Absolute Wonderment

[Universalis]

I read on this forum and others (I was actually given a link to this forum from another one) people obsessing over the tiniest details of faith. And I ask, DOES IT REALLY MATTER? Do the most minute prescriptions of canon law matter in your life? Does your attendance to all your spiritual studies do anything for you or anybody else? What is the benefit of living with the CATHOLIC (or other religion) label stamped on your forehead for everyone to see? And shouldn’t the truth be a lot less dogmatic and accessible to the most humble of seekers?

 

[Little_One0307]

Hi,

First of all welcome to CAF. I hope you enjoy your truth.

In a nut shell, yes it all matters. We are called to witness to our Faith and to give an account or answer to those who sincerely or sometimes not sincerely seek out the answers.

Code of Canon Law does matter becuase the Church has the authority to write the Canons and we as Catholics are obliged to obey them.

May I ask what you mean by spiritual studies??? Are you including the Mass in this?

Truth is truth. Truth is dogmatic in the Catholic Church because it is what has been Divinely revealed by God to man via Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Holy Magisterium. And last time I checked it was availabe to all humble seekers. Many humble seekers have found the truth in the many years of history that have elapsed between Jesus Christ and today, and many humble seekers are still finding the truth.

As to wearing the label of Catholic on my forehead, I did go and look at myself in the mirror and did not see anything written on my forehead. I am relieved. Yet however, I did see a child of God looking back at me who happens to be a Catholic. And I see many children of God here on this forum who happen to be Catholic, [as well as other things too.]

However the benefit of living as a Catholic, is everything that the Church is about is ordered to our Union with God. Therein lies the Fullness of Truth and Grace. To me that outweighes everything.

God bless.

 

[Lief_Erikson]

I read on this forum and others (I was actually given a link to this forum from another one) people obsessing over the tiniest details of faith. And I ask, DOES IT REALLY MATTER? Do the most minute prescriptions of canon law matter in your life?

If you believe that the Church is a supernatural creature filled with divine life, then what it wants for our lives is clearly important. Obedience to canon law can help us learn humility and also helps us follow the way God intends, for He guides His Church and speaks through her. This is a beautiful truth about the divine nature of the Church, and about how God leads people into humility through submission and obedience. Obedience requires humility of us, for it requires us to submit to laws we might not want to submit to. This humbles us, causes us to put our way second, even when we don’t understand the reasons why, fully. God wants us to obey our leaders with humility. That is good for our souls.

Also, the Church’s laws are not arbitrary and there are good reasons for them, for our benefit, even though we might not understand them all.

Does your attendance to all your spiritual studies do anything for you or anybody else?

Yes, it does! It allows people to pass on knowledge to one another about how to live their lives according to the will of God, for our own benefit.

What is the benefit of living with the CATHOLIC (or other religion) label stamped on your forehead for everyone to see?

I don’t understand this question very well. But we want to be Catholic because in Catholicism resides the fullness of truth and life. In other religions, parts of this truth exists, to a greater or a lesser extent, but in Catholicism, all the truth is one and fully present. I believe this firmly. So how could I want to be in any other religion, and how could I not care if I’m Catholic or not?

The Church also houses the Eucharist, which is the Life of God Himself. It is God the Son, Jesus Christ, present in His fullness, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Through our union with this Gift of Divine Love, this flesh and blood, we have the opportunity to become fully one with God and fulfilled and perfected in life, more at peace and filled with joy, love and virtue, than anyone can become outside the Church. For outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church, people experience parts of this life, and parts of this truth, and their lives are fulfilled and joyful in proportion to how deeply they partake in this life, living it and becoming one with its love. But only in the Catholic Church does the Eucharist exist, sublime love itself, living on this Earth, and when we eat this flesh and drink this blood, we can become transformed into love as no one else can be.

The Catholic Church provides the means for us to become great saints, greatly united with God and fulfilled and at peace as people, more so than anyone can be when they live as non-Catholics, not partaking of the fullness of what God offers humanity for their perfection and salvation. And this fullness is the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ. Divinity on Earth.

No one can partake of it unless they are Catholic, because partaking of the Body of Christ means you give yourself entirely to His Body as well. In the Eucharist, we receive all of God, but only when we give all of ourselves back to Him, and we have to give ourselves also to His Body, the Church. This means we must believe all the Church’s teachings, understanding that the Church is a divine creature and these teachings are therefore from God, and we must live the life, as best we are able, that the Church calls on us to live. We have to be members of this Body, the Catholic Church, having given ourselves fully over to her in the knowledge that she is the Body of Christ and that by giving ourselves to her, we give ourselves to Christ. Then, as we have given ourselves fully to God with faith, He gives Himself fully to us in love, and we receive the power to be transformed into Him.

The Lord bless you! The Lord bless you! Praise God for creating your soul! Thanks be to God for His loving blessings and kindness that He has poured out in your life, Universalis!

 

[Lief_Erikson]

And shouldn’t the truth be a lot less dogmatic

Truth is what it is. It cannot be changed and it never contradicts itself or is truly inconsistent with itself (though it can appear so to us because of our limited vision).

Everyone has access to Truth on one level or another. Everyone understands more or less of the Truth, depending on where they are at and what they have had access to.

Dogmas are brilliant lights from Heaven. They are truths Jesus has affirmed through the authority of His Church so that all who have faith in Him may know and believe these things. They aren’t arbitrary laws at all. They are illuminations from Heaven of the truth about God’s nature or work in human history.

God can give illuminations in many ways to many people, and He does. He speaks to everyone, including the humblest seekers and lowliest people, to draw them closer to Himself. He reaches out to them through other people, and through philosophy or reason, and through love and human relationships, and through creation and nature, and through countless other experiences in our day to day lives, to draw us closer to Himself. He reaches out to everyone and speaks to everyone regardless of their religion, to deepen their knowledge of the truth and draw their souls closer to Himself.

Dogmas are lights God has given the Church and all who believe in her and in His Presence in her. He doesn’t only speak to people on an individual level, you know. He also speaks to whole communities at once, at times, and sometimes with authority, rather than mere subjective experience.

We believe in the Church, so we accept these dogmas through faith, though as we learn more theology and philosophy, and as our hearts draw closer to God over time, our intellects and intuition might also come to grasp them and understand them deeply as well.

The Lord bless you! May His peace fill your heart and give you rest, hope and deep, deep, abiding love!

Your servant and friend in Christ,

Lief

 

[Job42]

The Church is accessible and dogmatic at the same time. The Church is flourishing in Asia and Africa where they have been made humble through poverty. It is the “enlightened” nations of the West where the church is dying, where prosperity has shut out the Gospel.