Being good is okay, I guess. But what does it mean to “just be good”? If it means doing the minimum, being nice, not getting into trouble, following the rules, getting by, and so forth, it sounds pretty basic.
We are not called to “just be good”. We are called to be GREAT, FANTASTIC, AWESOME, AMAZING! And don’t we want to be GREAT, FANTASTIC, AWESOME, and AMAZING? I do, and I imagine you do, too.
What does that mean? It means we are called to holiness. Jesus said, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48) But that’s impossible, right? Wrong! We can’t be perfect by ourselves, but with the grace of the Holy Spirit, through a closer relationship with Jesus, uniting ourselves to the Church, receiving the sacraments, and living lives of discipleship.
It’s like being on an athletic team. We don’t just want to sit on the bench, we want to play, and we want to start, and we want to make the winning score! That takes time and practice. It is not just being good and doing the minimum. It’s about flourishing and being the best God calls us to be.
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
Being Catholic is a gift, not a requirement. Jesus gave us the Catholic Church, so that we may achieve salvation. The Catholic Church is THE sacrament of God by which we receive the sacraments, which are also gifts from God. The Catholic Church teaches us the ways of God so that we may live lives of happiness and holiness. The Catholic Church is a family of believers who share a communal faith in God.
As parents, we are responsible for raising our children to become saints. Thus, we raise them in the faith of the Catholic Church as we are called to when they were baptized. This is God’s great gift to us and our great gift to our children. However, we understand that this gift is not always appreciated or accepted.
One way we can show how being Catholic is a gift is by living our faith as a gift. Are we truly happy we are Catholic? We need to thank God for his gift. Read more about the Catholic Church in the Catechism, paragraphs 811-870.
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
The key to understanding annulment and divorce is marriage itself. The Catechism states, “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” (para. 1601)
Marriage requires consent and understanding of the nature of Matrimony. If consent or understanding of the nature of marriage is not present WHEN the vows are given, there is no sacramental marriage. Annulment is a declaration that what was considered to be a sacramental marriage is not. Thus, an annulment allows the couple to sacramentally marry another.
But divorce has nothing to do with the sacrament of Matrimony. Divorce is a legal, civil declaration that the marriage is dissolved. What was once a legal marriage is no longer a partnership. A legal marriage requires an agreement to be together. If the couple no longer want to be together, the state says, okay, you no longer have to.
But Jesus said, “What God has joined together, no human must separate.” (Mt. 19:6) So the difference is that divorce separates what God has joined together, while annulment acknowledges that there was never a sacramental union in the first place. Read more about the sacrament of Matrimony in the Catechism, paragraphs 1601-1666.
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
In today’s society, sexual identity, whether it be homosexuality or heterosexuality, is presented as a matter of personal identity, as the core of who a person is. But we are more than a disposition or a sexual attraction. The Church teaches that who we are, our fundamental identity, is based on our relationship with God; we are children of God.
As children of God we are all called to holiness. Concerning our sexuality, that means we are called to chastity, respect for the gift of sexuality that God gave us. Our sexuality is oriented towards the procreation of new life and to the unitive element of love between the husband and wife. This is called complementarity. The gift of one’s sexuality is given to one’s opposite-gendered spouse and vice versa.
The Church does not condemn or judge those who have homosexual tendencies. She realizes that this may be a trial and prays that they respond to the call to chastity. However, unjust discrimination towards those with homosexual tendencies is immoral and unjust. Acts of sexual expression outside the union of marriage between husband and wife are against natural law. This includes homosexual acts as well as heterosexual acts.
The Church treats all with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Read more about the Church’s teaching on chastity and homosexuality in the Catechism, paragraphs 2357-2359.
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
Not everything that Jesus said and did is contained in the Bible. John’s Gospel verifies this: “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain books that would be written.” (Jn. 21:25) That means there are teachings that Jesus gave to his apostles that were not originally written down. We call these teachings Sacred Tradition or Apostolic Tradition.
The Catechism teaches us that the Gospel was handed on in two ways, Scripture—the written message of salvation, and Tradition—the oral, or spoken, message of salvation. “As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, ‘does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.’” (para. 82)
For example, the teachings about Mary as the Immaculate Conception and her Assumption come to us from Sacred Tradition, even though their foundations can be found in Scripture. Read more about Sacred Tradition in the Catechism, paragraphs 75-83.
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
The question about listening to and obeying the pope’s teaching can be divided into two parts: infallible teachings and everything else. The previous "Ask Mr. Mueting" deals with papal infallibility, so we need to look at everything else.
The pope is the supreme teacher of the Church. If the pope is confirming the faith and morals of the Church as has been handed down from Jesus to Peter and the apostles to the pope and the bishops today, he is teaching God’s Revelation. His words “must be adhered to with the obedience of faith” as the Catechism writes. (para. 891)
However, the pope also speaks and writes on other matters that are not directly found in Revelation. Even then, the pope, when he proposes “in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals” (para. 892) is due religious assent. That means the pope’s teaching should be accepted and followed.
The pope is a man, but he is also the pope, a man with the responsibility of guiding the Church and the world to come closer to God. Of course, we should listen to him! Read more about the teaching office of the pope in the Catechism, para. 888-892.
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
Let’s start with what papal infallibility is NOT. It is not the belief that whatever the pope says is never incorrect. If the pope says Argentina is going to win the World Cup, that is not infallible. It also does not mean that everything the pope says is a matter of the faith and morals of Church teaching and thus has to be believed.
Papal infallibility is based on the teaching that the Catholic Church can never be wrong on matters of faith or morals. That means that the Church can never promote a teaching of faith or morals that is in error. So papal infallibility means that the pope, when he is exercising his role “as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful – who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals” (para. 891) is teaching the truth of the Church.
Previous popes have made use of this in an extraordinary way twice, in declaring Mary the Immaculate Conception and that she was assumed body and soul into heaven. Pope St. John Paul II has made use of infallibility in an ordinary way a number of times, in declaring that the Church cannot ordain women as priests, and that acts such as “homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and voluntary suicide” (Veritats splendor, par. 80) are intrinsically evil. Read more about papal infallibility in the Catechism, paragraphs 888-892
Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.
