RCIA class is great. We had a guy from Christendom college come to lecture us on the last four thing, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell.
The Fall wasn't a curse in the sense that God "zapped" us for our Original Sin. The truth is that our rejection of God put ourselves out of "balance" with the state that God had put us in, ie paradise. Sin continues to warp our world to this day. The reason we inherited this state is that we are out of balance with God's friendship. It isn't an inherited curse in the sense that we are born evil and degraded out of vengeance, but rather, we are in the state of the Fall, because something was lost once, and we are all missing out on it from the original rejection of God. This answers my question for the other day about why would God put us in a state where we offend him even more, through more sin. He didnt put us there, we put ourselves there.
Hell is an extension of God's love. I have thought of this before, but I didn't really internalize it. Hell isn't a thing, it is an abscence of a thing, ie Love. Evil isnt a thing, it is an abscence of a thing, ie goodness. If people till the end of their lives deliberately reject God, He will respect them enough to give them what they want, seperation from Him. But since He is the source of all goodness and love, Hell sucks, but its what they want. Hell isnt a torture chamber, or full of flames, it is lonely.
Our freewill is gone in Heaven, but that isnt a contradiction to God respecting our choices, because the choice we make on Earth is to be in God's presence, which makes it impossible to sin in the face of all goodness. The whole purpose of this life is to make this one choice, be with God, or be without God.
PS
After the class, the guy and me started discussing things really in depth. Man is Catholicism deep. But the beauty of it is that is doesnt have to be, if you dont want it to be.
The Fall wasn't a curse in the sense that God "zapped" us for our Original Sin. The truth is that our rejection of God put ourselves out of "balance" with the state that God had put us in, ie paradise. Sin continues to warp our world to this day. The reason we inherited this state is that we are out of balance with God's friendship. It isn't an inherited curse in the sense that we are born evil and degraded out of vengeance, but rather, we are in the state of the Fall, because something was lost once, and we are all missing out on it from the original rejection of God. This answers my question for the other day about why would God put us in a state where we offend him even more, through more sin. He didnt put us there, we put ourselves there.
Hell is an extension of God's love. I have thought of this before, but I didn't really internalize it. Hell isn't a thing, it is an abscence of a thing, ie Love. Evil isnt a thing, it is an abscence of a thing, ie goodness. If people till the end of their lives deliberately reject God, He will respect them enough to give them what they want, seperation from Him. But since He is the source of all goodness and love, Hell sucks, but its what they want. Hell isnt a torture chamber, or full of flames, it is lonely.
Our freewill is gone in Heaven, but that isnt a contradiction to God respecting our choices, because the choice we make on Earth is to be in God's presence, which makes it impossible to sin in the face of all goodness. The whole purpose of this life is to make this one choice, be with God, or be without God.
PS
After the class, the guy and me started discussing things really in depth. Man is Catholicism deep. But the beauty of it is that is doesnt have to be, if you dont want it to be.
