Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - September 17, 2021

becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation 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 we made it to friday and uh in the year 2021 i guess that's an impressive thing welcome again to call to communion with dr david anders the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if you've got a question about the catholic faith love to take a crack at it and if you would like to tell us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic well that's kind of the theme of the show here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's if you're 833-288-3986 to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for just a moment as we send you a quick robo response and then once you get that just text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply for some folks also you can send us an email whenever you wish ctc at ewtn.com is the address ctc at ewtn.com all right the a team is in place charles berry our producer matt kabinsky our phone screener and jeff burson on social media if you wish to ask a question via youtube or facebook you can do that electronically just put your question in the comments box right there on youtube or facebook and then jeff will shoot that to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anderson tom how are you today very well how are you sir oh you know hanging in there hanging in there you're a good man what about uh weekend plans what do you think i'm gonna try really really hard to do nothing well i almost never succeed in that noble enterprise this is one of those weekends i'm i'm actually kind of saying a soft prayer for rain because i'm i'm due to work on the driveway do some asphalt repair and uh if it if it rains then i don't have to do it well you know i wish you well with that thank you so much we're going to uh lead off with a fascinating text here i'm you know this is kind of the era of top ten you know like david letterman how about this this is from doug dr anders what are the top three differences between catholics and protestants top three david what do you got okay so you know i can't ever answer a question without beginning with a qualification like well it depends on what you mean or let me you know give you two ways of looking at that i mean i always have to break it apart i knew it i knew it so i could answer this question from a doctrinal point of view yes i could ask it from a practical lived experience point of view you know i can answer it from a historical point of view so i'm trying to think about how i want to do this you know doctrinally doctrinally i think the biggest difference is that uh catholics believe that the institutional hierarchy hierarchical sacramental catholic church is the manifestation and perpetuation of of christ's person his presence and his ministry in the world with a kind of immediacy that that is uh that that protestants do not recognize about their own ecclesial bodies right um so uh it's a belief that catholics have that christ intended uh maybe not all the fine particulars but in maine outline the you know the the the formal hierarchical visible structure of catholicism as such to be the sign and instrument of his presence in the world um the church their own self-conception describes herself as the light of the nations you know catholicism with the big c so that's uh that's a major major difference i think everything else flows from that and that claim that the catholic church makes about itself is essentially what the protestant reformers rejected right they rejected that claim and so they they had a conception of a hierarchical liturgical sacramental church um but uh you know but it's but it's connection to the spirit of god and the will of god down through history is a little bit more loosey-goosey you know depending on which reformer you talk to okay so that's a major difference now there are some subordinate differences that flow out of that um you know the whole idea of mediation right that the church is the mediator of of graces ascending and descending um was rejected by the reformers so more of an emphasis on the reformation on the immediate contact of the soul with god not mediate neither by man by sacrament or even by nature right um major difference uh so that's another one um uh you know so that uh the whole authority structure of the church comes into play uh the um uh catholics often obviously believe that the church uh speaks authoritatively about the will of god for for for us and for our salvation um the protestant is uh more individually engaged with the scriptures as a uh the highest religious authority so i mean these are some of the things i could go on but okay well very good oh so there you have it and what a fascinating way to lead off the show here's an interesting question now from john dr andrews if doc god doesn't require punishment for sin the breaking of god's law how can he be just if jesus will back up say that again if god doesn't if god doesn't require punishment for sin how can he be just if jesus didn't bear the punishment for the sins of those he redeemed who did okay thanks yeah i really appreciate the question so i don't know if you're a parent okay um but let's say on an analogy you have a child that disobeys uh some command that you've given this child don't don't leave your bed unmade or make sure you finish your broccoli or whatever okay um what do you think what's your goal as a parent in laying down the command to begin with right uh you know is it is it to help the child develop morally or intellectually or is it to keep peace in the home or i mean you know we can't have a lot of reasons behind it what's the goal like what is the good of the child or the good of the family that you're trying to accomplish by laying down the command and what happens when the command is violated what do you want to do well i mean is do you have a personal need are you are if your child disobeys you are you filled with wrath such that you have an absolute unqualified need to pour out pain on another human being in order to expiate your wrath is that how you respond as a parent to your own child is and you you have to do that in order to be just is that what you're telling me good question lots more straight ahead here on call to communion the ewtn home video highlight for september is the pilgrim the soldier in this inspiring story a soldier tormented by an atrocity he committed thinks all hope is lost when he encounters a pious pilgrim he learns the mercy of god is greater than his sin this ewtn original film shows the power of personal witness to bring people to conversion order your dvd at ewtnrc.com or call 1-800-854-6316 did you know there are more than 50 places throughout the country where the remains of aborted babies have been buried this is eric scheidler of the pro-life action league inviting you to join the national day of remembrance for aborted children on saturday september 18th when pro-lifers across the country will hold solemn prayer vigils at the gravesites of aborted children visit nationaldayofrememberance.org to find the september 18th prayer vigil nearest you and remember blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted i am a very happy grateful revert to the faith about 12 years ago i was surfing the channels and i found ewtn i didn't even know it existed and i heard mother and remembered that years ago i had told a catholic nun at a church in boston that i was visiting that i missed the face and she said you will come back and when i was listening to mother angelica i remember that ewtn communicating the faith it's called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio the global catholic network our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight er three nine eight six if you're not familiar with uh and i know that we talk about them from time to time ewtn media missionaries let me clue you in there these go these wonderful folks prayerfully take ewtn to parishes and the community through the print and electronic media that we provide and you can help ewtn share the good news by becoming a media missionary yourself give it some thought pray about it for sure and then visit ewtnmissionaries.com today ewtnmissionaries.com join us in sharing the eternal word with the world it's a wonderful and a very uh noble thing to do for sure all right if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with matt in chesapeake virginia listening on youtube hey matt happy friday what's on your mind today sir hey what's up fellas love your show so my question is this to what extent does the vatican keep secret documents and archives i understand it's necessary to keep like something secret but is it like da vinci code level stuff are there underground vaults and everything like that i mean i know there's not but okay okay yeah yeah i'll hang up now i really appreciate the question so the vatican definitely has archives uh you know the the papacy is 2 000 years old it's been around for a long time and naturally any institution is going to collect records over time and you wait the way you store them is you store them in an archive yeah you know i work for my own bishop in the diocese of birmingham and uh and we've got diocesan archives let me tell you there is no dan brown stuff going on in our lives you know like i i i occupy an office space in the diocese that has been office occupied by directors of education for several decades and uh you know i sometimes pull open my cabinets and look at these yellowed sheets of notebook paper that have been left behind by previous generations and most of them are things like school enrollment numbers you know they go back to 1970. very exciting stuff yes and uh you know i've as i've gone through them i find really fascinating things actually the most interesting thing most alien to me is the is the percentage of faculty that were women religious in say like 1970 compared to today and you go down lists of faculty and it's sister mary this and sister mary that sister mary this and sister mary that from all these different congregations and of course those have really shrunk down in the modern day you know but nothing nothing of a dan brown nature and and the vatican of course is involved in a lot more than religious education in the diocese of birmingham but i mean most of the stuff that is collected is going to be kind of pedestrian like that and uh you know the only part and i'm look i'm no expert in vatican archives i've never been in the vatican archives in my life that would be off limits to researchers would be stuff that would pertain to contemporary personalities and i mean the historical stuff's available and researchers are allowed to go in there and poke around but this is the pope's private archives i mean you know he's a public person and so it's not the same rules as like poking around in my closet but i mean any institution agency or individual who owns a set of archives is going to have some limits about who can come wandering and doing what but yes people have access to the archives and they can do research and and you know in terms of dan brown stuff uh well first of all dan brown's a writer of fiction and the whole premise of his set of novels is utterly fictitious um but um uh uh you know i think there aren't a lot of secrets about both the good and the bad that the papacies have been involved with over the centuries and you know popes have clearly lined up behind uh uh political causes that have been benevolent and and you know history has smiled on them and others that have not gone down so well because they're human beings and for a long time they exercise a lot of political power in europe uh you know so you're gonna find that kind of stuff of course but most that's a matter of public record anyway we do appreciate your call thanks so much for it that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's with dr david 833-288-3986 on this friday afternoon here on ewtn radio uh derek checked in from uganda or is it uganda i'm not quite sure do you know what's uganda uganda all right well anyway derek is wondering why catholic christians claim to have peter as quote our first pope from year one yet we claim to have started year 33 a.d so i'm not familiar with this claim that you're making i mean think they mean year one of the church i think that's it not calendar year one right not anno dominique one okay there you go derek thank you so much for checking in here's one from brendan who says hi dr anders brendan's on youtube he says i'm a huge fan uh here's my question when praying to the holy family is it strange to ask the holy family to pray for us in in in the fact that jesus is god and is in the holy family i just want to pray properly thanks brendan uh i don't think that's strange i i think that's fine um and you know the the the human soul of christ clearly prays yes the human soul of christ clearly prays right um and uh in his earthly ministry christ prayed constantly was in relationship to the father in in an attitude of prayer right so that's strikes me as entirely appropriate now here is a prayer to the holy family that comes from the irish catechism and it's one that my friend and mentor and director father lambert greenen taught me and it's one that i pray frequently and it goes like this jesus mary and joseph i give you my heart and my soul jesus mary and joseph assist me in my last agony jesus mary and joseph may i breathe forth my spirit in peace with you all the time ah that's awesome appreciate that thank you so much for checking in with us here on ewtn's call to communion our phone number again 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 i have a couple of lines open available for you uh right now stuart checking us out today on youtube steward says my protestant friend says in james epistle 2 verses 14 through 16 james is saying we should strive to have works that demonstrate our faith not works that save us he also points out that there are a ton of passages that tell us nothing more is needed for salvation and that works do not save you how does the catholic church understand this issue um first of all that's not what james says and second of all no there aren't okay so i'm profoundly different on both yeah so let's go to uh the text of scripture the book of the bible that is most often cited by proponents of the doctrine of salvation by faith alone namely the book of romans right and uh i would point you straight to chapter two which is the chapter that at least when i was a protestant i liked to skip as often as possible verse 13 where saint paul says that it's not hearing the law it's obeying the law by which you will be declared righteous now say that again saint paul says in romans 2 13 that we are declared righteous in virtue of having obeyed the law having obeyed the law and the way you do that you skip down to verses 25 to 29 is that through the gift of the spirit the heart is circumcised and when you are walking in the spirit you are able of fulfilling a capable of fulfilling what paul calls the righteous requirements of the law dika tunamo in greek all right that is different from the greek phrase ergon namu which means it's translated works of the law and both in the new testament and in second century christianity so from from the writings of saint paul all the way through the first say four centuries of the church there was a common understanding of the meaning of that phrase works of the law and it was those things that differentiate you from gentile and the whole purpose of the book of romans in the book of galatians is to address the gentile problem when gentiles become believers in jesus as the jewish messiah and are thus joined to the people of god which is israel are they required to follow the mosaic code the purpose of which was largely to differentiate you from gentile and there were two camps in ancient christianity there were many jewish christians especially around the neighborhood of jerusalem that took the position yes they took the affirmative yeah they should circumcise themselves they should eat the right things they should purify themselves and follow the law of moses and uh and paul objected to that st peter objected to that too and said no they're included within the people of israel the covenant people of god in virtue of their faith in christ and god himself has borne witness to this by giving them the gift of the holy spirit also that's you know saint peter's testimony in acts 15 and uh and it's through their participation in the spirit that they will fulfill not the ergon namu not the works of the law but the righteous requirements of the law namely the love of god and the love of neighbor and having received that gift they are morally obligated to walk in the spirit and so saint paul says if you walk in the spirit you won't gratify the desires of the flesh but if you turn back to the deeds of the flesh the galatians chapter five things like fornication adultery factions hatred murder jealousy blah blah blah blah then you will not inherit the kingdom of god and and then when christ comes back he will judge everyone by their works that's explicitly what sacred scripture says so paul says it in romans 2 to those who are disobedient there will be wrath and punishment that's what he says jesus says it in matthew 25 what when he judges the nations it'll be on the basis of their works whether you fed the hungry and clothed naked and gave drink to the thirsty revelation chapter 20 says at the end of time when christ comes back he'll judge the nations by their works whether they were good or evil so um yeah so you don't have to perform the air namu you don't have to perform the jewish works of the law you know to adhere to the mosaic code which the purpose of which was to differentiate israel from the nations but you most certainly have to walk with the spirit manifest those fruits of the spirit and love god and love neighbor by which you will be judged okay very good and we thank you so much for that it is called a communion here on ewtn all right let's go to uh back to the phones here at 833 288 ewtn here is uh donna from my college town cape girardeau missouri listening on the great covenant radio hey donna what's on your mind today hi yes um i would like to just uh get this information here uh it's about eucharist i have some friends who are sisters that's in the name order and um they expressed to me that um whenever whenever the priest runs out of host and they go to the tabernacle for extra host that they will mostly recline not to receive that because it is not the the eucharist that he that he um expressed on the altar instead of instead of they participated in that mass with the eucharist on the altar and when they go to the tabernacle to get the extra host they have communion then that's not they don't think that's appropriate yeah i appreciate the question um they are very wrong yeah your friends are very wrong and their practice does not reflect the practice the spirituality or the theology of the catholic church about the holy eucharist so this i think this is very wrong um and and i don't think they understand the mass i really don't think they do right because the catechism of the council of trunt um says this more plainly i think than any other magisterial document it says the eucharist is a special sacrament unlike the other sacraments because it is actually two things it is both a sacrifice and it is a sacrament whereas the other sacraments are not a sacrifice not something offered to god and it goes on this is the language the catechism uses and the difference between the two is very great and that really ought to stop you in your socks right there right the the church is telling us something that the nature of the church as a the eucharist as a sacrament and the nature of the eucharist as a sacrifice are distinct and they're very different such that if you take the eucharist to the sick for example if you walk it out of the church in a pics the priest does this often right you carry the eucharist to the homebound and this has been a practice in the church for mil you know millennia right to to literally take the consecrated host out from the mass to to signal our communion with those that were physically distant from us right it's a beautiful sign of that the communion extends beyond the four walls of the church right uh when you do that the eucharist received in that context is a sacrament but it is not a sacrifice the sacrifice occurs at the altar during the mass literally when the priest says we offer i mean the language of offering an oblation and sacrifice is woven into the eucharistic prayer in which the laity participate by offering christ the catechism teaches us and by offering themselves and so uh the you can participate in the sacrifice of the mass without receiving holy communion and you can receive holy communion without participating in the sacrifice of the mass not directly at any rate right because they're conceptually distinct now the fact that they're stink doesn't mean they're not connected they are obviously connected and the the reception of communion in the mass is sort of the uh culmination it's a participation in christ's self-oblation that was affected on the altar right but he's present sacramentally within the sacred host in virtue of the previous consecration which produce as long as the accidents of bread and wine perjure and so can fruitfully be received as a sacrament even in the absence of the sacrifice all right donna thanks for checking in from cape girardeau and we'll see you on the other side of the break on call to communion al cresta johnette williams father robert spitzer you'll hear the leading catholic voices on the largest catholic media network in the world this is the ewtn global catholic radio network i firmly believe that prayer is communication with god and if we know that god is a loving father why wouldn't we want to talk to god the reality is we've got to talk to our family we've got to talk to our friends and if god is real and god is definitely real he wants to hear about our day he also wants to know how we're doing and what our needs are prayer is communication with god 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 today we pray for those who are grieving the death of a loved one jesus you wept at the death of your friend lazarus console those who are now grieving the loss of a loved one let them be comforted in the remembrance of your promises give to those who mourn peace in the midst of their tears you are the resurrection and the life we know and believe this let the despairing find hope and the brokenhearted receive the consolation of your presence and your love amen hi this is scikel at fun friday today on catholic answers live with joe kathy gantz was live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david anders what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion a couple of lines open at the moment 833 288 ewtn that's to john in 833-288-3986 right now john's listening on siriusxm channel 130. hello john what's on your mind today sir um first of all i have a really bad cough so i apologize okay i am an evangelical christian and i'm driving down the highway and i listen to you guys because that's very interesting my question isn't and i mean this in the nicest way with genuine curiosity is that when i do a lot of international travel we'll go into the latin and into catholic churches which are usually very beautiful etc there tends to be a heavy heavy emphasis on the mother mary and almost to the point where she's ahead of jesus and i'm trying to understand why there's so much emphasis on mother mary i'm not degrading her anything like that but i'm just trying to figure out why do catholics put so much emphasis on her sure yeah i appreciate the question so um first of all the the reason for devotion to mary to understand devotion to mary you have to understand more broadly the question of devotion to the saints right because she's one of the saints now she's the most imminent of the saints but she's one of the saints let me get the logic behind devotion to the saints first of all and and there there are a couple things to keep in mind one of them is the biblical teaching that uh more righteous people can effectively intercede for less righteous people this is a constant theme in the bible starting with genesis 18 when abraham asks god well would you spare the uh the righteous would you spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous god says well sure i'll do that or you think about book of exodus when god's going to wipe out israel and moses says hey don't do that and god says okay guys you ask me to moses i'll spare everybody else or in the book of job chapter 40 i think when god shows up says to job's companions i'm not happy with you guys but ask my servant job to pray for you and i'll heal i'll hear him right and um uh and so this we find that it's a constant theme the apostles too have this special intercessory role and so forth now the scripture teaches that that role of powerful intercession of the righteous for the less righteous actually continues after death so ii kings chapter 13 is a text where even the relics of the prophet elijah are effective in bringing a dead man back to life they're so imbued with god's power and presence that there is an intercessory availability there even after death in the relics of of the dead saint that's in second kings 13. uh in second maccabees uh chapter 15 which is a text is not in your bible but in most most protestant bibles but it is in the bible that jesus read and the apostles taught from the church fathers read from um and is clearly reflective of jewish belief and practice at the time of christ in the early church even if you don't accept its canonicity there's clear evidence of the the deceased saints of heaven offering prayers on behalf of the people of god on earth in particular the prophet jeremiah is one of them um same thing with the angels so tobit chapter 12 we see archangel rafael who's praying for the people of god and actually offering their prayers to god in a you know intercessory intermediary kind of way and book of revelation seems to allude to those other passages from the deuterocanonical texts chapter 5 and chapter 8 both teach that the saints in heaven offer the prayers of the faithful on earth to god as so much incense right so this is a this is a really biblical idea right and it makes sense in light of the doctrine of redemption because a book of ephesians i mean there are passages of the new testament teach us that the reason that god saves us like what he intends to bring about is the reunion of all peoples in christ there's a corporate reality to our salvation it's not just me and jesus it's me and jesus reconciled to the whole world ephesians 1 10 christ's going to bring all things together in him right the reconciliation recapitulation of the entire universe in christ especially the union of jew and gentile in which there's no slave free jew gentile male female etc all being made one in christ so salvation has this corporate aspect where we bear one another's burdens and share and love one another and intercede for one another james chapter five commands us to pray for one another and so uh that that consciousness of belonging to the body of christ right and participating in this corporate identity this solidarity with all the people of god is most powerfully and appropriately manifested in prayer and so uh you know far from detracting from christ seeking the intercession of saints actually manifests makes evident and makes present precisely the reality that christ came to create namely peace among peoples the reconciliation of all people in christ and uh and how i mean how can you think of a better expression of being in union and peace with others than turning to one another in time of need for prayer it's like the most beautiful way of expressing that and trusting that those prayers are efficacious so it's a deeply connected to the nature of salvation right okay and uh paul himself says second corinthians chapter five you know we have become christ's co-laborers as if god were making his appeal through us that god does in fact extend his grace to us through intermediaries and uh and this takes a particularly sublime note colossians chapter 1 when he writes and says i fill up in my own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of christ for the sake of his body the church so that's kind of the logic behind the intercession and prayers to the saints now the devotional aspect contemplating their memory you know in our imagination and thinking about them reflecting on them again is another biblical idea um uh the new testament clearly does that all the time with old testament saints always pointing to the example of the of the ain't of the holy and righteous people of the old covenant as a model hebrews 11 talks about that of course james uh speaks about the prayer of a righteous man tells the story of elijah to inspire the people of god paul himself points to his own life and says follow me as i follow christ so the idea of cultivating a sort of imaginative reflection on the lives of holiness that we see in sacred scripture and the history of the church to inspire us to holiness according to our state of life is another very biblical idea that comes into the idea of devotion to the saints now mary's role is uniquely important for the blindingly obvious reason that she gave birth to god she's the mother of god now none of the other saints did that right and she's presented in the gospel as a kind of perfect archetype or icon of christian discipleship she's we're told that she's the mother of all those who believe in jesus she's the one that all generations will call blessed uh she's the one that models that perfect surrender to god by her declaration be it done to me according to thy word um uh you know she is the woman uh to whom christ entrusts uh saint john and through him the whole church from the cross i mean she's just a singular individual because of all these uh tremendous dignities that were conferred upon her and so devotion to the mother of god can be very very sanctifying i mean in my own life i will tell you when i want to look at what does christian discipleship look like for me i i really can't think of a better model there isn't one and it is it is always edifying for me to contemplate the enunciation and mary's answer to god which is be it done to me according to thy word and i recognize what she was willing to undergo to live that to live that way i mean what could be more edifying and more orienting to god now you know it's not it's not idolatry to reflect on someone else's virtues and want to imitate them or ask for their prayers um the single act the most important act signature act of worship is to offer sacrifice and no catholic offers a sacrifice to the blessed virgin or to the saints we offer sacrifice to god alone and the supreme sacrifice is the holy sacrifice of the mass if you attend to the language of the mass you'll see that mary and the saints are there as co-offerers with us they are participants in this sublime act of worship they are not the recipients of that act of worship okay now having said all of that i will add that not just devotion to mary not just devotion to the saints but any particular item of catholic faith practice or devotion can be taken out of its context in an inordinate or an immoderate way such that it becomes an impediment to the life of holiness now this is not my doctrine this is the doctrine of the catholic church in particular the catechism paragraph 211 teaches that the sacraments themselves instituted by christ that convey his very presence to us the sacraments themselves can be misused if people approach them in a kind of magical way thinking that you know through my bare ritual participation in this act i'm somehow going to be saved in spite of you know my lack of contrition or my lack of charity any part of the faith whether it's the sacraments or the doctrines of the faith or or devotion to the saints taken with a superstitious disposition is not edifying you can misuse anything you can misuse anything and so any any form of religious practice within or without the catholic church can always be subject to criticism to analysis to purification because it ought to be aimed ultimately at the life of holiness and virtue and uh and you know and so if uh you know if some saints feast day for example in the medieval carnival was well i don't have to go to the meat of the carnival i just think about when i used to live in new orleans yeah you know becomes an occasion for say uh you know uh i remember my first encounter with the saints feast day long before i was catholic i think is about eight or ten years old my family had taken a trip to colorado to go snow skiing and uh we happened to be there on st patrick's day and i saw some things in celebration of st patrick that i will not repeat in polite company on radio you know as a little kid and i was like whoa what is all this st patrick business that was not very edifying you know and that does not that does not correspond to the mind of the church you know there's different stories about the history of valentine's day but apparently there was a there was a a pagan feast in rome that had let's say some amorous elements to it and one of the popes thought you know it's not so edifying we gotta baptize this thing and make it a day for young people to pick a saint and imitate their virtues so we really don't change the meaning of the thing and we're going to put it under the patronage of st valentine who was a martyr and the young people was like oh get valentine to patronize what we're doing fine we'll call it valentine's day and they kept on doing what they were doing oh boy you know so that can happen sure well we do thank you so much for your call very edifying actually and uh one of the core questions that a lot of people have about the catholic faith so thank you so much for your call john it's called communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn tom price here reminding you to join us for ewtn news in depth tonight at 8 pm eastern monsie alvarado discusses the impact of the pope's visits to slovakia and hungary also the heartwarming work of the sisters of saint joseph of the apparition in israel and she'll also take a look at the different catholic responses to covid vaccinations what a lightning rod that is check it out tonight 8 p.m eastern on ewtn radio and television let's go now to uh patricia patricia is in ohio listening on st gabriel radio patricia what's on your mind today you for taking my call sure i recently heard somebody speak and they were talking about the sin of unforgiveness which we as christians know were to forgive jesus said if you don't forgive i won't forgive you and they were they were talking about that as the person if they went if they died then they had any unforgiveness upon their heart that they would go to hell and um and as i read the scriptures i see when jesus was talking with i believe it was the pharisees and and they had been calling his righteous acts of of the devil and then that this word on blasphemy comes after that that you know that that was the sin that would not be forgiven and and uh i wondered if if a person does die and they would have unforgiveness on their heart and that might be obvious by some things that they did or said beforehand and yes they did have less rights read over them by a priest would they be forgiven and go to heaven and i know we could we don't know people's hearts we don't know their souls but so but is that that is unforgiveness the unforgivable sin i understand the question yeah thank you thanks so um no unforgiveness is not the unforgivable sin all right but to be forgiven for any sin one must repent of the sin and stop sinning right one has to be contrite to be forgiven for any sin so uh last rite's holy anointing does in fact convey the forgiveness of sins but not apart from the proper disposition of the one receiving the sacrament now you know many people will receive the sacrament when they have lapsed into unconsciousness uh and with the way the church understands that is well you know they they still have a disposition you know they still even if they're not just like i mean i have a character even when i'm asleep you know and i haven't i have a i'm ordered to a particular end and i make certain decisions and i have a certain willingness to receive the sacrament even when i'm asleep you know and um and so you can still have that disposition even if you lapse into unconsciousness but if you don't have the disposition if you if you are bitter and determined not to forgive or not to repent from any sin then the sacrament will not it's not going to reverse that for you right um uh so you do have to forgive now i would i would caution you know people get hurt they get their feelings hurt um and uh and they have you know relatives and former bosses and relationships that are really painful and difficult and um this is my own personal opinion here so you can take this with a grain of salt but it seems to me there is a big difference between um you know determining to forgive and and not hurting yeah and i you know i think a lot of people they carry around a trauma and they might beat up on themselves and say well you know am i am i not forgiving that person because i'm i'm still experiencing such trauma from that event and i would i would go easy on your judgment about yourself or somebody else uh because i think i think the way i would say it is that you know forgiveness entails the willingness to be reconciled if the possibility emerged but there are some people with whom it is just not possible to be reconciled because they're not going to be reconciled or maybe they'll be like oh you want me to come abuse you again i'd be happy to do that and forgiveness does not entail signing up for abuse so sometimes you you have to keep physical distance from someone because they're dangerous in one of many ways and and you might be trapped thinking well i'm not have i really not forgiven them well no i mean i think you have provided that you genuinely will their integral good which would include among other things that they stop being an abuser yeah you know and that uh if if such a transformation were to occur and the possibility of a healthy relationship emerged that you'd be open to it you know um but those are a lot of big ifs you know but having that disposition i think really is what we would mean by forgiveness i'm gonna win i'm gonna want good for that person i'm not going to try to go out and smack that person and cause harm to them right but i might not ever be able to talk to him again if you know the conditions that led to our rupture still exist very good have you ever heard the phrase loving them from afar i have heard that phrase yeah yeah sometimes that works patricia thank you so much for your call call to communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn let's go now to donny a first-time caller in indianapolis listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey donnie what's on your mind today hey thanks for taking my call sure okay so i'm on our rcia team and um one of our catechumens asked the other night she asked about purgatory and uh one of the other uh team members came up and said well everybody's gonna go to purgatory for every sin that they ever committed nope and i was like well wait a minute we have the sacrament of uh reconciliation no no no no no what about explainer indulgences and you know so so just wanted to clarify that if you could please nope nope nope sorry that is not right that is not right not right not right uh saint francis of assisi did not go to purgatory he did not go to purgatory right um he he he you know he he had his mystical vision on mount vernon saw the crucified seraph had his stigmata and shortly thereafter you know he lapsed into unconsciousness and was carried by angels you know to to the holy place i mean off he went you know and immediately church canonized him and devotions began almost immediately you know um and that so it is with all the saints right uh no it's it's uh it's go straight to heaven when you die time when you're a saint and that's why the church canonizes them is because they have a consciousness that this part this soul is immediately in the presence of god and um and what do you have to do to get there well you know saint francis first of all all of his sins were forgiven and i don't think anybody in the world ever did more penance than saint francis i mean the guy was just he was just like a penance machine and uh and that's the purpose of purgatory is if you if you don't get the pen it's done in this life right but his whole life was penance yeah he he did purgatory three times and for his best friend you know i mean he got the job done in this life right big time and uh so no purgatory for him so yeah you don't have to go to purgatory in fact i hope you don't i hope you go straight to heaven and if you get up to heaven please pray me out of purgatory me too donny thanks so much uh for your call let's go now to uh larry in kenosha wisconsin listening on the great wsfi hey larry what's on your mind today hi i have to take issue with i believe i heard dr andrew say is that it's not a sin unless you know it the sin i will give you an example and when i was a nam a man there 60 years ago told me what his what his wife had said to him and about being unfaithful and they both agreed it was okay so number one you took wedding vows number two thou shalt not cover thy neighbor's wife or husband so i believe that god tells us what a sin is we don't tell god what a sin is yeah thanks i appreciate the question so the position of the catholic church is that not all ignorance is excusable not all ignorance is excusable we distinguish between invincible ignorance and and culpable ignorance ignorance will you you could have known better right and um and one of the ways that conscience would convict us about things that we should have known better right is when we consult the evidence that is imminent in our own consciousness from reason about the nature of the human good right and so this is not me telling god what's right this is in the teaching of saint thomas aquinas this is the eternal law of god present within me imminent within me because of my rationality right this is what we call natural law um so you know i give you an example it's even i think more obvious than um than adultery and that would be the uh the harm that comes to one through uh you know the abuse of certain drugs it just it destroys your all of your faculties and and makes a wreck of your life and everybody else uh you do not have to have a phd in theology to see evidently the horrible destruction that is wrong on on yourself and on your culture in your society by participating in that i mean the the the awareness of the harm being done is immediate and imminent both imminent and eminent right in both senses of the word um and uh and i don't i don't have to have a divine revelation from heaven you know by scripture to tell me not to do that and i have actually a moral obligation to seek my own and other people's integral good um let me give you a i want a situation where maybe you could you could give some allowance for ignorance and some mercy um what if you live in a culture as many people have over the centuries that lacks a judicial system no judicial system whatsoever at all and in the only sort of judicial method that you're familiar with is the law of vendetta that has been the case for many people down through the centuries right and in fact it's regulated in hebrew law in the pentateuch rules for for carrying out vendettas against people who have committed murder and they can fly to cities of refuge and the like right and uh and so somebody comes and you know does in your brother-in-law and uh you get pretty upset about it and you gather a posse with you and you go after him to try to do in his brother-in-law right and um that's clearly an evil it's clearly an evil right because personal vengeance and rage and unforgiveness and things could come in there right um but your cultural environment is such that uh you've very little opportunity to think rationally about an alternative and you recognize that there's been an injustice done that needs to be rectified right and uh and i think that's that person is in a different moral condition than someone who's had the benefit of a you know say of a good catholic education in the 21st century and has access to you know a judicial system and and courts and things of that sort they would they'd be in a dif if that guy decided to go out and shoot the other guy's brother-in-law he'd be more culpable right because his degree of moral awareness would be greater about what really ought to happen here right uh and so it so ignorance does play a role in how morally responsible you are now in the case that you raised the fact that your friend and his spouse mutually compacted to permit adultery doesn't mean that they were ignorant of the law on adultery it just means that they mutually chose to violate it yeah that i would say that does not excuse at all yeah okay well we thank you so much for your call larry we do appreciate that uh checking in from kenosha could not get to tim in sioux falls south dakota had a great question that we wanted to get to but it just didn't happen because here comes the music hey dr david anders hope you have a wonderful weekend thanks tom uh you know tim wanted to know about confessional theology that's just theology drawn from the protestant confessions like the augsburg confession that's it or the galacan confession yeah okay well maybe you don't have to wait for the weekend there you go tim appreciate that remember that we do this program monday through friday 2 p.m eastern live here on ewtn radio we also bring you the encore that same evening you can check out the podcast anytime by going to ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team here i'm tom price along with dr david andrews thanks so much hope that you have a wonderful weekend as well see you on monday here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders god bless what have you always wanted to know about the vatican well i'm your vatican insider and i answer that question when i bring you the news about the pope vatican city and much more i answer your wonderful

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: JcH38UW-ciE

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021