Superficial or Supernatural Faith?
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.
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About the Author
I am a wife and mother of two grown sons. Although I am Cradle Catholic, I experienced a profound reversion to the True faith several years ago that motivated and inspired me to dive more deeply into an understanding of the Church and Her teachings, and why She has these teachings and where they come from. Surprisingly, for me, the more I read and discovered, the deeper my love of the Catholic Church and her teachings became. This certainly is a journey that doesn't end, and so as I uncover more amazing facts about our Faith and Church, I just can't help but want to share what I'm learning. So, I began writing for Catholic 365.
I have recently served for a year and a half as the Executive Director of a very active and busy Crisis Pregnancy Center on the West side of Cincinnati. God is so good and does answers prayers, even though He knows at times, we have no idea what we are asking for. The pro life cause is paramount to our times, I am so honored and humbled to have had the experience and opportunity to serve women and the unborn in this capacity! I am also very grateful to God, for allowing me to see for myself, that perhaps such a calling was not His long term plan for me. We go where God seeminly calls us, and for me, that was a return to corporate America. I currently work as a recruiter and sales onboarding specialist where I am helping a Franchising company open and support small businesses that serve seniors and the elderly, giving them opportunities to age in place and live thier final chapters with dignity. It is the other end of the pro life spectrum and such an amazing endeavor!
I love being able to share this great faith of ours and use this platform as a way to express my deep love and devotion to our Lord. We need each other, and this effort has truly become a wonderful way to connect with all of you- my brothers and sisters in Christ!
