks i appreciate the question so i wouldn't point out in answering it that baptists do a lot of teaching i went to seminary with baptists and i had baptist seminary professors who did a lot of teaching and in spite of the fact that i believed myself to be in possession of the new birth and the spirit i still availed myself of their skills so i just point that out for comparison's sake now the catholic position is that baptism conveys grace baptism conveys grace and grace is a participation in the divine nature ii peter 1 4 says the promises of christ through them we have a participation we become partakers of the divine nature in a created manner and when you partake of god uh it comes with uh with with ancillary benefits like the infused virtues of faith hope and charity and all the moral virtues as well including the virtue of prudence which is an intellectual virtue and so the position is that infants have all of these things they have all of these virtues they have all of these graces but in a purely implicit way in a purely implicit way now faith the the supernatural habit of faith is the disposition to believe whatever god has revealed now take a baptist adult who uh who hears john 3 16 and i've known some baptist preachers that get like an 80-year career out of john 3 16. you know they hear john 3 16. it's the only part of the bible they've heard something speaks to their soul and it wakes them up to their situation before god and they cry out for mercy and they ask god for forgiveness and they give themselves to the lord jesus and they're baptized as believers well good for them do they believe the whole bible at that point well they hadn't read the whole bible they just heard john 3 16. yeah you know what but do they disbelieve the whole bible then of course not they just hadn't read it are they disposed to believe it of course they are so they they get to work they start at genesis they start working their way through you know they get they get into second samuel and they're like well i didn't know that happened in 2nd samuel 7. but i believe it why because i have that supernatural habit of faith that disposition that willingness to believe whatever it is that god has revealed right and so the baptist understands i mean implicitly understands the idea of implicit faith right it's that that supernatural gift whereby we are inclined to believe what god reveals it doesn't mean that we don't need to have the details expounded to us it doesn't mean that no baptist ever needs to read his bible no because we we want deeper deeper insight and elaboration of these truths that god has implanted implicitly in our hearts right and the the real thrust of jeremiah 31 ezekiel 36 of course in the parallel passage in deuteronomy that speak about the circumcision of the heart this is the essence of the new covenant paul of course details this in romans chapter 2 verses 25 to 29 is that we we become capable of obeying the law in its essence right the real spirit of the law romans 13 8 says to love god above all things in our neighbor as our self this fulfills the law and the prophets right and we contrast that with the covenant that's just written on tablets of stone you know so jesus himself was was endlessly critical of pharisaical religion when the pharisees felt like they had satisfied the demands of the covenant because they had tithe meant dylan human you know or god on somebody's case for pulling his donkey out of a hole on the sabbath day right they thought that satisfies the demands of the covenant christ says no you should have you should have paid more attention to justice and mercy rather than these things and and of course you know the cleanliness laws and all that christ confronts those by saying look it's not what goes into a man's body that makes mind cleanse what comes out of his heart that makes him unclean theft and fornication and adultery and these things right so the mere uh sort of literal adherence to the mosaic code that doesn't bring the righteousness that god seeks but that inward transformation by grace and the holy spirit grace as an inner principle motivating my activity out of charity that's what brings the obedience to the law that justifies and that's the sense in which the new covenant is new these things are given to us in the sacraments it doesn't mean we don't grow in them doesn't mean we can't walk away from them but it's given to us as our inheritance our patrimony our participation in god where we can go back continually over and over again to that fount of mercy and to that source of summit of our faith christ present to us above all in the eucharist to grow ever more deeply into that charity which is what god pours into our heart by the holy spirit tim thanks so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn hey be sure to join us tonight for ewtn news nightly with tracy sable that'll be at 9 00 pm eastern on ewtn television and radio in the news tonight doctors calling for quicker access to covet 19 vaccines for persons with disabilities find out all about it tonight on ewtn news nightly at 9 00 pm eastern right here on ewtn radio and television all right now before we go back to the phones we'll be talking with jim in greenbelt maryland in just a moment but first we'd like to congratulate another long time ewtn partner holy family radio in michigan they are celebrating their 10th anniversary very cool a very special thanks to vince gale and his great team at holy family radio they started out with one station in grand rapids i remember when it started they are now sharing the good news on four signals in grand rapids kalamazoo and battle creek covering most of western michigan fantastic again our congratulations to our friends at holy family radio now celebrating 10 years of solid catholic radio in michigan glad to be a partner with our friends at holy family radio all right here is jim now in greenbelt maryland listening on youtube this afternoon jim what's on your mind today good afternoon guys yeah uh dr anders i just wanted to ask you uh on the one hand it's part of our catholic dogma that that the three persons of the trinity are equal in all these qualities of power and love and etc because if they weren't then there'd be greater gods and lesser gods so we can't have that but then on the other hand in the gospels or we know the trinity as father son and spirit and it seems like the father has greater authority than the other two like jesus is saying that he's sent by the father and uh and first i thought that maybe that's the result of jesus having a human nature in addition to his divine nature and then but he even says i'll ask the father and he'll send the spirit and so it kind of seems like if one is doing ascending and one is sent then the one that's doing the sending has greater authority and i wondered how we resolve that seeming contradiction yeah thank you so actually the the the doctrine of the father as cinder right or or is is intrinsic to the doctrine of the trinity if you read saint thomas's treatise on the trinity he deals at length in uh the nature of the processions and the technical vocabulary for this is that god the father is is the principle of the blessed trinity now a principle is that from which things proceed and i like to draw the analogy and geometry to the axioms of geometry in their relationship to a proof if you ever did geometric proofs in school you know you start with the axioms and you reason from them to a conclusion and uh you know the the conclusion of a geometric proof is not more or less true than the axioms of geometry i mean it's it's equally true it's entailed by them but the nature of their relation is specified as principle and procession principle and conclusion and that's the way we think about the relation of the divine persons in the trinity the father is the principal that from which the other two persons proceed and so the son's relationship to the father is the relationship affiliation it's sonship the father's relationship to the son is that of paternity relationship of the spirit we use a technical word here called spiration and in the same way that the relationship of a conclusion and a geometric proof to the axioms is also one of procession but not inferiority not inferiority now there is another there's another real sense in which through the sun by the spirit we become we we are put into touch with the father who is the principle of the blessed trinity and and christ's intimacy with the father as the god-man is something that he shares with us so that we know god as father and so there is that aspect of the redemption as well that we we share in the sun's own filial relationship to the father but does this indicate inferiority no procession yes okay appreciate your call jim it is called to communion here on ewtn interesting question here from julie uh watching us on youtube this afternoon david julie says i am teaching ninth graders for confirmation we were discussing transgenderism the students wanted to know how as catholics are they to talk with someone who wants to be called another gender and reveal the church's stance of truth on the body yeah thanks i appreciate the question so the first thing i would like to draw attention to is the contemporaneous of the question do you think that our grandparents worried about talking about transgenderism in their catechism classes i don't think so i don't think they worried about it right and they didn't their grandparents didn't worry about it and their grandparents grandparents didn't worry about it this is a this is a uniquely contemporary problem and that itself should tell you something because throughout the entire history of human culture christian or not male and female are universals of human experience male and female are universals of human experience you can't there are there are such a thing as human universals anthropologists study them the things that you always find in every human culture language is a human universal male and female sexual dimorph dimorphism and and cultural recognition of sexual dimorphism is a human universal transgenderism as it emerges in modern western ideology is not a universal of human experience now are there people who are confused about their biological sex yes that's unusual it's kind of aberrant but it's but it's historical is pervasive you can find historical instances of people in different cultures who were uh who had kind of dysmorphic problems with their with their biological sex but to identify it with the ideological category transgenderism that is a very modern thing and uh um it's important to understand the the important category is biological sex there are men and women there are boys and girls there is sexual reproduction that exists that's a that's a biological fact there are also people who for whom that's a difficulty that's also a fact that's that's a fact of psychology but to construe that difficulty to construe the fact that i may not relate well to my own sexuality um as a as some sort of privileged identity category that's a very very modern thing it's a very ideological thing it really begins in the thought of simon de beauvoir the french feminist beauvoir is famous for making the claim that someone is not born but rather becomes a woman now she didn't have transgenderism specifically in mind what what the beauvoice had in mind was that there were there were cultural expectations there was a there was a cultural identity assigned to femininity that was not necessarily connected in all aspects to one's biological sex that it was it was imposed on one by one's culture and uh and as a feminist de beauvoir wanted to reject those those cultural identities and have the freedom to define for herself what it meant what her femininity meant and so she introduces this idea that there is a difference between one's biological sex and what would later come to be called one's gender now once she introduces that this is a very ideological move she makes it's a philosophical move that she she makes in order to defend the aims of modern feminism right once she makes that move suddenly the idea of gender as distinct from biological sex takes hold and people begin to play with that idea and elaborate it but the context in which it emerges is one that's deeply ideological and political and so i i really think what we have to do is challenge that ideology we're not challenging the fact that there are people who have problems with their sexual identity you know people have problems with all kinds of things people have problems with the marriages people that might somebody maybe has an accident they become paraplegic they have a don't relate well to their new condition of of being disabled i mean people can have all kinds of problems in life and we should be compassionate to them because of their problems and for whatever reason people may have problems adapting to or accepting their sexuality that's a fact of life and we should be compassionate towards them it doesn't mean we have to accept these very modern very ideological categories that have also been imposed arbitrarily on the biological facts julie since you are teaching ninth graders for confirmation you may want to refer them to the podcast of this program which we will have up in the next oh a couple of hours here as soon as charles can get that onto the web so you may want to check that out and ask your students to do the same ewtn radio.net is the address ewtn radio all right here is a call now that came in over our listener comment line during the overnight hours my name is doug i'm from upstate new york schenectady i have a question about matthew 17 through 19 about saint peter's confession to the lord and it has to do with uh his name there's two things names that are mentioned petrossian petra and i like a little clarification on the verses and i want to know it i was raised in evangelical protestant and i'd like to know what the roman bible says about that translation yeah thank you i appreciate the question so uh of course jesus is playing the gospel writer he's playing with grammar here um and he's between the word for rock and then the masculine sort of masculinization of that word to apply as a personal name for saint peter the word petros as a personal name is extraordinarily uncommon very very very uncommon so jesus is is making up a nickname here uh playing off of the word for rock you know it's like rocky balboa we had rocky the apostle right you know because patrick of course means rock and now in terms of the identification is peter in fact the rock that jesus is speaking of look i can do no better than the baptist evangelical biblical scholar d.a carson and i point to carson because carson is a vehement antagonist of catholicism he does not like catholics he does not like the catholic church he does not believe in the catholic church and among baptist evangelical scholars probably nobody has a higher reputation in north america in the last 50 years in d.a carson he's just the stellar guy in his own community carson believes that peter's the rock if you read his essay on st peter in the moody press which is a very anti-catholic publisher great leaders of the christian church edited by john woodbridge um he'll tell you straight up look grammatically peter's the rock now he doesn't go on to accept all the other catholic claims but he says look the grammar's the sentence is pretty obvious jesus is calling peter a rock and he's playing around with the with the grammar to to to come up with this this novel nickname calling him rocky all right there you go appreciate that let's go to uh lawrence in kansas city listening on youtube hey lawrence what's on your mind today can you hear me yes sir go right ahead okay i may have asked this question before i didn't get a satisfactory answer my question is why did thomas aquino advocate that the state killed so-called heretics how would the christians do that okay thank you i appreciate it i noticed that that's not the question you asked the call screener and i would request it and you tell the call screener what you want to talk about that you talk about what you told the screen you're going to talk about but the reason that thomas advocated that is because in the middle ages not just catholics catholics and then in the reformation era protestants also regarded matters of religious belief to be of public significance and in the same way that in the modern american world we would see say someone who was advocating sedition or the destruction of the constitutional form of government would be a public crime and that would be you know punishable i mean if somebody were seditious in the united states and like during the mccarthy era for example you know if you plopped down the communist manifesto in in eisenhower's bed chambers they would have thought pretty pretty ill of you you know i mean it would have been seen as a seditious act yes uh because it's only in the modern world that anybody not not just christians not just catholics but anybody was able to actually conceive of a civil order distinct from religious faith and so you know thomas wasn't didn't advocate for the persecution of heretics because he hated heretics or wanted to see them suffer but because he felt like in the same way we would treat sedition in modern government that that to teach religious falsehood that would violate say the norms of justice and the other virtues would would be destructive of the common good now we have a more sophisticated approach to these questions today and the church does not advocate this and we don't think thomas was correct but that's that explains why thomas did it also explains why luther did it why calvin john calvin the protestant theologian advocated for it and why most communities throughout the world have done that and we have a more sophisticated view today all right lawrence thank you so much for your call hey dr david anders a fast-moving show thank you sir appreciate that thank you tom don't forget we did the program here on ewtn radio at 2 p.m eastern live monday through friday with an encore at 11 pm eastern and of course as we were telling our earlier callers you can certainly check out the podcast whenever you want tell your friends tell your confirmation students see and the address there ewtnradio.net on behalf of our team i'm tom price along with dr david andrews see you tomorrow here on ewtn's call to communion god bless hello this is father wade menezes of the fathers of mercy open line

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021