?Questions

[PelagiathePenit]

1. What does it mean 2 luv ur neighbor as urself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can B civil & pray 4 them. That is honestly as far as Im willing 2 go.
2. What does it mean 2 judge others & is it worse than fornication? Sum people act like it is because God 4gave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If U experience joy does that mean U R not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment frum this world, self-flagellation.
4. If luv is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more luv 2 others?
5. Despite our “good works” is ne1 really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often R in opposition 2 the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always ez.

 

[Stephen_says]

1. What does it mean 2 luv ur neighbor as urself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can B civil & pray 4 them. That is honestly as far as Im willing 2 go.
2. What does it mean 2 judge others & is it worse than fornication? Sum people act like it is because God 4gave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If U experience joy does that mean U R not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment frum this world, self-flagellation.
4. If luv is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more luv 2 others?
5. Despite our “good works” is ne1 really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often R in opposition 2 the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always ez.

Can you re-write this in English?

 

[PelagiathePenit]

1. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can be civil & pray for them. That is honestly as far as I’m willing to go.
2. What does it mean to judge others & is it worse than fornication? Some people act like it is because God forgave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If you experience joy does that mean you are not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment from this world, self-flagellation.
4. If love is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more love to others? It will always be difficult for an atheist to understand the nitty-gritty aspects of Catholic faith. An atheist can love their neighbor as themselves but they cannot love God with all their heart, mind and soul because they do not know God or they may not have any interest in knowing God.
5. Despite our “good works” is anyone really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often are in opposition to the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always easy

 

[Regina7]

Can you re-write this in English?

 

[PelagiathePenit]

Can you re-write this in English?

Yes. I can. I did. I love text language

 

[fbl9]

1. What does it mean 2 luv ur neighbor as urself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can B civil & pray 4 them. That is honestly as far as Im willing 2 go.
2. What does it mean 2 judge others & is it worse than fornication? Sum people act like it is because God 4gave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If U experience joy does that mean U R not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment frum this world, self-flagellation.
4. If luv is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more luv 2 others?
5. Despite our “good works” is ne1 really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often R in opposition 2 the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always ez.

1 well it is the same love as romantic love without the desiring of the other person.
2 the woman at the well was more like adultery than fornication. that’s beside the point. Judging others is something only God can do. can’t find verses but they along the lines that to say one is hell bound or in hell is to raise God up and to say some one is going to heaven is to bring Christ down niether of which we can do.
3. not sure where you came up with that.
4. now that is making a judgement call cause we can’t see what is in the hearts of either person.
5. For what?
6. Without emotions how do you experience joy sadness etc?

 

[Stephen_says]

1. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can be civil & pray for them. That is honestly as far as I’m willing to go.
2. What does it mean to judge others & is it worse than fornication? Some people act like it is because God forgave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If you experience joy does that mean you are not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment from this world, self-flagellation.
4. If love is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more love to others? It will always be difficult for an atheist to understand the nitty-gritty aspects of Catholic faith. An atheist can love their neighbor as themselves but they cannot love God with all their heart, mind and soul because they do not know God or they may not have any interest in knowing God.
5. Despite our “good works” is anyone really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often are in opposition to the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always easy

Sorry, that might have been a little uncharitable of me I used to write in text language, but now I’m a grumpy old man.

A lot of your questions have to do with love, and different variations of it. I’ll answer the first question: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That does not mean romantic love. Do you love yourself romantically? probably (hopefully) not. Most of my theology is based on Fr. Robert Baron, who has an awesome ministry called “Word on Fire”, so I will tell you what he says about Love:

Love is willing the good of the other as other.

That means that you will, or desire, the good of another person for no other reason than that they deserve it, and then you work to bring that good into being, just as you want and strive for what is best for yourself.

Love is not an emotion like you are imagining (that is infatuation), rather, real love is an action or a goal to be achieved. Instead of butterflies in the stomach and happiness that the world entices us with, real love is hard, and challenging, like a climbing a mountain.

This can take many forms, but ultimately, it means to do what you can to bring them to the knowledge of the love of God. How do you do that? Copy Jesus.

 

[PelagiathePenit]

It is ok. I think I can learn to love my enemies. I will pray for them and wish them good will. I just will not associate with them. I can act civilly. If they need my help, hopefully I am willing. It is difficult to discern between love vs. emotions. You can love those you dislike.

 

[recentrevert]

1. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can be civil & pray for them. That is honestly as far as I’m willing to go.
2. What does it mean to judge others & is it worse than fornication? Some people act like it is because God forgave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If you experience joy does that mean you are not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment from this world, self-flagellation.
4. If love is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more love to others? It will always be difficult for an atheist to understand the nitty-gritty aspects of Catholic faith. An atheist can love their neighbor as themselves but they cannot love God with all their heart, mind and soul because they do not know God or they may not have any interest in knowing God.
5. Despite our “good works” is anyone really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often are in opposition to the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always easy

1. To love your neighbour as yourself means to will the good of your neighbour as you would have others will your good.
2. Rash judgment is a sin but judging justly is not.
3. Our joy should come from doing God’s will.
4. Loving God is the greatest commandment, not loving your neighbour.
5. God makes some people better than others by His grace but in ourselves we are the same.
6. Our bad feelings are there so that we can love God by doing the right thing in spite of them.

 

[SPBlitz]

1. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can be civil & pray for them. That is honestly as far as I’m willing to go.
2. What does it mean to judge others & is it worse than fornication? Some people act like it is because God forgave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.
3. If you experience joy does that mean you are not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment from this world, self-flagellation.
4. If love is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more love to others? It will always be difficult for an atheist to understand the nitty-gritty aspects of Catholic faith. An atheist can love their neighbor as themselves but they cannot love God with all their heart, mind and soul because they do not know God or they may not have any interest in knowing God.
5. Despite our “good works” is anyone really better than others?
6. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often are in opposition to the truth? Taking in honest criticism or bold truth is not always easy

1. In our modern day, most people have conflated all forms of love with romantic love. The ancient Greeks, however, split love into multiple different forms (Agape, Eros, Philia, Storge, Xenia, etc.). In his book ‘The Four Loves’, C.S. Lewis split love up into four different forms (Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity). So when we are commanded to love our neighbor, that does not mean romantic love. I think that love, in its simplest form (if love can ever be simple) is to desire another person’s good, whatever that may be (note that this does not always mean what is good for the person at that particular moment).
2. First, I think it would be best not to try to measure which sins are ‘worse’ than others. This could lead to a frame of mind where you could rationalize one act since, while it’s a sin, it’s ‘not as bad’ as this other sin. We are called to avoid all sin, even those sins that seem to us to be trivial. To answer your question, though, I’d define judging others as when you think that another person is less worthy of forgiveness due to a specific sin or vice.
3. I don’t know why you’d think that Christianity excludes joy. I think the reason you hear so much about guilt/persecution/suffering from Christianity is that the secular world so often preaches against any and all guilt or shame. Now, this might be an overreaction on our part, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s incorrect. My advice would be to take any joy you experience as gifts from God and any pain as an opportunity to grow in virtue and closeness to God (for an interesting take on that second part, I suggest C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain).
4. I don’t think I’m really in position to say who is better than someone else. But, at least in my opinion, I would think that an atheist who loves other would be better than a Christian who hates others. Of course, I don’t think it’s entirely that simple, but those are my thoughts in a nutshell.
5. Again, I don’t think it’s helpful to measure individuals against one another. It shouldn’t matter who’s ‘better’ than someone else - what should matter is how we are viewed by God. For what it’s worth, however, good people usually do good works and bad people usually do bad works. So, besides the actual good that our good works might do for others, they also are a measure of your own virtue.
6. Our emotions can be useful in helping us to do what is right or avoid what is wrong. There is nothing inherently wrong with our emotions, but they can be used in the wrong way. I heard a good saying, that “Your heart gets a vote, but your will gets veto power”. You should listen to your emotions, but not indiscriminately. You are correct when you say that our emotions can go against the truth - that doesn’t mean that they are pointless or ‘evil’ though.

 

[Regina7]

It is ok. I think I can learn to love my enemies. I will pray for them and wish them good will. I just will not associate with them. I can act civilly. If they need my help, hopefully I am willing. It is difficult to discern between love vs. emotions. You can love those you dislike.

Emotions get in the way all the time. That’s what makes the commandment to love one another so difficult. But love is a choice, always a choice. Lust is an emotion that people confuse with love.

 

[Nelka]

Yes. I can. I did. I love text language

 

[St_Francis]

1. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? I get this icky feeling of romantic love. I can be civil & pray for them. That is honestly as far as I’m willing to go.

You are willing to pray for them and be civil–that is enough, but you do have to do those things, not just be willing too

Love is no a feeling but an action or decision. When the Church (long before Fr Baron) defined love as willing the good of another, willing is an action or decision, not a feeling, right?

1. What does it mean to judge others & is it worse than fornication? Some people act like it is because God forgave the woman at the well not the Pharisee.

I don’t know what those people mean by what they say, but it is wrong to judge *the state of a person’s soul. *We have to judge actions, if only so we can avoid the bad ones ourselves, right?

Christ couod read people’s hearts: He knew the woman at the well was or was able to be repentant; but the Pharisees were not in a state of willingness to repent at that time.

1. If you experience joy does that mean you are not having the Christian experience? All I hear persecution, detachment from this world, self-flagellation.

We are supposed to feel joy in our love for God! Knowing that the bad things that happen to us can help Christ makes it easy to accept those difficulties, just as a mother would be happy to get a vaccination while she was pregnant in order that her baby be protected from the disease! Detachment in particular should make us feel joy, as not only are we helping God, it is a part of holiness, so it’s also good for us.

1. If love is the greatest commandment, does that make the atheist better than a Christian if they show more love to others? It will always be difficult for an atheist to understand the nitty-gritty aspects of Catholic faith. An atheist can love their neighbor as themselves but they cannot love God with all their heart, mind and soul because they do not know God or they may not have any interest in knowing God.

I do not think that we can love without God’s help. Some have natural gifts of temperament that allow them to more easily do certain things on the natural level: Jane, for example, might have a naturally empathtic character, but true holiness consists in doing good things for the love of God and requires the help of God.

1. Despite our “good works” is anyone really better than others?

Do you think Mother Theresa was better than Stalin?

1. Purpose do our feelings/emotions serve if they often are in opposition to the truth? Taking

in honest criticism or bold truth is not always easy

It is our job to bring our feelings inder the control of the will, because, as you point out, otherwise they tend to go every which way.