Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - September 8, 2021

tnnews.com i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from 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 this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if that is you and you've got a question about the catholic faith or if you just like to explain to us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here's our phone number 833 two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205 271 29 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 now if you're watching us on tv today you can participate as well here's our email address ctc at ewtn.com love to hear from you ctc at ewtn.com charles berry is our producer also uh let's see we have matt kabinsky as our phone screener jeff burson is handling social media if you'd like to send us a question via youtube or facebook live you can do that by putting that question of yours in the comments box and when you do that jeff will see it he'll send it to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you sir oh i'm doing decent thank you got a great objection here objection to the catholic faith i love objections you're going to love this one this is a text from pastor john pastor john says the catholic church is just a church with traditions that alienate the unchurched for example you have a priest who has to wear robes altar servers people who stand up and read it's more like watching a play than actual worship where you follow a script everybody has a part to play but it doesn't actually have any meaning now at our church we just worship god and jesus there's time for worship a reflection on the word of god and that's it it's that simple any thoughts there david yeah you're absolutely right i completely agree with you we are just up to our eyeballs thick with traditions that non-catholics often find alienating you are absolutely correct and in fact uh i i think that this is kind of embedded in the the pedagogy of our master jesus and you know in the gospel of matthew and other his texts as well the disciples would come to him and they say jesus why are you doing all these things to alienate people and what was jesus doing that alienated people among other things he was telling parables rather than teaching plainly and uh and the people to whom he taught parables were conscious that he was teaching them against them you know the pharisees understood we read in one place he said this parable against them and they took offense at him yeah right and so the disciples come to christ and why are you teaching the people in parables and jesus's responses oh so that they won't understand i'm trying to be obscure i'm trying to be obscure that's what he says and you might scratch your head and go well what kind of pedagogy is that what sort of teaching methodology happens when a teacher says explicitly i'm trying to be obscure well it's the kind of teaching methodology that emphasizes not propositional learning but transformative experience you think about my favorite example of this is the rich young ruler who comes to jesus in mark chapter 10. and he says what must i do to be saved and jesus's response more or less is ah you know what to do go keep the commandments don't bother me what are you talking to me for you know what to do the guy says but no no no i need something else oh you need something else do you okay in that case come follow me you see jesus is always trying to provoke transformation he's not just trying to give us information but to actually engage us in a process that will make us into different people right and that is actually the function of the catholic liturgical tradition that you have a difficulty with it's the purpose of thing is not to be absolutely perfectly intelligible to anybody that walks in the door christ said to the apostles i teach them in parables but to you i have you the disciples i have revealed the mysteries of the kingdom now to someone who attends the catholic mass for the first time they may find it alienating they may find it foreign uh but to those who have entered into that discipleship relationship with christ he reveals to us the mysteries of the kingdom and those very same rituals and liturgies that you find alienating become or at least can become spiritually transformative because they're not meant to be just immediately lucid and clear to everybody they're meant to be occasions for interior transformation as we pattern ourselves after the passion and death and resurrection of jesus so i i think there's a lot of truth in what you say now i will go on to add well while at first blush those rituals and traditions can seem somewhat off-putting once you begin to investigate them for many people myself included they become the most attractive and compelling thing about the catholic tradition and today like i absolutely cannot conceive of devotion to christ of a relationship with jesus that is not relationship to jesus as a catholic because the catholic church is nothing other than the ongoing perpetuation of christ's person and ministry down through the ages applied in myriad of social intellectual cultural contexts supplying the truths of the gospel to our concrete living right at with the wisdom of the ages before us and so i have in front of me this this vast reservoir of of learning of wisdom of experience and holiness that the church translates to me to help me understand what it means to follow christ in the concrete details of my life okay very good pastor uh pastor john thank you so much for your text very illuminating there here's a quick question from gene uh in an email do healing miracles only happen for catholics or protestants no not that not that i'm aware of i don't see any reason to hold that uh i don't think that scripture teaches that that that that healing miracles are restricted to catholics in fact we have evidence to the contrary in the new testament you know the company of the apostles that followed christ were aware that there were those outside his little group that were casting out demons in the name of jesus and so they went to christ says we should make these guys shut up they're not part of our group and jesus says leave them alone whoever is not against us is for us all right very good gene thank you so much for your email and if you would like to send us an email for a future show the address ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com all right the phones are starting to light up here and matt is working hard to get those calls screened but we have a line available for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 or if you'd like to text us just text the letters ewtn to 550 it's called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn to stay with [Music] us ewtn global catholic network is the largest religious media network in the world 11 global tv channels english and spanish radio networks with over 500 am and fm radio affiliates one of the largest catholic websites in the world dozens of podcasts every week social media electronic and print news services and ewtn publishing ewtn is the global catholic network for more about ewtn visit ewtn.com ewtn news in-depth is important for catholics everywhere there are so many questions there are so many unknowns out there as the world continues to change at a rapid pace we're going to ask the tough questions and get the right answers and make sure that when you watch this show you feel engaged and you feel empowered ewtn news in depth engaged informed catholic friday at 8 pm eastern on ewtn radio and television [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 [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn our phone number three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we'd love to hear from you today got a very interesting question here david this is from a matthew in london that is london england watching us today on youtube matthew says i have some non-catholic christian friends who say it's all the same is there a response to this or should we pray for what's the difference to becoming is there a difference do you understand the distinction i think so i think she he's he's suggesting that among christian denominations there are no substantive rights that's the position that they're taking well that's obviously poppycock that's balderdash right baldur has and look it's very easy to demonstrate that you know this i know this there are some christian denominations that teach that it's okay to kill your unborn child the catholic church says it's not okay to kill your unborn child well that's that's not a negligible difference nope i mean that's a life or death difference it's either okay or it's not okay to kill your unborn child uh there are some christian denominations that teach you can leave your wife and children and run off with somebody else catholic church says you cannot leave your wife and children and run off with somebody else well that makes a huge difference to your life whether you can run off or not run off that's a big difference some christian denominations say look you don't have to this this morality and ethics and love and virtue stuff that's nice icing on the cake but it's not really essential to the christian life it's just faith alone that gets the job done and then there's a catholic church that says what's not icing on the cake it's the whole cake the whole point of the christian life is to grow in imitation of christ in the life of virtue that's a radically different conception of what it means to be a christian what the call on our life is some christian traditions teach that moral progress is really kind of a fantasy that's not going to happen well the catholic church views growth in the moral life as the whole point radical conformity to christ total union of my will with gods it's a very different conception of what it means to be a christian some christian denominations hold that all you need is the bible alone catholic church says if you didn't have catholic tradition you wouldn't even have a bible to begin with true it's very different i mean i could do this all day right so there are there are very strong substantive differences between forms of christian faith and in forms of christian faith and other religious traditions as well uh now if you want to argue well they have things in common well of course they have things in common and we're glad that they do and the catholic church recognizes that we have many points in common not just with protestant christians but with lots of believers from different traditions sure elements of truth and sanctification is the way the second vatican council talks about it and so we celebrate those points of commonality and i'm very happy for them and i you know that's something i can talk to you about but there are also points of differences and the differences are not negligible you know when i was a protestant christian before i became catholic i recognized that there were some pretty serious differences between catholics and protestants and i was sure the protestants were right so i went to work to prove that and i proved way too much and i proved myself right into the catholic church but if i hadn't started from a position of difference recognizing that there were objective differences i would have had no motive to become catholic it was only after i said okay let me figure out which of these two positions is the correct one based on the texts and history and the teaching of christ that i came to the conviction that the catholics had the better side of the argument between two competing interpretations and so i opted for the catholic view now that doesn't mean that i'm trying to diminish non-catholics or i don't think they have things of value to offer they do and i'm very happy for them they have many virtues that i like personally i'll follow a holy healthy happy person wherever right in their holiness and happiness but yes there are substantive differences okay well there it is appreciate that thank you so much uh for listening to us in london england on youtube call to communion here on ewtn our phone number 833 288 ewtn if you have a question for dr david anders or if you'd like to explain to us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288-3986 here's an email from emmanuel who says in a conversation my catholic friend told me there is evidence in the bible for the ordination of women to the diaconate he also argued the deacons have no share in the priesthood of christ but are ordained into a ministry of service and so there will be no problem having women deacons as this was the norm in the early church well if this is true why is it that the ordination of women to the diaconate is a closed case in the catholic church okay so first of all no evidence for the ordination of women in the new testament that's just false there is no such evidence all the deacons ordained in the new testament are men okay period end of paragraph so i mean the position that your friend articulated is wrong now there there were women in christian antiquity that were given a unique form of service and the the greek word for deacon means to serve but it wasn't the the it wasn't the ordained ministry of the diacona it was another form of service there were tasks that were appropriate for women and not for men uh uh when there were issues but for the care of the poor and so forth or the abused or the battered where you needed to have a woman care for a woman right and you couldn't have a man doing that job because it was be insensitive and women do serve in that capacity but it wasn't the ordained diaconate and in terms of the position whether or not the diaconate is a participation in christ's priesthood it it is it's it's it's one of the grades of holy orders and so someone who is an ordained person to the dac and it participates in a more way but still in a in a in a manner of speaking in the priesthood of christ now all catholics of course participate in the priesthood of christ in virtue of their baptism all right now the the difference is whether or not that priesthood uh conveys a particular ministerial function within the church you know ordered towards the sacraments and that's called ultimately the fully ordained priesthood the man who can or who can confess the eucharist and celebrate the sacraments but we all share in a remote way in christ priesthood through our baptism okay appreciate that call to communion here on ewtn uh let's go to the phones right now if you're ready i think we're ready we're not quite ready we're still getting that call screen so let me do one more question here but i will give you the phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 this is uh from melody who sent us an email i recently listened to the show where dr andrews talked about how catholics don't believe in the rapture could you please explain what catholics do believe about end times the end of the world christ coming again all these sorts of issues yeah thank you appreciate the question there will be an end of the world christ will come again the dead will be raised bodily we will be judged by christ and he will separate the sheep from the goats that will all happen sometime in the future and we're closer now than we've ever been and that's as close as we can get that's about all we know that's about all we know okay now you know there are other hints and intimations in the new testament uh that really are impossible to locate you know on it on a dated timeline saint paul talks about the man of lawlessness and the thessalonian correspondents who will arise and defy god and and uh you know the book of revelation has these apocalyptic images of beasts from the sea and the earth and so forth and the difficulty with trying to locate those in our contemporary experience is that people have been trying that for 2000 years and they've always been wrong true and and so the way i personally approach it is that the sacred writer may have had some specific historical events from the first century in mind when he wrote these texts but he framed them in a way to make them of perennial spiritual significance and so in every generation there's always some kind of character or characters who seem to uh have some similarity to these apocalyptic figures there's always tyrannical religious and political power pressing the people of god this is something that's been common to christian experience for 2000 years and so we're able to go to these apocalyptic texts and say yeah that seems like today and yesterday and last century and tomorrow and tomorrow yeah so they're always relevant to us very good if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin with darrell in houston listening on the great guadalupe radio darrell what's on your mind today hey dr andrews one of my favorite shows um kind of an interesting question uh in my family uh we uh with our newborn um we are faced with the um question of what type of uh like blessing or dedication do you want to go forward with um my wife and i are both cradle casters but we currently attend the local uh evangelical church not for theological reasons just more sarcastic out of convenience it's committed to the area that's pretty much the main reason why we attend but then i actually said i said what do you do for a newborn they say oh we do a baby dedication uh um once a month and i said oh okay and i didn't really get any more information uh about that and so i just i just started to do some basic research and it seems like uh a baby dedication is nothing close to a christmas so i wanted to get your your general take on what you would advise about you know newborns and bringing the newborn into the world and starting them off on the right foot that's that's why i sure appreciate the question thank you so much so uh sacred scripture actually addresses this issue most explicitly in the second chapter of the book of acts when peter preached his famous sermon at pentecost and the folks in jerusalem came and said well what should we do and peter's response was repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the holy spirit the promise is for you and for your children and for your children and if you keep going in the book of acts you get to chapter 16 you see the case of the philippian jailer who when he believed had his whole household baptized and it makes sense because the new testament does not it's not more restrictive than the old in the disposition of god's grace it's more effusive more of god's grace available to us in the new testament well in the old testament god commanded the israelites to circumcise their infant male children as a sign that they were participants in the covenant community now that sign was without the grace that comes with baptism but it was still a sign of their inclusion well how much more is he going to give the reality in the new testament not just the sign but the reality of his grace and presence and sure the old testament children were included in that covenant community how much more than new which is why peter says the promises for you and for your children don't prevent the little children from coming to me jesus says for such as these is the kingdom of heaven so for these and other reasons the catholic church has always believed that it is appropriate to bring infants for baptism and i would strongly encourage you to do that and i understand your reasons for where you are but if you want my advice as a catholic about the right way to introduce your children to the religious life of the faith i'd say have them baptized and then so they never they're never not a part of christ's church from infancy they've always grown up you know with all the duties and rights and privileges and obligations of christian life as members of christ's body which is the church and the fullness of that of course is in the catholic church yeah and darrell was talking about the uh the convenience we understand the convenience of maybe maybe this church that they've been attending is just down the street but houston's a big city lots of great wonderful catholic churches all over the place a lot of catholic churches in houston absolutely darrell 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 here on ewtn let's go now to doug in jacksonville florida listing on siriusxm channel 130. and there doug what's on your mind today hi doctor thank you for taking this call and i enjoyed you on journey home last night that was a great program too thank you um the the question that i have really i sent it in a while back and you probably have answered it uh but uh earlier you had a discussion or it said that the topic of worship came up where this lady was saying or somebody was saying that you know you have so many things attachments uh we really worship we do this that and in relation to the the verse in the gospel of john 4 i think is 24 where it says god is spirit and those who worship worship in spirit and truth how is the catholic mass the true form of worship in terms of comparing it to what the protestant church would offer yeah thank you i really appreciate the question so the the major difference between protestant worship and catholic worship is that catholic worship understands true worship as being a sacrifice and when jesus says the father desires true worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth we get that unpacked in two other places in the new testament one of them is romans chapter 12 where saint paul says uh offer your bodies as living sacrifices this is your rational or spiritual act of worship the worship and spirit and in truth offering of one's body and living sacrifice and imitation of the self-offering of jesus saint peter says the same thing in first peter chapter 2 as you come to him the living stone rejected by humans but chosen by god and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ right so sacrifice is of the essence of the worship in spirit and in truth now like everything else in christian life a sacrifice is presented to us in the form of us of a sacramental ritual like there are many things that we need to do as christians jesus wants us to do whenever he wants us to do something he represents it to us in a sacramental form so he wants us to die to ourselves and be reborn in him so that's represented to us in baptism it's both represented and made effective in us through baptism christ wants us for example in our marriages to figure his own self-sacrifice for his body the church and so he makes marriage into a sacrament that both exemplifies and makes that reality christ wants us to confess our sins to forgive one another and to be forgiven and so he expresses that to us in the sacrament of reconciliation christ wants us to offer our bodies and living sacrifices he himself exemplified this in his own passion and death but he also makes it present to us liturgically in the holy sacrifice of the mass so the sacrifice of myself and the sacrifice of christ are brought together in one liturgical act namely the holy sacrifice of the mass now protestants reject all of that and reject that sacrifice is part of is part of true worship or true religion doug thanks so much for your call lots more straight ahead on this edition of call to communion here on ewtn do stay with it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn we need to pray because god says to pray we don't need to pray to change god's mind we pray because that is our big connection to the almighty do we need it like we need air like you need water yep because if in fact god is the ultimate reality more reality than air and water then we do need to pray as much as we need to breathe [Music] and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for the elderly almighty god and father we adore you from whom all life has come and to whom all life returns give to those who are suffering under the burden of the years hope and joy fill them with gratitude for their many years and make them rich in love [Music] as they grow older on the outside make them younger on the inside through the work of the holy spirit use this time to prepare them lord for the joys of eternal life amen hi this is scikel at the host of catholic answers live later today matt fradd joins us on where you can find true happiness catholic ants who's live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david [Music] anderson what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six uh one of my favorite questions here just popped up david and this is from donegan watching us on facebook today donegan says i keep losing attention when i'm at mass what can i do to stop getting distracted you ever been distracted during the days okay so being distracted during mass is not a sound good start with that okay and uh i remember talking to a child psychologist one time who was not catholic he was a protestant fellow but good man and he himself had attention deficit disorder and had a hard time paying attention he used to tell me he would go into church and he would have a goal of trying to keep focused during the entire pastoral prayer and he could never do it he would he would lose it you know he could just not do it right and uh and so people have varying degrees of attentional resources sure um you know just like i'm only good for you know so many games of basketball and these days that's not even a full game of basketball you know like this is not a crime right you have a limited amount of natural capacity that's okay st thomas tells us that you know as long as your intent you bring the intent to be present to god to your act of prayer your prayer is still meritorious even if you lose your focus during prayer right now that doesn't mean that there's no benefit in trying to stay focused there is and there are a lot of ways that you can help that i mean one way is make sure you have the missilet with you when you go to mass and you can follow along in the texts and given that you know they're different you get the ordinary of the mass and you have the you have uh the propers and so parts change and parts stay the same and the priest has several different eucharistic prayers he can choose from and so if you really want to follow every word there's a good bit of flipping around in the mistletoe that you have to do and that can kind of keep you occupied i'm always reading the at least the lectionary as i'm as i'm attending mass right um and then you know if you just can't do it if you do well you know you can always you can always offer your own private prayers uh if you lose focus and and that's okay too i mean the important thing is to be present to offer yourself to seek to grow unholiness conform yourself to christ uh you know you want an informed participation in the mass but like i said we all have our we all have our gifts and we have our finite capacity of attentional resources and that's okay i remember asking a priest about this many years ago a priest is now deceased and i said father do you ever lose focus during the mass he said every day every day so don't be too hard on yourself right let's just hope father doesn't lose focus during the homily yeah okay donegan thanks so much for checking in with us today uh via facebook call to 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 if you're watching us on tv today i'd love to get your email ctc at ewtn.com ctc.ewtn.com here is an email that we received actually it's a text from john which is going to require a definition of terms john says i have a friend who is sspx what are some reasons that he shouldn't be sspx or is it fine is it okay so first of all david what is ssp yeah thank you this ssb exchange for the society saint pius the tenth is a priestly fraternity um of priests in disobedience to the pope that's putting it mildly as putting it quickly all right um and uh so actually unless your friend is a priest he's actually not part of the sspx he may be a layperson that goes to mass at an sspx chapel but this is a fraternity of priests a priestly group um now why why would i advise him not to go to mass with at the ssbx chapel well because the priests are in disobedience to the pope that's why yeah you know i mean do they have a valid liturgy yes they do have valid sacraments because they're validly ordained but they're illicitly ordained ordained against the direct instructions of the pope and uh and and look unity unity is a is a much higher value than than liturgical preference which is much higher value saint paul talks about this he says you know if anyone wants to have another practice know that we don't have another practice nor do the churches of god you have to agree on everything he says first corinthians chapter 1 verse 10. you the unity of the body of christ around the pope and the bishops in communion with him is one of the highest values of liturgical life enough catholic life and uh and if some group wants to go make a party you know a group apart based on an ideological construal of the catholic faith um well that they're you know they're that's that's functioning contrary to the mind of the church with respect to unity so that's why i wouldn't go john thanks so much for your text here's a question now from uh michael watching us on youtube today michael says i am a reformed protestant but i want to be catholic can anyone recommend a book that i could read for my lack of understanding and disagreements yes absolutely i've got the perfect resource for you um it is actually called communion.com uh holidaycommunion.com a website it's not a book it's a website uh that preceded the existence of this radio show and it's not just me it's me and several other authors who were all reformed protestants who became catholics but the purpose of the thing is to do exactly that to build a bridge between catholicism and reformed protestantism and to answer the kind of objections that reformed protestants specifically would have to the catholic faith so i think that is really the best resource i can give you in print which is called communion.com super duper call to communion here on ewtn back to the phones right now at 833 288 ewtn here is uh matt a first-time caller in dallas listing on guadalupe radio hey matt what's on your mind today hi dr anders i was a protestant three-year seminary student just starting the rcia classes this sunday and i had a question regarding how do protestants who fall in a state of mortal sin uh be reconciled to god if they do not have access to the eucharist or to a priest that is able to grant forgiveness sure sure they would be reconciled to god the same way uh the hebrews were right and king david models this in psalm 51 when he prays you know the lord against you and you know only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight therefore wash me and i will be cleansed purify me renew a right spirit within me take not your holy spirit from me then i'll offer sacrifices on your altar a contrite heart a lord you will not despise so the way all the hebrews the judeans israelites were reconciled to god was by acts of perfect construction like this and also they made atonement for their sins through almsgiving and other sacrifices um and uh and so protestants would do the same thing now what does what does confession add to the picture right so first of all confession does not suddenly contract or reduce the distribution of god's grace and and so in this way of construing catholicism like well you know god used to save people without the sacraments now we're all limited to the sacraments no that's not how it works i mean god the catholic faith teaches that god offers sufficient grace to every single soul alive on planet earth that they might be saved there is no one who has not received the offer of grace sometimes that grace comes in a in an extra sacramental form that's known only to god right so what what the sacraments do is they locate that offer of grace visibly and infallibly in a tangible sensible sign you see and uh and so let me explain this when i was a protestant i used to i was at wheaton college evangelical president school in the midwest and they had this prayer chapel i used to like to go in there and pray and i remember there was a they called it an altar it was really just a table where people would leave anonymous prayer requests or prayer intentions you know pray for me i'm having knee surgery on friday or pray for my aunt sally she's having knee surgery on friday but a lot of times those the little sticky notes a lot of times those things would take the form of confession of sin or a prayer for help in the face of some sort of moral struggle i'm struggling with this temptation i've given into that temptation please pray for me and i used to go take those up and pray for souls and i'd leave my own requests on that table and it was comforting to know that we could bear one another's burdens to the lord in prayer but how and it was kind of a darkened space you'd been there kind of by yourself sort of anonymous and private and uh i thought how nice it would be if uh if in the midst of this this asking for prayer and for forgiveness and for grace and for healing uh if god sent a representative who was really empowered by him to speak on his behalf who could say hey just want to let you know got that prayer you sent up we got this one covered you're forgiven here's the grace the the added psychological benefit of a visible tangible representative authorized to speak on god's behalf to say that that thing you were asking for you got it here it comes right now because i've been authorized to give it to you um it's not that the guys in the prayer chapel couldn't be forgiven without that but with the addition of the sacramental presence of the priest who is authorized to speak in god's name we now have certainty that that grace is being extended here and now and in an absolute certainty of that forgiveness saint thomas aquinas when he writes about why why sacraments are necessary says because they are adapted to our embodied psychological condition i mean this is how we function on planet earth as embodied biological creatures we we experience things through our senses and so god gives us a sensible tangible sign of his presence to which he attaches a promise you do this this will be the outcome and so it's a it's a tremendous leap forward in the spiritual life it's an aid in the life of holiness rather than somehow a restriction on the life of holiness now there are other ancillary benefits as well one of them is the act of making a an an auricular confession out loud to another human being is quite frankly humiliating you've got to go tell another human being here's what's wrong with me it's humbling that runs contrary to the natural pride of the human soul and so it is a it is a it is a um a a opponent process to to you know our our our natural egotism it's working at cross purposes to our natural egotism and and mortifying it so that's also sanctifying um it's preceded by an examination of conscience and you know i remember when i was studying the works of john calvin protestant theologian um you know he was big on pointing out other people's specific faults i don't ever remember him pointing to any of his own specific faults like he would acknowledge in a general way well yeah you know we're all sinners but if you try okay well what specifically have you done you know he was he's a little bit a little bit reticent to admit to any personal faults right um an examination of conscience forces you to come to terms with okay what where are these specific areas of weakness that i need to work on stuff that i've been struggling with then actually confess that to another human being then actually receive a word of consolation and encouragement that i know possesses divine authority i mean the whole process is just one of the most powerfully edifying additions to the spiritual life that christ could give the church which is why it's the first gift he gave after rising from the dead breathed on the apostles said receive the holy spirit who sins you forgive are forgiven it's not that king david couldn't be forgiven and he could he could get forgiven and and protestants can get forgiven and non-christians can get forgiven but as catholics we have this tremendous resource to solidify to express to exemplify and to affect that forgiveness that makes it so much more effective in our lives matt we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn tom price here reminding you to be sure to join us tomorrow morning for the holy sacrifice of the mass we bring it to you every morning from the ewtn chapel 8 a.m eastern right here on ewtn radio and television let's go now to laura in vincennes indiana listening to us on siriusxm channel 130. hey there laura what's on your mind today hi um i am really looking for some advice uh i have a friend who i've been friends with for a few months now and i actually honestly always assumed she was catholic just because of all of the the things that we talked about as we've been getting to know each other and she just happened to mention today you know i'm not catholic right and i was totally taken aback and i said oh really that's really interesting tell me more and she said that she struggles with the eucharist and she's coming from a wesleyan background and i said okay um you know have you ever read augustine have you ever read aquinas and she was like oh yeah yeah i've read that and i said have you ever listened to call the communion it's a great show for non-catholics and she said yeah and dr anders i know his story and he was a calvinist and i mean she knows all about you and she knows a lot of the the heavy-hitter theology and um and she still just struggles with the eucharist what is her struggle do you know what what does she find problematic i don't know specifically um like i said i've only known her a few months and our kids were running around while we were trying to talk and she just happened to mention oh by the way i'm not catholic and i was i was just kind of well shocked you know i guess i don't know what advice to give to her sure well i mean typically when when people have a problem with the eucharist it's usually one of three things uh very often these days i hear from folks that resent the fact that the catholic church won't administer holy communion to non-catholics that's a stumbling block for some people obviously the doctrine of the real presence is a stumbling block for others and then the final piece which was more common 500 years ago you don't hear as much about it today but some people still have a problem with this is the catholic idea that the eucharist is a sacrifice so why don't we take each of those in turn and i'm going to start with the idea that the eucharist is a sacrifice the language that jesus uses to institute the mass is the language of sacrifice this business about doing this in memory of me now i'm not going to go into all the exegesis but the best scholars concur this is this is liturgical language drawn from the tradition of hebrew sacrifice and and the parallelism of course to the passover sacrifice is explicit i mean this is the this is the form that sacrificial worship takes in the life of the christian faithful and the reason christ gives us a liturgical expression of sacrifice is to exemplify for us his own paschal mystery his own death and resurrection as the pattern of our own self-offering you know saint paul says we have to offer our bodies and living sacrifices this is your spiritual act of worship and so uh it's it's fitting that christ would give us a liturgical expression of his own of his own death and resurrection to be the pattern of our self-giving and so that's why it's central to christian worship that's the doctrine of sacrifice now a big difference between christian sacrifice and hebrew sacrifice hebrew sacrifice required the ritual purity of the priest and uh and i mean that literally meant you know washing one's body and not you know like touching a dead thing and and staying away from things that would make one ritually impure but jesus turns that on its head you know he said to the pharisees you guys wash the outside of the dish what you really need to wash is the inside from which fornication and adultery and hatred and factions these sorts of things proceed saint paul says purify yourself of everything that would contaminate flesh or spirit out of reverence for god and so the the right disposition of the christian offering sacrifice is not a mere ritual purity but an inward purity ridding ourselves of hatred and fornication and factions and adultery and all the like all right so um that's to come to the eucharist without contrition and faith and charity is to is to make a mockery of the act of christian worship right it's to it's to suggest that we can offer god something other than the purity of our interior lives and that's precisely what christ demands and that's why saint paul teaches in first corinthians 11 that if we participate in the altar of our lord if we come to the eucharistic sacrifice uh with impure hearts and evil thoughts then it's not it's really not christ's death we're celebrating it's his death we're reenacting by murdering him like we're we're actually concurring in the judgment of those who killed him we're doing something blasphemous we're committing an act of superstition if we come to the eucharist eucharistic sacrifice uh without repentance and contrition and charity and for that reason the eucharist is actually kind of dangerous it's kind of dangerous and and if you come without the right disposition you can you can do harm to yourself spiritually because it will harden you in your own hardness of heart your own rejection of god's grace and for that reason the church has always thought it necessary to uh to validate that communicants are in a proper disposition and there's a disciplinary structure in the church culinary structure in the middle ages the church decided you know maybe for discretion to say it could be better if we did this thing privately and that's you know the practice of private confession as opposed to public confessions of medieval innovation innovation you know for purposes of discretion but the function is still the same it's not only to forgive my sins it's also the priest acting as a judge in what's called the internal forum validates yeah you really are contrite and you're properly disposed to go to holy communion now if you're outside the catholic church well you're not subject to the church's jurisdiction you know and therefore the the priest has no ability to to validate yeah you're contrite and properly disposed so why would why would i want to admit you to something that could potentially harm you on top of that the eucharist is in addition to the real presence of christ it is the tangible sign that the sacrament of the church's unity and so by coming to the eucharist you're professing the eucharistic faith of the catholic church and why would you want to come to the eucharist and profess a faith you don't actually hold you're involved in a kind of performative contradiction there so these are these are sort of all the pieces of the catholic position pulled together the notion of sacrifice that we really are offering christ's body and blood to god it's not just a sacrifice in in a in a merely symbolic way it's the real participation in in christ's body and blood uh which he says is indicated for our salvation and it's one that requires our own interior purification so it's really central this is why the church teaches that the sacrifice of the mass is the source and some of the christian life it is the it is the liturgical expression of what it means to be a christian namely to join ourselves to christ's uh self-oblation and pattern our lives after his and and to be in communion with him in the most intimate way that's why the eucharist is the source and some of the church's faith now if someone finds it impossible to make to make an act of faith in that um you know i would begin to ask why and it may be some people have sort of metaphysical problems with the idea of transubstantiation they can't wrap their heads around it for others it's just a question of you know getting the authority structure right in the catholic church and understanding that the church really does have the authority to teach these things so you know beyond that i guess what i would say is would you please ask her to call me and we'll talk to her sounds like a plan laura thank you so much for your call and you may want to tell your friend about today's program the podcast should be up in the next couple of hours at ewtnradio.net ewtn radio.net thanks again for your call let's go now to uh richard in texas listing on guadalupe radio richard what's on your mind today i want to thank y'all for taking my call y'all do an outstanding program thank you my question is how do you offer your pain up to god yeah it's a great question uh two ways really one of them is uh you you you surrender to divine providence i'm sure you've heard the serenity prayer and i'm going to bungle this i'm not going to get it exactly right but it's something along the lines of you know lord grant me the serenity to endure the things i cannot change the courage to change the things i can and the wisdom to know the difference right and uh it's a modern prayer but it it conveys a deeply catholic sentiment which is that you know it's the mind of christ lord take this this cup from me but not my will but thine be done i have this recognition that god is in control that that providence is unfolding for a purpose that sometimes those purposes are going to be hidden from me i don't know why this suffering has come into my life i don't see the sense in it but i trust that god is good he has some reason and uh and so rather than kicking against the goats all the time and railing against the universe and shaking my fist at the sky i'm gonna say okay i'm gonna trust god here and uh and so that's that's part of it now sometimes that can entail a recognition that all right maybe this is what i need you know saint dismiss who was on the cross next to jesus when the other thief was reviling christ saint dismissed says hey we're getting what our deeds deserve and uh you know sometimes i've had suffering in my own life that is my own darn fault and uh and the recognition you know i really put myself here like that recognition itself can be expiatory right sometimes it's not my fault sometimes this stuff just happens to me and i didn't choose it and i didn't do anything to specifically deserve it then it's a question of saying you know god you're in control not my will but thine be done now all of that is just deeply sanctifying it's actually psychologically beneficial most most of psychotherapy is a function of trying to get people to accept the things that cannot change to reframe their experiences you know with they've got these settled convictions about the reality has to be this way unless the world unfolds according to my plan you know that person does what i want them to do or i get the outcome that i want then i'm that i'm utterly frustrated with my situation and i just can't go on living a lot of psychotherapy is well that's actually not true you can go on living and you can reframe your experiences in such a way that your life doesn't cease to be meaningful or valuable you're just gonna have to let go you're gonna have to relinquish this thing that you are absolutely committed to had to be the case and uh and and the catholic doctrine of providence just adds another note to that not only do you get to relinquish those things that are beating you up but you get to acknowledge that the alternative is in accord with god's will it's god's plan right and then you know all of our life can be given to god as an offering when you say look i'm doing these things lord for you like for love of you i accept your providence that is an act of self-offering you're giving yourself surrendering to the divine plan acknowledging his goodness like jesus did on the cross not my will but thine be done and catholic faith teaches us that when we do that it's profoundly meritorious in fact it is it's it's it probably is the core thing about catholic spirituality that recognition that god is god and i'm not and i can surrender to his plan even when i find it unpleasant maybe intensely unpleasant maybe even magnificently painful in the in the short run to do that and teresa of avila's perspective was it may be really bad now but from the point of view of eternity it's all going to look like one night in a bad hotel yeah absolutely richard thank you so much uh for your call couple of other questions we just couldn't get to daniel uh checking in on facebook kelly also on facebook as you can hear here well here here comes the music there's nothing i can do about the music so uh please uh hang in there because we're gonna try to answer your questions on a future show and you're certainly welcome to uh call us uh for a future show and we'll get those on hey dr david andrews thank you sir thank you tom don't forget we do the program monday through friday here on ewtn at 2 p.m eastern on the radio side 2 p.m eastern for a live broadcast and 11 p.m eastern for the encore and as i mentioned earlier we do podcast the program we'll have that up for you in a couple of hours here at ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks so much for joining us see you next time here on ewtn's call to communion god bless [Music]

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: ofR9-VryPmE

Length: 54min 4sec (3244 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021