Catholicism is hard: 14 reasons why
Why should Catholicism hard? After all, didn't Christ say his yoke is easy and his burden light? The short answer is...you were made for more. You were made to carry a cross, and that requires self-discipline and self-mastery. Catholicism can seem hard because following Christ necessarily involves self-denial, sometimes in the extreme.
1. Catholic marriage is permanent. Civil divorce cannot sever valid Holy Matrimony. Contrary to some misunderstandings, nor does it disqualify a Catholic from receiving the Sacraments. However, remarriage, cohabitation, or other grave sins do. The Church, in her wisdom, recognizes that some marriages might not have been valid at their outset; but she assumes all marriages are valid unless demonstrated to be invalid. The Church is, however, there to love and support those who have experienced divorce.
2. Chastity is for everyone.
Fornication, adultery, pornography, and masturbation are gravely sinful. Same-sex attraction is not, in itself, intrinsically sinful; however, exercising those attractions is. Human sexuality is restricted to one man and one woman in marriage. Chastity within marriage has another kind of meaning, having to do with complete self-giving, faithfulness, openness to life, and certain rights and duties. Unchastity constitutes grave sin that disqualifies a person from receiving the Eucharist (see #6 below). Confession is necessary for Catholics who engage in unchastity.
3. Contraception, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy are forbidden.
Openness to life, exclusively within the marital embrace, is the unchangeable moral standard. By definition, marriage is ordered to the bearing and educating of children, and all human sexuality is to be ordered toward, and open to, that end. The Church calls those who have violated these moral standards back into the love of her teachings.
4. Abortion is a grave evil.
It is forbidden of Catholics and equally egregious for non-Catholics. The dignity of the person does not allow human life to be summarily destroyed. In circumstances when pregnancy is unintended, unwanted, perceived as a burden, or medically risky, nonetheless the Church has always condemned abortion. But that none should be lost, the Church deeply desires that all would be reconciled to Christ.
5. Sunday Mass is obligatory.
So are certain Holy Days. Attendance, but for extraordinary circumstances, which the Church in her mercy admits, is not an option but a duty. Shirking that duty, whether willfully, from lack of planning, or from weak effort, is a grave sin requiring repentance and Confession. Self-discipline in this regard is an essential good.
6. Receiving the Eucharist unworthily is dangerous.
Not an open table, the Eucharist is the real presence of Christ...body, blood, soul, and divinity, As St. Paul taught, receiving the Sacrament in a state of unworthiness brings condemnation. To consume him without first reconciling with the Church through Confession is to presume upon God's mercy. Better to abstain for a time than to defile his body and blood.
7. Repentance is only the beginning.
Confession to a priest is also necessary. Only God has power and authority to forgive sins; however, Christ granted his authority to his disciples and their successors (John 20:21-23). Sin spiritually separates the sinner from the community, and the Sacrament of Confession is necessary to restore one's communion with the whole. God reconciles the sinner to himself and the community through the priest in persona Christi.
8. Sin is transmittable.
Participating in the sins of others is itself immoral. Willful involvement in - or implied endorsement of - a sinful act, whether drunkenness, sexual immorality, idolatry, or any sin whatever, invites culpability. Willfully attending what you know to be an illicit wedding, for example, is "bearing false witness."
9. Fasting is required.
With exceptions predicated on health and age, "Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence." Abstinence from meat is binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards. (USCCB)
10. Drunkenness is forbidden.
Maintaining one's faculties of - and capacity to - reason is absolute. While consumption of alcohol is not forbidden, moderation is necessary to avoid drunkenness and its consequent diminution of reason. This standard also applies to the abuse of all drugs and medications.
11. Faith demands works.
Without works, faith is dead. James 2:17-24 affirms that faith is completed by good works. If we love him, Christ reminds us, we will keep his commands. We will dedicate ourselves to a lifetime of service to the least and the lost through abundant corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
12. Baptism is necessary.
Childlike obedience is required of the believer. For a person to say, "I believe," then abstain from Baptism, is a contradiction. Baptism is the fulfillment of obedience. Attempting, as some do, to decouple the obedient action (Baptism) from the obedience it fulfills, is like obeying the body (i.e., eating food) then claiming, "it isn't the food that nourishes you." Baptism is to the eternal body as eating food is to mortal body.
13. Worship is physical.
The Hebrew word Shachah means "to bow down." Its English translation is "worship" (from the Old English "worth-ship"). Without bowing down, it isn't really worship. In the celebration of the Mass, we bow to the alter, genuflect to the tabernacle, kneel at the consecration of the bread and wine, and bow down to receive the blessing. Being a body-spirit composite, the outer body expresses the inner posture of the soul. So, we bow down - that is to say, we worship - as one should before God.
14. Lent is intense.
In the Lenten season, Catholicism is meant to be harder yet. One is called to increased fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Many Catholics practice asceticism. Self-denial strengthens virtue for the sake of endurance. The Stations of the Cross remind us of Christ's suffering, and we voluntarily suffer, by comparison only mildly, with him.
While this might read as a litany of restrictions, that's because the gate that leads to destruction is wide. Consider these Caution Signs. Christ leads us out of the bondage of sin and, by his unwavering love, into freedom.
Note:
For a matter to be "mortally sinful," all three of these conditions must be present:- the matter must be objectively grave, having to do with its degree of seriousness.- the person must have knowledge that the matter is objectively sinful.- the person chooses, by consent of the will, to sin in the matter knowing it is objectively grave.