Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - January 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 this is call 1-833-288-3986 communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn radio this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters we know that there are a lot of non-catholics who listen to catholic radio we've we've received your emails we have heard from uh you know all sorts of sources that uh a lot of folks who are not catholic love to listen to not only this show but everything on catholic radio so perhaps you have a question or two about the catholic faith something that you've never been able to discern well what does the catholic church actually teach on this particular subject we can help you with that and here with that here is our phone number 833 288 ewtn and that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america and i know that we've got listeners really all over the world we have a special phone number for you dial the u.s country code in many cases that's going to be the number one or zero one or zero zero one whatever it is for you 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 gabinski is our phone screener jeff burson hansel's social media for us if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now audio and video all you have to do is put your question in the comments box jeff will send that to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders hey tom how are you i'm well how are you my friend great thanks well you know we're gonna go deep into the weeds with this one this is a a great question and i know that you love the subject so uh it may be a little rough sledding for some listeners but uh here we go this is from mark marx says if the catholic expression of the eucharist that the elements of bread and wine while retaining their accidents or appearance of bread and wine are indeed fully christ slash god is that then not a docetist type error we'll have to explain what that is uh is not the articulation of the eucharist better made as fully bread and wine yet fully jesus christ not the more coherent expression in keeping with christ being fully human and fully god thanks mark thank you i appreciate the question no it's not a docetist era error to hold that the eucharist is truly and substantially the body and by the blood of christ while retaining the appearances of bread and wine docetism is the error of holding that jesus's flesh is merely apparent okay so if if if jesus if you if you saw the incarnate christ the historical incarnate christ and you said well this is only an appearance it's not a real man it's not real flesh and blood it's just a spirit with the appearance of flesh and blood that would be docetism that's not the catholic position at all the catholic position is that christ was truly incarnate truly uh conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin mary was fully human and lived a fully human life and remains fully human although he's hypostatically united to the godhead so we're not docetists the doctrine of the eucharist is that the body and blood of christ in the eucharist are really body and blood they don't just seem to be they are body and blood substantially and so this is not docetism the the position that uh the eucharist is both fully jesus and fully bred uh is simply not taught in sacred scripture or sacred tradition okay well there you go mark thank you so much uh for your question glad that you could unpack that david here's one now from roxanne in alberta canada hi david last year my son's godparents who i always consider to be very devout catholics were formally welcomed into the orthodox church is it okay that they did this i know the catholics and orthodox christians share many of the same beliefs but i was surprised to learn that the orthodox church renounces some important catholic teachings such as theology on original sin and mary as co-redemptrix welcoming your thoughts on the matter roxanne in alberta okay thanks roxanne i appreciate the question so let me tread lightly here the orthodox are genuinely an apostolic church they have orders going back to the first apostles they have valid sacraments and they are in agreement with the catholic church on most things on very many things there are a few substantive differences the most important difference i would argue is that they fail to acknowledge the universal jurisdiction of the pope that's ultimately why there is a split in the heart of christendom is because of a dispute not on this or that matter of soteriology or eschatology but rather has to do with the authority of the pope but they are very close to us in in almost everything and so the catholic church actually says that catholics are not to proselytize orthodox it is not the catholic position that we should seek to make orthodox christians become catholic christians rather we should seek to bring the orthodox communion and the catholic church into greater and greater harmony and unity until we can restore that full unity that the church enjoyed for the first thousand years and uh and so that's that's the position and actually i know orthodox that believe that they they would pro personally be willing to accept the universal jurisdiction of the pope they have no problem with catholic doctrine they would like to be in union but their right in which they were born was this eastern right of the church and they're not going to leave it and so they remain where they are praying for the full unity of christ's body well that's a very catholic attitude and we would endorse that now that being said uh just as we're not seeking to proselytize the orthodox but rather seeking to come into full communion i would definitely think it's not a good idea for catholics to become orthodox now again for the most important reason a lot a lot of important reasons but the most important reason is they're wounding the unity of the church by leaving their obedience to the pope who's the universal vicar of christ on earth and so that's that's a bad thing i mean christ established the papacy for a reason to be a visible point of unity throughout the entire universal church and if you renounce that point of unity and you enter into a kind of you know uh group apart that's contrary to the spirit of the gospel jesus prayed that we'd all be one uh saint paul says we are to agree on everything and so you know it's it's evident that many orthodox groups even though we hold that they have valid sacraments and valid orders don't always share they don't always return the favor and so some of them not all but some of them have a much more sectarian attitude towards the pope and towards the latin church the catholic church you know bordering sometimes on kind of antagonistic well more than a little bit antagonistic and so it sure would hate for somebody to leave catholic unity and to go off into that kind of a situation roxanne thanks so much for your question from alberta in a moment we'll be talking with naftali in south carolina also chris in lubbock texas and there's a line open for you at 833 288 ewtn for call to communion [Music] tomorrow morning on the sunrise morning show we'll celebrate the feast of saints timothy and titus two of the first bishops of the early church we'll also continue our scriptural approach to worry and anxiety with gary zimac and catch up with canon lawyer father philip michael tangora author of holiness and living the sacramental life 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] 60 seconds with archbishop fulton j sheen this universe of ours is a free universe it is a universe of character making of soul making almighty god is placed into our hands think of it the power to make ourselves saints or devils it is up to us there are some laws that we cannot disobey for example the law of gravitation certain biological laws like circulation of blood but in a moral universe we are free either to obey the laws of god or to disobey them just as we are perfectly free for example to obey the laws of health or to disobey them the people you know and trust are on ewtn [Music] call to communion with dr david anders on this tuesday afternoon here on ewtn radio we have three lines open right now three screen three open at eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six i want to tell you about a wonderful new book now available from ewtn publishing graceful living meditations to help you grow closer to god day by day in this great book graceful living john ed williams shares pearls of wisdom from the saints doctors of the church and lots of holy men and women designed to help you grow closer to god each daily reflection will prompt you to delve deeper into your prayer life and self-examination so do check it out explore the timeless wisdom of the church with graceful living meditations to help you grow closer to god day by day it's available right now at ewtnrc.com by catholic shop ewtnrc.com if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn and we're going to begin today with nap folly listening in south carolina on youtube naphthalene what's on your mind today gentlemen shalom um i just want to start out by saying i have no overarching need to view mary the mother of jesus as a sinner but there is something that perplexes me in the book of leviticus in the 12th chapter in the sixth verse after a woman gives birth to a child and her time of cleansing is over she is to bring a yearling lamb without blemish to the priest for a guilt offering and two pigeons or two turtle doves as a sin offering mary brought two turtle doves to the priest obviously it was a sin offering now if mary brought a sin offering knowing that she didn't sin then she would be duplicitous which in and of itself is a sin i just need an explanation thank you i appreciate the question i think the question equivocates about the meaning of sin i think that's that's that's the point at issue if you go look at leviticus chapter 4 which gives the instructions for the rubrics if you will for a sin offering the text begins and i'm i'm doing this from memory so forgive me if i get it wrong but it's something like when an israelite sins unintentionally by breaking any of the commands of the lord then he is to bring a sin offering and here's how you do it okay so take note that this is for quote-unquote unintentional sense now in the context of leviticus chapter 4 sin means any infraction against the the ritual prescriptions of the mosaic law that could include things like you know touching a cloth that was ritually impure and and like forgetting to wash by sundown it could include things like that okay okay um now that's just not what the new testament and not what the catholic church means by sin um jesus we derive our teaching about sin from christ himself who rejects the merely ritual prescriptions of the mosaic law as a way of considering our righteousness before god if you look at matthew chapter 15 for example jesus says a man is not defiled by what enters his mouth but what comes out of his mouth namely the things in his heart like fornication and adultery and hatred and faction and disobedience to parents and these kinds of things well if you look at leviticus it absolutely says you're defiled by things that go into your mouth but jesus says no you're not no you're not and so it's a different concept of sin now christ did not advocate breaking the mosaic law but he did undermine its significance and so for example jesus would run out and hug lepers well under the mosaic law that would make him ritually impure but he hugged them and made them clean then what did he say go offer the sacrifice that moses requires as a testimony to them okay so the point being the the the sacrifices and offings of the mosaic law particularly in the pentateuch it they they uh it does not disambiguate between ritual infractions and moral infractions that distinction doesn't even really occur until you get into the writings of the prophets and they begun begin to reflect on the mosaic law and the prophets begin to say you know this sacrifice and offering business i don't really need it what i need is a pure heart what i need is contrition what i need is kindness to the poor and sharing your bread with the hungry and that critique of mere ritualism begins to emerge in the writings of the 8th century prophets into the exilic prophets and then jesus doubles down on that big time and says it's not about what goes into the body or touches the flesh it's about what comes out of the heart but with respect to those older laws for the sake of the commonwealth of israel and the gd and people and so forth and out of respect for the temple jesus advocated that his contemporaries should practice the rituals of the mosaic law but without attaching the same significance to them so under the terms of the mosaic law was merely mary ritually impure for having given birth yes ritual impurity but not moral impurity okay sounds good naphthalene thank you so much uh for your call appreciate hearing from you in south carolina that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 the tuesday afternoon edition of called communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio shane is watching us on youtube this afternoon shane says if the catholic church is true and correct why was there a need for the protestant reformation thank you dr anders i appreciate the work that you're doing thanks there was no need for the protestant reformation we had it perfectly in end thank you very much we did yes there's no need for it at all all right now this let me i speak on the reformation whenever i have an opportunity unfortunately the 500th anniversary has come and gone so the speaking invitations about the reformation have kind of dwindled yeah but i had a big show in 15 2017 that was a lot of fun okay but this was my area of research in grad school so i know a thing or two about it and when i'm speaking on the reformation to a catholic or protestant audience the question i like to ask folks is why was there a reformation why was there one why do you think and almost invariably doesn't matter if i'm talking to catholics or protestants the answer that i'll hear back from the audience is well because of all the corruption in the church to which i respond oh yeah well what about all the corruption in the church in the 10th century what about all the corruption in the church in the 4th century what about all the corruption in the church among the company of the apostles there's always been corruption in the church and sometimes quite severe quite severe it may be true that the church had corruption in the late 15th century but that's not a sufficient explanation for why there was this social upheaval called the reformation it's far more complex than that so uh in in the monasteries of medieval europe when monasteries had become very established institutions centuries old settled into routines it became unfortunately habitual that some of them acquiring wealth and power and status had fallen away from the rigorous application of the benedictine rule so you had monks kind of you know doing the 9th century version of sitting around watching netflix popping popcorn and not really attending to their prayers yeah and so you had some reformers that popped up in the monasteries and said you know we need to get back to the rule he'd get back to the prayers need to get back to the observances of the benedict in life and this was especially so in a monastery called clooney in france they've sort of spawned a reform movement among monasteries cluniac reform well there's this fellow that came up out of the cliniac reform his name was hildebrand lo and behold he ends up in the papacy becomes gregory vii in the 11th century in the in the 10 hundreds and he says i see you know that thing we did in the monasteries we went back to the to the rule and we kind of tightened the ship up what if we did that with the universal church wouldn't that be a good idea so hildebrand in my judgment is the man who starts the reformation five centuries before luther when not appealing to the benedictine rule but he appeals to the example of christ and the apostles in the new testament it says let's get the church back to its pristine purity of antiquity and uh and shape sharpen up everybody's moral life and that really kind of sets the mind of the church on fire with the ideology of reformism the idea that hey the church needs to be reformed against an ancient model that idea had to come from some place actually comes from the papacy from the pope not from martin luther from pope gregory vii and it inspired a whole lot of lay movements as well the most important of which was the franciscan revolution of the 11th century or 12th century early 13th century and then the dominican uh reformation as well the birth of the catholic religious orders a good three centuries before the reformation and what do these guys do they went around europe preaching fidelity of to christ unto the scriptures fidelity to the sacraments and the reform of one's habits and morals and they called out against corruption in the church and so this thing is underway for 300 years 300 years is underway until in germany one of these reforming religious orders the augustinian hermits brings in this guy that has a funny personality and his name is martin luther so he is the heir of a good 300 years of catholic reformism before the reformation has ever seen the light of day but there are other influences on luther as well some uh developments in late medieval philosophy some developments in late medieval mysticism the invention of the printing press uh the rise of the artisan classes throughout europe the the the printers the printers journeymen uh the humanist movement um a rise of a money economy and the growth of the cities and a degree of social dislocation and social anxiety that was different from earlier centuries in in the church's history and luther breathed into that catholic reformist movement some of his own idiosyncratic ideas that had a great revolutionary and propagandistic value to people that wanted to shake off the yoke of the holy roman emperor or of the pope and so by adopting luther's peculiar ideas the reformation was ev was able to become a dissenting revolution that restructured the power centers of western europe in the early 16th century but it's far too simplistic to suggest that it was merely a response to corruption shane great question thanks for checking us out today on youtube it's called a communion here on ewtn we have one line open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's is a first-time 833-288-3986 in lubbock texas listening on our lady of victory radio hey there chris what's on your mind today hey sirs how are y'all doing today doing great rcia and uh we currently or pretty recently talked about the catholic views the catholic church's view on spreading bashes and cremation uh my question has to do with how how kind of that's frowned upon but it's okay to have relics in different churches so you know you can have a body part of a priest here spread around the world over there how do those two things line up sure absolutely i appreciate it very very differently very very different practices relics are venerated they're placed in sacred spaces and venerated as members of christ's body uh cremation is typically associated with superstitious beliefs about the afterlife reincarnation and the dissolution of the body and not its resurrection that run contrary to catholic faith that's why the catholic church forbids cremation if cremation is carried out for superstitious purposes and in the instances when the church does permit cremation it insists that the remains be treated respectfully with the kind of reverence that would be due to an intact body placed in consecrated ground or in a cemetery and so forth held intact in in respect of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and the dignity of the body now when it comes to the bodies of the saints they're often uh you know brought up again after they've been canonized and their their relics are then distributed for veneration that's not the way people treat cremated ashes that they go dump in the ganges or something right appreciate that chris thank you so much for your call here is robert now in gainesville florida listening on siriusxm channel 130. hello robert what's on your mind today sir good afternoon dr anders and tom i'm a catechist at parish here in gainesville florida and i have a very good friend who makes uh social media program and political comments frequently propelled by a change in history and bash to the catholic church one time he did that with galileo and i got him some information about that currently in mentioning the importance of christianity being a written language and how that was so important to dr martin luther king this friend of mine chose to say that's why the king james version was written because the catholic church's indulgence money was leaving england and going to the pope now i think there's more to that like there was with the galileo situation which incidentally my priest here knew that in galileo's time where you could see the stars so clearly it was a retrograde movement of mars that uh got things i got about a minute before the break so i gotta i gotta jump on this so we don't run out of time uh so that is the most absurd thing i've heard in my entire life i hate to say the idea that the king james bible was convened or composed or promulgated in order to stop the flow of indulgence money to rome the fellow doesn't know his history i mean this was in early 17th century 1604 that king james convened the conference that would produce the king james bible long after england had left the catholic church uh i mean henry viii had pulled out by the early 1530s so we're talking a good 70 years after the reformation so that's just not the motive i mean they wanted an ecclesiastical translation produced within and for the church of england that's the motive but has i mean i mean let me tell you something they were they were killing they were they had already killed and persecuted the catholics way out of england before they convened the uh commission to make the king james available i mean they're still catholics there but they were underground and having a hard time of it way way they weren't sending a lot of money to rome by that time uh no you can ask uh saint margaret clithrow about that one all right we do appreciate your call though robert thank you for uh defending the church that's fantastic that's where we all need to be in a moment we're going to get to a couple of people here miguel in madison alabama john in vancouver washington charles and bardstown kentucky a great town and there's a line open for you at 833 288 ewtn for call to communion ewtn live truth live catholic 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 want to be notified when called to communion goes live on facebook follow ewtn radio's facebook page and click the bell icon to be notified ewtn is everywhere ewtn radio programming is provided free of charge to over 500 domestic and international am and fm radio stations it's a great teaching tool for catholics and non-catholics alike for a complete list of ewtn am and fm stations across america visit ewtnradio.net at the bottom of the page click affiliates ewtn the global catholic network i'm jerry usher and i'm debbie giorgiani join us for take two with jerry and debbie at noon eastern with an encore at midnight eastern now back to more of call to communion [Music] hey what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders we have a line or two open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 we would like to say hello to everybody listening to us today on wgic knight fm 94.9 in clarksville tennessee they are this week celebrating their fifth anniversary how about that congratulations to deke dominic azara and his great team there at immaculate conception parish in clarksville tennessee the home of wgic and this week celebrating five years of solid ewtn catholic radio all right back to the phones right now at 833 288 ewtn here is john in vancouver washington listening on the great modern day radio john what's on your mind today hi first of all thank you so much the two of you do a amazing job educating this cradle catholic 78 years later ah thank you uh so it pertains to a discussion last week and another small matter has to do with body parts of god and bodies in heaven so last week it was made clear god doesn't have whims and he doesn't have feelings and yet the second person of god is his divinity is united with his his humanity and it ascended to heaven so that's one question this seems to be a little contradiction there i know i don't dr anas will clarify that for me and the other is is there anyone else in heaven with a body jesus has this glorified body i'm i'm suggesting besides mary or does everyone from the beginning of time have to wait until the second coming to get their soul united with their body good question good question with respect to the first question jesus of course is a human person and human persons have emotions and feelings in virtue of their biology so we can say in an extended sense that god has emotions because god has a body insofar as the divinity is united to the humanity of christ but when we predicate of god properly in the divine nature we would say that god neither has a body nor does he have emotions um now is anybody in heaven uh with a body other than jesus said mary good question good question i would say there is a uh there's a chance that we might find enoch there remember the character of venus who walked with god and god took him we don't really know what that means now there is a late jewish tradition from from uh the the post-exilic period that enoch actually was ascended to heaven in fact you know uh was a this apocalyptic figure and there's a book in the ethiopian canon of the bible uh the book of enoch and it's among some jewish pseudapeggrapha well known in jesus's day and there's a reference to it in the book of jude not saying that makes it authoritative but it was an opinion that some contemporary jews of jesus had that enoch had ascended based on that text in genesis that that god took him um also don't really know what happened to elijah that's true remember elijah gets taken up uh in chariot we don't know if he got taken all the way up or if he came back down somewhere it doesn't really say but i'd say i'd say there's a fighting chance that we might find elijah there now moses got buried but we don't know where and uh you know there are a number of other characters in scripture whose final resting place is unknown and yet they were understood to be men and women of god with uh you know who who lived virtuous lives and so forth so i say it's possible but we don't really know the only dogmatic teaching we have on this is that blessed virgin mary was assumed into having christ descended all right john couple of great questions there thanks so much for listening to us here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david andrews a couple lines open at the moment 833 288 ewtn if you call now we can probably get you on today's program 833-288-3986 going to a bardstown kentucky now a beautiful town in kentucky there talking with charles listening on holy family radio hello charles what's on your mind today sir uh good afternoon guys and dr andrews i mean um sounds like you've been about to stand but it was a nice day it is yeah it is i was married at the san jose okay and it will be 30 years in july so my wife is catholic my mother's catholic and i went to a weekend retreat to get married in the church and i just get confused about how it is and what steps you need to take to be baptized in the catholics yeah sure i can help you on that i mean it's just the steps that i do need to take because i'm willing to do that my wife does go to church regularly and i need to sure i can i can help you i can help you the easiest thing to do the easiest thing to do is to call the parish i guess where your wife goes to mass and tell them you'd like to become catholic and you'd like to be baptized and they they'll they'll fix you up from there and now what they're going to do is they're going to ask you to come take some instruction in the catholic faith and usually a class that you take to learn the elements of the faith because when you get baptized you're professing the faith so you need to know what it is that you're professing to believe and then generally at easter easter is the time of year when people are received into the church and you'll be baptized if you haven't yet been baptized but it starts with a with a with a knock on the door or phone call to the local parish there you go charles great call thank you so much for checking in with us from bardstown call to communion here on ewtn radio and is watching us now on facebook and says is the orthodox church the same thing as the greek orthodox church thank you i appreciate the question the greek orthodox church is one branch of the orthodox church so when christ sent the apostles out to the four corners of the world they went to different lands with different languages and different cultures they planted the gospel and they established successors as bishops and then in those local churches traditions evolved and and embellishments around the celebration of the holy eucharist and those those embellishments and those traditions have continued down to the very day to this very day and they are what we now understand as the rights rites of the church and there are various rites that date back to ancient cultures this the most important one is the latin right that's the pope's right um uh but there are others there was an alexandrian right from egypt and there was a a right from byzantium constantinople where the emperor was there was a right that came out of antioch the syrian culture and so forth now some of those rights continued in union with the pope and so they're fully catholic some of those rights broke away from their obedience to the pope and now some of them broke away and came back some of them broke away and stayed away and those groups that we can trace their origins back to the apostles the church founded by jesus but yet who broke their obedience to the pope those are the groups that we typically called orthodox now the orthodox fall again into really three major categories three major categories um they're the largest branch uh what we call the the the chaldean orthodox um they are uh the orthodox churches that agree with the council of of uh chalcedon i said caldan i meant to say calcedonian they're the churches that agree with the council of calcidon regarding the two natures of christ the largest of which is the russian orthodox church greek orthodox church is uh is uh is right up there behind him so it's a very very important member of that of that orthodox family of churches there are others in that family of calcidonian churches now there are other orthodox churches that did not accept the council of chalcedon don't accept that christ is two natures divine and human those of the non-calcidone and sometimes called the oriental orthodox churches that would include some of the syrians uh the coptic church the ethiopian church um and a few more then there's another group that did not accept the council of ephesus those are that's the assyrian church of the east sometimes called the nestorian okay now all of these have groups within them that came back to obedience to the pope and so you'll find catholic versions of all of those but you'll also find non-catholic versions of all of those where they've retained the sacraments and rights of that apostolic community but don't have obedience to the pope so the biggest one the biggest single group is the russian orthodox greek orthodox is way up there too okay and thanks for checking us out this afternoon on facebook live it's called communion here on ewtn we still have time and open lines for you if you call right now at 833 288 ewtn you might also tell us if you wish what is stopping you from becoming a catholic 833-288-3986 all right let's go to uh miguel in madison right here in alabama listening on youtube hey miguel what's on your mind today yeah dr andrews did both natures of jesus die on the cross to both the human and divine i can't imagine that the divine died on the cross yeah thank you thanks i appreciate the question natures don't die people do natures don't die people do so here's how the catholic church understands the incarnation second person of the trinity second person entry assumed a human nature and the two are joined in the person the union is in the person of jesus christ who is incarnate in in in clock time that person has all of the uh characteristics of a human person because he has a human nature one of those characteristics of a human person is the possibility of the separation of soul from body that's what we mean by death death is the separation of soul from body so that happened to jesus he died he died on the cross and we say in the creed that he descended into hell meaning his soul and his body was put in the tomb and it stayed that way till sunday morning when soul and body reunited now here's a fascinating question that st thomas aquinas asks in the summa theologica what was in the tomb what was in the tomb here's the answer body blood and divinity hmm where was the soul descended to the dead what was in the dead what descended soul and divinity you see because the divinity is united to the person in united in the person i should say yes united in the person the human nature got divided up soul over here body over there and wherever you have jesus you have divinity so you had body blood and divinity in the tomb soul and divinity descended to hell then you have soul and body reunited you have divinity too now here's a fascinating question completely speculative this did not happen but saint thomas wants to know he wants to know had the apostles celebrated mass which they did not but had the apostle celebrated mass on saturday yes when jesus was in the tomb what would have been in this eucharistic species and this is what saint thomas aquinas opines you would have had body blood and divinity but not soul because the soul at that moment right right was descended to the dead now the fascinating thing about that is it underscores a position that many catholics don't actually think about they don't realize that what we have in the consecrated host is christ in his proper person right now right now whatever the present moment is that's the jesus that we have in the consecrated host so on holy thursday what was in the host the very same jesus who was sitting at the table was in the host wow and so saint augustine could say that christ held himself in his own hands yeah on holy saturday if there had been mass it would have been body blood and divinity today when we have mass it's body blood soul and divinity because the soul is reunited with the body but it's jesus in his proper person right now as he is seated at the right hand of the father in glory miguel what a great question thanks so much for it it's called a communion here on ewtn radio i don't know if you got to hear any of our wonderful coverage of the march for life and also the walk for life west coast and one life la over the weekend friday and saturday i really thought our own teresa tamil just did a fantastic job she's been a pro-life warrior for many many years and knew exactly what to say as she was doing the interviews out there on the street with the marchers it was fantastic if you want to hear more from teresa tamio do check out catholic connection tomorrow morning at 9 00 a.m eastern teresa does a super job with that program each and every weekday 9 a.m eastern right here on ewtn radio all right back to the phones right now for call to communion with dr david anders jake is listening in south bend indiana on redeemer radio hey jake what's on your mind today hello i was wondering um because god is by nature immutable and unchangeable how is it that he can take on a human nature and a human body without changing thank you great question uh in the same way that god can create a temporal universe without changing or the same way that god can answer prayer without changing every interaction and i use that word analogously not universally every interaction that god has with the temporal universe he has a temporally he has without change or without being in time so it would be true to say that god eternally creates a temporal universe it's also true to say that god eternally unites himself to the temporality of christ's human nature okay it's also true to say that god eternally answers temporal prayers and so our our relatedness to god from the human side to the divine side is a temporal relation uh god's relation to us from the divine side is an a temporal one an eternal one now i'm going to give you a really weak analogy because every analogy is weak there is no good analogy right every analogy is weak and i get this one actually from cs lewis in an essay that he wrote called on stories has nothing to do with the incarnation but i think it's opposite lewis says that what makes a story attractive to us is that there is this combination of of plot and theme and theme is usually a kind of abstract a temporal reality like it might be something like awe or mystery or good versus evil uh or unveiling or discovery or something like that okay but you can't just write a story about aw you have to write a story about something about some character some narrative passing through time and it's in this web of successive events lewis says that we try to capture something that is not itself successive we try to capture some sort of idyllic form but we can't ever lay hold of the abstract in the universal with our bare hands we can only approach it asymptotically if you will through this through this uh this narrative of of sequential events that none of them individually is in fact this this abstract universal quality that we call a theme but we seem to kind of catch hold of it i think that's an interesting way to think about how the eternal god who is who is the form of forms is the the form of the good the true and the beautiful eternally and completely can yet manifest that in a temporal way through this sequential narrative that he created called history okay is that helpful for you jake yeah i'm gonna have to read more because i have more questions and my mind is completely blown good good there's a lot to unpack there and you can check out the podcast whenever you wish uh charles will have that posted for us uh within an hour or two is when it actually goes online ewtnradio.net is the place to find it ewtn radio let's go to scottsbluff nebraska now here is patricia listening on the great spirit catholic radio hello patricia what's on your mind today hi i was wondering is it wrong is it against the catholic church to like maybe get a protestant church on a wednesday night in the catholic church on saturday um reason being i i just i i used to go to protestant churches and i miss the social aspect and sometimes the holy spirit you feel so strong and the singing and and just you get more of an experience i was i don't know i'm with you i understand i totally understand where you're coming from and i appreciate your uh your anxiety about this and i thank you for the call so it is not wrong to want to have our emotions moved in response to divine truth that is not wrong it's understandable and that is why in fact historically the church has invested so much in beauty it's why you know maybe not so much today but if you go back a few centuries you'll find some of the most gorgeous architecture the world has ever seen yes why did people build beautiful catholic cathedrals because they wanted to elevate the soul to god they want people to be overall by the beauty beauty and the majesty and the awesomeness of the architecture that's why we get a composer like palestrina gets this wonderful music that the church has produced down through the centuries because it's not wrong to want the soul to be moved and the emotions to be moved in response to god all he's done for us that's not that's not a wrong motive it's not wrong all right it's understandable and uh and so i would say first of all it's okay if you seek out say a catholic liturgy or catholic community uh where the form of worship speaks to your emotional life that's not wrong now i would caution you against equating the strength of your emotional response to the activity of the holy spirit i would caution you against that and i noted in your question you said well sometimes i feel the holy spirit so strong in this other meaning well i know that that's the way protestants talk it's very common to go to a protestant worship service and somebody said man couldn't you feel the spirit moving and strictly speaking that's not correct because you can't feel the spirit because he's a spirit he's not sensible well i can feel music i can feel or sense beautiful art or architecture i can feel moved by friendship but i can't feel the holy spirit and the holy spirit's activity in my life is compatible with my own emotional aridity or lack of feeling and sometimes it's when i feel the worst when i'm sad or lonely or i feel lost or alienated or dry or bored when the holy spirit is most at work in my life if in those moments of difficulty i am determining to conform myself to jesus so when jesus was on the cross you're never going to find a holier individual more closely united to the holy spirit but let me tell you something it was not happy clappy worship time on the cross it was a time of great bitterness and dereliction for jesus on the cross and yet this is the model for our conformity to jesus that when things are the most difficult and the most painful we can say with christ not my will but thine be done so to get to the meat of your question is it okay to seek out a protestant worship service if you find yourself bored in the catholic service in my judgment that would not be a good reason to go to a protestant worship service there is a reason to go i mean i think a common reason would be let's say you have a catholic woman she's married to a protestant man he kind of tolerates her going to mass and he'll come with her from time to time and in the show of good faith she goes with him on wednesday night to the protestant service to in a you know show of kindness and good will and you know ecumenical spirit and so forth but she's not going because she's trying to nourish herself in something lacking in her catholic life she's going out of charity you know in a kind of ecumenical sensitivity that'd be a good reason to go uh because you're craving excitement and emotional responsiveness i think that you're at risk of being drawn into those precise elements as the most important thing in worship and that's likely to lead you out of the church and so i would advise against it patricia thank you so much for your call hope that's helpful for you leonard watching on youtube says would it be a sin for a practicing catholic to not baptize their infant yes that'd be a sin a sin yeah that'd be a sin jesus said that they are to be baptized he's go out and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy spirit yes we to delay baptism of your child knowing that this is the mind of the church and the intent of christ and and denying them that grace but you know would it be a sin to deny your child your child food yes or if you knew that they were subject to some serious illness to deny them medical care or vaccination or something sure yeah or how about denying them education we don't i'm not going to deny my kids school or food or medical care i'm not going to deny him baptism let's get those babies baptized get it get after it all right and here is one now from uh oscar and uh send us an email could you please explain why jesus descended into hell after he died yes to preach to the souls in prison namely the righteous dead of the old covenant the souls in the limbus of the fathers whom he liberated from their captivity and ascended with them to heaven or after he ascended they were able to ascend to the beatific vision so this is not the not the hell of the damned okay and i think i think a lot of people get confused about that they do indeed oh okay [Laughter] sorry tom um yeah tom's giving me they keep going we need to fill up the time zone just a little bit yeah yeah so so you know we do this with a lot of language in in uh in the church the same way we talk about heaven ambiguously in heaven can mean um the abode of the holy angels it can mean uh the union of the righteous souls with god and the bitter vision heaven can also mean you know up there it can mean up in the stratosphere where the clouds form and where where the meteorologists spend all their activity yeah it's not the same kind of heaven glad we got that clarified oscar thank you so much for your email and my goodness the time has flown especially that last 30 seconds i'm not dragged for me tom no it was great it was great we got got a whole bunch of phone calls emails people checking in on youtube and facebook even texts we covered the waterfront here dr david anders thank you sir thanks tom don't forget we do this program monday through friday here on ewtn if you are a catholic yourself and you've got a non-catholic friend maybe somebody that you work with tell them about the show 2 p.m eastern is when we do it live monday through friday with an encore at 11 pm eastern and you can also check out the podcast as we said earlier in the hour uh ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks for joining us here on called call to communion we'll see you tomorrow hopefully god willing see you then and god bless [Music] the most original and

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,239

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: XAKNduix-qw

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 25 2022