Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - Feb 25 , 2022

what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation 1-833 why do i need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is call to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters maybe you're new to listening to ewtn you yourself are not a catholic maybe you've never been a catholic or maybe you fell away from the catholic faith years ago could be even decades ago and now you've got some interest in the catholic faith that's certainly in the news all the time uh but there's this one thing that you want to get cleared up before moving forward well we can help you with that and here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 personal recommendation here because it's on a friday call early because the phones really get clogged up toward the end of the hour and we would love to get you on 833 288 ewtn if you're listening to us outside of the u.s or canada please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always send us an email ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer matt kabinsky our phone screener jeff burson handles social media for us if you would like to ask a question via youtube or facebook live we are streaming there right now put your question in the comments box jeff will shoot that to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you my friend i'm doing reasonable thank you are you looking forward to that weekend i am well you know i'm looking forward to the sense that i'm gonna get to things that i need to get to but you know things like taxes aren't necessarily fun just i have to do it i've got one more marathon weekend of taxes and then i think i've i will i will have it done okay good let's hope so anyway here's an email that we received from carol who says on the mountain with moses and elijah god said this is my son listen to him jesus said i have come to fulfill the law and i've been listening to the bible in a year just getting through exodus and leviticus can i just try to obey all that jesus said and let go of all those old testament laws what does god ask of us obeying jesus is hard enough thanks carol oh yeah thanks girl i'm so glad you asked this question i really appreciate it so the the christ's teaching on this is really really clear that the the substance of the old testament can be summed up in the twin command to love god and to love neighbor and if you have done that you have fulfilled the law in essence now a lot of christ's ministry consists in interpreting and reinterpreting the significance of the old testament you know the call to abraham was that he would be a great nation his descendants would be a great nation and they would be a blessing to all of the earth and that that promise to abraham was given and paul points this out in galatians before god placed the covenant of of the law on moses and the people it was just a sheer gratuitous act of god's mercy to call abraham and make this promise to him but then um all this legislation comes out to govern the civil religious and cultic life of the people of israel and paul's position saint paul's position was that that law came after the promise to abraham and and the purpose of the law was basically to be to serve as a pedagogue a kind of tutor to lead us to christ and jesus himself points out in a couple of places that the law as written just sort of as the man in the street would read it is insufficient uh and even deficient in places because it contains elements that were basically a condescension to human weakness matthew chapter 19 for example jesus talking about the rules in the mosaic code permitting divorce says this is not the ideal picture a divorce is really not god's intent for man and woman but moses allowed this because of your hardness of heart take another example john chapter 8 jesus refuses to carry out the full weight of the law against adulterers the law said that you are to stone people caught in adultery and jesus said or at least execute them jesus said we're not going to do that we're going to we're going to extend forgiveness so the number of places where when christ interacts with the old testament he softens it sometimes he strengthens it but all in the interest of really the the ultimate law of love and regarding the dignity of another human person so we ought to know the old testament how to study it but we can only make sense of it we can only apply it to our lives if we read it through the lens of jesus okay well there you go and thank you so much for your question here's one now from dan in st louis greetings tom and dr anders are heretics apostates blasphemers and those who formally renounce their baptism members of the communion of saints thank you dan okay so you can't be uh you cannot be saved uh you cannot uh go to heaven if you obstinately obstinately deny something that you know to be divinely revealed so if you set your heart and your mind against god and against what god has revealed in a sort of you know pertinacious obstinate way well you know that's that's a that's a moral fault in you um however it is quite possible that you could be an error on a grave theological matter through no fault of your own and uh and you might uh uh and and really it's i can't judge you can't judge where to draw the line between kind of obstinate per tenacious you know refusal to believe the truth that god is revealed and uh enacting in in an ignorant good conscience really god has to be the judge of that conscience so what the church can do is say here's the truth this is what you ought to believe you don't believe that that's a problem and they might even take formal action against you might actually excommunicate somebody because they can't you know for the sake of scandal they can't allow that in the church but that's to say that is not to say well we know that person is going to hell right we don't know that god has to judge the heart it occurs to me that many people have called this show over the years and other shows and have said well this is why i don't uh want to be a catholic it's because of blah blah blah blah and then you say well the catholics don't believe that and then right yeah so there you go hey appreciate that and dan thank you so much for your email we're going to get to the phones in a moment here we'll begin with tony in maryland lines are open for you on this friday afternoon again call early so that you can get on today's show 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 the friday afternoon edition of call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn stay with us saints are the heroes of the catholic faith they serve as examples for all catholics showing us how to lead a more satisfying more spiritual life in communion with our lord and savior jesus christ view our comprehensive documentation of saints who serve as theologians and doctors of the church it's easy visit ewtn.com and click catholicism ewtn the global catholic network [Music] the most original and exclusive catholic content is on ewtn radio this is prudence robertson now more than ever americans need to know the facts about the science the law the politics and the fight to end abortion in america through the lens of our catholic faith we can make a difference in this battle to protect the unborn ewtn pro-life weekly sunday morning 10 eastern on ewtn radio thank you for all the work that you've done i'm just i work at it and then it's like you know i stop and then i start and then i stop you've done so much and thank you for everything you do and thank you ewtn i mean i i had a line that i could spread at work today from what i heard this morning on ewtn that it took a woman to put jesus on the earth ewtn helping people grow in their love and understanding of god [Music] call the communion on this friday afternoon here on ewtn radio our phone number 833-288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 lines are filling up but you can snag one if you call right now are you familiar with church pop i think in in days like this certainly days of turmoil we could all use a little laugh or a little inspiration and church pop is fantastic in that department they take a fresh and fun look at the news shaping our world featuring engaging inspiring and informative catholic social media content you can find churchpop on snapchat find it on instagram and on the web at churchpop.com churchpop.com by the way right now you can get church pop directly into your email inbox just visit ewtn.com and click on subscribe if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin today with tony in maryland listening on guadalupe radio hey there tony what's on your mind today hi there thank you very much for taking my call and thank you mr price and dr anders i love listening to your show all the time and learn so much i'm a cradle catholic and but i admire how uh you teach and educate you know with such uh humility and devotions i really appreciate that my question has to do thank you my question has to do with john 17 verses 20 to 23. i must have heard it many times but my daughter was reading it a few years ago we were just sort of randomly reading uh and and it struck me the words were just struck me uh as so beautiful and um it particularly the word that i was drawn to was father just as you are in me and i am in you may they also be in us which i know is familiar to a lot of people but to me my interpretation of that for the first time was somehow that we jesus is inviting us to to be right there in the midst to dwell with him in the midst of the holy trinity itself and i don't want to say something sacrilegious but i've repeated this so many times to so many of my friends and others um about you know to me it's just i'm in awe and wonder of god's great loving for humanity but i thought this passage i just want to more understand it more from a theological perspective sure sure really appreciate the question so i think you would greatly benefit i'm going to answer the question but i want to give you a resource first i think you would greatly benefit from saint thomas aquinas's commentary on the gospel of john because the kinds of questions that you're raising about deep mystical truths of the beatific vision and how these revelations and john relate to our inner life that is precisely the subject of saint thomas's commentary it's it's rather long but it's one of the greatest and most beautiful commentaries on john ever written so i just want to commend that to your attention if you can get a hold of thomas aquinas commentary on john now what st thomas says about this and similar passages and this is the church's teaching on this issue how should we understand what it means to dwell in god or for god to dwell in us and there's a parallel passage in john chapter 14 where christ says if you love me and keep my commandments my father and i will come to you and make our dwelling within you what saint thomas says is that the blessed trinity dwells in us as the known is in the knower and the beloved is in the lover so uh how is that how does that work well you know i love my wife does my wife dwell within me well not spatially you know i i didn't i didn't carve out a you know lovely little place for her like some bauer bird you know in my heart that she can come climb in and get warm at night um you know but uh but she is in me insofar as i know her i know what she values i know what she likes i know what she fears i know what she aspires to and because i care for her and i love her i am empathetic with those concerns and things that would not otherwise be important to me become important to me because they're important to my wife things that i would not otherwise aspire to um you know like owning eight pets for example that's something that i wouldn't have aspired to you know but for my wife sure things that i might not otherwise fear that i am cautious about because they're things that are of concern to her these things it's like aristotle says having a friend is like having a second self and i think it's a beautiful image and definitely having a spouse is like having a second self um and so she is in me but in my in my knowing and in my loving sure that's the way that the blessed trinity comes to dwell within us and it also helps to explain why mortal sin separates us from our union with god because if i'm immortal sin then i am precisely not loving god i mean that's what mortal sin means it means that i'm preferring something else to god and if he indwells me by my loving what he loves when i turn my heart away from that by definition i'm not loving god and so he's by definition not dwelling in me and i have to restore that through the sacrament of penance now as as we dwell in god well we can clearly say that god loves us and he has our best interests at heart and he knows us so we definitely are in god as the known as in the knower and the beloved is in the lover we're also in god uh in a few other ways so we become members of christ through baptism and jesus's union with the father yes it's a union of love but it is more than that it's not just the kind of union between spouses or between friends there is a metaphysical union as the father son and holy spirit are one common divine essence and substance so there's a metaphysical unity there and the distinction of the persons of father to son son to father um is uh is analogous but not the same as a human father and a human son by being in christ we are caught up in not only into this sort of relational sonship that that a human would know but into that more profound uh union that christ has with god we we we enter into that in a mystical way by our identification with jesus um and that is a profound mystery now the fruit of that if we continue in that is to know god as he is fully known as we are fully known in the beatific vision appreciate your call there tony that opens up a line for you right now at 833 eight ewtn two lines open at the moment eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six call to communion on this friday afternoon with dr david anders here on ewtn let's go now to marty marty is driving to louisiana listening to us on the guadalupe radio app hey there marty what's on your mind today sir hey tom hi dr anders hi marty and melinda here driving a little question for dr anders is you know whenever i've had a protestant or evangelical um relative or friend you know ask why do catholics you know pray to the saints and my response always is you know we're not praying to saints we're we're asking the saints to intercede for us just like you know if i were to say yeah tom well you you know we pray for my wife and she's having surgery and you know our protestant evangelical friends don't seem to have a problem with that so i don't understand like what is the issue with you know asking the saints intercede for us and is there a better way that maybe i can explain it to uh to a friend or relative that has that question yes absolutely i appreciate the question so your answer is a very good one and that is also what i say but to understand why this is objectionable to protestants you have to appreciate the fact that they equate acts of reverence all sort of acts of religious reference with uh the adoration owed to almighty god now that's an error on their part and they're not fully consistent but they've been taught through their tradition that you know say you know various forms of physical postures or gestures or certain kinds of language just are only to be directed towards god and by definition that's what categorizes worship and so if somebody falls astray of those strictures then they say well it's by definition you're an idolater regardless of how you might conceptualize it regardless of how you might defend it that's kind of the protestant point of view now here is here is something that uh that is helpful i think to to begin to unwind some of those prejudices the the reason that protestants do this is because they have lost touch with the idea of sacrifice you know central to the protestant reformation not only was rejection of the intercession of the saints but the rejection of the sacrifice of the mass which for catholics is the central act of christian worship to offer the body and blood of christ under the form of bread and wine to god the father in reparation for our sins and because protestants lost that they lost the sense that worship is ultimately sacrifice um they fail to see the distinction in catholic religious life because for us it's quite easy to see we only offer sacrifice to god that is the principal act the principal virtue of religion is to offer sacrifice to god and um and we don't do that to the saints you will not see catholics set up an altar and and offer consecrated bread and wine to the blessed virgin mary don't do that we're not going to do that to saint joseph or to saint francis or to any of the saints and if you attend to the language of the liturgy you will find that the liturgy actually invokes the saints as co-worshipers with us they are co-offerers also uh conceding with us the offering of christ's body and blood to god the father so far from being the recipients of catholic worship they are worshipers we're facing in the same way we're facing in the same direction as are the holy angels so i find that a very helpful way to conceptualize to help explain the difference but your picture of we're just asking them to pray for us is absolutely and 100 true and it's the picture of the saints that we find in sacred scripture in a passage like revelation chapter 5 verse 8 that's exactly what the saints are depicted as doing offering our prayers as so much incense before the throne of god there you go marty drive carefully out there and thanks for your call it is called to communion here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 debbie is in versailles kentucky listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey debbie what's on your mind today hi thank you for taking my call i'll try to make a long story short but i was raised protestants in the baptist church i married a catholic so i went through rcia became catholic and i've been studying my religion for quite some time i had a discussion with my my side my mother's side of the family that is baptist about the rapture this past weekend and i know this question gets asked and discussed quite a bit but i felt bad that i could not defend this question my answer to them was jesus is only coming has only it totaled two times you know when he you know came born died resurrected and then at the final judgment the final day they say we're not saying he's coming twice during the rapture he's just coming sort of like halfway like he's going to meet people and bodies are going to come out of the grave and go to their souls in heaven and they're going to take you know those people that are believers and they they get taken up right then and then my question was well if they go up like that then what about the people that die after the rapture they're in the grave is there a second time then that bodies will rise and be with their souls like they should be at the final judgment and they couldn't really answer that question but they point into like first thessalonians i believe and then i can't remember mark or matthew kind of the different verses that they talk about the rapture and one person standing in a field and one will be taken up one will be left and um so i just i feel like i should know how to defend this and yeah i'm sure i can help you and i've only got a couple minutes until the break so i'm going to do the best i can right now and if we have to carry this over to the other side of the break we will so the scriptures definitely teach that christ will come back and that we who remain we who have not yet died will be caught up with him in the air and remain with him forever uh that's what the scripture says and so that's what the catholic church teaches there is a there is a uh a an assumption if you will of the resurrected body to meet the lord who will come to us on the air and the picture here is rather like a conquering king in the ancient world who would come liberate a besieged city we're kind of we're the besieged city in this analogy and we're under the dominion of the prince of the air and of the darkness christ is going to come back and give him what for and just like people in the liberated city would go out of the gates and meet the king and lead him in we're going to go out and meet christ as he comes back in the air in our resurrected bodies and that will be glorious and then we have the final judgment and and and the eschaton so that's the biblical picture now the passage that your relatives cited about one will be left behind and one will be taken away is of course from an entirely different context it's from matthew 24 and the parallel passages in mark and luke when christ discusses um actually he's asked about the destruction of the temple in jerusalem which doesn't happen at the end of time it happened in 70 a.d and the apostles said you know what will be the sign that these things are going to happen and he says well when you see jerusalem surrounded by armies know that these things are near well jerusalem was surrounded by armies in 70 a.d those things were near and um he says it'll be as it was in the days of noah some will be taken and some will be left behind well what happened in the days of noah who was taken away and who was left behind well noah and his family um uh uh excuse me the the the wicked were taken away right they were washed away by the flood and uh and noah and his family were the people that were left and they were happy yeah and they were happy right um so so the metaphor doesn't work the way they want to make it sound both temporarily uh and who's getting taken and who's getting left so how is it that they piece together these disparate parts of the new testament to concoct this story of three comings of christ or two and a half as they are now claiming right how do they how do they come up with this and here's the key this is what you really have to understand this idea of a rapture really only emerged in protestant history in the 19th century so it wasn't known to martin luther and to john calvin into the earliest protestants or even for protestants for centuries it really emerged out of 19th century fundamentalism plymouth brethren move it a man named john nelson darby invented it and why why did he come up with it well i'll have to answer that after the break all right so uh sit tight there debbie we'll continue this on the other side and we'll also be talking with james in new mexico anthony in texas logan in modesto california looks like one little old line open for you at 833-288 ewtn 833-288-3986 call to communion with dr david anders on ewtn the power of prayer simply means that words have an effect for example when a couple says i do it literally changes two people to becoming one in marriage when you say i love you it changes us and it gives us value the power of prayer is in the words and in the sentiment but it's also in the fact that god who is omnipotent all-powerful answers our prayers and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who are suicidal heavenly father we adore you you delighted in the thought of each one of us and so created us that we would share in your life and love both now and forever our lives are precious help those who are tempted to take their own lives to find you reveal your love to them and open their eyes to the wonder of their existence give them hope and their despair joy in their sorrow peace and their distress amen this is tom price if you missed part of today's show catch the encore tonight at 11 pm eastern check out the podcast anytime at ewtnradio.net and click podcasts hi this is sci keller host of catholic answers live later today it's back the catholic answers quiz show catholic answers live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call of duty communion [Music] what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion one line open right now for dr david anders at 833 288 ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six before the break we were talking with debbie in for sales kentucky uh she was not raised catholic but she did marry a catholic and she wants to know how to explain the notion of quote being saved and uh the whole rapture thing and she brought up some interesting things you know jesus coming back two and a half times so i started to talk about this before the break you know the rapture folks like to quote matthew 24 let me just read the relevant passage as it was in the days of noah so it will be at the coming of the son of man from the days before the flood people were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage up until the day that noah entered the ark and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away so who got taken away in the days of noah it was the wicked who got taken away right this is how it will be at the coming of the son of man two men will be in the field one will be taken and the other left now in the context of the passage taken away refers to what happens to the wicked so it does not make sense to cite matthew 24 to support the idea that the righteous are taken away oops that's exactly backwards that's exactly bad now what is interesting is where did this idea of a rapture come from because it's not taught in the bible nor was it taught for 1900 years in the church it was invented by john nelson darby in the 19th century why because 19th century protestant fundamentalism had a very literalistic woodenly literalistic interpretation of the bible their method of interpreting scripture was very very literalistic on completely unlike jesus jesus is anything but a literalist with the old testament you know jesus says you know you know what the psalms say the stone that the builders rejected has become the key chief strongest that's talking about me well that's not literalistic exegesis at all okay um uh but they have this view and now the old testament has a number of prophecies about a time in the future when god will vindicate israel conquer her enemies gold and silver and myrrh and camels and things like that will be you know drawn to jerusalem foreigners will rebuild her walls and the jewish nation will triumph over the over the gentiles that kind of language and of course that does not happen that does not happen with the coming of christ now christ says this scripture has been fulfilled today in your hearing that's what he says in the synagogue in capernaum right that's how he claims that he is the fulfillment of these prophecies and yet not literally he also said john the baptist is elijah if you're willing to accept it yes but not literally and so christ takes those passages and says yes they're fulfilled in me but not literally but darby thinks that he knows better than jesus is hermeneutic and so he said no no they have to be literally fulfilled and since they weren't fulfilled when jesus came the first time evidently they're going to have to be fulfilled sometime in the far future but because christ's ministry was not about conquering romans and subjugating enemies and rebuilding physical walls jesus and the church are kind of an embarrassment to darby and to dispensationalists so they need to kind of get them out of the way darby and some of his followers literally referred to the church as a parenthesis in god's divine plan for history they have to figure out a way to get him out of out of the way so they he comes up with this idea of a rapture hey if i if i zap the church out of space and time that will kind of open a space for god to fulfill his promises to ancient israel including camels and myrrh and gold and walls and conquered people and all that jazz so he pulls the church out god pours out all this wrath and kills a bunch of people and then sets the jews back up then jesus comes back at the end of time that was darby's vision but the whole thing was motivated by this very erroneous hermeneutic this theory of interpretation of the old testament that runs flat contrary to jesus's own teaching and to the teaching of the whole new testament okay debbie is that helpful for you yes very helpful i think the concentrating on the part two about who is actually taking up yeah you know in noah's time and then you know who's in the field who's actually getting taken up they think the ones that are you know um christian and they are getting up to go be with jesus in heaven matthew 24 doesn't say taken up it says taken away taken away taken away now first thessalonians 4 says that we who are left those who were left behind that is the christians are taken up at the second coming of our lord into the air when we are given our new bodies but these are not parallel passages matthew 24 and first thessalonians 4 not talking about the exact same thing we're talking about two different things sure okay debbie thanks so much for your call let's go now to james in new mexico and uh let's see here james is listening on siriusxm channel 130 james what's on your mind today i just wanted to say that um i didn't agree with you on with the caller you were talking to a little while ago [Music] who called in talking about [Music] with the saints uh and you were telling them that it was the same thing as us uh asking somebody else to pray for us and i do not agree with that because the saints are dead um that would be like us asking somebody who's dead to pray for us yeah thanks i appreciate the question well jesus actually talks about this very issue about whether we can refer to the saints as dead in matthew chapter 22 he is debating the sadducees about whether there will be a resurrection from the dead and the sadducees of course say that there will not be and this largely because they did not accept the prophets in the writings they only accepted the five books of moses in which the doctrine of resurrection is not overtly present so jesus understanding that he cannot argue with the sadducees from the prophets he has to base his argument on the pentateuch because that's the only text the sadducees accept goes to the passage of the burning bush and he says have you not read what god said i am the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob and then christ responds he is not the god of the dead but of the living now from jesus's temporal point of view abraham isaac and jacob are long dead but he says that god declaring himself the god of abraham isaac and jacob is a present tense declaration that is as true today as it was then and according to christ god would not make this declaration about somebody that was dead so abraham isaac and jacob are alive to god that's the whole thrust of the argument so there is definitely a sense in which christ himself says of the saints they are living and united with god so by i think we can certainly say they're alive no they're biologically dead but they're not dead to god and if they're alive to god then they're capable of interceding sure as the book of revelation says that they do revelation 5 8. james thank you so much for your call let's go to anthony now in texas also listening on siriusxm channel 130 anthony what's on your mind today well i have a question about baptism with all the news about baptisms and when they're valid one i'm a creative catholic and when i was born and still in the hospital uh i had uh some health issues that arose that they thought i might survive not survive so my grandmother baptized me um fast forward a few months several months later i had my official baptism where my grandmother always contested that she had already baptized me and she didn't know what the priest had done so i was curious if i can't imagine that my grandmother knew all of the exact words and what to say when she baptized me in the hospital my name was changed to anthony from patrick because of state anthony i'm curious is one was if she would have misspoke a few words was that baptism valid and then if it was or wasn't was how did that affect my second baptism as in church okay thank you very much i appreciate the question so any person can lawfully baptize as long as they have the intent to do what the church means by baptism and they use the baptismal formula given to us by christ i baptize you in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and they pour water over your scalp if thou if they have done those things then you are validly baptized if there is a doubt about the validity of a baptism the church will often perform what's called a conditional baptism and a conditional baptism is not an absolute baptism it is exactly what it says it is conditional conditioned on your not having been baptized now since the church doesn't know in that instance whether or not you were badly baptized the prayer is basically you know god if this person isn't validly baptized then i baptized the name of the father's son leaving leaving the determination of the if up to god in the holy spirit now you mentioned to me that you your your grandmother baptized you and then there was another ceremony in the church i wonder if the priest who performed that baptism was aware that you had been baptized in the hospital i wonder if he was aware of that if he was then the right should have been a conditional baptism or no baptism at all because the grandmother baptism can certainly be valid can certainly be valid right yeah but in any case anthony is good to go sounds like he's good to go definitely anthony appreciate your call thank you for it it's called communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn tom price reminding you that we broadcast the rosary every day in fact twice every day at 5 30 a.m eastern with our own mother angelica and at 9 30 p.m eastern with father benedict groschel with some beautiful music going along with that with simonetta so check it out every morning every evening right here and only here on ewtn radio going now to uh logan in modesto california listing on youtube this afternoon logan what's on your mind today hi tom dr anders appreciate you guys taking my call today i am i am a convert from protestantism in fact i'm going to be confirmed in the church this sunday evening wow but my parents are very hard-line protestants and so this has caused a bit of upheaval in our family my question is and and they are a major part of my faith formation i have no doubt that they are in communion with the lord and i was looking at lumengentium paragraph 15 which and seems to say to me is related to eastern orthodox brethren who are even though they're not in full communion with rome they still have um belief in god the father almighty christ his only son is savior and that they're united with christ through baptism my parents are both baptized albeit in a protestant faith um would that mean that they are considered saved uh under that uh paragraph of lumengentium okay thanks i appreciate the question so there is there's one kind of imprecision i think in the way you framed the question uh i am a catholic baptized confirmed fully communion catholic that does not guarantee that i'm saved so it's not in virtue of being catholic that i'm saved it's not in virtue of being catholic that you will be saved it's not in virtue of being catholic or not that your parents will be saved we are saved if we persevere in charity to the end that's what saves us christ says whoever perseveres to the end will be saved and the basis of our judgment will be the quality of our moral lives that's what he says in matthew 25. so how the question is how does catholicism advance that how can the catholic faith help me to persevere in faith and charity until the end and in a way that would be different from what some other traditions might do well principally by teaching the whole council of god all of it contained in sacred scripture and sacred tradition and the magisterial tradition of the church and by uh bringing me into touch with the grace of god in the sacraments so by by teaching the whole council of god and by sanctifying me with the sacraments the church facilitates my life of charity and faith in god and perseverance until the end christ himself talks about this in john 6 where he says you know if you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have life well so i need to persevere in the reception of holy communion in faith hope and charity and that is both a sign and an instrument of my ever growing union with christ so these are this is how the catholic church does this now um someone in another christian denomination has this is what lumigenciem says has elements of truth and sanctification like they get 66 out of 73 books of the bible that's pretty good 66 out of 73 i'd rather they have 73 but 66 ain't bad they don't have seven sacraments they got two they got baptism in marriage i'd rather they have seven two's better than nothing right so is it possible for someone through their 66 books of the bible in their two out of seven sacraments to maintain the life of faith hope and charity and so be saved sure is it objectively more difficult than if they were in the catholic church yes here's why because they don't teach the whole council of god for one so take an example very few protestant churches teach the proper way for married couples to love one another intimately very few teach that um mo almost all of them teach the permissibility of divorce almost all of them yep and they'll say don't get divorced don't get different oh you went and got divorced all right well make the second one count that's that's generally the protestant attitude and so the accountant it's all kinds of infidelity not meaning to not not in malice just in ignorance right yeah uh but that's a major impediment to the life of charity so if you've you know you walk away from your wife and your family that's a major impediment to the life of charity um protestant churches you know they they they really fudge other areas of human sexuality and morality as well okay um here's another way they they really fudge morality um many not all but many protestant churches genuinely do not believe in the reconciliation of faith and reason and they take a fundamentalist view of the bible that runs flat contrary to what reason can teach us about our very own nature and so that that christ identifies foolishness as one of the sins that springs from the heart of man that needs to be exergated that needs to be dealt with if we're going to attain purity of heart and so a kind of willful disregard of the life of reason in such a way that might sort of bias me towards ideological possession and tribalism and the hatred of my neighbor the kind of thing that is born out of a sort of fundamentalist mindset is something that we need to be healed of and some protestant denominations run at cross purposes to that goal right and leave people sort of mired in this self-deceptive ideologically possessed narrow-minded sort of bigotry that's an impediment to the life of charity it's not an absolute impediment i mean you could get around it but it's you see what i'm saying for sure and and so on and so forth with the sacraments as well so you know a person who thinks that they are saved and eternally secure might become um uh might might develop kind of hardness of heart rather than come to genuine contrition and repentance so it's not impossible for protestants to be saved it's just more difficult because they don't have the fullness of truth and the fullness of grace logan appreciates your call thanks so much for it it is call to communion here on ewtn mark is in the san fernando valley in the la area used to live in the valley myself hey mark what's on your mind today sir hi uh i have a question about sola scriptura when my protestant friends and i engage in a debate they refer me to timothy and it says scripture is adequate for the reproof of son doctrine etc what is that phrase in latin does it say sola scriptura and if it doesn't where does still the scripture occur in the bible and if it doesn't why are they doing this thanks for listening yeah okay thank you okay i appreciate the question so the scriptures are actually written in in greek they weren't in latin and uh and what second timothy 3 16 says is that all scripture is god brief that means inspired and useful useful useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness the catholic church believes that believes that the cat that uh and then it goes on so that the man of god can be fully equipped for every good work and and the the word good work there you look at parallel passages we're talking about works of charity we're not talking about dogmatic theology okay now that is a catholic position on the nature of the bible it is an inspired text the purpose of which is to help us grow in the life of charity and good works that is the purpose of sacred scripture it is not the purpose of sacred scripture to be a unique and sufficient rule of faith to define and teach everything that we are to believe or do as christians now let me demonstrate why we can know with certainty that that is the case all right it is an article of faith in the protestant religion that the book of second timothy is canonical scripture like if you're a protestant you commit yourself to the belief that ii timothy that we just quoted that that book is itself inspired but second timothy doesn't say that about itself in fact there's no book in the bible that identifies second timothy as an inspired text belonging to a canon of scripture or any other book so if you want to hold to the position that the bible gives us everything we need to know for christian life then i would say okay where does the bible say that second timothy belongs in the bible and it doesn't the only way you can know that second timothy belongs in the bible is through catholic tradition that's how it got in there and that's how you know it's in there so the very existence of the bible as a canon depends on the authority of catholic tradition if you throw out catholic tradition then you do not have a canon of the bible all right now more to the point did jesus himself make provision for handing on the christian faith authoritatively yes did christ say when you have a question about christian faith turn to the bible no no he did not say this instead he said thou art peter and on this rock i will build my church and i gift you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven he said to the apostles go into all nations teach everything i've commanded you and i'll be with you to the end of the age a promise of divine assistance so when christ made provision for handing on the christian faith it wasn't the bible he gave us it was the teaching church handing on his oral tradition with his promise of divine assistance until the end of the age whatever the mind on earth would be bound in heaven if we wish to be faithful to christ's teaching then in order to discern the content of christian faith we must go to the sources that christ identified namely the teaching church and the tradition that it hands on all right not the bible alone right the bible however is useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness mark thanks so much for your call let's go quickly to will in california hey will what's on your mind today sir hey how's it going so i'm trying to figure out how do we uh how do we fit jesus into the narrative of isaiah 43 11 where the lord says yes i am the lord and there is no savior but me yeah well christ is the lord christ is the lord yeah but the suffering servant is israel sure he is of course right and this is the way biblical typology works typology is not perfect identity typology is not perfect identity so for example when the disciples ask jesus why does the prophet say that elijah must come first christ says well john the baptist comes in the spirit and power of elijah and if you're willing to accept it he is the elijah that was to come that's biblical typology always takes one historical referent and says that this referent is evocative of some future fulfillment not a perfect identity with that future fulfillment and so it's perfectly biblical and consistent with the way scripture works to identify the suffering servant with israel with suffering israel or suffering jerusalem and to find in the travails of israel and jerusalem during the babylonian exile a kind of type that is realized in the antitype of christ's suffering on the cross okay hey will thanks so much for your call let's go now to les in baton rouge listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey les what's on your mind today sir hi there um first i want to thank for all you guys doing and most of the time make my drive home very interesting the question i have is in reference to people in purgatory it's my understanding they can't pray for themselves but can they pray for others and the reason i'm asking is in louisiana we have what we have designated our cajun saint which is charlene richard and and people ask for her intercession but she's in purgatory supposedly we don't know can people in purgatory pray for others yeah thanks i appreciate the question probably it would seem it would seem probable that they could all right uh the church does not have a uh a tradition of officially you know asking for the prayers of those that are in purgatory the the traffic goes the other way we're praying for them that's the way it ought to be they're the suffering church and we're the church militant we offer the sacrifice of the mass for their pose of their souls so that's the tradition of the church however it seems probable that the souls in purgatory can pray but their prayers can be efficacious by way of god's mercy but not by way of their own merit so let me draw a distinction here i can ask god for something and he can grant it to me because he's merciful and i can ask god for something and he can grant it to me because i deserve it those are two different things now there are clearly some instances where i can ask for things that god has decided i am worthy of principally when i ask god for more grace if i have grace if i'm living the life of charity and i ask god for more grace and more charity then i may actually merit i may actually deserve the increase of grace and charity let's say i'm languishing at the bottle of a bottom of a whiskey bottle you know and i'm far from god and alienated and i'm the prodigal son and i pray and ask god for grace and mercy well i clearly don't deserve it he gives it to me because he loves me sure the souls in purgatory well they're not at the bottom of a whiskey bottle but they don't merit the answers to their prayers meriting stops when you die they they can however appeal to god for mercy and god is merciful okay there you go les thank you so much for your call glad that you're listening to us in baton rouge i'm gonna have to look up that uh that saint that he mentioned or or bless it or whatever the case there wouldn't be a saint or a blessed in purgatory well that's true so that's why i want to look them up appreciate that and uh dr david andrews hope you have a wonderful weekend thanks tom actually we hope everybody has a wonderful weekend uh you know world events notwithstanding we have so much to be thankful for remember that we do this program monday through friday 2 p.m eastern on ewtn with an encore at 11 p.m eastern on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders have a great weekend we'll see you on monday here on ewtn's call to communion god bless here's today's quote from mother angelica's perpetual

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,453

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: 1nxA0SG8NOw

Length: 54min 3sec (3243 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 25 2022