Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - January 5 2022

now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation 1-833-288-3986 [Music] 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 kind of have two different things going on this program number one we are here to answer your questions about the faith and number two we have a question of our own what is keeping you from taking that final step and actually become a catholic yourself here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america and i know that we have listeners really all over the planet please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply for some folks also you can uh you can email us ctc at ewtn.com ctc ewtn we're going to lead off with an email in just a moment here all right well we have a michael mccall as our producer today matt kabinsky our phone screener also jeff burson handles social media for us so if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live we are streaming there right now in addition to all of our other platforms so just put your question in the comments box jeff will see it he'll shoot it to us here in the studio and we will be good to go i'm tom price along with dr david anderson how are you today very well how are you my friend i'm reasonable thank you i'm going to lead off with a question here from mc mc says dear dr andrews i'm in dialogue with non-catholics and i often hear them say christ's blood on the cross both forgave and paid the penalty for our sins well i think of a penalty as being more like a consequence even when we're forgiven don't we still have the consequences of sin is this teaching accurate and where does it come from thank you mc yeah thanks i appreciate the question so that kind of language which is very characteristic of certain protestant denominations really gets at a view of the death of christ an understanding of what jesus accomplished on on the cross and the nature of god that doesn't really accord with the bible or with sacred scripture or with sacred tradition with catholic faith so here's the view it's pretty much associated with john calvin uh john calvin is a protestant theologian 16th century believed that god was offended by sin and thus wrathful he was angry and that he needed to expiate his wrath on a subject he had to get it out of his system take it out on somebody so to speak and due to the exigencies of his nature it was not possible for him to just get rid of his anger he actually had to expiate it he had to do something about it and it was impossible for him to forgive us unless he punished some subject this is calvin's view so in calvin's view what happens is god actually decides to punish jesus on our behalf it's a vicarious punishment so so it's kind of like you think of the kind of the drunken father that comes in at night he's raging around the house and he wants to punch something and he's headed for the baby brother and the older brother steps in the way and he so he punches the older brother and he kind of calms down and he's happy again right or at least he's he doesn't punch the younger brother right yeah that's kind of the view right so that god really has to punch somebody jesus interposes himself god punches jesus even though he's innocent and then he's he's he's done he's kind of he's kind of gotten off his chest so to speak and then he's able to turn and forgive us and so on that view this idea quote-unquote paying the penalty means that god's just got to take out his wrath on someone doesn't really matter who and in this case he punishes an innocent person namely jesus and he turns around and he quits the guilty and since this way of understanding our relationship to god would suggest that the only thing between us in union with god is god's need to punish that's really basically what the barrier is because again on on calvin's view in many protestant views when someone has faith in god and is reconciled to god they still stay sinful they stop person still remains inwardly deeply sinful and so the only thing that's taken away by the death of christ is god's need to punish hence this idea of christ is paid the penalty there's nothing left for us to do well that just completely misconstrues the relationship of the christian to god at least does catholics understand it the point of the christian faith is to unite us to god in love it's to actually change us not to leave us in sin but to change us to change our character so that we come to participate in the love that god is that our whole being be transfused by love be penetrated by love so that we become agents of love and we become like god in that we are loving and so the barrier between us and god is not god's wrath as if god just had to beat somebody up rather god is is infinite unchanging love and we ourselves lack the capacity to come into union with that love it's a better model i like this image imagine the sun and you got a a parasol or an umbrella you're holding up that's blocking out the light and then you just put the umbrella down love that and the sun hasn't changed it's just it's just beaming down love and joy at you all the time but you've put up something that blocks out the light and in our case what blocks out the light is our will is turned away from the love and goodness of god towards lesser goods towards lesser creatures like our own concupiscence and jesus comes and actually heals the wounds of our will opening us up to the love the truth the goodness and beauty that is god and that is in all things he says yeah he he says it's okay to put the umbrella down and put the umbrella down and and he demonstrates the life of love and then we join our lives to him like we die with him in baptism that's what paul says and rise again with him to new life so that we come to have a new perspective on things see the world through new eyes come to see the world through jesus's eyes and because of that transformation made possible by the death of christ we enter into that loving relationship that loving reality that is god eternally all right uh all right mc thank you so much uh for your question if you would like to send us an email for a future show we would love to hear from you here's the address ctc ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com all right in just a moment here we're going to head to the phones at 833 288 ewtn if you have a question for dr david andrews or if you'd like to tell us why you are not a catholic what is what is stopping you from crossing over that one yard line into the end zone 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 call to communion with dr david andrews on this wednesday afternoon here on ewtn radio stay with us saints are the heroes of the catholic faith they serve as examples for all catholics showing us how to lead a more satisfying more spiritual life in communion with our lord and savior jesus christ view our comprehensive documentation of saints who serve as theologians and doctors of the church it's easy visit ewtn.com and click catholicism ewtn the global catholic network [Music] i feel really blessed to be able to go on ewtn radio and answer questions from people all over the world at times their intellectual questions at times their emotional questions the important thing is being able to help people with what's of concern to them and how they can grow closer to god catholic answers live tonight 6 eastern on ewtn radio ewtn has just increased my faith so much i am a cradle catholic and i thought i knew my faith very well but um when mother angelica passed away and it was so much in the news i learned all about ewtn and started listening all the time and my eyes have been opened to my face so much ewtn helping people grow in their love and understanding of god [Music] it's called communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 we do have calls coming in right now matt is screening those calls as quickly as he can but we do have several lines open at 833 288 ewtn so do you have a catholic radio station in your area perhaps an am station or an fm station if you don't you can find out how you can help start one up in your area a catholic radio station would be a great thing for you and your neighbors to enjoy each and every day powered by the truth of the church and ewtn's dynamic radio programming you want to email our friend steve at this address here it is real easy to remember radio at ewtn.com radio ewtn.com just tell steve uh where you live and uh we'll get in touch with you and we can take it from there all right we're gonna go to the phones in just a moment here but first a quick question from john watching us on youtube today john says are there any specifically catholic resources to learn about finances for those discerning marriage yeah thanks um there are and my orientation is kind of more towards church documents and theology not the self-help kind of books but i do have some that would be helpful to you i think if you're willing to do a little research the first one is rerum novaram which is the encyclical from leo the 13th on the social question and in that encyclical he talks about the the value and the dignity of remunerative labor of work of savings of investment investing in property in order to take care of one's family and meet one's needs but also to look to the good of the society and and to serve the common good so not just a kind of acquisitive you know everything for me attitude but nevertheless legitimizing personal property saving and investment and family life because it's good for the family it's also good for the society and pope john paul ii elaborates those ideas in labor mixers which was his social encyclical on the anniversary of rerum de varum and uh and then a book that takes a kind of sort of grand overview of the whole question of human labor and work and life and society you know it's not going to drill down to the bank account level but it will give you a perspective is carl anderson's book civilization of love what every catholic can do to transform the world um so getting kind of those big picture ideas of you know what's the purpose of my labor of my work of my finances how do i fit that together with my catholic faith those are some good resources and i think tom you might have something on the more nuts and bolts yeah for the nuts and bolts i would turn to our friend phil lenahan he is the cfo of catholic answers oh okay he's also the treasurer of catholic answers has written extensively a couple of great books that he has written one is called seven steps to becoming financially free that's a good one and another one that might be even more on point for our our friend john and that would be money and your marriage so a couple of great resources there i believe those are both available uh pretty widely out there and you know i think spend less than you make give to charity always a good idea and invest always here's another one as we're getting calls ready here and by the way that number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's 833 288 3986 we have a listener in japan peta who is listening on youtube today peter says christ rose with a wounded side the catholic church claims jesus comes as a baby to saints praying with a playing with some how is this not contradictory were they dreams or not actually physically happening okay thanks i appreciate the question so first of all the church does not claim dogmatically in fact in other words it's not necessary for all catholics to believe that christ has appeared as an infant to anyone okay okay now there are of the course of sacred history there are individual saints and visionaries and mystics that claim to have this or that vision of jesus appearing under you know this or that manifestation such things are called private revelations and they're no part of the public teaching of the catholic church and it's not required that you believe any any particular account like that unless it's found in sacred scripture the dogmatic teaching of the church the sort of thing that you would find in the catechism which really forms the basis for we all agree on to teach and believe you're not going to find those kinds of specific claims in the catechism and you're not required to believe them nevertheless let us let's perform a thought experiment could jesus though he is in glory and resurrected with his glorious body which is intact and and adult and in fact transformed and transfigured could that risen christ cause himself to appear to someone under some other guys for some specific reason that was unique to that individual of course he could he's god of course he could and the question well what actually is taking place metaphysically i mean is there a physical body there that jesus is animating is it christ's actual body uh you know do you back up in time to get there those kinds of questions i think are speculative i don't i think there's any number of possible answers you've suggested one perhaps you sent people dreams or visions of these things to enliven their imagination sure that's possible he could do that yeah um you know in the old testament god appeared uh in a theophany that's a sort of visible representation standing for god to a number of the old testament patriarchs and prophets uh sometimes as a as a burning bush sometimes as a pillar of fire or a pillar of cloud to abraham he appeared as a man walking with two others with angels now in none of those instances would we conclude well god is you know he's actually a big flaming ball of mesquite you know we wouldn't draw that conclusion right this was a theophany um and you know if i had reached out and touched the burning bush would i have been burned was it actual fire was it an actual bush i don't think we can answer those kinds of questions yeah yeah uh our friend jeff burson points out that our own mother angelica saw jesus as a child that you could take that one of two ways she was a child when she saw jesus or she saw jesus when he was a child and maybe both i like that yeah all right if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin with sue in des moines listening on the great iowa catholic radio hey there sue happy new year to you what's on your mind today sue thank you um i truly love and get along with all my catholic in-laws and i truly enjoyed going to the catholic church for four years so anyway my husband and i started searching because we wanted to know the bible better i have no animosity at all toward any other religion because jesus looks at the heart not us but ii timothy 3 16 says all scripture is inspired of god and beneficial for all things well i want to know should i leave a church where it is absolutely known literally worldwide that they use the bible that they know the bible they don't go by man's traditions they are out there in the public and i want to know why i should leave a church that has really shown me how to use and teach the bible subject by subject thank you so much really thank you yeah well first of all i would never tell you to leave your church i would never tell you to leave your church and i'm not interested in trying to coerce people into leaving their churches i'm interested in trying to share with people what i find good true and beautiful about the catholic faith and if somebody listens to this show or talks to a catholic and they say you know that's quite good true and beautiful and i see the appeal and they're drawn by their own conscience to become catholic then man i'll help you i will absolutely help you find your way into the catholic church but i'm not here to proselytize and twist anybody's arm and if you tell me i want to stay where i am then god bless you sue i i hope you do well and and you'll probably get to heaven before i do and when you get up there you pray me up to join you and we'll have a great time of it okay so i'm not interested in twisting your arm but i will tell you the reason that i left a church like the one that you're in because i used to go to the kind of church you're talking about why i left a church like that and i became catholic and to give you the whole story would take the entire show so i won't but i'll start with maybe a question that you raised and that's second timothy 3 16. all right well all scripture is inspired god breath and useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness so the first thing i want to ask about this text is why should i believe that text why should i believe second timothy 3 16. and you might say well my anders you should because it's in the bible i'd say okay who put it there who put it there right because at the time of the ascension of christ there was no second timothy 3 16 and there was no new testament and the bible that your church preaches did not exist the bible itself was a product of history put together guess by who by the catholic church and the reason that you have second timothy 3 16 in your bible is because the bishops of the catholic church in the 4th century declared that to be part of the canon of the new testament part of the list of canonical books that we should consider sacred scripture and you know what there were many others out there floating around books that are not regarded by your church's sacred scripture but in antiquity some people did like books like first clement for example or uh or uh diagnosis the dedicated some of the books that were in the new testament now were not considered scripture by some ancient christians revelation was one hebrews james ii peter these were disputed texts and so there needed to be an authoritative determination how do we know which books belong in the bible and that work was done by the bishops of the catholic church that's what you referred to as human tradition so the bible itself depends on the integrity of that tradition so if you say well i don't believe catholic tradition well you you actually believe it implicitly every single day that you pick up the bible because the bible you hold in your hand is a product of catholic tradition remove catholic tradition and you have no way to know which of which books if any belong in something called a new testament now that raises the question well why should i regard some tradition as authoritative and the answer is that christ himself jesus himself never said if you want to know the content of christian faith go to the bible he never said that on the contrary when jesus made provision for handing on the christian faith he turned not to a book but to disciples to people to authorized individuals 11 of them one of them had kind of ended badly and he said go into all nations and make disciples and teach them everything i have commanded you and i will be with you to the end of the age and baptize them in the name of the father son and holy spirit so christ what did he do he turned to authorized individuals what did he ask them to teach not a book but his oral teaching jesus never wrote anything down he taught by way of example by way of ritual and by way of instruction his sacred tradition he gave that to those apostles told them to hand it on in the context of sacramental ministry baptizing them in the name of the father son holy spirit and he promised his divine assistance until the end of the age that that situation that institution would endure forever and he established the entire thing hierarchically on the authority of one apostle whom he referred to as the rock thou art peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it so christ actually made provision for handing on the christian faith it was the hierarchical teaching of the church perpetuated in sacred tradition down through the centuries and he made no mention of any 27 books of any new testament so i'm glad that you read the bible because catholic tradition says that's what you're supposed to do but every time you pick up that bible you are implicitly confessing the reliability and the truth of catholic tradition now tradition says many things that are not in the bible and the bible doesn't say not to do that and i became catholic because i wanted the whole truth about god in christ and the bible didn't give me the whole truth it gave me part of the whole truth and i needed also those truths that i could know by way of sacred tradition centrally i needed to know which books belonged in the bible and for that i needed the tradition of the church sue great call thank you don't be a stranger please call us back another time it's called a communion here on ewtn that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 398 darren is watching us on youtube this afternoon he says i came back to the church in 2019 after 30 years of atheism and i still struggle with faith and dogmas of the church should i not receive communion until these issues have been settled in my mind i don't deny any of the dogmas i just struggle to understand that's from darren i thank you for that question very much in my judgment i would not refrain from communion at all because of the reasons that you have said and as you've noted you don't deny any dogma you are not conscious of any uh criminal act of heresy you know where you're obstinately denying some teaching of the church rather you have a critical and penetrating intellect and you have a hard time rationally perhaps justifying some of the claims of the church well join the club yeah that's okay okay join the club and i think you might misconstrue the purpose of dogma right the purpose of dogma is not for us to have a set of abstract propositions to affirm as if that were the whole point of the christian faith just to affirm a bunch of propositions that doesn't transform you that doesn't change you into the the love of god dogmas the catechism says are like light they illumine our life our path make it secure let me draw an analogy to a principle of logic the law of non-contradiction is very difficult to to begin from some other premise and reason to the truth of the law of non-contradiction you actually can't do it but you can't reason to anything without the law of non-contradiction so the law of non-contradiction is kind of like a light in light of that principle of logic we can argue for many other things and we certainly can't deny it like try denying it yeah right it's impossible to do but neither can you quite independently verify it you you presume it in all of your argumentation well in the spiritual life in the moral life the dogmas are kind of like that they're like lights we don't necessarily see them directly in and of themselves as true but by them we see all things that are true all right darren thanks so much for your question lines are open right now at ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders 833 288 ewtn ewtn the global catholic network there are a lot of ways to pray when i was in the evangelical world we didn't we didn't like road prayers that the catholics prayed no we we wanted to say our own prayers we thought that it was coming more from the heart any kind of prayer whether it comes from the heart and is a loose connection of words or it is a prayer that the church has had for centuries is good because it is prayer [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 the deceased [Music] heavenly father the lasting hope of all who believe we trust in your goodness we pray for our loved ones who have died we pray too for all those who have helped us during their lives our friends our teachers clergy religious and all of our benefactors who have died grant them eternal rest o lord and let perpetual light shine upon them may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed through your mercy rest in peace amen 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 [Music] health is key to a good life how is yours doing join the discussion tomorrow on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations now back to call to communion [Music] it's called communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's eight three 833-288-3986 a little good news for you here several of our ewtn radio family members celebrating their anniversaries this week redeemer radio based in the fort wayne area they are celebrating 16 years on the air and sacred heart radio in cincinnati celebrating 21 years with ewtn and we're very proud to partner with sacred heart radio of course who produces the fabulous sunrise morning show so congratulations to these wonderful ewtn family members glad that you're with us here's a question now david from vicki watching us on facebook this afternoon she says i am a cradle catholic and for years i've felt like i'm swimming upstream with my faith around my family and friends i can have open conversations about faith with my godmother who switched to the protestant faith probably not too long after i was baptized and i'm grateful for your show for guidance in helping me defend my church well there is one thing my godmother brings up every single time i talk about the awesome confessional she always tells me when the curtain tore jesus took away the need for confession can you explain why this is not so yeah absolutely so i would challenge you to go read what is it matthew 27 that tells us that the veil of the temple was rented to when christ died on the cross and uh find in that text any any suggestion that we should not confess our sins you won't find it you won't find it in fact the account is uninterpreted in matthew's gospel okay there's no interpretation there the significance of it is obscure in the text but i will propose to you what i think that means in light of the book of hebrews the levitical sacrificial system is ended with the death of jesus that's the entire argument of the book of hebrews that the death of christ christ is the high priest not according to the line of aaron but according to melchizedek he's an eternal high priest whoever lives to make intercession for the faithful and therefore his death being perfect is capable of making perfect all those who come to him win repentance and so the sacrifice of goats and bulls and the levitical sacrifices of the old testament are no longer necessary well that's the catholic position we're not advocating the sacrifice of goats and bulls but when it comes to our personal um our personal reformation our personal uh growth in the life of holiness confession of sins is absolutely essential for that process now scripture in fact commands it in james chapter 5 saint james says confess your sins to one another so that you can be healed now um you know just from a purely psychological point of view the psychologists tell us that the most important factor in personal change is accountability to another human being and you can't really be accountable to anybody if you don't say this is what i need to work on yeah you have to acknowledge it and you you know go go look at a 12-step meeting you know the first thing to do is recognize you've got a problem you've got a problem and you go to the group and say i need help with this problem i'm accountable right and scripture endorses that principle now what's even especially great is not only does scripture give us this principle of an honest assessment of our faults and a confession of our sins but it's also conveyed christ has conveyed to the church the power to actually forgive our sins when confessed you find that in john chapter 20 when jesus says whoever sins you forgive are forgiven whoever sins you retain are retained and he credits that to the power of the holy spirit receive the holy spirit he says so the biblical teaching on this is quite plain we don't need the blood of goats and bulls we don't need the temple sacrifices of the levitical priesthood because we have the sacrifice of christ and because we have the priesthood of christ we can receive forgiveness for our sins and that assurance that when we make that confession of our faults that we will receive real grace to grow in the life of holiness all right there you go vicki thank you so much for watching us on facebook this afternoon our phone number here at ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 we have a line open for you right now also watching today a brad watching on facebook brad says my older brother spent nine years deeply involved in several of the ministries of a local mega church after how they reacted pastorally to covid how they relate to politics how they have very poor theology and how they excoriate all dissidents and opponents my brother abandoned that church and now he's kind of in between churches he told me that he'll never become a catholic or even consider doing so because he doesn't want to trade one set of scandals for another how should i respond yeah i really appreciate the question and i'm deeply sympathetic to his dilemma and to be sure the sins of catholics are one of the greatest impediments for people who would otherwise want to become catholic and you were in that in between area for a while sure yeah absolutely i i was between protestantism and catholicism for at least a year it was a very desolate time in my life right because i had no church community no ecclesial community to identify with and my my spirituality is very hard so i'm sympathetic so um you know look i i don't want to sugarcoat the scandals in the catholic church they're horrific and they turn our stomachs and rightly they should but i can tell you why they didn't pose a problem for me in becoming catholic okay and it really the whole the whole meaning of church changes when you move from uh fundamentalism to catholicism and so you know in this kind of mega church and often they have fundamentalist roots this is kind of the worldview so we think we fundamentalist types that we've got the truth and we looks right there are playing in the bible we just read it right out of the box the plain sense of the bible we've got that all these other people there messed up with tradition and their own problems but we've figured out what the bible means and and we've also prayed to receive christ we're born again we're elect like we're the bomb we're the illuminati we're the staff we're it everybody else out there is in darkness and our job is to bring the light of christ to the people out there in the world because we have that lux you know solid down from our exegesis of sacred scripture and and look how great we are look at our great worship look at our great preaching look at our great programming it just kind of proves that we're the elect i mean just we got it all together and look people are coming by the thousands we've got 15 000 people in our mega church that we just you just know that god is at work god is moving you'll hear that kind of language all the time all spirit god was really moving in that worship service you know brother preached a great sermon and the band was on top of it and people were swaying and laughing and their hands were in the air and everybody was just on top of the world that's definitely the spirit of god at work and and there's a lot of energy that's put into that sense of that performance of the christian life that the worship is clean and the preaching is powerful and the people are moved and the hands are waving and there's a sense of mission that pervades the whole thing and we've got the stuff man and we're going to go out there and change all those people in darkness that are lodged in their traditions and can't see the light we're going to transform them and then you begin to look under the hood and you begin you find out that the pastor's got a scandal in his family and the finance director was running off with the money and then you see maybe narcissists and leadership and maybe abuse of power in some of the small groups and individuals who are being manipulated and in 10 years later down the road you find out that they've had their personalities kind of run rough shot over and they're left you know a kind of bleeding dry hulk empty husk of a human being after being manipulated in this way meanwhile you know the machine keeps driving and new people are drawn in as old people are kicked out and you begin to see that the whole thing is kind of a sham and your faith falls apart on you and your left empty and hollow i understand that okay well one of the cardinal beliefs of the catholic faith is that we don't know who the elect are we don't know who the elect are nope and and so the the the catholic church does not teach in one sense that we've got it all together and that the the difference between the light and the dark is obvious and that our programmatic excellence and our efficiency and our great preaching and our awesome music and our great buildings and all that these are a demonstration of the spirit's power and we can feel god at work and all that kind of language and enthusiasm and hoopla that's set to sort of set you off from the world and you know you've got it and they don't that none of that characterizes the way catholics think about church or about salvation or about election all right here's how catholics think about it christ has set these these uh touchstones in human history called the sacraments that are sources of divine life and grace and and he has established uh this institution that's held together just by a thread of of human beings this tissue of sacraments and and apostolic succession down through the centuries that's sufficient that you can identify okay there are the touchstones they're there i can see them i can come to them and they can be for me a source of grace they can't it's a possibility that they can be for a real possible they can be for me a source of grace and divine life and there are enough people there are enough of them that have laid hold of those things whose lives have been transformed in holiness and who become shining examples of the moral life we call them saints that i can see that the thing works but there's no guarantee that anybody walking through the door of a catholic church no matter how much theology they know no matter how slick their programming is there's no guarantee that somebody walking through the door of a catholic church who lays hold of these things is going to be transformed in that way because it takes a deep personal conversion and i don't mean a flashy come to the altar and except jesus into your heart conversion i mean a an ongoing endlessly self-critical open to correction humble persevering determination to do the hard work of transforming your character when someone comes in that attitude and lays hold of these riches of the tradition the sources are there the sources of grace and truth and wisdom and insight are there to facilitate that personal transformation and it's you can see it in the lives of enough people to believe that it works you see it in the saints you see it in the occasional person in your pew or the occasional priest or the occasional religious brother or sister or the occasional catholic lay person who who doesn't stand out they're not flashy but you get to know them and you realize this person is a source of light you know because of their singular holiness and that gives you the courage to get up and do it one more day and one more day and we don't look at you know how's i mean look i work for a diocese i want the programming to be good all right it's my job to try to work on the programming but ultimately it's not about the quality of the programming it's not about the holiness of my priest it's not even about the holiness of the pope it's about the holiness of christ made present to me through the faith in the sacraments that have been faithfully handed on for 2000 years and i trust that many people will not lay hold of that many people will come in and out of the catholic church and not lay hold of that holiness wide is the path that lead to destruction jesus says and many find it narrow is the path that leads to life and few find it and uh so that's just a different and then and the question of the elect and the damned i don't know god will sort that out the angels will sort that out jesus says in the parable of the tares and the wheat you know we leave them where they are now god will sort that out at the end of time so the job of the catholic church is to be a light a light shining in a dark place the lumenegencium the light of the nations and to try to serve people right and to and to manifest christ's presence in his love and his grace and truth in the world not to draw this dividing line down the middle of culture and say we've got it all together and all you people are benign heretic evils evil folks you know that's just not how we think about church there you go brad thanks so much for your great question thanks for watching us on facebook this afternoon it's called a communion with dr david andrews getting some calls uh screened at the moment let me tell you about a wonderful show that we bring to you every saturday evening it's called beyond damascus with your hosts dan demete and aaron richards it's a great show mainly geared to young catholic adults sharing their stories of life within the catholic church and the blessings that the faith brings this saturday evening they'll be talking with their guest mary bielski talking about new life and old roadblocks should be a great show check it out saturday night 8 p.m eastern right here on ewtn radio all right right now let's go to matt in canton ohio listening on youtube this afternoon matt what's on your mind today hey dr anders um i was listening to before you talking about uh post uh the levitical system and when i was in school as a pastor in training they would teach a hermeneutic like the things that jesus almost saying the things that jesus said before his death and resurrection carried less weight than after and almost there's there's tends to be conflict between the charismatic uh profession of faith that paul had and and the professing of the coming kingdom that jesus had and then they would even say that the catholic epistles towards the end have less weight than those direct epistles i know this hermeneutic i know this hermeneutic i grew up with that hermeneutic yeah okay so that's just completely wrong that is just utterly and completely wrong and from a catholic point of view the hermeneutical key for the entire bible is the teaching of christ that's the centerpiece of the entire thing now jesus does radically reconfigure our understanding of the old testament let me give you some examples so as you know book of the book of moses first five books of moses say that um i think it's leviticus 20 isn't it that if you find a man and a woman in adultery you're to put them to death and of course in john chapter 8 jesus just completely refuses to carry out the the strictures of the mosaic law they just absolutely and i'm not going to do it i'm not going to put this woman to death go and send no more he says but i'm not gonna condemn you um the the law of moses says that a man can divorce his wife for some reason jesus says no he can't no he can't he can't do it matthew 19. you cannot divorce your wife for any reason pharisees say well then why did moses say otherwise and jesus said well because of your hardness and heart but it wasn't like that from the beginning god made them male and female said you know be one flesh what god's joined together man can't separate and law moses said that if if somebody refused to wash after becoming ritually unclean they should be cut off from the people of israel well jesus ran around touching as many ritually unclean people as he could find sure did he was touching ritually impure people constantly law of moses said sabbath breakers should be put to death uh jesus didn't exactly break the sabbath but he did flaunt the pharisees sort of persnickety concern with that by running around plucking heads of grain on the sabbath and kind of throwing in their face the example of king david and his companions who ate the show bread from the temple and so forth so he he lives sort of provocative life calling these kinds of interpretations of the old testament this sort of literalism into question in the service of this greater kingdom-oriented value of love and justice and mercy and he you know basically it boiled down to him telling the pharisees you guys are so concerned with washing the outside of the dish you should worry about the inside of the dish where that's where the real uncleanliness comes from it's not ritual impurity you need to worry about its moral impurity and then christ demonstrated the truth of his teaching by his own example by going you know letting but turning the other cheek letting the unjust person put him to death and he conquered by the power of his of his unconquerable life right his his divine power and his supreme holiness conquered death and showed us the way saint peter says first peter 3 that christ died to give us an example that we should follow so that's the kingdom that christ inaugurates not it's not a kingdom of this world it's the kingdom that is within us luke chapter 17. now i contend that that is precisely the message that saint paul teaches exactly exactly what jesus just said is exactly what paul teaches paul was a fundamentalist he was a literalist about the old testament so when he saw christians as he thought violating the sabbath and violating the purity codes they said you have put him to death so paul says i'm off to do it i'm gonna put him to death so he's off putting christians to death and he thinks that by doing that he's obeying the literal teaching of the old testament and read in a certain light you could say that he was because of course you know book of moses said put him to death paul's putting him to death seems like a no-brainer till he meets jesus meets jesus on the road to damascus and jesus says basically paul what you think you give to me by way of service putting these people to death these people that you're persecuting i'm going to turn them into the means of your own redemption right now serving the people that you formerly tried to persecute is what's going to save you and in romans chapter 15 it's the only time paul ever refers to himself as a priest paul says my priestly service is to now offer the gentiles as a pure offering to god those people i was once trying to put to death now i'm going to go try to bring them to christ and that's going to be the offering that i give to the lord now he tells us paul tells us in the most quoted passage from saint paul in all patristic literature it's first corinthians chapter two that's what the fathers quoted in paul in the first two centuries more than any other text where paul says that the spirit of god it's that that there is a wisdom of god that is not available to the people of this age they haven't discerned it but to one who participates in the spirit of god they can now see the old testament in a new light what was formally the letter that brings death and he meant that literally second corinthians 3 the old testament taken literally brings death because he was going out killing people now becomes through the spirit of life this transformative principle of charity and when paul comes into contact with christ when he comes into faith with jesus the spirit of christ is poured into his heart the love of god is poured into his heart he now turns to serve in charity those whom he formerly regarded as outcasts and the love of god in neighbor that was the essence of the old testament law now becomes the inward principle by which he lives his life he says what is it philippians 3 he says we are those who now worship the lord in spirit and in truth not those mutilators of the flesh but those who have turned to serve our neighbor in charity so the ethic of jesus which was all about going to the marginalized to the outcast to the to the adulterous woman up to the tax collector um you know to those that to the unclean and being present to them in charity overturning the ritual prescriptions of the mosaic law even if necessary in order to be present and serve them in charity paul lived that ethic to death and said this transformation in the way we view the bible is the gift of the spirit of god that comes through jesus that's why the fathers thought that the best hermeneutic of the bible was the allegorical interpretation of the old testament that paul advocates in places like first corinthians 10 and of course galatians chapter 4 that that allegorical interpretation that spiritualizes that that letter that leads to death and brings instead this transformative knowledge of christ's love that is grounded in the person of jesus and articulated by the ministry of saint paul this perfect harmony and continuity between paul's message and jesus's message now i know why your people made that claim because they don't think that paul preaches the transformative power of love according to the folks that you grew up with they think that paul preaches salvation by faith alone they misunderstand romans and galatians they think that paul is teaching a gospel denuded of ethical power but paul never says that he says the point of faith in christ is that the love of christ might be poured into our hearts we might walk with the spirit and therefore thereby fulfill the mata to nama the righteous requirements of the law which are to love god above all things and to love our neighbor as ourselves not to hold to these bare empty elements of ritual prescription and circumcision and dietary laws that tend to separate you from gentile on the contrary through faith in christ everything becomes new every person attains dignity everyone is a child of god our job is to love them and bring the presence of christ to them that's the message of saint paul all right matt is that helpful for you yeah and i guess the only other thing is uh does does the catholic church in fact give a different weight or different hermeneutic to the catholic epistles compared to the weight or is that just a protestant thing yeah right so so again the the hermeneutical key to the entire bible is the person and the ministry of jesus and and i would contend that all paul does is elaborate that in a theory of allegory he specifically uses that language in galatians 4. and that's precisely the same message of the catholic epistles it's the same message you know so st peter says first peter chapter 1 2 that we we are being built into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices through jesus christ right and and um it's the it's the precisely the same message is no difference at all and so the hermeneutical key is the person and the teaching and the life death and resurrection of jesus matt great qual thank you so much for glad you're listening to us in canton birthplace of mother angelica quick question here from suzanne watching on youtube why does the church say that to miss sunday mass is a mortal sin is that not very similar to the levitical law okay first of all the church does not say that missing sunday mass is a mortal sin the church says that missing sunday mass is a grave offense there's a difference not the same not the same thing um and the levitical law never commanded people to worship the the resurrected lord on the first day of the week didn't do that it's not in there all right so this is a feast day instituted by christ in honor of his own resurrection and you have to come together sometime as the people of god to worship him and from from the first days of the church the tradition has been to celebrate the lord's resurrection on the day of his resurrection the first day of the week that's important so to neglect it is is grave but the question of whether or not something is a mortal sin is more complicated than just the question of gravity all right well there you go hope that's helpful for you suzanne very glad that you're watching us uh this afternoon on youtube very good to hear from folks uh checking us out facebook live youtube not to mention all the many many radio stations somewhere north of 350 360. i've actually lost count of how many stations we're on the air plus satellite radio and web streaming and everything else we're glad to be with you each and every day hey dr david anders thank you sir thank you tom and don't forget we're with you uh monday through friday at 2 p.m eastern right here on ewtn radio with an encore at 11 p.m eastern on ewtn as well you can check out the podcast anytime you like 24 7 ctc now that that's not it that's the email address what you want is ewtnradio.net ewtnr on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks for joining us today here on ewtn's call to communion see you tomorrow god bless and have a great day the most original and exclusive catholic content is on ewtn radio tonight on

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 05 2022