As Catholics, and especially as young adults practicing and trying to live out our faith, we often come across the phrase, I feel like the Catholic faith is limiting my fun and restricting what we can and cannot do. I have a right to have a religion, but also live a fun life- without a religion telling me what to do all the time- right?”
Wrong.
We were put on this earth for one purpose: to one day attain the beatific vision and be with God in Heaven. This may seem irrelevant when it’s 7pm on a Friday night and our friends are beginning to pre-game for the night’s festivities, but this is when our choices really do matter and can lead us down drastically different paths.
The wide or the narrow path?!
Several months ago, I came across a guy in a bar who approached me and began conversation. After going to the bar to get some water (I was the DD), I was hoping he would forget about our conversation and move on to another person. However, he was still there standing by my friend when I returned, and he began to talk with me again, asking the same questions we had just talked about! Unbelievable I thought 🙂
During that conversation the topic shifted to my job, which at the time I was with a Catholic marketing/ PR company. Once he heard Catholic that consumed the remainder of the conversation.
At first it was a civil conversation, and he proceeded to tell me that he grew up catholic and his grandparents were staunch Catholics, but he no longer practiced. I engaged him on his faith a bit, but the conversation soon took a turn for the worse. He flat-out told me that he believed religion preyed on the weak, and that it really handcuffed individuals, keeping them from really living. I don’t believe I need to tell the rest of the story because I’m sure many of you have run into a conversation like this before.
The reason I share this story with you is to offer some guidance on this topic. Whether you sometimes feel like our Catholic faith restricts us having fun in life, or if you have friends/ acquaintances that constantly bring this topic up, consider this thought.
Can you imagine playing football, soccer, basketball, or for that matter any sport without out-of-bounds lines and rules/ restrictions on what players can and cannot do? Football without the end zones and sidelines would not be the same fun game, which a majority of the US tunes into on Sundays during the fall and winter. Who would have watched the Superbowl yesterday if there were no end zones which determine a touchdown?!
The point of the game would be lost, because without sidelines a player could just make up rules and determine where he wants to run; there would not be a point to the game.
So now apply that same principle to religion. God gave us rules and commandments to follow, in order to play in the game of life. No one more than God our Father wants us to succeed and have as much fun and joy as we can in our life on earth. He does not give us these laws to stymie our fun or make us miserable. Try adjusting your frame of mind, and see it as God- our loving father- gave us these guidelines to live a successful, happy and holy life.
God Bless
Kelly
Kelly's Cabana 