Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - 2019-12-28 - Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders

what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests why do Catholics worship Mary why do I need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the Bible I think that's too much authority you are called to communion with dr. David Anders hey everybody welcome again to called to communion this is the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith maybe you've got some curiosity about what does the Catholic Church teach what does it not teach let's get those questions answered right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN if you have a question about the Catholic faith eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six outside North America dial the u.s. country code and then 205 two seven one two nine eight five and those of you watching us on TV right now you can participate as well our email address ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com Charles Bering is our producer we have Ryan Penney as our phone screener Jeff Burton is on social media right now and so if you're watching us live via Facebook or YouTube you can pose your questions right there Jeff will shoot those to us here in the studio I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders um how are you doing very well how are you my friend we're going to lead off with an email as we're getting some of these calls screened here is one from sue who says how can you reconcile belief in a Supreme Being aka God with the data and facts that we have from science and evolution again that's from sue oh yeah thanks I really appreciate the question so I'm not sure I understand why you think there is a conflict right so I would love to have you spell out why that's a difficulty because see what the way science works science takes takes a quantitative measurable approach to physical phenomenon so you know how fast is this isotope decay and how much does that thing weigh and what's the rate of acceleration of this other business and then and then it generalizes from those and and and comes up with laws that are descriptions basically of the way that matter moves and changes so science begins with this kind of analysis of something that already exists namely the material world that has extension and measurement properties that you could grasp with mathematical tools what science does not account for is why is there matter to begin with hmm right or even if you even if you can can you know derive some sort of materialistic explanation for the present state of matter you start with something prior like quantum states or quantum fields or something like that quantum possibilities why are there quantum states and why are there quantum possibilities others why is there something how do you account for being itself and and what Catholics mean by the word God just is the very act of being itself that's what the word God means in in Catholic parlance God is the very act of to be another definition that I really appreciate that you find in the Catholic tradition for God is that God is the first principle what does that mean well the principle is that from which something proceeds like you know from the principles of geometry from the axioms I should say of geometry you can you can derive geometric proofs and come to conclusions in that science right that's what a principle is well reality reality as including the physical world proceeds from underlying more metaphysically basic principles and and all of reality stands in relationship to a principle of its intelligibility it's the fact that it can be grasped by science or philosophical analysis shows that reality has an ordered structure and proceeds as an effect from an underlying principle or reason or as on debt mm-hmm well that's just what we mean by the word God so as I understand it as Catholics understand the word God God is presupposed in every kind of scientific explanation because science proceeds from the assumption that reality is intelligible and that it proceeds from calls to effect and that we are adequate to grasp those relationships and describe them but that presupposes that reality has that kind of structure that reality is in effect that it proceeds from a cause that it's intelligible that it can be explained and the the ultimate state of affairs so to speak in light of which everything takes on its intelligibility that's just what we mean by the word God and you say to me well that didn't really tell me a lot about God other than that God is just what whatever else God might be God's just where the explanatory buck stops and I responses you yes exactly right and Catholics actually claim to know very little about the essence or nature of God we don't know God we don't know the first principle in its essence but only from its effects and so really for a Catholic philosopher discussions about God are just as much a discussion about the order of rational explanation rather than discussions about the existence of some concrete object in addition to material reality that's the way a lot of atheists like to think of it they think well you know we've got the physical world with trees and aardvarks and platypuses and and you know supermodels and Catholic apologists and then you add an extra item called God Catholics like no no you misconstrue the whole thing we don't think God is like one extra item in a catalog of concrete beings God is the condition for the intelligibility of all those discrete concrete entities I'm just trying to imagine a Venn diagram with supermodels and Catholic apologist aardvarks are far got to have those aardvarks ooh thank you so much for your email here's a quick one from Edgar watching us on Facebook in the mass why does the priest say so that they may become for us dot dot dot what is the implication of the us is the Eucharist for some and not for others okay actually yes the ami up is two different questions there what's the for us yeah and is the Eucharist for some and not for others the for us is that Christ became incarnate for us for us right it is he didn't just do it for no purpose or no reason or just you know to show off or something but the Creed says for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven became incarnate born of the Virgin Mary and so forth became man it's for our sake now the Eucharist specifically is not for the whole world it is for the church it's for the church and and the sacrifice of the mass is not offered for everyone but for the church and and in fact Jesus himself gives instruction in this matter as does st. Paul about who can legitimately lawfully or validly or profitably receive Communion and who can't and some people shouldn't because they're not properly disposed very good Edgar thanks for checking us out on Facebook in a moment we'll be talking with max in Lincoln Nebraska have a couple lines open for you if you have a question for dr. David Andrews eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six called a communion here on EWTN do stay with us you [Music] it's called a communion here on EWTN and if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we begin with max in Lincoln Nebraska checking us out today on spirit Catholic radio hello max what's on your mind today hi thank you so much for taking my question so I am Catholic and I was asked recently about mortal and venial sin and so I directed my friends who first John chapter 5 where John talks about the difference between deadly sin and that is deadly and he responded by saying that in Acts chapter 15 with Ananias and Sapphira they lied to the Holy Spirit and to the Apostles and they literally were struck debt and so that was what they mean by deadly sin that it actually results in physical death and not any sort of spiritual death and so I just wanted to know how you would respond to that yeah sure so so you know rather than then get kind of persnickety about the exegesis of first John chapter 5 and we could take different opinions on the right way to understand that of the right context I'd be more interested in defending the concept that we can in fact differentiate between sins and that some are more grave or some less grave and I think that there are other ways of making that case so for example st. James and chapter 3 of his epistle says we all stumble in many ways but if anyone can control his tongue he's the perfect man and and he actually warns in that context that not many people should become teachers because they'll be judged more strictly right and and you know both in book of Hebrews and st. Paul's epistles they they differentiate between beginners in the faith and those that have moved beyond the the first elements into a deeper engagement with the truths of the Christian religion and like good books of Ephesians for example st. Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened that we could enter into this kind of deeper knowledge of the love of God suggesting that there are kind of degrees of sanctification and the Christian life but the fact of their being degrees more or less perfection so to speak is not in contradiction with the fact that there are some deeds that the Apostle identifies that will categorically kick us out of the state of life the state of grace and passage like Galatians chapter 5 identifies those so Paul says if you do the following things if you commit adultery or fornication or adultery these kinds of things you will not inherit the kingdom of God and so we have a picture of Christian life where there is a there is a perfection of holiness that the Apostles urge us to pursue and to pray for that it that entails this mystical identification with the love of God there's a beginning stage in the Christian life where we're just handling the first elements of coming out from the world and and you know we've baptized and we're trying to adopt a Christian mode of living but then there are those deal-breakers like adultery and fornication apostasy murder that Paul says we do those we will not inherit the kingdom of God so it's in the light of that larger context that the church reads a passage like first John chapter 5 but you know if you want a quibble about that one text I don't think the Catholic doctrine on on the gradation of sins hangs on the exegesis of one text alone okay and max thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN if you have a question for dr. David Andrews eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it is called to communion here on EWTN interesting question here from Chad in South Africa who says where did the Sacrament of Confirmation come from and where is it stated in the Bible is it a rule that was made by a man like the rule that women can't be priests yeah I think so in the we learn about confirmation especially as a sacrament in the book of Acts particularly chapter 8 when we read about those converts to the faith who have been baptized they've received the message about Christ and they've believed they've been joined to the church but we are told that they have not received the gift of the Holy Spirit and so the Apostles went to them laid hands on them so they might receive the gift of the spear so there we have confirmation of the Sacrament of Confirmation that there is a there-there's a gift of the Holy Spirit that comes through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles that is distinct from baptism and that equips believers for the work of the ministry and for Christian life and bearing witness okay now he's also saying the rule that women can't be priests which is right it's kind of like the rule that gravity doesn't push up right you know it's like it this is it is it is impossible it's not just a rule right it's the church has absolutely no authority to ordain women priests and if a if a if a bishop performed the external right he actually pronounced the words and gestures of the Rite of ordination the sacrament on a woman nothing would happen it'd be like you can't consecrate the Eucharist with like you know fish and chips if you pronounce the words of consecration you would just still have fish and chips right all right you've got to have the the proper matter of bread and wine to transform the body and blood of Christ and the same thing if you don't have if you don't have someone who is capable of receiving the sacrament of orders merely reciting the words of the prayer is not going to affect any change in the person right so and and this is by this is by Christ's institution Christ himself only chose men for the Apostolic in the priestly office it's not like he didn't have any women around and nor was he hampered by social conventions of the time he kind of got killed for overturning the social conventions of the time he wasn't scrupulous about that at all and and the church teaches us that there's some reasons why Christ chose to only ordain men to the sacred priesthood most importantly is that they stand in relationship to the community of the faithful as Christ does to the church they are his standards quite literally whoever hears you hears me the relationship of the priest of the church and the priest of the liturgical community is that of a husband to a bride or a father to a family and you know a woman can't be a priest for the same reason woman can't be a father now that doesn't take anything away from her dignity I can't be a mother right and and we all have a role to play in the in the Christian Church and in and in the world that is that is distinct to our sex into our own personal vocation now again it's it's the priesthood and authority all don't don't completely overlap in the life of the Catholic Church so there are plenty of their instances in Catholic life where a woman might have authority over a priest say for example in a lot of diocese the Department of Education for example okay let's say you have a woman who's the superintendent of Catholic school of her diocese and that's her job I mean she's got that authority maybe she's got a you know a priest who works in some subordinate capacity within that ministry of that educational Ministry of the church he's not a pastor of a congregation perhaps but an educator he might answer to the superintendent of school so she's actually got authority you might have women in authority and in Catholic agencies and something like say Catholic media oh yeah right where where you might have a foundress of the world's largest religious broadcaster running television and radio and shortwave around the world that happens from time to time it has indeed thank you so much for watching us and listening to us in South Africa Chad we do appreciate hearing from you via email if you'd like to send us an email for a future show the address CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com it is called a communion today here on EWTN or phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six right now we're going to go to a call that we received during after hours on our listener comment line hello my name is Jon I am calling from and I got into a relationship with a lady about two years ago and I've been going to the English Maths pen but a part of me is still yearning to go back to the Latin Mass and know that there are there are a few different things obviously the language between the men English but also like the fact with like in English math people receive on their hands not on their tongue it almost is like a more reverent in the latter than in the English and I guess I'm just trying to figure out why that is and why we have like women altar servers in English instead of all men how it is in the traditional okay okay yeah thanks I appreciate the question so first of all I would tell you that if you're yearning for the Latin Mass have at it go to this is licit you are allowed to so yearn and this is why Pope Benedict actually created a legal structure that allows the faithful in a diocese to ask for the extraordinary form of the mass to be said in their parish or to make provision for them so that they can celebrate the last the mass in a way that that it speaks to their spirituality so if that's if that's your if that's your kettle of fish so to speak then please do God worship God in the way that moves you most to devotion and to piety so I would encourage you to do that in terms of trying to conceptualize the difference between the the ordinary Rite of the mass and the extraordinary ride of the mass storm a form of the mass I should say the major difference is not communion on the hand or Wuan altar servers the major difference envisioned by the Second Vatican Council was the active participation of the laity and by active I don't mean that they serve as altar servers right what what we're really talking about here is that the the laity are drawn into the dynamic of the liturgical prayers and so the responses in the mass the the laity verbally pronounced a lot of the prayers of the mass along with the priests and and the purpose of that is so that they will be conscious of something that is also true in the extraordinary form and that is it is not the ministerial priest alone who offers the sacrifice of the mouse the ministerial priest at the altar is the one who affects the sacrifice by consecrating the Eucharist and only the Ministerial priests can do that but the whole church joins together in offering the sacrifice to God in reparation for the sins of the world that's why in the ordinary form the priests in tones pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father and the whole church offers it together and so all of these changes in the celebration are there to to encourage and elucidate and express this active participation of the faithful right and the differences that you noted are not essential right because you can celebrate the the ordinary form by receiving Communion on the tongue you can celebrate the ordinary form without girl altar servers you could you could make a lot of those things exactly it you could even do it in Latin you can do the ordinary form in Latin I've seen it done in Latin many times so those aren't there really essential differences the key issue is that is that question of active participation because in the extraordinary form of the mass there are no rubrics for the faithful they're there there's no instruction for the contribution of the faithful to the celebration of the liturgy beyond their their their pious presence right and in fact in many traditional celebrations of the liturgy the laity would be doing something in prayer completely different from what the priest is do you might have a priest at the altar saying the mass laypeople infused maybe praying the rosary reading a missile reading bravery reading some pious literature doing their own private devotions they really could be engaged almost almost two separate events right United of course in Holy Communion sure and and the Fathers of the council really wanted to make the ordinary form a source of union of a unity between the ministerial priests and the people of God okay well we thank you so much for that call it is called a 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 Mayra now in Huntsville Alabama listening on Sirius XM channel 130 hey Myra what's on your mind today sure can go right ahead okay so I was just thought thanks for taking my call I was just calling to ask about the development of the understanding of Trinitarian God maybe if you could talk a little bit what was the Jewish understanding I don't think that they had that grasp at all and then our Lord Jesus comes and we're about exactly the the early church begin to really grasp this yeah thanks I appreciate the question so there's no evidence that that believers in the Old Covenant understood anything about the Trinitarian nature of God or that certainly Jews don't in fact they recoil against the Trinitarian doctrine of the Christian Church the emphasis of the Old Testament is on God's you Nissa t there's one God something of course Catholics believe something of course that Trinitarian believers a hold but that's the emphasis of the Old Testament teaching as opposed to the polytheism of the pagan world the God of Israel is not just a local tribal deity is in fact the creator of the universe that's the emphasis of the Old Covenant now what we learn in the New Testament is that there that even as the created order proceeds from God by his act of creation God is the source of creation that there is a procession a proceeding from God that is that is eternal coextensive with himself and far more important and that is the procession of the son from the father all right and that that there is this procession in God and it reveals to us that God in his innermost nature is a communion of love and that's the communion of the Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit and although there is one God one divine essence there is a distinction of persons such that God in in knowing and loving himself has a genuine communion of persons and it this is good for us to know because it it illumines our understanding our own creation in his likeness and image and to be recreated after the likeness and image of Christ is to come to participate far more to compete for to participate fully in this in this communion of love that is our highest destiny Jesus reveals this to us progressively throughout his ministry in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke Christ's divine authority is evident right his fold divine identity clearest in the Gospel of John the church course professed and believed that early on but defined the contours of the dogma in the early fourth century at the Council of Nicaea very good Myra thanks so much for your call lots more straight ahead here on EWTN s call to communion with dr. David Anders to stay with us it's called a communion here on EWTN full lines at the moment if a line becomes available you're invited to join us at eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here's Kathleen now listening in Kenosha Wisconsin and she is a first-time caller Kathleen what's on your mind today I was wondering why there's decades of the Rosary our cause mysteries thank you I appreciate the question in the New Testament the word mystery or in Greek mysterium means something different than the word mystery means in English the the New Testament concept of a mystery is something that was formerly hidden that has now been revealed now a lot of times when we use the word mystery or mysterious in modern English we mean something that's that's hard to understand or to penetrate and that's not what the New Testament means by a mystery in the New Testament sense a mystery might be something that's perfectly understandable once it's been revealed to you but it's something that you couldn't find out on your own and so Jesus says for example to his fossils when they ask him why do you teach in parables he says well to those outside I teach in parables but - you have been revealed the mysteries of the kingdom and that's why I tell you everything openly right so it wasn't something that was intrinsically difficult to understand it was just something that was only transmitted to the initiate so to speak right and so the minute when we call the mysteries or the Rosary are these truths these are the truths about the lives of Jesus and the Blessed Mother things that we would not have known just from sort of rational historical investigation had they not been revealed to us from above that's what the word mystery means in this context okay Kathleen thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Jerry now in Gresham Oregon listening on one of our very first affiliates Mater Dei radio out of Portland hey Jerry what's on your mind today oh yes thank you for taking my call and by the way I want to say how much I appreciate dr. Andrews and this program thank you the you're welcome the question I have is that dr. Andrews has said several times if I understand correctly that the main reason we go to Mass is to participate in the sacrifice of the mass that NASA is essentially a sacrifice and that although communion is a very important part of math and a very beautiful sacrament that's not the main reason for going to Mass and I told that to some friends who are Catholics very spiritual actually but they just completely dismissed what I was saying and indicated that that was you know wouldn't even listen to an explanation although not sure I really had one to further really you know bring the point across yeah so I'm not surprised because the doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass is muted in modern catechetical and I know this for a fact because I work in a Catholic Diocese in the Education Department and I often have an opportunity to compare cata catechol publications coming of the major Catholic presses and I'm not going to say any names but there are some Catholic presses where you know if I get a book for confirmation candidates are first communicants and they flip to the section on the Eucharist I'll go oh there it is sacrifice of the mass boom got that and good black and white text right though I see they cite the council trip mmm good good put this one on the Shelf let's keep this one and then I get one from another publisher that will not be named on this show okay and I'm like okay nothing about the sacrifice of the mass in this one Oh lots about the Jewish Passover that's very interesting hmm don't see anything about the Council of Trent okay we're gonna send this one back to the publisher we won't use that one okay and and I believe that there is sometimes I think this is in ignorant I think that there are people of goodwill who were not themselves instructed in the in the traditional teaching about the nature of the Masen and and they've just relied on you know popular press and so forth I'm sure and they're doing the best they can I think at other times there is an agenda by some catechist to suppress the teaching of the sacrifice of the mass because it is one of the major points of disagreement between the the Protestant tradition and the Catholic tradition and in fact Luther considered the sacrifice of the mass to be the greatest blasphemy and he was as adamantly opposed to that as he was to the Church's teaching on the nature of justification and of course in the popular Reformation it was that it was the sacrifice of the mass far more than abstract doctrines about justification that really fired the popular imagination and sort of drove the wedge between the two communities now in terms of the question of the importance of our mode of participation anyone who wants to hold that the communion of the lay faithful is the primary consideration in the liturgy must contend with a thousand years of Catholic history where the laity did not come in now if you hold that the communion of the lay faithful is is the the main show so speak the main purpose then you you must simultaneously hold that the universal church was in grave Prudential error for a thousand years and the celebration of the liturgy because frequent communion of the lay faithful is a 20th century innovation it does not characterize the history of the Latin Rite of the Liturgy at all right and and I would encourage you to read not only traditional theological works like st. Thomas's Summa but spiritual teachers and doctors of the church like Francis de Sales for example who write about the best way for the lay faithful to participate Holy Mass and they highlight this question of the intentional offering of the body and blood of Christ to God in reparation for the sins of the world let me share something from the Second Vatican Council that I think is very recent Magisterial text of some importance obviously to to the contemporary church therefore the church earnestly desires that Christ's faithful when present at this mystery of faith should not be there as strangers or silent spectators on the contrary through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing with devotion and full collaboration they should be instructed by God's Word be nourished at the table of the Lord's body they should give thanks to God by offering the immaculate victim not only through the hands of the priest but also with him and they should learn to offer themselves also through Christ the mediator that they would be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other so that finally God may be all in all and so this is the traditional teaching of the church now this of course incorporates the the idea of a more frequent communion this is in the Second Vatican Council but highlighting there the doctrine of Eucharistic sacrifice and I would urge you to attend to the words of the Eucharistic prayer I don't care if you go with with prayer number one number two number three number four but I really would like you to go with one or three is kind of my favorites right because it's so evident right as the priest makes this offering makes this oblation and cause the whole church into participation and so so the Council of Trent is another interesting distinction that I'd love for you to understand in the Roman catechism the Catechism of the Council of Trent if you read the article on the Eucharist the followers of the council and the writers of the Catechism say the Eucharist is two things two things it is a sacrament and it is a sacrifice a sacrament and a sacrifice and mark this and the difference between the two is very great that's that's daddy that should knock your socks off the difference between the two is very great and then the Catechism goes on to explain that a priest who carries the Blessed Sacrament in a picks to the sick outside the mass offers the sick person a sacrament but not a sacrifice that the sacrifice is only affected in the mass I see all right and so you can have communion you can have communion without going a mass but you can't have the sacrifice without the mass it's one in the same okay very good Jerry thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Francis now she is in San and San Angelo Texas listing on Guadalupe Radio see I'm assuming Francis is a male ms a female we don't know Francis what's on your mind today I got that now Thank You Francis what's on your mind today sure I have a quick question for dr. Anders so I'm reading the Jesus and the Jewish roots of Mary by Brant Petrie yes and in his book he's he's trying to defend her perpetual virginity and the argument that Joseph did not know marry until comes up and he cites a few passages throughout scripture where the Greek word is heals is used and and indicates that there's there's really nothing it's not trying to indicate anything after that point well so anyway I go online to a website to find an interlinear Bible and read this myself and I go to the second samuel chapter 6 verse 23 which was one of the verses used in defense of her perpetual virginity i suppose and and they don't even they don't even cite that word that word doesn't even come up in the passage I don't want to I guess what I'm asking is are there any credible resources that I can get accurate Greek translations from that you may recommend yeah thanks I appreciate the question so so when you look at second samuel 6:23 i assume you are looking at the Septuagint translation because of course in the original second samuel would have been written in hebrew not in greek so if you're looking for usages of a greek preposition you'd have to actually look at the greek translation of that text an english case that would be highly relevant right the Septuagint is the version of the Old Testament that the New Testament writers most often refer to so if you want to use instances of how awesome find in the Septuagint that would be fine um you know I I personally often even while even live on the show I'm doing it right now in fact will reference the website Bible hub vidcom because it has an inner linear translation that not only does it give you the Greek and English side by side but it enables you to word search the Greek terms and you can get grammatical information about you know if this is we're talking about a preposition here but with with nouns you can get the case number and gender and with verbs you can get the full parsing and the you know the voice and mood and all the rest of it and it was used in various context and so forth so it's really taken the place of the of the the old-fashioned concordance you know when I was coming along in school if you wanted to do a word search like this you'd have to begin with a concordance or lectionary yeah and you had hunt-and-peck the thing you know instance by instance and now boom you can do it in seconds with these websites so you know the one that I often use and am I telling you it's the best one no it's just the one that pops to the top of my search engine right okay but I found it to be useful as Bible hub and I will tell you that you're gonna fall and that house the preposition is used in both ways so you're gonna see instances in the New Testament where some state of affairs pertains up into a certain point and then shifts and you're gonna find instances where some state of affairs pertains up into a certain point period vanilla all right and what that means is that that honestly and this is my personal opinion right it's a matter of theological method we need to do careful exegesis of Scripture we of course we do of course we do we need to get down to the nitty-gritty the grammatical level but we can't stop there and ultimately Christian theology is not grounded simply in biblical exegesis it's just not right and in the Bible is not a it's not a manual on theology that's not its purpose that's not why God gave it to us the Bible is a text that we use liturgical II and spiritually and morally for edification and it of course informs the church's reflection on the mystery of redemption but to get the whole picture to have a robust and complete understanding of Revelation you must have everything that God has revealed guided by the Holy Spirit that means sacred scripture that means sacred tradition that means the teaching office of the church you need that whole a set of tools so to speak to to really understand Christian doctrine it doesn't start and end simply with the exegesis of the Greek word house okay Francis thank you so much for your call we do appreciate it it is called a communion here on EWTN in a moment we'll be getting to Christine calling in from New York first I want to tell you a little bit about EWTN s National Catholic Register it is America's most trusted Catholic news source with a comprehensive view of the world from a distinctly Catholic perspective you can trust the National Catholic Register and right now if you want to give the register or subscribe for yourself and receive a special thank-you gift at the same time get this you can order today we will send you our mother Cabrini DVD absolutely free how about that to get started visit NC register.com NC register.com call to communion here on EWTN as promised here as christine in new york listening on her Alexa device a first-time caller hello Christine what's on your mind today hi I have a question that has been giving me a lot of anxiety as my husband and I are going through RCIA the question regards salvation because it seems that the Catholic Church and from work and what I understand you can get salvation if you are is instantly ignorant and short story we grew up around Catholics that basically told us that all you have to do is be a good person to go to heaven and then dekappa the Catechism says well if you're invincible ignorant then you get to heaven so now I'm having this anxiety everybody's because we have a baby and I'm thinking should I just keep our baby invincible ignorance so that I can guarantee my baby's salvation even at the price of myself going to hell but at least by ceasing her invincible ignorance she will not be as accountable and because words always yeah he's like the more you know the more you're accountable right i I understand I understand so I am so glad you called me and I hope I can help you first of all have courage in confidence in God and his love for you and for your child God wants your child in heaven more than you do right and he has appointed the truth for us as the primary means of our salvation right we come to God through our knowledge of the truth that that he didn't establish invincible ignorance as the path for salvation invincible ignorance does not guarantee our salvation it merely inoculates us against some particular moral responsibility right but we don't want to be ignorant whether invincibly or otherwise let me offer you one analogy a hundred years ago people did not know that cigarette smoke causes lung cancer and you had a lot of smoking people we have smoking culture probably most priests in the Western world smoked right and they were not morally responsible for committing a slow suicide because they didn't understand that they were in fact killing themselves with cigarette smoke but they still died of lung cancer Yeah right and immorality is not some arbitrary system of rules laid down some hoop that you have to jump through in order to come to God what God has revealed about our moral condition are really the the constituents of genuine human flourishing and happiness right so if if something is going to wreck my life and make me miserable my first concern is not am I responsible for for for avoiding that or not it's how do I keep my life from becoming a wreck and being miserable and the truth is the way out of that dilemma aided by grace that we receive in the sacraments so if my child is let's say my child is four is invincibly ignorant of the fact that that fornication is a sin and bad for me all right and therefore they go commit fornication even though they really don't understand that it's wrong well what is what are the consequences going to be well first of all they're they're going to be they're going to exacerbate their own concupiscence all right it's going to make it harder for them to resist the the appeal of the flesh and that will distract them from their primary consideration in life which is the contemplation of God and the love of neighbor they will probably end up pregnant if they're female or a father if they're male they might contract a venereal disease they're going to have ruptured relationships and have a hard time forming genuine close lifelong attachments they're not going to be equipped to be a good parent I mean the the the list of moral and social pathologies that will flow from that ignorance is is nigh unto infinite so as a parent like I'm not I'm not gonna try to cordon off some tiny little area of their life and try to keep them in the dark in the hopes that God won't zing them I want to fortify them with as much wisdom as I can possibly give them so they can flourish and be the best human being that they can be knowledge of the truth is not given to us so that God can condemn us God gives us knowledge of the truth so that we can be wise and know him and live with him in eternity and he doesn't just give us a command and then leave us on our own to complete it right that's the heresy of Pelagianism right God gives the command but then he turns around and gives us the grace that enables us to live that command that's what the sacraments are for like the teaching of the church conveys the truth the sacraments convey the power to live the truth and the more truth and the more grace the better the better for happiness in this life and the better for happiness in the next so you give your child all of the truth that you can possibly give them that's you know developmentally appropriate at the age at which you know they're moving along because this is the way you will help them to flourish keeping them ignorant will only harm them okay Christine hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN let's go now to Darrell in Red Cloud Nebraska listening on YouTube a first-time caller hey Darryl what's on your mind today yes sir I'm calling about Mary and [Music] her relationship to Ark of the Covenant kind of a comparison between the two okay sure so there is exegesis Catholic ethics to Jesus of the Old Testament that sees the Ark of the Covenant as an allegory for the Blessed Virgin Mary but does that exegesis does that interpretation I mean is that just arbitrary or Catholics just making that up or is there any sort of New Testament precedent for that and we find it actually in Revelation chapter 12 right immediately prior we see this vision of st. John of the Ark of the Covenant in heaven right now you know we know that the the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant buried in the hillside by Jeremiah and lost to history right and of course that the Ark of Moses the mosaic code held the elements of the Old Covenant which are not ultimately definitive for for Christian life right they were a type and a shadow pointing to the fulfillment that is in Jesus Christ so why would John why would God him mortal eyes the the types and symbols and rituals of the Old Covenant in the Kingdom of Heaven if we're to read that quite literally right right after we read that John has this vision of the Ark of the Covenant he then associates that at the same time with a vision of a woman clothed with the Sun Moon and stars who gives birth to the child that will rule the nations with a rod of iron that's a messianic reference to Psalm 2 that's Jesus obviously and she's also identified as the mother of those who believe in Christ and the one who is in confrontation with that ancient serpent that is the devil so lots of lots of reference going on there in that passage Revelation chapter 12 so we bring in the Ark of the Covenant we bring in Eve from the Old Testament we bring in we bring in the serpent bring in the Messianic Psalms and when they bring in the new people of God created not by physical generation from Abraham but by rebirth in and the holy spirit and of course well this is a typology and an allegory it also corresponds to a real historical person there was someone who was the mother of the child who rules the nation with a rod of iron and that would be the Blessed Virgin Mary so that's a New Testament text that grounds all of this allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament all right can Daryl thank you so much for your call appreciate hearing from you today a quick email now as we're heading out the door Kendall says dr. Andrews could you please explain the Catholic Church's interpretation of Romans 11 specifically Romans 11:26 where it states all Israel will be saved what does this refer to okay so that's can I do that in like one seconds probably not all right because this is a this is a really sort of con controverted text of the Bible and whenever somebody says what is the Catholic Church's interpretation of this passage mm-hmm almost always the answer is there isn't one like there are Catholic interpretations the church doesn't generally try to tie us down to to one single interpretation of one single text of Scripture I mean there are exceptions right I think John chapter 6 is pretty evidently about the sacrament of the Eucharist John chapter 3 pretty evidently about the sacrament of baptism attempts to read it in another way are gonna be really forced and not successful but for for huge swaths of the Bible Catholic interpreters take different positions right now so what's at stake in this question Romans nine to eleven really are about how do we relate the Gentile believers in Christ to ethnic Israel and how do we understand God's fidelity to the covenant with ethnic Israel the physical descendants of Abraham and now fortunately I'm saved by the music you know the general thrust of it is that Abraham's physical descendants have a role to play in the unfolding of God's purposes even though the elements of mosaic wall are temporary with a built-in obsolescence and our union to God is through faith in Christ and not by obedience to the Mosaic law now hashing out the details of that is the convoluted work of Catholic theology but not of Catholic dogma very good and that's where we'll have to leave it dr. David Andrews thank you sir yeah thanks join us next time for lots more here on call to communion I'm Tom price have a wonderful day god bless you

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 50min 29sec (3029 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 28 2019