OPEN LINE THURSDAY - September 16, 2020- Fr. Brian Mullady

this is open line with today's host father brian milady in north america call toll-free 1-833-288-ewtn that's 1-833-288-390 outside north america call 1-205-271-2985 [Music] you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 or send an email to openline ewtn.com a tremendous thursday to each and every one of you thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line if you'd like to be part of the program the number is eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're outside the united states and canada your number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send us an email openline ewtn.com or you can text your question text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply i'm jack williams coming to you live today from the legatus summit west in scottsdale arizona the festivities will kick off in earnest this evening with a mass at 5 30 p.m we'll be with you from scottsdale again tomorrow and uh keep all of the leggets and all the good folks doing all the great work at legatus in your prayers as they go along this weekend michael mccall producing the program your call screener is matt gubinsky and jeff burson handling our social media efforts so if you're watching us on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and our host as he is every thursday dominican father brian mullady how are you it's fine thank you how are you i am terrific you're back in uh in uh the friendly confines of portland oregon yes beautiful portland yes there you go so we celebrated uh beautiful feast the feast of the exultation of the cross this week and i think you wanted to expound a little bit on on the cross yes i would i was meditating myself on this feast which is one of my favorite feasts and i was thinking it's strange that our religion uses this sign because as you know the crucifixion itself is probably one of the most horrendous forms of execution ever invented by man some of you may have studied the crucifixion what happens in crucifixion but i found it fascinating when i did read a doctor's analysis of what went on in christ's own crucifixion that the crucified died basically by self suffocation you held yourself up on the cross and as you tired either when jesus of course hands were nailed not everyone's hands were nailed but as you slowly began to tire from holding yourself up your head began to fall into your chest and as it developed more deeply into your chest it cut off your breathing and eventually you died as fixed suffocation all the other things that they did to torture you contributed to this and contributed to the agony that's why for example when the romans wanted to have the thieves have the crucified ones killed immediately because the jews wanted them taken down from the cross remember they broke their legs they didn't break jesus legs because he was already dead but then you couldn't hold yourself up anymore and you'd aspire much more quickly but you could be there for quite some time the hours days trying to hold yourself up and eventually it was all over and it would be slow and agonizing and painful this is the sign of our religion it's not only the sign of our religion but there's a wonderful statement uh cook's thought devolvator orbis the cross stands as the world turns now why on earth did christ choose this month to the method of redemption for us first of all we have to affirm that he did many people today don't look on jesus as a redeemer even people in catholicism cardinal ratzinger the president pope benedict emeritus uh gave a talk in 1989 to assemble european theologians where he basically stated that the catholic religion was in deep serious trouble in three ages today the first was what he called his the metaphysics of creation in his very academic terminology by which he meant that many people don't think there's any difference between god in the world there's no transcending god today in catholicism he was talking about teachers of the catholic faith in seminaries and colleges and universities the third area is that as a result they don't believe in an afterlife so they think that we can resolve these problems by human power he said he heard a preacher in germany in the 60s first deny the existence of hell then purgatory and then finally try to convince his congregation there was no heaven well of course if you do those two things the third area is in the middle and you say you're a christian since do you make of jesus he said in those times there were two tendencies one was to reduce into a political liberator who led arms struggle against unjust social structures now we don't tend to suffer from that in the united states but the second we do and that is that jesus is just a good middle class man a good man so good is somehow to be identified with god who princed a simple doctrine of love and pacifism he said the difficulty with this model is first of all it doesn't challenge you to anything and secondly it separates christ from his cross all other men were born to live bishop sheen used to say jesus was born to die because the sacrifice of the cross which we were new in the mass takes upon itself the human punishments from the original sin which are not moral namely suffering and death and intense suffering and death jesus suffered in the cross in every level of his body um you could imagine having seen that movie the passion of the christ of mel gibson with the scourging scene that alone is so repulsive that it's difficult to imagine how a person could survive it but then you know you had christ who had his hands and feet nailed he was stripped of his garments and made naked he witnessed the suffering of his mother weeping at the crosser station keeping stood the mournful mother weeping he the smell of death and the whole thing thirst i thirst the sight of the blood and the whole mess all these things jesus suffered as the punishment for our sin but he did so to reverse the unloving disobedience of adam in loving obedience in his human nature now god could have chosen to redeem the human race any way he wanted to but he always does it does things in a fitting way in a reasoning way so it had to be someone who was human to atone for the human sin any man mere man wasn't sufficient for this only someone who's the person of the word with the human nature and then not only that but he had to take upon himself all the sufferings that we experience physically not sin of course but generally physically now he wouldn't have obviously had all the diseases in the world but he did certainly suffer hunger thirst and you know the other thing is on the cross that jesus's body was exquisitely fashioned by the holy spirit and so as a result his body was more sensitive than ours so if a body is more sensitive it hurts more when it's cut rather than less and so on the cross all these physical pains that jesus experienced in addition to his good name being trashed the whole thing they were a part of his intense offering by which he took them all there put them to death so that even if we experience them we will no longer lose hope because of them now we need to remember that the cross is the center of our religion there's a beautiful hymn the sun during passion tide about the cross uh oh tree of beauty tree of light across our one reliance hail and uh we exalt this terrible instrument of torture that was invented by the cruelty of man to demonstrate the victory of god's love for us eight three three two eight eight e wtn is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's ewtn's open line thursday with father brian malady [Music] [Applause] this is conversations with consequences where we delve deeper into issues affecting our church our country and our core the family as catholics we need to be informed aware and able to talk through some of the tough topics that we're facing in our culture and our world conversations with consequences gives us the tools to do so it's not enough to pray we have to be a light for the world conversations with consequences this saturday at 5 pm eastern on ewtn radio is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan this year pope francis has proclaimed a year of the family in which he invites us to reflect on the meaning of family life although we can spend a lot of time speaking about the troubles family's face pope francis began his reflection by emphasizing joy the first sentence in amoris letitia states the joy of love experienced by families is also the joy of the church the holy father is saying that the church is energized and inspired by the human love displayed in family life god who is the author of life who himself is family wants us to share in this joy now we understand that this can be difficult in the midst of a hectic messiness that often characterizes life with children but this year we believe the church wants us to reconnect with the fundamental joy that should be at the heart of the life in the home we need to acknowledge the goodness of what god has done for us for more encouragement and inspiration to see the joy in your family visit us at messyfamilyminute.org this is open live on the ewtn global catholic radio network if you have a question call 1-833-288-ewtn that's 1-833-288-3986 outside north america call 1205-271-2985 or send us an email to openline ewtn.com once again we're coming to you live from the legatus summit west in scottsdale arizona but we're still taking your phone calls at uh 833-288-3986 religious catalog has a new uh item well it's not a new item but it's a a highlighted item it's a brown scapular of mount carmel with metals it's traditional pieces of the brown scapula that are sewn washable brown wool and the scapular also features features an attached small crucifix and saint benedict metal it comes packaged with a brief explanation of the scapular of mount carmel and the jubilee medal of saint benedict it's available with a white cord or a brown cord and it's uh as i said available at ewtn's religious catalog that's ewtnrc.com where they're offering free shipping on orders of 75 or more that's standard shipping in the continental united states only again the scapular of mount carmel with metals at ewtn's religious catalog the numbers again 833 288 ewtn that's up today is 833-288-3986 in las vegas nevada watching us today on youtube christine you are on with father brian hi hi father brian um so there is an argument about abortion and the other side was saying that life doesn't begin at conception that it begins when uh it takes a breath and i don't really know how to counter that argument well life begins when the soul is implanted so the soul implant in the body is human life it's not a goat or a whatever so even if it wouldn't be a fully formed human being in the sense that you could have breathing it certainly is by nature oriented to that and since you have all the you know the chromosomes and all that business and you have the um the human soul in it uh in union with the body that's when human life begins the soul doesn't change to be something else now aristotle didn't believe in progressive animation but we don't anymore and partially because of dna i mean if even if there were a progressive animation it would be a couple of hours it wouldn't have to wait till you take a first breath or something like that so uh it's it's a specious argument uh all of a sudden when you take your first breath you somehow become what an uh only an animal and then you become a human being that doesn't make any sense at all so that's how i would counter it thanks christine we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america 833-288-3986 we're gonna try line two here pam are you still with us in lancaster ohio yeah i guess pam has dropped off so uh again those numbers are eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six wide open phone lines and plenty of time for your calls here on open line thursday craig writes in he said i was told that the muslims believe in the same god as catholics is this true no it's not we believe that the god is a trinity the very saying god is one allah allah is great allah is one which was the battle cry in which the muslims wrote into battle is the denial of the trinitarian doctrine they also it's true they think jesus existed and they renerate mary but they believe jesus was only a prophet and not the prophet the prophet was muhammad thirdly the muslim god is totally other than the world in such a way that god can have whims for one thing uh he can be like a petulant child who can change his mind about what the truth is day by day and also uh being so transcendent from the world there's no way we can be made in his image and likeness so as a result you will find no philanthropy in muslim countries except things they've taken over from christian missionaries so it doesn't make any sense to feed the poor i don't know if you've ever visited a muslim country i have pakistan i've never seen just poverty in my life and we have nothing to compare with it in the west not the poorest town in this country can compare with it and the reason is because human life is worth nothing and the reason human life is worth nothing is because we can't be made in the image and likeness of god because god is so other has to be unknowable so no we do not believe in the same god there are some characteristics of god the fact that he's one and the fact that he is transcendent we also affirm but the way they interpret that is very different than the way we do eight three three two eight eight e w t n is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america wide open phone lines for you at 833-288-3986 [Music] william is watching us on youtube and he says father in john chapter 15 it says that any branch that does not bear good fruit will be thrown into the fire and burned how does one bear good fruit except by doing good works well you that's it you've got it good fruit means basically that you take seriously your conversion and remember the whole image of the vine and the branches is the christ divine life pulsating through the members of the church through grace so once you reach a certain age seven or whenever you mature enough to have your first reasoning act which we normally take to be about seven then you have to have that influence your deeds and when you don't do that then you become like a useless branch now of course we don't really know who's like that and who isn't exactly and that's why remember the branches aren't trimmed off the vine until the end of the world in other parables so it's a beautiful image and it also reflects the idea that we can do nothing without god's help so just as the branch has to be on the vine and receive the life of the vine so we have to constantly receive the inspiration of christ through actual grace and the actual text for actual grace that was used as one of the early councils was that text without me you can do nothing and the image that was primarily used was of the vine and the branches eight three three two eight eight e wtn that's our toll free number with your question your question for father brian mullady 833-288-3986 [Music] we have an email from hannah and she says why pray and ask god for help if we don't know what his will is for us maybe we'll be praying for something that god does not will for us well uh god always wills good for us some and even uh good that is attained through the experience of evil we are asked to pray for everything that we need not because god has to give this to us or he depends on our prayers but because he wants us to express the fact that we rely on him and we don't change his mind by our prayers what we do is reflect the fact that we depend on him to receive whatever goods we receive and god always answers our prayers but not in the way we think the answer should be he sometimes uh answer many times answers our prayers in the way he thinks we should receive things but we don't perceive it that way because we don't know his mind totally so the fact that we're asked to pray for all these things is it because we need to enlighten god about it he already knows what we need and he always already knows what we want but it's to express this on our part to say if we are going to receive this we receive it as depending on you to give it to us and that is why the ultimate prayer is always thy will be done 833 288 ewtn pick up the phone and give us a call at [Music] bryant 833-288-3986 in and says do we receive the holy spirit through the sacrament of baptism or only in the sacrament of confirmation oh yes i had one of our brothers ask me this question i must admit i find it weird people don't know this the catechism of the catholic church is very clear that in baptism you not only receive sanctifying grace you receive the theological virtues of faith hope and charity you receive the moral virtues of prudence justice temperance and fortitude and you receive the seven sanctifying gifts of the holy spirit so confirmation the word comes from the latin anaphon for the sacrament confirma strengthen hulk deus strengthen in us these gifts and especially strengthen these gifts in us by strengthening us the gift of fortitude so that as adults we can live an adult christian life in living all the things that we were given in baptism and that's why remember we used to say that by confirmation we become a soldier of jesus christ and when the bishop confirms people he symbolically slaps them and that's to demonstrate that they have to experience their moral conversion as a suffering and therefore they have to have courage to do it and the holy spirit will give us that courage if we ask for it but no you receive all those things in baptism the whole organ and the catechism puts it this way the whole organism of the christian life is received in the sacrament of baptism 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america pick up the phone and give us a call at 833-2888 [Music] if you're outside the united states and canada we've got a number for you it's 1-2-0-5-271-2985 and if you are outside of north america we'll even give you uh put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send us an email that address is open line at ewtn.com and put thursday or father brian in the subject line we'll get it to the appropriate location that's open line at ewtn.com or you can text your question text the letters ewtn to five five zero zero zero wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply coming to you live today from the legatus summit west in scottsdale arizona it's open line thursday with father brian malady [Music] [Applause] get the catholic news perspective on the things that impact your life plus daily reports from the white house capitol hill and rome news from around the world as it happens on ewtn radio the reason we pray is first we oh god worship thanksgiving and adoration he created us and everything around us and prayer of praise and adoration is his due for giving us everything including the thought that we praise and in that thanksgiving we are made better for realizing what he does for us [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 today we pray for those who are suicidal heavenly father we adore you you delighted in the thought of each one of us and so created us that we would share in your life and love both now and forever our lives are precious help those who are tempted to take their own lives to find you reveal your love to them and open their eyes to the wonder of their existence give them hope and their despair joy in their sorrow peace and their distress amen tomorrow on more to life real self-care are you feeling drained or burned out we're going to help you learn to take better care of yourself that's tomorrow on more to life now back to open line with father brian milani this is open line on the ewtn global catholic radio network [Music] coming to you live from the legatus summit west in scottsdale arizona if you'd like to talk to father brian m'lady pick up the phone and give us a call at 833 288 ewtn it's a free phone call anywhere in north america 833-288-3986 next up is diane in detroit michigan she's listening on siriusxm channel 130. diane thanks for holding you're on with father brian hi diane hello father brian hello thank you for taking my call um i am currently a a lapsed catholic i have been for some years now i desire to come home what do i need to do that should i take the classes all over again i was a convert coming into the faith the first time and since that time i have also remarried um okay so you were burying the church when you the first time hello all right yeah and uh your husband is still living and this time you did not get married in the church is that correct that is correct all right the biggest problem you'll have is the marital issue um if you can you need to seek an annulment to be able to become back in full communion you can come back any time of course but the issue is you can't go to communion i wouldn't say you have to go through all the classes again unless you want to i don't know and really outside of the marriage situation she would really just need to go to confession right that's right exactly so the the only real issue would be and of course as i say you can always come to church but you can't go to confession and receive absolution if you're still living in an illicit relationship and having sex so that would be an impediment because objectively speaking you're not living with the blessing of the church and you're having sex without the blessing of the church so that is the issue if you want to go back into full communion that you need to resolve and the best first step for her would be well talk to your parish priest obviously he can tell you what to do i don't know why what your relationship with your second husband is like but um or what religion he is or whatever but if it's a difficult thing for him to experience a catholic wedding ceremony as long as you're receiving an annulment from the first marriage there's what they call a sonatsu and radice which is a basically we affirmed the second bond as um marriage uh without having to go through the vows and the ceremony and everything because it already took place but in order for that to be the case you have to be free to marry which means that you have to address the situation of your first marriage and that normally involves some testimony not only on your part in your family's part but on the part of your spouse former spouse too as to whether the the marriage was valid or not so yes other than that the only difficulty would be just basically coming back and going to confession thanks diane we appreciate the phone call good first step would just be to get together with your the pastor of your local parish and he can walk you through the ins and outs of all exactly he's on the site he's on the side on the situation yes thank you diane we really appreciate the pro the phone call today 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number a couple of open lines for you and plenty of time for your phone calls at 833-288-3986 [Music] we received a text message from dean and he says how do we explain the development of the church's moral theology regarding usury all right first of all you have to understand what usury is in the middle ages of course usually was condemned it's basically unjust taking of interest on the loan and it was condemned partially because of an opinion of aristotle's that if you consumed a good that you'd borrowed in usage you only had to give back the equivalent amount but you didn't have to give back interest say if it was a good that you were making interest off of though that was different and st thomas uh says that suppose for example a person gave you a sack of gold coins of course we do a very different economy than ours today but they gave you a sack of gold coins and the person used that money as a bond to make more but didn't consume the gold coins in the use then they would owe you some interest in that because they've taken your money and use it to help them make money now the question of how much interest you should take is what this turns on in former times in various customs because of the you know the um uncertainty of money and the uncertainty of economies and the uncertainty of society people used to take exorbitant amounts of interest twenty thirty percent on a loan something like that the churches always condemn that but the idea of taking interest on a loan it is not condemned if it's looked upon as like capital if it's looked upon as like well i don't know cows or ducks or whatever in exchange there is some difficulty with that where you should get back only what you give but of course in the present society and the present way we look on economics even those things can be used as a kind of capital investment so if you're borrowing money from someone and it does make money then you do owe them a kind of interest so the evolution of the doctrine occurred not concerning the issue of whether it's possible to take some interest on a loan but it occurred on the issue of how much interest to take and also on what kind of loans you were permitted to take interest and and therefore it hasn't really evolved that much 833 288 e wtn is our toll-free number it's a free phone call anywhere in north america 833-288-3986 pick up the phone and give us a call here on open line thursday linda would like to know she wants a little clarification on the catholic teaching of atonement what is the actual theory of atonement for our sins by jesus's passion all right the atonement is a very difficult and misunderstood thing basically the atonement is christ accepting certain punishments in order to injustice satisfy for the punishments for the original sin and the atonement has a two-fold character the first is a negative one in which the victim and the sacrifice basically suffers for sin and i tried to mention that when i talk about the cross at the beginning of the program so our lord in a negative sense has to experience physical suffering not moral suffering because christ came to the world to reverse the original sin which is unloving disobedience so therefore he can't take anything on himself even eternal temptation that would detract from that goal the positive character of the atonement is the ability to give back the gifts that were lost so when our lord sends the holy spirit back and renews us internally through this holy spirit because of his positive action of loving obedience that comprises also in the second part of the atonement both of these are necessary in order for us to experience grace fully so it's the suffering as a punishment and then the renewal of the gift that was lost because of the suffering which is of course more important people keep telling us in catholicism that we're obsessed by sin well i'm sure there are people who are obsessed by sin but the only reason we care about sin is because it keeps you from becoming virtuous and receiving grace so our accent is actually more on the reception of grace and communion with god and st thomas interestingly enough to find salvation as fruidao in latin which means to enjoy god we want you to enjoy god but to do that you have to be free from the encumbrances of sin it's ewtn's open line thursday father brian malady is in the house if you've got a question for father the number is 833 288 ewtn it's a free phone call anywhere in north america 833 288-3986 [Music] if you're outside the united states and canada your number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five vincent would like to know can a priest refuse absolution and if so under what conditions the priest can refuse absolution and the primary condition is lack of repentance where a person is only going through the motions of confession but they're not sorry and you believe it or not you do have examples like that um i remember once i heard a confession and the person confessed sleeping with another woman but he wasn't sorry he didn't think he did anything wrong jesus and he were okay with each other he just wanted to go to the first communion with his nephew and i had to refuse absolution because i said how can i absolve something that you don't think is evil you're not really confessing so uh yes a priest can refuse absolution and the primary condition is lack of contrition eight three three two eight eight ewtn it's our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we've got a couple of open phone lines here and plenty of time for your calls at 833-288-3986 john paul writes in he says my atheist friend asked how it's not selfish that god made every rational creature solely for the purpose of loving him oh my goodness well god is infinite we're not he did it to share his infinity with us how is that selfish he doesn't gain anything from us loving him it's we who gain from being allowed the privilege of being a part of his goodness so there's nothing matilda utilitarian or selfish about the whole thing it's only people who look on life as manipulative and they want to get everything that would think such a thing this is all based on a union of love and people who want to give gifts to others and have others share in their gifts i mean okay so i'm married i love my wife it's true i want to give my myself to her but of course i want her to give herself to me too because i love her because i want to enjoy her and so god defusing his goodness does this so that the whole universe will have the ability to participate in some level in himself pick up the phone and give us a call at 833 288 e wtn that's 833 288 3986 uh be sure to check out ewtn bookmark this saturday afternoon at 4 30 p.m eastern time uh pierre giorgio frazati loved to climb mountains play practical jokes and have political debates but instead of pursuing worldly success he aimed for holiness christine wohar shares what she learned about pierre giorgio and her new book uh now a blessed uh pierre giorgio frassati that's uh this saturday on ewtn's bookmark 4 30 p.m eastern time on ewtn radio 83328e is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 um allen has sent us a text and he wants to know why do we suffer because of the sin of adam and eve why didn't god give us the same chance with our free will as he gave them well original sin is a sin of nature if not a personal sin we're not suffering in abs personal sin so grace was given to the whole human race through adam and eve when they chose to see themselves as more important than god they couldn't be convinced that intellectually they were too smart for that but they had inaudible control i guess you could put it that way oh that's too strong a word i mean in the union of love without looking on this as a gift but looking at it as a right then they lost grace and this was not only for themselves but for the whole human race the same thing would be true if they hadn't sinned we wouldn't have our chances would be determined by the grace that we would have received when we were born so it's a very mysterious idea but it's basically what the human race uh is as opposed to what it ought to be um there's god does give us the same chance in the sense that he gives us a chance to believe in the redeemer 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 next up is laura in raleigh north carolina watching us today on youtube laura you are on with father brian hey hi i hope you're doing well today yes what's your question um one of the main differences between protestantism and catholicism is the fact that they believe in the rapture and they put so much emphasis on this i'm just wondering did i mean like someone told me that the rapture according to catholic view happened in the old testament i don't know how that happened but i don't either i have no idea what you're referring to in the old testament okay okay i don't care what someone told you someone tells lots of people lots of things look the rapture is not believed by all protestants it's a very specialized idea to a very specialized group and it usually turns around people who are part of these 19th century movements where mormonism is a similar movement although the one that survived where that all these sort of faith seers who thought that the end of the world was coming and they predicted that on a certain day let's say um the 10th of august 1845 and all their devotees went there where it was supposed to happen it didn't happen so they altered the doctrine to say well ten years before the the final end this will happen you know you'll have the uh what is it the the the clothing collapses and the bodies go up to another place there's there's no scriptural evidence or basis for this at all and he and most beansteam protestants don't believe in it either so it's a small group of people who were in these sort of apocalyptic religions that were very popular in america in the 19th century thanks so much we appreciate the phone call laura 833 288 ewtn that's our phone number still time for your calls at 833-288-3986 deborah's watching us on youtube and she says that she and her sister are confused by something that you said earlier in the program that jesus died on the cross for our suffering not sin she said we are non-catholics and always we're told he died on the cross for our sins i never said that sorry i never said that he died to suffer to atone for our sins that's exactly what i said i think one should not quote someone uh without quoting them properly no i said that christ died to atone for our sins and we had the punishment and then we had the giving back of the gift because the sin he had to i i also was very clear he had to suffer some punishment for our sin and these are the non-moral punishments that had to do with physical pain and suffering and then to reverse the sin through loving obedience he had to give us back the gift of the spirit uh next up is john in the great state of new york a first-time caller listening on siriusxm channel 130. john you are on with father brian hello john how are you good good i hope this question will make sense uh when i was young i used to be very religious very into the faith i had an altar in my my bedroom i would watch mother angelica weekly and over time i moved away from the church just as i went through high school and college not consciously but it kind of just happened went through a lot of life changes i'm married with a family now and so on and i find myself uh you know grabbing my bible uh being drawn back to the church placing icons at my house and i guess i'm just trying to figure out how i can understand that this is god calling me back to the church or whether i'm just looking for a type of nostalgia for when i was younger and me dealing with change well you know that i i'm not you i really wouldn't know why you are thinking of doing that but only you could know your motivation for that but um it seems to me that it was a positive desire to return to the church then you'd have to i would say the fallible sign is that you're willing to do the things necessary to accomplish that in other words you have to start going to mass again and i think you can probably father brian speak pretty pretty confidently to god's motivation here right yes um although it's true there are people who are very nostalgic for certain things and it's more a matter of their remembering a past uh glories like you'd watch leave it to beaver on me too or something like that but i i think when it comes to religion people are much deeper than that and if it was just a cultural thing you wouldn't really do anything to finally remedy the final problem but if you're really motivated by a desire to return to the church then you've got to do what's necessary to bring that about which of course would be confession and mass and if you're married outside the church you're going to have to get your marriage straightened out too that's kind of an infallible sign that you're really serious god bless you john we'll keep you in our prayers yes um we'll go to yvette now in grand rapids michigan listening on holy family radio yvette you are on with father brian hi father thank you for taking my call i have a question about love if love is not jealous and god is love then why do they say we have a jealous god oh yeah well that's an anthropomorphism it's a poetic device and it's meant in the old testament to demonstrate the fact that um well god alone is it our god is it as opposed to the other gods but it's all a uh a matter of a poetic exp expression not it's it doesn't obviously god doesn't have feelings of jealousy or feelings of love because he doesn't have a body so it's an attempt in uh language to try to express the fact that our god is unique god and you can't have many gods before him any more than if you are married to one wife and claim that you love her that you can also have mistresses on the side see so the affirmation that god is a jealous god is merely meant to say that all these other gods are false and you need to preserve your relationship with the one true god and very quickly at the end of the program we'll head to ira who writes in he says if a priest learns of an imminent crime within the confessional is he able to act upon this knowledge now priests are never able to act on knowledge gave in the confessional even if they can prevent crimes remember the words that are set in confession are not said to us they're said to jesus and they cover the secrets of a person's conscience and we have no right to interfere in that now if a person is insufficiently repentant i remember one of the big questions i used we used to have in our faculties exam was suppose a person came to confession to you and told you that they poisoned the wine you were going to use for mass can you act on that and not use the wine well it's it's a dilemma to see how you'll answer but one priest was very ingenious because he said look if they still want you to drink the poisoned wine they're obviously not contrite and as a result isn't a real confession and as a result you don't have to drink it but no no you can't even the possibilities of a crime you can't disclose father would you leave us with a blessing may the blessed almighty god father son and holy spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever amen amen on behalf of our host father brian malady our producer michael mccall call screener matt gubinski and our social media maven mr jeff berson i'm jack williams thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line thursday back at it tomorrow again live from the legatus summit west in scottsdale arizona until we get together tomorrow god bless [Music]

Channel: EWTN

Views: 645

Rating: 4.8709679 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: blESDzUEfn0

Length: 53min 55sec (3235 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021