Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - Feb 8, 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 the 1-833-288-3986 global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome to the tuesday edition of call to communion this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters maybe you were a catholic as a kid maybe you were baptized as a catholic and then fell away from the faith for whatever reason maybe uh you know after high school maybe college maybe you know out on your own and uh you've been wandering around sort of and looking for that faith of your youth and now you're getting very close to that faith but there's a couple of things that you want to nail down before making that big big commitment well we can help you with that we can answer those questions on this program over the next hour here's our phone number three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205 271 299 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 shoot us an email we're going to get to one of those in a moment the address ctc ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer matt kabinsky is our phone screener charles is also handling social media for us today if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live uh charles will shoot that to us here in the studio just put your question in the comments box that's all you have to do i'm tom price along with dr david anders hey tom how are you today i'm doing great how are you i'm doing decent thank you you sound rather subdued are you subdued um i'm fairly subdued okay maybe i can get unsubdued well yeah i i know that she has me up with some good questions and listen by the time the show ends you are kind of in a in a rocking and rolling uh state of mind i got to get in the groove that's it exactly well we're going to lead off with this email and i think you'll remember this conversation because this person here sally wrote this last night uh and it's in regards to something that happened on yesterday's show and uh she says the following today's show which would have been yesterday monday's show he was talking to a listener named nancy about what kind of personality did jesus have was he neurotic did he line up his shoes in the closet and that people do fall on a continuum of neurotic behavior i thought being a neurotic was a mental health issue he made a good point of saying the point is who christ is as lord and messiah but that neurotic part towards him is not acceptable to me i really enjoy your program i listen every day could dr anders please explain this a little more thank you sally yeah yeah sure sure i can appreciate the comment so let me tell you where i'm coming from kind of a loaded word yeah so personality psychologists typically try to characterize people along five different continua and they're uh things like agreeableness uh conscientiousness openness to experience neuroticism and then extroversion versus introversion and everybody sort of falls someplace on those continuum you know and you know it you're not a bad person if you are uh you know i'm maybe john the baptist maybe wasn't the most agreeable guy in the world you know i mean he was kind of confrontational right you know you're sort of in your face he's running around wearing camel's hair kind of you know smeared with wild honey and he was calling down fire and brimstone on people i mean maybe you know he wasn't like uh it's not like having jim gaffigan over for dinner again he's just that's not i mean what it's what you do with your personality that matters in terms of merit and virtue you take the package that god's given you and you use it for goodness now i mean we've all known kind of the curmudgeonly you know old professor or maybe the curmudgeonly priest who is just mr you know billy goat gruff but you know that he's got the heart of the lamb and would give you the show off his back but he's just not going to crack a joke and slap you on the back he's not that kind of guy right right and but it's a personality trait it's not a character trait um you know openness to experience is another personality dimension some people just love to run out and do the next great thing they're you know they want to find out what's happening on the other side of the street they can't wait to learn and you know meet new stuff other people are more focused on kind of keeping what they've got structured and organized those are two very different kinds of people we've known each of them and some of them are uh i mean they each have their virtues each have their benefits to society into one another well uh neuroticism is a person is a dimension of personality just tracks how given are you to negative emotion are you okay okay that's all it means now is it bad to have a personality type where you are maybe prone to negative emotion you ever heard of a guy called jeremiah [Laughter] you know yeah i mean you can be prone to negative emotion and that can be us a prompt in your life for a deep kind of prophetic consciousness uh you know the the activists who who cannot rest in the face of injustice they're tormented by say the plight of the poor or the oppressed and they take that grief and that sorrow that they that they ca other people like chill out dude lay off you know it's not that big a deal they take that pain and they go do something really powerful and virtuous with it in the world like a martin luther king like martin luther king exactly so the fact that you make carry around a sort of heavy heart does not in itself it's not in itself a bad thing now we use the word colloquially when we talk about a neurotic to maybe somebody who's obsessive compulsive or they're you know kind of morose and self-regarding and they're depressive all the time yeah that can be that can be pathological it can be really harmful but as a personality trait you know you're going to fall someplace on that continuum it's not necessarily better for you to be all the way at the other if you have absolutely no tendency to negative emotion whatsoever at all maybe you might have a harder time with empathy yeah you know i asked a good friend of mine the other day i said so and so you ever get depressed and he went huh he thought about it for about two seconds and i was like okay the answer is no yeah you have to stop and think about it you don't know you don't know what depression feels like that's right well a soul i remember one time to take an example i uh i heard a preacher wasn't a catholic preacher speak very dismissively of those who had been abused as children was not a catholic who said this and suggested well i just need to get over it and i thought here's a man who's never suffered wow here's a man who's never suffered he's no empathy because maybe he himself has a very robust personality and is not given to negative emotion doesn't appreciate how hard it is to carry those things sure jesus christ however in the in the book of isaiah prophesies the messiah will be a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering so he did have some touch of the neurotic to his personality otherwise he wouldn't have known what it was like to carry that much sorrow definitely sarah thank you so much for your call or your your email rather in a moment we're going to get to the phones at 833 288 ewtn that's now for 833-288-3986 to communion with dr david anders [Music] tomorrow morning on the sunrise morning show we'll continue our series with dominican father ezra sullivan on developing habits of virtue we'll also catch up with canon lawyer father philip michael tangora and look at more scriptures that address worry and anxiety with gary zimac from followingthetruth.com plus news weather sports and everything you need to start your day the sunrise morning show tomorrow at 6 a.m eastern on ewtn radio [Music] this is life issues with brad mattis president of life issues institute virginia's new governor glenn younkin is turning the table on his pro-abortion predecessor ralph northam who established a director of diversity equity and inclusion junkin named angela saylor took the role and elevated it to a cabinet level position but instead of advancing extreme social issues the director will promote ideas policies and practices to eliminate disparities in prenatal care and be an ambassador for unborn children now that's true inclusion sailor will also promote free speech and civil discourse including viewpoint diversity at universities where pro-life and other biblical values are routinely censored the director will also be responsive to the rights of parents in education this is diversity we can all get behind follow us on twitter at life issues usa and stay informed more informed than you've ever been [Music] call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn on this uh tuesday afternoon we have a couple of lines open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's eight 833 three nine eight six by golly if you call right now we can probably get you on today's show let me tell you about a wonderful book now available from ewtn's religious catalogue it's called benedict the 16th defender of the faith by joseph pierce in this heartfelt defense of pope benedict's words and works a tribute to his life and legacy and an homage to his sanity and sanctity joseph pierce's biography provides an unforgettable encounter with this great historical figure as the defender of the faith pope benedict xvi fought tirelessly and largely successfully against the forces of secularism first as the indomitable joseph ratzinger and then of course as the incomparable supreme pontiff you know years from now catholics will still look back on pope benedict's enduring legacy with enormous gratitude he successfully steered the ship of peter in charity and truth against the evil tides that sought to engulf the church this is an amazing book by our friend joseph pierce it's available right now at ewtnrc.com free standard shipping on online orders of 75 or more do check it out ewtnrc.com before we go to uh the phones at 833 288 ewtn i want to give a shout out to uh today's favorite feast day of yours saint josephine bakita yes thank you for that uh saint josephine bikini to pray for us yeah and what i love about st josephine bukita is you you want to talk about taking lemons and making lemonade oh yeah i mean this woman had a life of unbelievable suffering and she looked back on all of it with gratitude because she saw the hand of god's providence in her life to bring her to christ into the catholic faith in the midst of slavery and oppression and poverty and prejudice and every kind of degradation you can imagine and yet she said of her own life that she was awaited by divine love and therefore her life was good what a lesson for all of us absolutely saint josephine bakita pray for us call to communion with dr david anderson progress here waiting for your phone call at 833 288 ewtn here's an email from michael hello dr anders i recently had a professor make the following statement quote jesus is the man he didn't take the form of a man the word became a man the eternal word is jesus only at his birth not before well i interpreted this as the name jesus only referring to his human nature rather than to a personal person this seemed problematic to me and the reference to birth versus conception to a lesser extent but i value your opinion i was hoping i could get your thoughts on it in case i'm making a mistake in my thinking yours in christ michael yeah i think so there were a lot of propositions there and i was kind of trying to jot them down as we were going and i sort of got stuck on jesus as the man and then i i lost the thread a little bit well let me give you that again yeah yeah jesus is the man he didn't take the form of a man the word became a man the eternal word is jesus only at his birth not before okay yeah thanks appreciate the question all right so here is the catholic doctrine on the incarnation let me just give you the truth and then you can compare it to your professor's uh statements okay the catholic position is that uh the the sonship of god is eternal right so jesus doesn't become the son of god at his conception or birth he is eternally begotten of the father in a relationship affiliation this is uh in the inner life of the blessed trinity the trinity didn't come to exist at a point in time it's always been god has always been a trinity of persons and we name those persons as father son and holy spirit now the second person of the trinity who is eternally son he doesn't just become son he's eternally son assumes to himself a human nature assumes himself a human nature now the the the the union of the divine and the human nature takes place in in at the conception in the womb of the blessed virgin mary and the god man that is the result of that union is the human person jesus so we wouldn't actually talk about jesus the god man as existing eternally because the humanity of christ has an origin in time namely in the womb of the blessed virgin but the second person of the trinity is eternal now the union once achieved is also everlasting so it's not like the humanity of christ is going to peel off from the divinity at some point in the future right no but he really is seated at the right hand of god yeah ever living to make intercession for the saints um so if if uh uh if your professor in saying the word became a man uh no he says at the birth it'd be at the conception if he means to indicate by that that the that the second person of the trinity assumed a human nature in time well that's true that's true um now i don't know what he means when he says that he did not assume the form of a man i don't know what that sentence is intended to convey saint paul actually uses the language of form in second uh philippians when he says that uh well he actually says though being in the form of god he didn't consider equality with god a thing to be grasped but humbled himself and took on human likeness being born in the likeness of men humbled himself uh unto death obedience unto death even on a cross um so but i just don't know what he's in i don't know what he's getting at with that language but that but the idea that the humanity of christ the the human nature of christ is a creature right that's true because he is the eternal god assumed uh a human nature and human natures are by definition finite uh to himself so that he has both a divine nature and a human nature with all that both of those entail well there you go appreciate that michael thank you so much for your email it's called a communion on this tuesday afternoon here on ewtn radio our phone number is 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 call now while you can get get through here's an anonymous email we received from a person who says i am currently in rcia anxiously awaiting holy easter vigil to be baptized and receive communion however i'm very nervous about my first confession i have some pretty big things to confess coming in during the second half of my life i live in a very small town where i will see my priest often i'm uncomfortable with this i once heard on an ewtn program that i can give my first confession to another priest that i don't know and will likely never see again is there a timeline i must abide by to do this i want to do it correctly knowing that when i receive the eucharist that night i am fully absolved and right with the church especially with the lord when can i do this first confession and then do another one with my local rcia priest for easter sunday and finally i also hear a lot about his chosen people well if we're not predestined and it's not the jews etc who are these chosen people thank you for your time programs and guidance anonymous yeah thanks i appreciate the question so with respect to your initial confession yes you can go to any priest to make your initial confession you would just need to do it before your reception into the church at easter when you're confirmed uh and and i would recommend in fact that you do that so you know if you're in a small town there's only one parish drive to the next parish over if you want sure uh and uh and that's fine and i think that's a great idea you know we're blessed in my diocese to have a number of uh foreign clergy that serve from different there i'm alone from other dioceses around the world and uh it has occurred to me they're gonna carry all my sins back to india and africa you know nobody around here is going to ever know of course nobody around here is going to know anyway because they're going to keep the seal sure regardless but at the same time i would encourage you i promise you that there is nothing you've done that that even your parish priest hasn't heard they've heard it all you know i remember i was speaking to a newly ordained priest several years ago he had been ordained less than a week and i said you've been ordained less than a week have you begun to hear confessions he said oh yeah and uh and then he added and i you wouldn't believe what i've already heard [Laughter] i didn't go into details of course but the implication was he sort of heard you know every one of the ten commandments in spades if you will yeah uh right out of the box right in the box as the case may be it also occurs to me that for this anonymous person here uh if they think that it might take some time to do all make an appointment make an appointment and just you know tell the priest that this is a general confession especially yes that's right if you're talking about your whole life all the way up to today that's right that's right now i would also encourage you a general confession is not an autobiography right and what the council of trent says is that we are obligated to confess known mortal sins in kind number for somebody you know who's 50 years old or 40 years old or whatever you may you probably can't get the number so you've said well you know okay sins against the sixth commandment a bunch of times stands against the second commandment bunch of times sins against the ninth commandment oh heck father sins against all the commandments a bunch of times you know and really you've you've gotten the job done i mean you'll be a little bit more specific than that but you don't have to you tell a story around each cent you understand right right um and uh and they've heard it all they've heard it all believe me they've heard it all and then there was the uh the other thing about the chosen people that you that this this person was asking yes yes so the the idea of election and sacred scripture really takes its origin especially from the person of abraham and if you go back and read the story of abraham genesis chapter 12 and following god calls abraham out of his homeland and says go to the land that i'll show you and i'm going to make you your own nation and i'm going to give you many descendants and they'll be a blessing to all the world so and then abraham does of course and he he has abraham has isaac isaac had to jacob jacob has the 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of israel and from the tribe of judah the messiah is born and in him the whole world is blessed so the promise to abraham is fulfilled in christ but this this uh this choice of abraham god called abraham uh first of all why did he call abraham he not because abraham was the most righteous dude but because he wanted to use abraham to bless the nations so was god's choice of abraham intended to exclude everybody else from salvation no he he chose abraham as his instrument to bring salvation to the world in the same way abraham's progeny the people of israel were chosen certainly not because they were the most righteous people on the planet but because this was the these were the people through whom god had intended to bless the world through the revelation of the law and ultimately the birth of the messiah now we who are not of abraham stock by genealogy but by faith are included into that covenant people of god by being included into christ and we also have the marks of election about us if we're catholics is it for our sake alone does god call the church to be for itself alone or rather to be the means an instrument of salvation for the entire world just like abraham the call of the catholic church is not to be for itself but to be for the world to reconcile all things to god yes indeed appreciate your anonymous email and actually came uh on sunday afternoon this this person let me give another analogy can i do this oh okay sure when i was in high school i learned how to do cpr i've forgotten a lot of it but i had cpr classes and the first thing they always tell you in cpr class you find some unconscious person who's not breathing and you run up to this guy they said there's a crowd of people standing around watching you pick someone out of the crowd you point at them and go you go get help because if you don't point to somebody no one will go that's right you got to pick somebody out of the crowd you go get help yeah does that mean that i think everybody else is a bunch of losers no it's just the guy with the red shirt he's the one that stood out to me i'm playing him election's a little bit like that you know god grabs hold of abraham and says you go be help go be help that's what god calls us to he calls us yes but for what's purpose so we can be his face and light to the world speaking of calling call now at 833 288 ewtn blanked out on the phone number after seven years how about that eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six charles is standing charles is standing by for your emails and all that matthew gabinski is waiting for your phone call just received this from lulu watching on youtube lulu says someone i know said a mask is now required for her rcia class so the catholic church added wearing masks as a requirement to becoming a catholic for this reason this person does not want to now become a catholic how can i reply to that person uh well i to be quite honest with you i'm going to shock you here and say that's probably a good decision on her part because someone who is not willing to be slightly inconvenienced in their pursuit of god or the sacraments not ready is not disposed to become a catholic see christ says that we're supposed to be willing to have roman soldiers take nails and drive them through our wrists hang us up on crosses and leave us bleeding to die that that's how willing we should be to follow him in our pursuit of virtue and holiness and and you know saint paul tells that we're supposed to rid ourselves of everything that contaminates flesh or spirit out of reverence for god jesus says if your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out if your left hand causes you to send cut it off right and and i i won't take a piece of paper and wrap it over my mouth for 45 minutes i don't want to be inconvenienced that much yeah well you're called as a catholic to be inconvenienced a lot more than that what if somebody in your life says something to you that makes you angry well somebody's doing that right now okay and what is what does paul tell us love does love bears all things yeah hopes all things endures all things you won't endure a piece of paper wrapped across your face but you believe you're called to the life of charity where you're called to endure all things i'd say you're not ready to become a catholic all right 288 ewtn is our phone number 833-288-3986 uh a quick uh question here from facebook nancy says a protestant objection to the catholic faith that i heard uh states that quote latin is a luciferian language what do you think of that oh this is a fun question i get a kick out of this so first thing i want to know like have how many conversations have you had with the devil in latin that's the first thing i'd like to know right if you think this is luciferian now todd gave me the the 30-second signal till the break but i got to tell you a story and i may have to come back in the other side so my good friend father lambert who i'm always talking about he was an irish dominican he had a brother father clement who was also a dominican priest he was stationed in trinidad and according to the story one day a man came to the priory and said we've got a woman who's dying we need you to come i'll finish the story on the other side of the break i can't wait to hear this talk about a cliffhanger fantastic also we're going to talk with kathy in ann arbor and lots of other folks that they're being screened right now at 833 288 ewtn one line open at 833.28839 call to communion with dr david anders [Music] we live in a world of extreme polarization often consumed by anger and anxiety a climate that is dividing our country and our world a division so wide there is even confusion within our church and today most secular news sources only serve to deepen this divide but at catholic news agency our mission is to be a witness to the truth of our catholic faith providing trustworthy relevant and timely news affecting the global church as well as in-depth coverage of the pope the vatican the church in the u.s and the ongoing battle for the culture of life every day cna's reporters and editors maintain a continuous faithful watch on the people and the events that impact lives and the souls of catholics delivering more news from a catholic perspective than anyone else catholic news agency a service of ewtn news trusted timely catholic engage at catholicnewsagency.com 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 [Music] faith is a precious gift from god as the largest religious media network in the world ewtn has an important role in educating others about our catholic faith and spreading the good news of salvation we invite you to explore our numerous pages of historical faith documents prayers teachings and other current issues in catholicism today visit ewtn.com and click catholicism ewtn the global catholic network [Music] hi this is side kellet host of catholic answers live later today one of the best joe heshmeier two hours open forum catholic answers live 6 p.m eastern on ewtn radio now back to called the communion with dr david anderson [Music] what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders our phone number 833-2888 that's 833 288 3986 one online becomes available they're actually sold out at the moment but we're going to get to a call in just a moment here first i've got to recap this question we posed just before the break this is from nancy watching on facebook nancy says a protestant objection to the catholic faith that i heard about states that quote latin is a luciferian language yeah thanks i appreciate the question so i began uh by joking i wonder if the if the one objecting has much experience discussing things with lucifer in latin how he knows that latin is the language of hell i mean has he been there i don't know how um does seem a bit odd because i mean latin is essentially derivative it's an indo-european language these languages are not the earliest languages on the planet they have a historical origin uh you know i don't know ten thousand years ago or so i don't know how old uh indo-european goes back but something in that department um and and you know many many human languages spoken much longer than the oldest languages i think in the world date back to the africa uh african continent um but uh it would be odd to think of the devils having a language of any sort of human providence as their primary mode of communication given that they don't have tongues or ears and saint thomas says the angels whether whether holy or fallen you know they communicate immediately by acts of intuition not by and don't even use discursive language at all in communicating with one another so metaphysically the question makes no sense now however i did start to tell a funny story about luciferian language so i have often mentioned on the show i had a great friend now deceased father lambert green an irish dominican priest and i would sit with him usually about once a week and we would chew the fat on theology his life ireland politics the church you name it and one time we were discussing the irish language and i asked him i said his father used to teach irish actually uh i said uh father leopard are there different dialects of irish she says oh yeah now i'm going to get this wrong because i don't remember what the dialects are but let's say it's east and west sure and he says yeah yeah i'll tell you a funny story about that he said brother clement who was also a dominican was stationed in trinidad and uh and so the uh man came to the priory knocked on the door you know told the fathers there's a woman here who's dying she needs a priest so a couple of them say well i'll go i'll go so two guys go and they show up and it's a indigenous woman and you know she's uneducated doesn't have a lot of money kind of a primitive circumstances kind of pathetic actually and so they go in to perform last rites and uh they they sprinkle with holy water and uh she turns and looks at them and speaks to them in perfect flawless irish wow and they realize we're doing something demonic here this is not good that's not good so one priestess the other better hitter with some more holy water i'm just telling you the story as he reported okay i'm just telling you as he told it all right and she floats to the ceiling wow and he's a better hitter again all right and uh and um so i'm getting i'm getting sorry backwards so first was the holy water and floating to the ceiling okay all right then they hit her again she floats back to the floor then the first priest says to the second speak to her in irish speak to her and irish so he speak addresses the woman in irish and she turns and looks at him and answers him in perfect flawless irish whereupon the second priest gets so scared he turns and runs back to the priority okay and uh but this is the reason he told me the story he said eventually they you know they did business they had an exorcism they did what they needed to do yeah yeah but uh but there was a joke that went around that irish priory for years afterwards that you know the all the guys from the east said well you know the devil speaks the western dialect because that's why that's great that is awesome and you know as we're going up a call here it occurs to me that you know father lambert a real brainiac just a very very intelligent man i think it's a real act of of mercy that you were there at the end of his life you know so that he could you know communicate with somebody at that high level so you know i'll tell you a story about that i would go every thursday afternoon after i left this show i'd get off the air at two o'clock central time i would leave uh ewtn i would go to his home where he stayed with a convict nearby with some nuns and i would sit in his room and we would talk for an hour or sometimes more sometimes less and share our lives in the faith and i did that with him for probably 10 years and it was an invaluable mentoring experience for me and i made a dear friend in heaven that i'll never lose and i miss him terribly but i'm so glad to have internalized my inner father lambert you know yes indeed and we would talk about the content of this show and you'll often hear on this show i'll talk about the rule of faith what what rule of faith did christ give us what determinate means did jesus give us to determine the content of the christian faith well that was a key theme for father lambert and he was always insistent that i go back to the rule of faith you know and uh the the day that he died it was a thursday november the 18th 2018 and i had called a mutual friend and i said how's father doing and he said he's dying and i almost didn't come into radio that day wow i thought about skipping it because i'm not going to not be there when father dies but i thought he would want me to go he'd want me to go so i came in and i did radio i left radio and i went immediately immediately to father's room and i got there and i said i said father how you doing he said not so good that's so good and i said father lambert i just got off the radio and i talked about the rule of faith just like you said and he said good good you know and uh and so we we talked about the rule of faith we talked about the radio show oh we talked about the lord and he it wasn't just me all of his friends and well-wishers were there and we all began to pray for him and we were praying the rosary with him and uh and he expired during the first decade of the rosary and i was so touched that it was it was our time it was a thursday afternoon when he and i would always spend time together and i went that one last thursday afternoon and we talked about ewtn and called to communion and the rule of faith and the mercy of god and we prayed together and he died surrounded by friends and well-wishers and very well attended and the bishop came by and many priests from the network came by and he'd been annoyed and had the apostolic blessing and and uh you've never seen a better attended death and my my younger son youngest son was able to be there as well and i said remember this i want you to see what a holy death looks like this is a holy death yeah and then we all wept and we wept and we told stories and we wept some more and we sang his favorite hymn and we laid him to rest that is a holy and great great death wow father lambert rest in peace if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn here is kathleen to kick it off in ann arbor listening on the great ave maria radio hey there kathy what's on your mind today hi so i have been reading the bible in the year and i just kind of went through um about moses and one thing that i was kind of wondering if you could kind of expand on was where after like moses get ready to go see pharaoh and then something happens where like his wife is worried that god is going to strike him strike moses so she cuts off the four spin off of their child and rubs it across his feet so if you can kind of explain that a little more yes okay so i i'm going to uh be straight up honest with you one of the premier critical scholars of the old testament in the united states today is a jewish scholar by the name of richard elliot friedman and he's highly regarded in the field richard elliott friedman's interpretation of this text is we don't have a clue we don't have a clue and and obviously i mean the language that zipporah uses you know you are a bridegroom of blood to me uh we don't know the context of that remark within within ancient hebrew culture so it is it is one of the most obscure passages of the bible saint augustine commenting on this text goes full-blown allegorical as he is want to do in such occasions and says that christ is the rock from which was hewn the knife to circumcise the flesh of our sinful nature right and you're like yeah augustine don't know what it's about either you know um but i do think we can see this much right that within the context of of of the abrahamic covenant and hebrew law circumcision is a sign of fidelity to the covenant this is the the israelites participation ritual participation in the covenant is to circumcise their male infants and it's not arbitrary it's certain act of circumcision it's not like god could say well i'm trying to pick between circumcision and a tattoo uh let's flip a coin i'll go for circumcision there's more significance to that because circumcision is in the member of generation whereby uh the seed of uh the covenant promises past right it's to abraham's progeny all right so the note of procreation is intrinsic to the god to god's covenant promise and so circumcision is a reminder in all of israel's uh male members that their their masculinity and their masculine sexuality is in fact the mode of the transmission of covenant membership it's through they're generating children that they will fulfill god's promise and so in this the most intimate places they are to be cognizant of god's covenant promise and of their own obligations they treat their own sexuality as a thing holy and as the vehicle for transmitting god's covenant uh to the world right now in a in an extended sense catholics do the same thing right we consider the marriage covenant to be a sacrament and not only for the purposes of replenishing society but also figuring christ's fidelity to the church to the world right and so to neglect the sign of circumcision would be a serious infidelity on moses's part it was gross negligence if his son was uncircumcised and kind of ironic that the land that god had chosen to lead israel would leave that undone and as is often the case it's the woman that makes the man go back to church so to speak you know um the phraseology thou art a bridegroom of blood to me i don't know what to do with that i'm not a hebreist and richard elliott friedman doesn't know what to do it obviously references some covenant relationship that's obscure you know to us but would have been familiar at the time but i think for our purposes what we have to draw away from this is first of all the importance of the covenant sign for us that's baptism our fidelity to the covenant uh the the the um the sensitivity the secularity the nobility of the sexual act um and uh and allegorically we find in the old testament ritual of circumcision a sign of our the circumcision of our hearts by that rock who is christ kathy we hope that's helpful for you thanks so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn two lines open at the mayo at the moment eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six tom price here reminding you to join us for ewtn live tomorrow evening at 8 pm eastern here on the radio and on the tv side as well dr scott hahn joins father mitch to discuss the history and importance of fasting during this time of preparation you know lent is just around the corner uh by the way he also shares some helpful and delicious recipes from his new lenten themed cookbook scott hahn with a cookbook how about that check it out tomorrow night 8 p.m eastern on ewtn radio and television laura's watching us on youtube laura is following up on uh what somebody was talking about earlier uh regarding um our rcia class and uh the wearing of the mask and laura says well what if you can't wear a mask for example a copd person or somebody with asthma would you do your classes online uh what would be the alternatives sure sure so rcia is not an absolute categorical necessity for becoming a catholic i'm a convert to the catholic church i did not go through rcia right many people can't for one reason or another make it through an rca class the church is interested in sacramentalizing you and catechizing you and making you catholic rca is an efficient and an authoritative way of doing that's not the only alternative many people become catholic on their deathbed check with your pastor yeah exactly there you go back to the phones right now here is chris in orlando listening on the ewtn app hey there chris what's on your mind today hey guys uh thanks for taking my call um i just finished reading revelation and um i have a protestant friend of mine um and they kind of talk about revelation and the rapture and they also quote different scripture like matthew 24 corinthians 15 theologians about the second coming of christ and sort of um sort of being beamed up uh so to speak into heaven uh when that happens and i'm just i'm a little bit sort of confused on the catholic perspective of that and then also how to have a conversation with them um when they refer to these these passages where you know it talks about the trumpet sounding and the god will be raised sure okay so so we need to disentangle a few words in a few concepts when protestants speak of the rapture they have a lot more in mind typically than simply being caught up in the air that's the bible says that will be caught up in the air first thessalonians 4 17 says that when the lord returns we're going to be caught up in the air to meet the lord in the clouds that's that's a biblical teaching catholics believe that that's not what they mean by the rapture uh typically and i'm i'm really thinking about a school of protestant theology called dispensationalism that's very widespread very popular this is what they have in mind it really begins with an interpretation of the old testament john nelson darby who was a plymouth brethren theologian protestant theologian fundamentalist had a very literalistic interpretation of the old testament so that when you find prophecies in the old testament such as you know uh god's gonna restore the temple in jerusalem and and rivers of water are gonna flow from it to nourish the nations and and uh you know the the the gentile world is going to come and lay tribute at the feet of the jews in jerusalem and foreigners will rebuild her gates and you know camels will be tromping around with golden myrrh and incidents on their humps that kind of language and a lot of that language in the old testament darby's position was well that stuff's got to literally happen that's this literally true right and uh and so because that didn't happen at the coming of christ we didn't see the gentiles you know thrown out and subjugated by israel we didn't see you know truckloads of gold and camels being carted into jerusalem and the jews ruling over everybody and we certainly didn't see a messianic king ruling you know on a throne in jerusalem christ said my kingdom's not of this world and we didn't see the restoration of temple worship with the slaughter of goats and bulls after its destruction in 70 a.d so because those things didn't happen in the first century darby reasoned they must happen sometime in the future but he also understood that the new testament takes a dim view of things like animal sacrifice and physical kingship and military conquest that's not what jesus preached and that's not what the church brought and so the church as an institution became kind of inconvenient to darby's theology of the old testament so if if jesus didn't come to bring military conquest and gold and silver in jerusalem then how are you going to get those things to happen and darby's you know i'm putting this in in quotes here ingenious solution was to get the church out of the picture and so he took passages like matthew 24 and first thessalonians 4 which say nothing about what i'm getting ready to mention and he twisted them to make the following claim jesus will return in secret this is darby's position not the position of the catholic church jesus will return in secret and he will snatch up the church he'll snatch up true believers and carry them off to heaven and they'll like i don't know you know go play bingo or something for a while and then he'll unleash all this persecution on the world at the end of which time christ will come back a third time with the church in triumph and glory at which point he will then institute this very hebraic kingdom in jerusalem with a rebuilt temple and reinstitute temple sacrifices and that's when all the gold and silver and burr and camels are going to come trucking into jerusalem right okay so it was a very convoluted way of trying to maintain a fundamentalist or interpretation of old testament prophecy now the bible says nothing about three comings of jesus it says nothing about a secret coming it says that when the son of man comes again it'll be visible as lightning in the east is visible in the west and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that jesus is lord right and we're not caught up in the air in order to go play canasta for a while and then come back we're caught up with him forever right not not this this seven year interlude business that darby imagined so he made all that up right but he made it up for those reasons now what does the catholic faith think about these questions well jesus himself did not read the old testament in a literalistic way like darby did the case in point the disciples the pharisees came to jesus is why does the prophet say that elijah must come first he says well if you're willing to accept it john the baptist is elijah well that's not a literal fulfillment of the prophecy the the elijah becomes a kind of type and john the baptist is the antitype it's not a literal fulfillment the bible literally says if you catch people committing adultery they're to be put to death i think that's leviticus 20. jesus says no you don't john chapter 8 no you don't don't put him to death what's not literally enforcing the mosaic law and i could give you many other instances where jesus deflects from a literalistic interpretation of the old testament and rather spiritualizes it he says the kingdom of god does not come with your careful observation this luke 17 does not come with your careful observation nor can men say of it here it is so there it is well look if somebody has got a truckload of camels and they're carting them into jerusalem you go here it comes here come the camel's buddy i can see him jesus says does not come with your careful observation you cannot say of the kingdom of god here it is or there it is for the kingdom of god is within you the word within there in greek only occurs i think twice in the new testament the other instances when he says to the pharisees you guys clean the outside of the dish you should clean within so he's talking about the interior life right that's the within when the king of god dwells in the interior life where it's the meek and the humble the peacemakers those who thirst for righteousness are persecuted for righteousness sake that's the rule of god's kingdom in our hearts not this military conquest business so and then finally to of course to pilate in john 18 my kingdom is not of this world so jesus just comely completely repudiates that way of interpreting the old testament so does saint paul paul says that reading the bible that way literalistically the way darby did the way many of his contemporary jews did is actually a letter that brings death the letter of the law brings death and he meant what he said because paul was breathing out murderous threats against the church and putting them to death when he read the old testament that way it led him to commit murder he says but when anybody turns to the lord the veil is taken away and now the spiritual man can discern spiritual things so the old testament is opened up with the spiritual reading the spiritual sense of the bible is what the the catholic church says and and that is when we can read it allegorically is pointing to christ so sarah and hagar cease to be two historical women necessarily i mean uniquely and they become types or allegories for two covenants the covenant of the flesh and the covenant of the spirit that's what paul does in galatians what is it for all right the rock in the old testament from which the israelites drank stopped being a mere rock and it becomes a type of christ from whom living water flows the temple in jerusalem that ezekiel speaks about from which water will flow and nourish the nations jesus says i'm the temple i am destroy this temple the temple of my body i'll raise it up again in three days and to the samaritan woman if you knew who was asking you i would give you living water and you would never thirst again that's the water that flows from the true temple of christ's body that nourishes the nations not some piece of architecture yeah that's the way the new testament that's the way the catholic church reads these issues and there are two comings of christ the incarnation and the psyche coming at the end of time when there is a resurrection from the dead not this secret coming canasta playing seven year business that darby made up hope that's helpful for you chris thanks so much for your call let's go to tim in omaha listening on the great spirit catholic radio hi tim what's on your mind today sir hi fellas thanks for taking my call my question is uh how do we prevent church leaders and when i state church leaders i mean anyone that finds them in a position where uh people are approaching them with questions about the church or questions about entering the church how do we prevent those church leaders from creating any barriers between them and accessing the church i mean especially people that are at a vulnerable place of just entering into the church and they might not have a deep faith yet they might not you know even believe that jesus existed they might not know about the um you know how valid of a of a source the gospels are they're very they're just beginning to be interesting i got you so how do we i got you yeah i got it kind of in reference to some other things that have been sure i have an answer for you tim tim you take personal responsibility for the mission of the church that's what the pope calls missionary discipleship when you tim take personal responsibility for the mission of the church and you are the face of christ and of catholicism to your friends then you will not hopefully be an impediment to their coming to faith right if you if you yourself possess the virtue of charity so you take personal responsibility you tim and i david and he tom we cannot take personal responsibility for what father curmudgeon does i have no power over over father billy goat gruff i can't prevent him from doing anything he'll answer to god for his activities he's not going to answer to me and i mean even his bishop can't stop him from being a jerk i think he can move him to out of the parish he could you know put him in the chancery or something but he can't he can't stop him from being vicious nor could you stop me nor can i stop you i mean like half the time i can't even get my own kids to do what i want you know i can't control another man's actions but i can take personal responsibility for the mission of the church as a missionary disciple and that that would make you a leader wouldn't it wouldn't make you a clerical leader would make you a lay leader yep that's how you do it all right appreciate your call tim here is uh liliana a first-time caller from corona california listing on siriusxm channel 130. liliana what's on your mind today thank you so much for taking my call i have a question my 17 year old daughter is about to get to get confirmed and she's getting some things uh from her friends that are shaking her face the main one is that they claim the catholic church is supported by definition and she asked me this yesterday and i i just didn't know how to explain to her so i need a little help with that yeah sure thanks i appreciate the question so people define the word cult in different ways but the way sociologists tend to define cult a cult is an aberrant you know out of the mainstream religious group that's typically led by a charismatic leader that that isolates his followers from the world around them and uh and exercises a kind of mind control sort of personality control over the individual members such that they act to their own harm and the harm of their families that that's usually the way you would conceive of a cult and i would suggest to you i would contend that the catholic church is as far away from that as you can possibly get like if you wanted to define a cult you could do so in contra distinction to catholicism because first of all the catholic church is anything but aberrant it is in fact the largest christian body on the planet and the oldest it is the definition of mainstream yeah i mean it is literally the mainstream christianity everything else is a branch off of catholicism secondly it is not run by a single charismatic figure if unless you count jesus and he invites that's it right secondly it is so far from exercising mind control over its members in fact some people wish it would exercise more right because there's so much diversity of belief and practice among catholics of different cultures and different dispositions it's certainly not a hot box of ideological conformity in no way does catholicism conform to the definition of cult liliana you may want to check a wonderful resource a book called cults that's the name of the book by our friends of happy memory bob and penny lord they wrote this book a number of years ago don't know if it's still in print i'll bet you can find it somewhere thanks again for your call dr david anders thank you sir looking forward to our next visit tomorrow at the same time 2 p.m eastern for the live show 11 p.m eastern for the encore until then i'm tom price see you next time on ewtn's call to communion god bless the most original and exclusive catholic content is on ewtn radio one time somebody said to me why don't you air these people and i said no but i don't think they're catholic he says by what right do you have to say that i said i own the network mother angelica live classics tonight eight eastern on ewtn television and radio ewtn live truth live catholic hello this is father wade menezes of the fathers of mercy open line tuesday is next on most of these ewtn stations raymond arroyo dr david anders father mitch pacquiao the leading catholic voices are on the largest catholic media network in the world you're listening to the ewtn global catholic radio network [Music] the call a call from god sister marie saint anne shares her experience i had been attracted to religious life ever since i was a little girl it's an invitation from god it's not it wasn't something i could choose and i felt him call me when i was 12 years old i heard an interior voice say you will be christ's bride so as i began talking with different religious this one carmelite nun told me you must break the alabaster jar of your life and she was referring to saint mary magdalene in the gospel when she brought the ointment jar before our lord and she broke it you know people criticized her and said she could have spent that for the poor and a young girl nowadays is criticized for consecrating her life to the cloister and to god jesus deserves that i was really struck by breaking the alabaster jar the only thing i didn't understand is i had a desire to be a mother how could i reconcile that and as i discerned further i realized that to be religious elevates motherhood you become a mother of souls jesus is your spouse saint teresa of avila said to be a woman means to love and to suffer to be a nun means to love and to suffer more is to enlarge your capacity for being a woman so i realize that to be a woman in the heart of the church is to be a mother in its fullest sense and so i'm very happy you know consecrating my life to god because i found the fullness there for more information on the religious life log on to www.ewtn.com religious life the catechism of the catholic church has a great quote from saint john chrysostom on prayer in paragraph 2744 it reads quote nothing is equal to prayer for what is impossible it makes possible what is difficult easy for it's impossible for the man who prays eagerly and invokes god ceaselessly ever to sin close quote that's the power of prayer so what are we waiting for let's get to praying [Music] 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 have suffered abuse lord jesus christ innocent lamb who suffered unjustly for our sake look with mercy on those who have suffered abuse as children the wounds they carry are deep and yet are not beyond your reach heal them console them free them from the burden they carry and bring a swift end to these terrible acts cleanse our churches our schools and our homes of all abuse and grant that children everywhere will be welcomed loved and cherished amen during this time of crisis join us and pray for an end to the coronavirus radio classics is now ewtn radio essentials featuring 24 7 masses rosaries chaplets and prayers [Music] from ewtn news nightly in washington d.c i'm tracy sabol with an ewtn news link pope emeritus benedict xvi is asking abuse survivors for forgiveness in a letter released today the 94 year old expressed his quote profound shame and deep sorrow the letter was accompanied by a rebuttal of the criticisms levied against him in the munich abuse report u.s border officials made 1.9 million arrests along the southern border in 2021 this record number comes as the buy administration is facing backlash over videos of officials transporting migrants to airports in texas and having them flown to other cities in the u.s french president emmanuel macron is advocating for abortions to be added to the eu charter of fundamental rights bishops of the european union released a statement saying there is no right to abortion in either european law or international law from the studios of ewtn this is open line with today's host father wade menizes in north america call toll-free 1-833-2 ewtn that's 1-833-288-3986 [Music] outside north america call 1-205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 or send an email to openline ewtn.com a tremendous tuesday to each and every one of you thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line father wade is in the starting blocks ready to go if you've got a question the number is 833 288 e wtn that's 833 288 if you're outside the united states and canada that number is 1-2-0-5-271-2985 and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send an email openline ewtn.com or you can text your question text the letters ewtn to 55000 wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply i'm jack williams charles berry sitting in for michael mccall today producing the program your call screener is matt gubinsky and i guess charles is probably doubling up on social media efforts as well so if you're watching us on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and our host as he is every tuesday our very favorite father of mercy father wade menezes how are you doing great jack thank you so much so you're are you saying that our normal team of four that helped me get through this hour in such a great way each week are actually a team of three this week yeah and only two of them are normally here so okay there you go you'll get it it'll be all right we'll get through it hey listen um before we get into all this gossip that you want to talk about today yeah and uh literally i hope you have your confessor ready when you're finished but uh it is the feast of saint josephine vaquita uh janette and i have a granddaughter who is named for her patronage and um graham uh to encourage everybody you know this is somewhat an uh kind of a nebulous term i think for a lot of people and i just wanted to to throw out a practical uh illustration for you so if you're if you're someone who's listening who may be thinking well of course everybody's against human trafficking and i don't participate in human trafficking so what do i have to worry about well listen if you in any way shape or form uh consume pornography or are engaged in any sort of uh of of of prostitution or anything like that then you are engaging in and supporting human trafficking so that may be some way to look at it that might push somebody over the edge to to get out of that sort of habit or that sort of behavior because the fact of the matter is the girls that are involved in

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,865

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: fJZXU9YjpQo

Length: 63min 23sec (3803 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 08 2022