Called To Communion With Dr. David Anders - 2019-03-30 - Called To Communion With Dr. David Anders

stopping me from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests why do Catholic worship Mary why do I need to confess my sins to a priest are called to communion with dr. David Anders call to communion with dr. David Andrews and we are answering that very question what is stopping you from becoming a Catholic perhaps you were raised Catholic in you for one reason or another left the church perhaps you were raised in another Evangelical Protestant tradition and maybe you've thought about the Catholic Church but didn't know that much about it or knew more than you thought you wanted to know and maybe there's one particular point that it's kind of tripping you up we would love to talk to you about that today the phone number to be on the program is eight three three two eight eight EWTN and that's toll-free anywhere in North America eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're outside the United States and Canada we'd still love to hear from you your number is one to zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we will put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send us an e-mail CTC at ewtn.com or you can even text your question to dr. Andrews text the letters ewtn two five five zero zero zero wait for a response text your first name in your question message and data rates may apply I'm Jack Williams sitting in today for Tom Price Michael Burchfield produces the program our call screeners mr. Ryan Penney and Jeff Burton handles our social media endeavors so if you're watching on YouTube or Facebook live type a question into that chat window and we may get to it by the end of the hour in our hosts as he is everyday the one and only dr. David Anders how are you jack you know what if I were any better I'd be jealous in myself so feeling a little split personality today no I'm great good fantastic as always like I tell people when they ask me how things are going I work literally my office is as the crow flies probably fifty feet from the Tabernacle in Our Lady of the Angels Chapel so how bad could things be for me to be within fifty what's that question I went to grad school with a guy you ask him how you doing today he would always say I've been worse well there you go we've got a text here from Titus and he wants to know are you ready you ready to put your Titus's appropriately named-- that exactly right are you ready to put your unbothered linguistic hat on he says how are Erised and ii eres tu verbs handled in Bible translation you're gonna love my answer it depends on the translation whether you because there are different translation philosophies and basic division and philosophy of translation is between dynamic and formal equivalents do I want to try to understand the sense of the writer and then put it in as readable and colloquial form as possible that be dynamic equivalence or do I want to try to stick as close as possible to the literal word intense that's under consideration that be formal equivalence different translations veer to one or the other of those extremes obviously the more you veer towards dynamic equivalence the more the translators own interpretive paradigm comes into play but you can't avoid interpretation and in each and every translation is an interpretation but you know with with a longer or a shorter leash I prefer a formal equivalent translations because once you immerse yourself in the biblical text you begin to gain a facility of familiarity with biblical idiom with biblical expressions and they're easier to do word searches and cross references against you know passage to passage and this kind of thing when you look at dynamic equivalent translations and I've seen I'm just not trying to pick on Protestants here but I did all my biblical studies as a Protestant so that's where my frame of references come the very same word same kind of phrases will be translated very differently in two different texts and it's obvious that's something like you know Calvinist theology you construing the translation because they don't want to render a literal sense of a text that would contravene some Calvinist Dogma you know and I mean Catholics will do the same thing right but I've seen it I've got in my head some examples with words like justification for example the way though it rendered in different contexts so I like to stick as close to the actual Greek text as possible and then trust on you know biblical commentaries and my good sense and experience trying to figure out what the dynamic equivalent is gonna be for me well with translations just like with even history whenever you get humans involved there's gonna be some measure no matter how small of bias that are gonna be involved in what you're reading sure yeah so the eros feels like any other agreeing tenets I mean it's a past tense it's a it's just a vanilla it happened you know beautiful we had we also received a text from John we're gonna cover all the New Testament names here why did the mass after the Second Vatican Council lose so much mystery in beauty was this a hermeneutic of continuity or rupture well that's a that is a that's a subjective judgment about your experience of the mass right and you could make the mean you can a person can argue that case I think the two terms were mystery and beauty that's right if by mystery you mean lack of transparent intelligibility like I walk into Mass and I don't know what's happening therefore it's mysterious that was kind of the point of the reform was to make the mass more transparently intelligible to the faithful now if you talk to people who grew up before the Second Vatican Council before the change in the liturgy there there are very clearly people of two minds on this you know I have talked to folks that say uh you know we lost something essential this was beautiful I mean why did they throw away a good thing you know if it ain't broke don't fix it I mean you'll hear that then you'll hear people that said man I'm so glad they changed that thing because I was sleeping through the whole thing I never interested a word of what was going on and I never connected I've heard both narratives in terms of beauty it's again you'll hear two points of view on I I know diocesan priests in Alabama who are of an age to have celebrated the Latin Mass who said you know when we did it I'm not we you know not naming themselves but there said I know my confreres go to a daily Mass man they were ripping through that thing as fast as they could to get to the end on the consecration I mean no mass no singing you know just let me just chant through this thing as fast as possible not very beautiful kind of a functional utilitarian view of the old mass you know then you can you can go to a Schubert Mass you know you can go to a papal high mass with Palestrina going on with beautiful cathedrals and gorgeous smoke and incense everywhere you know awesome vestments I've had the same experience today I've been to masses in the new right that that are just astonishingly beautiful and reverent I've been to some that we're real duds 833 - 880 wtn is your ticket to the program that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six this is ewtn is called to communion with dr. david andrews [Music] couple of phone lines open for you at eight three three to eight eighty wtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six our leadoff hitter today is Andy and Boise Idaho listening on salton light radio and you were on with dr. David Anders well thank you so much for taking my call I really do appreciate it I guess I'm old enough to have forgotten more than I know I knew I knew the answer to this question but I didn't want to get it wrong so question is how do Adam and Eve populate the earth in the normal way so you know the question of mono genesis which is the doctrine that the human species today is descended uniquely from a single pair poses certain philosophical and and empirical scientific challenges theologians offer different solutions to those problems that are you know within the realm of the allowable in terms of speculative theology there is an article that treats some of these difficulties and offers a possible solution by a theologian named Kenneth Kemp the title of the article is science theology and mono Genesis it's readily available online but it's a it's a nice introduction to that difficulty the website toh mystic th om is di c2 mystic evolution which is a ministry of the dominicans of the Eastern Province is another one that looks at some of the scientific difficulties posed by the doctrine of mono Genesis and and proposes the theology of st. Thomas Aquinas as a as a tool to to bring theology into dialogue with the Natural Sciences but you know so I'm gonna leave it at that for the time being there are some some empirical difficulties with understanding the current gene pool and relationship to the doctrine of mono Genesis there are some creative ways of dealing with that problem and I would direct you to those sources for a real scientific analysis 8 3 3 2 8 80 wtn that number is toll-free anywhere in North America we've got a couple of lines open for you at eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six Cathy is watching on Facebook live she said could you please describe a savior I'm having difficulty returning to the church after illness God gave me a blessing and I'm frozen in indifference yeah I'm just too tired to describe exodia right now I'm gonna pass no teasing so this is this is the one of the seven deadly sins of spiritual sloth and exodia is not physical exhaustion you know mononucleosis is this is willful decision right you know it's the it's the one it really doesn't laziness is a different category you know an unwillingness to you know to put in the extra five minutes on the treadmill or you know to pull out those three last reps in your benchpress that's not exceed yeah it really is the the vice of not directing ourselves in our lives towards the spiritual disciplines that guide us to God with intensity with with with intention with diligence and we all experience this everyone has it we all know that we ought to pray we all know that we ought to pray more than we do and we don't know there that does mean there aren't some real heroes in prayer there are all right but but the vast majority of us recognize it this is a good it really is kind of the the essential part of our spiritual life none of us give the attention to it that we need we all make excuses because you know we've got to binge-watch those last 30 episodes of our favorite rerun TV show eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our toll-free number grab one of these open phone lines at eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six that's what Rene did in San Antonio Texas listening on Guadalupe Radio Rene you are on with dr. David Anders Thank You dr. Anderson answering my question and sometime this week you were saying that we have we will have flesh and blood bodies in heaven so I was just wondering after the resurrection the dead how will we recognize miscarried babies are all young babies and children my niece wanted to ask you well God let her pick the color of her eyes and hair's hair and I just wondered are we gonna meet everybody there and will we love everybody the same like well Isla loved every man and women there as much as I love my own mom and dad okay thanks great questions all of them I'm going to what we know about the beatific vision the life of heaven and the resurrection of the body you can fit in a thimble it you know scripture defines these things for us and and wets our appetite so to speak gives us some expectations but leaves a lot of things unsaid so a lot of what I'm going to say in answer to your question is just a speculation and I will be the first person to when if we get there we're you know God brings us to the end we persevere in the faith we get on the other side and I look around I'm like I mean this is nothing like what I told Renee back in March of 2019 you know you've heard it for me this is just me doing my best to think about logically the answers to questions that scripture and tradition just don't answer all right what do we know for a fact the the key blessing of the next life is the beatific vision it is the perfect knowledge of God and because God doesn't have a body God is not a concrete material object our knowledge of him at in this life is remote we reason to God as a calls from which we can derive effects we know some things that sacred scripture or tradition have said about him but we don't know God in His essence we can't we don't have the tools to come into contact with God in his essence but sacred scripture teaches that we will we will know him even as we are fully known we will have an intuitive knowledge of God an immediate intuitive knowledge of God in our souls that will ultimately satisfy all the longings of our heart and if we're knowing God in His essence we're gonna know a lot of stuff so the first answer to your question I think is God knows the identity of every human person and if we can see all things in God it's not going to be any trick at all for us to be able to recognize every individual that's in heaven and by name and we retain our impersonal histories when Jesus saw Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration everybody knew it was Moses and Elijah I mean these are recognizable types and so we we carry to heaven with us the the record of our good and bad deeds in this life and they have an effect on the rest of eternity so our our personal history our personal narrative will feed into the experience we have an eternity and our identity therein so we'll be able to recognize people in their personal identity and carry with them those past histories and I think that goes to your next question well I feel the same about my spouse in heaven that I feel about you know the dog catcher next door you will perfectly love the dog catcher next door because there's nothing lacking to us in heaven but but there will be qualities to your relationship to your spouse that will be loud that will not be found in your relationship to the dog catcher you're gonna love both people perfectly but it's just like today you have two great friends you said who do I love more I can't answer that question or maybe your own children somebody said wish kid do you love more I you don't you don't do it that way I love all my kids equally I live all of them differently you know because love is a reciprocal thing and it's predicated on a past history together and those histories are never the same between two people so what the dog catcher it'll be like man you were a dog catcher that's awesome let's talk about that for all eternity or maybe not and then you're you're my husband that you're my wife that's so cool and I'm gonna love you in a way that's appropriate to the identity and the relationship that we've had but perfectly um can I pick my hair color I see no reason to expect that but I will tell you this you don't like your eyes you know they're blue you want hazel they're brown you want black maybe even if you you will have the most beautiful blue eyes if you're blue it's gonna be blue like you've never seen blue before and they will leave nothing to be desired I kind of think you're gonna keep your eye color and the reason I say that is that it's your body that's resurrected and and you're not just a soul stuck in a body at random like you know God had a assembly line of bodies and he's like let's just put her in number 27 it doesn't work that way you really are your identity your individuality is connected to your bodily identity but that bodily identity will be perfected you know good buddy of mine I mention all the time on the show who's a quadruple amputee lost his arms and legs when he's seven eight years old he's not going to be a quadruple amputee in heaven and so have he'll have the body that that that grace and nature intended for him to have for all eternity the same person but glorified after the manner of Christ's glorified resurrected body and everything about it will be perfect lovely beautiful and enjoyable I think the most comforting thing you can say to anybody on this topic is I promise you if you get there you are not gonna be disappointed you're not gonna be disappointed right eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six next up is Richard in Poplarville Mississippi listening at ewtn.com Richard thanks for holding your own with dr. Andrews well thank you for taking my call dr. Enders I'd like to ask you one of the homilies on EWTN a few weeks ago was about the killing of Abel's I came and was brought up at that time when was Adam when all of this was going on and then also why was Kane so worried about the opinions of other people with a mark on his forehead that there were so few people in existence at that time thanks I appreciate the question so first of all let me back up and just consider the purpose of holy scripture and the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis these are not just curiosities about the ancient past the way we might read a narrative about you know some ancient Alexandria and physician there we go well that's interesting that's how they practice medicine back then it's not like that these stories are archetypal they are they are allegories there may be more than that or either not only that but they're allegorical and spiritual to capture universal human experiences temptations longings aspirations virtues that stand as models of the right and the wrong way to do things for all eternity and so we are when we read these books we're to identify with Cain we're to identify oh I'm like that in this respect I'm like that in this respect these are these are these stories have have of universal significance so they're not there just to satisfy our curiosity about some episode of past history and in such you know the the the sin of Cain is one that we all identify with I think how many times have I wanted to bring down somebody who was more successful than me at doing good because I resented their own perfection because it made me more aware of my own imperfection or how often if I presented the disparate circumstances that what would seem to be chance has thrown into our lives why you know and that's the cry of the psalmist - you know what why is this guy thriving when I'm so much of a better guy or however but we all experience that right and in terms of the context in which the book of Genesis was written marking somebody out as an outcast and a criminal is a real threat to their social well-being right particularly in a culture that doesn't have a legal system or judicial system and the only form of justice known is the vendetta you know I had a young man the other day who's who's kind of a tough you know likes to settle things the old-fashioned way say to me man I would've been so good in the Middle Ages just call a duel get it over with and we'd be done you know that's the way it used to be for everybody in the whole world so these are the kind of considerations that we would bring to bear and understand the book of Genesis within the scope of the narrative itself the questions that you ask just aren't raised so where Adam was mean earth was a big place Adam could have been anywhere you know I mean these we're talking about grown men here my brother and I go and have a fight you know we're not gonna wait until dad's around to do it and then who are all these people again the the narrative itself suggests that there were a lot of people there were cities right with which Cain would have to contend what's the time span how much time is elapsed from their expulsion from the Garden of Eden doesn't say long enough for there to be cities again just within the context of the narrative not looking at you know the archaeology and the paleontology and all that narrative says these guys lived hundreds and hundreds of years you you can do a lot of business in a few hundred years eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six those numbers are toll-free anywhere in North America if you're outside the United States and Canada we'd love to hear from you your number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we will put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send us an email email us at CTC at ewtn.com that's CTC at ewtn.com and you can also text your question to dr. Anders text to letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for response text your first name in your question message and data rates may apply you know this is the season here in the springtime where you're seeing a lot of first communions you're seeing a lot of confirmations and things like that and and what greater place to find that perfect little something for that special person in your life that may be going through one of these milestone sacraments than ewtn religious catalogue mother angelica always thought it was very important that we surround ourselves with what she called holy reminders it's also important that we catechized and educate ourselves you can find all kinds of things to do just those things at ewtn our c.com that's ewtn our c-calm you're listening and watching called to communion with dr. Dave and Anders here on EWTN [Music] eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our toll-free number that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're watching on TV you can join the conversation by sending us an email CTC at ewtn.com back to the phones we go David is right here in Dothan Alabama listening on Sirius XM channel 130 David thanks for holding you wrong with dr. Anders thank you thank you dr. Anders I really enjoy your show thank you I had a question regarding the Apostles Creed it's got its may be a two-part question but when I was I'm during Lent I'm saying the rosary daily so I've been pondering the Apostles Creed and was wondering if if the Apostles Creed preceded the Nicene Creed and then by the second part of the question and when the in the Apostles Creed it says that he descended into hell and on the third day rose again and is seated at the right hand of rose again from the dead so I guess I was I'm not sure what they mean rose again and suggested sure sure I can help you with both those questions thank you for asking them in the ancient church before the 4th century Creed's were almost always associated with the sacrament of baptism and there are hints of this even within the New Testament in mark chapter 16 Jesus says whoever believes and is baptized will be saved and Paul talks about confession with the mouth and being saved so the idea that one would make a verbal profession of one's faith at the moment of Christian initiation ie baptism deeply embedded in the biblical texts and in the earliest strata of the church's tradition and when we when we find enumerations of the rule of faith or the list of things that Catholics have to believe they're always associated with these baptismal Creed's one of the oldest baptismal Creed's that we know of the most August was called the old Roman symbol and symbol is another word for a Creed or a statement of faith and it was the baptismal Creed used in the Church of Rome in the second century and that is the basis for the Apostles Creed that's why it passed into the Latin Church because ours is the Western Church and Rome had the strongest sway in in Latin Christendom when the Council of Nicaea met to decide the the Arian question the heretic arias had denied the full divinity of Jesus and there was a big debate raging about precisely how to define the doctrine of Christ's divinity how was the Sun related to the Father they wanted to come up with a statement of faith that would be universally accepted by Catholics everywhere throughout the world and impose it on the universal Church as a normative statement of Christian belief it was natural that they would reach into the language of these baptismal Creed's to find the base text and so you know first drafts if you will were different bishops from throughout the world said well this is the one we use in our church and well this is the one we use in our church and and they settled on one and then they adjusted it as necessary to specifically anathematized Arian heresy so that's the relationship now in terms of the translation rose again in Latin of course it's resurrects it it's just a single word and the the rose again is simply an idiomatic translation of that one singular act of resurrection in Latin you know in in linguistics an idiom is a phrase that has a meaning that is somewhat different from the literal sense of the words well the meaning of the phrase the idiomatic meaning of the phrase rose again is he got up walked out of the tomb it doesn't imply that he did it more than once he only did it once and that's what the phrase captures you could say well it's an in felicitous translation okay fine but it's it's also fairly traditional and and I think it reflects the you know the re su RR exat re in Latin meaning you know the prefix meaning again that's how it got worked out that way people that were maybe a little overly literal and they're the way they handled the Latin language but there's no theological significance to the again again part other than he just got up and walked out I always wondered how you say it's raining cats and dogs in Aramaic that's a good question camels and fish go eight three three two eight eight EWTN is our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we received an anonymous text and the question is why did the Catholic Church switch the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday well we didn't exactly because we don't celebrate the Sabbath Sabbath was a Jewish holiday and the New Testament is fairly clear that Christians are not to be Sabbath observers in the same sense and in fact st. Paul says absolutely do not let anybody judge you with respect to Sabbath observance because this is a shadow passing away with the entire Mosaic law New Moon's Sabbath's all the Terkel feasts of the Jewish calendar not gonna go they're not what the Christian faith is about and and so what happens on the Lord's Day is is different than what Jews did on the Sabbath of course the the Jewish Sabbath have you go back and read the Ten Commandments as the day of rest that's what it is right it wasn't a day of worship every day in the Jewish calendar was a day of worship they offered sacrifice in the temple every day they rested one day a week in imitation of God who rested on the last day of his creation and also to give servants and people like that some time off now what are we doing the Christian Church we worship God every day just like the Jews did we offer sacrifice every day like the Jews do we offer the sacrifice of the Holy Mass every day we also recognize the principle that it is right and just for laborers to be given time off to pursue religious duties and other things that need some their families and so forth and that's that's actually a principle of net the natural law you don't even need revelation to know that if you work people to death they die so we give people time off so they can do some more and our leisure is really the basis of culture as Joseph's people once said it's necessary for the human person and to a certain extent there's also an analogy in the the idea of waiting til God finished all his work of creation and then taking a day of rest as a model for human behavior because the Christian adoption the New Testament doctrine is God recreates the world in the resurrection of Jesus this is the beginning of the new order and so the the first day of the week is really the first day of the rest of the story and so we hello and celebrate that day and Christians have from the very beginning celebrated the day of the Lord's resurrection as a special feast is the oldest feast in the church it's not precisely just like we kicked the Sabbath one day forward that's the wrong way to think about it rather we're celebrating the recreation of the world in the resurrection of Jesus and Christians have always done so but there's other things about giving people the day off and offering sacrifice and worship on a daily basis we still do that next stop Marion Indiana Wesley's in Marion listening on Sirius XM channel 130 Wesley what's on your mind today well thank you for taking a call I love to listen to you on on Sirius radio in my car when I'm driving thank you I was listening to the conversation with a woman with the acedia and I was thinking perhaps she's forgotten grace that if grace is a grace it it would be moving if she understood grace to be as big as it is it would be moving her out of that you said we all know we ought to pray if grace is Grace and doesn't that change the art to a magnificent opportunity so the specific question is how does grace work in peeling from these maladies and the other one would be since we are under the new covenant in a sense shouldn't we or don't we have the opportunity to concentrate more on grace than on the arts and shoulds because all of those arts and shoulds have by grace become magnificent opportunities and I ramble too much or can you pull a question out of there I think you've got several threads of reasoning that are tied together so let me try to unpack them a little bit and respond clearly grace is operative in our confrontation with all of the wounds of original sin all right because of original saying we have wounds in our nature that incline us to do the wrong thing we have egotism we have malice we have concupiscence we have ignorant and these manifests themselves in the seven deadly sins pride and sloth and lust and gluttony and anger and jealousy and all the rest of them and grace comes in and heals our nature it enables us to to be healed from those wounds and overcome those those capital faults and you know the virtues that are infused into our life along with grace Faith Hope and love and prudence temperance and fortitude and and justice and all of these all of all the rest of them they are the antidotes to these things and we we grow in them as we cooperate with grace so we have the infused virtues but we also have the opportunity to consciously cooperate to perform acts of virtue and as we do we're strengthened in that we are cooperating with grace God gives more grace makes it easier to live the holy and Christian life one of the you talked about the contrast sauce between the alt and the opportunity I I think it's personally my view I think it's a little bit overblown in that contrast the church has laws and God has laws our precepts both of the natural and the revealed law and they're there to guide us in those opportunities so one of the reasons the church mandates that her children go to Mass on Sundays and holy days is precisely to help us form those habits of cooperating with grace through worship I mean if it's a dia is a disinclination to pray and worship God because we'd rather just lie on the couch and you know eat bonbons the church is saying no you have an obligation to get your tail up out of head and go do it and look I've I've been on the road before away from my home parish away from my friends and family and you know I'd look in the phone book or whatever and and there's some parish I've never heard of and some priests I don't know and sometime I've never been and and and I've still got to make it to the airport and have ever gone to mass just out of that obligation of course I have no that's not my general motive I go because I want to be there and worship God and to receive the Eucharist but look I've I have I confess I've gone to fulfill my Sunday obligation and good for the church for making me do that so the the obligation and the opportunity flow together alright because the obligation what the church says st. Thomas of my favorite theologian says sin is nothing other than an inordinate act it's an act against Reese and it's an act that actually harms us all right so the the law basically God commands be happy not your concept your limited concept of happy but what I can tell you about happy go do that go do those things are going to attend to your absolute and ultimate flourishing you know so many times in the situations similar to what you just described when I may have acted out of obligation more than out of charity God seems in those moments to overwhelmingly show me his grace yeah yeah sure sure when you need it most that's exactly right that's exactly right thanks so much for that phone call Wesley we appreciate it the number to be on the program is eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six next up is Fred in Carlisle Pennsylvania listening on Holy Family Radio Fred you were on with dr. Anders thank you so very much I appreciate the opportunity to ask a few questions this is pretty fundamental at least for me I absolutely believe that God is all-knowing knew everything before and now and everything into the future so my question is how a couple did God know that the angels would fall and did God know Adam and Eve would fall before those things took place yes and yes he certainly did and God and every other possibility the possibility that could have happened right exactly he could calculate all the betting odds learned that from you but you know so why why then did he create a universe in which he knew with certainty that sin would enter in because he intended to make use of that human fault to bring about some greater good and you say well that doesn't make any sense well actually it does make a lot of sense and we have analogies to that in our own experience all the time how many parents have consciously allowed something to happen Lao their children to do something that they knew was not a good idea because they could foresee that I can use this for this child I'll let them make this mistake and it'll be an opportunity for them to learn something of tremendous value all of us I think if you're any good if unless you're a helicopter parent who micromanages which I've also done you will you will do that you know so we have analogies in our own experience all the time and maybe sometimes you don't see the good that God's gonna bring out of it but that doesn't mean he doesn't see the good and jesus said there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don't need to repent that's an astonishing thing to say that there's some kind of beauty virtue or value in the turning of a soul from evil to good that is different from the great value of a soul that's never done evil they're both amazing but they're different in their quality and because God's a great artist he makes a beautiful universe that contains both kinds of beauty was it was a Thomas Aquinas that said that that God would allow bad things to happen for one of two reasons one you just articulated that a greater good could come out of it the other being if I'm not mistaken that it could be averting an even greater tragedy there's just other subdivisions of the same category there I don't know kind of opposite in Thomas is one many theologians who gives that answer that God allows evil so the good may come up at the Meneses standard theological answer and you can start enumerated the kinds of goods that you might think of one of them would be averting greater evil sometimes in individual cases it is actually to inflict punishment on the wicked because sin is its own punishment and it could also be the one I alluded to which is the unique good that is a converted soul and I'm sure we can come up with several more - well one great good that we can all learn marketing there you go one great good that we can offer is the opportunity for one-stop shopping when it comes to news from a Catholic perspective and that's the Catholic news agency they gather some of the best of the Catholic blogosphere and editorials and articles all to one site you can find that a Catholic news agency dot-com a division of EWTN news that's Catholic news agency dot-com 833 - 880 WTM is our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six next up is Christine in Greenville South Carolina listening on Sirius XM channel 130 Christine you are on with dr. David Anders hi good afternoon thank you so much for taking my call so my question is regarding cremation and the Catholic viewpoint and then a second question that I thought of while I was reading was could you address things that we do choices we make in our life that modifies our body and kind of the Catholic view on things like breast implants and cosmetic procedures that sort of thing okay thanks I appreciate the question so traditionally Catholics were forbidden to cremate they are now allowed to cremate but they are dissuaded from doing so and there are situations when you don't have any choice could be concerns of finance or what there be a lot of reasons but it's better not to if you can because it's more commenced the doctrine of the resurrection of the body it is however no problem for God God knows what you looked like and God knows every particle of matter from which you were constructed and he is certainly able to reconstitute your physical body in its glorified form from a single atom if he wants to so it's not a problem for God he can do it he can resurrect us even if her bodies are cremated um traditional view is that he is going to use some of the particular matter that constituted our physical body maybe not all of it but he'll use some of it so that there's some continuity with the historical person but that's a theological opinion it's not a dogma and but from our point of view yes you can cremate but you cannot do so for superstitious reasons the law disallows cremation for superstitious reasons so you can't go cremate somebody and scatter their ashes on the ganges in imitation of the Hindus and their belief in reincarnation that would be a super superstitious reason a wrong reason to do it and you know I had a friend die this fall I'm very fond of and I've already been twice two or three times to his grave you know I don't think he's there but I'd like to be in physical proximity to his body and think about it's gonna get up one day and walk out of that tomb and and I pray for his intercession and I like to be in proximity to his relics when I do so and that's a that's a that's a good motive that's the proper way to think about the remains of our loved ones well their existence in and of themselves are a reminder for us to pray for them precisely yeah eight thirty three to eight eighty wtn is our toll-free number eight three three to eight eight three nine eight six next up is Frank in Buffalo New York listening on the station of the cross Frank Rama dr. Anders in a cogent way I'm you might covered a little bit Acts Roman Catholicism and what I see as the attitude of the people in the pews it's almost become like a test if you will it's like a I punched a be Caesar if you will or obligation thing where people do what they do because it it's almost like they're ordered to that you go to Sunday Mass because they have to it's a day of obligation instead of out of a sphere like Wesley said of charity it seems to me that my fries my Protestant friends I talk to a lot why we're so uptight about all these things and why what went the president is almost like just come on over to the party and jump in the pool and everyone's invited it where the Catholics are well you got to take this test first and you got to do it in triplicate and if statue eyes and cross your T's and if you're good enough and maybe watch into the patio I'm sure let me I'll speak to that Frank and I appreciate the question I'll speak to that as a convert to the Catholic Church because I've been in both camps I became a Catholic for one reason only was for authentic relationship with Jesus and nothing else about the church mattered to me other than that it could bring me into a deeper and more authentic relationship with Christ first for me that meant a proper doctrinal understanding of who God was and what his will for me was in life I reformed my thinking about my relationship to him and look if you don't have the right idea about someone you can't have an honest and authentic relationship with them you can have a relationship with a fiction but it's not the person you're actually dealing with so it reformed my thinking about God and about Christ then Christ gives me tangible objective signs and tools and instruments of entering into a spiritual invisible but powerful relationship with them and these tools are called the sacraments above all the holy sacrament of the Eucharist when I encounter Christ's body blood soul and divinity there's no that this is not about passing a test it's not about crossing T or dotting an eye or anything this is about consuming Christ in the most intimate way possible and is for many people the primary motive they have in becoming Catholic because they believe Jesus's words if you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have life and I could go on if I had more time and say the same thing about all of the sacraments a love to hear the words of Absolution from a priest i absolve you by the authority of the church did the ministry of the church that is the body of Christ you know receive His grace this is an unbelievable experience and it's all about intimacy in the deepest and darkest places in my soul so it's all about relationship with Christ it's also about life in a society because God does not simply call me to a private relationship with him like my own personal winnie-the-pooh he calls me into a family that's 2,000 years old and a billion people strong and of course every family does have rules you know trouble sometimes they can't enforce them I was always trying to get my kids to sit down to a white tablecloth dinner and like you know pass the mustard politely that was always tough to do but I recognize the value in it you know and expectations about how people are going to treat one another and behave you have to otherwise you can't function coherently as a society so it doesn't bother me doesn't offend me that there might be rules and regulations governing the way Catholics conduct themselves in that society now as human beings that are prone to sin can we get our priorities out of whack and can you walk into a Catholic community where you feel like well there's too much emphasis on following the rules and not enough on you know this confrontation with Christ and the sacraments of course let me tell you something that's true of every religious community now when I grew up in a tradition of angelical Protestantism that promised all this deep personal intimacy away with all rules it's all about me and Jesus let me tell you something buddy that can be as formulaic and artificial as you can possibly imagine do you know how many times I invited Jesus into my heart when I was a little kid like fifty thousand okay and and we used to sing a song in Bible Camp one door and only one and yet its sides are too I'm on the inside on which side are you the kind of divisiveness and sectarian hubris that can characterize what was supposed to be all about love and relationship and it really becomes about sectarian challenges to my identity and power politics and cults of personality and I'm not saying that's everything I'm just saying you can have dysfunction in any kind of religious community so I'm not gonna judge based on the worst examples what's the intent of Christ what did Jesus leave for me to know him and in spite of objective difficulties that can emerge in Catholic life it still remains the church that Christ founded with everything that we need for life and godliness you've got a minute Katy in San Diego California on YouTube wants to know what Jesus looks like now is he spirit and body well yes of course and he will he will be embodied for all eternity because the second person of the Trinity assumed a human nature rose again from the dead ascended into heaven and awaits us in glory and we will enjoy him forever in that way David thanks for your time as always Jack thank you on behalf of our host dr. David Anders our producer Michael Burchfield call screener Ryan Penney and our social media maven mr. Jeff verse and I'm Jack Williams again sitting in for Tom price thanks so much for tuning in to EWTN Skol to communion until we get together next time god bless [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: EWTN

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Id: tx4HN1ZBkwc

Length: 50min 31sec (3031 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019