Why does the Catholic Church have rules?

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Just one example,a rule such as not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.
I understand the purpose of not eating it -as a sacrifice and to focus on Christ-but it’s the “rule part” that I have the issue with.
Shouldn’t Christianity/Jesus be followed because a person chooses to rather than being told what to do/given rules like a child?
Isn’t it possible that rules/being told what to do could lead to an insincere form of Catholicism (eg:some people going to church etc just because they fear hell)?
 
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Rozellelily said:
Shouldn’t Christianity/Jesus be followed because a person chooses to rather than being told what to do/given rules like a child?
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But we are all children of our God.
Rozellelily said:
Isn’t it possible that rules/being told what to do could lead to an insincere form of Catholicism (eg:some people going to church etc just because they fear hell)?
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Of course there’s a possibility of abuse, but it’s just that: abuse. It doesn’t make the rules bad or wrong because people warp their purpose.
 
Well, why in general with everything built upon/with human/man made structures do we have rules? Since the Church is in the world, but not of the world, should she not have rules herself? After all she is a structural component God made with man, is she not?
 
Rozellelily said:
rather than being told what to do/given rules like a child
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Humor me for a second. Why do we give rules to children? It’s to keep them safe and guide their growth into good people, right? We know not to stick our finger into an electric socket because of electrocution, but a baby doesn’t. When he’s grown a little, he’ll understand that’s a way to get hurt. When he’s even older, he’ll understand exactly why it’s dangerous. But in the meantime, we use rules.

It’s no different with the Church. Our rules keep us safe and foster growth. At first, we obey them the same way we used to obey our parents - just because we’re supposed to. Them as we grow, the love behind them becomes clearer. Eventually, we learn to trust even the rules we don’t understand and obey them just as willingly. That’s how we choose to follow Christ, by choosing to obey Him through the teachings of His Church, out of love.
Rozellelily said:
Isn’t it possible that rules/being told what to do could lead to an insincere form of Catholicism (eg:some people going to church etc just because they fear hell)?
Click to expand...
It’s not the rules that cause this. It’s a lack of spiritual growth. For them, God and Church are obeyed as the authority figure, but they haven’t quite reached the point where He is recognized as Our Father, as the Most Loving and Devoted of Parents.
 
All the rules and regulations of the church are to protect and increase the Sanctifying grace we received at Baptism.
 
God himself made rules. They are called the Ten Commandments. And he got rather peeved when the Israelites didn’t follow them.

Read Leviticus and try to see if the Catholic Church has too many rules.
 
Why?
1.Because the Church is an organic whole/structure. She is real, tangible in the world.
2.From contemporary rules as you tell your children no more cookies for their health to the universal moral norms/rules/laws as society conducts itself civilized
3.Because nature also at the biological level has rules for life to exist: DNA/Chromosomes, the babies tissues building/starting in forming the brain, and heart at the early stages of birth/conception.

The Church is not a mere spiritual dimension, but real life and existence in the world.
 
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Rozellelily said:
I understand the purpose of not eating it -as a sacrifice and to focus on Christ-but it’s the “rule part” that I have the issue with.

Shouldn’t Christianity/Jesus be followed because a person chooses to rather than being told what to do/given rules like a child?

Isn’t it possible that rules/being told what to do could lead to an insincere form of Catholicism (eg:some people going to church etc just because they fear hell)?
Click to expand...
I can see where you’re coming from. I guess for the most part, that’s where I am right now. For example I just had lunch and I had to put aside the chicken, lol. Christ didn’t enter my mind and Lent wasn’t any different for me than any other period.

That being said, no rules would be a bad idea. Like what the other posters said, rules help to keep us on the right track…to some extent. It is hoped that the rules will bring us closer to God. For some would not even bother with church if there were no rules. Their faith may wither and die.
 
Ask God, he gave us 10 and 2, and actually many others. All in Scripture.

He started it.
 
I work in a hospital. Trust me, RULES are good! Eternal life is priceless; why wouldn’t there be rules.
 
Rozellelily said:
Just one example,a rule such as not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.

I understand the purpose of not eating it -as a sacrifice and to focus on Christ-but it’s the “rule part” that I have the issue with.

Shouldn’t Christianity/Jesus be followed because a person chooses to rather than being told what to do/given rules like a child?

Isn’t it possible that rules/being told what to do could lead to an insincere form of Catholicism (eg:some people going to church etc just because they fear hell)?
Click to expand...
Why is there anything “childish” about being obedient to something other than our own private whims? Is it not far more childish to expect that accomodating our private whims and preferences ought to be our highest priority?

Isn’t it possible that never subjecting ourselves to the will of anyone other than ourselves, even for such a trivial thing as fasting twice a year and doing a penance we didn’t choose for ourselves on a weekly basis for less than two months out of the year will make it far harder to break the self-will that keeps us from submitting to the will of God?

One question is “why do I have to?” The better question is “really…why don’t I want to?”
 
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My kids go to bed at a regular hour because I tell them to.

My kids go to bed at a regular hour because they know they’ll get a spanking if they decide to, say, go play on the Wii instead.

It’s my goal for my kids to understand why they need to keep regular hours, so that when they grow up and are responsible for their own decision-making, they’re able to recognize the purpose those rules serve.

The same thing is true for religion.

When we’re little kids, we go to church because our mom makes us. Then, perhaps, we go to church because we fear punishment from God for not. But eventually, we’re supposed to realize what, exactly, is so important about going to church, so that not only do we understand what’s going on, but why it’s important for us to participate in it.

Doing the right thing out of habit, or doing the right thing out of fear, is better than not doing the right thing at all. But it’s not a stopping point. We’re expected to grow and mature so that we do the right thing for love of God. But just because someone out there might never grow to that degree of maturity or intellectual knowledge, doesn’t mean that doing the right thing isn’t worth doing.
 
Rozellelily said:
Just one example,a rule such as not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.
I understand the purpose of not eating it -as a sacrifice and to focus on Christ-but it’s the “rule part” that I have the issue with.
Shouldn’t Christianity/Jesus be followed because a person chooses to rather than being told what to do/given rules like a child?
Isn’t it possible that rules/being told what to do could lead to an insincere form of Catholicism (eg:some people going to church etc just because they fear hell)?
Click to expand...
A person does choose to follow, or not, after learning what to do. Even fear of hell is good, although it is a component of imperfect contrition. One gift of the Holy Spirit is fear of the Lord – it servers to fill us with a dread of sin.

A person can choose to be a hypocrite. Jesus spoke of this:

Matthew 23:
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.
28 Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.
Click to expand...
 
Christianity is not a one-on-one religion. It is a community religion. The Church’s rules help us to live as one body. Common penances are a good example of this.
 
Exactly. Just like I was taught in Catholic school, ‘You have to know the rules before you can break them’.
 
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