Man's merits.

[DMC12]

Today i was listening to a song, and it had one part “just a man and his will to survive” then i began wondering that well men are not really alone, and that idea made me think that then great deeds are really not great, since then what history’s great heroes did, was not really that big, and by having God on their side, even if they were against 10 times the enemies, they had the upper hand, so pretty much all heroic acts get reduced to nothing.

how much credit do we have to give to men for the deeds they do? since i assume that they still carry some credit, and im certainly sure that my toughts on this are wrong, but i would like to know your opinions on how is the Catholic way to see mankinds achievments.

 

[Jared2914]

The man (or woman) might know the right thing to do is, but they still have to make the decision to do it. That takes a lot of courage. Our whole lives are really a series of decisions. We have free will and must constantly make the right decisions to do good and fight evil. Most people don’t have absolute trust in God. We are flawed. We still fear death or other consequences from our good actions, even knowing that if we followed the commandments, we will go to heaven.

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

What about all of the martyrs? God didn’t stop the martyrs from dying, so either God wasn’t on the side of the martyrs OR, God being on your side doesn’t always mean that you can’t be hurt or killed. So, I would say the martyrs have still been very brave and heroic.

 

[Booter]

Sounds like you were listening to Eye of the Tiger, took it to a deeper level than I ever could

 

[jimmy]

It takes strength to do great things. I don’t think God chooses sides in battles. He doesn’t fight for one person over another. It takes personal strength to accomplish something.

 

[lerapt78]

Today i was listening to a song, and it had one part “just a man and his will to survive” then i began wondering that well men are not really alone, and that idea made me think that then great deeds are really not great, since then what history’s great heroes did, was not really that big, and by having God on their side, even if they were against 10 times the enemies, they had the upper hand, so pretty much all heroic acts get reduced to nothing.

how much credit do we have to give to men for the deeds they do? since i assume that they still carry some credit, and im certainly sure that my toughts on this are wrong, but i would like to know your opinions on how is the Catholic way to see mankinds achievments.

While we should be careful of elevating man to God-like status, I also fear that the thought “since men have God on their sides their heroic acts get reduced to nothing”, could be equally damaging because it belittles the noteworthy . Everyone has God on their side - whether they believe in Him or not - and yet so many of us *still * choose to fall into patterns of sin, cowardice, laziness, apathy, etc.

So I see no harm in honoring men who have gone “above and beyond” our instincts toward mere survival because, in addition to giving positive recognition to the individual for performing an outstanding feat, the method of honoring the noble and heroic serves give encouragement for others to aspire to. Yes, all honor ultimately belongs to God - but that shouldn’t be an impediment to publicly recognizing extraordinary deeds here on Earth.