E.w.t.n. Radio and television. It was meet them a checkbook Wednesday night Eastern. T.v. In review. welcome again to call the communion the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters we are live on this Thursday here we are in the 2nd week of Lent hard to believe it man oh man I guess what we're here for you if you're a non Catholic a former Catholic never been a Catholic but you're thinking about the Catholic faith but there's this one thing that you want to clear up this is the program to get that question answered Here's our phone number 833288 e.w.t.n. 833288398 secs You can also send us an e-mail if you prefer that c.t.c. At e.w.t.n. Dot com c.t.c. At e.w.t.n. Dot com We're going to give you 2 more ways to get in touch with us 1st of all you can text the letters e.w.t.n. To find. 5000 wait for a response and then Text us your 1st name and your brief question message and data rates may apply Now the other way is the Facebook or You Tube our friend Jeff person is waiting to process that question and get us to get it to us here in radio studio one Michael Burchfield is our producer Rich Jesse our celebrity phone screener today filling in for Matt who's out of town Jeff person is indeed are a social media maven so he'll pass on anything that we receive from you the a You Tube or Facebook I'm Tom Price along with Dr David Enders Sam how are you today couldn't be better how are you doing you know many pretty well today I think are looking forward to the weekend I can tell Well you know I'm traveling this weekend I'm going to be speaking at the Newman Center and I was city at the University of Iowa very cool my alma mater Yes it is so that it had been back in quite a while so that be interesting if you're in the neighborhood of I was 30 come out and join us at the limits are a bit of a sentimental journey for you. Quite a lot when I left there I was a Catholic that's true so you had very little to do with the Newman Center although I did go in there believe it or not yeah I used to take a break from my studies and I would wander around the churches or downtown I was city of which there are several and I would I would sort of sample the architectural fare and polls in a pew and say a prayer and and I even darkened the door of a Catholic chapel or 2 while I was there well how about you that's pretty awesome now this e-mail they're going to leave with while we're getting some of these calls screened at 833288 this is e-mail could be my favorite e-mail for the week oh wow I just want you to know that this is from Elaine and she says Hello I am a regular listener to Kathy called communion on $88.00 k. B.v.m. And that is our wonderful station in Portland I just figured out that b.v.m. Very good plus a virgin mary exactly Elaine says I'm curious how much if anything is true as pork . Trade in the 1906 movie The mission thank you for your thoughts God bless you a call to Communion Elaine Oh yeah great it's a great film so I don't know the specific characters I suspect are entirely fictional but the historical circumstances are relatively factual I mean it's true that the Portuguese. Were involved in the transatlantic Atlantica slave trade also in the enslavement of Native Americans and we know this because the pope popes wrote in circles against it they condemned both the. Native populations and the slave trade and they were routinely ignored imagine that saying things then people ignoring them we would never do that they were exactly. And there were religious orders like the Jesuits who were attempting to. Missions to these populations to these people groups and share the gospel with them and and and work for justice and so forth and they were not always kindly received by the powers that be so I think it's a credible story you know whether or not the specific individuals are historical or not the circumstances are familiar to us and the narrative is a credible one we can both recommend the movie I remember that when it was released it was it it did that fare well financially but the movie has certainly made up for it on the back end and a lot of long life love the mission anyway thank you for your email Elaine Here's another one from Mary who says Dr Sanders I want to understand the words of Isaiah he was crushed for our inequities etc I've just been listening to you on e.w.t.n. I'm wondering about these words from he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that made us whole and with His stripes we are healed in the light men on that all the best Mary yeah. Exactly. 53 right now. Ok let me read the larger passage Ok. Maybe Was he had no or more calmly notes that we should look at him and the beauty that we should desire him as only physical description of Jesus that we have in the scriptures I did he would not look or. He was despised rejected I rejected him he was despised rejected by men. Ok a man of SARS equated with grief as one from him and hide their face he was despised and we have not surely he's been our grace and carried our sorrows yet we as we listen. Stricken smitten by God and afflicted he was going to try transgressions and brace for our inequities and by the stripes that were laid on him we've been healed Ok Now let me go back to this one of the things that same Paul brings out the book is that there was a curse laid upon anybody hung on a tree in a Mazak law and this is one of the reasons why the Jews wanted Christ crucified because I figured that the ignominious death would demonstrate that he couldn't possibly be the Messiah because science is going to defend the k. Didn't conquer the nation so you have him die a curse and an ignominious death yet you prove to everybody that he's not really the Messiah that was the idea and here's the prophet in to supply it's all this he says that that the the the suffering servant he will he is course Christ is we don't esteem him he dying he's not attractive there's no bleeding calmly in us about him and all those that saw him were guarded him as one having been cursed by God. But they were wrong. All right and it's true what the prophet says is that by the punishment inflicted on him by him who inflicted the punishment on him Man man not God. That by the punishment inflicted on him in the sufferings that he endured we are ready all that's true that's all perfectly consonant with Catholic doctrine but what you can't read into this it was as I think the word where the question is coming from you can read into this the conclusion that God was the one vicariously Pani punishing Jesus and inflicting his wrath on Christ that's the Calvinist doctrine substitution nothing in the text says that Ok Very good thanks for clearing that up and I thank you so much Mary for your very very good question phones are filling up here we're going to get to Kelly in just a moment Oklahoma City also Meghan and Houston Guadalupe radio there's a line open for you as well 833288. 8332. 88398 secs call the communion are here on this Thursday on e.w.t.n. . Between elite intelligence linking to clean and this cult. On the e.w.t.n. Global Catholic Radio Network. Mother Larry bridges God is the God of life God is the God of Love the one we can form our life to his life and his will it's always life always leading Catholic boys early w.t. In radio. If you know that I have been away from the campaign and yes I can take my grandmother's both ways of bringing it to our military they're taking grandchildren and a rosary. And 30 military to day I know it was grandma is ridiculous I'll explain finally tonight to eventually bring it to our liking despite the want to select it and give it a place to live through Saturday at 11 am. 6 pm Radio e.w.t.n. Radio Classics is our 247 teaching your devotionals channel straight from the e.w.t.n. Are going to go classic with e.w.t.n. Radio Classics on line at e.w.t.n. Radio debt debt and on the e.w.t.n. Amp living the Beatitudes the other Bjorn blessid are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. 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And you're talking about Calvinist doctrine of like you're it's too late and I notice that it is and they never use the word just cation although it's in the Bible quite a bit and wondered about why did they jump always just think that the case and my big question is if you live a good Godly life your most your life and then it's a very let's admit it you did something really stupid you I don't know access to porn or you stole something or. Something you know. Or. Like you didn't. Think thanks Kelly I appreciate both questions so 1st of all with respect to the use of the word justification I have several things to say one is that Catholics is a sort of watch and if you want to look at the 6th session of the Council of Trent which of course was the official Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation you'll find there is an extremely link the discussion of that action of justification and when you look at the Catholic doctors of the Church the great theologians especially St Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas again you'll find link the discussions of the doctrine of justification to modern Catholic theologians like John Henry Newman right speak about it at length. And modern manuals of Catholic dogma life will talk about it you'll read about it in other it other manuals of the broken seller period in the Catechism of the Catholic Church today by Pope John Paul the 2nd has a link the discussion of the actual rustication So I think it's untrue that that doesn't occur in the tradition but you may not yet because a lot in the tradition you may you may not hear the darshan mentioned in the pulpit during homily he's in my experience it is not the practice of Catholic priests typically and there homiletics to engage and a lot of dogmatic theology All right I tend to find the common least to be more hortatory that is to say they are to moral behavior or to the practice of the sacrament sort of life of prayer and they rarely get down into the business of drawing theological distinctions from the pulpit now some of us who like going to theology school wish that they would do more of that sometimes we're glad that they don't depending on what you might get but it's just not the practice of a Catholic. Let's put out terms of in terms of Catholic dogmatic theology there is gobs and gobs and gobs on justification Now let me let me say one other thing about justification. About the 1st 400 years well yeah about 400 but the 1st 400 years of the church when you read the fathers of the church you also don't find a whole lot of discussion of justification as a specific topic of theology and you find a lot of biblical commentary and you find a lot of dogmatic preaching but you don't find a lot of this particular word used and there's a good reason for that there was a Lutheran historian named Christer Stendhal that drew this out a number of years ago. Pointed out that Saint Paul's writings were were read by the fathers of the church more or less as if Paul meant what he said all right and when Paul talks about justification which he really only does it at length into the 2 books in Romans in place and the specific context of those books is the relationship of gentiles to the Law of Moses that's that's where the dark investigation emerges as a topic of discussion once you had a predominantly Gentile church that that ceased to become a live issue for people got that worked out of the Council of Jerusalem and after that or like we know about this we don't have to circumcise our kids and we don't have to follow the laws of kashrut and you know if we want to have a ham sandwich we camp Ok after that it's not like they cease to read St Paul but it was with a with with less of a kind of poignancy because those were no longer issues of right it wasn't until St Augustan began to St Paul in the late 4th and early 5th century that the justification really reemerges in another context about you know the whole question of how my made right with God go to heaven. And you can you can get a long way Catholic life in spirituality without actually specifically mentioning that believe it or not Ok but there is some give you a nuanced answer Ok Now with respect to the. Second question is it possible when you said you live a good life let me let me. Dig a little bit deeper Can you live in union with God That's really what we're talking about because you don't have a natural moral goodness I mean your pagan friend next door can exhibit certain natural moral virtues Ok that's not really what we're talking about can you live in union with God. And not blow it at the end I know the answer that question is yes yes you can you can live in union with God be united God and charity and then blow it at the end you see him going it's one of the reasons why in the Hail Mary we say pray for us centers now and at the hour of our death so we pray for that grace of a happy death that we can persevere till they had Jesus said who have persevered to the end will be saved in say so many personal so nice Wednesday now but there's a flip side to that story and that is that if we cultivate habits of virtue and grow in grace and holiness. Our our propensity to send our inclination to send diminishes all right now you know you have likely met people in your life of such a standing holiness that the thought that they might stumble in the ways that you mention is just it's just inconceivable to me just don't think what you like not that guy not that woman not my grandmother you know in complete inconceivable you know I'm talking about my grandmother my grandmother would not of Stumble Upon site or rub Mike it was not going to happen. Not this woman Ok so we want to be that kind of person we want to be that kind of person about whom others would say not that guy and not not by posing not through artificial tree but that we've really reform dark character such that such a thing becomes unthinkable Yeah yeah yeah going back to the movie the mission you know when when the one fellow had the big conversion believe it was Robert Duvall wasn't it had had a big conversion It was inconceivable using the word again to for him to take up arms against. The the soldiers it was a he just couldn't do it. If you're remembering that yeah yeah Ok Very good thank you so much for your call Kelly glad you could join us today it's called communion here on our phone number 83328 let's go to Meghan now in Houston listening on Guadalupe radio 1438 Megan was on your mind today. My call I really like your show and I. Thank you and I mean are you a writer and I'm a little bit. Yeah certainty. And I've been reading a little bit. Yeah really great and I also I think I read in the attic. With 30. I think it's. Not having a fear that we are wrong but. We could be wrong so I think my question is we hold it. In the light. But we don't have to Ok I mean these are great questions I really appreciate it and you know keep in mind another thing that they've been inside which is that a 1000 difficulties don't make a single doubt Ok so let me the certainty is a state of mind where we adhere to one part of a 11 in the proposition where the where the antithesis the opposite of that proposition is that is is inconceivable to us is it cannot coherently be thought Ok And so there are a lot of things that are inconceivable like that means square circles you know that kind of stuff right but there are other things that that that are manifestly evident All right. And that they're impossible rationally to doubt reasonably to doubt now the fact that I can conceive of a logical possibility doesn't mean that it is for me a realistic possibility like a good example would be say for example Descartes'. Mental exercise and his meditations. Or is it the discourse on method where he he says I will let me call into doubt everything that it's possible for me to doubt so that I can that I can arrive in absolute certainty and we want he was trying to find is and is a proposition that it is that it is logically and metaphysically impossible for him to doubt and so he says what if I'm a brain in a vat you know like like the character of Neo in The Matrix and everything about my phenomenal existence is a loser and I'm just I'm just of a disembodied conscience is being tortured by an evil demon Ok and that's conceivable like it's conceivable in the sense that there's no logical contradiction in imagine. That thought experiment Ok and Descartes says well if I'm in that situation the only thing of which I can be certain is that there is a consciousness being tortured mainly mine all right and so my conscious awareness of the fact that I'm even questioning is evidence that I exist hence his famous conclusion Sam I think therefore I am so that's the one thing of which I'm certain Ok now they course thought experiment is interesting all right but it's wholly fanciful and it's not a reasonable position to take the position that I could reasonably doubt the existence of the extra world is called solipsism solipsism is not reasonable let me tell you a story about solipsism. I heard one time about a guy who wrote a letter to the editor and he was commending the philosophy of solipsism and how intellectually satisfying it was and expressing surprise that more people don't hold it Ok Which is funny because if solipsism is true there aren't any other people. Of my imagination but it get the humor and there goes to the problem even though it might be logically conceivable it's not it's not warranted all right because there are certain things that are evidence to us that are headed into us like the existence of the world all right you know that's evident So you sense knowledge that I have no warranted no no good reason to doubt their existence even though it's logically possible now with that distinction there are things of which I can be I can be certain in that more qualified sense and and the Catholic Church teaches that among those are the immaterial them to reality of the elect right the moral realism the existence of God All right properly understood once you understand what the church means by god and 4th letter and council defines God is the 1st principle the Prima Principia that from which all things proceed and you find that it's not logically impossible to doubt that reality proceeds as an effect from a call so I can I can logically think that without contradiction but can I reasonably think that well now. About destroying the rationality of my consciousness not without destroying the whole principle of rational knowledge which is based on the idea of cause and effect in intelligibility Ok so it in that sense I can I can have philosophical certainty of the existence of God Not that it's beyond any possibility of logical doubt but it's beyond the possibility of any sort of warranted doubt enter those trees of the faith that I can hold with certainty in that way now there's another class of truths in the Christian faith that I can hold with a di