Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - May 14, 2021

what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why 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 so if you are not a catholic you are listening or you're watching the show you've got questions about the catholic faith or maybe you'd just like to tell us why you are not a catholic let's uh let's hear from you today here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and if you're watching us today on television you can participate as well our email address is ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com all right here we go uh charles berry is our producer michael birchfield is our phone screener jeff burson is on social media uh he'll be glad to post any questions that you might want to post via youtube or facebook if you'll just put that question into the comments box 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'm doing uh fair to meddling here to meddling well good we're going to lead off here with a a common objection that we hear all the time on this program and the common objection is why do catholics have to confess to a priest rather than just confess directly to god uh false dichotomy false dichotomy there is no have to do one versus the other in catholicism on this issue catholics are actually they have to confess directly to god every day at the command of christ who said who said uh uh give us this day our daily bread forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us this is the daily prayer of the church christ gave to the church and this is we have to pray this every day and many other forms of confession as well uh every time we go to mass we say the confederate directly to god i confess to almighty god yeah and not just a priest but to all you my brothers and sisters that i've greatly sinned in my thoughts and my words would have done what i failed to do right so we confess directly to god all the time every day as part of our normal catholic life however uh it just as the faithful of the old covenant did in ancient israel the hebrews would make their confession directly to god as catholics do all the time here's the advantage we have over the hebrews wouldn't it be nice you know from the hebrews point of view if they made that confession and then a voice came from heaven and said it's all good you're forgiven yeah that would be that'd be really neat and that's in fact what we have as catholics in the confessional we actually have someone who's authorized to speak for god who responds to our confession by saying it's all good you're forgiven and i remember before i was catholic yeah i would often confess my sins to god in the hopes that god would forgive me and of course in my own tradition that was contingent to a certain extent on my own sincerity right and the the quality of my face something that i could never objectively verify you know like the friend of mine that once said the elect know for sure they're going to heaven and i might be one of them yeah and so there's that there's that note of you know presumption oh i know i'm saved i know i'm saved or despair i'm not saved i'm not saved and there's no real objective way to solve that except appealing to your own subjective experience well when i became catholic and i went to the confessional for the first time and a priest who was authorized by christ to grant this absolution said i absolve you through the ministry of the church god sent the holy spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins that's what jesus said receive the holy spirit whoever sins you forgive and forgive therefore i absolve you of your sins in the name of the father son holy spirit it hit me like a ton of bricks that's objective that's external to me that's that's sensible i can lay hold of that and know with certainty that my sins are in fact forgiven the sacrament of confession is a sacrament the point of a sacrament is that we have a tangible point of reference something that's visible auditory sensible to which christ attaches a promise of his divine assistance so it doesn't restrict the catholics interior life it's not like confession is the only mode whereby we can obtain forgiveness but it is the only mode to which christ has assigned this uh this objective sign to which he is attached to promise of assist of of assistance so that we can have certainty of our forgiveness of sins all the sacraments work that way they're tangible signs which when we receive we now have certainty of having received that grace so it's a blessing it's a gift it's not a it's not a limitation it's an it's an added benefit well while we're on the subject here uh we also have an email from john who says why do catholics pray to saints can't you just go directly to jesus but it's the same kind of a thing right well of course we go directly to jesus all the time all day every day all day long and twice on sunday i mean like that's exactly what we do but we also ask the saints to pray for us because we are not saved as individuals we are saved as members of a collective members of a society which is the catholic church the body of christ in and through and with the communion of saints and by the communion of saints we pray for one another it's part of what being a christian entails it's not just a personal relationship between me and jesus it's a personal relationship between me and jesus in the persons of the members of his body i come into contact with christ by coming into contact with the members of the body of christ which is the church the church on earth the church in heaven the church and the poor and by praying praying for them and being prayed for by them i experienced christ more deeply this is the way scripture depicts it of course you look at say passage like revelation chapter 5 there are the saints in heaven offering our prayers to god because that's the way in which god wants to save us not as not as individuals not as isolated little atoms but as members of a society you know i have a i have a great devotion to uh st thomas moore i don't know maybe i saw the movie uh you know a man for all seasons at just exactly the right moment but i really feel that kinship to him and i feel like he's he's rooting for me he's batting for me uh let me tell you something thomas more he is the stuff he is i'm all about thomas more yeah fantastic well there you go and if you would like to send us an email for a future show we would love to hear from you as well and that email address ctc ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com on our daily radio show monday through friday at 2 pm eastern we try to tackle several emails each and every day and then once or twice a month we'll do a mailbag program where we answer a whole bunch of emails so again the address ctc at ewtn.com well you know this is a call-in show and we would love to hear from you today our phone number is 833 288 ewtn if you'd like to share something with dr david anders 833 288 ewtn that's for call to 833-288-3986 stay with us [Music] i'm monte alvarado this week on ewtn news in-depth the secretary of state weighs in on religious persecution after the release of the 2020 report on international religious freedom ewtn's mark irons speaks with a chinese activist to escape china on the dangers of the growing communist party plus a rare interview with a newly sworn in member of the swiss guard join us for ewtn news in depth this evening at 8pm eastern exclusively on ewtn radio and television now not only can you watch ewtn anywhere but anytime with ewtn on demand get on-demand access to more than 12 000 ewtn programs including live shows and specials all in one place all free just go to ewtn.com forward slash on demand there's nothing to fill out no memberships required and no fees to pay all you need is an internet connection and you're good to go ewtn on demand fast easy and free i've seen the power of prayer many times in my life i believe you will too if you commit to spending time with god every single day prayer changes things prayer moves god's heart this doesn't mean that we can control or manipulate him but as his children he wants us to express our wants our needs our desires and our trials and our joys he already knows them all so enunciating them helps us to see when and how god answers our prayers in powerful ways what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six let's go to the phones right now if you're ready here is claire in winston-salem north carolina listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey there claire what's on your mind today i have a mennonite friend who is a very very anti-catholic and um he one of his objections is that the commit the church has committed atrocities throughout the uh years and and why won't i address those atrocities i think he's probably thinking of um huss but i don't know how to address that because i don't want to get into a numbers game of who's committed more atrocities yeah um yeah thanks very much i appreciate it so um this does not justify catholic atrocities but i am thinking of a specific mennonite theologian that i will not name okay who committed atrocities and it's a matter of public record and if you're in the mennonite camp you probably know who i'm talking about because he was an american mennonite of some note right point being a people commit atrocities people commit atrocities you know the mennonite church does not commit atrocities the catholic church doesn't commit atrocities catholics commit atrocities yes mennonites commit atrocities hindus jews atheists muslims and presbyterians commit atrocities right um and and and why do people commit atrocities well because uh we we are uh narrow-minded bigoted selfish egotistical concupiscent quivering piles of of desires and with a with a nearly miraculous capacity to justify ourselves guilty and it's it's called sin yes it's called the wounds of original sin it's what christ came to fix what christ came to heal now being catholic is no guarantee of salvation being catholic is no guarantee of virtue not what not not one wit not so not not at all i mean there are catholics in hell being being catholic is an opportunity to participate in this magnificent tradition of wisdom inciting grace offering an opportunity for holiness and virtue what you do with that opportunity is up to you it's like the old saying says you can lead a catholic to order but you can't make him drink is that how that goes well something like that okay all right very good claire thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you today here at ewtn's call to communion our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six uh bob sent us an email this is actually a two for david he says how is it that mary was a virgin also in the bible it says that jesus had brothers and sisters what say you okay yeah thanks so uh well not quite sure i mean i understand syntactically and semantically the meaning of the first sentence but i don't understand the first sentence i mean she wasn't the virgin in the way in which people she was a virgin in the way in which people are virgins right right you know she never had conjugal relations with her husband um now the question as to why she was a virgin that's a little bit more interesting and uh and i'll get into that in the um the business about the brothers and sisters so the reason that mary uh was pledged to perpetual virginity is quite honestly because she was elect by god predestined by god to be the second eve i mean this is why and uh but her generation her partition i should say is not in the the normal mode but a spiritual parturation of all of those who believe in christ you know revelation chapter 12 says that she is the mother of all those who believe in jesus now in becoming miraculously the mother of god the mother of the god man jesus in christ she birthed spiritually the whole christian people the new man recreated in christ's likeness and image and and so her perpetual virginity is a sign it's a kind of icon that uh we are born again not of the flesh but of water in the spirit not in the natural way but in a supernatural way now god could of course have uh become incarnate in a human person the second person the trinity could have been incarnate incarnate in a human person without the benefit of a virgin birth and he he could have he could have a hypostatic union with a human being who was conceived in the normal way there's nothing that's within god's almighty power to do that god chose it this way to give to us a sign precisely of this this the nature of the spiritual generation and so uh we looked at how what is the nature of this spiritual generation well it's it's born of her fiat her yes to god her her self donation to the divine plan be it done to me according to thy word she says now if you want to be born into be born into christ's family wish to be adopted as a child of god by grace you have to imitate mary in her yes you have to also say to god be it done to me according to thy word and so she provides this model for us of what true christian discipleship will look like also uh perfect continence is the most perfect way of holiness when jesus says this that this is a gift to those to whom it has been given it's better not to marry or be given in marriage st paul says the same thing if you have this gift perf the life of perfect continents is the most perfect form of of charity and of chastity and it's fitting that the mother of our redemption would participate in holiness in the most perfect way namely by perfect continence and this consecration to god so for all of these reasons god chose that she would have this gift of perpetual virginity and be assigned to us of this kind of holiness the business about jesus's brothers and sisters well they are cousins and the scriptures say that they are cousins if you actually trace out the genealogy you have to look at parallel passages in matthew 13 and matthew um what is it 27 and and john chapter 19 you compare the passages when they name the relations and their parents it's quite obvious that the brothers that are being named in the gospel of matthew are in fact the children of mary the wife of clopas who is the the cousin of the blessed virgin mary so these are these are relations of christ but they're not biological siblings uh to refer to them as brethren is is a idiomatic first century uh language you know and i i i know people today they're like hey brother yeah and that you don't mean biological sibling exactly language all right bob thank you so much for your email call to communion in progress here on ewtn if you have something to share with us today do give us a call at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 interesting email here from erica hi dr anderson tom i love you and i listen every day god bless you for sharing your gifts i am a catholic but my husband doesn't practice a religion nor is he baptized i would love for him to join the church although i don't pressure him but i can't help but worry that he isn't at the very least baptized now you mentioned that even an atheist can baptize so my question is can i baptize my husband in the meantime or is this reserved for danger of death situations i am worried that he may never join the church thus never actually receiving this sacrament thank you erica right so you you can't baptize him if he doesn't ask for it all right um and and if he does ask for it it is he more appropriately asks for baptism from the priest okay or the deacon right your your ability to illicitly and validly baptize him would he would have to be disposed to receive baptism and he would also have to be in grave danger like he couldn't get to a priest okay um but it but ultimately it has to start with his disposition he has to desire baptism in order to be baptized um and so that's what that's where the concern needs to lie and his desire for baptism not not the performance of the ritual but his desire to ask for it that he can be baptized um i think you're right not to pressure him uh you know his situation far better than we do but asking is not necessarily pressuring that's true and you can always make an invitation you know and uh and and you know sometimes just someone saying hey so when are you gonna get baptized i i know a case i know a case of a of a former an ex-catholic who walked away and didn't want to hear about it and don't talk to me about it and all this kind of business and she was the friend of a mutual friend and my mutual friend and i were both friends with a priest and uh and she took her ex-catholic to see the priest and she said now father don't put any pressure on her don't do this don't do that you're gonna scare her off and he was like ba he met the lady and said so what are you coming back she went oh it's about time went to confession and she was gone you know all it took was an invitation all it took was an invitation i remember my own case i was kind of batting around whether to become catholic hemming and hawing and i'd talked to a couple priests and they were sort of hemmed and hauled with me then i met uh met one priest met martin muller here at uh birmingham alabama diocese and uh and i said i'm thinking about becoming catholic he says great how about november the 16th you know he just put it out there for me and i was like oh this priest is going to make me make a decision he called your bluff guess what i became catholic exactly november the 16th feast of saint lucy of narnia you know i'm thinking about if you will the slogan of this program what's stopping you from becoming a catholic that statement right there is an invitation isn't it yeah you ever thought about it why not oh okay if that's the only issue we can deal with that absolutely call to communion here on ewtn we have an open line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 and watching us on youtube says i got in a discussion with my friend who says we are saved by faith alone and not by works what can i say to her um no we're not so so look scripture of course never says that we're saved by faith alone it says the opposite saint james says in james chapter 2 says we're not saved by faith alone so he just says in black and white we are not saved by faith alone more to the point look to jesus look to jesus what does jesus teach us about salvation he says on the last day i'll judge the nations and there will be those who come to me and say lord lord hmm i've got faith and he'll stay away from me i never knew you because you did not perform the works of mercy must this is jesus who's saying this this is jesus it's christ who says if if you if you pray in secret give alms in secret fast and secret your father who sees you in secret will reward you yeah you know i mean it's jesus is saying this saint paul says this he says he says uh it's not by hearing it's by obeying the law that will be justified that's romans 2 13. not here's by obeying the law will be justified to those who by patient endurance and doing good seek glory honor immortality god will give eternal life but those who are disobedient and factious don't obey the truth they'll be wrath and punishment that's saint paul romans chapter two uh so where do people get this idea of faith alone well they get it from a misunderstanding of saint paul's writings in chapter three and four in galatians two three and four in those five chapters of the bible saint paul teaches that we're justified by faith and not by works of the law not by works of the law now when martin luther the protestant read those words he said what works of the law that means moral behavior we're not justified by moral behavior that's what luther interpreted that to mean therefore it must be faith alone that's the only alternative the text would seem to offer promise luther didn't know what paul was talking about paul the whole context of those books and one of the major questions of the new testament is do gentiles who come to christ have to follow the mosaic law you know circumcise their kids and avoid eating pork and all the rest of it right do they have to follow that whole legislation and paul says well no because that whole sort of civil legal ritual regime failed to produce righteousness it was still possible to do with those things those outward behaviors and still have pride and concupiscence and hatred and factions and jealousy and bitterness all that stuff could still be in your heart what you need is a new creation you need the love of god poured into your heart it's not the ritual of the law that saves you right it's the hearing of faith that brings about this inner transformation of character the love of god poured into your heart so are you saved by the law the works of the law and these works of the law are precisely these kinds of ritual behaviors or are you saved by this inward transformation that begins in faith it's the latter it's that inward transformation that's that begins in faith but it's a faith that's full of love it's a formed faith it's a fourth that that that is charitable loves god and loves neighbor above all things and it's precisely that whereby god can pronounce his verdict of well-done good and faithful servant and therefore save you and thank you so much for checking us out on youtube back to the phones now at 8 833 288 ewtn here is father tom in albany new york listening on wopg a first time caller hey father tom what's on your mind today um thanks for being there i'm always so impressed with your program and what a gift you are to the church um i have a question about adam and eve and the lord's resurrection yeah we've got some beautiful uh mosaics of jesus after his resurrection bringing adam and eve from the underworld and restoring them and we call them saints how is it that adam and eve were restored in that way since really the worst sin of all time was what adam and eve did and were they repentant is that why the lord has raised them to the level of holiness the uh you know it's a little bit confusing as he uh restored them without a willful kind of uh choice on their part so i appreciate any clarity yeah thanks i appreciate that what a great question yeah so you know adam and eve are not just two historical individuals they're typological figures they're allegorical figures that really stand in for all of of fallen humanity and built into the story of adam and eve of course and even their expulsion from the garden is the promise of redemption genesis chapter three verse 15 right is sometimes called like the what is it the proto-evangelion the little gospel in miniature the promise of a of a savior that would come forth the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the of the serpent and you know we don't see uh everybody's a vegetarian in the first 11 chapters of the bible well up until noah leaves the ark that's the first instruction that people have for the slaughter and the eating of animals and yet when adam and eve leave the garden they're clothed in animal skins which is which is profoundly suggestive of sacrifice which is of course redemptive really cain i think is the figure of the sort of prototypical human who is lost but for even for kane some measure of grace is is allowed the mark on cain that protects him and so forth so in in the redemption that we have in christ he really restores the entire human race that's the teaching of saint paul in ephesians [Music] catholics in any language it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn it's amazing how uplifting god's word is he reveals that life has a purpose that our sufferings don't come to stay they come to pass that we can do all things through christ who strengthens us that his love defines us not our flaws saint paul had an amazing attitude in prison want to know why because he preached those truths to himself all the time and whenever self-defeating negative thoughts popped up he'd choose to dwell on the word of god instead listen not every one of your thoughts gets to vote not every one of them matters not every one of them is valid but god's word always is and he didn't reveal his word to you so you'd wait for someone else to preach to you in hard times he revealed his word to you so you start preaching to yourself you know whose job it is to remind you of the truth yours if you're always looking to everyone else to do that job for you you're going through life way too needy preach the truth to yourself this is chris defending from reallifecatholic.com ewtn teaching the truth thank you bill very much first of all for this ministry you have no idea what a blessing you and ewtn have been in my life and for my life and i just thank you for that well first off i'd like to say god bless you for your ministry and my wife prayed daily for ewtn it's a game changer in our world ewtn live truth live catholic all prayer intentions are important but sometimes we need heaven to respond quickly call with your urgent intentions monday on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations now back to call to communion [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn love to talk with you today at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 what's uh what's keeping you from becoming a catholic we would love to know back to the phones right now for julian in cincinnati listening on the great sacred heart radio hello julian what's on your mind today hey so my question is in mark chapter 15 i believe it is from verse 37 the bible says that the veil of the temple was ripped in two doesn't that mean that the the earthly ministry of the priesthood is over and as hebrews says we can now come boldly unto the throne of grace what does the catholic church believe about that yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so actually 1538 the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom that's that's it that's all the text says so i don't see in there anything about there not being priests now i think it's very reasonable to conclude that this is symbolic that the path into the holy of holies into the inner presence of god is no longer mediated by the levitical or the aaronic priesthood now you remember in the the story of moses when he ascends to the mountain to receive the ten commandments the people the people have to purify themselves and draw near only moses is allowed to go up and even he does not see god face to face but he sees only his back and throughout the history of the tradition it's always been seen as as a as a kind of an allegory for the mystical ascent of the soul to god and what would seem to be restricted to moses and to the aaronic priesthood is now really the the privilege of every christian every single christian is called to this profound immediate contemplative knowledge of god uh that is that is wordless and imageless the the unknowable unseen invisible god is made presence in our souls by the presence of grace that is absolutely the catholic position that uh that without mediation of of rights and ceremonies or even priests it is it is possible for the individual soul to have an immediate union of the will with god and in fact that is the height of the catholic mystical tradition all catholics are called to this to this union of the soul with god and it's it's worth pointing out that there are there are many non-catholic traditions particularly heirs of the protestant reformation that deny that such a union is possible in this life uh that the will is so intrinsically corrupt like the calvinist tradition in particular teaches that the will is so intrinsically corrupt in this life that even with the help of grace there can be no perfect union of the soul with god catholic tradition has always denied that always said no christ's called to perfection he says be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect that's he meant what he said and he said what he meant and uh and the christian who who travels the mystical path of contemplative union with god can in fact have that can recapitulate that mosaic experience on the mountain enter into the darkness of the cloud of unknowing and meet god uh in the depths of his interior life that's the catholic position now does this mean that there is no principle of mediation at all between this if if there is this unmediated contact with god is there therefore no mediation at all and scripture doesn't say that the catholic church doesn't teach that saint paul himself referred to himself as a priest if you look at romans chapter 15 saint paul says my priestly ministry he uses that language of priests my priestly ministry is to configure the gentiles as a pure offering now the job of a priest is to offer sacrifice that's what a priest does he offers sacrifice right and paul says that his apostolic ministry is a form of priesthood now he doesn't offer goats and bulls and and grain and the other things that the levitical priests would offer he offers human beings he offers them up for slaughter up to martyrdom but he makes them holy and prepares them so that they can offer themselves that's why he says in romans chapter 12 he says offer yourselves your bodies as living sacrifices this is your spiritual act of worship i mean this is a liturgical act liturgy is the language of sacrifice in worship and priesthood and cult we offer ourselves and the holy apostles and their successors the bishops and priests of the catholic church have the job of sanctifying the faithful for that sacrificial offering now it's not it's not the the mere ritualistic sacrifice of the levitical of the aaronic priesthood which is done away that was only a shadow but the worship in spirit and in truth that's what christ calls us to in john chapter excuse me john chapter 4 that worship and spirit and truth that spiritual act of worship that paul talks about in romans 12 is uh is absolutely a sacrificial and therefore a priestly act now that is all completely biblical language every reference that i've made there is the sacred scripture so we've done away with the levitical aaronic priesthood of the old covenant and put in its place the new covenant priesthood of all believers right every every catholic is a priest they offer the the gift of sacrifice and of themselves formed configured by this apostolic priesthood this ministerial priesthood that comes down to us from the apostles that's why paul can refer to himself as a priest and also talk about the gentiles themselves and their own self-offering as a priestly act julian thank you so much for your call appreciate that call to communion here on ewtn we do have a line open for you if you have a question or a comment or you'd like to tell us what's stopping you from becoming a catholic 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here is mary in new orleans listening on youtube today a first-time caller hello mary what's on your mind today hi can y'all hear me yes go right ahead please okay hi my question is does the church consider addiction to alcohol and drugs a disease and or a sin thank you i really appreciate the question very very much so interestingly one of the founders of aa that you don't hear about is a catholic nun who worked in the hospital where where the the founders that you do know about were doing their work one of them was a doctor as you know in this particular nun at the time that it was founded addiction was was not considered a disease it was just considered a moral feeling and so the hospital policy around the country was that you you don't admit addicts to the hospital because they you know they're not going to get well anyway blah blah blah and uh and she was the admitting nurse and she conspired with this doctor who was one of the founders of aaa well can i say this well they kind of fabricated the intake data a little bit right because they knew that these people needed hospitalization and arranged to have them hospitalized and so she's sort of one of the unsung heroes in the foundation of aa and of course you know a lot of the 12-step programs do sort of the disease model of understanding addiction is uh is very current in those circles so there are certainly a lot of catholic therapists and and addiction counselors and even founders of agencies like our sister here who would who would definitely subscribe to that disease model of addiction now that being said it is not a matter of it's not an article of faith in the catholic church to consider disease and addiction and uh and and the church would not pronounce on that sort of thing the church doesn't like come out with papal encyclicals on cancer you know or liver disease or something they're not that that's that's the purview of medical experts it's a little bit outside the church's purview to make that kind of declaration and i think it's fair to say that while the disease model is a very common one in therapeutic circles there are other scientists and neuroscientists and addiction counselors that think there are other better models mark lewis would be one who who's a prominent researcher in the field that thinks that maybe disease is not the best way to conceptualize this but i think a catholic could could legitimately hold either one that they found evidence for now as to the question is addiction a sin okay no no it's not addiction as such is not a sin uh because addiction is not an act it's not an act all right um it's it's it it's at least a kind of neurological pattern that gets laid down in the brain chemistry and so it uh it manifests itself as a habit now you know if you think it's a disease it's more than a habit but it is at least a habit right and a habit is not an act a habit is a disposition a tendency that might be a very strong tendency might be an irresistible almost irresistible tendency but a tendency or a habit or a vice is not an act drunkenness is an act getting drunk is an act getting high is an act now intoxication to choose intoxication is objectively sinful it's objectively wrong scripture tells us do not be drunk with wine and they didn't have fentanyl in the first century but i think we can reasonably infer you know don't do that either yeah all right so to intentionally get intoxicated is sinful now what if somebody is so mired in the throes of addiction that they have lost all agency it would seem that they have lost all agency and they are not the master of their acts does that mitigate or lessen their guilt in any way of course of course and so i think any any catholic priest any catholic moral theologian would look at someone who was who was wrecked and ruined by addiction not with judgment or hostility or disdain but with deep compassion and say you know it's not my job to judge souls it's god's job to judge souls my job is to respond to the person and all of their woundedness and suffering and look there's only one reason that people become addicts and that is that they are profoundly unhappy with the way they feel and usually they got something bad going on in their life and at some stage in their life they're exposed to this as is what seems to be a solution to their problems i can go into this thing and for some small period of time i can forget about my pain and then and then they don't realize how harmful it is and the next thing you know they're wrapped up in something so but it starts with pain it starts with suffering and the church is all about healing people and their suffering yes indeed mary thank you so much for your call today from new orleans good to hear from you from the from the big easy there it's a call to communion here on ewtn tom price along with dr david andrews reminding you to be sure to check us out for the holy rosary each and every day not just once a day twice a day every morning at 5 30 a.m eastern with our our dear founders mother angelica and again at 9 30 pm eastern with another good friend father benedict groeschel the rosary twice each day on ewtn radio it is called a communion we do have a line open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 mateo is watching us on youtube right now mateo says i'm currently in a conversation with a muslim he is disputing the accuracy of the bible for example in the gospel of matthew he says that matthew and luke there are two different accounts of the death of judas okay all right and that's a problem because does that mean anything yeah so what it means is that matthew and luke are two different people yeah that's what it means now uh you have to play the game where you you you take some event that a group of people witness and you ask them all to give an account of it what happens well they all describe the same event they don't and no two accounts are exactly alike because people are standing in different places and they find different aspects of the same event salient and so you know the the reporting that they give is subject to their own point of view and their their position in history space and time and cultural background and what they're interested in all the rest of it right so um now you know matthew was an apostle and a companion of jesus luke comes later he was at a he was a companion of saint paul luke himself tells us that he wrote his gospel he tells us how he wrote his gospel he went out and and interviewed witnesses and did and you know combed through the historical records looked at the archives and you know he he did his investigative reporting that's how he wrote it okay uh matthew would seem to be probably written much more as a personal reminiscence and um and and both of them seem to have relied on on on antecedent sources oral traditions about christ as well and not the same ones so uh i don't see that this has any bearing on the question of their divine authority i think it speaks to their humanity and um you know one thing muslims may not always understand christians view the bible as divinely authoritative but we don't think that the bible is a sort of um eternal product uh that uh came that dropped down from heaven um you know from the mind of god uh the way they typically view the quran that's not what we think the bible is we think the bible was written by human beings in history in time as members of a community guided by the holy spirit to be sure authoritative to be sure but they are they're more than human documents but they're never but they're never not human documents and and so we read them we approach them and they they play a role in christian faith that's different from the quran in islam you know we're not really a religion of the book as muslims wrongly think of catholics we're not really a religion of the book we're religion of a person that person is jesus christ yes okay and there we are thank you so much for that it is called the communion here on ewtn you can still get in if you call right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 here's a rather lengthy email from sharon in florida hello dr anders recently i heard a priest on youtube explain that during confession the penitent person is supposed to confess the sins he committed and the number of times he committed them from the point of his previous confession although i live a quiet life and i'm not running around wildly breaking the ten commandments i realize that i am in no way christ-like sometimes i feel like my sins are mostly of omission not caring enough about other people not being patient enough not reading my bible and praying enough well these are not sins i could fix with a number except to say that they plague me every day furthermore since i know my own habits and my inclinations i realize that whatever i confess this week i will very likely be confessing again next week and every week in the future so what exactly am i supposed to confess and does the priest get exasperated hearing those same sins of mine week after week after week god bless you and mr price for your extremely educational show sharon in florida thanks sharon really appreciate the questions so i think i can help you a little bit here first of all we're only obligated to confess the mortal sins of which we're certain in kind in number and sounds to me like you don't have very many of those all right sounds like you don't have very many of those um and saint gregory of nessa writes in his life of moses that unlike other sort of measurable quantities virtue doesn't seem to have any quantitative limit and and so you know the measure there is no measure of perfection there's always there's always you can always go deeper into god and uh and one thing that i i believe this is my own personal spirituality here um if you if you strain beyond your own level of spiritual development you're more likely to break than bend and i remember asking father mark a long time ago when i was a new catholic in confession and i went to him and i said father mark i'm reading all this teresa of avila and john of the cross stuff and it's just killing me man that's just killing me like this is a this is a degree of holiness that just seems utterly unattainable to me father mark gave me the best advice you know he didn't say well try harder dig deeper flagellate yourself starve yourself for a month you know give up all x y z he's like maybe you're not ready for for theresa battle and john of the cross you know st paul takes that attitude with his with his parishioners when paul writes his letters to the corinthians the ephesians he says i'm i'm giving you milk and not solid food cash you're not ready for the deep stuff yet now um so so if you're measuring yourself against some uh you know i guess some asymptote you know some some imagined final limit that you will always be approaching and never arrive at in particular if you bring kind of scrupulous conscience to that um you will um you will frustrate yourself into into madness right uh so start off with known mortal sins in kind a number of which you probably have very few given your self description right right and then uh and then also think about the duties of your state of life the duties of your state of life so um are you married are you a mother if you're married and you're a mother you have duties that a priest in the catholic church does not have right are you attending to the to the the religious instruction and the care and nurture of your children and that would be something a mother would need to do right if you're a priest are you are you celebrating the sacraments in a worthy matter all right yep and and you know one of the benefits of being a catholic religious by the way if you're if you're single and young and you feel inclined go become a catholic religious like go do that go do that thing that's a really good thing to do all right in my own life the ministry of catholic religious have meant more to me than anything else in the witness of living a holy christian life stands to reason since the church says that's the most perfect way of holiness so if you have never thought about it think about a vocation to religious life if you're a religious you have a rule of life when we get up we do this at noon we do that we have these duties we have these jobs we're going to say mass then we're going to pray the rosary then we're going to do the office then then we're all going to go to bed and once a week we get to get together and tell each other what's wrong with one another and then forgive everybody and be happy and go on right if you're a religious are you following your rule of life am i doing what i'm supposed to do am i following my rule of life that's a easy question just am i doing that you know if you're a male person and you don't have a rule of life write one get together with a spiritual director a priest or a religious and say you know i need some help from an objective person who's not scrupulous help me help me think through what's up what's an adequate rule of life according to my state of life according to my vocation so i can know i'm hitting the benchmarks yeah you know and uh and then understand that the goal of christian life course is perfection and it is the union of the will with god and charity but you cannot get there it's not possible to get there without passing through the three ages of the interior life beginning with asceticism and progression of our attachments and vices you know moving into the illuminative stage of the of the of the christian life which is a contemplative awareness of god through grace and then finally this uh this uh this union of the soul with god that cannot happen apart from ex excuse me experiences of loss and deprivation and um and in darkness what john the cross calls the dark night of the soul and you can't will those to happen like you can't just say i'm going to step into the dark night of the soul today you know it comes by grace and um and and some of us may be mired in the aesthetical stage of the purgative stage for most of our life the vagaries ponticus great great monastic theologian of the fourth century um a third century uh uh wrote that he he he made it out of a purgative right maybe two or three years before he died wow okay there we are thank you so much for that and it's called communion here on ewtn back to the phones now for mike in yakima washington mike is listening on sacred heart radio a first time caller hey mike what's on your mind today hi um i just need some resources for my daughter who is um she writes things on on social media about support of same-sex marriage but she's catholic and she understands the church is teaching but they're people too and she so i just need something with marriage she disagrees with not being able to redefine the definition of marriage because she has a college degree in a language and linguistics and stuff so language has evolved gay used to be happy and now it means happy or gay and other examples she gave so something about marriage the definition of the word and then maybe other resources about so-called same-sex marriage yeah right so one resource that comes to mind is a book by robert george the philosopher robert george entitled conjugal union what marriage is and why it matters um and there's another one uh it's a it's a compilation of essays and i'm i think that it's called saved in the truth of christ but i could i have to come back to it i might have to get that next week to come back to but i believe that's the title but george's book is good and in a nutshell i'll sort of summarize the thesis and and what i have to say about that um that uh why it's not just a catholic thing like marriage is not just hindus mary buddhists mary atheists mary you know george clooney marries i mean all kinds of people marry right um why why is there such an institution i mean it doesn't seem to be i mean like you know whales and elephants don't marry you know dogs don't marry catch them why do humans marry right um well for the blindingly obvious reason that that when men and women get together in intimate union babies tend to happen and babies you know unlike baby elephants and baby whales baby humans need to be enculturated they're born into a society a civilization a culture and and so they have to learn more than what baby whales and baby elephants have to know they have to know how to behave how to love how to live in a relationship how to have an eye val relationship with another human being how to live well with others they need nurture they need care they need moral instruction and they also need the physical care in the it's a long process takes it takes decades to get this thing done and and the people who are best equipped to do this and the ones that have the greatest moral obligation to provide this care in nurturing education are the people who brought the kid into the world and they're actually biologically adapted to do this i mean you know like the the the flood of oxytocin in the human person is never greater oxytocin of course is that sort of binding hormone that makes you want to get all close with somebody parturition the act of birth when a woman gives birth i mean she is just flooded with this hormone that binds her to her very own child it's nature's way of saying this is this relationship of mother to child is really important pay attention okay and so the cultural tradition the institution of marriage which is not uniquely christian is a recognition that there is something in nature between parents and children that ought to be recognized and and protected now tennis players tennis players don't have that kind of obligation to one another so it you can't just arbitrarily take some relationship let's say tennis players and say we're gonna we're gonna elevate this culturally to the same value as the procreative union of a man and a woman what if i really like my tennis player it's still not the same i might you know you might like your tennis player better than your spouse i hope not hope not but it wouldn't change the nature of the conjugal union itself as intrinsically more important and so it's not an act of justice it's an act of injustice to say you know my tennis partner is the same as my marriage partner it ain't the same exactly mike thanks for your call dr david anders thank you sir thanks tom see you next time on call to communion god bless [Music] i am father thomas loyal and this week on light of the east on ewtn we will soon enter into the miracle of the descent of the holy spirit on pentecost sunday in preparation for this the church reminds us of the most basic beliefs of our faith so that enlivened by the holy spirit we can profess our faith to the world [Music] on ewtn sunday is at 11 30 a.m eastern ewtn live truth live catholic no one does catholic radio ewtn news in-depth scripture and tradition the sunrise morning show like ewtn [Music] the words of blessed carlo accutis when we face the sun we get a tan but when we stand before jesus in the eucharist we become saints by standing before the eucharistic christ

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,451

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: x6wci7A71xk

Length: 54min 59sec (3299 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021