What makes a good Catholic?

[Eucharisted]

Sometimes, on a forum or a blog or in an article or a letter, you'll read a statement along the lines of "I'm a good Catholic, I go to Mass on Sunday and I love my family". This usually follows or proceeds either a denial of something the Church teaches or a doubt in God's Goodness. Whenever I read these lines, the first thing I think of is "That's not what constitutes a good Catholic."

Being a good Catholic - or simply Catholic, for that matter - is not being a good person. Nor is it following rules. Nor is it doing deeds and saying prayers and making fasts and offering up sacrifices and reading the Bible and so forth. Such things are the fruit of God's work, but do not in themselves constitute God's work. The Lord Himself says in Scripture that He is not pleased with burn offerings. So, than, what is God's work? What dose it mean to be Catholic? The Lord, after saying He is not pleased with burnt offerings, continues on to say what pleases Him is mercy. In Judaism, mercy and love are the same thing, and Christianity unites mercy and love as well, because God is Love and Mercy Itself. Hence, what God is pleased with, what makes a good Catholic, is love: a life of love is a Christian life.

Love, philosophically speaking, is the source and summit of perfection. Perfection is another word for holiness. Therefore, we see the connection between Christian life and the identity of the Church as a holy nation: to live in love is to live a holy life and to live a holy life is to live in love, a Christian is a saint and a saint is a Christian. But this might confuse some souls: Do we not canonize some and call them Saints? Certainly, and they are properly called Saints, because they are the intercessors and imitators of the saints, they who themselves imitated the Model of Holiness: Jesus Christ. Saint Paul exhorts the early Christians to imitate him who imitates the Lord, and this same exhortation is made by Mother Church: Be like the Saints who were like Jesus. They are as mirrors of the Light of the world, which give us a clearer picture of what it means to live like the Lord did.

Saint Francis of Assisi once lived a reckless life, but converted and was gentle with both men and animals.
Saint Mother Teresa once lived a great life, but gave it up to serve God in the poor and relied completely upon God's Providence.
Saint Edmund Campion once left the Catholic Church for Anglicanism, than reverted and died for the Faith.
Saint Mary Magdalen once was a prostitute, but converted and returned Jesus' Love with her whole being.
Saint Augustine once left the Catholic Church for heresies, than reverted and used his episcopal office to defend the Faith.
Mary, Jesus' Mother, once lived a poor life, but was enriched with Christ and united herself to Him so closely that she suffered with Him.

In brief, to be Catholic is to be Christian, to be Christian is to be a saint, to be a saint is to be holy, to be holy is to live in love, and to live in love is to imitate Jesus Christ - which is what the name "Christian" means!

 

[reaganjn]

thank you for this!!

 

[Krentis]

Nice.

 

[Basil the Great]

Perhaps this question would best be answered by a priest from the SSPX, the Society of St. Pius X? The SSPX website provides a little different outlook than most of the posts on this board!

 

[CreedIsChrist]

Only God is truly good. Hence any goodness attributed by us is by God-given grace. Humans cannot "earn" heaven by "being good"(which is a very subjective phrase anyway considering God has created everything and everything he creates is good)

I think the OP is more asking, what makes a meritorious or virtuous Catholic. Merit and virtue comes from penance, charity and suffering for goodness sake.

 

[Michie]

Some example from those we read in Scripture:

Noah was a Drunk
Elijah was Suicidal
Peter was a Coward
Jacob was a Deceiver
Rahab was a Prostitute
Samson was a Womanizer
Moses had a Self-esteem problem
David was an Adulterer/Murderer
The Samaritan Woman was Divorced (a lot)

Of course grace does not require one to sin. We are called to repentance & following the Lord. But the Lord uses a lot of cracked pots to turn into something beautiful.

Here is one of my favorite devotional stories. Hope you like it.

Many years ago, in a very poor Middle East village, stood an ancient stone well. Along side of that well sat two large watering pots. One of them was like new, beautifully formed, even had graceful etchings along its curved handle.

The other, not as new yet still useful, had become cracked over the years. Time after time, the pot was passed over by the people with the exception of a little village girl. She had grown fond of the neglected pitcher. Every day she would chose it instead of the beautiful pot.

One morning, the old pot asked the little girl, "Why do you continue to use me, when you know I am flawed and cannot hold the water you and your family so desperately need?" The little girl spoke not a word, but carried the broken pot to a familiar pathway that she traveled daily.

With her tiny voice she said, "This is why I pick you." There before the pot was a row of delicate wild flowers that had bloomed along the trail because of the water that had trickled and leaked from the pot. The buried seeds of the flowers had been watered as she made her way home each day. The cracked pot for the first time had seen its worth through the eyes of a grateful little girl.

Just like the not so perfect piece of pottery, the Potter uses us as God's creations despite our imperfections. Sometimes, unfortunately, we have to be placed back on the potter's wheel to be remolded. This is not always a fun process but it is necessary in order to smooth out some of the flaws that God says must go! In even more serious times, God will actually break us and begin the process all over again. All because He's after something within us that will ultimately produce a vessel of honor for His glory.

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to Him. (Jeremiah 18: 4)
​

 

[Eucharisted]

Some example from those we read in Scripture:

Noah was a Drunk
Elijah was Suicidal
Peter was a Coward
Jacob was a Deceiver
Rahab was a Prostitute
Samson was a Womanizer
Moses had a Self-esteem problem
David was an Adulterer/Murderer
The Samaritan Woman was Divorced (a lot)

Of course grace does not require one to sin. We are called to repentance & following the Lord. But the Lord uses a lot of cracked pots to turn into something beautiful.

Here is one of my favorite devotional stories. Hope you like it.

Many years ago, in a very poor Middle East village, stood an ancient stone well. Along side of that well sat two large watering pots. One of them was like new, beautifully formed, even had graceful etchings along its curved handle.

The other, not as new yet still useful, had become cracked over the years. Time after time, the pot was passed over by the people with the exception of a little village girl. She had grown fond of the neglected pitcher. Every day she would chose it instead of the beautiful pot.

One morning, the old pot asked the little girl, "Why do you continue to use me, when you know I am flawed and cannot hold the water you and your family so desperately need?" The little girl spoke not a word, but carried the broken pot to a familiar pathway that she traveled daily.

With her tiny voice she said, "This is why I pick you." There before the pot was a row of delicate wild flowers that had bloomed along the trail because of the water that had trickled and leaked from the pot. The buried seeds of the flowers had been watered as she made her way home each day. The cracked pot for the first time had seen its worth through the eyes of a grateful little girl.

Just like the not so perfect piece of pottery, the Potter uses us as God's creations despite our imperfections. Sometimes, unfortunately, we have to be placed back on the potter's wheel to be remolded. This is not always a fun process but it is necessary in order to smooth out some of the flaws that God says must go! In even more serious times, God will actually break us and begin the process all over again. All because He's after something within us that will ultimately produce a vessel of honor for His glory.

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to Him. (Jeremiah 18: 4)
​

Cool story, thanks for sharing it

 

[dusky_tresses]

Doesn't the Bible say that we as humans will always "miss the mark"? Hence why we have Jesus to model ourselves after. I don't think we will be "perfect" but I believe we can be on the path to goodness and we're going to struggle, but we can change.

As someone going through RCIA, I often wonder what it means to be a good Catholic, but I don't obsess on it. I'd drive myself crazy. All I can do is continue to strive for the spiritual relationship I need to have and make sure that when I make mistakes, I am fully repentant.

 

[Eucharisted]

Doesn't the Bible say that we as humans will always "miss the mark"? Hence why we have Jesus to model ourselves after. I don't think we will be "perfect" but I believe we can be on the path to goodness and we're going to struggle, but we can change.

As someone going through RCIA, I often wonder what it means to be a good Catholic, but I don't obsess on it. I'd drive myself crazy. All I can do is continue to strive for the spiritual relationship I need to have and make sure that when I make mistakes, I am fully repentant.

Meditate on Jesus' commandments: "Love one another as I love you," "Be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect."