Catholics are legalists by default?

[Bon_Croix]

God called out the Pharisees b/c of who they were. They were in positions of authority. They were sinners.

God didn’t say, don’t change your ways; it’s ok to keep with that same sin.

 

[Tommy999]

From a typical Protestant’s perspective, Catholicism is replete with rules and regulations, such as dietary laws at certain times of the year (Lent), days of obligation, can’t eat anything in the time leading up to Mass, mortal sin if you miss Mass without a good excuse — the list goes on and on from a Protestant point of view — because most don’t have anywhere close to as many rules. That’s why Catholicism may appear to be like the religion of the Pharisees to some.

With that said, one could also turn the tables and say that most Protestants have a lack of rules that produces a helter-skelter “anything goes” lack of discipline.

The more I am exposed to Catholicism, I’ve gone from the former point of view to viewing the Catholic rules and regulations more as guide rails and reminders to keep people on track in their faith.

 

[Minks]

DBRANDT:

I get this from my non-Catholic friends. My only reply is that I find it difficult to believe Catholics are the only acceptable brand of Christians who battle this issue in their spiritual life. It’s just fashionable to blame Catholics. It’s called diversion. Catholics certainly have no monopoly on legalism.

I’m not sure what ‘legalist’ means, but if you asked me if I thought Jesus intended for there to be one church or 150,000+ churches, I would say the later.

@TK421
If by “later,” you meant “latter,” then you’re saying that Christ intended “150,000+ churches,” or did you mean that he intended the former, only one Church?

 

[Minks]

From a typical Protestant’s perspective, Catholicism is replete with rules and regulations, such as dietary laws at certain times of the year (Lent), days of obligation, can’t eat anything in the time leading up to Mass, mortal sin if you miss Mass without a good excuse — the list goes on and on from a Protestant point of view — because most don’t have anywhere close to as many rules. That’s why Catholicism may appear to be like the religion of the Pharisees to some.

With that said, one could also turn the tables and say that most Protestants have a lack of rules that produces a helter-skelter “anything goes” lack of discipline.

The more I am exposed to Catholicism, I’ve gone from the former point of view to viewing the Catholic rules and regulations more as guide rails and reminders to keep people on track in their faith.

That’s how it’s always been, Tommy. Thank you for saying so. Just as a person goes from baby to toddler to teen-ager to young adult and s/he needs the loving, but firm guidance of at least one person as a parent, or in some cases, standing in for a parent, all of God’s children need guidance. He saw to that when Jesus set up the Church and trained the apostles. Some parents may go a bit overboard in some aspects, and some Catholics may, too, which only shows our humanity and how much we need all that the Catholic Church provides.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

It’s interesting to see some of the posters’ different definitions of legalism/legalistic here. I’ve always thought of legalism as following the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law.

I’m happy to say that I’ve never met a member of the clergy who favors the letter of the law over the spirit of the law.

The interpretation of the 10 Commandments is basically what we’re talking about here anyway isn’t it? And we Catholics have ecclesiastical laws which attempt to put divine laws into practice, or something like that.

 

[Zaccheus]

I wrote it backwards lol

Ah, good. We’re in agreement then.

 

[DBRANDT]

I am so thankful for these two posts…

 

[Crocus]

The more I am exposed to Catholicism, I’ve gone from the former point of view to viewing the Catholic rules and regulations more as guide rails and reminders to keep people on track in their faith.

Your comment reminded me of a mental picture I have of the Church. We shouldn’t really need the “guide rails” to keep us from falling off the side of the ship, but it’s nice to have them there for the extra security. :hugs:

The rules of the Church, similar to the dietary and cleanliness rules given to the Hebrew people, binding them together as one, at the same time protecting them from viral and bacterial hazards. Past Sunday’s readings and homily lead our priest to encourage reading Leviticus with that in mind.