Are you glad you’re a _______? Why? What do you like about it? I am not looking for apologetic-type answers like “it will help me get me to heaven” or “it has the fullness of truth.” Just down to earth stuff. What do you enjoy about it? Why do you choose your religion over others? If you have converted from one religion to another, what is it about your current religion that makes you glad you did so?
Why does your religion make you happy?
I like knowing that God, my creator, loved me so much that he would assume human form and die for me so that I could receive spiritual healing and participate in the divine nature through “theosis”, given how lowly and sinful I am
“God became man, so that men might become God”
The Catholic mystics have always inspired me more than the mystics from any other faith. I could spend all day talking about St John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, St Catherine of Sienna, St Teresa of Avila etc. and how deep their writings are and how potent for my spiritual journey in this life.
I admire the sophistication of Catholicism. It balances the mystical with a strong tradition of scholasticism and rationalism. To my mind it is the only religion, historically, to have done so - to have utilized reason just as much as “revealed truth”, as is testified too by the likes of our Beloved St Thomas Aquinas.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote, I think in 2005:
“From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos, as the religion according to reason…It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them…the same dignity. In this connection, the Enlightenment is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian faith…It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back to reason its own voice… Today, this should be precisely [Christianity’s] philosophical strength…In the so necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos, from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational”
I admire the defence which the Catholic Church makes for traditional, Christian values in a world where these values are often under threat ie opposition to abortion, pro-life movement.
I admire how the Catholic Church has reached out to other religions and embraced all that is good in them, whilst also standing up against religious relativism and false “New Age” style “spirituality”.
I admire the strong sense of Social Justice which has inspired many Catholics throughout the centuries to self-sacrifice their happiness for the sake of others ie Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa etc.
There is SO much more!
I end with one of my favourite poems from St John of the Cross:
"…**The Song of the Soul that Delights in Reaching the Supreme State of perfection, that is, the union with God by the path of spiritual negation
Verses on the Ecstasy of Deep Contemplation **
I entered where there is no knowing,
and unknowing I remained,
all knowledge there transcending.
I
Where no knowing is I entered,
yet when I my own self saw there
without knowing where I rested
great things I understood there,
yet cannot say what I felt there,
since I rested in unknowing,
all knowledge there transcending.
II
Of peace and of holy good
there was perfect knowing,
in profoundest solitude
the only true way seeing,
yet so secret is the thing
that I was left here stammering,
all knowledge there transcending.
III
I was left there so absorbed,
so entranced, and so removed,
that my senses were abroad,
robbed of all sensation proved,
and my spirit then was moved
with an unknown knowing,
all knowledge there transcending.
IV
He who reaches there in truth
from himself is parted though,
and all that before he knew
seems to him but base below,
his knowledge increases so
that knowledge has an ending,
all knowledge there transcending.
V
The higher he climbs however
the less he’ll ever understand,
because the cloud grows darker
that lit the night on every hand:
whoever visits this dark land
rests forever in unknowing,
all knowledge there transcending.
VI
This knowledge of unknowing
is of so profound a power
that no wise men arguing
will ever supersede its hour:
their wisdom cannot reach the tower
where knowing has an ending,
all knowledge there transcending.
VII
It is of such true excellence
this highest understanding,
no science, no human sense,
has it in its grasping,
yet he who, by self-conquering
grasps knowing in unknowing,
goes evermore transcending.
VIII
And in the deepest sense,
this highest knowledge lies,
of the divine essence,
if you would be wise:
his mercy so it does comprise,
each one leaving in unknowing,
all knowledge there transcending.
John of the Cross also wrote:
“Its source I do not know because it has none.
And yet from this, I know, all sources come,
Although by night.
"I know that no created thing could be so fair
And that both earth and heaven drink from there,
Although by night.
Its radiance is never clouded and in this
I know that all light has its genesis,
Although by night.
…
The current welling from this fountain’s source
I know to be as mighty as its force,
Although by night. " (John of the Cross) …"
Actually I don’t believe that God EXISTS! In fact I’m now CONVINCED that God doiesn’t EXIST.