Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - May 19, 2021

hour period i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation is call to 1-833-288-3986 with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn on this wednesday afternoon this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters we asked the question throughout the hour and that is what is stopping you from becoming a catholic maybe you've considered becoming a catholic but there's some sort of a stumbling block maybe you've considered returning to the catholic faith but there's something keeping you from actually saying okay i'm going to do it let's talk about that 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 us country code and then also text the 205-271-2985 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 ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer michael birchfield is our wonderful phone screener and jeff person is on social media if you want to pose a question via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now just put your question in the comments box jeff will shoot that to us right here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anderson tom how are you today very good you're all dressed up today well you know i got invited to do some uh filming this afternoon with the ewtn television crew so i have to look presentable here come here brush the cat hair off of my suit yes well there actually was a cat on my suit when i left [Laughter] believe me i know the struggle it is real uh we are somewhat cat-infested at our house as well so here we go uh this is a a very nice email here from a priest his name is father frank and he says dear dr anders please elaborate on the connection between an allegorical interpretation of the old testament and the historicity of recorded testaments recorded events in the old testament does an allegorical interpretation necessarily entail the event is unhistorical that is it just didn't happen as recorded does an allegory relate to how we glean meaning from a passage without judging the historicity of the event itself i assume it's wrong to pit allegory against a historical reading of an event thanks and god bless father frank thanks father frank appreciate the question so you know catholic tradition doesn't really deal primarily in what you would call historical they deal with literal right the traditional categories would be the literal sense of the text then the moral anagogical and allegorical and the church teaches that the literal sense is the in the sense intended by the human author and uh that that that doesn't necessarily mean that it's historical chronicle because a human author could write a text uh in in a variety of genre only one of which might be historical chronicle it could be parable uh it could maybe make use of uh sort of mythopoetic metaphor and cosmological depictions that are not meant to give a scientific account of reality and it trying to pin down what's the literal history behind the text well that that's that's really the the purview of of the the discipline of higher criticism right and is a little bit outside the traditional set of categories the church has brought to working with sacred scriptures now i was recently reading the life of moses by saint gregory of nissa one of the doctors of the church capitalization father and in recounting the life of moses he did an interesting thing with the question of the death of the firstborn and he uh of course the plague on egypt and and gregory of nessa approaches that he says well if you just dwell simply in what would seem to be the historical narrative historical chronicle well it it might be sort of morally repugnant so let's just let's just advert to the spiritual sense and he never really addresses the question interesting of do i think that this is a literal his this is an historical event or is this merely uh some sort of figurative tale that's meant to evoke a spiritual uh realization he didn't really deal with that question he just says well if we stop at that literal narrative that his you know quasi-historical narrative is going to seem morally repugnant so let's instead just advert immediately to the spiritual of the allegorical and he does that all through the narrative and if you've read some of the fathers when they when they do sort of wax allegorical on the old testament they will move fairly far afield from what would seem to be the literal or historical sense now in the modern era catholic interpreters have recourse to historical critical method which is really trying to get the world behind the text and the circumstances of its composition no one uh blended that more intelligently with allegorical or patristic exegesis then pope benedict xvi and i would really recommend a book by matthew remich called the dark passages of the old testament that does a magnificent job of kind of an exposition of pope benedict's approach to these very questions also his book jesus of nazareth is another one that sort of blends in historical critical understanding of the historicity behind the text with the uh with the the patristic and allegorical exegesis so the short answer to your question is the fact that the text is allegorical does not necessarily uh uh preclude it from also being a historically accurate text but but a lot of the text of the old testament maybe maybe historical narrative is not what was intended by the sacred author and so if the author intends something other than historical chronicle the literal sense of the text is something other than historical chronicle fascinating father frank thank you so much for your question we really appreciate hearing from you uh we have a really good question here that just came in just like moments ago from will watching us on youtube and what i'm going to do is kind of tee it up right now since we don't have time to answer it here in in this segment we'll answer it in the next segment here's the question from will all protestant faiths consider tradition but they weigh it against scripture why does the catholic church give equal weight to scripture and tradition when scripture is clearly so he says the ultimate authority in all matters of what is true and what ought to be done or not done thanks will okay and like i say we'll kind of yeah so i i dispute uh really every premise of the question right okay i i don't think that that protestant traditions are in any way consistent with one another and the way they play scripture and tradition off against one another i think have very divergent approaches to that question and i also deny that the scriptures are the sole rule of faith or the highest or supreme authority for the faith or anything of the sort i'll actually come back to the catholic position on scripture and tradition after the break can't wait to hear that so we'll sit tight we'll get to you in just a moment and lots more on this edition of call to communion here on ewtn tomorrow morning on the sunrise morning show we will be celebrating the feast of saint bernard of clairvaux and talking about his life and legacy with ewtn's dr matthew munson our catholic counselor kevin prendergast will discuss postpartum depression and how to find healing plus dr kevin vost focuses on hell in our series on aquinas on the four last things the sunrise morning show tomorrow at 6 a.m eastern on ewtn radio [Music] we need to pray because god says to pray we don't need to pray to change god's mind we pray because that is our big connection to the almighty do we need it like we need air like you need water yep because if in fact god is the ultimate reality more reality than air and water then we do need to pray as much as we need to breathe 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 [Music] it's called a communion on this wednesday afternoon here on ewtn our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 in just a moment we're going to return to will's question uh will is watching us today on youtube but first i want to tell you about this great book those of you watching us today on facebook or youtube you can see this book right here on the set it's brand new from ewtn publishing a curious guide or rather a web of faith is the actual title web of faith a curious catholic's answers to theological questions by father ken burgundy and father john tragellio of course the host of open line monday here on ewtn well you know what it's a great book father john and father ken draw on their years of pastoral experience to compile a comprehensive list of some of the best questions ever asked of them on the tv show web of faith including what's up with psychics and their abilities what's up with canon law and how canon law applies to laypeople well we should find out about that what about this one how to avoid the dangers of the internet and i got to tell you they are all over the place this is a great book very timely web of faith a curious catholic's answers to theological questions by father john and father ken it's available right now at ewtnrc.com by catholic shop ewtnrc.com our phone number here 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here's that question again uh david from will watching us on youtube he says all protestants always got to be careful with that statement all protestant faiths consider tradition but they weigh they weigh it against scripture why does the catholic church give equal weight to scripture and tradition when scripture is clearly the ultimate authority in all matters of what is true and what ought to be done or not done thanks will yeah thanks so first of all i i dispute that all protestants weigh scripture against tradition or consult tradition alexander campbell founder of the christian church movement uh restorationist movement in 19th century american christianity was emphatic that he wished to read the bible as if no one had ever read it before him and the principle of considering tradition as an interpretive tool or guide to the bible was something he he vehemently attempted to avoid now i don't think anyone can avoid it all right i think it's an imp i think it's an impossible task that he set to himself but at least his his intent was to do that and uh and different forms of sort of radical primitivism and restorationism have attempted to utterly discount tradition and consent and considering the meaning of the sacred text and different protestant groups weigh tradition more or less depending on their on their predilections now um uh the uh the scripture is just the obviously the ultimate authority in all matters of faith and practice that is so far from obvious to me that is so far from obvious because it's clearly not the teaching of the bible itself it wasn't the teaching of jesus um jesus absolutely nowhere indicates that the 66 book protestant canon of the bible is to be considered the church's rule of faith christ never says anything of the sword on the contrary he gives us a completely different rule of faith when jesus made provision for handing on the christian faith to future generations he said first of all you peter are the rock on which i'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven i give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven whoever hears you hears me in matthew 28 when he actually sent the apostles out to preach he said go into all nations make disciples and teach them teach them teach them everything i have commanded you now he didn't write anything down and write a single thing down so what he gave them to teach was his oral teaching and his example teach them everything i have commanded you and that includes by the way the rituals of the liturgy like do this in memory of me whoever sends you for give or forgive and baptize the name of the father son holy spirit and i'll be with you to the end of the age so christ actually made provision for handing on the faith it was to deliver an oral tradition and ritual to a body of authorized individuals with a promise of divine assistance no mention whatsoever at all of a written new testament not one so if we're to stick to the words of christ as alexander campbell would want us to do we there's no concept of a biblical canon as recognized by by protestants now um so uh all kinds of things that scripture can't answer let me give you an example should the epistle of saint jude be in the bible it's a disputed question should the epistle james be in the bible how about fourth esdras how about the first epistle of saint clement about to did okay should any of these be in the bible or not some of them are some of them aren't different christian groups have accounted one or more of those as canonical scriptures at different points in time if they put that forth as an article of faith this book is or is not biblical canon but a fourth is an article of faith that's a matter to be believed with christian faith that cannot in principle be settled by the bible itself because the bible does not contain its own table of contents the table of contents of the bible is something that we know only by the authority of the church and through sacred tradition the bible doesn't tell us its own table of contents and i would recommend anybody just actually look at the bible take the individual books of the bible and ask yourself if any one of them individually presents itself as anything like a dogmatic theology textbook or manual on church order or government or a treatise on christian ethics none of them do right they're they're highly occasional documents that seem to be written for very specific purposes to very specific audiences some of them are letters some of them are narratives some of them are parables some of them are poems but they're not none of them individually seems anything like a rule of faith for the church look at esther queen esther how should i receive communion i mean esther's not going to tell you no he's not going to tell you right and so what is the bible it's inspired to be sure it's divine to be sure it's authoritative to be sure but authoritative for what well saint paul if you trust the tradition of the catholic church that saint paul wrote the second letter of timothy yes if you actually trust that tradition right saint paul teaches that scripture is god breathed inspired so that it is profitable for teaching and training and rebuking righteousness that's what it's good for that's what it's for it's a it's a liturgical devotional book inspired by god for use by christians to grow in their relationship with him as they study the lives of christ and the apostles and the teachings the prophets and this poetry and poems and parables and moral exhortation it's edifying but it's not in any shape form or fashion sufficient to be a rule of faith for the church and christ never intended it to be okay well will there you go appreciate your uh watching us today on youtube hey there's a phone line with your name on it uh if you'd like to call us now and talk with us here on ewtn's call to communion our phone number is 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 or you can text the letters ewtn to 5500 brian brian is watching us on facebook right now brian says i am really happy today because i got a date to be accepted into the church but would like to ask dr anders when can i take communion can i receive communion before being fully received into the church thanks brian thanks brian no because receiving communion is how you will be fully received into the church ah right communion so so baptism and communion confirmation together are the initiatory rights into the catholic faith right and when you've when you've had all of those you're fully initiated as a member of the catholic church it's precisely your baptism communion confirmation that make you a a full card carrying catholic so to speak so at whatever point you receive communion yeah well voila you're you're sort of a fully functioning catholic at that point that's how you need to you need to do that with the church's permission at the time that your priest says is appropriate for you now he couldn't admit you to communion at any time he's he chooses to right but he will only do that contingent on your having been prepared now at whatever point he thinks you're prepared he can admit you to communion i've seen so if he thinks if he talks to you this afternoon and says hey you're good to go let's go to communion tomorrow well then it's tomorrow but you got to go with the priest in my own case when i went and knocked on the door of the parish and told the priest i was thinking of becoming a catholic he said well tell me about yourself i said i did this i did this i did this and i read the catechism he said you read the catechism i said yeah he said the whole thing i said yeah he says oh well you're ready and he was like how about how about next week you know that was that quick okay very good brian thank you so much for watching us today on facebook call to communion here on ewtn our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here's a call that came in overnight on our listener comment line hi there my name is christine i'm calling from lafayette new york and i'm leaning towards christianity and more specifically catholicism but every time i get close something stops me from you know going all the way and one of the problems that i have is of all of the religions of the world why do we believe that christianity and catholicism are the right answer okay okay thanks i really appreciate the question so uh it's very important to understand that in believing catholicism to be true we are not saying that every other religion in the world is just holy false far from it and the scriptures actually teach that what can be known about god is evident from the creation his immortal power and divine nature and glory and uh and in fact our own suitedness to worship him and to conform our lives to his image in the justice and charity in our and our own virtue and all these things can be naturally known and many of them read off of the very contours of our very own being our own nature since we're made in god's likeness and image supremely our own rationality our inability to discern the good and the true and to deliberate and to be morally responsible that that capacity in the human person is the thing in us most like god and so we can even without the benefit of the christian faith come to very many truths about god and the moral life which is why when you look at the great historical religions throughout the world you find so many similarities it stands to reason that we would find similarities because we all have a common human nature and we are all derived from you know a common creator and a common source and so it makes sense that you would find traditions of wisdom and insight and morality across the world that catholics could look at and say that is good that is good that is good that is good that is good uh so does christian faith add to the picture well uh christopher adds to that story the belief that the god of the universe who made us also became our redeemer by being born being incarnate of the blessed virgin mary born as a child in bethlehem so that we would have a a god with us a manual god with us and he shows us the face of god in his own humanity god in his divine nature is very remote from us and we know that he is but we know little of what he is but jesus christ is a human person that i can touch that i can speak to that i can fellowship with and i can see the face of god in the person of christ and in the person of jesus christ subverts many of the sort of uh perverted but seemingly natural inclinations of the human person uh i'll give you one that's very obvious in the world today we are a tribalistic ideologically divided factious bunch got that right before the show i was talking to tom about reading newspapers on the right and the left and saying they have one thing in common they think all the problems in the world are the other guy's fault right and uh and and christ subverts that sort of that sort of ideology and says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and if someone strikes you on the right she turned them the other also and is willing to go the distance with his own teaching and and surrender himself to those that abused and ridiculed him and struck him on the left and right cheek and made him go where he didn't want to go and lead him to death on a cross and demonstrate for us uh the power of his own holiness and then establish a church so that through this church this extension of his incarnation his body and the world christ's humanity and his charity and his love for persons that transcends all those tribal and ideological divisions can can be an influence can be the kingdom of god in history changing and transforming the world uh more and more reaching out after justice and truth and charity and the the the witness of catholicism down through the centuries the work of the catholic church in history has been for the good of humanity and all those historical religions study their history i would challenge you to oh they have good things in them but you will see that the the witness of the catholic doctrine of the human person in human dignity has had a profoundly humanizing effect on all the world religions jews don't stone adulterers to death anymore that's true right uh the doctrine of human rights right has penetrated the heart of of modern 20th century 21st century hinduism uh buddhists are now terribly interested in engaging in social action something that was unknown in buddhist history right until the 20th century until the influence of of christianity really on world history all the religions of the world have benefited from the witness of christian service which is uniquely grounded in the person of jesus the humanity of christ and the doctrine of the dignity of the human person every individual the least among us being made in god's likeness and image and worthy of redemption and so pope benedict says i was called cardinal ratzinger when he wrote the book introduction to christianity he says we don't become christians because only christians are saved we become christians because uh christian the christian church is for history and christian service is a necessity in the world and i want to be part of that mission that god has to spread the kingdom of god to all people that i might be like him see the world as jesus sees it every man my brother every woman my sister for the sake of their salvation indeed out of charity yeah wow thank you so much for your call we do appreciate that in a moment we're going to be uh talking with ken in little old new york listening on sirius xm 130. we have a line open for you right now call in quickly at 833 288 ewtn if you have something to talk about with dr david anders 833-288-3986 call to communion on this beautiful wednesday afternoon here on ewtn to stay with us [Music] al cresta janette williams father robert spitzer you'll hear the leading catholic voices on the largest catholic media network in the world this is the ewtn global catholic radio network living the beatitudes with father bjorn blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth what does the strange beatitude mean well father victor feltz points out that george bailey and it's a wonderful life embodies this beatitude he has to sacrifice his bucketless items and his dreams in order to save the building and loan company of bedford falls but by the end of the movie he realizes that he's truly the richest man in town the beatitudes challenge our understanding of happiness both as individuals and as a society they're paradoxical and they upend our priorities we don't need anyone to tell us that good fortune money and success do often make us happy but we wouldn't have thought that the road to riches in god's kingdom is paved with meekness it doesn't mean denying your gifts but it does challenge us to allow others to have the spotlight and to approach them with gentleness blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth for more about the beatitudes visit ewtnrc the catechism of the catholic church has a great quote from saint john chrysostom on prayer in paragraph 27 44. it reads quote nothing is equal to prayer for what is impossible it makes possible what is difficult easy for it's impossible for the man who prays eagerly and invokes god ceaselessly ever to sin close quote that's the power of prayer so what are we waiting for let's get to praying if you could hear someone's voice one more time whose would it be this promises to be an impactful discussion tomorrow on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations now let's go back to call to communion [Music] hey what's keeping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion and if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with ken in new york listening on siriusxm 130 a first-time caller hello ken what's on your mind today yeah this is a little tricky um thanks for taking my call sure um i'm remarried and i i married uh the person i married is jewish and um unfortunately uh her my stepdaughter her daughter passed away and you know and she lost all faith in god and i'm trying to get her to i'd like to become part of the christian church but she says that she is worried that she won't meet her daughter in heaven if she changes her religion uh how do the jewish people feel about heaven okay thanks i really appreciate that question so if your wife believes in heaven that's the most important thing that you have going for you are here because not all jews believe in an afterlife or in heaven and judaism historically has not been dogmatic on the question and there have been jews that believed in an afterlife there have been jews that did not believe in an afterlife some that believe in a bodily resurrection some that don't and there's there's really not a definitive position on that in the middle ages they tended more often than not to believe in a resurrection from the dead but in modern judaism there's really no there's no definitive jewish answer to that question but if she believes in heaven well and good for her and well in good for you um and so that's a point of contact now uh i think you know her theological dilemma and she is afraid that uh by becoming a christian either she's doing something wrong something immoral that would discount her possibility of going to heaven that god would be displeased with her in some way would exclude her from heaven or maybe maybe she's thinking that maybe jews and catholics go to different heavens is like the jewish room and the catholic room i don't know what your conception is right but i would encourage you and her that even within judaism the idea that god does not show favoritism to but but has mercy upon everyone who does right right i mean that's an idea that's uh in spite of the concept of the election of israel you still find in rabbinical and old testament teaching and it's clearly the christian position as well saint peter said in acts chapter 10 i see now that god shows no favoritism but but regards every man who seeks him and does what is right saint paul says in romans 2 that whoever by patient endurance and doing good seeks glory and honor and immortality to him god will give eternal life so the promise of of eternal life for those who do well and seek god in repentance and faith is open to everybody of any religion regardless now um you know i would go easy on her and she suffered a great loss and a tragedy and for many people the loss of faith and then more specifically the loss of a religious tradition or loss of a heritage and legacy is a is another kind of loss is a kind of mourning that comes with that that can be quite profound and uh and so your desire for her to join you in the christian faith is admirable and i'm not telling you to give that hope up but i would say play the long game right and and consider that this is something that can play out over decades rather than than maybe over months and respect her morning and uh and love her into the christian faith more than you proselytize her into the christian faith she'll be more drawn to your religion uh if its power is demonstrated in your form of life than in your words you can always invite her to come to you to worship without imposing on her any necessity to actually join the church and that's that would probably be a good way to go just be accepting of her be loving of her be patient invite her to join you but don't pressure to join you be ready to answer questions when she has questions and then if uh if it's the lord's will and she isn't so inclined you know she'll join when she's ready ken thank you so much for your call we do appreciate hearing from you in new york our phone number here 833 288 ewtn for call to communion 833-288-3986 let's go to douglasville georgia and talk with jeremy listing on our great affiliate out of atlanta the quest hey jeremy what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my call me first i want to say that you've kind of helped me on my way towards catholicism from calvinism which is similar to your own journey well thank you you guys started convincing me a solar script before it doesn't make any sense and uh answering my questions about some of the historical errors of the catholic church that's kind of propelled me well on my way but i'm alone in it with my family um and that's okay for now i mean it's happened kind of suddenly um but it sparked some conversations at home which are healthy so my 14 year old daughter we've been talking about mary and talking about purgatory and she has a very rich uh biblical education because of our local church and so she asked which i thought was a great insightful question that i couldn't get you to give a good answer to about mary's perpetual virginity and she said well dad how could that be you know scriptural because the biblical ideal set forward in marriage is procreation and she even mentioned first corinthians i think seven about you know marital couples not withholding uh conjugal relations from each other but even owing that debt to each other and so she didn't understand how mary's special virginity could kind of be the ideal for a married woman yeah thanks first of all it's not the ideal for a married woman not by a long shot not by a long shot and the church does not advise married people to abstain from conjugal relations perpetually except in very very very unique circumstances there have been a few cases in history where the church has advised a josefite marriage that's what you call a marriage that's not consummated uh but they are very rare one that comes to mind would be the marriage of um jacques and reissa marita great catholic philosophers of the 20th century that decided they would live a josephine marriage and give themselves to philosophy that they could be of more service to the world in that way um alternately louise uh i mean the the parents of saint teresa of the year uh had decided to embark on a josephine marriage and did not consummate their marriage and then spiritual director said what are you guys on about let's get with the program here church needs some babies and of course they had what seven yes and uh and they all became religious and one of them a saint and a doctor of the church so thank goodness zelen louis martin did not live a josephine marriage otherwise we would not have we would not have saint teresa eliza and a priest told them not not to do that because that wasn't their vocation the reason it's appropriate to the blessed virgin mary is that she's the only person in all of history from the beginning of time to end of time about whom it can be said that she is the mother of god so if you're the mother of god you you get to do that most of us all of us none of us are the mother of god except the blessed virgin mary she was here's a good predest a good calvinist term for you it's part of the church's teaching about mary mary was predestined she was predestined before the dawn of time from the very first moment of creation well from all eternity actually to be the ever virgin immaculately conceived mother of god right that was part of her divine election that is unique to her that's not anybody else uh now a couple other interesting points about perpetual virginity one your daughter raised the question of the the biblical notion of perpetual virginity we'll get to that in a second another good calvinist francis turiton if you sounds like you go to a pretty heavy duty reformed church they'll know about francis turriton he was the third in line after calvin in geneva he had calvin and theodore beza you have francis turreton at the genevan academy very very very renowned calvinist theologian who when it came to the doctrine of mary's perpetual virginity said he says i'm done the witness of history is is absolute and universal and in early calvinists like like early lutherans they liked scripture but they said when the whole christian church has agreed on something we we just get weak in the knees if we try and go against this and the witness of antiquity is is perfectly clear you don't find anybody that teaches other than mary's perpetual virginity sacred traditions too strong here to deny even francis turriton right who was who was he's really kind of the origin of fundamentalist biblical interpretation uh or kind of in the in the headwaters of it uh held to perpetual virginity of mary because of the witness of of christian history that he so respected um now but i think there are other biblical principles that your daughter is not acknowledging here yes saint paul says you should come together for a time in order not to be tempted but the same saint paul says make sure you abstain so that you can give yourselves to prayer teaching that even within marriage intermittent abstinence is necessary in order to live a contemplative life which is why he says it's better not to marry and why jesus holds up as an ideal of christian discipleship those who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of god of course christ himself who is our ultimate model of of christian life was a celibate and why he teaches the council of perfection if you wish to be perfect go sell everything you have give to the poor come follow me uh you know give up marriage uh you know if those who have given up lands in fields and wives and children for my sake and so forth the kingdom of heaven is there so christ sets for a sets forth a standard of perfection that includes the councils of perfection poverty obedience and imperfect chastity incontinence um and uh now why is it fitting for mary to have that vocation why is it fitting for mary to have that vocation what he mentioned incredible dignity of being the mother of god well if that weren't enough for you what comes with being the mother of god well if you're if you're the mother of the god man you're the mother of jesus jesus the god man you are also the mother by necessity de facto you're the mother of the church because the church is the body of christ so if you literally are responsible for the parturation of christ's body in the flesh well we're all in him through baptism so you get it's like those russian dolls you know packed inside of the jesus doll you get all the little little jesus inside him all of every one of us is like a an altar christus we're all part of christ inside of him and so he she gives birth to us but our partition is not natural it's not it's not it's not a natural generation it's a supernatural regeneration in the order of the spirit mary in revelation chapter 12 we read that she is the mother of all those who believe in christ we're not born in the natural way but by water in the spirit jesus says in john chapter 3. and so her partition of us is a spiritual a supernatural regeneration in grace and if the highest vocation of the christian life is to the councils of perfection then is it not fitting that the second eve the one who gives birth to us not in the natural way but in the supernatural way would be for us that icon of perfect christian discipleship so that mary can be simultaneously the icon the model for all christian religious all christian religious take mary as the perfect contemplative model of their consecrated life you know we got a bunch of religious around here and it seems to me like every sister is named mary something and i was talking to my buddy father lambert one time and i said father i can't keep all the sisters straight they're all mary something and he winked at me and said sister mary hunka monka because they're all married i'll take mary as the model of their contemplative life and she's the model for every natural mother and every married woman and of the holy family so everyone has got a piece of her if you're married and you're going to have children mary is a woman if you're religious and you're perfectly consecrated marries your woman she is the perfect icon of christian discipleship she it she fills up in herself like every vocation so she's perfect that's why we love her yep jeremy thank you so much for your call glad you're listening to the quest out of atlanta today it's called a communion here on ewtn you know weekends are special around here and one of the reasons that they are special is the catholic cafe you can hear that sunday morning at 10 30 a.m this week deacon jeff discusses doing the harder thing to overcome habitual sin with his guest jordan burke sounds like a great show sunday morning sunday morning at 10 30 a.m eastern right here on ewtn radio back to the phones now on call to communion dan is listening in saint louis on our great partner there covenant network a first-time caller hello dan what's on your mind today hi how you doing thanks for taking the call uh a buddy of mine who both of us have very early life training in catholic religion we're talking about something and here's the question if when we die we're judged to go to heaven or hell why do we need a second judgment day if we've already been judged yeah thanks appreciate the question so the particular judgment is the judgment of your own soul before god and that will determine your eternal destiny the general judgment is the is god's opportunity christ's opportunity to be to be publicly vindicated and the opportunity for the righteous to be publicly vindicated particularly in the face of those who persecuted them ah so so part of the reward of the just you know like when you're a little kid and your brother pokes you in the eye or takes your you know extra slice of pecan pie or whatever it is like you don't just want the pecan pie back you want mom or dad to come in and say brother you have to apologize now you have to tell david you're sorry for stealing his pecan pot you want to be vindicated that's natural and lord tells us don't take vengeance forgive your enemies vengeance is the lord's right but but vengeance is coming i mean vindication i should say is coming and so part of the reward of the just let's say god's verdict on you is well done good and faithful servant well it all the people who made fun of you for being catholic your whole life well they get to see god say to you well done good and faithful servant and all the indignity that you suffered and the humiliation and the persecution will be undone in a very public forum and that's the purpose of the final judgment it's the public vindication of christ and the church before the nations okay there you go dan thank you so much for your call yeah the the second judgment is not like second breakfast in uh lord of the rings different thing right okay i just wanted to clear that up all right let's go to a question now from anna maria who's watching us today on youtube she says my protestant friend believes in forever sleep until judgment day what is that uh yeah psycho panickia all right the doctrine of psychopanica or soul sleep is the position yeah that the souls of the just are not conscious after physical death but they sleep in the dust until the second coming and then they regain consciousness and uh and there are some passages in scripture that that say you know they're going to sleep in the dust until the last day and so they've just read those literally and assume there's no there's no conscious state between between death and the final judgment now i will be honest with you this question was a bit controversial in in early christianity and it even even up to um pope john the 22nd even up to pope john the 22nd so uh 14th century catholic pope uh there were theologians that uh that that were a little bit iffy on whether or not the souls of the just could experience a beatific vision before the final judgment that was the common opinion of the church and the theologians and of the saints that they could but the church had not actually dogmatically ruled on the question until the next pope benedict the 12th right wrote an encyclical on it and dogmatically taught that soul sleep is false and the souls of the just can see god some of the considerations that led to that well first of all would be the ubiquitous catholic tradition about this i mean the the fact that we pray to the saints the fact that we pray to the saints so the church has always prayed to the saints it's a it's an unbroken part of catholic tradition tradition as a witness to the deposit of faith it makes no sense apart from the consciousness of the saints in heaven why you pray to somebody who's asleep right so that's one argument in favor of uh that the saints can in fact see god um another one would be passages like saint paul's teaching that he was caught up to the you know to the highest heaven and saw things and witnesses and visions and so forth well i mean you know he's not going to see much if he's out cold right that's true um uh paul's expectation that it is better to die and to be with the lord well if you again if you're laid out cold it's not really better it's just kind of nothing right passages in the old testament like in ii maccabees chapter 15 where the souls of the just are very emphatically invisibly alive and praying for the church on earth uh revelation chapter 5 where the souls of the just are once again shown to us very much alive and conscious and uh and um and interceding for the church before god philosophical considerations about the immortality of the soul the mr the immateriality of the intellect the existence of the holy angels is something of an analog to the disembodied human soul and angels are of course conscious all of these things would play into the reasoning and while the church finally did declare as a dogmatic fact the souls of the just can in fact see god before the resurrection all right anna maria thank you so much for your question good to hear from you today and uh let's go now to john in salem oregon listening on the great modern day radio hello john what's on your mind today hello yes um i'm new to being catholic and a catholic said you should look at being an oblate my question is what is an oblate what doesn't oblate do thank you that's my yeah sure thank you so an an oblate uh is attaches himself to a religious order and like benedict and oblate be very common uh and you can uh you can take vows and you can sort of participate in the spirituality and the community of a particular monastic order and and sort of you sort of sort of get in their wake if you will in their spiritual wake and benefit from your association with that community another sort of way to slice that same apple is to become a third order religious uh you know in the catholic tradition you have monastic orders like the benedictines you also have religious orders uh they're not tied down to one place the way monks they can vow stability the religious get up and run all over the place and they do work you know good works and good service around in the active life around the world and sometimes people will attach themselves to the spirituality of a particular religious order and they can become third order third order franciscan third order dominican um my advice to you would be if you're new to catholicism is give it some time in fact i'd say give it at least seven years you got the rest of your life well it's a big hurry um get used to being catholic in your parish if you have religious communities in your diocese explore them all go to mass with them and and kind of investigate their spirituality and their form of life and uh there have been cases of people in the church many times who well they they feel like they're called to some sort of consecrated life some kind of vow some sort of some sort of determinate spirituality so they join one and then they figure out well i'm not i'm not really a franciscan i'm a i'm a dominican in heart you know and or i'm not really a dominican i'm a franciscan or i'm a jesuit i'm a i'm a benedictine and and spiritualities emerge from from the personality of founders like benedict or francis or dominic and sometimes you may find over the years that you know that that really fits that spirituality that community really fits my personality in a way this other one doesn't so uh it might be my advice to you get get used to being catholic uh explore a lot of different catholic spiritualities and religious traditions and then if you wish to sort of take that plunge later on uh then you can now one word of caution if you associate yourself with a third order or or a monastic community like that you take vowels well then you've taken vowels of hours of out yeah so like you know be careful yeah be careful all right don't do it without spiritual direction thank you so much for your call we have time for one more question and this is from uh looks like john who says hi tom and david love your show i'm a catechumen and recent convert one of the arguments that convinced me about the truth of catholicism was apostolic succession however i need to make sense of an apparent discrepancy in the bible apostolic succession or ordination in general terms seems to be inextricably tied to a transfer of supernatural power when the apostles do the laying on of hands they transfer the power of the holy spirit to perform signs miracles healings speaking in tongues etc but we don't see bishops popes or priests performing miracles so often today or obtaining a supernatural ability they didn't previously have from their ordination the point being the biblical sense of ordination seems different than what we mean by it today they weren't simply naming somebody for a job so in what sense is there continuity between succession in the biblical sense and the extra biblical historical sense thanks and god bless john yeah thanks i appreciate the question so first of all i i kind of dispute the thesis which is that every ordination uh in scripture is attended by some sort of miraculous display um i don't think that's true i come up a couple examples here is one in uh saint paul's epistle to titus chapter one he says the reason i left you in crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as i directed you all right and and you know elders have to be blameless and the husband of one wife and a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient well there's a miracle right there know ram shot so you know but i mean basically like he kind of gives you the qualifications what the job description is you got to be god have a good head on your shoulder gotta have the faith and and your job really is to is to just ordain priests right and he doesn't say anything about will make sure that they have fire you know flowing out of their fingertips he just says make sure they manage their households well and you know have a decent life and and and know how to put stuff in order so like you know you had an mba have good managerial skills that's kind of what he's saying here i mean virtue but then you know kind of just be a prudent person who knows how to run things that's a that's good qualification for being a bishop i asked my own bishop one time uh the previous bishop to my current one i said what was the most surprising thing you found in being a bishop he said the quantity of mail you know i mean just like the just the daily grind of the just the inundation of of human managerial concerns you know now the the miracles that we do find in sacred scripture around the laying on of hands primarily take place in the book of acts and there's some specific narrative historiographical reasons why that is the case that i've run out of time to talk about i'll have to i can come back to them perhaps another day and discuss the way saint luke crafts his narrative after the model of old testament historiography and the purpose of these miraculous displays what they in fact signify and finally i'd say the argument you made about ordination could just as easily be applied to confirmation right because confirmation and acts is also often accompanied by sort of these miraculous displays one of which however is speaking the word of god with boldness right which doesn't necessarily you know kind of come in the same category as raising the dead yeah and supernatural is not the same thing as miraculous good right consecrating the eucharist is supernatural but it's not a visible miracle all right very good thank you so much for that uh thanks for your question john dr david anders thank you sir we'll see you tomorrow right here on ewtn radios called communion i'm tom price we will see you then god bless beyond damascus with dan

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021