Pride or Love
A Feel Good Faith
Photo By: Flickr/Mikusagi
We must really stop it, we must really stop make superficial our Faith by sentimentalizing it. We are so addicted to our emotions and so we have become quite good in the past several decades of preferring nice, and reassuring quotes, memes and expressions in an effort "feel" better. We don't even seem to care about Truth, we only care about "feelings" and "emotions". That is Satanic. God created our emotions and so they are good things, but when we start to almost deify our emotions by setting them above the pursuit of Truth, that is a horrible red flag, and will lead us to destruction, heck it already is and has.
This is at the root of so many of our problems today. We sacrifice the pursuit of knowledge and Truth for the pursuit of pleasure and emotional highs. It is demonstrated. in the destruction of historical artifacts and statues, in the exodus of Catholics from the True Faith in pursuit of a "feel good" experience, and in the loss of our theological knowledge and learning instead replaced by pithy sayings such as "my beloved just earned his angel wings", of course there are many more such sayings that are devoid of any Truth but evidently create calm and serenity in the ignorant experiencing loss and suffering.
Of course, those of us who are yearning for divine relationship, understand that the worship of experiences will never fill out hearts, that the true search is for a person, and that person is Christ. The Creator and God of the Universe that became Man, not an angel, to save us and provide for us a means and opportunity for a life way better than "earning angel wings, whatever that even means", could ever provide. But hey, it evidently makes some people feel better, so it's a noble and worthy effort, right. We must feel good at all costs.
If that were true, we wouldn't be in the mess we are now. The notion, erroneous, but the way, that God doesn't give us more than we can handle, is so demonstrably shallow and short and our current world and national situation are proof of that. There is nothing we can handle without God. God gives us more than we can handle continuously because : “I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me”- Philippians 4:13
Of course Scripture isn't as endearing anymore, I guess, than the cute little quotes that are continuously created for Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.
Do we even realize that by inferring that someone has earned angel wings, we are demoting them in the cosmic hierarchy of the universe? Angels after all were not "saved'. Christ did not become an angel, he became a person, a human - a God-Man, not a God-Angel. This isn't even a more advanced theological point, yet we have sacrificed the pursuit of Truth to the extent that we constantly deny the incarnation!
It is our duty and responsibility to learn the Faith. It is not our duty and responsibility to seek out the pleasure and feel good false notions and distortions of our Faith because we like them better. When we do that, we are choosing ourselves and rejecting God, and that will leave us in a personal oasis of doom, that leads to disorder and chaos in our lives and in the world. If you don't believe, me, just look around, the evidence of that is everywhere. But hey, it sure does feel good to hold hands at Mass while reciting the Our Father, doesn't it? It sure feels good to smash that statue and clap hands and dance to the music, doesn't it? I am pretty sure the Cross didn't feel good, it didn't feel good for Christ, and it won't feel good for us either, but that is what will get us to Heaven, the Cross of Christ - and we don't do it alone. We don't worship and experience, we worship a person. A feel good experience won't get us to Heaven, but the person of Christ will, because the true love that gets us to Heaven is not a feeling, but a person who performed an action, and a sacrifice, and expects us to do the same.
About the Author
I am a 57 year old, wife and mother of two grown sons. I am Cradle Catholic and experienced a reversion to the faith several year ago that moved me to dive more deeply into an understanding of the church and it’s doctrines and dogmas. The more I read, and discover, the deeper my love of the Catholic Church and her teachings becomes.
I become the Executive Director of a very active and busy Crisis Pregnancy Center on the West side of Cincinnati in October 2021. God is so good and answers prayers even though He knows at times, we have no idea what we are asking for. I left this job a few days ago, after having my heart broken and idea of working for a Catholic institution disallusioned. I am so honored and humbled to have had the experience to serve women and the unborn in this capacity! I am also very grateful for God, allowing me to see for myself, that perhaps such a calling was not His long term plan for me. Perhapos returning to Catholic 365 is more to his liking and fits more into his plan for me. I hopefully can once again be more active with content to this wonderful website.
I live in Cincinnati, Ohio where I attended the same parochial grade school and public high school that my two boys attend. I sang in the choir for 35 years and have also been a cantor. I recently left singing in church because i found it to be a grave distraction to the awesome significance of the Liturgy. I haven't looked back, and love the Mass now more than ever! I have been a past member of the Education Commission and have devoted many hours to the well being of St. Ann Church and School (now Our Lady of Grace).
I look forwad to being back and submitting more articles and content. I love being able to share my faith and use this platform as a way to express my deep love and devotion to our Lord. We need each other, and what a wonderful way to connect with others!
