Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - September 9, 2021

to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-2888 [Music] i don't understand why i have to earn salvation this 1-833-288-3986 call 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 you may have never heard this show before but maybe you've heard about this show from a friend or somebody at church or whatever and you're thinking what is this a program on a catholic network for non-catholics well yeah that's what we do we try to answer those questions that you bring to the party as it as it were so here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 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 we're going to get to one of those texts in just a moment also you can send us an email if you prefer that ctc at ewtn.com the address ctc ewtn.com charles berry is our producer matt gabinski is our phone screener and jeff berson is handling social media for us very adeptly if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook we're streaming there live right now just put your question in the comments box jeff will shoot that to us here via electronics in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you my friend no i'm doing decent thank you glad to hear that um just a little a little shook up about our little uh adventure with the rattlesnake that we had in our front yard yesterday yeah you were telling me about that pretty bizarre you had an interesting solution to the problem though didn't you well you know my my wife is the one i wasn't at the house at the time so my wife did something very first 20 very 21st century she took a picture of the snake she didn't do anything about the snake she just took a picture of it so and then she texts it to a couple of people including our next door neighbor who happened to be at home and had a shovel so he took care of it fantastic i thought it worked out very well here's that text that we were mentioning and this is from an anonymous listener who says dr anders one reason that i'm not a catholic is due to the church's apparent elevation of the writings and teachings of so-called church fathers to the level of inspired scripture any thoughts there david uh yeah we don't do it we don't do it so we just don't do it why why does he think that that's what we do so here's what we do here's what we do okay scripture is not self-interpreting it's not self-interpreting it's not apparently it's not it's not immediately obvious when you pick up a text of scripture what you're supposed to do with it right and this is particularly true with respect to the old testament that demonstrates a number of behaviors sometimes by agents who represent themselves as acting in the name of god doing things uh that no christian or non-christian today would countenance would tolerate as morally acceptable i mean look at the laws in the pentateuch regulating slavery as an example yeah right i mean i could go on i could make a very long list and someone who approaches the text of scripture naively without a larger interpretive framework is liable to do themselves in somebody else's harm and 2 000 years of of history of biblical interpretation have proved that that outside of the proper interpretive framework people can bend the scriptures to their own destruction as scripture itself says people can do so what is that framework how are we to understand the bible what is the proper interpretive tradition in which to receive it well it's it's the tradition of the catholic church and that's the promise that jesus made when he founded the church he said the apostles ought to make disciples and he said i'll be with you to the end of the age whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and gave them this task of handing on the faith and saint paul recognizes this uh this this note of catholicity in his own interpretive formula when he says if someone wants to have a a contrary point of view no we have no other practice nor do the churches of god right he points to the catholicity of liturgical practice as a kind of norm for understanding the tradition um plus antiquity he says if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one you've received let him be anathema right so you have these points of sort of normative reference points catholicity uh antiquity apostolicity um and uh and and where are you going to find that embodied right i mean like when you're engaging the work of the whole bible where are you going to go to find that that catholic tradition and that that note of catholicism catholicity and abostelicity actually expressed you know as we're engaging the entirety of the works of the bible well the patristic heritage of course and so the fathers of the church who were conscious of their relationship immediate relationship to the apostles wrote commentaries wrote treatises wrote reflections on the christian life and on the interpretation of sacred scripture in the life of the church that collectively not individually not infallibly but collectively are a witness to the way scripture has always been received within the catholic church and it's reliable it's not infallible and it's not inspired but so it's reliable to the mind of the church in antiquity so the way the council of trump puts it is you can't interpret scripture in a way that radically contradicts the consensus of the fathers and so one particular church father can be egregiously wrong but where he agrees with all of them he's not going to be okay and so they're they're authoritative and important but they're certainly not inspired and they're not infallible as we're heading here to break can you recommend a book on the early church fathers uh perhaps some some sort of a reference point yeah so you know there there are of course these compilations you can get of patristic writings um but i think the best way is to start reading the fathers themselves and i always believe everybody should start with augustine's confessions it's the most accessible and one of the most beautiful but in terms of in an introduction to the mind of the fathers honestly i think the catechesis of pope benedict xvi in his wednesday audiences he did a catechesis on the apostles and the fathers and the doctors of the church this just tremendous okay well that's a good place to start for sure we thank you so much for your anonymous text and we're looking forward to getting lots of texts on the air today including some uh some emails but as you know it's primarily a phone-in show so do give us a call if you have a question for dr david anders or if you'd like to tell us what is stopping you from becoming a catholic our phone number 833-288 ewtn that's 833 call to communion with dr david andrews here on this thursday afternoon on ewtn [Music] latin mass restrictions get reaction to the pope's decision and hear why one bishop plans to keep allowing the extraordinary form fight for the unborn whether other states will follow the heartbeat law passed in texas president biden defends roe versus wade clear concise catholic ewtn news nightly tonight 9 eastern on ewtn television and radio there's a certain kind of prayer people are often afraid to say those really honest prayers the prayer of saint augustine when he prayed lord help me be pure but not yet the prayer of job when he was complaining god why did this happen to me the prayer of mary when lazarus died if you had been here lord my brother wouldn't have died where were you the prayers i find myself saying sometimes are difficult moments in life when i'm at the end of my rope lord i can't do this you gotta kick in here i think people refrain from those prairies because we think they're unholy or maybe god can't take it or maybe we think we're faking him out by pretending we have it all together and everything is great and worse pious as can be listen be honest with god you can't hide yourself from him he wants honest prayers because he doesn't just want your words he wants your heart and when you pray with all your heart the answer you might get might not be a change in your circumstances but i guarantee you it'll change you this is christophanic from reallifecatholic.com [Music] it's called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn if you have a question for us or if you'd like to explain to us what is keeping you from becoming a catholic do give us a call at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 i want to tell you about something wonderful for you available right now at ewtn's religious catalogue it is the saint joseph protector of the universal church rosary this beautiful rosary in honor of saint joseph is an exclusive creation by guerrelli just for ewtn it is made with gunmetal gray polished hematite beads for the hail mary beads and italian olive wood for the our father beads which symbolize of course joseph the carpenter and worker the crucifix is a design reproduction of peregino's painting the delivery of the keys from the sistine chapel on the back in latin it reads you are peter upon this rock i will build my church this is gorgeous the centerpiece is the scene sowing st michael placing cedar of saint peter's basilica which represents the heart of the church under the protection of blessed saint joseph on the reverse side of the centerpiece in latin it reads and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it if you've been looking for a very special rosary let me certainly recommend to you the saint joseph protector of the universal church rosary it's available right now at ewtnrc.com free standard shipping now available on online orders of 75 or more used for the code word free at checkout again ewtn rc.com if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with keith today in destin florida listening on the iheart radio app hey there keith what's on your mind today hey good afternoon gentlemen how are you today doing very well what's on your mind today keith well here's my question on spouse's side family have some extreme fundamentalist and i get into some conversations with them and they really hate the catholic church and they always bring up well not always but one of our conversations is matthew 18 20 where they say for where two or three are gathered uh in my name there there am i in the midst of them and they say you know you don't need to go to church we have our own church and they actually ordain each other they go to walmart buy these certificates or gain each other and i've tried to explain to them apostolic succession and the need for sacraments and they just they just shut you know shunned me basically and i'm looking for a layman's way to explain the necessity and the beauty of the church christ founded can dr anders are you help me with this well i can give you arguments and reasons and biblical principles and historical examples what i what i can't do is is make them want to receive those things right because for them to change their point of view would be such a devastating personal loss and and when someone is so embedded in a fundamentalist mindset like that their entire approach to reality has been strictly delimited and framed and you know you're not just asking them to change their opinion about a verse you're asking them like neo in the matrix to take the red pill right to completely restructure their entire view of reality everything and that's that's profoundly disturbing to people you know when i went from being kind of a quasi fundamentalist upbringing um as a young man through college and seminary in grad school and ultimately became a catholic that that process was i cannot even begin to tell you how intensely painful i mean it was i would not wish that amount of existential suffering on anybody because it's like the whole world gets destroyed and rebuilt for you right it's just devastating so it's not easy to just simply proof text somebody out of there out of their very settled world view because so much is at stake for them you can't go if i can do a cheesy analogy which i'm pretty famous for you can't go from midnight to noon just by flipping a switch that's right you got to go through the whole sunrise period yeah so so i'm going to give you some scriptural stuff but in terms of how you relate to them going forward um i think you really first of all exemplify in your own life all of the charity and virtues that they deny of catholics so they they hate catholics and they think catholics are wicked and evil and terrible and awful i understand that i i grew up around people like that who had that opinion of catholics you just showed them that that's not the case you know these are your in-laws i you by the way you treat their daughter the way you treat them by your own charity and and and good will and open-mindedness you know you you you love them and you forgive them you exemplify catholic virtues to them and over time that'll do a lot more right than than just the bear arguments um but now i'm going to give you some arguments okay so uh the text that they cite in matthew 18. they take out of context of course because this the larger context is what do you do when you find your brother in sin that's the question that christ is being asked what do you do when you find your brother in sin and christ says you you you go to him and you confront him and if he doesn't repent you take along somebody else and if he doesn't listen to that person you you take it to the church you take it to an institution you take it to a collective called the church right and he doesn't listen to the church then you expel him so he's excommunicated and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven or two or more of you are gathered like i will vindicate that judgment this this is not about um the gathered church having an identity as the gathered church because couple people get together and claim to be christians suddenly we're the church this is not what this is about this is actually a text about the church's juridical power to excommunicate we see the very same situation raised in first corinthians chapter five when the corinthians had a guy in their church who was up to no good he was actually he had taken home his stepmother and of course he couldn't be in that relationship that violated the jewish laws on consanguinuity so it's an invalid marriage and paul tells the corinthians this guy's got to repudiate this woman because he can't be validly married to her and if he doesn't listen to you then you have to excommunicate him and he doesn't listen and they do they excommunicate the fellow and in second corinthians we learn that the guy came to his senses he got out of his illicit relationship he came back to church and paul says okay now accept him back in and and i forgive him in the presence of christ so paul actually exercises his own power his sacramental power of absolution to absolve the guy right but the judgment of the church to kick the guy out is what is in view in matthew 18. it's the power to excommunicate so they're they're applying the text in a radically different way from the intent of the sacred writer now once you understand that you look at that power of binding and losing that's in view there in matthew 18 and there's another text that says the same thing and that's described to saint peter in matthew chapter 16. it's the same words that are used whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven but there christ confers this power uniquely on peter with with two other metaphors of of power he says first of all your name is is simon but i'm going to call you peter which means rock and on this rock i'm going to build my church it's the only time jesus ever uses the word church in the gospels i'm going to build my church on you the rock peter and i'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven that's a that's a that's an image of executive authority drawn from isaiah and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and so this power is is connected in a unique way to the apostolic office uh the primacy over which is ascribed to saint peter as the rock foundation of the church's unity so their idea that the identity and the unity image of the church flows from the individual volunteeristic association of lay christians is almost the exact opposite of what jesus says jesus establishes his church not on the the private act of faith of people gathered in their basement but on the apostolic primacy of saint peter in which the company of the apostles participate and the whole church participates in that power of excommunication which is precisely a way of differentiating those who are inside the body of christ from those who have been put outside it through disciplinary action now your friend's model of church excommunication can't happen because if that's what the church is if their model of church is accurate right well the church is just wherever two or three people gather in jesus name well if i get kicked out of bob's house i can go to sam's basement like it's like it stops being you can't have a an in and out there is no visible association from which you can be excluded if the church is nothing other than my private voluntary association because the church is wherever i am where i get to other people with me well i can't i can't be alienated from myself if i'm if i'm the foundation of the church's unity by my own voluntary choice then i can't get excommunicated but that's the whole context of matthew chapter 18. but i mean all of sacred scripture bears witness to this the church is not a private association of a few individual faithful it is rather a catholic i.e universal body of christians united across the world in a common act of faith and worship that's why in acts chapter 15 the apostles can impose canon law which they do in acts chapter 15 on the universal church they impose rules about how to include gentiles in the worshipping community that are mandatory for everybody is why saint paul can point to common liturgical practice in first corinthians 11 across the catholic world as a binding norm for everybody all right and uh and and you know even in sacred scripture i mean saint paul uh says uh but in colossians chapter four he says okay you colossians here's a letter for you guys when y'all finish with it give it to the laodiceans then you make sure you read their letter right you guys are not independent congregations you're participants in one holy catholic and apostolic church you gotta share these letters back and forth um i mean i could go on all day but i think i've made my point definitely does that helpful for you keith absolutely i appreciate you thank you so much have a great day we appreciate you as well thanks for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 ewtn or 3986 if you prefer we got a question here uh from facebook and this is from daniel who says what does the church say about women preaching and teaching in different churches my friend is a methodist my friend says it's okay for women to preach as ministers okay thanks i appreciate the question so uh women cannot celebrate holy mass and because they're not ordained priests and only priests can celebrate mass and the homily in the mass as a part of the liturgical celebration has to be reserved to the ministerial priest to the to not necessarily celebrate but has to be a ministerial priest in the in the liturgy and it has nothing to do with skill or ability because i guarantee you there are a lot of women that could out preach some catholic priests i know yeah me too all right so it's got nothing to do with their professional competence it has to do with the with the connection of the homily to the whole liturgical act right and uh and that's why only the priest or a deacon can preach the homily within the context of the liturgy but outside the context of the liturgy have at it so i mean you know if you want to go to hyde park and climb up on a soapbox you know and have your say go for it you know i mean she wouldn't have called it preaching i don't imagine but i mean you know mother angelica held forth day after day week after week for years thinking exactly the same thing you know i mean i'm sitting here right now looking at uh mother angelica's guide to the spiritual life new book by uh published by ewtn publishing mother angelica i mean like she was cranking this stuff out all day long oh yeah you know i mean she's a great teacher of the catholic faith always solid always timeless so yeah i mean women can they can teach they can they can share the word of god they can evangelize in all kinds of forum just not the homily at mass all right very good thanks so much for your question here's another one as we're heading into break this is from neha watching us on youtube today neha says what about the child graves found in old churches i'm scared of converting because of the history of the church okay thanks so uh and i'm not sure why uh burying children in grave sites would be problematic to you unless unless you have in mind uh this business that came out of canada in recent months you know there was some scandal about um there were there were native american children in canada who attended a boarding schools in canada that were actually commissioned by the canadian government and the government had uh had a goal of trying to enculturate native american kids into canadian anglo culture and they had used catholic uh nuns and missionaries and priests as agents of the government because the catholics were the only people that cared anything at all about going out and trying to help people and some of these kids got took got infectious diseases um and died while they were institutional care and they were just buried on school property you know rather than return to their families and that's kind of that's more than a little bit scandalous um uh and uh uh you know we can say a lot more about that but i mean i mean this is not this was a this was a sort of unique uh uh tragedy that evolved out of a canadian government policy of colonialization that the church i mean it does not necessarily endorse i mean that was a that was a that was a very very very you know grossly imprudent and foolish thing to have those schools and to and to undercut the authority of parents and the native culture and that's terrible yeah um but why do i know that's terrible why do i know that's terrible like the assyrians didn't know that was terrible when the assyrian empire arose they were like hey let's go make everybody else become a syrian and kill them if they don't that's that's been the way of almost every imperialistic culture on the planet they didn't think that was bad why do we know that's bad because the catholic faith teaches us that every human being has dignity and value so the reason we recoil at that kind of stuff when we see catholics do bad things we recognize them as bad because we're bringing our awareness of catholic morality and the dignity of the human person to evaluate that hypocrisy thanks for your question neha it's called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn mark tyne and ernest [Music] in any language it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn if you have a few minutes a day you can become an ewtn media missionary in your parish in your community or through prayer be a part of mother angelica's mission place your gifts and strengths in service to christ and his church by volunteering your time and sharing the eternal word with the world visit ewtnmissionaries.com today ewtn the global catholic network 60 on 10 with monsignor charles pope the seventh commandment you shall not steal the seventh commandment provides theft that is unjustly taking or keeping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner it also prohibits deliberate retention of goods lent or of objects lost it prohibits business fraud paying on just wages forcing up prices and taking advantage of the ignorance or the hardship of another person it prohibits the appropriation and use for private purposes of common goods also work poorly done tax evasion forgery of checks invoices excessive expenses and waste under the seventh commandment has also tucked our social justice teachings because if i have two coats one of them belongs to the poor and i reasonably ought to give what belongs to them because god gave all the goods of this world for all the people of this world for more about the ten commandments visit ewtnrc.com [Music] hi this is psychelette jimmy aiken father john tragillo later today on catholic answers live for two hours of open forum catholic answers 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 we have a line open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 there's a line with your name on it right now here's a question from kelly via facebook kelly says i am a 30-year catholic my husband is a nazarene christian i have been trying since we have been married to practice my faith each time i watch ewtn or pray my rosary or any of my prayers he becomes gruff with me what can i do to get him to calm down he's never been much of a christian or a churchgoer how can i get him to be more relaxed as to my daily catholic life thanks from oregon i'm watching through facebook listening on modern day radio any thoughts there for kelly yeah i do have some thoughts thank you for the question so first of all if you argue with him about it or if you criticize him about it um he will more than likely double down he will get entrenched in his opposition um and so i think the way through this for you ironically it will paradoxically is to affirm him make him not feel threatened uh you know if he criticizes you you you just tell him he's right or you find something you can agree with that he says you know you ask him about himself and his point of view you you sho you empathetically show that you appreciate what he has to say and how he feels about it um you ask him questions uh to make him feel valued and listened to um you know you you state your own feelings uh with uh you know from your own subjective point of view well you know i i like doing this and i value this and this is important to me but you don't make it a criticism of him and uh and you praise and compliment him right so make him feel respected and valued and listened to and heard and you exemplify all the all the things that he's not doing to you in other words you do to him you say like you you want him to respect your opinions and your religious practice and to treat you well and to value you and to listen to you you do all that to him and you well he doesn't deserve that doesn't matter doesn't matter you show you exemplify the behaviors you want him to have jesus told us that we're to be lights light bulbs not battering ramps yeah and uh and uh here's here's the ironic thing the more you do that the more you'll actually change him into that and we we we tend to become like the people that we live with and and that flows both ways so the more you are charitable and accepting and patient respectful towards him the more he's going to be that way towards you so i wouldn't i wouldn't spend much energy trying to defend the catholic faith to him i'd spend more energy trying to exemplify the behaviors that you wish he would show towards you beautiful there you go kelly thank you so much for checking us out on facebook call to communion here with dr david anders on ewtn lines are open for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 john in colorado says hi dr anders i heard a protestant pastor explain ordination of pastors as the particular church confirming what god has done well how does this differ from the sacrament of holy orders in the catholic church yeah thanks is very different very now there there are various protestant theologies of ordination different protestant groups view ordination in different ways and some of them don't have ordination at all so you really can't generalize about protestants but but the view that you articulated which is not an uncommon one uh is coming for example among baptists is the idea that the ordination is a recognition that somebody has a gift of preaching somebody may have a talent you know for a certain kind of christian ministry and that is that's seen by them as a kind of divine anointing this is some sort of spiritual gift that the holy spirit has given to this person and the church recognizes that person is gifted in this way and and our act of ordination is just sort of a public recognition that they have this that they have this talent right um that's not the catholic view at all you don't have to have any talents to be a catholic priest i mean you really don't i mean we'd like you to be talented but you don't have to be you can be a terrible preacher an awful administrator rotten with people bad counselor you know i mean really seriously i mean we don't want you to but like you could it's not there's nothing there's no objective impediment to becoming a catholic race because you're a person lacking in talent right um and uh my former bishop bishop baker he told me one time this is beautiful it's a great great illustration of the catholic doctrine of ordination as a bishop baker when did you know you were called to be a priest he said when my bishop ordained me wow you see it's not a recognition that you have some talent or some capacity right um that that means that god wants you to be a priest it's because the church has called you the church says okay here you're willing you're willing to do this job all right and you you you have an inclination to that we discern okay and and you seem that you can get the job done and this needs to be done right we have to have priests and you're willing to do it and we think you have the virtues necessary all right we're calling you to that ministry and and the proof is the bishop ordained you and when he does so he's not he's not recognizing something that's already in you he's putting something in you saint paul wrote to timothy be sure to fan into flame the gift that is in you through the laying on of my hands something is given to the man to be ordained given to him by the laying out of hands of the bishop the bishop confers upon him a sacramental power that he would not have had otherwise that's very different from that baptist model sure is thank you so much for your question call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six let's go now to uh hector hector is in alma michigan and uh listening on facebook this afternoon hey hector what's on your mind today hi how you doing glad you're doing this program today uh the question i have is does limbo does the church still profess the belief in limbo and if so do unborn children regardless of how they die uh still go to limbo or do they go straight to heaven yes thank you good question so the church actually teaches that there are two well i should let me back up uh theologians talk about limbo in two different senses there's the limbus of the fathers which is the abode of the righteous dead before the coming of the messiah and that is a catholic doctrine which we still hold um but then there is the limbus and phantom the limbus the limbo of infants which was a medieval theory to explain the death of unbaptized infants and the reasoning went like this infants have no personal sin for which they should be punished but they don't have the sanctifying grace of baptism which is necessary for salvation so ergo there must be an intermediate state kind of in between state of a place of natural happiness short of the beatific vision it's you know it's it's nice but it's not heaven uh you wouldn't mind being there for all eternity it's pretty okay place but it's short of the beatific vision that would seem to solve the intellectual dilemma posed by the necessity of baptism and the lack of personal sin but it was always just a speculative theory now thomas aquinas held this theory thomas held several theories that were not true he's right about almost everything but not everything he had some opinions that were wrong he held this opinion because it made sense to him and because of thomas's imminent authority as a catholic theologian it became very widespread in the latin catholic world but it has never been a dogma of the faith now if someone wishes to hold uh thomas's opinion on limbo that the doctrine has never been formally condemned and so a person could hold this it's it's it's possible that you could believe it and be catholic but it's not necessary and the preponderance of catholic theologians today including the last several popes have not held for the doctrine of the limbo of infants but have imagined that well they have held i should say that god extends grace saving grace salvific grace sanctifying grace to infants in an extra sacramental way known only to god that i'd say is the preponderance of catholic opinion today hector thank you so much for your call it's called communion with dr david andrews here on ewtn i gotta take 30 seconds to tell you a funny story about limbo okay let's hear it years ago uh we had just moved to birmingham and our son spencer was five years old and he appeared on mother angelica's halloween slash saints show so there were probably 30 kids dressed up like various saints spencer was dressed up like moses and mother angelica asked spencer something and he re he replied well he could have been in limbo and mother angelica looked at him and you know and the look on her face was perfect it was like who is this kid talk who's this five-year-old talking about limbo that was awesome that was great stuff called the communion here on ewtn let's go to travis right now travis is in riverside california listing on siriusxm channel 130 travis what's on your mind today hello gentlemen hope you guys are having a good day i got something on my mind i was listening and i have a story so i got married about three years ago and i married a christian and we had our differences but i felt like i was able to always kind of we were able to figure it out we loved each other we knew the route she we were gonna take she knew that she was going to you know abide by you know our catholic laws and rules and i just through the first year i found it very difficult she was throwing um a lot of verses at me and i'm by reaction just kind of throwing some back and trying to defend my face i realized i did need to take that route of just applying my faith and being the best catholic i can be and it worked so well it it came out positive everything started working out she started even defending the catholic faith even though she wasn't fully catholic or you know she was going to church with me but now i feel like we're at like a stagnant place where she's like yeah i agree we'll baptize our our kids catholic yes i'll do this i'll do that i just don't really feel from her like loving the catholic faith as much as i have been showing her and i feel i feel stuck and what do you think i can do yeah thank you i appreciate the question so um i really like what you said about how you started out uh trying to defend the church to her and then said maybe that's not the best drop maybe i just need to exemplify the virtues of catholicism instead and treat her well and i think that's what you do i mean i think that's that is the key insight now um you know you got to remember we're on god's timeline here not ours and and you know you have an expectation you know if i do these things well then she will come along or i will get this outcome and i would really advise you to give up that expectation and um this is hard i mean this is the hardest thing in the world for every marriage because we get married with some conception of what we think a good marriage ought to look like and then we we are so committed to realizing that vision and uh and a lot of marital conflict comes from that um that we have to be content to be married to the person that we married and not the person that we wish we would that we wish our spouse would become right um and um uh so that's my that's my council right give up your expectations die your expectations and uh and and accept the reality of your life as god's providence for your life now giving up expectations means you don't know what will happen and you know maybe something will happen that really really blows you away and so transcends anything that you ever hoped for dreamed or imagined that you'll look back in 30 years and go ha you know i was aiming for this but i got this instead and this is so much better yeah right um but in the meanwhile the only person you have any direct control over is you and so your own deepening of the catholic faith like this is a cross to you this is a suffering to you this is a disappointment to you but that's the stuff of catholic spirituality catholic life is built on what do i do with this suffering and what we do is we say be it done to me according to thy word not my will but thine be done i've come not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and and and all the things that i don't like about my life are exactly the things that god wants me to have um you know i read a book recently by a psychiatrist who had a client who came in and said you know i do whatever i want to do in life i want to stay in bed and stay in bed if i want to get up i get up you know if i want to do drugs i do drugs if i want to go with this person i go with that person if i want to rob a bank i rub a bank and she said how's that working out for you [Laughter] and you know because he was he was on the psychiatrist's couch right it wasn't working out for him right and that's really the secret to life catholic life in every life when i realized that you know it's not i can't control outcomes i can't be attached to outcomes i i can aim at the life of virtue and and try and shine as brightly as i can possibly shine that's all i can do yep well thank you so much for your call travis hope that is uh helpful for you and hopeful for or helpful for your wife as well call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn tom price here reminding you to join us for the catholic cafe sunday morning at 10 30 eastern right here on ewtn radio this week deacon jeff discusses how faith without works is dead and how faith and works are related to each other do check it out sunday morning 10 30 a.m eastern the catholic cafe right here on ewtn radio earlier in the program david we were talking about the church fathers and gene was listening via facebook gene says the church fathers are exactly what the protestant father martin luther learned from and so how can they say they don't count okay thanks i appreciate the question well first of all keep in mind that protestants are not monolithic at all right and you can't generalize about protestants they they come in many different shapes and sizes okay um but but understanding the the relationship of the reformers to the to the fathers is complicated and um while luther and calvin and zwingli and cranmer cited the fathers of the church polemically when convenient to their argument they they had no quotes about about uh defecting departing from the fathers when the fathers didn't cohere with their with their ideology and uh of course in luther's case for luther reading augustine's on the spirit in the letter was transformative and it prompted some some thoughts in him that were ultimately determinative of his of his idiosyncratic religious actions uh but luther was very conscious that he went somewhere that augustine did not go so augustine was transitional for him he read augustine he was influenced by augustine but he himself was aware that he departed from augustine and went someplace new and luther had other influences as well william of occum uh the nominalist uh late medieval franciscan philosopher was was very influential for luther luther once said that ockham was his master um luther was trained in the philosophy of gabriel beale a um 15th century um catholic nominalist theologian luther was influenced by rhineland mysticism he had a lot of influences in his intellectual background that were not patristic and some of them were were quite philosophically perverse and then of course he had his own his own idiosyncratic uh religious narrative that he that he admits to basing his theology out of he he said i didn't learn my theology from books luther wrote yeah but um but from my own on fectune which is the german word for angst or depression or anxiety he theologized out of his experience which was tortured and then he imposed that as a normative pattern for other people's spirituality he thought his own life narrative of suffering and anxiety and depression and neuroticism leading to a kind of manic high and a rejection of all moral norms that everybody ought to do that and so he built a whole spirituality around his own experience of of neuroticism okay so he wasn't just grounded entirely in the works of the fathers not by a long shot very good thanks so much for your question uh right now robert is watching us on youtube robert says how do i come back to the church i have been away for four years easiest thing in the world you just walk into the confessional just then you're done you just walk right in there make a confession of your sons and then boom you're back simple as pie and look the priests if they're good at one thing they're good at they're good at getting people back in the church through confession nothing makes a priest's day more than bless me father i've sinned it's been 20 years since my last confession yeah man i mean they get they really love that so you'll be welcome with open arms as david anders would say that's the stuff that is the stuff it is the stuff here is a question now from uh south africa uh from this is from muzi or musee muzi she's in south africa eight years old okay i love it and uh dr andrews she says my family enjoys listening to your show on spotify in south africa i have two questions number one what is the official teaching or position of the catholic church on the theory of evolution and why does the catholic church need a pope thank you musi now musey may be a male or a female i was assuming but uh could be either one well first of all musi is like the smartest eight-year-old i have ever met i'll say that is a that is a mental level question for an emerald my okay so the church does not have an official position on the theory of evolution what the church has instead is a fist as an official position on the relationship of the faith to reason and science okay that's what the church has an official teaching on and the church's position is that this the god of creation the god of the natural world is the god of redemption and there is no conflict between the life of faith and the life of natural reason and so we are responsive to what reality teaches us and if we learn something about the natural world from observation whether that be from biology or geology or astronomy and and we recognize that a thing is you know that a thing is exists the thing is true the thing has happened then it happened and we're not threatened by that you know we're not afraid of reality we're not afraid of evidence we're not afraid of truth truth is our ally and for that reason there are a great many catholic scientists and theologians i'd say the vast majority in fact who who think that the evidence for some form of biological evolution whatever the mechanism is overwhelming and therefore they say okay well that's what the evidence shows so that's fine we're not worried about reality reality is our ally here is our friend and then they go to work uh coordinating that making that cohere with our understanding of the catholic faith so in other words you should not be threatened by this or other scientific theories now when you get worried is when scientists move out of their lane and start talking about spirituality and ethics and cosm you know in metaphysics they start they start trying to be theologians or philosophers then you hey buddy you stay in your lane i'll stay in mine you know um now when um why does why does the church need a pope well we need a pope because we have to have a point of unity a visible unity for the whole church and look history has proven that in religious communities that don't have that center of that visible center of unity that they can't stay unified they can't they can't do it they split into into divergent groups and and look that that is the that's pope's primary job description is to keep maintaining the unity of the church and and the church he has absolutely done that pope's down through the history have absolutely been that point of unity so that you can always look back and go okay that's the catholic church now you know the office holder may be a good guy maybe a bad guy might be wise might be foolish might be a hole he might be a saint might be a sinner we had a 200 year run without a single canonized pope it was a bad time to be a catholic it's a bad time to be a guy bad popes but they did the job yeah that's why we need one there you go musee thank you so much for your two excellent questions we're going to close out here uh with a text that we received from rose rose says i am new to the catholic religion what is a martyr someone who is murdered because of his or her adherence to the catholic faith that's what a martyr is and uh martyrdom is a is a very celebrated state within catholic life if you make the ultimate sacrifice you have conformed your life to christ's life in a uniquely powerful way so the martyrs are sort of the the exemplar saints in the catholic tradition um saint ignatius of antioch who was not the first martyr in the catholic church but he was very early right around the beginning of the second century was bishop of antioch third bishop after saint peter he was picked up by roman soldiers and hauled off to rome for execution he was so excited and he actually wrote the roman church and he said i know some of you guys are buddy buddy with the government and you might be able to get me off oh please don't i i am so looking forward to this and if the lions don't want to eat me i am going to base myself in heinz 57 and jump down their throats so that i'm tasty for them i mean he he left off the bit about heinz 57 yeah but he actually said if the wild beasts will not eat me i will coax them so that they will eat me because i cannot wait to share in the sufferings of christ in this way now he says i truly am becoming a christian really a heroic and to a heroic life he just was not afraid no i mean he was not afraid to die for jesus he was not there you go rose thanks so much for your text and uh welcome to the catholic faith dr david andrews a fast-moving show thank you sir thanks tom don't forget we do do this program monday through friday here on ewtn radio live 2 p.m eastern just about every weekday and then an encore for you at 11 pm eastern 8 p.m pacific be sure to check out the podcast anytime you wish you can even subscribe to it if you'd like that and that is ewtnradio.net ewtn ewtnradio.net i'm tom price along with dr david andrews see you tomorrow right here on ewtn's call to communion god bless i'm kimberly hahn and my new show beloved and blessed is now on ewtn radio every week i share scripture and my personal experience to speak to the desires and strengths of all women so that each of us can better live out our vocations as daughters of god tune in to find inspiration hope and stress

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,201

Rating: 4.9285712 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: WW6pkgAwyCw

Length: 54min 25sec (3265 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021