Why be Catholic?

These are the summary of reasons why I choose to be Catholic and why I continue practicing the faith through thick and thin. Catholicism is a way of life and these are the values I try to live by as a Catholic.

Love

1. Seek love from the source of love Himself, God

As human beings, we may not realise it but we all seek love: through the things we do and from the people around us. This desire to earn recognition and affirmation isn't bad in itself. However, when this desire goes unchecked, it can cause us to become prideful, to become self-serving. Thus, the only way to satisfy our insatiable thirst for love is to seek it from an eternal source of love, God Himself.

⁠"Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty." -John 4:13-14

2. Recognition we are loved by God for who we are, regardless of our mistakes and sins. Because of this, we too are called to love others the same.

The truth is: nobody is perfect, only God is. It's kinda sad that the world that we live in today is always quick to destroy others for a single mistake. Thus, it's even more important for us not to be forgiving to others because the truth is, we have our own sins, we carry our own crosses and we have no right to condemn others for their mistakes. If God who is perfect condemns no one, who are we to condemn others?

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” -John 8:7-11

Context for the bible verse above: Jesus (the son of God) encountered a woman who committed adultery (a sin that was heavily condemned in society back then) and the woman was about to be stoned by a crowd. Jesus then stepped in to intervene.

Hope and Joy

In the modern world, the line between happiness and joy is often blurred. The things that give us supposed joy: good grades, money, a good job etc are all fleeting. Happiness is almost always circumstantial and the pursuit of happiness just makes us completely self-absorbed. We'll just be chasing the next thing that will satisfy our desires, the next thing the world tells us to do, the next thing the world tells us we need and when we finally achieve it, we feel a short period of euphoria before the world tells us that this thing we worked so hard to get is no longer relevant. The cycle then repeats as we go ahead chasing the next goal.

Joy on the other hand is a pervasive, constant sense of well-being, infused with hope in God. It cannot be pursued, it can only be stumbled upon because they are encounters with God. Joy leads us to hope in God. This hope is the sense of security we get knowing that God is with us and that He only wants good things for us.

Of course, it's not wrong for us to set goals for ourselves and work toward them. I too am pretty ambitious myself. However, we also need to give God the space to work in our lives. This means that when things don't go as we wanted, we continue to thank God for whatever opportunity he presents us and work hard/give out best in whatever situation we're put in. This is what it means to live a joyful life: To place our hope in God because He has provided for us and He will provide.

“Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.” -G.K. Chesterton