A Simplicity of Faith

[RCIAGraduate]

Hello fellow bloggers I hope you day is going beautifully with grace and peace:

You know how religion can get so complicated because of dogmatic protocol and how so many documents and statements can make faith a little bit overwhelming(for example, individuals can focus on mere biblical lines instead of a whole message(I got this from how I perceive on how some Christians reject gays but overlook with the bible’s message extending love to them for example didn’t Jesus hang with prostitutes and taxmen) or how the Vatican creates encyclicals and statements like Humane Vitae and how some find so much conflict there). And such things could create issues with worship and faith. Then one day I formed a hypothesis or theory on how one can worship the Catholic or in general the Christian faith without all the flamboyance or hoopla and how we can easily communicate such ideas to others. I wanted to share my thoughts with all of you and get all your takes.

As Catholics we need to
have faith
be obedient
perform good works

For us there are simplistic guidelines for us to commit to these values
The Faith
-The Apostle’s and Nicene creed are simplistic prayers that state what we as Catholics believe. We can simply utilize these passages to help conduct dialogue with other religious groups and create more understanding(and perhaps more fellowship). (I realize people may already do this)
The Rules
In order to have a more concrete idea about what we as Catholics are suppose to follow we should especially review the Ten Commandments as well as the words of Jesus in the New Testament(loving God and one another). While Catholics should know the interpretations of the current church(for understanding). We as Catholics need to ponder over such things through the terms of the two aspects I mentioned(like for instance masturbation is the act of defiling one’s self the image of God and thus one does not love God due to this action).
The Obligations
From my readings(including here) I learned that there is more to “faith alone”(which makes us different from many other churches) one must also perform good works(like praying which I learned is “pleasing to God” from one of the pamphlets of this group ) such as helping the poor. Some good guides to look from would be philosophies of Catholic Social Teaching and Liberation Theology(for the individual not to impose on society) or simply following the virtues of Christian charity and the 7 Virtues.

This is basically the thoughts I had suddenly formulated one day. If you consider me doctrinally wrong I would be pleased to hear the take from other laity or even preists and nuns. Please be patient with me I am simply a young Catholic who has had issues with the faith even now.

Thank you and Have a Wonderful Day.

 

[Bonnie]

You can’t go wrong if you try to do the Charitable and Corporal Works of Mercy.

Spiritual Works of Mercy

counsel the doubtful
instruct the ignorant
admonish the sinner
comfort the sorrowful
forgive all injuries
bear wrongs patiently
pray for the living and the dead

Corporal Works of Mercy

feed the hungry
give drink to the thirsty
clothe the naked
shelter the homeless
visit the sick
visit the imprisoned
bury the dead

 

[admonsta]

I think I see what you’re saying here - you want to try and get rid of all the really complex part of religion, and focus on the general ideas of how God wants us to behave.

This is fine for some people. There are some wonderfully spiritual, very holy people who lead very simple lives. For them, all the complexities are irrelevant.

However, the world is full of many different people, and what suits one person will not suit another. Some people have huge intellects, and need to understand why a certain behaviour is necessary, or whether a particular thing is right or wrong (sort of like a lawyer can find areas of the law that are ambiguous).

Also, we are none of us perfect. We have flaws, which means that even though our intentions may be good, we might not act in a very christian way sometimes, and it won’t be obvious to us if we don’t have a set of clear rules to guide us.

We don’t need to know all the rules all the time, only the ones that relate to us, so for example I don’t need to know rules specifically for priests because I’m not one. Once I had to have surgery, and was told it might kill my unborn child. I had to find out the Church’s stance on that because I didn’t know for sure. I didn’t have to know until that time, but when I did need to know, I found out and acted in a moral way (the baby is now 7 and perfectly healthy).

I learned once from somewhere that when a person is just starting out at being holy, their temptations to sin are big and obvious, but as they progress in their journey, those big obvious sins reduce, and their temptations to sin become smaller and more subtle. There are always temptations but a holier person is getting closer to perfection and it’s the less obvious things that become troublesome (therefore we need these rules and guidelines).

I’d say that as an introduction to the Catholic faith, your ideas have merit, but it can’t end there. We are all on a journey and our mission is to get to Heaven and take as many people along with us as possible. Therefore we can’t just decide it’s all too hard and we want to keep it simple. We need to keep learning and growing. Therefore, there needs to be many different levels of explanation and rules.

The complex documents and things might be overwhelming, but you don’t have to read them if you have trouble. There are many wise people who can help to show the rest of us what we need to know in our own lives.