Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - 2020-05-18 - 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 her glory you are called to communion with dr. David Anders buddy welcome again to called a communion here on EWTN it's the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who perhaps have some questions about the Catholic faith why does it teach this why does it not teach this we can clear up those questions for you right here on this program here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're listening outside of North America please dial the u.s. country code and then a special phone number just for you to oh five two seven one two nine eight five you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply also for those of you watching on TV today we have a special email address just for you CTC at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com we'd love to hear from you today Charles berry is our producer Orion penny is our phone screener and Jeff person is on social media he'll be glad to pass on any questions you might want to pose via YouTube or Facebook live because we're streaming there right now as well as all of our other great platforms I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews how are you I'm doing great we are socially distance here Catholic media spacing out about what twelve feet what do you think about twelve feet but I'll tell you this is this is all kinds of better than what we were doing a month ago definitely when we were you know in different buildings and different locations yes yes this actually works I can see you this time and I can see you we're going to lead off here with an email as we're getting some of these calls screen this is from Edward who says the Catechism states that God is the author of scripture and wrote quote whatever he wanted written and no more unquote so why didn't he write more explicitly about Catholic beliefs such as purgatory devotion to Mary and prayers to the Saints if he wanted them to be such a big part of the Christian faith this would have also nullified later objections by certain Protestants who reject them as unbiblical thanks Edward yeah thanks Edward I really appreciate that question so is it there's a problem I believe with the premise of your question and the problem is the idea that God intends the Bible or God should intend to the Bible hmm to be a kind of comprehensive repository of every Christian doctrine but that premise the idea that the purpose of the Bible is to is to lay out for us Christian doctrine that's not a biblical premise listen the Bible doesn't say that about itself and the Catholic Church certainly doesn't say that about the Bible you know what is one of the favorite passages of the Bible everybody loves this passion history but you don't have to be Catholic I mean even non-christians Psalm 23 Psalms we the Lord is my shepherd I like nothing he makes me lie down in green pastures you know in this beautiful metaphor of being one of God's sheep mm-hmm do I lie down in green pastures in Alabama are you kidding hichy embodies lg's lie down in green pastures it's a metaphor it's a metaphor it's poetry it's beautiful why did God put Psalm 23 in the Bible it wasn't a teach about the doctrine of the papacy or purgatory or justification or the atonement or the nature of the Eucharist or any of the things that are in contention with due process and Catholics it was to warm our hearts and inspire us with love for God and that's a special case but all of the Bible more or less has that function scripture is there to edify us to lift up our hearts to God to seek Him to desire him to pray to Him so liturgical texts it's a prayer book you know it has a hortatory at it moral exhortation as Bissell's counseling the church on particular difficulties it has prophetic literature that inspires us with confidence in God's plan for history but all these things are ordered towards edification towards a relationship with Christ by forming our life of Prayer right not teaching dogmatic theology if you want to know dogmatic theology if you'll know the doctrines of the Christian faith you actually have to look not just to the Bible alone but you have to look to the the system the method the authority if you will that Christ established fill that teaching and it he never indicated that the Bible had that job actually he specified something else when he was about to ascend to heaven he called the disciples together the eleven and he said to go into all nations make disciples teach them everything I have commanded you I'll be with you to the end of the age whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven what have you loose on earth is loosed didn't have a gift to Q st. Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven whoever sins you forgive are forgiven receive the Holy Spirit you know whoever sins you forgive forgiving whoever sins you retain are retained Christ gave us the teaching church to expound the truths of the Christian faith to define the contours of our holy religion to pass on the deposit of faith the Holy Church not the Scriptures scriptures are beautiful wonderful inspired by God he desires them to useful for us for our salvation and putting them exactly what he wants to put in them stuff like Psalm 23 sure okay Edward thank you so much for your email here's a quick one now from looks like Jeannine or Jean Ann I think she says my small for women Bible study would like to do a study of st. Joseph the earthly father of Jesus but we're struggling to find much on him do you have any suggestions David yeah thanks so you know there are a number of devotional books about Saint Joseph that have been published in Catholic history and I'm sure he to be TN religious catalogue has got a few of them typically they take one of two forms what we know historically about the life of Joseph is fairly thin to be honest with you don't know a lot about it mm-hmm and and they're actually divergent traditions about about his earthly life and and so you could probably feel just a couple pages with that a lot of the reflection the devotional reflection that that you get on st. Joseph's is really about the intercessory power of st. Joseph in the lives of Catholics down through the centuries so there's a lot more devotional material of that character someone who is a great fan of devotion to st. Joe's of course Teresa of ávila Doctor of the Church a little book I know called the glories of st. Joseph I'm pretty sure you wtn carries it I would imagine might be one to explore and and the writings of someone like Teresa of ávila is she reflects on the role of Saint Joseph and the devotional life of the Catholic faithful there you go Jean Anne some great suggestions for you hope that that is helpful for you by the way if you would like to send us an email for a future show the address ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com in a moment here we're going to get to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we'll be talking with Jack and Lafayette Louisiana also Frank & exton Pennsylvania Peter in Chicago looks like one line open right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six on this edition of call to communion here on EWTN do stay with us now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we're going to begin this time with Jack in Lafayette Louisiana listing on Sirius XM channel at 1:30 hey there jack what's on your mind today today we're doing great thanks how about you I'm doing good just enjoying the weather patterns here in Southwest Louisiana they're very very different but I'm getting used to it of course sure I'm the first time I'm a first-time caller and I'm a little nervous so I'm hoping that my question is understandable to y'all but I'm going through an annulment at this time my wife my wife and I divorced after 20 years of marriage and the anomaly process is going on don't know how long it's going to take due to this Korona 19 pandemic but this is my question I've always had the always wanted to be a deacon in the church a permanent deacon I don't know whether or not me in the situation that I'm in it will allow me to become a deacon once the annulment has been finalized but I'd like to know whether or not I can still be a permanent deacon yeah thank you so have you married again no sir I have not okay all right so if the church grants your annulment that means that the church has decided that you were never validly married to begin with and and if you are if you're not in any irregular marriage that is to say one that that is not valid because it didn't have canonical form or because of some other impediment then there would not be any necessarily any legal barrier to your being ordained to the diagonal now no one is owed the dignity of clerical orders right you just because we meet some legal minimal standard does not mean that the church will in fact determine to call us to the clerical state right and the best story I ever heard about this my own bishop I asked him one time Bishop Robert Baker I said bishop when did you know that you were called to be a priest he said when my bishop ordained me Wow you know I had obviously had a clue before then yeah all the way through seminary and all that but you know but it's essentially it's the approbation the approval the decision of the church that confirms to us that we are in fact called mm-hmm and so if you have this desire my I don't know how it works in in your diocese but my my recommendation would be simply to signal your interest in the DAC in it to whoever is in charge of that process in your diocese and and you know it's generally a pretty long process and even for somebody that doesn't have impediments in their way you know I know in my diocese a kind of minimum of five years to sort of go through the whole program what a discernment and so forth and and then you'll know right you then you'll know yeah yeah all right hey Jack thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now if you have a question for dr. David Andrews at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Frank now Frank and said Exton Pennsylvania listing on one of our longtime affiliates Holy Spirit radio hey Frank what's on your mind today hi um just a question for dr. and his son that Viton has bugged me for a long time because they you get the Calvinist view of salvation means that like man has no responsibility and making a decision and everything is predestined and I just and it always bugged me a little bit in because it seemed like there's a a lot of freewill scripture I was just wondering how you kind of bring those two seeming contradictions together yeah thanks so I don't think they're in contradiction at all now a couple things we know for certain from Sacred Scripture and from sacred tradition one of them is that God is in control of everything nothing falls outside the scope of divine providence so Jesus says not even a sparrow falls apart from the will of God st. Paul says that in in God we live and move and have our being right I mean he is the he's the the ground the the the the immensity of God and his being is the is the necessary condition of our very existence no God you've got you know sneezed so to speak we'd blink out of existence that God doesn't sneeze obviously I'm just saying that to be funny but we depend upon God at every single moment of our life he's there cooperating even even in our very existence he's in control of absolutely everything and and so there's not there's no other realm that's sort of in competition with God you know he doesn't set up some completely independent agency and then just let it go to see how it works out no nothing can be let go off by God because he's what causes everything to be at every moment of their ongoing existence so God's totally in control now when it comes to the question of human salvation God knows in advance everyone who will be saved obviously he's outside of time he sees everything from from beginning to end he knows in advance who will be saved it's also true that that we cannot without God's grace compel God to do anything he's utterly free we had nothing that we do can obligate or compel God he does not owe us the grace of salvation he does not owe us the grace of final perseverance and so if I come to faith in the Lord if I repent of pass it and turn to God it's not because I'm such a great guy he's because his prevenient grace has come before made it possible for me to have that turn once I've come to faith once I've received God's grace there's nothing I can do that compels God to continue to give me that grace that would carry me all the way to the end now he may do so but that's a work of his own benevolence not my desert I cannot merit the grace of final perseverance persevering all the way to the end from the beginning of my very being the beginning of my faith the continuation of my faith in life of virtue and the fulfillment of that is all a matter of God's grace all that is Catholic teaching all that is biblical teaching but scripture also clearly explains clearly expresses that we have an obligation and responsibility to respond to and cooperate with that grace we have to turn away from sin and we have to choose righteousness and when we do that we are not automatics it is not a fiction it's not you we're not we're not Mary and that's on a string that God is manipulating these are our actions the free choice of the will is a human action that proceeds from the human will and so what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says is that the way these things mesh together is that God's predestinate in grace God's providential design God's foreknowledge takes into account and makes use of human free action to bring about the purposes of his will so God chooses to use human free choice as one of the instruments that he will infallibly use to bring about his divine purposes now you say I don't see how that can fit together well let me give you an analogy it's just an analogy it's not a perfect comparison it's just an analogy I'm a parent I have kids when my kids are growing up there were times when when I might orchestrate a scenario in their life where I desired a certain outcome and I knew with nearly infallible certainty that if I made certain inputs into that situation that they would respond in highly predictable ways I kind of I mean really I knew what would happen I knew what would happen I didn't compel them to to choose a particular outcome but I knew darn well what they were going to choose of course you know I mean silly example if you leave the cookie jar on the middle of the kitchen table and take the lid off and walk out of the room you know the three-year-old is gonna put his hand in the cookie jar every time you did not make him do it but you knew darn well he was going to shore you see what I'm saying and and divine providence in our human freedom can fit together in an analogous fashion okay very good I'm Frank we thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN if you have a question for dr. David Anders our phone number is eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six or you can certainly text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero or you could shoot us an email CTC at ewtn.com let's go now to Peter Peter is in Chicago listening on Sirius XM 130 and Peter's a first-time caller hey Peter what's on your mind today so dr. Enders the Brothers of the Lord James can you just put the rest how many James are we dealing with from the disciples into the rest of the three James and how they're Protestants review it in Halle Catholics I'm originally from from the Middle East and I know exactly that word at how its utilized and used and in the word brother and it's it's actually you can use it to your biological brother and refer to him when you're speaking to him and you can also utilize that same word from for thousands of years as long as I knew is that you can refer to your own cousin with the word brother I don't want to say the word and era in Arabic because that's what the word means oh it's actually award ah Hui but it doesn't doesn't have to refer to an actual biological brother you could be speaking with your own friend or cousin say hey it's like saying hey brother you need to kind of slow it down a little bit you need to dial it down a bit but it doesn't translate to biological brother so could you just explain from the biblical standpoint sure absolutely the Protestants feel about it and how many James are we dealing with and put that to rest once and for all right so first of all what why would somebody be motivated in this question - to try to contend for the position that Christ had biological brothers that were children of the Blessed Virgin Mary like why would that be an important doctrine for some Protestant to defend given that at best at best scripture is ambiguous on the question I would argue that it's not ambiguous it's very clear who the brothers of the Lord are in the Bible and I'll show you that in a minute but but let's assume for the sake of argument that is ambiguous right why would a Protestant care and historically I think there's a reason why because they they want to tear down the the the singularity the uniqueness and the dignity of of Mary within the plan of redemption and to and to corrode catholic mariology because they have an animus against it and you think well anders are you really being fair to the protestant position isn't a little bit harsh to ascribe those kinds of motives well I I say this autobiographically because I used to be a Protestant and I took a great sort of perverse delight when I was Protestant in in tearing down Catholic doctrine why well because Catholicism is I mean it's the 800-pound gorilla in the room right and you know and but Protestantism protest is the whole thing is founded in a rejection of Roman Catholicism it is in our role it was at least to me to my Protestant identity not just to be right but for Catholics to be wrong and so every sort of point of Catholic dogma that can stand is that much greater a threat to the integrity of my own position at least that's how I felt that it was and and nothing of course is is harder for Protestants to swallow or deal with than and the uniqueness and the special rule that the Blessed Virgin has in in the history of redemption so now I say that it's you know it's really a polemical politically motivated position earlier Protestants in the 16th 17th century who they may have rejected certain Marian dogmas but they they did not reject the perpetual virginity of the of the Blessed Virgin and that's really what's at issue here right the question of not not the virginal conception of birth of Christ but whether Mary remained a virgin throughout her entire life and then never bore another child now that position the perpetual virginity of Mary is one that early Protestants even into the 17th century confessed and believed Luther believed it amazingly somebody's not a household name unless you're within the Protestant tradition Francis turreted who was third generation down from John Calvin in Geneva Switzerland and a v-mail e anti-catholic theologian but a but a very important one within the Protestant and Presbyterian Trivette tradition freely admitted the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity because he said because he recognized how universally this doctrine was held throughout all of sacred tradition in all of antiquity and he knew he couldn't oppose that doctrine without really setting himself against the entirety of the Christian tradition down through down through the centuries so it's not Scripture that motivates this position I think for many Protestants I really think it is an animus against Catholicism as such now that being said what do we what do we do with this discussion of the Brothers of the Lord's and Sacred Scripture well it's very obvious what we do the Bible tells us what to do so in in Matthew chapter 13 we read isn't this the carpenter's son Jesus well right there that ought to be a clue that we shouldn't take this this the interlocutor who's speaking quite literally because Jesus was not the literal son of Joseph right right isn't this the carpenter's son well not really actually steps on maybe isn't his mother named Mary and aren't his brothers James Joseph Simon Judas all right so who are these guys James Joseph Simon and Judas well I would recommend that you actually flip over in the text of your Bible to John chapter 19 and also Matthew chapter 27 read those passages in parallel mm-hmm and it is evident that these guys are the sons of Mary the wife of Clopas the relative of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus's biological cousins but even in John chapter 20 when he's risen from the dead and is speaking to me and talking to her about the 11 he says go to go to Jerusalem and tell my brothers to meet me in Galilee hmm he's clearly not talking about his biological kin here right so the word is used with a much broader extent okay hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN we have time to get to some more calls in in the next half hour so so if you have a question for dr. David Andrews the number is eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six in a moment we'll be speaking with evan in Bowling Green Ohio lots more on this edition of call to Communion here on EWTN to stay with us [Music] welcome back to EWTN s call to Communion our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we have time to get your call in if you call right now and speaking of right now let's go to Evan right now Evan is in Bowling Green Ohio listening online ewtn.com hey there Evan what's on your mind today hi thanks for having me on sure I had a question for dr. Anders about the National Association of Evangelicals statement of faith and also familiar with it I am one of one of my mom's friends senator text asking you know if there was anything going on there and specifically about the infallibility of the authoritative Word of God as they say and so that struck me as a little odd and then I was just kind of wondering if there is anything else in there that was problematic it didn't look too bad it looked too bad or too you know off but especially that infallibility part I was looking for a way to to go about that yeah thanks I appreciate the question so the the National Association of Evangelicals of course the beliefs of the society be reflected in their theological Journal and and their missionary activity and so forth is is broader than what is limited to this particular statement of faith but in their doctrine on the the Scriptures that we believe that I'm reading it right now we believe the Bible to be inspired the only infallible and authoritative Word of God well that's not true that's not true alright so inspired yes yes and Catholics teach that the Holy Scripture is inspired however the problem lies in the in the second clause the only infallible and authoritative Word of God well that's clearly not true that's clearly not true because the Word of God is conveyed to us in Sacred Scripture to be sure but also through sacred tradition and it's tall with infallible Authority by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and and so that statement right there is is intended to repudiate the Catholic and the biblical and Christ's doctrine of ecclesial Authority so that's a very problematic and you know if as a statement of Christian faith it is the whole thing is woefully deficient in a number of other ways right most importantly and if you compare this statement of faith to say the Nicene created the Apostles Creed it leaves out the note of the church and and the importance of one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church intended by God as the sign and instrument of the unity of all people and the means of bringing individuals to that regenerating Grace and knowledge of God and I could go on a communion of the saints I mean there are many elements of Christian faith very very crucial importance of the Christian faith that are not covered in in a statement of faith now I think it's telling Francis Beckwith who is a Catholic philosopher teaches at Baylor University grew up Catholic left the Catholic faith did a stint as an evangelical made a name for himself as an evangelical theologian and philosopher and actually rose in significance and importance in that community became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and/or was either that or he was he wasn't the president or he was the editor of the journal I forget which but he had a very eminent position sure in the society mhm and and then he he read his way back into the Catholic faith and so he he came out as a Catholic if you will well he was forced to resign his position of course right and and and he here a he started a dialogue with you know of course fifty years ago or 67 years ago it would have been no question that the nae would have rejected catholics evangelical world is far more ecumenical today than it used to be and so Beckwith at that time tried to initiate a public discussion on whether or not the nae would accept a Catholic in a leadership position and he had some interesting public dialogues with folks and some nice debates and conversations one with Timothy George who was the long time Dean of Beeson Divinity School very prominent evangelical Divinity School here located in Birmingham Alabama and even though everybody smiled and nodded and shook hands and you know sipped tea together at the end of the day the answer was no no they they repudiated they were pewdie ated Beckwith and his Catholic identity when I was in seminary in 1994-95 the the statement of angelical x' and catholics together was published ecumenical statement by Catholic and Protestant theologians seeking common ground between the two traditions and it made a big hubbub and my own seminary professors many of whom were prominent members of the nae and some of whom were actually founders of the organization were incensed really incensed with that document because they felt like it it glossed the differences between Protestants and Catholics and they knew quote/unquote I'm putting this in quotes the Catholics really were not real Christians at least so that's how they saw it and I I really owe those guys a debt of gratitude I thank them for that because they drew my mind as a young Protestant theologian keenly to the differences between the traditions and they led me to understand that some of those differences were irreconcilable they really mattered and then when I studied the differences I realized well the Catholics have the better side of the argument so I became Catholic there you go appreciate your call Evan it is called a communion here on EWTN or phone number eight three three to eight eighty wtn if you have a question for dr. David Andrews eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here is build now in western Ohio listening on our great affiliate their Annunciation radio hey Bill what's on your mind today dr. Anders Paul says in Ephesians 6:18 to pray in the spirit another one actually could tell me what that means yeah thanks so that is that is ambiguous to be honest with you it's ambiguous and it's been interpreted in different ways I'll tell you what I think it means in in in Romans chapter eight Paul gives a description of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit in our life of prayer and he says that you know the Spirit will intercede with for us with groans that too deep for words and that's one clue that I'm gonna come back to and I think more importantly in John chapter four when Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well and she says I discerned that you are a prophet now our ancestors wanted to worship on this mountain and you Jews worship in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and Jesus says I tell you woman the time is coming when the father will seek true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth not this mountain or that mountain but in spirit and in truth and in st. Paul so follows up on that theme romans chapter 12 he says offer your bodies as living sacrifices this is your spiritual act of worship your spiritual sacrifice logic a lot Rhianna I think is the Greek phrase and and then in and then finally in Romans chapter 15 the only time Paul ever refers to himself as a priest is in Romans chapter 15 he says that his priestly duty is to prepare the Gentiles prepare the Gentiles as a pure offering to be given up to God in sacrifice and of course that sacrifices the conformity of their lives to the cross of Christ Jesus says if you want to be my disciple have to take up your cross and follow me and so ultimately this the the ultimately the true worship in spirit and in truth that the father desires is this giving of ourselves in sacrifice you know our body and soul to God in imitation of the cruciform Messiah that is that is the the worship in spirit and in truth and that worship is empowered by the Ministry of God's holy spirit within us and and it is a it is a you know we talk about the inspirations of the Holy Spirit that we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are infused into this along with our baptism providing us with these with these holy inspirations to do good and to follow the mind of God to follow the will of God and sometimes those inspirations those inclinations there are deeper than our intellectual awareness you know I a trivial example trivial example okay I've been told that I that I can talk too much really I've been told that right okay and and that you know I'm an apologist I like to give explanations I've been told that I sometimes front-load my commentary in conversation with too much evidence and argument right and I've been told that quite recently and I have had times when in conversation or dialogue or perhaps in contention with another human being when all of a sudden I have all this good rational knowledge about the right answer to a problem or the right thing to say and I just know this is going to clear it all up and then there is this still small voice that says shut up mmm you know shut up now am I saying that's the Holy Spirit no I'm not saying necessarily all the time but doesn't seem to conform with what my rational mind thinks is the absolute prudent thing to do mm-hmm generally speaking I'm better off listening to that little voice than to all that rational awareness you know well you take that kind of dynamic and you compound it across a life of holiness right and we may have some clue about what these groans too deep for words these inclinations born of love that God pours into our heart by the Holy Spirit enabling us to make that sacrifice in spirit and in truth bill great question thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN get as many calls in today as we certainly can and that number is eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here's a question now from lily watching us right now on Facebook hey Lily she says how is it that a criminal or someone who has lived a life of sin can be saved at the last minute if he repents I have mortal sins that I live with in regret most of my life since my 20s I am now 56 I longed to go to confession but I'm not a full Catholic yet and he thoughts there David yeah absolutely appreciate it so anybody who has ever been at odds in enmity with a loved one maybe your spouse your child maybe a parent I think knows this experience you're alienated someone somewhere has done something wrong hmm could be you could be but your your at enmity your your alienated y'all are not click it not hardly anything's more painful I mean that is just the worst thing in the world mm-hmm and I know I've had this experience and and you're all full of bitterness and resentment you did this and you did but you said this and you neglected that and you man you've got a laundry list of of resentments because of this situation and then here comes some unexpected grace and one of you could be you could be the other guy maybe both of you says you know what I'm really sorry I am really and you know they mean it or you really mean it the breakthrough and and then and then the other person says you know what being with you is more important than my laundry list hmm I forgive you will you forgive me I forgive you I forgive you make up make up also the laundry list just goes away yeah why why in I mean because you don't care anymore you just want to be with your beloved and they want to be with you and you decide that the laundry list doesn't matter God wants to be with us we want to be with God you know he's got a laundry list as long as my life of reasons to keep me out but his desire he is love itself his desires to be reconciled to me and that's true of me that's true the baby coming out of the womb is true of the criminal in the last second of his life God created us to know him to love him and when we turn our wills to him and charity aided by His grace we are in fact reconciled you know we're we are in fact enough what if you say I forgive you but hey we got to go deal with this not know then you're not really forgiving if I say I forgive you but on the condition that you go deal with my laundry list then there you're not really forgiven if God forgives us when we turn our wills back to him and grace then he forgives us be not afraid Lily thank you so much for your call and thanks for checking us out on Facebook today called a communion here on EWTN want to tell you about a relatively new innovation that we have added to the EWTN family and that is our new service EWTN radio essentials if you haven't checked it out especially in times of my goodness a lot of crises going on the pandemic everything else this is a great Oh Asus just for you you can listen for the Holy Sacrifice of the mass you'll hear it every two hours from 8 a.m. all the way up through midnight plus rosaries chaplets the Stations of the Cross lots more other devotionals every hour just for you on this exclusive radio service check it out it is EWTN radio essentials it's available right now on smart speaker of your choice also on the EWTN app and at ewtn.com do check out ewtn radio essentials it is a wonderful service especially for times like these back to the phones right now here at 8 3 3 to 8 8 EWTN let's go to Rebecca in Trumbull Connecticut listening on the EWTN app hey there Rebecca what's on your mind today I'm just wondering like I've been thinking about how Jesus Christ Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit are one and I've heard that like Jesus there's also our brother but then I have read in st. Faustina's journals that he calls her daughters so I'm confused like if if Jesus loves us as creator and father and also as like as a brother in a way I'm a little country ok sure thanks the great question is all so the way to make sense of this is to is you you've got to understand the nature of Christ's person and Jesus is different from you and me in one extremely important way and that is that the person of Jesus Christ has two natures two natures you say what does that mean well look I'm staring at my colleague Tom Price here while I'm doing this radio show and I see he's the Tom Price he's he's one guy one person one human being over there and there's also only one nature human he's not like human and golden retriever he's just human one nature when you encounter Jesus Christ if you were say the woman with the issue of blood and the gospel who says if I just touched the hem of His garment I'll be healed you walk up and you touch Jesus you're touching a person and two natures fully human nature human in every respect but also the divine nature well how do we explain that to nature's of Christ it's because the divine nature the divine nature exists in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit one God one divine essence one divine substance one divine nature but instead of their just being one person in that divine nature they're actually three people in the divine nature see you and me Tom Price over there Tom's one nature one person God is one nature three persons the second person of the Trinity the word assumed that means took to himself a human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the end the human person that was born had two natures the divine nature that assumed the human nature and the human nature and so we can ascribe things to Christ that are true of one or the other of those two natures so we can say of Jesus he is Almighty God and through him all things came to be that have come to be and in him are all things and when we say that we we are predicating that of the divine nature that is Christ when we say that you know that he had say biological cousins okay or more importantly this is your question that he has adopted brothers and sisters within the family the church all right well the biological part if we say that you know talk about Jesus's blood type or something I don't know what his blood type was but if we knew what his blood type was we'd be saying something that we could predicate of a human nature not divine natures don't have blood types there's only one divine nature doesn't have a blood type but human every human nature has a blood type so Jesus had a blood type when I say that I'm saying it because it's relevant to his human nature hmm now what about what about this business of adopting brothers and sisters into the family of God well what Jesus and his messianic activity did not operate in his human nature alone or his divine nature alone is a single person Christ the god man who is responsible for our Redemption and so both of these divine and human are implicated are involved in the redemption that he won for the church in fact it is the union of those two natures that is the ground of our Redemption because by assuming to himself a human nature God unites humanity to himself by assuming to himself a human nature Christ restores the fallen corrupted sinful human nature to the pure state the elevated state that he desired that's why I believe it was Gregory gaussians us that said that if if Christ had not assumed an entire human nature then our entire human nature would not have been healed like if he had just adopted a left arm then like only our left arms would be healed we took a whole human nation including the human soul so that the whole of humanity could be joined to the divine nature and be safe so our salvation in our salvation it's the divine and the human in the person of crisis the ground and source of our Redemption all right and Rebecca we thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN interesting question here from Peter as an email that came in actually came in today Peter says Jesus can be portrayed by the church as a strict judge with fire and brimstone but also the divine mercy compassion Jesus there seems to be such a dichotomy between the quote narrow gate or eye of the needle Jesus versus our merciful Savior who does not one sheep want one sheep to be lost this dichotomy can be confusing to the laity I love the Jesus of John 5:24 but that Jesus appears diametrically opposed to Jesus of Matthew 12:36 so how do you reconcile these two David yeah thanks appreciate the question so I'm gonna double down on your problem here right now all passage that stands out in my mind clearest is Matthew 11 woe to you cours een what do you bet site if the signs and miracles performed a new had been done in tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in dust cloth and ashes and you didn't so it's going to be worse for you on the day of judgment yes in st. Paul of course in the Thessalonians pondus talks about Christ coming back and being revealed in blazing fire to mete out punishment on his enemies so we got we got a pretty ferocious Jesus presented in in the New Testament documents well how we make sense of this okay well look we want to be part of Christ's family not as enemies that's the goal we won't be part of this family not as enemies anybody who has a family you know you love your family you're gonna do everything in your power to protect your kids your brothers and sisters you love them you're gonna forgive them you know and you've invited everybody to that party that's the thing everybody's invited to that party everybody's invited to join that family but what if you're one of the people it is trying to kill the members of the family or drag them off into hell well what does any good papa bear gonna do you gonna fight off the enemies of course know what you'd really like is to convert the enemies and make them part of the family but at the end of that I mean part of part of the Last Judgement people say well if you know we have the particular judgment why the last judgment a big part of the last judgment is God vindicating the righteous saying well done good and faithful servant and to those that persecuted the church and tried to destroy the the little ones you know God standing up saying you're not going to touch my kid you had your chance we invited you in you said no you tried to drag these little children off into sin christ says better that you'd be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck and cause one of these little ones to stumble okay appreciate that and here's one more email now from mark how does one reconcile jesus' hypostatic union with human nature and his immutability it seems to me that his incarnation was a distinct change of being yeah thanks so I appreciate the question I understand the question hypostatic reunion refers to the union of the divine and the human in in Christ so the answer is that from the from the point of view of God's eternity from the point of view of God's eternity the temporal world the creation of the world the aging of the world the destruction of the world the birth and death of human beings the change and development of a single human life including the humanity of Christ you know the physical birth life death resurrection issue the temporal nature of the humanity of Christ the whole temporal universe stands from from from this from the divine side God is in an eternal relationship with a temporal universe so from our point of view we see change growth development beginning end from the divine point of view those are all a single permanent instant so boëthius great Roman Catholic philosopher of Late Antiquity said it's like a king sitting on top of a tower watching a parade goodbye to the guy on the street he just sees ranks of soldiers passing but the King on top of the tower from his vantage point can see the beginning in the end of the parade as one thing well that's a weak analogy but it's a helpful one see from God's point of view from the divine side the whole temporal universe appears as a single permanent instant Wow okay and we thank you for that and we do have time for exactly one more here this is a question from Carol regarding righteousness seems to me that we have to choose to be obedient to God to be righteous so the problem I have is in looking up righteous in Scripture I read faith makes us righteous I never see obedience can you help me with that Oh well I got about 10 seconds to do it and I wish I had a lot longer read the book of Hebrews you see you want to see many descriptions of obedience rendering you righteous read the book of Hebrews but you have to ask yourself how is it that faith is is connected to the question of righteousness well faith means believing what God has revealed Abraham is the farad I'm for righteousness according to faith God said get up leave or go to the land I'll show you and I'll give you a great nation as your descendants and Abraham believed that that was true and so he acted in obedience because he trusted that God would fulfill his promise he in fact did the right thing and it was the doing the right thing proceeding from his faith that made him righteous okay that's exactly how st. James interprets it he says it wasn't faith alone James chapter 2 but it was it was Abraham and the basis of that believing that what God said was true he did what he was supposed to do so Christ says repent and be baptized Saint Peter preaches repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins if you believe that you're gonna do it you're going to repent and be baptized dr. David Andrews thank you my friend thank you Tom we do the program Monday through Friday 2:00 p.m. Eastern with an encore at 11:00 p.m. Eastern on behalf of our fantastic team I'm Tom price along with dr. David Andrews see you next time here on EWTN radios called a communion you have a great day and God bless [Music] you

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 50min 16sec (3016 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020