Confused Catholic.

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Computer8

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Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I am a Catholic who has trouble understanding the Catholic religion.

As humans should we do the will of God for security (ie to avoid Hell)? Or to be intimate with God until we meet Him at the end of time? Or perhaps for both of these reasons or for another reason?
 
Computer8 said:
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I am a Catholic who has trouble understanding the Catholic religion.

As humans should we do the will of God for security (ie to avoid Hell)? Or to be intimate with God until we meet Him at the end of time? Or perhaps for both of these reasons or for another reason?
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To avoid hell is secondary to being obedient out of love of God.

If you do not understand your faith, I suggest buying one of my favorite books: “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” by Karl Keating, who happens to be the President of Catholic Answerrs and this website. They sell it at the store here. I also suggest buying the actual Catechism. It is a difficult read at first, but is is a sure norm to learn the faith.

http://shop.catholic.com/images/P/B0121.gif

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Computer8 said:
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I am a Catholic who has trouble understanding the Catholic religion.

As humans should we do the will of God for security (ie to avoid Hell)? Or to be intimate with God until we meet Him at the end of time? Or perhaps for both of these reasons or for another reason?
Click to expand...
Code: 
O my God, I am heartily sorry
for having offended Thee,
** and I detest all my sins,
because of thy just punishments,
but most of all because they offend Thee, my God,
Who art all-good and deserving of all my love.**
I firmly resolve, with the help
of Thy grace to sin no more
and avoid the near occasions of sin.
Amen.[2]
 
Computer8 said:
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I am a Catholic who has trouble understanding the Catholic religion.

As humans should we do the will of God for security (ie to avoid Hell)? Or to be intimate with God until we meet Him at the end of time? Or perhaps for both of these reasons or for another reason?
Click to expand...
WELCOME to this forum, Computer8!
 
I suggest reading up on the Catechism. It explains so much. The books reccomended by previous posters would be great too. Don’t ever lose faith!
God bless you :byzsoc:
Silyosha
 
Computer8 said:
As humans should we do the will of God for security (ie to avoid Hell)? Or to be intimate with God until we meet Him at the end of time? Or perhaps for both of these reasons or for another reason?
Click to expand...
The main reason was given to us by Jesus:

“If you love me keep my commandments”.

You are right about security and intimacy with God. All the precepts of Jesus are concerned with love - love for God, love for ourselves and love for others. They are not arbitrary rules but truths about developing and fulfilling ourselves as persons and members of His family. They bring us closer to one another and unite us so that we can live in peace and harmony on earth and in heaven. We cannot find lasting security unless we do the will of God to the best of our ability. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world…?
 
I believe it is for both of these reasons, but love of God is primary. I think of it this way: A child says something insensitive to his mom. He doesn’t get punished, but mom makes it clear her feelings are hurt and she cries in front of the child. The next day the child breaks something in the house while being careless, and he gets punished by having to go to his room.

Which infraction is the least likely to be repeated? I’m guessing the child will break something again someday while being careless. The child doesn’t ever want to make his mom cry again because he loves her, so he’s going to watch his mouth from now on. But a healthy respect for punishment doesn’t hurt either.
 
The Baltimore Catechism is a wonderful place to start with this question.
  1. Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

Get to know Him, then you will have no choice but to love Him, and that will lead you to serve Him. The end results is out of this world!..🙂
 
Computer8 said:
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I am a Catholic who has trouble understanding the Catholic religion.

As humans should we do the will of God for security (ie to avoid Hell)? Or to be intimate with God until we meet Him at the end of time? Or perhaps for both of these reasons or for another reason?
Click to expand...
First of all, we should always try to be honest with God and ourselves about who we are and where we’re at in our journey and ask God to help us to move in the right direction.

To your question, we should distinguish desires and motives. Desires can change based on our understanding. Motives are more organic and stable, they are what move us from within. We can’t immediately change our motives, but we can immediately change our desires based on coming to understand that something is desirable. We understand that hell is undesirable and that loving union with God is desirable. But when we only know God conceptually and not personally, the desire for loving union with God may not be effective in us as a motive. In this case, a desire to avoid hell can still be effective as our motive for doing God’s will (or even just willing to do God’s will, even though our performance is imperfect) and that is fine. But we are supposed to realize that this is an imperfect motive and so we should also desire to change our current motive of fear, even though it is beneficial for the time being. This change is accomplished by the gift of God’s grace whereby we come to know Him personally so that our motive of fear becomes one of love. (Jesus became man in order to help us out with this transition.)
 
After reading your post and the title I remember my reading through the old testament. I was raised Catholic and I do NOT feel this was a bad experience. It was a good experience. All the bad experiences came once I was out on my own.
While reading the old testament, the Catholic church comes the closes,(in my knowledge) to what the Bible teaches and according to it’s doctrine. Even though we are human and as a human we are falliable, I believe we all strive to have a Great life whether acknowledging God or not. I question how many people in this world lead a Great life because they respect God or because they want it for themselves.
 
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