Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - November 16 , 2021

becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation to confess my 1-833-288-3986 to a priest what's stopping you this is 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 radio this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters yes indeed a catholic radio network with a program for non-catholics well why not we know that a lot of non-catholics listen to ewtn watch ewtn television perhaps seeking some answers about the catholic faith what the catholic page actually teaches rather than what you know perhaps a friend or a family member told you that the catholic church teaches we can get the things straight in your mind here we go with our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight nine if you're listening to us via youtube or facebook live you can uh text uh you can uh put in a question that way as well and our social media manager jeff burson will get that to us right here in the studio you can also shoot us an email if you prefer that ctc at ewtn.com is our email address ctc at ewtn.com all right along with jeff burson handling social media charles berry is our producer matt gabinski our phone screener i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today i'm great how are you sir oh i'm doing decent thank you how about a weekly lunch update today was broccoli cauliflower tomatoes tempeh and brown rice with uh half an indian grocery store worth of spices you know i would make a pretty poor vegan but that sounds pretty good it was pretty good it really does here's an interesting text that we received from scott in westphalia michigan scott says why is the perpetual virginity of mary so important it would seem a disordered marriage to joseph yeah thanks i appreciate the question well first of all i'm not so sure that it would seem disordered to joseph seeing as joseph signed up for it that's true right and and we don't really know how old joseph was when he married the blessed virgin but there is at least one tradition in the church suggesting that he was really really old much older than the blessed virgin mary and that it was really uh you know a kind of pastoral solicitude care for her and for the holy child that motivated him to take on this obligation of being the custodian of the holy family and in which case you know far from being inappropriate it seems an entirely appropriate kind of kind of orientation to have on his part and again some traditions of antiquity suggest that joseph may have had children from a previous marriage and his wife had died he was a widower and we don't know that but that's there's at least a tradition in the church holding that okay and so he would have had the you know that kind of experience of human life um but now in his old age he you know there's a need uh to uh to care for this holy virgin and her child and so he takes that on okay that's quite admirable okay in terms of why is the doctrine of perpetual virginity so important um it's because for a number of reasons one of them is that mary exemplifies for us the life of perfect consecration to god uh for which consecrated virginity is objectively the most perfect state it's not subjectively the perfect state for every individual but it is uh objectively a great gift to the church st paul talks about it jesus of course exemplified it and if you've been blessed to have no holy catholic religious in your own life you have some idea about how uh the light that life of total consecration poverty chastity and obedience is of profound service to the entire universal church i mean i can't even i i marvel in gratitude every single day for the gift of catholic religious in my life and i mean none more prominent around here than mother angelica oh yeah i think about what the gift of her life meant to the church that she was able to consecrate herself in this way and her sisters and you know the community of friars at ewtn and others around the world that have meant so much to us uh well mary exemplifies that vocation imminently that life of perfect consecrated virginity um but she's also a mom yep and so she exemplifies that life perfectly and so she's a model of christian holiness for at whatever state of life that you're in and keep in mind also uh that mary is the mother of god there's a mother of god and uh in giving birth to the god man she is also the mother of all those who believe in christ because when we reborn in him and so it's fitting that that her own maternity have about it something supernatural to symbolize to call to mind that our rebirth in christ does not happen in the natural way not by entering again into your mother's womb for the second time as nicodemus articulates with jesus brother being born again of water in the spirit and so her whole person her whole vocation her whole way of life her whole consecration is this powerful exemplification of all these elements of the spiritual life so she's a symbol for us an icon for us of the fulfillment of christian life now could god have saved us in another way sure he could have sure he could have you know like i'm not much for decor but if you walk in my office at work i've got some pictures hanging on the wall you know to kind of lend some color in it could i go to work without all that hanging on the wall of course i could but it's much nicer to have it there and the lord adorns you know the universe of the church with these illuminating saints and you know in the beaming fluorescent light at the top of the whole thing is the blessed virgin mary yep absolutely appreciate that and uh thank you so much to scott for your question and right now uh mark is listening to us on youtube and this actually dovetails off of the previous question here about joseph mark says if joseph were really old as you have said it's a possibility how would he make it physically with mary to egypt yeah good question good question i've known some pretty vigorous old guys in my life you know when i was a kid i was a big fan of karate took a lot of martial arts there was a guy in the dojo we called grandpa i think he took up karate when he was about 80. wow he earned the black belt wow he was something else grandpa that's uh pretty neat i was just thinking about my own wife adrienne's dad who i believe at the age of 87 or something like that went to australia by himself from birmingham and uh flew unassisted and uh spent about a month there there you go in australia it's pretty cool so there you go and uh scott mark thank you so much for your question we're going to open up the phone lines right now if you have a question for dr david anders here is the phone number 833 288 ewtn that's eight 833-288-3986 if you're listening uh in australia or any other country uh outside of north america for that matter please dial the us country code and then 205 271 2985 we'll put your call to the head of the line again the main number for those of you listening here in north america 833 288 ewtn call to communion with dr david anders on ewtn [Music] this is tracy sable host of ewtn news nightly inviting you to join us for a very special ewtn thanksgiving call the ewtn listener comment line at 205-795-5707 and tell us your memories traditions and what you're grateful for then listen thanksgiving weekend as we share your messages with a global audience from our ewtn family to yours god bless living the beatitudes with father bjorn blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied i can't get no satisfaction is a popular song but it could be a summary of our life on earth in the book of genesis we hear that we're made in the image and likeness of god that means that we can know the truth and we can choose to do good to others we can love it comes to fulfillment in the sermon on the mount where we hear these beatitudes it's the standard of the christian life jesus tells us that if we hear what he says and do what he tells us to do we'll be like wise people who build our house on solid rock but we make progress towards happiness and blessedness by our actions and it starts with our interior disposition what we want to choose do you and i hunger and thirst for those things that will lead us to happiness and to god blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied for more about the beatitudes visit ewtnrc.com [Music] it's called a communion with dr david anders on this tuesday afternoon here on ewtn radio our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six you know what you can uh you can stay informed and uh really learn everything out there learn a join a deeper conversation about the most consequential issues facing catholics today on ewtn news in depth with monsae alvarado right now you can get ewtn news in depth delivered to your inbox with details on each week's show and it's a great show i can tell you that go to ewtn.com in depth and sign up today again that's ewtn.com in depth and sign up today we'll send you those uh weekly emails and uh you'll you'll get caught up to date it's a wonderful show you won't want to miss that if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with paula in new albany ohio listening on the great saint gabriel radio hello paula what's on your mind today hi there thank you for taking my call um i had a question i've always thought about this and um the conversation just a few minutes ago sort of prompted me to ask this question again we hear in scripture that um the angel warns joseph to take mary to egypt with the infant jesus because herod is looking for him and you know wants to kill him but then we also hear in scripture that mary has to go to um the temple for her purification and i'm wondering how do we reconcile those two different accounts of what happened when they leave bethlehem yeah thanks well i don't know that we have the full chronology laid out for us in other words i know that we should understand these things as happening immediately uh we don't really know where they fall you know in the timeline so you know if the gospel is obviously uh you know kind of telescoping a lot of stuff you know down into a very short narrative but not giving us a blow-by-blow description of how they fall out okay hey paula thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 280 call to communion here on ewtn with dr david anders here's a very sweet email from jennifer who says dr anders i am thinking of becoming a catholic however my current church which is not catholic has been extremely kind to me i'm fond of several members of the congregation as well do you have any suggestions on how to say goodbye to these people thanks so much love your show jennifer well yeah that's a tough one and i appreciate the question a lot so there's no disguising the fact no getting around the fact this is going to be painful separation and it i mean it just is you know from your side you don't have to stop loving these folks and and be in in relationship with them yeah but i think you ought to be emotionally ready for the possibility that they may not reciprocate that sentiment and a lot of people who pull out of a church you know and go to a similar church down the street have an easier time maintaining those relationships then uh you know if they're kind of anti-catholic in their sentiment you say well i'm leaving to become catholic you might get a cold shoulder and a lot of people have been shunned by their protestant communities when they become catholics so i don't know what kind of church you're in but i think that's something you have to be kind of emotionally ready for and you know from your point of view from the catholic point of view you don't repudiate any good thing and you've had a lot of good in your life and in these relationships you're not you're not rejecting any of those good things you're you're hoping to go from good to better and and i think that you should also be ready for a period of adjustment and probably some discomfort because you may not immediately find the same kind of emotional support that you have now it might take you a while to build that community in your in your catholic life and you might have a you know some period of buyer's regret that a lot of people do you know they this is the the way the communities are structured are so different the way people worship is so different that there's an adjustment period there and kind of getting used to your new catholic life and and that can be difficult so i do want to prepare you for that but again i would encourage you to be affirming to those people be willing to continue in a relationship with them to love them to affirm them and and you know share good things in common with them but also be prepared for you know for some painful separation when it comes to actually explaining yourself i think the easiest thing honestly i take a page out of martin luther's playbook believe it or not when he when he was challenged to the diet of worms about his deduction his response was my conscience is held captive to the word of god and to disobey consciences neither right nor safe that's a very catholic principle and so i mean at the end of the day you become catholic because your conscience persuades you that this is what you're supposed to do and to disobey consciences neither right nor safe doesn't mean i'm repudiating you i'm just trying to follow christ more deeply sure jennifer thanks so much for your very kind email we do appreciate that it's called a communion on this tuesday afternoon with dr david anders our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 390 here is matthew in sebastian florida listening on the great divine mercy radio hello matthew what's on your mind today sir hi thank you for taking my question i really appreciate everything you all do for the catholic faith um so my question is my grandmother just passed and my cousins were asking if they can you know take samples of the ashes and put them in the necklace and all that and i know i know the answer is no but then again if they brought up the question of well we do this with the saints i know like i personally can't but the church does it with the pain why is that yeah thanks so uh cremation historically has emerged in cultures that have a very different view of the body and its relationship to eternity than do catholics and you know typically say for example in in hinduism the idea is that the body is just temporary vehicle you know that and and you're you know you've got a soul that passes from body to body and you might be an earthworm one day and on aardvark the next day and then eventually you make it up to human but you're just passing through and and the body is just you know you're dropping from one train car to another one subway station to another and it's not really important to your ultimate or eternal identity um which is conceived in completely different terms and so the cremation of the body say dump it in the ganges river or something it sort of signals that that we're not overly concerned with this particular vehicle you know he wasn't a hindu but the philosopher platinus roman philosopher platinus i used to tell people not to wish him happy birthday because he's like why do i want to celebrate you know such a such an inauspicious day as the day i took on flesh you know that that idea you know i can't wait to get out of here i want to go back to the eternal and the immaterial that's where i'm headed so just you know don't worry about my body in the catholic attitude towards the body he's always been very different from that namely that the body becomes a member of christ and participates in the redemption that we have in him and ultimately will enjoy the resurrection from the dead the resurrection of the body and so the uh the the the veneration of the bodies of the saints is precisely a way of reverencing them and and acknowledging their connection to christ and that they participate in the redemption in this way so uh the the logic of the thing is very very different um and so that's why it used to be the church would forbid cremation of any kind as burial ritual now it's permitted but they want to make sure that the faithful don't fall into the trap of thinking of because the form of burial has changed that they not fall into the trap of thinking of it in a superstitious way and so the uh actually the code can a loss it permits cremation but it excludes that possibility if it's for superstitious purposes and so that's the distinction now you know what would you do in the case of say a martyr who was burned to death could you collect the ashes from the sign of a martyrdom to venerate them i think that's a little bit different but such a thing of course would be conducted under the guidance of the church you know the church would direct how that happened and in most cases we're not collecting the relics of you know every everybody that dies but only those that are that are acknowledged by the church as saints so you know if you if somebody dies and they're buried and then a cause for their canonization is opened might take a few decades it might take a century or two and eventually that person is canonized well in that process they're going to actually take the body out of the ground and then they're going to look at the question of the relics at that point but again the logic of the thing is totally different is that helpful for you matthew yes thank you so much you are most welcome thanks for your call it's called a communion with dr david andrews on this tuesday afternoon here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 let's go to chad now in three rivers michigan listing on holy family radio hello chad what's on your mind today hello i've got a quick question about the gospel reading this past sunday okay when jesus referred to uh heaven uh coming to an end what was he talking about or can you explain that to me yeah sure so matthew 24 verse 35 christ says heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away so he's talking about the he's talking about you know the the astronomical heaven he's talking about uh you know where the clouds are the atmospheric heaven if you will okay he's not talking about our eternal life with god and so um it when jesus begins his public ministry his message is the kingdom of heaven is at hand and he doesn't mean that like you know the cloud city from flash gordon is going to lower down to earth and you know bird men with giant wings are going to come out and conquer no this is a this is a figure of speech to refer to god's rule god's reign in the hearts of his people and because of the jewish habit of not naming god specifically not using the name of god they would use different metaphors to describe god's reign in god's glory and so kingdom of heaven or kingdom of god can convey that idea but yeah here when he talks about the heavens passing away he's not talking about eternity passing away he's talking about the the atmospheric heaven passing away the created order passing away got it appreciate your call chad here is larry now in canton michigan listening on ave maria radio larry what's on your mind today right now i have a question uh that i can't have not been able to answer to my non-catholic friends in the case of abortion whether the couple is single or married there seems not to be any counseling for men when abortion has happened or is being considered how many married families has this affected greatly and is there anything any type of counseling that i'm not aware of or that the public has not been made aware of as far as the help for men yeah thanks i appreciate the question so clearly you're right the vast majority of pro-life organizations that are engaged in in social outreach to to people is oriented towards mothers and their children um the institutions that i'm familiar with some of the crisis pregnancy centers they would love to have outreach to men and they do when the men make themselves available um very often the men don't make themselves available right that's true that's true here in birmingham we do have a man who handles um you know questions from men or or you know providing that outreach but a lot of crisis pregnancy centers they just don't have those guys sure but but but that there are i mean they do exist yeah uh you know i think that uh culturally i mean it seems to me fairly evident that most people that are directly and immediately involved in the question of abortion are going to be the women and that's kind of the front lines but you have identified a pastoral need and and so that might be something to maybe the lord's put a fire in your heart and you're going to start something in your diocese could be could be yeah because in in many cases uh i know from my own work in this is is that many many times the men are just not in the picture they're not in the picture they're just not there they've either checked out or they've said you handle it however you want and i may or may not support your decision that's right yeah so it's sad uh larry do give that some thought and perhaps some prayer as well thank you so much for your call here's a text that we received from john who says dr anders on a show last week i heard you flatly state that quote the bible is not an effective rule of faith how could you possibly believe such a thing very easily first of all it's what the church teaches it's very easily that i could believe this so um origen of alexandria who was probably the greatest theologian of the third century most influential uh theological voice before the council of nicaea in his book on first principles sort of lists his understanding of the church's dogmatic teaching at that time and what you had to sign on to to become a member of the catholic church and it's very interesting one of the articles that he notes specifically in the introduction to that work as a dogmatic principle as christians catholics are required to believe that the scriptures are not to be led simply in their literal sense but according to the spiritual meaning of the text which is something that is uh really only fully accessible to those who have been initiated into the life of the catholic church and have the mind of christ saint paul says the exact same thing in first corinthians he talks about those who read the old testament scriptures merely according to the letter and he says the letter brings death and it it he meant that quite literally because you see paul used to read the bible that way when he was a pharisee he read the bible in a straightforward literalistic almost fundamentalist way and of course there's you know laws on the books in deuteronomy about cutting off people who who don't follow the purification rights and so forth and so paul took that to mean he had to go out and murder christians which he did avidly he killed him killed him killed him dead stoned him to death thought he was doing the right thing thought he was doing the lord's work then he met christ and he radically reconfigured the way he was reading the bible radically reconfigured it and he actually said that you can't understand the bible correctly until you have the mind of christ until you read it within within the heart and mind of the church and jesus does the same thing jesus is not a fundamentalist with respect to the old testament all right but he makes himself the norm for understanding applying interpreting and seeing the culmination of all things in him and then he gives that perspective to his apostles by way of oral tradition it's very possible that john misunderstood what you were saying when you were you know possibly talking about how the bible was not the soul rule of faith that could be yeah the bible is not the sufficient highest ultimate authority to determine matters of faith and practice it is an authority in catholic life yeah but it's an authority as it's understood with within the mind of the church through the traditions that are handed to us by jesus outside of that context uh you know the bible can be read any any old way and you look at the history of biblical interpretation over 2000 years and you see all kinds of sects and groups and organizations that appeal to scripture for all kinds of craziness yeah for all sorts of things in radically diversion positions so if you want to have the sort of normative understanding of scripture in the life of a christian has to happen within the context of the faith given to us by christ handed down in the catholic church outside of that you know it's sort of user beware yeah you know read it at your own risk sort of thing and people do weird things with it when they when they're not guided by the mind of the church no doubt about that appreciate uh that and john thank you so much for your text in a moment we're gonna get to teresa in oil city pennsylvania we'll also hear from christine listening to us on youtube today hey there's a phone line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 [Music] smart speakers help with a lot these days did you know you can use your smart speaker to hear the top stories of the day from a catholic perspective if you have an alexa just say alexa open catholic news welcome back to the latest news from catholic news agency for more information on how to get the latest catholic news on your smart speaker or wherever you get your podcasts go to smart catholicnewsagency.com this is tom price if you missed part of today's show catch the encore tonight at 11 pm eastern check out the podcast anytime at ewtnradio.com and click podcasts [Music] have you ever heard someone say i don't like the idea of dogma i don't like how the church claims to have authority and yet why does anyone believe anything unless they trust some authority gk chesterton says the modern world will accept no dogmas upon any authority but it will accept any dogmas on no authority say that a thing is so according to the pope or the bible and it'll be dismissed as a superstition without examination but preface your remark merely with they say or try and fail to remember the name of some professor mentioned in some newspaper and the keen rationalism of the modern mind will accept every word you say spend more time with the apostle of common sense visit chesterton.org for more information and go to ewtnrc.com to discover more books and programs written and inspired by gk chesterton we're streaming all your favorite ewtn radio programs 24 7 on the ewtn mobile app download the ewtn app at ewtnapps.com today [Music] hey what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders a couple wide open phone lines right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 here is teresa now in oil city pennsylvania listing on her alexa device hey there teresa what's on your mind today um hi hi guys thank you for taking my call um i was listening to ewtn one day when i was one time when i was driving and they had mentioned about having masses for the unborn because of um from abortion and then i started thinking about i had several miscarriages in my first trimester so obviously there was you know nothing there to baptize so i mean different priests would tell me over the years well they went straight to heaven or you know your deposit in heaven but now i'm wondering if we're having masses for children who die because of abortion should i have had masses said for my unborn children yeah thank you i appreciate the question and i'm so sorry for your loss i really am heart goes out to you so you know classically traditionally there's not a there's not a real tradition of doing this in the church and i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that for many many centuries people didn't have a good understanding of embryology and so there wasn't necessarily an identification that every miscarriage equated to the loss of a child in quite the same way that we understand now i think with a heightened sensitivity to the embryology many people like yourself are moved uh you know for concern uh for the soul of the miscarried child and and and so this would be a not inappropriate thing to do but there's no canonical requirement to do it you know i wouldn't feel guilty about not doing it but if your heart moves you it would be a beautiful thing to do and you certainly be welcome to now in terms of trying to make sense of the what are the ramifications of that you know in terms of this person's eternity well the vast majority of theologians today including the popes are of the view that that god makes grace available to these souls in a way known only to himself and obviously they certainly don't have any actual sin and so it is very reasonable to hope in their salvation very reasonable and so you might say well you know then is the mass really necessary i mean i'm not really having a mass said for the repose of a soul in heaven and that's true um there is a tradition in the church of having commemorative masses said on behalf of saints you know because the mass is also a thanksgiving and so it's not necessary to believe that a particular soul is in purgatory in order to have a mass said on their behalf you can also you can also have a mass set in a sort of commemorative way as an act of thanksgiving and it's never too late right yeah and no mass is ever wasted that's right you know so i my counsel to you would be i think very reasonable to hope in their salvation certainly wouldn't fear for them in the slightest bit at all and if you want to have a mass said you know you're perfectly free to and that'd be a very kind thing to do but you're under no obligation god bless you teresa thank you so much for your call today here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 you might also tell us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic if you're a non-catholic listener to our program today maybe there's something some sort of an obstacle or stumbling block keeping you from becoming a catholic do give us a call at 833 288 ewtn here's a text from raymond dr anders i joined the church four years ago after being raised protestant this year my mother has decided to join rcia and she asked me if i would be her sponsor so my question is can a parent have one of their children be their sponsor i don't know tom do you know the answer i don't i don't know the answer to that question i know that when i entered the church and as i was going through rcia i thought well you know my wife is one of the holiest people i've ever met and she said no it should not be a spouse it should not be a it should be somebody else and so we lined somebody else up and that was fine uh but as far as you know a parent and a child very interesting question yeah i mean you go with your pastor on this one yep good idea raymond thanks so much for your text here's a question now from christine watching us on youtube this afternoon christine says if a non-catholic asks why would they need the sacraments what would dr anders say if a non-cl catholic asks a catholic what use do i have for sacraments why would i need them okay yeah thanks i appreciate the question so the sacraments accomplished several things in our life that you're not going to get with a sacrament at root the sacrament is an offer of grace now you can have grace without a sacrament and every old testament saint had grace without a sacrament to be sure but the sacrament offers grace attached if you will to a tangible sign instituted by christ and so in the presence of the tangible sign the the sensible sign you've got a point of reference where you know grace is is definitively on offer here now that's not the case if you don't have the sacrament you know i mean to know in a sort of generalized way that the lord desires to bring grace into my soul that's great that's fantastic but but then to have him offer it to me in a concrete particular location in a concrete particular right gives me a point of contact where i can have certainty about it and so there is a tremendous psychological advantage you know at operating at the level of my intellect imagination and will that engages the whole person in the act of faith in a way that's transformative uh you know in the modern west we're very accustomed to thinking in an analytical and rational way propositionally about truth we've lost touch a bit with the idea of an embodied participation in truth uh but that's one of the primary ways that humans know things i mean think about the difference between propositionally knowing about you know baseball statistics and knowing in a participatory way what it's like to be shortstop you know i mean you might be able to represent that knowledge as a proposition but there's an embodied enacted kind of knowledge kind of awareness that can't be reduced to a proposition and sacraments are embodied enacted statements of faith that bring the person and the community together to engage the truths of the faith in a mode that's not available in any other way now also mention the element of the community the sacraments are the point of reference that bring the community together so they affirm the corporate identity of the church and underscore the fact that the faith is not my private possession but it belongs to the church it's the faith of the church and the sacraments are ultimately connected intrinsically to the act of faith saint thomas calls them sacramento fidei the sacraments of faith because they express and enact the faith which we profess now take take one specific example sacrament of reconciliation because i think it's easiest to see here let's say i go to the lord and i say god please forgive me for my sons all right i hope he does hope he does all right wouldn't it be nice if he could whisper in my ear it's all taken care of i did you're forgiven audibly and i heard it how encouraging that would be that's exactly what it is for us i get to say i'm sorry and then someone authorized to speak on god's behalf says i absolve you that's very very different from just speaking into the air you know and hoping for forgiveness no i've got it validated someone who has the authority from god to say this says in his name you are forgiven and the deed is done it's a very different position pretty awesome there thank you so much for listening to us today on youtube christine good to hear from you on this tuesday afternoon call to communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn radio our phone number 833 288 ewtn if you call right now we can probably get you on today's show 833-288-3986 here is chip now in savannah listening on the ewtn app hey chip what's on your mind today hey there hi uh nice to talk to you both i've called once before but my question is uh concerning the difference between expiation and propitiation i think in today's antiphon um the expiation word was there in the catholic thing and i did some reading even with jimmy akin's site on something and i was raised catholic went 40 years in the protestant world and have heard your description of the difference um and i'm still trying to uneducate re-educate my mind in terms of the difference between a penal substitution which seems to be more the propheciation and this kind of just you know you've used the analogy of marriage and bringing flowers when you're messed up so officiation versus expiation okay a semantic uh difference in view and we have a theological question so when it when it comes to the question of the atonement uh uh which is there's a difference in the catholic understanding of atonement regardless of how you translate or understand these terms the catholic understanding of the atonement is multifaceted that by the death of christ we're reconciled to god how exactly are we reconciled to god well one way is that jesus offers his life as a sacrifice and some translations will render in romans chapter 3 for example as a propitiatory sacrifice or as a propitiation for our sins and the idea is drawn from uh the hebrew sacrificial rite when a person would uh bring an animal or or a vegetable or a fruit or something of value and give it in token of reparation right for for whatever purpose they were bringing whether it was to atone for sin or whether it was to give thanks or as a memorial or whatnot and uh when you look at those old testament sacrifices there is no hint no hint whatsoever at all that the point of the offering is to cause an animal to suffer that is not in view it's not in view at all god who is the recipient of the sacrifice is not pleased by watching an animal bleed he's not pleased by watching an animal suffer the idea was not to punish an animal for a human sin and thereby turn away god's wrath that's not the idea at all rather the idea is that the worshiper is giving up something of value and so god is propitiated not by you know the torturous death of an animal but by the by the but the the donation of the giver so king david says this in second samuel 24 when he says i refuse to offer the lord a sacrifice that costs me nothing right and so that's the model one model for understanding the death of christ that jesus comes and gives his own life uh offering himself offering something of ultimate value and that's intrinsically meritorious he dies the death of martyrdom we we all recognize you know martyr's death is a valuable thing this person's paid the ultimate price and we we venerate them we honor them we put up statues to them we give them you know dates in the calendar and make holidays to them even in civil society that's the idea of the death of christ as a sacrifice now the uh the other way that the death of christ reconciles us to god and this is a bit more mysterious is that jesus himself recapitulates human life see adam he tried and he kind of made a mess of things jesus comes by and lives the perfect human life he recapitulates the human experience and all of its details and he does so victoriously in the resurrection from the dead of course his witness to that victory then he offers to make us participants in his victory and so in john chapter 3 when he speaks about a man has to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven we die with christ in baptism and raised again with him to new life and we become participants in christ's victorious life the power of his life death and resurrection is made made real in us we recapitulate it in us so that our lives are changed and we ourselves become holy people and transformed into his image and likeness transformed in acts of faith hope and charity by our connection to christ through the sacraments and so there's the two ways in which that happens now language of expiation and propitiation is to describe it used to describe all of that machinery if you will and uh and it is a little bit tricky because we're talking about the translation of greek and hebrew words and so those english terms propitiation and expiation can have a meaning specifically in the english language that may only be you know loosely connected to the to the hebrew and and greek antecedents right yeah and in in those cases the words are drawn from sacrificial rites whether hellenistic culture or from a hebrew sacrificial ritual that have been transcended in the christian tradition and so while hebrew sacrifice is an analogy for the death of christ it's not a it's not a perfect uh statement of what happens in jesus's death because there are aspects of the old testament sacrificial ritual that no longer pertain in particular in old testament law there wasn't much distinction drawn particularly in deuteronomy between ritual impurity and moral fault either all kinds of offenses that you could that would render you unclean for which sacrifice was appointed and one of the purposes of blood sacrifice was that the use of blood was understood to be purifying not in a moral sense but in a purely ritual sense and the best analogy i have for this is in is in childhood culture in 20th century america when all the little girls gang up in the playground and decide that that little boy has got cooties you know and uh he's ritually impure in some way no moral fault to the guy he's got the cooties and uh you know but i don't know if he you know does a dance three times around the baseball field that he's ritually purified and allowed to come play yeah it's literally that kind of idea you're ritually impure because you've touched something that's really truly impure and you the the rules for quote-unquote purifying yourself are sacrifice and anointing with blood in this kind of business obviously that doesn't apply in the case of jesus right and um because christ repudiates that whole way of thinking about relationship to god it's not uh it's not cleaning the outside of the dish it's cleaning the inside of the dish that renders one pure or impure and it's evil thoughts adultery and fornication murder hatred and the you know factions and the like that render a man unclean not what goes into his mouth what comes out of his heart and so you know there's a new testament transcends the old testament idea of sacrifice which largely largely stopped at the level of the ritual we begin to see this transition in the prophets isaiah the prophet in particular god says i hate your sacrifices and offerings i hate them can't stand them what i want is kindness to the poor what i want is purity of heart then you can offer me sacrifices and i'll accept them but you can't do the one without the other sure makes a lot of sense chip thanks so much for your question appreciate hearing from you on call to communion with dr david andrews hey be sure to join us tonight for mother angelica live classics at 8 pm eastern tonight mother explains how god loves each person as if no one else existed and that's what we need to understand in order to trust in god's great mercy another wonderful program from the library here mother angelica live classics tonight 8 p.m eastern on ewtn radio and television to check it out randy's listening to us in the philippines this afternoon hey randy randy says how is justice and solidarity among nations brought about yeah that's a really good question uh if you can figure that one out we'll make you un secretary general real quick right so you know justice means rendering to another person what is their due or rendering to another people what is their due and solidarity means that we consider others needs together with our own and we feel a great kinship with uh with other people and consider them you know as we consider our own good um you know how you to bring that about among nations has really been the work of human civilization from the get-go the traditional way of doing that was to conquer everybody and impose your law on them right and that was what the romans considered to be a just society when everybody was subjected to the roman emperor and roman law man that was just jesus does not operate that way jesus does not operate that way and in fact it's conspicuous that the new testament does not see the imposition of a juridical code upon national you know sovereign governments or upon world society as the way to bring peace and justice law civil law may be a part of that but rather christ's method was to call a small number of disciples and equip them to spread the gospel throughout the world and be salt and light and he uses the metaphor of a mustard seed a tiny little seed that grows into a great tree and bears fruit and birds of the air come and nest in its branches and so the church has had that kind of leavening effect on culture down through the centuries and i think it's fair to say that the whole idea of international law and the idea that there could be justice between peoples is not an idea that would have occurred right at many points in human history but is now available to us really because of the christian teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the recognition of the dignity of the other people that are unlike us and they don't have to be made like us for us to have solidarity and friendship with them but i think the natural inclination of the human person is to prefer what's familiar and local and parochial um you know to the other into the different and it takes a tremendous effort of of will and of culture and of mind and formation to get over those those uh those habits um and we all have a kind of my side bias a heuristic bias you know that tends to see our point of view is the right one and looking at deviations from that as aberrant and it takes a real real effort of will in mind and a conversion of heart to change that the church's role in all of this is to be salt and light to be that mustard seed to be that leavening influence throughout culture and so we can now have a conversation about things like human rights and natural law and and uh peace among nations precisely because the world has a slightly more christian consciousness than it once did right in that respect only i mean in some respects we're worse off right but in so far as the idea of human rights is it has a lot more traction in currency today than it would have you know say a thousand years ago you bet appreciate that randy thank you so much for checking in from the philippines this afternoon daniel's watching us on facebook as well daniel says what does the catholic faith and the bible say about repentance and going to confession also what is a mortal sin yeah thanks appreciate the question so jesus began his public ministry by calling on people to repent in view of the coming kingdom of god in view that you know god was going to bring his reign among peoples and establish justice in the nations and transform hearts and lives and if you wanted to be a participant in that program you had to repent and turn away from sin and jesus spent a lot of his ministry articulating what that would look like uh the life turned away from sin towards righteousness as one that's meek and humble and and poor in spirit and and pure in heart and a peacemaker uh hungering and thirsting for righteousness willing to suffer for righteousness sake these dispositions that we see in the beatitudes are a big part of it you know less concern over ritual purity and impurity and tribal identifiers and tribal markers and ideological possession and more concern for the dignity of the other person and accompaniment uh compassion towards the poor um and the those that would seemingly be outcasts these are the kinds of things that characterize the life of holiness versus the life of not holiness yeah and uh and so a kind of a seminal example of repentance in the gospels it was the character of zacchaeus who was a tax collector and he was a very exploitive person who took advantage of his position to uh you know to fleece the poor and he became very rich and when he encountered the person of christ in his teaching zacchaeus uh changed his way of life stopped his changed his profession and gave back to the poor what he'd stolen and christ points to that as exemplary this is this is the way repentance is done so change of life change of orientation so that you now care for the dignity of the other person instead of just trying to feather your own nest all the time yeah the role of confession in all of this is that within the church within those that heed christ's call to conversion and discipleship jesus expects that they will stumble that it's not a clean shot all the way from here to you know the next life and we're gonna stumble in many ways and so he appointed the sacrament of reconciliation to give us hope and certainty and grace to get back on the path when we fall off of it and he says in john chapter 20 when he gave the apostles the power to forgive sins he says receive the holy spirit whoever sends you forgive are forgiven whoever sins you retain or retain and the church exercises that that gift today in a private way used to do it in a public way now for the sake of kind of you know personal dignity and so forth we do it in a private way and it consists in making an honest self-assessment an honest examination of fault a confession of all known mortal sins and then if you're sorry the priest absolves you in the name of the father son and holy spirit now you ask what immortal sin is mortal sin is one of those things that's a kind of that departs radically from the dignity of god or people and um and you know it's impossible to delineate a a comprehensive list of all mortal sins uh you know for example i can't you can't say something categorically like well theft is a mortal sin because not all thefts are created equal you know and and you know stealing a piece of gum from your grandmother's desk drawer is very very different from you know knocking over first national bank they're just qualitatively different yeah and you know one almost falls into the thoughtless category and one is an egregious uh determine determination to egregiously ignore and to violate somebody else's dignity and property and and so st paul gives some examples uh these aren't to be thought of as comprehensive vice lists he says you know people who are given to fornication and adultery and hatred infections and disobedience to parents and carousing and the like he says people who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of god but that's certainly not a comprehensive list and uh and uh but you know if in doubt confess it oh yeah and there's uh there's no feeling like uh the feeling walking out of the confessional am i right um i think that's true but it's valuable even if you feel nothing good point it's not about the feeling it's about it's about the the determination the act of will the firm purpose of amendment to change my life that's what it needs to be yep all right we appreciate that thank you so much for your question and uh wow another fast-moving program we tackled emails we tackled youtube questions from around the world literally and a whole lot of phone calls so dr david andrews thank you sir thank you tom don't forget we do this program here on ewtn radio monday through friday at 2 p.m eastern with an encore at 11 pm eastern now if you uh if you miss the live show if you missed the encore well don't fret or as the pope said be not afraid because you can always check out the podcast any time of the day or night by going to ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team here i'm tom price along with dr david anders looking forward to our next show see you tomorrow right here on ewtn's call to communion god bless [Music] hi friends janet williams here join me every wednesday on

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 16 2021