Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - September 2, 2021

becoming a catholic why can't women become priests why do catholics worship mary why do i need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the bible i think the pope has too much authority what's stopping you you are called to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn it's the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if you've got a question about the catholic faith we would love to talk with you today also if you'd like to explain to us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic that's right this is a program on a catholic network for non-catholics how about that here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply if you're watching us on tv today you can participate as well here's our email address ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer matt kabinsky is handling phone screening jeff person is on social media if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now just put your question in the comments box 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 my friend i'm doing reasonable thank you we're going to lead off with one of those common objections that we hear pretty much every day or at least every week this one came in an email from jeb and he says we don't need catholic sacraments to get us to heaven just look at the crucified thief that entered the parrot entered paradise with jesus he did not get catholic baptism or confession what say you on that david well i agree with you so does the catholic church so yes you can get to heaven without being water baptized or going to confession yes you can sure you can also get over an infection without taking antibiotics it's possible it can happen right and in fact all the old testament saints all the old testament saints from enoch to moses to elijah elisha isaiah and the prophets righteous job king david they made it to heaven without the benefit of the catholic sacraments it's true yeah so why did christ institute them why did he institute them because there's no doubt that he instituted them yes jesus said go into all nations and baptize make disciples baptize the name of the father son and holy spirit do this in memory of me he said after instituting the eucharist whoever sins you forgive are forgiven whoever sins you retain or attain he said in reference to the sacrament of reconciliation so why do those things if they're not absolutely metaphysically necessary because he loves us because he loves us and the sacraments present the passion of christ the paschal mystery the promise of redemption to us under visible signs with the promise that they will effect in us the things that they symbolize so we know that the bare ritual of the mosaic law the mosaic code sacrifice and offerings of the temple did not take away sin did not regenerate one's interior life in fact saint paul goes to great lengths in the book of romans arguing that it's not the circumcision or the flesh or ritual ablutions of the outward body that that actually make one truly a child of abraham truly a jew but rather the inward circumcision of the heart by the holy spirit the one who is so transformed is the one who really keeps the righteous requirements of the law that's what he says in romans chapter 2 verse 25 to 29 jesus says the same thing use pharisees wash the outside of the dish you ought to wash the inside right well what if we could what if we what if christ instituted a sign that would in fact effect that inward transformation so that it didn't remain outward only but also brought about that interior washing and renewal by the holy spirit well that's exactly what the catholic sacraments promised saint paul says that we die with christ in baptism and are raised again with him to new life saint peter says that baptism now saves you paul can teach whoever is baptized has clothed himself with christ now the use of the sacraments presupposes that we bring to it divine and supernatural faith and repentance from sin and in fact we've never taught catholic church has never taught that the sacraments can do anything for us if we don't bring the proper disposition our subjective disposition is necessary for the proper use of the sacraments but when you bring that faith and repentance and you engage the sacrament you have an objective sign with a promise of divine assistance and therefore you have assurance and certainty so you know when i was growing up in the protestant world i was always exhorted to be sure to have assurance of my salvation and yet i found that however much i tried it was all dependent on me to work up the psychological state of assurance and then when i became catholic i went to my first confession and the priest said by the authority of the church i absolve you of your sins in the name of the father son and holy spirit now remember the words of christ whoever sends you forgive are forgiven and i said oh yeah this is that thing that jesus was talking about yeah and i finally had that objective not subjective but that object of assurance that my heart craved and so jesus gave us the sacraments not to impose a burden upon us but because he loves us okay very good and thank you so much for your question here is one now from mary jo watching us on youtube how do we explain to people why we pray to saints and how do you explain that we do not idolize or worship those saints okay all right so uh first of all the reason we pray to saints is the same reason that we pray to one another now praying just means asking it's because this is the way that members of the body of christ share and express their love for one another we bear one another's burdens to the lord in prayer so in the same way that i would ask a friend or a pastor or a priest to pray for me in some struggle or i would pray for my friend when they're going through a hard time in the same way the saints in heaven are our friends and they wish to pray for us even as our friends on earth wish to pray for us and believing that death does not have the final word that christ has conquered death we know the saints are alive to god even as we are and they are members of the body of christ and they will the will of god which is the salvation of the church now this is uh is this absolutely necessary well in a sense no because christ could of course save us without the intercession of the saints but he'd rather save us with the intercession of the saints in the same way he'd rather us be saved by being in church with members of the body of christ sharing and sharing alike with one another and bearing one another's burdens and enjoying the love of god in one's neighbor sounds good to me thank you so much and if you'd like to send us an email for a future show the address ctc at ewtn.com we're going to go to the phones at the moment here and we do have a line open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn [Music] smart speakers help with a lot these days did you know you can use your smart speaker to hear the top stories of the day from a catholic perspective if you have an alexa just say alexa open catholic news welcome back to the latest news from catholic news agency for more information on how to get the latest catholic news on your smart speaker or wherever you get your podcasts go to catholicnewsagency.com smart speakers have you ever heard someone say we need change gk chesterton says modern men are not familiar with the rational arguments for tradition but they are familiar almost wearily familiar with all the rational arguments for change we should not be too quick to favor the new over the old we should never tear down a wall unless we know why it was put up if we don't understand the purpose of a tradition we should first learn that purpose and then decide if the tradition needs to be changed or if we are the ones who need to change maybe the tradition is right and we are wrong spend more time with the apostle of common sense visit chesterton.org for more information and go to ewtnrc.com to discover more books and programs written and inspired by gk chesterton [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six our phone screener matt gabinski getting those calls screened as quickly as possible but we do have a line open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn so david though i got a question here from deborah watching us on youtube today she says i'm almost finished reading a book on grace written by a catholic priest i have spent years listening to non-catholic sermons on grace but i'm still lost what is the catholic view of grace it seems so big i i just can't grasp it okay thanks really appreciate the question so the word grace as we find it in sacred scripture can refer to a number of different things primarily grace in the bible has the sense of god's favor towards us god is gracious towards us extends his gifts to us so that's the primary sense but how does god grace us in what manner does god show his favor to us now this is the really sort of signature teaching of the new testament as god favors his children he gives gifts to them that empower them in the life of holiness and that's really the key distinction about the catholic understanding of our gracious relationship to god that he makes it possible for us to do the will of god to love god and to love neighbor saint augustine of hippo in his great book the confessions book 10 wrote god command what you will and grant what you command give me the power to do your will under understanding of course that without god's help we're not going to succeed because we're weak we're wounded by original sin by our own ignorance and compassion and malice and weakness and so forth so the real key element of the catholic doctrine is that god expresses his love and favor and solicitude towards us precisely by renewing our interior lives pouring the holy spirit into our hearts giving us the love of god in a participatory manner so that we in fact love god and love neighbor and can thereby be saved so catholic theologians go to great lengths uh to you know give a lot of definitions a lot of qualifications and make sure you don't think it's this make sure you don't think it's that and i'll do some of that but the main point is that it's god helping us to do his will now one of the things catholic theologians teach us is that grace is not a substance grace is not a feeling grace is not a thought grace is not some sensation and so a lot of times people will have a moving religious experience maybe they go to a worship service and they feel really excited or really overcome and uh you know they want to jump up and down and wave their hands and they'll say something like oh the spirit of god was really moving today and that we really can't draw that conclusion what we can say is well i felt really excited today right because the grace of god isn't a creature you know in the same sense that well it it's a it's a created participation in god's very nature so it's a supernatural thing it's it's uh it's uh super sensible it transcends our natural faculties and so none of those sort of things that are natural to our human bodies like our emotional states those cannot be identified straight up with grace that might be effects of grace in our life but you know you can't you can't read off of your religious experience that you're gracious really the only way to know that you have a state of grace is to act graciously right when you begin to see the love of god and the love of neighbor and the fruits of the spirit manifested in a soul's life it particularly in heroic charity that's the kind of criteria the church uses to say perhaps of a saint yes this person lived a life of heroic charity that was the work of god in their life um you know it's not not some feeling not some religious experience it's really the life of gracious activity by which we could have a kind of moral certainty thomas would say that we're in the state of grace absolute certainty no we don't have it we don't have it in this life uh we have to maintain that attitude of hope of cooperation with god not become presumptuous and say ha ha i've got grace i'm okay as soon as you say that whoops you've maybe lost the fear of god you know have to cooperate with god's grace go to the sacraments the predominant means of grace in the catholic tradition and live graciously that's the best way to know that you're cooperating in the grace of god very good thank you so much and thanks also for watching us today on youtube hope that answers your question in a moment let's uh actually right now if you're ready let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 we're going to begin today with elaine elaine is in newburgh new york listening on siriusxm channel 130. elaine what's on your mind today hi gentlemen thank you for taking my call so great to talk to you um my question um always kind of perplexed me was um throughout jesus's ministry he you know brought so many people back to life and you know i always wondered why he never brought back john the baptist is there anything in scripture that that says why he didn't yes i think so uh kind of in an indirect way i think so but thank you for the question so you know when christ came and people began to get the idea maybe this is the son of david maybe this is the messiah they had a lot of expectations of his job description number one of course was that he would kick out the romans israel judea was in a state of occupation by the roman armies they didn't have independence they didn't really feel like they had the freedom to live their religious life the way they wanted to and of course they were all hearkening back to the great empire that david and solomon had established and some language in the prophets talk in this way about the coming of the messiah as an age when jerusalem would reign over the nations and lots of gold and silver and camels would come pouring into the streets of jerusalem and they just thought that would be great and i think you can extrapolate you know all kinds of material benefits including things like physical health and well-being were really the what they were aiming for and even today there are people who imagine that right relationship with god will give you you know power and money and fame and maybe good looks and and health and wealth and these are the these are the fruits of the spiritual life as some people understand them but christ repudiated that whole way of thinking about relationship with god he said most poignantly to pilate my kingdom is not of this world and if you want to be my disciple you have to take up your cross and follow me cross of course is an instrument of death by torture so not a very happy prospect for someone who thinks that the call of the gospel is to physical health or well-being or power or these sorts of things now when christ does do physical miracles he walks on water he raises the dead sometimes he heals the sick these are to manifest his divine authority he would say to the pharisees for example if i cast out demons by the finger of god then you know that the kingdom of god has come among you these signs demonstrate my divine authority but what's the call of the gospel on your life he says the kingdom of god is here therefore repent repent for the kingdom of god is here it's ultimately right relationship to god and neighbor that christ is aiming at and the martyrdom of john the baptist far from being from jesus's point of view something just uniquely regrettable is actually the means of john's redemption and exaltation because he is the forerunner to the messiah who also died the death of martyrdom and therefore christ was exalted to the right hand of god so book of revelation actually depicts those who have given their lives and testimony to the truth or out of love of christ as having a particularly exalted spiritual status we look forward to a resurrection from the dead at the end of time now from john the baptist's point of view i mean he's dead he's he's you know enjoying the presence of god after the after the ascension of jesus and he's like i ain't going back leave me up here until the general resurrection then i'll get a body back you know it'll be one whose head you can't chop off i'm i'm all good just leave me where i am right now wait till jesus comes back then it will all be good sounds like a plan elaine 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 right here on ewtn let's go now to mello in chisholm minnesota listening on the great real presence radio hey there uh mello what's on your mind today uh hello tom and dave um i don't know answer it in a one hour show or not but um just curious if you can give a better explanation as to differences between is an evangelical versus a pentecostal versus non-denominational yep and i mean can you give an explanation like i sure can i can do this i can do this all right thank you very much appreciate it so uh we we're we're mixing categories a little bit here all right so allow me to kind of back the story up okay in the in the 16th century in the reformation of the 16th century when luther mounted his protest against the catholic church he articulated an idiosyncratic form of christianity that was different from anything that had ever come before that eventually was codified in creeds and confessions like the augsburg confession and so people who adhered to the protestant faith according to the liturgy and creeds and rituals of luther ultimately became known as lutherans uh something similar happened in uh in the swiss reform emerging from zurich with erlick zwingli um and uh uh and uh heinrich uh bullinger and ambutzer and then ultim and also calvin and a different tradition emerged similar to but different from luther that also had its own liturgy its own creates its own confessions um its own sort of codified patterns people who followed that are known as reformed christians sometimes they're just called calvinist after calvin something similar happened in the reformation in england we call that the anglican tradition and so these these systems of religious practice that are grounded in a liturgical and confessional tradition that have you know continuity through history identifiable lines of authority and structures and so forth those really are the origins of what we call denominations now over the centuries uh some of these had splits within splits and their own internal internal organizations and new groups with new traditions grew out of them those are denominations but if you're a protestant christian and you participate in a church that is aware of having a history that's connected to institutions that project through time and are grounded in these codified systems of religious faith whether they be creeds confessions uh you know liturgies among the methodists even something like the wesleyan hymn book sort of has the function of a you know sort of a liturgical function these things are characteristic of what we mean by denominationalism now um in uh up until the 18th century most protestants believed that their denomination whatever it was their denomination just was the one holy catholic and apostolic church they had that conception of themselves calvin certainly thought that about himself luther thought about themselves they saw themselves as reforming and reestablishing the church founded by the apostles and they they would have agreed with catholics that there is but one holy catholic and apostolic church where they disagreed was catholics say well that's us and luther's and callers said well that's us okay and and they fought among themselves and and sometimes quite uncharitably so that say the the lutherans uh were perfectly willing to consign all the calvinists to hell you know and luther would say of early extremely well he's with the devil and i'm with god okay well it that this this way of thinking about your church organization starts to strain against credibility when uh when a new one pops up every week and when protestantism following the principle of the bible alone can't agree on which of their own sort of internal institutions or traditions is the right one begins to fracture into all these little permutations it it becomes quite difficult for protestant apologetics to justify that principle so a fellow by the name of george whitefield in 18th centuries the first fellow i know of who actually addresses that problem head on and says you know what all these denominational differences well they're like they're like flavors of ice cream you know they don't really amount to much what really matters is that you have this interior uh conversion experience this born-again experience that's what really marks you out as belonging to christ denominate you know which which ecclesial structure you belong to doesn't really matter now two things happen when whitfield does it first of all this is the origin of what we now think of as modern evangelicalism evangelicalism has a subsequent history where they develop those ideas even further but the roots of what we mean today by evangelicalism is a particular approach to protestant faith in which it is the experience of personal conversion rather than one's identification with the denominational tradition that marks one or they understand is marking one to be quote-unquote a real christian all right so that's what we mean by evangelical now once you understand that definition you know that evangelical is not to be identified with just one institution and even within historic denominations like say the baptist tradition you will find congregations that are evangelical and you'll find congregations that are not evangelical and in fact up until the 1970s in the united states it was not common for baptists to consider themselves evangelicals evangelicalism as an identifiable theological category really came into its own in the 1940s in the united states but from the 40s to the 70s most southern baptists would have said well we're baptists we're not evangelicals and that began to change after the 70s but so today you could look across denominations and you could find people within denominations that were more or less evangelical now when we talk about non-denominational protestants these are people who have pushed the logic of evangelicalism to its to its extreme and said well you know if those structures are not the big thing why bother with them why bother with them we'll just create new structures as as the need demands to generate to sort of elicit that conversion experience and so you have this explosion particularly in the 80s onward of mega churches and these institutions that really have no no consistent connection to that to that history into those denominations now pentecostalism is something altogether different um right around the tail end of the 19th beginning of the 20th century emerging out of wesleyanism and something called the holiness movement which i'm not going to go into uh there were some individuals that began to argue for the use of charismatic gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy and healing and arguing that these things were normative for christian life that you had to do them and out of that assertion rose what is now known as modern pentecostalism and since i've run along and here comes the music i'll think i'll end the answer here okay melo we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call lots more straight ahead on this edition of call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn to stay with us from rome this is edward penton correspondent for the national catholic register this is tracy sable from ewtn news nightly i'm jonah mckeown for the catholic news agency get trusted catholic news every day on ewtn television and radio when i was outside of the church there was always an unsettled feeling there was always a feeling of something missing and something not complete the deal clinchers we found our way to our our parish and we met just an incredible pastor we learned things that we'd never been taught wouldn't be the person that i am without the church and without the sacraments particularly the eucharist i can't live without it if you've been away from the catholic church visit catholicscomehome.org living the beatitudes with father bjorn blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted this strange beatitude reminds us that jesus is challenging us with his ways to heaven on a new exodus we're leaving behind the egypt of this world to find the eternal paradise of heaven when we tend to think of happiness we tend to think of it in a self-centered way a possession of a temporary good or passing fancy but jesus is calling us into eternal happiness and actually morality is a search for happiness says dominican priest surveys pink hairs we're looking to be happy and a lot of times we end up in dead end roads that don't lead us to where we want to go how can we be blessed when we mourn in sorrow and difficulty hardship and cross we are called closer to jesus it's god's fingerprint in our heart reminding us that we're made for eternal happiness blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted for more about the beatitudes visit ewtnrc.com hi this is psychedelic jimmy akin and mark brumley later today on catholic answers live for two hours of open forum gatherganz was live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david anders [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 our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine six a quick question here from adam before we go back to the phones adam checking in on facebook adam says dr anders what hope does catholicism offer to those who have lost a loved one to suicide what comfort can we offer to them thanks adam yeah thank you so much so we can always rely upon uh god's love and his uh will his desire that all people be saved we so we know that god loves your loved one more than you do and he's infinitely compassionate uh the modern catholic church is very sensitive to the discoveries of the psychological sciences and the awareness that many people who take their lives are well this is almost kind of by definition not in their right minds and so while suicide is an evil and we have an obligation not to commit uh we we can never say of someone well we know we just know that they are personally culpable fully culpable for the sin of soft murder we don't know that uh because in order to be genuinely culpable for a grave gravely immoral act we have to be in command of our faculties and not be under coercion we have to know what we're doing and doing do it with the free will sort of with impunity and who could so say that they knew such a thing about a suicide we just don't know that about right i mean we're clearly not going to encourage it right we want to dissuade this right we want to try to treat them therapeutically and help people come back to a sense of themselves and that life is worth living and they can have hope but if they lose their life through suicide we're not going to pass judgment we're going to leave that up to god i'm also going to trust in his mercy so we can pray for the repose of their soul and hope and their salvation while yet grieving the great tragedy of their end of the love of their life call to communion here on ewtn with dr david anders let's go back to the phone now at 833 288 ewtn by the way we have a couple of lines open so if you want to call in now in 833-288-3986 illinois listening on covenant network hey there melinda what's on your mind today hi so i know that generally people can ask for a daily mass or mass to be offered for the dead that that's traditional but can we offer mass for someone that is living or even like non-catholic um you know i have a particular friend i have in mind that i um just wish grace to be poured upon them and i feel maybe a mass offering would be nice but i just don't know sure thanks appropriate i really appreciate the question so the mass is the sacrifice of the church it's the sacrifice of christ's body and blood um and it is uh uh and and catholics are the ones that offer it right it's a cat this is the way a catholic the sort of the ultimate form of the catholic's own prayer life is to bring his own prayers and works and joys and sufferings and sorrows and unite those to those of christ and to offer them to god in the holy sacrifice of the mass and the mass is for the church in that sense being appointed to be the sacrifice of the prayer of the church that christ founded but it can be offered for any valid intention and so from time to time you'll see a priest might offer a mass for the intention of you know safety in an upcoming hurricane season for example right i mean anything that can be the intention of a prayer could be the intention of the celebrant or the offerer of a mass and that would include say the salvation of a loved one or you know care for a friend whether they're catholic or not so yes you can have a mass said for any uh for any good intention even if the intention is the help or salvation of someone who's not catholic they're not going to be the ones making the offering the catholic is making the offering but the beneficiary just like you could pray for your friend without their friend being catholic you could offer a mass with them too okay melinda thank you so much for your call call to communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn radio and let's go right now to don don is in michigan listening on holy family radio hey don what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my call um just had a just a thought when i got in the car turned on the radio and i heard something to the effect of um what's preventing you from being catholic and it just brought to mind there are a lot of people uh these days that are uh questioning their faith there are so many crises in the church and uh you know the sex abuse crisis and the the the uh lack of anything coming from the pope for instance about uh the uh the abuse crisis and uh mccarrick et cetera and you know the the lockdown uh and not allowing mass which really just instills in people that maybe the eucharist isn't essential you know when they're talking about essential workers and i just had a lot more people asking or i guess questioning their faith because of this and i guess what what what are your thoughts i guess yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so uh i like to take everything back to the teaching of jesus who's pretty important person for understanding the heart and soul of the catholic faith and the heart and soul of jesus's teaching is that we might come to realize the beatitudes that we'd be poor in spirit and pure in heart hunger and thirst for righteousness and be peacemakers and this sort of thing this is this is really the mind of christ this is what he wants to effect in us uh jesus said the kingdom of god does not come with your careful observation or can then say of it here it is or there it is for the kingdom of god is within you and the word within he uses is the same language he uses when he says to the pharisees you guys clean the outside of the dish but you need to clean the inside out of which poor you know immorality and theft and adultery and hatred and factions and all those things that really make your interior life impure that's what you have to worry about you got to clean the inside of the dish that's where the kingdom of god is found and uh and so as saint paul says the same thing second corinthians chapter seven verse one he says purify yourself of everything that would contaminate flesh or spirit out of reverence for god right that's the heart and soul of the catholic faith and saint peter when he talks about the life of christian virtue and imitation of christ's sacrifice says that we've been appointed a kingdom of priests to offer true offerings true sacrifice and purity of heart to god then saint paul says that's our spiritual act of worship offer your bodies as living sacrifices so no one can take that away from you no matter what their own scandal or the benefits or the you know incompetence of their teaching whatever it might be whatever problem you might have institutionally with this or that catholic leader nobody can take from you the call of christ in the gospel to repent and to and to embrace and to realize the kingdom of god in your own interior life and in the love of god of neighbor in fact there is a kind of secrecy to it that christ demands he says when you pray when you fast when you give alms don't do those things to be seen by men but rather to do them in secret and your father in heaven who sees you in secret will reward you so that's really the heart and soul of the catholic faith now uh why then the institutional church okay well let me move from the person of christ to the person of the persons of the saints right the heroes of the catholic faith saint paul says follow me as i follow christ follow me as i follow christ so the idea that not only jesus but those who have embodied christ's methods mess up message with generosity and and self-sacrifice to a kind of imminent degree that they become immediate living witnesses and models to me of christian life well that's that's extremely salient to me right when i look through the annals of catholic history i find uh so many companions in the life of faith who have embraced that teaching of jesus with generosity and so in my own catholic life i'm always seeking to nourish my relationship to god and to christ by the examples and the writing the wisdom of the saints and nobody can take that away from me right without whatever their scandals are or whatever their teaching is what nobody can take that aspect away from me now christ willed that he be made present to us not only in the voice of his own teaching not only in the persons of his saints but also in rites and signs and symbols that manifest the paschal mystery of jesus to me in a tangible way we call these the sacraments christ instituted all of the sacraments and the most important of course baptism in the eucharist and confession go into all nations make disciples baptize in the name of the father son holy spirit do this in memory of me whoever sins you forgive are forgiven whoever sins you retain or retained nobody can take those away from me nobody not even the pope nobody can take those away from me right they were instituted by christ and they are offered all the time every day and they have not been suspended not no they have not not not once during the pandemic or the recent years they've never been suspended now my own ritual participation in the sacraments may be more or less frequent more or less proximate or remote but the sacraments as such have not been abrogated have not been taken away and my participation in them is yes it's tactile and immediate all right but it's also by way of my own memory and moral imagination so like i got baptized once it happened a long time ago yes all right but i'm conscious of it i'm aware of it and that's how sacraments work they work upon you within the the mechanics of your own psychology so for baptism that means principally through the engine of memory i have a consciousness of having been baptized in the promise of saint paul whoever is baptized has clothed himself with christ nobody can take that from me even god himself will not take from you uh the the uh uh the state of being baptized you take on a supernatural character of conformity to christ in virtue of your baptism that you will never lose no one can take that from me all right and uh in the eucharist which by the way catholics are not obligated to receive sacramentally but once a year right is offered every single day throughout the catholic church in in all the dioceses of the world all over the world and i unite myself to that sacrifice whether i am proximate to it or not so if you've ever said the morning offering i offer you my prayers works joy sufferings and sorrows along with the holy sacrifice of the mouse which is offered everywhere throughout the world the catholic in that private life that only god sees is constantly uniting himself to the perpetual offering of christ's sacrifice made present in the mass no one can take that from you regardless of their sin or their incompetence or whatever can't take it from you right you're belonging to the body of christ whoever's baptized belongs to christ has clothed himself with christ christ also instituted the church's teaching ministry the magisterium right in the person of the pope of the councils of the bishops and of the pope councils and bishops for the last 2000 years so it doesn't hang on the personality of any one office holder but rather the office as instituted by christ as a permanent institution within the church that has a profound historical memory no one can take that from you i mean i can go on all day about this right so are so many reasons to be catholic that have to do with the permanence and the endurance and the and the universality of the church's teaching and the availability of god's grace that are in no way dependent upon the vicissitudes of history or the vagaries of of one individual's personality and embracing the faith in that way can an individual come to holiness in spite of all the scandals and difficulties of the world well of course he can or she can't now bonaventure st bonaventure says of saint francis his master the holy man of god had no one to teach him except christ himself now saint francis if you've ever sort of investigated the life of saint francis of assisi probably the holiest man that ever lived other than jesus francis lived in a terrible time of church corruption and incompetence and he never moaned about it even once his response to clerical and ecclesiastical and hierarchical corruption was to try really hard not to be corrupt and he started off just as a catholic layman who didn't even know the bible very well apart from the gospels but he had them he had the gospels and he said you know what i'm going to do this i'm going to do the gospels and i'm going to do them with all of my heart and soul and he changed the world sure did appreciate that and thank you don for your call from michigan call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn i'm tom price reminding you to be sure to join us tomorrow morning and every morning for the holy sacrifice of the mass we carry it at 8 a.m eastern every day right here on ewtn radio and television even if you're a non-catholic viewer or listener who is with us today i invite you to join us for the mass tomorrow morning because you know what we have a lot of non-catholic listeners and viewers who enjoy experiencing the mass it is a just a beautiful thing and uh it is here for you every day call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn let's go now to indiana in salem oregon listening on modern day radio indiana what's on your mind today hi uh so the other day i was talking to a very good friend of mine and she said that she doesn't believe in religion because it's cold and i kind of got stumped on what to say so what is the difference between and cult okay thanks i really appreciate the question well of course both of these words are very ambiguous and mean lots of different things to lots of different people all right so let me let me uh rather than just giving one normative definition let me do it this way um every human being has a sort of transcendent element to their personality you know we're not we're not irrational animals we are we have we are the masters of ourselves to a certain extent we can rise above our circumstances and our passions we can be reasonable we can make morally informed choices uh we can try to affect our own cognition getting a broader perspective on things uh taking a different view of the world you know breaking out of our a little small cultural or or or confines of some kind and into a wider world of experience and ultimately you know to the understanding of god the nature of the universe and the moral life and this is the this is the glory of the human person right we're made in this way and that capacity for self-transcendence for freedom for rational activity uh is what one might refer to as our capacity for spirituality right we have that capacity you know i had it when i was born you had it when you were born it develops of course as you grow older and you you know grow in sort of your rational self-awareness but untutored untrained uh that doesn't do much for you right because that capacity for self-transcendence for freedom of action for broadening your perspective well you could turn that into service of some hideous ideology for example you could take that capacity for self transcendence you could make some atomic bombs and you know drop them on somebody i mean you could do all all manner of horrible things with your spiritual capacity you know my my my house pets are not going to foment genocide they lack the capacity because they lack spirituality but a human person can go out and commit genocide because they have that transcendent ability right so in order for that to become a force for good it has to be trained and tutored and formed and educated and that is what uh historically religions have sought to do particularly since about say are on the 5th century bc they have they traditions around the world have emerged of wisdom and practices that attempt to kind of nurture and cultivate the human capacity for self-transcendence into into benevolent directions that would enhance human life and flourishing and not allow it to go off the rails into into cataclysm right now it is a fact of history that sometimes traditions or founders of religious groups will veer off into irrational and extreme practices that are very harmful when somebody might be drawn in by say you know a really attractive and charismatic personality that demands a kind of irrational obedience uh you know or total loyalty or something and and leads people to do things that are deeply self-destructive or anti-social and that's really the kind of religious movement that sociologists refer to as a cult when they use tools of manipulation and brainwashing to turn that spiritual capacity in really destructive directions generally under the leadership of some charismatic individual kind of casts a spell if you will a kind of sway psychological manipulation over vulnerable people um and that's distinguished from a a more wiser sapiential benevolent attempt by a tradition to really cultivate and nurture that spiritual capacity into into really uh good directions okay indiana thank you so much let me ask you personally because i've sometimes heard the word uh cult and sect used interchangeably but they're two different things right uh well look again we're talking about words that get used in a variety of ways yeah right i mean sect can just mean a sort of subdivision of a religious group okay right but it can also be used with a sort of derogatory sense cult you know the way sociologists use the word usually has a kind of derogative derogatory scent now the latin word cultus just means formal worship and so you can also use the word cult in a in a purely innocuous way just to mean the form of worship that some that some tradition offers but that's not usually the way we use it today call to communion with dr david anders let's go now to daisy daisy is in new hampshire listening on youtube today daisy what's on your mind today i have a number of people that i know that were previously of the anglican or escapalian tradition and after vatican ii our liturgy became very much similar to theirs and they are now convert to catholicism but they believe that their eucharist well i guess i would call the eucharist but their their liturgical celebration actually gave them the body of jesus that they said that they really believed that what they were receiving was jesus and my understanding was that because the apostolic succession was broken that transubstantiation didn't actually take place so you could kind of yeah thank you i appreciate the question thank you so much so uh when first of all on the question of the similarity and differences between catholic and anglican liturgies um so in the reformation of the 16th century when groups like the lutherans and the calvinists and the anglicans were trying to reform their own liturgy what do you think they started with as a base text they began with the mass of the roman rite and they were of course conscious of the liturgical variety of the latin tradition for the you know previous 1500 years they inserted you know some of their own uh idiosyncratic protestant theology but they were working with the terms and categories of latin liturgical history so they were you know they weren't writing stuff out of whole cloth they were really borrowing from the catholic tradition which they were familiar with sure and so you know if somebody says well hey look this you know catholic liturgy has this stuff in common with anglicans well it's because they have stuff in common with us right we refer to the party and that's true even of the mass of vatican ii paul vi the reformation of the mass novus ordo um is uh not something written out of whole cloth but with reference to early liturgical history so it's all it's all sort of flows out of the same latin catholic history now with respect to the doctrine the real presence you are absolutely correct in what you say when hearing the eighth broke away from the catholic church the priests and bishops that had been ordained catholics did not lose valid appstock orders at that time so they were in system they were in disobedience to the pope but they didn't stop being validly ordained catholic priests until the reign of king edward king edward henry's son under edward the anglican church uh so you know quote unquote reformed its ordinary its ordinal uh right of ordination uh in ways that denied uh fundamental catholic doctrines regarding the eucharist and the priesthood and at that time those uh anybody ordained with the edward dyne ordinal was not validly ordained and therefore they didn't have valid sacramental orders valid apostolic succession now that judgment was made at the time by a catholic church but was confirmed by pope leo the 13th in his encyclical apostolic i curie that taught as infallible dogmatic teaching that anglican orders are absolutely null and void they do not have valid apostolic orders they don't have valid ordination therefore they don't have a valid eucharist now that is the settled infallible teaching of the catholic church so if your friends have become catholics they have explicitly or implicitly agreed to hold with divine and supernatural faith everything that the church declares to be revealed by god right so they're going to trust in the infallible judgment of the church and the church teaches infallibly that anglican orders are absolutely null and void okay there it is daisy thank you so much uh for your question today uh via youtube i'm gonna close out with this one here from emily watching us on facebook today emily says i have been away from the church for a while recently i went to communion they were giving out both the body and blood of jesus but when i watched mass on ewtn television well people there only receive the eucharist in the form of bread is my church in error i am confused no you are not an error and and you're not an arab so christ instituted the eucharist in two kinds and the mass is always celebrated with the eucharistic species in two kinds so the priest will always consecrate bread and wine as the body blood of christ and he only has one and it's not a valid eucharist if he doesn't consecrate bread and wine gotta have both right and the priest will commune in both kinds and that's necessary for the valid celebration of the mass uh it is not necessary however for the faithful to commune under both kinds it's not necessary to commune under both guns you can commune in one kind or in both kinds and you do not get more of jesus if you commune under both species okay and i don't have a whole lot of time for this but i had more time i could make an argument just just for fun actually go again okay i'll see what i can do um the catechism of the council of trump teaches that the eucharist as a sacrifice is very different from the eucharist as a sacrament the eucharist is two things both a sacrifice something that we offer to god and a sacrament something that we receive and it says the catechism teaches and the difference between the two is very great now the the the institution in both kinds is primarily for the sake of the sacrifice because it is by presenting christ in a state of victimhood i.e body over here blood over there body separated from blood it's by presenting christ in a state of victimhood that the mass is the memorial of his death because of the two species is not necessarily ordered toward the communion but rather towards the sacrifice if you receive the one species you're getting as it were in a sacramental way all that the sacrament is meant to convey to you and spiritually you are truly receiving the real presence of christ's body blood soul and divinity so you're deprived of nothing by communing in one kind emily thanks so much for your question dr david anders thank you sir well thank you tom see you next time on call to communion god bless coming up on ewtn news and death how charities are helping thousands of afghans adjust to life in america plus a discussion about mental health

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 53min 40sec (3220 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021