What do Catholics believe about love and sacrifice?

[angel999]

Hi everyone,

What are Catholics taught about love and doing good to their neighbor? I am interested to know. Thank you.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

For starters, there are “works of mercy” which are labels for various forms of charity.

They are in two categories; the corporal works that can be done “in person.” Or you can always contribute money or items for others to do them, so in this way collaborate.

The spiritual ones can be done without actual physical props, and can all be done online even as we post!

From New Advent:

The traditional enumeration of the corporal works of mercy is as follows:

To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.

Please consider one small thing for me: “admonish the sinner” and “instruct the ignorant” are a dime a dozen. I’d say it’s good to change up and do some of the others online.

In this way, we become the tools by which the Beatitudes come true, but doing acts of mercy. (Matt 5 sermon on the Mount)

MS

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

But do be warned that good works, even though they may demonstrate great faith and sacrifice, they do not automatically mean love.

Love without them isn’t really proven, I wouldn’t think, but they can all be present and still not have love. This is something we hear at a lot of weddings, that love is something beyond anything that involves “good behavior” or even “right beliefs” or “dedication to serving others.”

Hard to imagine? Then it’s working IMO – think of a love somehow greater than all of those.

1 Cor 13
1 If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, 5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, 6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 [d]Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So by this, I infer that it is possible to do all these things without love. But really we’re made in the image of God so I think there is always going to be some love there even if it isn’t as fully developed as one might wish… and growing in love is a common and natural desire.

 

[Isca]

What a beautiful Scripture passage that is, from 1 Cor. Eternally true.

 

[johnnyc176]

Please consider one small thing for me: “admonish the sinner” and “instruct the ignorant” are a dime a dozen. I’d say it’s good to change up and do some of the others online.

I think these two are just as important especially in the world today. Love requires obedience.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

 

[nuntym]

+JMJ+

Hi everyone,

What are Catholics taught about love and doing good to their neighbor? I am interested to know. Thank you.

points at the Crucifix

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

I think these two are just as important especially in the world today. Love requires obedience.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

Maybe they are important, but they are IMO very tricky to do without falling into serious ego temptation. And I’m afraid more often it’s about being combative and being right, and if that’s all we do is tell others of their faults as we perceive them, it is very unbalanced and may end up working more for pride than peace.

 

[robertkchacon]

Maybe they are important, but they are IMO very tricky to do without falling into serious ego temptation. And I’m afraid more often it’s about being combative and being right, and if that’s all we do is tell others of their faults as we perceive them, it is very unbalanced and may end up working more for pride than peace.

Perhaps, but if I understand you correctly, one cannot truly love without obedience as the poster points out by the quote. There is no faith without sacrifice, and sacrifice is obedience. We die to ourselves to follow Christ. That is not pride. As you suggest, we can do outward demonstrations of obedience out of pride, to build up our ego. But we can be in just as much danger of doing the same thing for the sake of “love” if it is not done in obedience to Christ!

All those people saying they are spiritual but not religious have obedience to no one but their own self oriented conscience. That is what leads people to suggest that their support for abortion rights is out of “love” for womens rights and for avoiding unwanted children. But it is NOT in obedience to the will of God! Without obedience we risk defining our own self centered meaning of “love”. We are just as much at risk for being prideful for the sake “love” as we are for being obedient.

We cannot have true love without sacrifice of our selves to the will of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

[ready]

Hi everyone,

What are Catholics taught about love and doing good to their neighbor? I am interested to know. Thank you.

Charity covereth a multitude of sins. St. Therese of the Child Jesus says that the flames of charity are more purifying than the flames of Purgatory. We are each called to do works of charity and mercy. If we die without charity in our souls, we will go to Hell. Jesus will judge us based on how we loved Him and our neighbor (What we do for/don’t do for our neighbor we do for Him/don’t do for Him, says our Lord Jesus Christ). God bless you.

 

[johnnyc176]

Maybe they are important, but they are IMO very tricky to do without falling into serious ego temptation. And I’m afraid more often it’s about being combative and being right, and if that’s all we do is tell others of their faults as we perceive them, it is very unbalanced and may end up working more for pride than peace.

That might be why you shy away from it but it is not fair to generalize that it is about pride. It’s also not about peace in the general sense but finding peace in the Truth of Jesus Christ and His Church. The apostles were not sent out to defend the Faith but to proclaim the Truth. Most of them died doing that. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke recently about this.

“The risen Lord instructed his apostles, and through them his disciples in all ages, to take his word to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all people,” retired Pope Benedict wrote. "‘But does that still apply?’ many inside and outside the church ask themselves today. ‘Is mission still something for today? Would it not be more appropriate to meet in dialogue among religions and serve together the cause of world peace?’ The counter-question is: ‘Can dialogue substitute for mission?’

“In fact, many today think religions should respect each other and, in their dialogue, become a common force for peace. According to this way of thinking, it is usually taken for granted that different religions are variants of one and the same reality,” the retired pope wrote. "The question of truth, that which originally motivated Christians more than any other, is here put inside parentheses. It is assumed that the authentic truth about God is in the last analysis unreachable and that at best one can represent the ineffable with a variety of symbols. **This renunciation of truth seems realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world.

“It is nevertheless lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and its seriousness, everything is reduced to interchangeable symbols, capable of referring only distantly to the inaccessible mystery of the divine,” he wrote.**

catholicworldreport.com/Blog/3466/pope_emeritus_benedict_xvi_dialogue_cannot_substitute_for_mission.aspx

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

That might be why you shy away from it but it is not fair to generalize that it is about pride. It’s also not about peace in the general sense but finding peace in the Truth of Jesus Christ and His Church. The apostles were not sent out to defend the Faith but to proclaim the Truth. Most of them died doing that. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke recently about this.

You are right. I cannot generalize and say it is about pride, but it comes across as one of a number of flavors of pride I’ve experienced, so by empathy I can see my own sin, seemingly trying to enter in “under the radar” at times. That’s why the cliche, “it takes one to know one,” or a variation, “it takes a thief to catch a thief.”

I think fear, anger, and selfishness in trying to hang on to something even without maybe realizing it, are other possible factors. Of course this isn’t a complete list, but this list is something that as individuals we can learn the ways of peace. “Turn the other cheek” does not imply to me that I should let someone hurt me physically (because I fear physical pain more than mental) but instead of preparing my defense as soon as I hear something I don’t like, maybe “the other cheek” could be to keep paying attention until they have come to a rest. Then make sure I understand them, giving them a chance to correct me in case I didn’t understand them right, before I even start to consider what I am going to say in response. That’s actually a skill that can be learned and there is nothing except your desire to jump too quickly, to prevent from using this patient demeanor. Patience is a gift of the spirit, but it is also cultivated and refined through using it even when tested.

Respectfully listening is a challenge because we (now I’m generalizing based on my own personal idea of the situation) really don’t learn how to do it in a systematic way across broad groups of people.