Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - November 15 , 2021

288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation is call to 1-833-288-3986 with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn radio this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the catholic faith maybe you've been looking around trying to get an answer on this question or this question over here maybe it's something you've been wrestling with for who knows decades we would love to help you with that here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 uh if you're listening outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205 205-271-2985 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 for some folks may apply you can also shoot us an email if you prefer that we'll get to one of those in a moment ctc ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer matt gabinski our phone screener jeff person handles social media if you're listening to us right now via youtube or facebook live you can put your question in the comments box and jeff will shoot that to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very good how are you my friend oh i'm doing decent thank you off the show for a couple of days a little bit of uh vacation time for my sweetheart and me and glad to be back well you you deserve it we we squeaked through without you but we're happy to have you back of course you did so here is a great question um from anthony anthony says i have been tussling with the definition of heaven since my wife passed away unexpectedly what is its definition the definition of heaven and how do i explain its meetings to my daughters and again that's from anthony anthony thank you so much i really appreciate the question i'm so sorry for your loss and i know i have some idea of how painful that must be and i'm my heart really goes out to you so we know a few things about the next life from sacred scripture and tradition um in the on the sort of the horizontal plane of time uh the the bible promises us a resurrection from the dead at the end of time and that ultimately is sort of the fulfillment to which everything points that we're looking for the return of christ at the end of time in our own resurrection from the dead uh but there's more to the story than that the church also has defined that the souls of the just when they die can be admitted immediately to the vision of god you don't have a body yet but you still can have this experience of god that we call the beatific vision saint paul says eye has not heard ear has not heard nor has it entered the heart of man what god has in store for those who love him but that it includes knowing him even as we are fully known and to know god of course without a body in the next life uh we're not talking about seeing god with the eye we're not talking about you know hearing an audible voice we're talking about a deep intuitive awareness and immediate awareness of the divine goodness right now we have only a mediated awareness of god's goodness as we experience it in creatures so you know you have a person that you love or even something trivial like a you know a pet or a hobby here your favorite tree and you see there's some small piece of goodness in there that maybe a big piece of goodness that you respond to well uh to quote c.s lewis god is where all the beauty comes from and all the particular things that we experience as good and beautiful and true are good beautiful and true only because they participate in the infinite truth goodness and beauty that is god and the ultimate reward of the life of the just whether with or without the body is the full knowledge the immediate intuitive awareness and enjoyment of the infinite source of all blessedness which is god himself now the best we can do is to try to describe that in metaphors because i has not seen and year has not heard i mean i hadn't been there hadn't done that yet and can't even imagine what such thing would look like one of my favorite descriptions of this is in a children's book from c.s lewis again uh who uh writes about the children in the magical land of narnia who pass through a door into another world that looks amazingly just like narnia only only more so only more so and as they begin to penetrate more deeply into the into this beautiful vision you know they find they're not getting tired and the farther they go the brighter the colors the more transcendent the experience the more excited the more uh the more they seem to be able to experience and the deeper and richer it seems to become and then and then finally there's a unicorn character who who cries out and says come on everybody further up and further in and they pass beyond this infinite horizon past what we can see into the story that never ends but that image of you know being bigger on the inside than on the out and uh and the horizon of eternity being further up and further in into that which i has not seen and here has not heard but which is the blessedness of god himself that ultimately is the reward of heaven beautiful well we hope that's helpful for you and again we are very sorry for your loss anthony thanks for writing to us here's a question now from thomas dr andrews is the pope infallible when he nominates or approves someone for sainthood if not how would a catholic know if he was praying in vain to someone who was erroneously declared a saint thanks thomas yeah so the traditional opinion of theologians on this is that declarations of infallibility are included under the technical term secondary objects of infallibility because they pertain to the the church's prayer life in a very intimate way and connected to the calendar and the mass and so forth and so you can have the confidence of faith that the that those who are declared saints by the church are in fact so okay well that's certainly good news and a quick one here for patrick as a catholic is it okay to be a competitive person when you win in any given field like sports or academics or professionally oftentimes someone has to lose therefore causing suffering for the person who didn't win however many people who possess and innate competitiveness go on to achieve great things often great benefit to their fellow neighbors so how does the church approach this question if at all many thanks patrick yes thanks i'd like to give you two possible points of reference on this and tom's giving you the one minute mark so we may have to carry this over after the break another story in uh john cashion's conferences cash and of course is a great early christian writer about the monastic life and he tells the story of two of the desert fathers who lived in poverty and asceticism and they decided they were so detached from the common life of men that they no longer remembered what it was like to be in the world and so one monk says to the other i have an idea let's have a fight over something and the second monk says i've forgotten how to do that what do you do and he says here's what we'll do i'll put a brick down between us and i'll say this is mine and you say this is mine and we'll fight over it he says okay so monk puts it down he says this is mine the other monk says okay here have it that's great i'll come back at this after the break very good so uh patrick said tight we'll continue that question and we'll also go to the phones we'll be talking with paul in north texas and there's a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's call to 833-288-3986 with dr david anders on this monday afternoon here on ewtn stay with us [Music] tomorrow morning on the sunrise morning show we'll celebrate the feast of saints gertrude the great and margaret of scotland we'll also talk to mike aquilina about why the church sees the family as the basic unit of society and chat with father frank donio about forgiving injuries willingly in our ongoing series on the spiritual works of mercy plus news weather sports and a whole lot more the sunrise morning show tomorrow at 6 a.m eastern on ewtn radio [Music] it's amazing how uplifting god's word is he reveals that life has a purpose that our sufferings don't come to stay they come to pass that we can do all things through christ who strengthens us that his love defines us not our flaws saint paul had an amazing attitude in prison want to know why because he preached those truths to himself all the time and whenever self-defeating negative thoughts popped up he choose to dwell on the word of god instead listen not every one of your thoughts gets to vote not every one of them matters not every one of them is valid but god's word always is and he didn't reveal his word to you so you'd wait for someone else to preach to you in hard times he revealed his word to you so you start preaching to yourself you know whose job it is to remind you of the truth yours if you're always looking to everyone else to do that job for you you're going through life way too needy preach the truth to yourself this is christophanic from reallifecatholic.com [Music] it's called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 8332 hey if you're new to listening to ewtn you've probably heard us talking about our founders mother angelica we miss her we we really do and right now there is a website that can fill you in on maybe some gaps maybe there's a lot of things you don't know about mother angelica about her her early years in ohio canton ohio and how she came to uh alabama and the south it's a fascinating tale actually you can visit our site right now by going to ewtn.com slash mother angelica this is really a treasury it's filled with photos milestones heartfelt stories and of course mother's wit and words that have inspired the hearts of all ages throughout the years again ewtn.com slash mother angelica do check that out so the question we were tackling before the break here from patrick as a recap patrick said as a catholic is it okay to be a competitive person when you win in any given field oftentimes somebody has to lose therefore causing a little suffering for the person who didn't win however many people who possess and innate competitiveness go on to achieve great things often of great benefit to their fellow neighbors so how does the church approach this question if at all yeah so before the break i told a funny story from st john cashion about two monks that decided to fight over a brick to practice to see if they could be like worldly people and the one monk says it's mine and the other mix says okay here have it you know like he does he doesn't know how to play the game yeah that's kind of a humorous story to show that there is a level of like self-donation uh and meekness of spirit that uh that can be realized in a person that just kind of utterly observes any sort of competitive attitude towards the world but that is uh that's not a lot of mortals you know that's not for most of us and a lot of what you're talking about i think boils down to a question of personality and my personal opinion on this is that personality is pretty inflexible it's really hard to change a person's personality and it may be impossible to do so what you can change is character and so you know i think it's kind of natural to you want to do well at something and oftentimes that means you want to measure yourself against some standard of performance that that other people have uh have uh have established but i mean i i'm a i'm a rather terrible guitarist but uh you know one of the ways i mark my progress is if i'm working on a piece i'll go listen to somebody who plays it well and see if i can imitate that and maybe get myself up to up to snuff and then you know you move on to the next level i mean that that kind of evaluation i think is a healthy thing and and and obviously that people can play games and which is a good spirit good natured you know good sportsmanship kind of thing and the point of the game is to win the game but to win it well and to win it because you have skill and i don't think there's anything objectionable about that um and i see even some of this evidenced in the life of saint paul so you know paul says of himself for example first corinthians 15 that he says i worked harder than all these other apostles i worked harder than all of them but not i but rather the grace of god that was in me and paul was very conscious that he was a subject of comparison in the minds of many christian people they would compare him to the jerusalem party you know and he referred to them kind of derisively as super apostles and he says i don't think i'm in the least inferior this is for second corinthians 11 5. i don't think i'm in the least inferior to those so-called super apostles you know so he's he's evaluating his own ministry against a standard which is the public perception of the quote-unquote super apostles um but at the same time he sort of radically subverts that and he says but ultimately i'm the least of all the apostles because i'm the one guy in the whole troop that persecuted the church of christ so the question is not you know if you have this competitive personality is that sinful i would say no the question is what use are you to what use are you putting it yeah and it's possible to take that kind of personality and put it to use narcissistically to build your own brand uh you know to self-aggrandize or you could put that to use in a way that be of service to other people into the church where you maybe you're not the one that's achieving the glory and uh you know back when i was a kid and we used to go to camp we would have the tug of war and uh a lot of times there'd be one guy you know on one end of the rope who would was bearing like 80 of the weight yeah but who did he cheer for when his team won you know was he cheering for himself or did he cheer for all the little guys in front of them you see what i'm saying yeah absolutely hope that's helpful for you patrick thank you so much for your email if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn and we begin today with brian in north texas listening on guadalupe radio hello brian what's on your mind today sir good afternoon gentlemen thank you very much for your vocation and your terrific show i have a question for you and this there's no embedded skepticism in this question at all just a genuine desire to try to reconcile a couple of things one the beautiful prayer we have hail holy queen mother of mercy and then the next line our life followed by our sweetness our hope etc how might one reconcile that with john 14 6 when jesus says i am the way the truth and the life sure absolutely so the devotional language of the church towards the blessed virgin much of which has been drawn from the courtly tradition of medieval love poetry is in fact medieval love poetry and you should read it as such these kinds of prayers are not theologically precise definitions they are they are more in the genre of love poetry and people say that craziest stuff and love poetry you know they really do i mean go read the love poetry in the bible you know your neck is like the tower of david really [Laughter] you're like a flock of goats really really you know um and so that's the way we read this you know think about uh again you know the language of devotion and the the cult of the blessed virgin of course had this amazing flowering in the late middle ages uh in a time when people lived in feudal society where you know you wanted to sue for justice you had to go before the royal court you needed an n you know you needed an advocate in the court um and you can imagine i imagine you can imagine being in a situation you're a supplicant you're a plaintiff you need justice and so uh you know maybe you're friends with uh you know with this minister or maybe you're lucky enough to be friends with the queen mother and what do you do help me obi-wan kenobi you're my only hope yeah well i mean are you really my only hope not really what i want is justice from the king right right but i'm not going to get a hearing or you see unless obi-wan helps me right is that that kind of that kind of language is what's in view no we don't live in that kind of culture anymore so my dad had a law partner that went to court one time with a client the judge says what do you want me to do for you the client says your honor i want justice the judge responds we don't do that here we give out money that's great brian we hope that's helpful for you thank you 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 on this monday afternoon here on ewtn radio going now to richard in pennsylvania listening on jmj radio hey richard what's on your mind today yes my question is on the sabbath what is it that i can do what is it i am not allowed to do can i go for ice cream can i do laundry can i go to the store for loaf of bread thank you yeah i appreciate the question so first of all you know the the church does not celebrate the seventh-day jewish sabbath and so we prefer to talk about the lord's day the eighth day the first day of the week on which we celebrate his resurrection and the most important thing about the lord's day is that it is a day of of not of uh not so much of deprivation but a day of feasting and celebration uh the resurrection of our lord and the church you know since 1917 imposed a universal obligation on the faithful to go to mass on that day because that seems like a very appropriate way to celebrate the lord's resurrection and that practice of course dates back to the first century when when christianity was a minority religion a persecuted religion the roman empire didn't shut down on sundays you know not far from it imagine all the slaves in rome and most of the population was slaves so they only get the day off it's the lord's day i'm sorry that's not going to happen you know so they would meet early in the morning and they would celebrate the holy sacrifice of the mass and they went about their business they went about going to work and doing what they had to do because they had no choice a culture didn't support them doing anything else it was enough to just get away and celebrate the lord's day so that's the most important thing is to hallow the lord's day right to hallow the lord's day out of respect for the resurrection and to meet our sunday obligation to go to mass now um that that's in the modern world we've come to think of the lord's day as sort of uh adjoined to this this weird innovation called the weekend the weekend is a uniquely modern development in the keeping of the calendar you know a time where you set aside for like mass amounts of recreation and so a lot of times people will phrase this kind of question in terms of well is it you know how about mass in all of my kids sporting events you know that may take me out of state and and priests are particularly aware that can become a real point of conflict you know and uh so i would really say this is a matter of your own sort of spiritual discernment where you know if are your are your entertainments your sort of professional entertainments especially if you're like one of these sporting families so conditioning your understanding of the day that mass takes on the most perfunctory kind of role in your life and it's less about celebrating the lord and more about checking a box so we can get on with the important business of playing soccer or whatever it might be you follow what i'm saying yeah and i really think that's where the mind of the church is on this um you you know the church does not say that everybody has to stop everything and you know turn off other lights and and sit in their house and do nothing all day and there are people who are in professions where it's necessary that they work and their people their economies in fact and ours is becoming increasingly one where uh you know there isn't kind of a respect for the christian rhythm of the calendar and so people may be in situations where they don't have an option and uh you know to me ice creams feels pretty celebratory i don't know about you tom i'm all about eating ice cream well i don't eat ice cream anymore but i just did i used to be all about eating ice cream on sunday so i'm certainly not gonna you're not gonna find a law on the books in the church that says thou shalt not eat ice cream on sunday yeah you know i'm not going to tell you not to do that um if you want more insight in this question it's a wonderful wonderful apostolic letter from pope john paul ii um specifically on the celebration of sunday called d-a-d-s dominate day of the lord john paul the second um and uh i highly it's 1998 i highly highly recommend this for a deeper understanding and appreciation of the nature of the sabbath i also did a series of podcasts on this question where we go in a lot depth in this particular episode um available in at the podcast living catholic was a that's a production of the diocese of birmingham and uh there's three of them on specifically at the celebration of the sabbath very cool thank you so much for your call call to communion on this monday afternoon here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 it was interesting as you were talking about uh the weekend and and how that has become relatively uh recent uh innovation here where it's all about you know all these different things that you're gonna do recreational digital did you ever see the uh the tv series uh downton abbey i'm familiar with it i never watched it i remember one of the matriarchs somebody said something to her about the weekend and she said what's a weekend oh i'm thinking about now you remember you used to spend the lps tom you remember everybody's working for the weekend sure yeah remember that very well let's go to uh naomi in paducah kentucky listening on savior radio network hey there naomi what's on your mind today yes hi good afternoon i am pauline because i have a question my sister and i were talking a couple of days ago and she was saying that the holy spirit stays within you when you create mortals then as long as it's not something like we go murder somebody and you willfully do it but she thinks he's still in you when two people choose to live together but not be married but i thought they're both mortal sins but i was confused so can you clarify that yes it sounds like your sister has introduced an extra category you've got venial sin mortal sin and super mortal that's what it sounds like and we don't know any such categories in the catholic church there are only two there's venial immortal so let me clear this up a little bit when a person is baptized three things happen to them one is they become a member of the catholic church it's the right of entrance into the catholic church you become a member of christ's body and you know unlike joining the rotary club you know or the dinner club down the street this is more than just having your name on a roll we talk about there being a baptismal character imprinted on the soul there's something qualitatively different supernaturally different about your identity now in christ saint paul will say don't go to a prostitute because you unite the body of christ to a prostitute so that gives you an idea of the kind of intimacy that the new testament has in mind the sort of identity between the baptized person in christ and that can never be effaced so even a soul in mortal sin does not cease to be a member of christ's body and as such uh you know to participate in the in the ministry and the prayers of the church and all the rights and privileges that pertain there too so that's a very intimate kind of union with christ that is not lost through mortal sin being a member of christ's body the church you're also made a priest by virtue of your baptism you're appointed to offer sacrifice in particular the sacrifice of your life is true worship the father seeks worshippers who will worship him in spirit and in truth and that priestly identity that's inscribed into your soul in baptism is not lost not lost through mortal sin uh the another effect of baptism is it washes away the stain of original sin and all actual sin and introduces you to the life of grace that is lost through mortal sin if you sin mortally you lose that participation in in god that we call sanctifying grace one of the effects of sanctifying grace jesus tells us in john 14 that if we love him that's the effect of grace if we love him and keep his commandments the father and i will come to you make our dwelling within you the blessing of the indwelling trinity father son and holy spirit but that's conditional this holy spirit and the holy trinity indwell us provided we love god and keep his commandments so by definition if you're in the state of mortal sin you're not loving god and keeping his commandments and so the blessed trinity is not dwelling within so you don't have the indwelling trinity you don't have the intelligence spirit if you're in the state of mortal sin but that doesn't mean that you've suffered all connection to god you see you have the natural state of being his creature and being made in his likeness and image you have that conformity to christ in baptism called being a member of the church you have that priestly identity where your whole life is meant to be a sacrifice and you have all the rights and privileges to the sacraments including the sacrament of reconciliation that's not available to just every tom dick and harry but is available to you so the thing to do if you're in the state of mortal sin whether you think it's one of those super sends as you put it or yeah more humdrum if there's such a thing mortal sin then get back to the confessional right back to where you once belonged thank you so much uh for your call from paducah naomi appreciate hearing from you get back to the phones in just a moment our phone number 833 288 ewtn for call to communion with dr david anders 60 on 10 with monsignor charles pope the sixth commandment you shall not commit adultery this commandment is wide-ranging in its implications it forbids us not only from committing the very act of adultery but also other sexual sin such as fornication or premarital sex watching pornography and speaking lewdly likewise homosexual acts and acts of masturbation are also forbidden us and the lord himself even enjoins us to a purity of mind that we should not freely entertain lustful thoughts so it's wide ranging is challenging but it's in service of the great sacredness of human life which comes from sexual activity so we thank god for this great gift of sexuality and we ask for his grace to live it with great reverence the sixth commandment you shall not commit adultery for more about the ten commandments visit ewtnrc.com want to be notified when call to communion with dr david anders goes live on facebook follow ewtn radio's facebook page and click the bell icon to be notified catherine pedro and her team of pro-life experts shine the light of truth on the culture of death you can stay informed and educated with the latest news and truth when we send you ewtn's pro-life weekly directly to your inbox every friday don't miss an episode of ewtn pro-life weekly visit ewtn.com and click subscribe ewtn the global catholic network [Music] this is ewtn catholic radio ewtn radio brings you the holy rosary twice each day for over 25 years tune in every morning for mother angelica and every evening for father benedict groeschel only on ewtn radio [Music] so what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders our phone number and we do have a line open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's in connecticut 833-288-3986 us out today on facebook hello kim what's on your mind today hello good afternoon thank you for taking my call um i wanted to ask you i think i've heard you speak several times on this matter regarding the church in freemasonry um i have a friend of mine who i just recently found out is catholic and a freemason and i asked him you know how does he reconcile the two between the catholic and freemasons knowing freemasons contempt for the church and the church's position on freemasonry um his answer was pretty interesting he has said that um in 1983 that pope saint john paul ii has reversed the church's position on freemasonry citing that free mason is not a religious organization now i had tried to find that online and i couldn't find anywhere where pope saint john paul ii had said specifically that um he also went on to argue that um a lot of the tension or issue between the church and freemasonry was pretty much born out of jealousy by the knights of columbus um and the fact that they have never been able to reach anywhere near the membership numbers as freemasons but anyway um i guess my question is or maybe hopefully you can explain to me do you know what he's speaking about where the pope had addressed freemasonry back in 1983 and what exactly did pope saint john paul ii say about that yes thank you i appreciate the question so uh the only nothing has changed the church's position on belonging to a free masonic lodge what has changed is the language of the canon uh but then we have an interpretation of that canon from from the doctrine of the congregation with the doctrine of the faith so came in 1374 the cody candle law just says a person who joins an association which plots against the church is to be punished with a just penalty now it doesn't name the masonic lodge specifically but but the the cdf and associated agencies in the vatican have verified that it's in view like that they they took it out the specific agency just made it broad enough to cover anybody right not just the masonic lodge and uh and and we've had specific instructions from from pope john paul ii and and cardinal ratzinger to the effect that the the ban on masonry still pertains um the the the church uh forbidding membership in the masonic lodge has nothing to do with uh jealousy on the part of the knights of columbus um and because of course first of all free masonry is much older than the knights of columbus um which is uh you know it's much older and um and the up and the antagonism goes back before the knights of columbus may in fact have been in a an attempt on a part of you know some catholics to sort of counter the attraction of freemasonry um but the but the opposition of humanity predates the existence of the knights of columbus if anything that's why there are the knights of columbus because it's not lawful to be a freemason so we need to give catholic men another alternative right um and you know so there are two ways of thinking about this from a moral point of view one of them your question you know how would you reconcile this with um uh you know the church's opposition to this and their opposition to the church and the other one is just the law you know i mean he he tried to argue that basically that the catholic church is the body in this in this conflict that's at fault the poor little freemasons have done anything wrong and the big bad catholics are jealous of them which is just false which is just false um but apart from that issue just it's if you're catholic you're subject to the code of law the law says you can't be in part of this group right so it's a shutting it's an open and shut case yeah kim is that helpful for you yes thank you very much i appreciate it thank you you are most welcome it is called a communion with dr david andrews here on this monday afternoon on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn if you have a question for dr david or if you would like to explain to us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic or perhaps returning to the catholic faith of your youth who knows 833 288 ewtn is that number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here is a father rafael right now in houston listening on guadalupe radio hello father what's on your mind today well first of all i just want to congratulate you and i wish that i had studied under you as a younger priest i'm now 90 years old in a pre-62 years but i'm really impressed with the way that you listen and that you take the person and you honor it with such respect but you're very insightful and not wishy-washy now i sense the church is with so much polarization so much individual opinions how do we bring about unity without being wishy-washy or becoming extremists wonderful question what a wonderful question and father i've got to say you said you've been a priest for 60 something years and you're 92 years old i wish i had studied under you right i would love if you're ever in birmingham come look us up i'd love to spend an afternoon with you learning from all the wisdom you've gained from these 60 years of ministry so thank you so much for your vocation all that you've done for the church all these years and i can tell you ask with a great deal of love in your heart so i just feel like i really want to get to know you better so thank you so much for that um i i i you've you you you put your finger on the exact right point i believe uh which is not just how can i deal with big questions and and difficult questions but the ideological polarization within the church and within society i think that is that is the key question and my own view of the matter is that the reason that people in our culture today are so drawn to ideological positions is that they have lost touch with real community and with because they've lost touch with real community they don't have a sense of personal meaning the the question of their own moral vocation and their own moral development is disconnected from the larger meaning of their life and the meaning of their life in society and so they turn to ideology because it is a very cheap and easy way to give a kind of simulacrum a kind of you know fake version of of the sense of belonging and purpose because you invest yourself in this abstract program that's often represented as something political and then you can pat yourself on the back for believing the quote-unquote right things right without a lot of personal investment and you know in the in in the priesthood i mean i've talked to to priests and seminary formators you talk about the difficulty of you know young guys coming into the priesthood who they may have all the right ideas they may have all the right words but they don't have a life history of say life and family and of human involvement because we live in such a fractured and alienated world and in that position the easiest response is to say well i'm a good priest or a good deacon or a good husband or a good catholic or a good whatever because i've signed on the dotted line to support the right policy positions when really being a good person a good catholic a good husband a good priest a good father is can i be personally present to people in pain and can i empathize with them and bear their sufferings and sorrows and accompany them without without the ideological ideological divisions coming into play at all right i think that's the really key issue so one one way of doing this you talk about dealing with the big issues i think ideology itself is like one of the biggest issues that we have now someone a couple people who have made that central to their view of apostolate pope john paul ii and pope francis have both hammered on this issue over and over and over and over again pope john paul ii in his encyclical solicitudo ray socialis speaks specifically to the danger of ideological polarization and how the church's moral catechesis should not be interpreted in those terms not his left not his right not as centrist but is non-ideological pope francis as you know wrote an entire apostolic exhortation evangelion on the task of evangelism that i think is uh largely an attempt to deal with this issue how do we bring the kerygma the proclamation of christ's life death and resurrection uh a contemplative spirituality a life of prayer and service to bear on the work of apostolate and to get away from simply uh sort of maintaining the status quo of our organizations and ideologies and identities so that we can be motivated by the principal concern of he uses the word accompaniment all the time i think that's dead right on target right my test personal test is kind of a you know my own little litmus test and it may not stand up to the rigors of the canonization process but my own personal test for holiness is you know can this person that is talking to me um can they sit and listen and my test for myself is can i sit and listen to another person's stories and problems without bringing an agenda to impose upon them or the need for myself to be heard you know can i make their human flourishing their integral human development my number one objective and what do i need to do to bring that about if that's where my heart is if that's where that other person's heart is that maybe is the beginning of the life of holiness if i come with a predetermined solution hey i know what you need it's my political program or my liturgical program or my five-step program or my whatever and i'm gonna sell you on my program as so to solve your problems a that doesn't work because it builds resistance in the other person they tend to run away from you and b it means that what's really important to me is my program yeah and not their hurt and you remember remember the church has this principle in moral theology called gradualism and i love gradualism i understand gradualism to mean that if i can help a person move one step in the right direction then it's a step worth taking so you know you smoke 100 cigarettes a day can i get you down to 99 that's that's something to celebrate i don't have to go on the whole anti-tobacco campaign and you know make a big fuss you can do that with any vice you know i just threw that in for illustrative purposes um you know self-awareness is huge and the thing about the ideologue is he's he's blissfully opaque to himself right because hey he signs on the right program i belong to this political party or that political party or you know this liturgical community or that one so i know i'm already awakened you know i've i've got the stuff i'm woke i'm good i'm fantastic i'm whatever i get to sell this to somebody else can i help bring some degree of self-awareness you know and that probably is going to start with me being humble and not trying to force my agenda down people's throats yeah father great call please uh don't be a stranger call us back another time love to talk with you again it is called a communion here on ewtn radio tom price here reminding you to join us for the journey home that's tonight at 8 p.m eastern on ewtn radio and television our guest tonight jim wahlberg now you may be familiar with the wahlberg name uh the wahlberg's very popular in uh whether it's music or film or television there's there's even a chain of burger places called wahlburger which is fantastic you may not have heard about jim wahlberg when all that stardom was going on he was in prison but then there was a visit to jim in prison from mother teresa and he was an inmate there that helped start him on the path back to his catholic faith what an amazing story you can hear about it tonight jim wahlberg talking with marcus grodi at uh 8 p.m eastern right here on ewtn radio and television all right back to the phones right now here on call to communion with dr david anders madonna is listening in dallas on the ewtn app madonna what's on your mind today hi good afternoon so i'm asking for a friend who is in rcia so i'm catholic but i'm trying to help her understand she's a nurse practitioner and her husband is a er doctor so they have medical background and her question is why a good reason why the procreative and united purposes of sex can't be separated yes she said she seems like god created both of these to be good within the marriage but there are times when they're already separate so why does the church and she's also kind of asked a little bit about nfp ivf etc sure every predatory male every sexually predatory male on the planet uh who is interested in women wishes to be united with women every single one the question is not it can there be a unitive aspect to the sexual act of course there is every sexual act is unitive of course there is but in what are you united what precisely is it that's uniting you and the predatory a narcissistic man wishes for a woman to be united with him in the project of pleasuring himself that's what the union is about and unfortunately there are people who are willing to partner with a with a narcissist because they lack self-respect or they feel a great need to be loved and they don't feel like they deserve commitment or whatever it might be and so they cooperate in servicing someone else's ego so they're united they're just united to an evil purpose okay and the church says yes of course there's a unit of purpose in human sexuality it is to unite us in the sublime task of becoming a father and a mother so so you you misconstrue the nature of the union when you talk about separating it yes you can have union without perk without the ultimate end of procreation but what is it that is uniting you the church says you must be united in the task of becoming a father and a mother now you know nature plays a role in this and a nurse knows about you know human hormones and i don't know much of what i'm talking about here but my understanding is what is it uh oxytocin is that the one right it's like the love hormone you know you get intimate with somebody and your body is flooded with hormones that make you feel connected to that person why does nature do that why are we biologically adapted to feel loyalty and attraction and intimate intimacy with someone that we're physically intimate with well obviously it serves the end of the good of the children that are the result of the union that's that's that's what's suffering women have this massive flood of hormone when they actually give birth more than when they're sexually intimate like childbirth is an incredible hormonal moment in the life of a woman that bonds her to her child that's not accidental it's for a purpose so that she's better adapted to care for the child it's natural that a man would feel you know flooded with these unitive feelings these emotions towards a woman that he's intimate with but for what purpose to serve his ego no so that he'll stay with her why so he can protect and care for his wife and child so of course you can separate them but to what end the end of the unitive aspect of human sexuality is unite them together in the task of being parents yes indeed appreciate your call madonna thanks for listening to us today in dallas on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders moving on now to john in dodge city kansas listing on the great sacred heart radio hey john what's on your mind today hi um i have a question that i've been kicking around and i've been wanting to bring it up in our bible study and i think maybe i'd get laughed out of the room but jesus is god does jesus did jesus have a soul thank you so much for this question what a great question i love this question he absolutely had a human rational soul he absolutely did now you're not out in left field to ask the question because there were people in christian antiquity that raised exactly the question you did there was a fellow by the name of apolloniaris who said you know if you're god what do you need a human soul for yeah and it just seems redundant you know i don't it's like adding like one one like one meg of ram when you've got like a gigabyte already what do you need that for you know um and so a polynei said well maybe jesus didn't have a human soul and the church said polynei sorry you're wrong we're now going to call this the heresy of apollinarianism all right and the reason why is if you if christ didn't have a human soul then he wasn't human ah if he didn't have a human soul he wasn't a human sure sure and uh i believe it was gregory nazianzus a cabinetian father who who coined this little catchy phrase what is not assumed is not healed meaning the point of the incarnation is for christ to be the second adam the progenitor of a new race of regenerated men recreated in christ's likeness and image and if christ did not assume our nature then he didn't heal our nature and you know i don't really care that much if he heals my left toe i want him to heal my rational soul so christ had to have a rational soul to recapitulate the human rational soul he's fully human including possession of a human rational soul great question john thank you so much for it uh we're not certainly you know he was talking about his prayer group where they're going to laugh them out of the room we're not going to laugh them out of the room are we no i mean it's a great question i think as soon as when you're you first learn the doctrine of christ's two natures this has ought to be the first question you ask it's a very logical one because it does you do think well if if jesus has a rational human mind and he's the divine logos you know does he get like interference you know is there some kind of you know feedback mechanism going on here in the in the old in the all personal consciousness thing you know it's a rational question okay and so it's not silly to ask but the church did come down on this and said yes he does have a rational soul there you go john thanks so much for your call janet is in new york watching on ewtn television today janet what's on your mind today yes hello i heard the priests are allowed to get married now thank you i appreciate the question um never at any time in the history of the church from the dawn of the church until the end of time will a will an ordained priest ever be able to acquire a wife that has never happened to never will happen here is what does happen a married man can be ordained a priest but a priest can never require a wife so once you're ordained like that door is shut ordination shuts the door to marriage ever being validly conferred on you all right but you can get married first in some instances and then be ordained but if you're if your wife dies it's one and done no more no more marriages after that now in the latin church the latin catholic church mostly only celibate men ordained to the priesthood mostly only celibate men are ordained to the priesthood there are a few exceptions there are some married men who are ordained to the priesthood in the latin church in the eastern catholic churches there are more married men ordained to the priesthood than than than in the latin church it's more common in the east but in neither east nor west are priests allowed to subsequently get married once you're a priest then you don't you don't add marriage on top of that okay thanks for clearing that up janet thank you so much for your call call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio carolyn listening in detroit on siriusxm channel 130. hello carolyn what's on your mind today well um hi thank you for taking my call i'm listening to the bible with father smith in the year and a couple days ago we're reading st luke and at the beginning of luke luke talked about how he just wanted to get this so progressive how he did all his thorough research and everything and when it comes to the birth of jesus luke said and mary gave birth to her first son so as catholics we believe that's her only child and i know some other christian religions don't believe that but so and i know we don't have st luke here with us but speculation if i was saying look i would have said her only child or because in my mind that leaves some speculation that she had other sons or other children so i just would like your comment on that yeah no i really appreciate the question st luke absolutely had to say firstborn had to say this because firstborn is a legal category in hebrew law whether you have one son or ten the first one that comes out of the womb is the first born now if you never have any more the first one that comes out of the boom is still the firstborn okay okay and and firstborn possesses certain legal rights and imposes certain duties on the parents there are some there are some sacrificial and purificatory rights that are required by law for hebrew parents for jewish parents that had to be performed in the case of first-born sons and nobody else and so it's very important to indicate that jesus is the firstborn now he's the only born he's the only born but first-born son is a legal category and so it has to be indicated and that's where it is are we uh do appreciate that carolyn thank you so much for your call here's a tough one from ann dr anders my child was recently diagnosed with childhood cancer one person told me she was chosen by god to suffer this way but another person mentioned that this is part of god's permissive will that happens as a part of being in a fallen world god permits this kind of suffering to bring out a greater good so which of these views is the right or more appropriate view and can you elaborate and that's from ann and i'm so profoundly sorry i'm so profoundly sorry and if i may say so um i offered opinion uh it is so easy to present someone in suffering with a pious platitude and it is so rarely comforting yep and and i i i i don't ever want to approach somebody who's experiencing a tragedy and explain to them why it's really not a tragedy i don't think that's helpful yeah and this is a this is must be a devastating thing for you to be experiencing and i think the most appropriate response i can offer you is profound empathy prayer accompaniment and that's what i would like your friends to do for you as well now i can give you a kind of apologetics answer you know a logical answer and the logical answer is that god for reasons that escape us permits evil obviously he permits it doesn't will it he permits it and and that greater good can come out of it that's cold comfort in the face of someone who is actually suffering and you'll note when when job which is a poetical book that deals with what seems to be unjust suffering in the world is confronted by this question and he finally meets god god doesn't give him a philosophy answer he gives him himself yeah and uh you know the philosophy answers are good for the philosophy class they're good for the philosophy class um they're not always good coming from well-wishers you know when you're hurting out in the real world and and so you know christ suffered with us and i think that that that empathy and accompaniment is a is a much more appropriate pastoral response to the question of suffering right so i'm so sorry and you and your family are in our poor prayers thank you so much for your email dr david andrews a fast moving hour thank you so much thanks tom don't forget our program is heard monday through friday live here on ewtn 2 p.m eastern with an encore at 11 pm eastern on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders see you tomorrow right here on call to communion god bless [Music] i am a very happy grateful revert to the face about 12 years ago i was surfing the channel

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 15 2021