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

what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation the 1-833-288-3986 global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion the wednesday edition of our program here on ewtn the global catholic radio network yes this is a global catholic radio network um the only one i know of and you know what this is a program within that global catholic network for non-catholics if that's you if you've stepped away from the faith for whatever reason maybe you've never been a catholic but you've got questions about the catholic faith we can answer those questions for you or certainly take a good crack at it we can also would love to talk with you about what is stopping you from becoming that catholic here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening outside of north america we have a phone number just for you and that is uh let's say 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and we do we do look at those texts when they come in so try to get to as many as we can on the program now if you want to send us an email you can do that 24 7 ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry our producer and matt kabinsky our phone screener waiting to hear from you and so is jeff berson on social media in fact if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now so you can look at david you can ask your question put that question of yours in the comments box and jeff will send that to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you sir oh i'm doing fine thank you glad to hear that we're going to lead off with a question this is actually asking for a little clarification this is a uh an email that came in just after the show went off the air yesterday and this is from plr who says love your show i only heard part of your answer on today's show which would have been the yesterday show the tuesday show but on that show you said it's difficult for a bishop to correct or admonish a politician because of how it could be perceived well i might have missed something important but i think jesus never held back on telling the truth and admonishing anybody shouldn't bishops hold the truth as the only standard correcting any person politician or not no matter the consequences thanks pillar thanks i really appreciate the question i'm afraid i'm going to have to differ with you oh okay um so i i don't remember jesus actually being overly concerned with confronting political authorities during his ministry it's not how he functioned jesus typically he went into the synagogue of capernaum and he sat up and read the from the scroll of isaiah and interpreted it and got himself attempted to throw him off of a cliff in consequence you know yep and uh and he would teach and preach and sometimes through his public activity he would he would provoke a response typically not from political authorities we almost we almost never see jesus in his public ministry coming into confrontation with politicians but rather he came into confrontation with other religious authorities okay and they would debate with him and argue with him about his interpretation of torah and uh in those contexts yeah he could be quite um well sharp i'll put it that way he could be quite direct yeah quite direct um but uh uh but the amount of people that jesus didn't talk to and the questions that he didn't address are rather astonishing right and when he did come into direct conflict with political authority he he specifically demurred from from you know a political account of what he was trying to accomplish and and this most emblematic engagement of course is with pilate pilate just pushed the question are you in fact the king of the jews what is your political program jesus's response was well yes but my kingdom's not of this world and ultimately refuses to give an answer to many questions that are put to him so i i really think that jesus invited his contemporaries to participate with him in the pursuit of the kingdom of god that christ says dwells within and does not come with careful observations such that men can say of it here it is or there it is right and that's precisely the way his contemporaries were functioning they they were oh you know my group is the kingdom of god my political program is the kingdom of god my set of religious rituals is the kingdom of god and jesus says well actually none of that for the kingdom of god is within you blessed are those who were persecuted for righteousness sake who were meek who are humble hunger thirst for righteousness pure in heart to such as these belongs the kingdom of god and i i think that's really was the focus of his of his ministry now was it grounded in truth you bet but many times many times he used paradoxical techniques to provoke conversion rather than just bear dialectical confrontation rich young ruler comes and says what should i do to be saved he won't even answer the question in a really direct way other than to say well you already know what to do yeah right so and upset enough okay very good pilar thank you so much for your email hope that's helpful for you alex watching us on youtube this is a fascinating question actually more of a statement no no i beg your pardon jennifer jennifer says behavior in the parking lot after mass on sundays made me think twice about becoming a catholic oh yeah i'm with you no doubt no doubt yeah sure i've often said i think the number one impediment to making a uh an act of faith in the catholic religion is catholics yeah yeah hands down yeah we're a mess no doubt to be sure so behavior in the parking lot after mass i'm just envisioning this uh not only from you know because we go to a very small inner city parish but we've also been members of big you know cathedrals and and you know huge huge and i've seen all kinds of things in the parking lot yeah and some of it not very charity yeah so so here here's the perspective that i will give you however um let's i can do you one better than the parking lot how about the company of the disciples so the inner circle of the inner circle of the inner circle of the catholic faith the highest and the mightiest right in the catholic church the twelve disciples the pillars on which the church has been founded and even towards the end of their of jesus's earthly ministry james and john are arguing about like who gets the biggest pension [Laughter] they're fighting over literally who is the greatest i mean can you imagine and then and then here's peter going you know that crucifixion thing let's just let's just skip that let's just skip that right so like the problem of catholics behaving badly it's not limited to your parking lot it goes even to the company of the us of the apostles what we do with that maybe we can talk about that after the break y'all we can do better back in just a moment here with lots more on this uh wednesday edition of call to communion with dr david anders on ewtn [Music] faith is a precious gift from god as the largest religious media network in the world ewtn has an important role in educating others about our catholic faith and spreading the good news of salvation we invite you to explore our numerous pages of historical faith documents prayers teachings and other current issues in catholicism today visit ewtn.com and click catholicism ewtn the global catholic network [Music] tonight on ewtn live join author joseph stewart as he encourages catholics to hold on to their faith in an era that seems to only value reason on the next ewtn live ewtn live with me father mitch pacquiao tonight at 8 pm eastern on ewtn tv and radio he is honored by the church as one of the greatest enemies of clergy sexual abuse matthew bunsen and the doctors of the church in his time saint peter damien fought against the many vices of contemporary clergy especially sexual abuses among the clergy in 1051 he wrote the book of gomorrah that is still considered essential reading for fighting abuse today he died in 1072. for more about the doctors of the church visit doctorsofthechurch.com [Music] it's called the communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio our phone lines are open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 just uh heard from my wife who is a music director at our parish she's in a meeting today david and i'm actually stuck in the parking lot no she's not and i'm actually very glad that she's not listening this is one of those moments where i'm glad that she's not listening because i have a product to tell you about now available from ewtn's religious catalogue i'm going to get her one of these i think this is fantastic it is a kitchen madonna you know mary the blessed virgin mary was not only the mother of jesus but she was also joseph's wife and a homemaker and there's a beautiful six-inch statue of mary that we're now offering and the utensils that our lady has are earthly and heavenly symbols the key that she's holding represents safety in the house as well as the way into heaven the kettle that she's holding symbolizes nourishment for both body and soul and the broom represents cleanliness in the home and in our very thoughts and deeds it's made of a resin stone mix hand-painted both colors both bold colors rather with precision this is a beautiful statue as again six inches tall so it's not going to overwhelm your kitchen the kitchen madonna statue it will add a very special touch to your home it's available right now at ewtnrc.com free standard shipping on online orders of 75 or more use the code free at checkout again ewtnrc.com and i'll bet that if you put the words kitchen madonna into the search box you're going to get it all right call to communion here on ewtn before we go to the phones uh david was going to wrap up uh yeah we were talking about the problem of catholics behaving badly yes and it's not limited to the parking lot although our last caller had a problem with the catholics in the parking lot yeah but you can have catholics behaving badly in the pulpit catholics behaving badly in the confessional catholics behaving badly even in the company of the apostles that hung out with jesus so what do we do with that well i'd like to just draw attention briefly to the to the method of christ's teaching what christ actually wanted to accomplish in his earthly ministry and he clearly wanted to do more than simply provide humanity with a list of dogmas to be affirmed or a list of ritual behaviors in which to engage rather i believe christ wanted to provoke a transformation in in people's sensibility to to to the other to to other human beings you know to their own to the dignity of the stranger and if you look at christ's parables most of christ's parables invite the listener to imagine themselves in another situation to you know to put themselves in somebody else's shoes generally for purposes of recognizing how they're going wrong and the the story of the good samaritan i think is emblematic here right the whole point of the good samaritan parable was that jesus's contemporaries in particular the priests and the scribes and the pharisees and the like are to see from the parable that they're actually not living a righteous life that you know it's the samaritan who they've condemned and they've hated as an outsider who actually exemplifies the gospel virtues that christ is calling them to the reason he doesn't just say hey you know treat people kindly and fairly but he actually tells a parable a story is to invite their creative reimagining so they can see themselves in a different light put themselves in somebody else's shoes and actually transform their human sensibility right now that's you can't that involves a death to the self to actually be able to do that to self-correct in the face of of confrontational evidence if i have a view of myself or my significance or my authority or my person or my dignity or my rights and i'm very wedded or attached to that you know like i'm the top dog or i'm the best or why whatever or i have to get home and eat my thanksgiving turkey whatever my vision of the universe is that i'm so attached to in order to see reality differently i've got to die to that identity that's very painful sure and christ invites that you know and it you know unless the grain of wheat falls see the earth and dies it won't bear any fruit right and the problem that he's identifying is this superstitious mode of religious behavior where people cling to the outward forms uh you know the the rights and symbols of religious faith without actually attending to that interior transformation you pharisees clean the outside of the dish you don't actually clean the inside of the dish right and in his own ministry christ recognized that it wasn't just pharisaical religion but the jesus group like the company of his disciples was just as prone to engage his teaching in that superficial way that would actually run roughshod over other people's humanity hey jesus this guy was casting out demons in your name shall we go bust him right i mean like they still approached reality that way and it took ultimately the death and resurrection of christ and their own experience of alienation and persecution to undergo that real interior transformation that enabled them to realize the agopic love of god that jesus calls us to so when i encounter in my own life i mean i have to i don't have to look very far to find hypocrisy i don't have to look any farther than my own heart but when i find bad behavior in the lives of catholics like that's what the gospel tells me to expect because we're all wounded by concupiscence and malice and egotism and ignorance of the dignity of other people and we're all wedded to our own superstitious idolatrous programs and it takes a death of the self and and usually a kind of well uh shattering kind of experience of suffering to really open up and recognize i need to let go of all these things that i'm attached to my own identity my own ideas about religious faith and practice my own ideas about that other guy in his group that's doing it all wrong in order to experience that that transformation and sensibility yeah so you know the catholic faith has predicated an idea that there is a progress there's a progression in the christian life that starts you know the very beginning of you know this bare sort of ritual engagement in the faith all the way to this transforming union of the will with god but the path from one to the other takes us through the cross and that and you can't presume that every other catholic other than you has already reached union with god yeah yeah that's the goal that's the goal but you got to start somewhere it's like if you want to find sick people go to the hospital yep you want to find sinners go to a catholic church that's that's that's who we're inviting jesus says i have come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance so what do we pack our churches with sinners and there's always room for one more yeah exactly get rid of the hypocrites in the catholic church if i got out of there would be one less hypocrite well jennifer thank you so much you've certainly given us a lot to chew on here on call to communion with dr david anders if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin today with peter in cincinnati listening on the great sacred heart radio peter what's on your mind today um well i've been wondering why there's so much emphasis these days i'm praying for the souls in purgatory when there are so many people leaving the church including my who are my kids yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so i'm profoundly sympathetic to your concern and i would suggest that if you think there's a disproportionate emphasis on the prayer for the suffering souls as opposed to prayer for the living souls that are in grave danger mortal danger then by all means alter your prayers accordingly yeah yeah i mean like you know that clearly prayers for the dead is a is a work of mercy as part of the patrimony of the church but in terms of what what's proportionate i mean that that is going to be somewhat sensitive to the context that we live in and in your own case i think if you have a more pressing spiritual need by all means make that paramount in your prayer life absolutely peter 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 with dr david andrews on this wednesday afternoon here on ewtn radio let's go to john now a first-time caller out of orlando hey there john what's on your mind today um i've i've got kind of a few things can you can hear me yeah go right ahead yeah so i'm i'm uh born and raised catholic um and i have kind of since fallen away from the church um and we through a series of prolonged discussions with my parents we kind of ultimately have arrived discussing the resurrection and kind of um how do we validate that know that it officially happened and kind of the reason i asked that is you know if jesus really did you know resurrect became alive again after dying and i think our discussion is over and he just was obviously who he said he was um that's kind of the reason we stumbled onto that yeah sure so how can i help you um yeah basically kind of teasing through how do we know you know kind of a lot of our discussions have have typically focused on well of the books of the bible came from jesus's followers and typically that's kind of like our our facts that we're proving jesus's resurrection with versus you know that seems to have a little bit of a bias um a biased opinion that you're getting for that sure okay i'm with you i got you all right so there are a couple ways to approach this question and i clearly can approach it at the at the level that you're asking and i will but i think there are other other ways to approach this we also ought to consider so first of all the the the evidence for the historicity of the resurrection basically falls into three categories um the first one is the fact of the empty tomb um and so we're looking at like circumstantial evidence that kind of piles up right this is just one of the pieces of the puzzle first first piece of episode the fact of the empty tomb now uh you know whole books have been written on the subject so i won't i won't belabor you with the details but the long and the short of it is he ain't there and both today and jesus's contemporaries knew that he died where he was buried and he ain't there the body's gone right so you have to account for the fact of the empty tomb and uh and even the gospel accounts make reference to this as a political problem for jesus's contemporaries and they reference the the uh the story that was made up uh by the religious authorities well the disciples must have stolen the body a theory that's very incredible is not very plausible given the fact that the very same disciples were all willing to suffer martyrdom for their belief in the resurrection uh you know most a lot of shysters and charlatans out there but not many of them are willing to give up their bodies and their life and their property in the service of their what they know is the deception right so the disciples stole the bodies not a very credible uh hypothesis um the other one is the the fact of the resurrection appearances that multiple contemporary witness witnesses who had no expectation of christ's resurrection thought that it was game over nevertheless give accounts of having seen him right um and and not just in some sort of spiritual vision but bodily and then and then thirdly um the the fact of the beginning of the christian faith as a post-resurrection phenomenon um you know the all the evidence suggests that the disciples were a demoralized group who thought that the death of christ signaled exactly what the pharisees intended for it to signal namely game over for the jesus movement and something happened between the death of christ and pentecost that fundamentally changed the equation and got the christian faith off the ground and moving now the apostles themselves tell us what that was namely we saw and ate with the risen christ so the the resurrection of jesus is if you're willing to accept supernaturalism as part of the metaphysical order and there can have other sort of background arguments for that is is the the most economic hypothesis to explain those three sets of facts the empty tomb the resurrection appearances and the beginning of the christian faith now that being said i want you to bracket that set of evidences and put it to one side for a moment because those kinds of things are what the church calls motives for credibility they're not proofs in a sort of demonstrative philosophical sense because honestly those events are not are not directly accessible to us and unlike a science uh scientific hypothesis they're not repeatable in a laboratory so they're motives that make the act of faith reasonable but they're not sufficient to compel the will to demand the ascent of the intellect something else is needed right that ultimately is grace but let me contextualize that a bit why would i care ultimately why do i care what is it to me if a galilean jew from the first century walks out of his tomb you know presumably i would find it a mere curiosity if a 21st century new york taxi driver walked out of his tomb you know being it'd be a wonder and an oddity but it wouldn't necessarily affect the way i live right you understand so why is this thing relevant to me and it's because of the the even more spiritually relevant claim that this person jesus christ manifests god and exemplifies ideal humanity and that by entering into a participatory relationship with him right of obeying his teaching imitating his example and seeking to recapitulate his divine personality that i myself can undergo a kind of death and resurrection be transformed in my mind and in my interior life and come to experience reality as if i were seeing the world through jesus's eyes we talked a few calls ago about a transformation of one sensibility that christ invites us to and the historical witness of the catholic faith to the reality of that spiritual transformation and the powerful impact that it has had in human history the the catholic church is a profoundly benevolent influence on the history of the human race things like the regime of human rights and international law and the universities and the scientific revolution and institutions of benevolence like hospitals and and poor relief and disaster disaster relief are the the progeny of the catholic worldview and the christian doctrine of the dignity of the human person made in god's likeness and image do i myself want to undergo that transformation and and have a spiritual relationship with the with the with the dead and risen christ because i have a profound motive for doing so an existential motive so i can bring the witness of history together with the needs of my own spiritual condition existentially and have a profound motive for choosing to assent to the data of divine revelation john great call thank you so much for it in a moment art in covington kentucky and we've got a line open for you at 833 288 ewtn for call to [Music] communion is [Music] in any language it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn prayer doesn't have to be anything rigid or formal of course we have countless ones we can turn to when words don't come to mind so wrote prayers are fantastic but i also like to pray by listening to praise music reading the psalms and just listening to god's voice keep in mind that prayer is a two-way endeavor sometimes we think it's just us talking and god listening if that's what your prayer life is mainly consistent of try getting used to listening to god speak to you you'll hear beautiful and amazing things [Music] and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who are depressed the holy spirit lord of light we worship you whose presence brings love joy and peace be present to those who are suffering through the darkness of depression heal their wounds their strength renew on their dryness pour your dew bear the fruits of love joy and peace in their souls reveal to them the many signs of your goodness make gratitude and hope spring up anew in their hearts and console them with the fire of your love amen hi this is scikel at the host of catholic answers live later today two great guests joe heshmeyer and father sebastian walsh catholic answers live 6 p.m eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david anderson [Music] what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders lines are open for you at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you've held back because uh ah the phones are busy well guess what the phones are not busy at the moment we've got uh several lines open and you can snag one of them at 833 288 ewtn all right here we go back to the phones now for art in covington kentucky listening on sacred heart radio am 740 art what's on your mind today yes uh well thank you for being there and have i hope you have a having a good afternoon uh my question is not necessarily a religious question as much as is a historical question in that i was born in 46 i'm 74 years old i went to a catholic elementary school and catholic high school and i graduated in 1965. and of course at that time being looking at the parishes as such they all had a pastor at least here in northern kentucky and all had two assistants and uh of course uh on the practical side nuns were being paid about twelve hundred dollars a year and priests would be probably being paid about fifteen hundred dollars a year but of course they are the vow of poverty but uh the question is is when guys get together when priests and dutch get together is that particular period late 40s 50s 60s is that sort of a maybe a golden era and catholic religion in the united states okay thanks appreciate the question so 1970 i think is the peak year in terms of the the absolute number of priests in the united states i think it peaked out at 1970. so if you're just looking at the numbers you might draw that conclusion i i myself get a very queasy feeling in the stomach anytime anybody uses the phrase golden age or golden era i'm i am not personally a believer in golden ages or golden eras and i think every i think history is messy and there's always you know two sides to every coin and there's always a back story and there's always a skeleton in the closet right so i'm just skeptical i'm an augustinian you know in my view of history i think kingdom of god kingdom of man kind of coexists in the same space and it's sometimes kind of hard to evaluate the one in terms of the other right and it's sort of hidden from us these uh these things and i i think about saint thomas moore in the 16th century who lived in a time where of course there was massive ordination of the priesthood and and moore's perspective was good grief we need to ordain fewer people to the priesthood because we're getting like really low quality you know you take the take the cream of the crop and leave these other guys aside uh because there were some serious problems with some of the people getting ordained and so yeah from a purely numerical point of view i think yes 1970 was the peak in the u.s but but i wouldn't conclude from that that that somehow makes i think there are other metrics we could use to evaluate the quality of catholic religious life other than just the raw number of vocations art thank you so much for your call we were actually in covington kentucky about a week and a half ago and went to mass sunday mass there at one of the beautiful churches in covington and it was packed it was just absolutely packed and everybody was so happy to be there it was a it was a real delight that's awesome it is called a communion here on ewtn with dr david anders our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six let's go to um i think that call is ready to go here uh plan b plan b are you there hello hey plan b go right ahead hey uh i'm actually steve i don't know steve steve go right ahead you know i thought no that's an interesting name what's on your mind steve um hi so i'm calling because a very good friend of mine catholic as well as i uh has expressed a concern about me uh receiving the vaccine we've had we've kind of gone back and forth on what we think is right his words to me were that i was risking my sainthood if i was to take the vaccine due to the unborn fetal cells that were in there and when i told him that my spiritual director gave the okay he said that spiritual directors can be wrong uh i recognize that they're not available but i wanted to kind of get dr anders take on it yes thank you very much i appreciate the question i have a lot to say on this question first is this uh is a doctrine of the catholic faith and of saint thomas aquinas that grace perfects and does not destroy nature and so uh however we evaluate religious activity of any kind or any theological position or any or any uh sort of active christian life our our christian life does not if we're really gracious or really informed by the spirit of god it's not going to do something that's harmful to our bodies our minds our societies our cultures our neighbors our environment it's going to perfect enhance and build upon not destroy nature and uh catastrophe has a pretty specific understanding of what constitutes human nature in particular it is our rationality so the good of the human person is the good of a rational being and and the hallmark of rationality is the the willingness and the ability to self-correct in the face of contrary evidence right so you know if i if i if i if i think that you know that um all swans are white and then somebody goes to australia and comes back with a black swan rationality says oh i guess swans are black and white right i'm willing to self-correct in the face of contrary evidence and um you know so i i point this out because um when it comes to these kinds of questions the the church has a concept of what holiness looks like in society and it is uh that we seek the integral good of peoples right and that's that's a term that's very familiar very frequently found in the in the writing of paul the sixth paul the sixth but magisterial teaching since then we look to the integral good of peoples gatti mets fest of the vatican document on the church in culture church in the modern world talks very much about you know the perfection and the development of culture and nature as the as the sphere of human activity that it is that has to be sanctified right that our religious life is not something that's set over against our natural life in the world and in our families and in our bodies and our communities but it it's it's one that's embedded in those things and sanctifies and beautifies and illumines their natural human goodness so i'm always aiming at we as catholics are always aiming at the integral good of of human persons and human society right and uh and one of the things that counts against that is when i have an overly narrow construal of religious life or the good that's it's limited by my own imaginative vision right like i come up with some shibboleth and i say you can't cross this line on this issue or you're a bad person right yeah and and then impose that without actually being in dialogue you know dialectical conversation that's trying to seek the integral good you know in in community and um and i think on the issue of the vaccine business the church's position is very clear i mean it's not just your friend spiritual director it's the pope the pope who has said this is in the service of the inner good of peoples and the pope has made it plain it's very clear he would like catholics to try to seek the good of public health seek the common good and has not just stipulated but provided moral argumentation about why the specific concern your friend has raised ought not to control the conversation like that's a that's a concern like as catholics we want for uh pharmacology to use moral methods to be sure we do right but considerations about the nature of of of proximity and material cooperation with evil come into play such that there are occasions when a catholic can cooperate uh materially and remotely with something evil namely you know it's this evil that happened in the past for a proportionately good reason in this case the good of public health um and so i mean i i really don't think there's a question i think the pope's answered the question the bishops have answered the question your friend spiritual director has answered the question uh catholic moral theology has answered the question and uh and i'm i'm i'm fearful of somebody who sets up their own conscience as a as the ultimate arbiter for society and doesn't listen in a docile spirit to contrary evidence particularly when it comes from the pope there you go steve thank you so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn radio with dr david anders our phone number 8332888 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 let's go here to uh joe joe is in billings montana listening on real presence radio hey joe what's on your mind today hi i read in ephesians 5 that immorality is the same thing as worshiping a false god and i don't know how it's the same okay thanks i appreciate the question so there are a couple of angles we can take on this one of them is that that prostitution in the first century and and before the first century was very often associated with pagan temple religion and so there were fertility cults that invo that used prostitutes as part of their religious ritual and uh and in the same way that you know when paul talks about it's lawful to eat meat modern christians are thinking well well why would that even be an issue and it's because in paul's environment to uh you know you go to the grocery store go to the butcher shop you you know you ask for a t-bone uh it's gonna have been pulled out of a pagan temple after having been sacrificed to a god and so the activity itself directly implicates you uh well no i should say rather indirectly implicates you there is a material cooperation a remote material cooperation with evil that seems a relevant consideration given the last call yeah um and paul answers and says you know what yeah that was sacrificed to a pagan god but you didn't intend it you're not immediately involved in it you're not formally cooperating you still eat that meat even though it came out of a questionable moral circumstance right and uh and uh but it but obviously you can't engage in immorality in the same way right that's right that's direct formal cooperation with evil and in this case it's connected to the worship of pagan deity so that's that's one angle at which these two things get conflated um but here's another one a little bit more subtle um all idolatry is preferring the creature to the creator that's all idolatry is right what is being preferred to the creator in sexual immorality well my own sexual pleasure yep i'm putting my own inordinate sexual appetite in a disproportionate position in my interior life i'm elevating it to the a principal concern over the good of this person my inaugural good honor of god honor family honor of society you know all of his other values that would that would mitigate against immorality are being violated by my own idolatrous self-love you see it on the news every day don't you every day every day appreciate that thank you so much for your call joe call to communion here on ewtn you know we have a marvelous marvelous lineup every weekday morning here on ewtn radio uh the sunrise morning show holy sacrifice of the mass catholic connection with teresa tamio and then the program that comes on right after catholic connection which is more to life with dr greg and lisa popchak they help you navigate the waters of family life with solutions straight from john paul two's theology of the body you can't beat that my mother would say you can't beat that at kroger i think she's right 10 a.m eastern monday through friday is more to life with dr greg and lisa right here on ewtn radio it is called a communion in progress here with dr david anders our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's 833-288-3986 alex is in india in mumbai to be specific alex watching us on youtube and says i love the way you give examples and make it simple for us to understand things could you please explain what is true surrender to god um yeah thanks i appreciate it so uh first of all reality is good because god made it yes all right history is good because god's in control of it including your own personal history now uh our lives are suffused with suffering and things we don't understand and stuff we don't like and things we don't want right um and uh and we can do one of three things maybe one we can we can try to impose our will on reality and bend it to our purposes using violence magic superstition whatever right that's kind of sort of the spirit of the prophets of baal if you remember in the story of elijah and the prophets of baal they have this idea like if we bang on drums and cut ourselves and dance in a frenzy we can compel the gods to do our will right that's one way of confronting stuff i don't like um another way is just to say well the reality is absurd it has no purpose it has no meaning and i'll just become a nihilist right retreating to myself become comfortably numb with pink floyd right um or i can say you know reality is good god is good history is good um my life has a purpose and a meaning even if that sometimes escapes me even if i don't know what the purpose is even if i don't know what god is doing in my life right now i am aiming towards him i'm aiming towards eternity in heaven i trust that god has a reason for allowing this and so i'm gonna stop kicking against the goads and i'm going to uh ask for the patience and the courage to endure the things that i find difficult out of reverence for god trusting that he's got a reason that's what we call surrendering to divine providence and it's very meritorious and it really is the heart and soul of catholic spirituality it's exemplified forced by the blessed virgin mary who said be it done to me according to thy word yes indeed and i'm glad you that you cleared up a nihilism because i thought that was like enjoying neil diamond neil young you know all those other nils no yeah okay all right call the communion here on ewtn here's a text now this is an anonymous text neil diamond going through my head neil diamond good luck with that holly holy can't beat that all right here we go an anonymous text that says why is it necessary to be catholic when i'm already living a good christian life okay thanks appreciate the question so uh it depends it depends if you become persuaded that the catholic church was founded by jesus and is intended by him as his authorized uh sign and representative in the world like this is the this is the vehicle that christ appointed for the transformations of persons and society and uh and that it exemplifies most fully the ministry and the mission of christ and is most full of the means of grace to bring about that transformation if you become persuaded of those things then to hold back from becoming catholic would violate your own conscience right yeah you know i mean like it's sort of like saying um uh uh am i my dad never ceased to say i know that god prepared marsha to be my wife my father was louis my mom's marsha and he would say i know i just know god appointed this woman to be my wife right and it would be disobedience for me to be with anybody else right once you know that god appointed the catholic church as his spouse right as as the authorized bearer of christ's ministry in the world to hold back from it would be disobedience to your own conscience and you couldn't even live at peace with yourself right now what if you haven't yet come to that conviction what if you're not yet persuaded that christ founded the catholic church what if you're not certain of its claims what if you think the catholic church is just one christian denomination among many and yours is just fine thank you very much well at that stage of your spiritual development it's not yet incumbent upon you to become catholic because you have not yet been persuaded in conscience that the thing is true and the catholic church looks at people in that situation looks at presbyterians and baptists and lutherans and others those who are following the gospel as best they can in obedience to their own conscience and the catholic church says yes thank you yes thank you please please keep doing that you have the dignity of being called christians you're baptized people your shares in christ we value that we respect you for your baptistness or your presbyterianism or your episcopalianism and we hope that you are good best baptists and good presbyterians and good lutherans but we're not going to stop preaching the truth of the catholic faith sure we're going to keep putting it out there we're going to keep trying keep trying to be the light to the nations that that christ calls us to be and if that light shines on you and if you become captivated by it and if you come to see the truth in it the logic in it the beauty in it the goodness in it and you say you know i'm in spite of myself i'm being drawn you know by this tractor beam into this thing called catholicism well buddy we're going to welcome you with open arms that's what happened to me right i was i had no intention of becoming catholic but i started studying the things so i could attack it and uh you know it i'm thinking about the millennium falcon when they get stuck in the tractor being by the death star you know that's how i felt i was like let me go man i do not want to get drawn into this into this death star called catholicism i don't want this let me go this is this has captivated my imagination but i did not sign up for this and the closer i got the faster the acceleration until i finally was like i'm done i got to be catholic i can't do anything about it yeah i got to go and i did and we're all glad of it call to communion here on ewtn matthew watching us on youtube as a great question but this has a term in it and you're going to have to define the term for us uh-oh terms i have a question on protestant soteriology my in-laws don't believe in sanctification ranks in heaven or apostasy once a baptized believer we sit at the same table all equal is this a common take yeah thanks well sure that is uh that's a position that some protestants take none of that none of that is scriptural none of that is traditional none of that corresponds to the teaching of christ so i look to the letter of saint james and james says the prayer of a righteous man availeth much james chapter two prayer of a righteous man availed much but you guys he's right we don't actually know the name of the community he's writing to but the community that james is writing to he says you guys are praying your prayers are not answered because you ain't as righteous you're just not as righteous you're not getting your prayers answered yeah but he just he just he just distinguished between efficacious prayer and efficacious prayer connecting it to the moral purity of his interlocutors right um book of job what is it chapter 40 job's companions are really giving him a hard time and god shows up and he says i'm totally not happy with you guys you israelites that are misunderstanding but ask my servant job to pray for you and i'll hear him all right genesis chapter 18. abraham says to god will you wipe away the the righteous along with the wicked god says no for the sake of the righteous i'll spare the wicked ranks orders right in uh in in yeah and look at moses moses has you know he's the guy that's allowed to see god's back israel they said we're terrified of this god business we you you go in for us and then they can't even look at moses because he's so luminescent right ranks and orders and hierarchies and intermediaries are all through sacred scripture all through sacred scripture um so uh no apostasy well then why then does saint peter say in ii peter what is it chapter 2 better never to have entered the way of righteousness than having entered and then turn back why does hebrews chapter 6 specifically talk about those who have tasted the heavenly gift and then turned away i mean apostasy is a is a reality that scripture addresses as a grave danger and not only apostasy but losing shipwrecking your faith through immorality saint paul romans chapter 8 nothing can separate me from the love of god not heightened death you know war factions disease you name it and yet if you don't walk in the spirit of christ you will not inherit the kingdom of god that's what he says right so uh yeah i understand that protestant position but just got absolutely no basis to say sacred scripture whatsoever at all and uh you know saint paul first corinthians when he talks about um uh uh those churches that built on uh this the foundation of stubble and hay like those apostles that taught badly and they founded christian communities that couldn't survive and he says you know christ jesus will reveal everything in blazing fire when he comes back and their work will be destroyed namely these like quasi apostles that he's critiquing like the churches the communities they establish aren't going to endure persecution they themselves will be saved but only as one's escaping through fire that's how paul characterizes it so he's he's contrasting that with his own apostolic ministry which he thinks is kind of hot stuff right so there are different ranks of efficacy of power of authority of glory and we find that theme repeated over and over and over again you guys james and john y'all want to be sitting next to me on my right and my left hand don't you know that those places are already taken don't you know that there is a rank order among the apostles and oh by the way you guys are not it yeah over and over and over again sure all right thanks so much for your question we're going to try to get to bob here with a little less than a minute left in the program from fayetteville north carolina bob what's on your mind yeah hi dr anders can you help me what's the distinction between the bible's use of the word god and lord thanks exactly in the old testament yes so in hebrew several different words are used for god including a name right the name ascribed to god in the old testament in hebrew of the uh the the the letters y h w h the consonants y h w they don't have english consonants but that's basically the phonemic equivalent right all right someone said yahweh if you stick the vowel pointings in there masoretic scribes jewish scribes of the middle ages that were transcribing the hebrew text and passing it down to to their progeny did not want to write the divine name out because that was how they understood the command not to take the lord's name in vain so whenever they got to the hebrew letters yhwh they would instead write the word adonai which basically means lord and that tradition has been carried over into english translation such that when you encounter the word lord in english written in all caps that actually is rendering the hebrew yahweh now there's also a hebrew word l or elohim which means god more generically that word is also used and kyrios in the new testament can mean lord in the sense of like you know a knight would be in the middle ages or an aristocrat of some kind of power and authority but it's also a title for the divine christ so the lord god jesus christ all these words get conflated and there are some translation subtleties that come into it as well so it is kind of a mess if you're just starting out with the english bible all right hang in there bob thanks i'm so glad we could get you on the air dr david anders thank you sir thank you tom see it right here tomorrow on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders god bless what a great grace it is to have the opportunity to use the airwaves for the honor and glory of god to be able to talk to the hearts of individuals and meet them where they are in their relationship with our lord and also to encourage them forward through the various circumstances and situations that they might be facing in life god has an answer

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,644

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: jQG5heAHX_U

Length: 54min 20sec (3260 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021