Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - March 3 2022

the catholic why can't women become priests why do catholics worship mary why do i need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the bible i think the pope has too much authority what's stopping you you are called to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if you are not a catholic perhaps you were an active catholic years ago and stepped away from the faith for really whatever reason or maybe you've never been a catholic this is something all new to you and you've got a question or two about the catholic faith we'd love to give that a a shot love to answer that question for you here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america 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 those of you watching on tv today you can participate as well love to hear from you via email ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com now why do we do that why do we why do we lay it out if you're watching on tv here's the email address that's because we're not live on tv we're live on radio and on tv it airs a few days later charles berry is our producer matt gabinski is our phone screener jeff berson is on social media if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live you can do that by putting your question in the comments box and then jeff will send that to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david andrews tom how are you today very well how are you sir i'm doing all right thank you you know we often like to lead off the show with a common objection something that catholics hear all the time and this is certainly one of those this is an objection voiced by greg greg says i disagree with the catholic prohibition of contraception why does the catholic church insist on meddling in a couple's private affairs again that's from greg yeah thanks greg i really appreciate the question so the characterization of meddling in a couple's private affairs the church doesn't meddle in couples private affairs what it does is it it it defines it articulates general norms of human morality okay of how to treat one another well so you know that the church is not putting a microscope into your room to check on all the things that you're doing um this is not meddling in that sense right and and in fact i think you'll find your typical parish priest is fairly hands-off in terms of you know trying to intervene in in domestic situations uh unless he's asked to right um but uh but to articulate a moral principle that we need to live well together well that absolutely falls to the church's competence and that's that's one of the things that we that we derive as great benefit from being catholic we can have certainty about what's the right thing to do in you know general set of circumstances so you know the church says husbands ought not to leave their wives don't abandon your family you know stay with your first love you made a vow keep it i don't care if it's easy keep it well i mean i hope you don't have an objection to the church meddling as you put it by saying that husbands need to be faithful to their wives wives need to be faithful to their husbands husbands wives ought to take care of their children educate them raise them up in the faith teach them to be good people good citizens good catholics so there are a lot of moral norms that the church articulates identifies and articulates for living well together that also includes how we treat one another in our in our intimate lives don't objectify another person in your sexual life don't don't don't treat them as an object for your gratification that includes your own self like don't objectify your own self right don't treat your body like some sort of instrument yeah like because you are your body and your body has a dignity made in god's likeness and image and you should respect that um you know so you know don't don't disfigure yourself that's that's a decent rule if you're gonna treat your body with dignity you know don't don't go chopping off arms and legs unless you unless you have to for example yeah sometimes you have to if you don't have to don't go do that kind of thing don't take drugs don't get drunk don't do things that are going to deface your humanity and that also includes how we treat one another again in our intimate lives so don't uh don't fail to respect the procreative ends of human sexuality god gave us our sexuality so that we can bear and raise children that's the fundamental purpose now you know when you cooperate with the divine design which is not something the church made up church didn't invent human sexuality right um beautiful things happen but i don't need to tell you when people begin to defect away from the way god made our bodies to perform and and to treat one another in this collaborative union that we call marriage to create a family when you start deflecting away from that horror happens it can become absolutely devastating what happens to human people when they move away from that and so you know the teaching on contraception is of one piece with the entire catholic conception on the dignity of the human purpose of human person and the procreative ends of marriage greg thank you so much for your question we hope that's helpful for you here's one that came in from youtube daniel wants to know what is at the heart of the church's mission and does the catechism say anything about this topic yes yes so paul vi said the church exists to evangelize so that that's in christ of course when he founded the church he gave the apostles the command to go on to all nations make disciples and teach them everything i've commanded you he said now i do think when we talk about evangelism we have to be pretty specific about what's specific about what we mean you know there's a some people have the idea that evangelism is just let me just make as many catholics as i can or make as many christians as i can i'm trying to win converts and that's not really how the church sees it right the church has a mission to do good in the world and so to manifest as well as to articulate uh god's goodness uh as widely as possible don't you know put your light under a bushel where people can't see it but let people see your good deeds and so forth because the goal is to unite people to god in charity so the end of evangelism is not just you know flapping my lips and saying words about god in public in the hopes of winning converts it's really can i help people to come to a deeper knowledge of themselves and their need for god and bring them into a relationship with the god of love that's really what evangelism means so it's uh it includes the sanctifying task of the church to actually make people holy i hadn't really done my job as an evangelist if i just give them information and then leave them where they are yeah absolutely all right and uh daniel thank you so much for your question we do appreciate hearing from you via youtube we're going to get to the phones in just a moment here and the calls are coming in right now at 833 288 ewtn if you have a question or something to say to dr david anders love to hear from you on this beautiful day 833-288-3986 it is called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn do stay with us [Music] beyond damascus with dan danatay and aaron richards is our show for young adults everybody's talking about encounter everybody's talking about that mountaintop experience what we fail to often talk about is what happens after what happens beyond that damascus moment jesus christ is calling all of us to be missionary disciples disciples of jesus who are on mission to bring the kingdom of god here and now on this earth beyond damascus with dan demete and aaron richards saturday at 8 eastern on ewtn radio this is an ewtn bookmark brief speaking with professor o carter sneed about his book what it means to be human the case for the body in public bioethics published by harvard university press available through our religious catalogue what is this book about the book is about the law and public policy relating to bioethics especially the vital conflicts of abortion and assisted reproduction end-of-life decision-making and makes the case that the best way to understand these issues and to critique the current state of the law is to view it through the lens of what i describe as anthropology what the law's assumptions are about what it means to be and flourish as a human being because all law at the end of the day has to have such operating premises because what law does and is for is to promote the protection of persons and to promote their flourishing thank you so much your professor carter snead what it means to be human the case for the body in public bioethics available through our ewtn religious catalog and i'm doug keck thanks for joining us here on this bookmark greek we'll catch you next time [Music] glad you're with us for call to communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin today with shane shane is in fort wayne i like that shane in fort wayne indiana listening on the great redeemer radio hey shane what's on your mind today yeah uh thanks for taking my question i had a question for dr anders in acts chapter 15 verses 7 through 11 peter stands up and addresses i think some of the jews that are there about circumcision and in verse 11 he's talking about the gentiles he says his fellow jews that will be saved by grace just like they are talking about the end so what exactly is that yeah absolutely i really appreciate the question so look at the context of this remark and of course you know at the beginning of chapter 15 certain people come down from jerusalem from judea to antioch who were teaching the believers unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by moses you cannot be saved that was what some of the people were suggesting they were these are jews who'd come to believe that christ was the messiah and they assumed that if any gentiles wanted to join the movement they would have to become jews follow all the the laws of the mosaic code and there was a mindset in uh a judy at this time among jews that was not just at that time it's pretty deeply embedded that the way you marked yourself out as belonging to god's people was especially through circumcision but also through the maintenance of other details of the mosaic law so you have to you know avoid certain foods you can't wear fabrics woven with two different kinds of uh textiles a whole bunch of rules you know in the mosaic law and by following that that's how you mark yourself out as belonging to god and so this was a matter of controversy and there were a lot of gentiles who had become interested even before christianity who had become interested in the god of the jewish faith and would go to the synagogues and hear the law of moses read and they might even partake in the prayers but they didn't go all the way and circumcise themselves and take on the rest of the burden of the law and so the apostles debated this issue in it in jerusalem and it's something that saint paul continued to have to contend with in his own ministry and ultimately came to the conclusion that gentile converts do not have to become jews in order to be accounted members of god's people and partakers of the covenant and saint paul elaborates this a good deal more than acts chapter 15 and he argues from the nature of god's call to abraham that god promised abraham that he would be a blessing to all nations and accounted abraham righteous on account of his faith before the law of moses was ever given and so that blessing to all the nations that that was anticipated in the abrahamic promise was not dependent on adherence to the mosaic law so rather how then are we counted members of god's flock if you will how are we partakers of the covenant well it's through faith in christ rather than following the details of the mosaic law now does that mean that faith alone gets you to heaven and that's what martin luther thought the protestant theologian martin luther thought he inferred from this that faith alone that all i have to do is have faith nothing else is required and that will get me to heaven but that's not what peter says and it's not what paul says and it's not what the new testament says faith is what counts to make you a christian i mean to be a christian is to have faith in christ but having had faith in christ paul says we go on to receive the gift of the holy spirit and the spirit changes us on the inside he changes our hearts this you read about this in romans chapter 2 verses 25 to 29 circumcises our hearts and that's the real change it's not it's not the cultic purity that would pertain to you know outward rights like circumcision or food laws that make a man right with god it's that inward change of the heart that's the gift of faith and but having had that gift of the holy spirit we have to keep in step with the spirit we have to walk with the spirit paul says in romans chapter 8 if we don't walk with the spirit then we're actually going to lose uh we're going to we're not going to make it we're not going to be judged worthy on that last day and christ himself gives us the criterion of judgment and it's basically the works of mercy has your life been changed such that you can now uh give drink to the thirsty and food the hungry and shelter the homeless these are the criteria that jesus articulates for judgment now that gift of being able to live a righteous life of being able to live a moral life comes through faith and being connected to christ so faith is the door it's what makes me a christian what wins for me this gift of the holy spirit but i have to cooperate with that gift of the spirit in order to make it to heaven shane thanks so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn going now to michigan talking with terry listening on holy family radio hey terry what's on your mind today um hi i hope this isn't frivolous uh thank you so much for your ministry both of you my question is this yesterday you know with ash wednesday the readings were you know when you pray pray in secret and your father will reward you uh when you give all the students secrets he rewards you with secrets my question is the charitable donations that i make which you know out of out of goodwill and charity i want to help people if i claim them on my taxes does that mean that they are not done in secrets yeah thank you i appreciate the question food for thought yeah definitely uh my personal opinion my private judgment here you know and i'm just one guy i don't have any kind of authority to make these claims but i'll just give my opinion i don't think that violates christ's admonition here what he really has in view i think he tells us he says don't be like the hypocrites who pray and give alms on street corners in order to be seen by men so if your motive in acts of charity is to make a name for yourself to be seen by men then then um then you're not going to get your reward but if your motive is the love of god and neighbor then you're going to get your reward now jesus also said give to caesar what is caesar's and to god what is god's and i would just assume not give any more to caesar than caesar is due there's that and i don't think terry is going to be standing on the street corner with her uh tax tax return yeah it's not going to happen exactly terry you're in good shape thank you so much for your call let's go to uh michael michael is in chicago right now listening on siriusxm channel 130 michael what's on your mind today um i just don't want to put dr andrews on the spot but uh i know the screen callers just telling us they're just trying to figure out uh in luke chapter 12 49 uh and it kind of ends there uh just uh just kind of scratching my head i just wasn't wondering if you can make any sense yeah sure so christ says i have come to bring fire on the earth and how i wish it were already kindled but i have a baptism to undergo and what constraint i am under until it is completed do you think i came to bring peace on earth no i tell you but division from now on there will be five and one family divided against each other three against two and two against three they'll be divided father against son son against father mother against daughter and daughter against mother and mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and so on and so forth so how should we understand this passage i think that what christ has in view is similar to the message of john the baptist when john the baptist shows up on the scene he says do not say for yourselves that we have abraham as our father because i tell you god can raise up children for abraham from these very stones rather bring forth fruits in keeping with your repentance and so there was a widespread conviction among judeans at the time that because they were children of abraham because they kept the law of moses the jews election privileged them in in in god's eyes in a way that gentiles were not privileged and there's some truth in that but not in the way they were taking it and that kind of give them past maybe to a certain extent and john the baptist's position was look god's going to show favor to the righteous wherever they are whatever their ethnicity or background or even religious practice so let's get about the business of being righteous and built into that jewish jewish exceptionalism you know it's kind of a racism and and uh you know a kind of despising of the gentiles and people outside the household of faith and and that's a temptation to which we're all subject and it's not just limited to religious people we all sort of have this tribalistic um motive and i mean the sociologists have even studied this i mean people are more likely to give money to a beggar that looks like them than one that doesn't look like them that's true the world over we tend to prefer birds of a feather flock together you know sure and uh it's amazing if you study ancient history and civilizations how many civilizations assumed they were the only civilized people in the world oh yeah you know what defines a barbarian someone who's not us you know c.s lewis in one of his books talked about this the the inbred inclination of every child to think that their na all their neighbors have the wrong kind of spoons wow right what are the right kind of spoons well the kind we have of course of course right and i think that jesus cuts right through that and he says look we're not looking for an affinity of blood relation or tribal identity and i think today we could equally say ideological conformity all the ways in which people arrange themselves you know and array the world as an arena of combat you know i'm on the good team you're on the bad team whatever team that might be and we're going to defeat you haha and i think i really don't think i think jesus cuts through straight cuts straight through that and says look there's only one affinity that matters and that is the affinity of those who who are on the side of justice and mercy and truth and that cuts through it ought to cut through even even blood relationships now when it does come through and it cuts through those blood relationships there are going to be people who want to maintain those tribal affinities and they will resent you for reaching out to the poor and the outcast and the lonely and you know god forbid the other political party can't have that and uh and i mean i i know you've seen this like in our own society yes i mean families have absolutely fallen apart in the last four years because somebody in the family voted for the wrong political party or holds the wrong opinion or gave a like on social media to the wrong guy and uh and you know if your catholic position um is no you know everybody's made in the likeness and image of god everyone deserves human dignity um and i'm not gonna let these ideological battle lines define my person well that's that not by your choice but by the but your family's choice it sets up a new ideological division namely i refuse to to participate in this ideological warfare okay well if you're not on our team we're kicking you out i mean you've seen that i've seen it every day every day and uh and so being catholic even though you may be catholic with good will and will good to all people your declaration of faith in christ may cause others to reject you it's just going to happen it's going to happen michael thank you so much for your call lines are open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn if you call right now we can probably get you on today's show 833-288-3986 if you're watching on tv today the email address ctc at ewtn.com all right let's go to tom is in columbus right now he's listening on siriusxm channel 130 tom what's on your mind today my question is about jesus and the money changers in the temple during passover that the population of jerusalem would grow maybe to a million the temple itself was 25 football fields in its internal area it was guarded heavily by pilot the jews were just doing their duty by the law of moses they couldn't bring the animals with them across the desert so they bought them when they got there the money that they changed was the money that had the head of caesar on it because that couldn't be used in the temple so they exchanged it for blank coins my and the temple was well guarded my question is how was jesus chasing all of the money changers out of the temple and why wasn't he arrested then good question good question so of course christ's complaint was that they were turning the house of god into a market and what you say is true about the economic arrangements in jerusalem and the sacrificial system and the roman coinage and all the rest of it but from jesus's point of view both the the context and the motive of the money changers was inappropriate and presumably they could have accomplished the you know the the economic transaction in another way that would have been more suited to the circumstances not that it's not the it's not the activity in itself that was intrinsically immoral but rather the motive and the circumstance that made it immoral why wasn't christ arrested right then uh probably well obviously i don't know i wasn't i wasn't a jewish authority at the time i don't know what was in their mind but presumably they did not at that time see it uh desirable to raise a ruckus i mean when they finally arrested jesus of course it was at night and in secret they didn't want to incite a riot among the people yeah hey tom thanks so much for your call today uh ryan's watching us right now on youtube ryan says yesterday my mom came with me to weekday mass she asked me why we did not do the confitior or the i confess during the week i wasn't able to give an answer could dr andrews explain this yeah well there is a there is a penitential act you know even when you don't pray the entire confetti or there is a confession of sin and of course the the the kyrie is on the appeal to god for mercy yeah yeah no i i know that not she's referring here to uh yesterday which uh for our radio listeners would have been ash wednesday oh sure sure and that was omitted you're right you're crazy if it's a ash wednesday that liturgy has changed that's true okay so there you go appreciate that and uh if you would like to send us uh an email here's the address ctc at ewtn.com ctc ewtn.com uh during the week we try to read one or two emails on each of our programs and then um every now and then usually about once a month we'll do a mailbag show and on the mailbag show we'll get to a whole bunch of emails sometimes some of the longer ones that we just have to set aside because there's just not time during the the live show as you notice there uh we did that question from ryan watching us on youtube if you're watching on youtube right now or if you're watching on facebook live you can send us a question just put that question in the comments box uh right there by the screen jeff will see that he'll shoot it to us here in the studio in a moment we're going to go to uh pat in angola indiana we have a couple of lines open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn if you have a question for dr david anders 833-288-3986 or if you want to send us an email ctc ewtn.com back in a moment with lots more here on call to communion with dr david anders on ewtn do stay with us church pop takes a fresh and fun look at the news shaping our world featuring engaging inspiring and informative catholic social media content find it on snapchat instagram and on the web at churchpop.com and you can get churchpop email directly to your inbox visit ewtn.com and click subscribe ewtn the global catholic network [Music] you can be a part of call to communion with dr david anders text ewtn to 5500 wait for a response then text us your first name and question it's that easy message and data rates may apply christ is the answer with father john ricardo let us strive to know the lord quick question to you and me right now is that what you and i are doing every single day when you and i wake up every day do we strive to know jesus or not in the old testament in the same book of hosea a little bit later on it's in chapter 14 the lord says through the prophet my people perish or in another translation my people are being destroyed because of a lack of knowledge not a lock of data we got tons of data not a lack of information we got a lot of information not just about things that are happening in the world we got a lot of data a lot of knowledge a lot of information about god but not a lot of intimacy with god not a lot of relationship with god not a lot of friendship that's the cry of god's heart god wants to give himself to us in the incredible gift of friendship and we're not taking advantage of it at swame here tomorrow on the sunrise morning show we'll preview the mass readings for the first sunday in lent with father hezekiah carnazzo and father jonathan duncan now back to call to communion with dr david anders [Music] hey what's keeping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders lines are open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 here is pat in angola indiana listening on the great redeemer radio hello pat what's on your mind today hey dr anders hey i want to preface this i i'm a heathen lutheran so don't uh don't squash me too bad no judging going on here hey i want to tell you i love the lord and he's done so many miracles in my life because of my faith in christ and you know my dad became a pharmacist and left us and and my mom my mom would pray and food would show up it's just amazing just her faith um my my question because my wife and i are reading the pitta took right now we're in exodus um and it brought up the story about balaam and how balaam had communication with the lord even though he was a hebrew and that how how can that be yeah thanks i appreciate the question so uh it's even worse than that not only was he not a hebrew but he wasn't a particularly good guy right and i think there's a lesson to be drawn from that the gift of prophecy which is a genuine spiritual gift is at god's discretion for his purposes and the fact that someone possesses this or any spiritual gift is no indication or guarantee of their sanctity and saint paul makes this argument explicitly in first corinthians 13 when he says if i have the gift of prophecy but i have not love i am nothing so he presumes the possibility that a person might have the gift of prophecy and yet not themselves be a charitable person united to god and in balaam's case god used balaam to accomplish a purpose that that he god wanted to appear to accomplish but it wasn't i don't know what happened to balaam at the end of the day i mean for all i know balaam may have gotten his act together and gone to heaven but for the purposes of the narrative it was not for the sake of balaam's soul that god used balaam that god spoke through baal i mean he spoke through balaam's donkey it certainly wasn't to save the donkey's immortal soul because the donkey didn't have one yeah right and you know more to bring it closer to home unfortunately unfortunately these sort of uh you know celebrity christian circuit is just littered with people who have obvious gifts that have been used to great effect to bring faith and hope and love into the hearts of other people and then while they themselves are far from that state of life yeah all right we're just littered with folks i know and uh pat thank you so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn our phone number eight three three two eight 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 interesting question here from trish got this email a little while back my 13 year old son colby has been conversing about priests in the catholic church our son would like more information on how these men are able to turn bread and wine into jesus's body and blood also he wants to know why do priests seem to act like they have god's authority ah good questions both of these yeah priests do not by their own power make bread and wine turn to the body and blood of christ priests have an office through which god works and the holy spirit turns bread and wine into the body and blood of christ and he only does that through the ordained catholic clergy or he can't do it through well he won't do it through other people it's only given that gift to the clergy now now why did he do it that way right well part of it does actually relate to this authority business that you're raising which is the second half of the question they actually do have authority now they don't have they don't have the total authority of god himself they're not god but they have a delegated authority okay um it really comes from their bishop and the bishop's authority comes from christ who delegated the apostles and their successors the bishop with a specific task which was to make disciples and teach everything christ had commanded and to administer the sacraments and that includes the sacrament of the holy eucharist and uh you know the eucharist is a very sacred thing it's a very holy thing and we are called to have a purity in our lives before we approach the blessed sacrament and so it is lest the sacrament be profaned we can't just have it out there willy-nilly for anybody to celebrate and anybody to receive right there has to be a system in place to protect the sanctity of the blessed sacrament and the dignity of the people involved and so the way you do that is you have a principle of authority within any organization where you want to have rules in order you know unless you're going to have anarchy and a niece in any kind of society whether it's a voluntary society or a government society you have to have you have to have lines of authority and so the lines of authority that christ established within the church are principally the bishops and then they delegate uh that authority in part to their collaborators who are the ordained catholic clergy now that doesn't lay people also have authority but of a different kind they don't have the authority over the liturgy over the sacraments that the priests do right but that's why all right trish thanks so much for your email hope that's helpful for your son colby back to the phones right now for uh kimberly kimberly is in breezy point minnesota having lived in minnesota myself i know that it does get breezy there sometimes she's listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey kimberly what's on your mind today hello um i thank you again for uh your knowledge and i love listening to you i'm driving right now and i'm going to be pulling off because i have a question okay my question is is back in the apostles creed prayer it says that the lord descended in uh descended did not descend into hell but on the third day he arose again according to the scriptures but since then that 19 creed has changed the newer prayer and it it does say that the lord descended into hell my question is is i need to know why he descended into hell and on the third day i rose again according to the scriptures sure sure thank you i appreciate the question so the apostles creed has always included the phrase he descended into hell the nicean creed which is actually based in part on the apostles creed but it adds details that were needed in the fourth century does not include the phrase he descended into hell but does include his death now the descent into hell does not mean that christ descended to the hell of the damned that's not what it's referring to but rather that christ ascended to the abode of the dead the word hell is ambiguous it can refer to more than one thing just like the way heaven can refer to more than one thing heaven can mean the the place of repose of the blessed dead it can also mean the sky right like the heavens and hell is an ambiguous word like that he descended to the abode of the dead that he might as saint peter tells us in his epistle preached to the spirits in prison namely the righteous debt of the old covenant like righteous noah and moses and abraham and the like and then they would ascend after his ascension they would be able to go to heaven right because there is a intermediate state that no longer exists church calls it the limbus of the fathers the abode of the righteous dead before the coming of christ okay kimberly is that helpful for you it is very helpful and i thank you very much it seems like when we are traveling and we go into different catholic churches some say you know that some do not say that and so i was just wondering wherever we go well they should never omit the descent into hell if they're reciting the apostles creed if they're reciting the apostles creed they will always confess the descendant to hell or they should if they're if they're reciting the nicean creed uh the phrase is not included in the text of the nicean creed okay that makes sense and uh kimberly thank you so much uh for your call here's an interesting text that just came in from joe actually watching today on youtube joe says my wife is not a catholic one of her main objections is that catholicism is a bunch of rules without spiritual value we were talking recently about what happened with that priest who changed a word in the baptismal formula and then rendered thus thousands of baptisms invalid this particular episode made her think that her view of catholicism is confirmed so how can one word one word render the spiritual lives of so many people invalid what if i had said i take thee jill to be my lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold to love to honor and cherish until next thursday words matter you're not only changed one word that's true or one phrase one phrase until death do his part and change that to until next thursday now you might think i'm being silly and maybe i'm being a little bit silly but there's an important lesson here what if i really meant it what if i really really meant until next thursday like i'll really give myself to you from you know now till thursday would that actually be marriage like would we just be married until next thursday or would we not be married at all and i think you would probably say well you're not really married at all because you're not like it matters you're not fully committed exactly right what if i said you know i um i baptize you in the name of huey dewey and louie does that matter of course it matters and and people have from time to time wanted to monkey with the the language of the various sacraments in the liturgy because you know often they have some agenda okay and uh some people monkey with the baptismal formula and they'll say will i baptize you in the name of the creator redeemer and sanctifier because they they are maybe they have a sort of a feminist sensibility and they don't like to use gendered terms for god like father and son they don't think about the fact that in using that language they've actually fundamentally misstated the nature of the godhead of god's inner life because father and son actually refer to real relations within the godhead father and son have a relationship of love with one another but creator redeemer and sanctifier are just roles that one person can play without any i could be you know i could i could work at the post office in the mornings and then you know go back groceries at night it's the same person doing both jobs right and there actually was an ancient heresy subalianism or modalism that said that's what the trinity is the father son and spirit are just they're just you know god just changes hats it's one one person and one nature who just does just different functions right and that language creator deemer sanctifier doesn't name persons it names functions so they they think they've done something nice and benevolent they're going to try and be you know kind of inclusive and get rid of the gendered language what they've really done is they sort of mangled the the doctrine on the on the inner nature of god right because of course the truth of the matter is father and son are not gendered terms as applied to god god has no biological sex they're analogous terms drawn from human relationships to try to capture something about the nature of the eternal begetting of the son the love of the son and the father right and uh and they don't like you know you can't think of them as exact corollaries to human paternity and affiliation because they're not exact corollaries they're analogous terms that jesus in fact used right um and so the the concern is mis is misguided because we're not really assigning gender to god but it does capture something essential about the internal nature of the godhead so language matters in other words now there's another reason it matters too christ said use these words christ said use these words and so the the rubrics the instructions for how we perform various sacraments have their roots in apostolic tradition received from jesus so what what presumption on our part to mess with them yeah now you know i think in this particular case i don't think anybody believes that the priest in question was malicious and uh he was probably a kindly in good soul and uh you know who wanted to make everybody feel like they were involved and had a part and so he casually used the word we instead of i all right but uh in the case of the sacrament of baptism the celebrant is the one who administers the sacrament you know now he may do it he does it to admit somebody to the whole church but the celebrant is doing it and we do it on behalf of the whole church in that sense but it is the celebrant who administers the sacrament and uh and that matters because it goes to the whole see anybody can celebrate the sacrament of baptism in case of urgency right anybody can take that role but someone has to step up and witness and validate to this candidate's faith and perform the sacrament in the name of christ and so the agency is changed when you change the language now you talk about spiritual value um are we saying that in the absence of a valid sacrament that grace will not reach this person no we didn't say that no one's ever said that god is the guy who is in charge he's not a guy god is the one who is in charge of distributing grace and god we are the ones who are bound by the sacraments not god so god can certainly extend the grace sanctifying grace to a soul in a way known only to himself but he gives us the sacraments so that we have tangible and objective signs witnessing that god's grace has been extended to us and the reason the church has an interest in being very precise on the use of language is precisely so that we can have because it has a spiritual value give you an example what if uh what if i went to confession i confessed my sins and priest is supposed to say i absolve you in the name of the father son and holy spirit now first time ever heard those words i was a convert i was 33 years old i spent 10 years of my life studying theology i knew the catholic position i knew the biblical teaching that christ had actually given this authority to forgive sins to the apostles so when the priest said through the ministry of the church may god grant you pardon of p and peace and i absolve you from your sins i i knew that he had the right to say that and the biblical language came to my mind and it filled my heart with faith what if he had said you know it's gonna be okay with you off you go god it's all good it's all good all good don't worry about it it wouldn't have been the same because i know that it might be okay with me god might forgive me but he was he'd be neglecting the gift that god had given him to actually not just to suggest but to pronounce that by the authority god had given him i am in fact objectively forgiven and it so was for my benefits for the benefit of the penitent sure for my spiritual benefit that those exact words are used now unfortunately i have been to masses where priests have thought they could improve on the rubrics unfortunately unfortunately and they think that if they get a little creative and play a little fast and loose with the roman missal that somehow they'll be able to insert something quote unquote of value right because they don't think that the holy church got it right let me tell you what the result of that is you cringe you cringe you're sitting there on the edge of your seat cringing the whole mess saying this is awful this is terrible i don't know what he's going to say next you can't pay attention because you're just terrified for the other shoe to drop and you're going just please don't mess with the words of consecration whatever you do just please don't mess with those but leave me just just read just read the black guy just read it it's an act of mercy and and and pastoral solicitude to stick to the rubrics sure because it has spiritual value now all that being said um is catholicism nothing but a bunch of rules that was ultimately the position by no means by no means see we take as catholics we take our starting point from jesus christ and the the main goal of the catholic faith is to bring the soul of the catholic into union with christ which cannot by any stretch of the imagination be accomplished merely by following rules and the church is explicit about this but rather by penetrating into jesus's personality and letting his divine personality penetrate you such that he lives in you as a second self christ said if you love me and keep my commandments my father and i will come to you make our dwelling within you when i have that transformative encounter with christ such that i come to see the world through his eyes and i can become as it were a kind of second christ another christ to those around me that is the ultimate goal and aim of christian life and it can only happen through the infused virtues not from rules of faith hope and charity and to the extent that there are rules governing the catholic life it is to protect the dignity of the faith in the sacraments that much more easily to facilitate that life of faith hope and charity joe thank you so much for your question uh via youtube hope that's helpful for you and for your wife as well called communion with dr david anders here on ewtn i want to tell you about a wonderful show that we are very proud to bring you every weekend right here on ewtn on the radio side of ewtn and it's called answering the call with mother angelica you may remember when mother was doing her weekly tv shows she would often take questions not only from the studio audience but also from callers and these are absolutely timeless bits of wisdom there's often a lot of fun so our producer charles who puts together this program also puts together answering the call he has gone through uh you know years and years of these wonderful programs and it's really kind of an embarrassment of riches david beautiful there are so many great calls that mother angelica has fielded over the years so we have uh doug keck and father joseph mary wolf uh in the studio to uh kind of set up the calls talk a little about it then we play the call then they'll come back set it up play the next call it's a great show do check it out mother angelica answering the call sundays at 2 p.m and 8 p.m eastern only on ewtn radio here's a great question speaking of questions we've got one from william sent us an interesting email williams says based on a prior caller's question about mason's freemasons i have a friend who is a mason he has told me that many popes were masons i've tried to research this can't find an answer what is your take on that conspiracy theory theory all right yeah there were not many nothing to it no nothing to it good we'll move on then to one from bob send us an email who says i am currently in rcia very good i grew up in a fundamentalist baptist family on my mother's side i'm having a difficult time understanding indulgences it seems very foreign to me would you mind explaining indulgences sure you can't understand indulgences without understanding penance okay i understand the sacrament of penance let me take you back in history a little bit okay so today when you think of the sacrament of penance or reconciliation you go in a box typically in privately with a priest you make your confession the priest gives you a penalty he absolves you gives you a penance to perform maybe say a few prayers and you're on your way and the whole thing you know from after your confession is done you probably finished your penance in you know a minute and a half at most right and i'd be kind of pushing it all right um that's not how it was in antiquity in the first few centuries of the church reconciliation or penance was a public sacrament they didn't have the private auricular confession and it was typically reserved for the most heinous sins things like murder adultery and apostasy and the penances were not things you could get done in a minute and a half but oftentimes would take years so soul might be excluded from holy communion for example uh for ten years really yeah or even in some cases until their death until their death bed the church was pretty rigorous in those days i i'd rather think of it too rigorous right um but it was not uncommon they had a actual order in the church called the order of penitence they would sit at the back of the church they wouldn't commune they would take they would often wear penitential garb and they had usually done something pretty pretty nasty right to be in that situation and uh um a situation arose in the 250s around the third century where people began to say well is there something we could do to cut off some time from these public penances and uh and and maybe appeal to the prayers of the saints and the martyrs on their behalf and the bishop particularly cyprian of carthage said yeah that makes a good bit of sense so we'll do that you know instead of doing your your 10 years in the back row you know you can do this other thing and we'll cut off some time and we'll just appeal to the merits of the saints and martyrs on your maps it's really fundamentally connected to the sacrament of penance right okay and uh and thus was born the practice of indulgences you know sort of substituting something for the lengthy penance now we no longer have these ten year long penances and so to apply the logic of an indulgence it's like yeah father five hail mary is just too much you know can i i don't know what i could possibly do to substitute for the length of those five we're not in that situation anymore right right right uh but the theological principle is still valid namely that we do we have a an obligation a moral obligation to do penance to make reparation for our sins and if we don't get the job done in this life uh we'll do it in purgatory and it's still appropriate and reasonable to appeal to god for mercy and to the merits and prayers of the saints on our behalf to help us with that with that work of penance and it also it just like it was in the second third fourth century it falls within the church's jurisdiction to actually administer those graces and so the church says you know we're going to do that we're going to appeal to god on your behalf for mercy and this in this process of penance that may happen after death um and uh and you know what we ask is that you do a pious work and so it's really a form of piety to to help the person both in hope and faith and love charity uh you know grow in the hope of eternal life grow in charity take up pious exercises with the church's promise to accompany them with prayer in the merits of the saints on their behalf all right very good bob thanks so much for your email one more as we're heading out the door from arthur jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away dr anders how can heaven pass away the heavens the atmospheric heaven ah that's what they're referring to we talked about that earlier very good arthur thanks so much for your email for all the emails all the phone calls everybody checking in on youtube and facebook live and to you dr david anderson tom don't forget we do this program on ewtn radio monday through friday at 2 pm eastern with an encore at 11 pm eastern we also bring you a podcast every weekday that's available at ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net and there's also the best of call to communion on the radio side 2 p.m eastern on saturdays on behalf of our fantastic team here i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks for joining us see you next time here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders god bless [Music] this is conversations with consequences where we delve deeper into issues affecting our church our country and our core the family as catholics we need to be informed aware and able to talk through some of the tough topics that we're facing in our culture and in our world conversations with consequences gives us the tools to do so

Channel: EWTN

Views: 2,006

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: rbYker20DbY

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2022