Worldly success to a Catholic, what is your opinion?

[incantator]

I always thought that worldly success is quite contradictory or at least adversary to our spiritual purification, but after watching one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s video, I became quite confused. He’s talking about several methods and mentality to achieve success, and they kind of seem right ways of living to me in general. And as far as I know, he’s a Catholic.

So would you agree that following earthly fame and becoming the sex symbol (as it is alluded in the video) can be harmonized with Catholic life?

BTW, I remember an old man having a speech at my university a few years ago. He had a very difficult life when he was young in my country, had a chance to go to America for his talent in singing, earned a huge fame there with money. He was probably a protestant and he gave glory to the God for giving him all the success. Even at that time, I had a slightly confused view on him…

[Edited] While reading the Bible, I happened to read this clause in Luke 4…

5 And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.

It’s quite confusing… I still think that it is better not to follow earthly things as a Catholic. That’s why there is vow of poverty and the like, right? But at the same time, we have a saint like Homobonus who is the patron saint of business, so… I don’t know anymore xD Maybe it’s just that each person got different gifts?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Depends on how you define “success”.

People naturally want to do well in their careers. In this day and age many people including myself had large college loans and they need to make good money to pay that back. Housing and a car also costs money. It takes a good amount of money to pay bills for a family. People may also be concerned about possible expenses they see down the line (like someone’s health care) even if the expense doesn’t end up happening (the person gets well or dies, either way there’s no more expenses) so they want to be financially prepared.
And of course, a successful person is able to contribute more money to the Church and to charity.
So there isn’t anything wrong with striving to do well in your career as long as you aren’t putting that ahead of God or ahead of spending family time.

“Earthly fame and striving to be the sex symbol” is not what most people equate with “success” unless they are in very specific professions where that’s valued, such as the acting profession that Arnold was in, and politics that he went into later. I may have thought when I was 20 that these things were desirable but at the age I’m at now, they sound pretty awful.

From what I know about Arnold, he grew up in a relatively poor family and he had some issues with his family. His pursuit of fame and success, including being able to move to USA, were likely his attempt to escape this problematic situation and build a better life. If the things he is now advocating seem to be “right ways of living” then I’m not seeing a problem. Catholics aren’t expected to hide their talents under a bushel basket and live in the dirt.

 

[Lee1]

The only real success that matters is salvation and you won’t know you’ve achieved that here in this world.

All the rest is just a means to that end as far as I’m concerned. If you live as a good Catholic should I’m sure it will be fine.