The reason I'm a Catholic is that I don't want to go to hell!
The Catholic Church teaches me about God, about the only way to salvation which occurred on Good Friday and the Catholic Church teaches me to know, love and serve Jesus Christ. Why? To keep me out of hell! Why else?
I could be a good person and simply join some service organization or club that would help me to help others and thus feel good about myself, but would that get me to heaven? No!
I could join a country club or the masons for friends and community. But would that get me to heaven? No!
But Jesus through His one Sacrifice gets me to heaven when He washes away my sins in Holy Baptism, gives my soul His Holy Spirit and adopts me as His very own.
Jesus gets me to heaven when He strengthens my soul in the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation and commissions me to be a part of the Great Commission, making His salvation known to the world.
Jesus gets me to heaven when He renews the gift of forgiveness for my actual venial and mortal sins in the Sacrament of Penance. Without His forgiveness, I'd go the Hell, pure and simple, all I need to do is repent, confess my sins, do my penance and resolve to sin no more then the passion of Jesus is renewed in me by God Himself!
Jesus gets me to heaven when I attend Mass and at Mass stand at the Foot of the Cross and His one Sacrifice, the only Sacrifice that can get anyone to Heaven is made present in an un-bloody way and then if I'm in a state of grace, my worthy Holy Communion binds me to God's love in the most intimate way, even more intimate than the love of the marriage act. But even if I don't receive Holy Communion, the graces of the one Sacrifice are made available at Holy Mass to me and for my salvation!
Jesus gets me to heaven when I'm sick and in the Sacrament of Anointing, He comes to soothe my sin sick soul and offer me physical and spiritual and mental relief if not complete healing as a sign of what heaven will be life, which Jesus of course makes possible for me, without him, I'd be lost.
Jesus gets me to heaven through the Sacrament of Marriage when I was conceived by my parents' marital act, a loving expression that was sacramental (unitive and pro-creative) for my parents and even for me at the moment of my conception, and I was then born into a Catholic Family who taught me that I could be saved or I could be damned depending on how I accepted the grace of God that would be given to me in the sacraments and in my life in the Church that is here for me to prepare me for heaven and all the love and goodness of heaven that can be experienced through the Church and my personal faith and good works.
Jesus gets me to heaven through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the ministry of bishops, priests and deacons that help me to experience all the other sacraments of the Church with are for me and my salvation because these are a part of the economy of salvation begun by God in the Old Testament, fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament and through His most sorrowful Passion and will be completed by Jesus at His Second Coming and Final Judgment! At the Final Judgement some will to to the everlasting fires of hell and many will go to the refreshing waters of heaven. I want to go to heaven! And they teach and preach the Word of God in Sacred Scripture and Tradition and help us to know the truths of the catechism. But bishops and priests are able to consecrate the Bread and Wine and by the Holy Spirit bring to the altar in an unbloody way the One Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and make the "Hostia" Victim present for us and our salvation under the elements of Bread and Wine that make receiving the Holocaust or "Hostia" palatable. Jesus really knew what He was doing at the Last Supper, did He? He did it for me and for my salvation!
Finally all the things the God makes available to me for me and for my salvation are made available to other members of my adopted family who belong to the adopted family of the Church that is being saved by God, my fellow Christians and for us and for our salvation we are made Christian not by our own power but by the very power of God Almighty, because only He can do it, we can't!
But if we don't care about being saved and going to heaven, we might as well join a service club and experience even better fellowship and good works sometimes, but without the benefit of salvation. I don't want to go to hell, so I continue to belong to the Church and believe that I could go to hell if I didn't belong to the Church and know, love and serve Jesus Christ in this life in order to be happy with Him forever in heaven. I don't want to go to Hell!
So I believe in all the Commandments and that breaking any of them and remaining impenitent I'll go to hell after Jesus Christ judges me at the hour of my death. But of course He's judging me everyday since my Holy Baptism and the High Calling He gave me as a Catholic. I hate letting Him down, because His grace helps me to love Him above all, not just because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but of course that dread is there too with my love for God Almighty!
I believe all that the Catholic Church teaches in the area of morality including her sexual morality and even all that is taught in Humane Vitae and the Pope's Social Encyclicals and I believe that if I break any of the moral teachings of the Church and if anyone else does and remains impenitent, that we'll go to hell when we die.
That's why I try to accept all the moral teachings of the Church and live by them and when I break them, I get myself to confession, because I don't what to die in a state of mortal sin and go to hell.
I do pray an Act of Contrition each night too! Why? Because if I should die in my sleep I don't' want to wake up in hell. So I say an Act of Contrition so that when I wake up after I die in the middle of the night I'll see Jesus and not Satan.
10 comments:
Thank you for posting this. It is a nice reminder of how simple our faith really is and how great is the Divine Mercy: die in a state of grace and go to Heaven! How simple is that?!?
This is pretty strong stuff. As simple as it sounds we have a major problem in the Church today because many people do not believe you go to Hell for not believing these things. In fact, that belief is a major barrier for many of the Spirit of Vat II people.
Sleep is no respite for my broken soul. Even my dreams need confession.
rcg
Wow, rcg, your "sleep-dreams" axiom was also quite a conscious-raising slap in da face for this sinner as well. Thanks, seriously.
And no, prurient goobers, it's not about "those kinds of dreams."
Beautiful post, Father.
In God's goodness, He allows us to participate in helping others to find His Divine Mercy. As someone who has personally been rescued by such a prayer, I pray and recommend the Morning Offering:
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.
I am glad you feel so strongly about being Catholic, and I thank God that he called you to the priesthood. Thank you for showing us the path that leads to heaven.
Thank you for this, Father! We all need to be reminded of how easy it is to end up in Hell and how to properly walk with Jesus in the hope of Eternal Salvation. God blesses us through the many Sacrements and ministries of the Catholic Church. It boggles me how so many people, including so-called Christians and Catholics, can purposely turn away from Christ and His Commandments. God Bless You, Father, and your spiritual leadership! -Stephen B. Conner, Macon, Georgia.
I wish this could get spread like wildfire all over the Catholic internet!
I wish you'd require that copies be given to all your PREP and schoolchildren, with extras for their parents.
I wish you'd stuff this into the weekly bulletin. Several times.
I wish you'd print this in the parish newsletter.
I wish you'd hand out copies at RCIA.
I wish you'd mail copies to Nancy, Kathleen, and Joe.
But mostly, I wish and hope I live up to this and teach my daughter well...my two hardest jobs that so small a creature like me can hardly do.
But even MORE than wishing...I am GRATEFUL to be a Catholic. (and that I reverted at the parish I am at).
~SqueekerLamb
Father,
God Bless you for your spiritual leadership and devotion.
This is It Plain & Simple
Bring on the Baltimore Catechism.
Its good for the soul
Squeeker's right. Make this available to everybody. There is beauty in simplicity.
When someone asked Karl Barth, the premiere Protestant theologian of this century, for a concise statement of his theology, he replied: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Thank God I was born into a Catholic family. I know I would surely go to hell without my Catholic faith. Thank you for sharing these thoughts. Becky
With many thanks, Father, for this post. I've only just seen it today (June 16), but posted a link to my own blog, http:www.christianityrichly.com. May God bless your service!
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