Is Catholicism too Strict?

[Music] welcome to Catholic feedback I'm your host Keith nester on this podcast we connect the eternal truths of the Catholic faith with everyday life send in your questions and comments to feedback at Catholic feedback com this podcast is brought to you by down-to-earth ministry a ministry of stewardship a mission of faith and by the generous support of our patrons for more information please visit down-to-earth ministry org that's down the number to earth ministry org let's get to it welcome to Catholic feedback I'm Keith nester on this podcast we connect the eternal truths of the Catholic faith to everyday life I want to say thanks to those of you who have been sending me messages of support and encouragement and leaving reviews and comments on the various channels where the podcast has consumed ratrock elipse writes a rating on the library of the iTunes Store and he says this this is a new podcast but if you've been following him on YouTube you already know he's a great source for converts and reverts to the Catholic faith he's a great speaker and if the first episode along with his other body of work including a published book is any indication you'll want to stay tuned thank you so much for that review I appreciate that I also want to say thanks to my patrons who make this this show and this ministry possible Marie Morrison writes this as after she saw the first episode she says nailed it this is really good because it's truth told with such honesty and humility isn't being Catholic beautiful crazy beautiful love your work Keith thank you so much Marie I appreciate that and I appreciate your support also Christina writes this on patreon she says what really stuck with me was when you gave the example of a broken window I like that you can take a complicated topic and make it very easy to understand great job Keith are you thinking of putting any of your talks on Spotify absolutely first of all thank you so much Christina I really appreciate you and your support this podcast is available on Spotify it's available pretty much wherever podcasts are consumed as well as YouTube so make sure you can subscribe and get tuned in but thanks for being a patron Christina and for all your support and then my good buddy Jake from England he's 15 years old he writes this on the pot on the patreon page Keith this was amazing you got it alright and this podcast was very inspiring keep up the great work god bless you Jake god bless you Jake well god bless you Jake thank you so much for your feedback and for writing in I appreciate all the support that we're receiving after just a couple of episodes it's been awesome well today I want to welcome you to episode 3 and episode 3 is going to revolve around a question written to me by Alena and Alena has a great question it's a question I think a lot of people have wrestled with Alena asked the question what would you say to someone that says Catholic faith is too strict that's a great question what would you say to somebody who says that because people do don't they I mean if you guys heard people say to you things like what's the deal with Catholics and all of their rules that they have to follow especially all of the man-made rules that aren't in the Bible you know all of this mandatory fasting and the things that Catholics can't do and the things that they have to do I remember feeling that way I remember looking at things Catholics did that I didn't do as a Protestant and going well where did they get these ideas I mean so many of these things can't be found in the Bible so why are we doing them or why are Catholics doing them why are why do people think that they're so important because the truth is anytime you have a set of rules with regards to something having to do with your faith people are instantly going to question those rules and they're gonna say well who gets to make those rules and why are they important and what happens if I don't follow them and when it comes to Catholic faith let's just face it there are some expectations and obligations for Catholics that other Christians don't seem to follow or understand so naturally the charge is going to get thrown around while you Catholics just follow a bunch of manmade rules and traditions and didn't Jesus come to get rid of man-made traditions I mean didn't Jesus have horrible words for the Pharisees because of their man-made traditions yeah I know and a lot of people just they say that and it's mic drop boom they're done and because you Catholics have rules we're out what do you say to somebody that says that well we're gonna dig into that today and I think the important thing is you're gonna hear me say this a lot in this podcast the way questions are asked to us really dictates the way that we answer them it's very rare that we get a question that's an objective yes or no or asked answered question a lot of the questions that come to us require a deeper level of understanding and a deeper level of consideration before we can give an accurate answer so like this question that's that Alena asks which obviously somebody asked her when they say Catholic faith is too strict how do you answer that you could answer it like this you could say no it's not and then you just walk away you think that's gonna work or you could answer it like this and say well yeah it is and then you just walk away like what how do you answer that question in an effective way depends a lot on what the person is trying to say because think about it we all know this is true the way we ask a question shows so much of what our heart is so let me let me just play a little game here this particular question pretend that this is coming from someone who hates Catholicism and thinks it's stupid they're gonna say Oh Catholic faith is too strict okay now same exact words different heart maybe a person who's trying with all of their heart to follow Jesus and they want to be a Catholic and they maybe they are a Catholic and they're trying and but they're struggling with us oh man Catholic faith is too strict you get what I'm saying here like it's it may sound like like it's a nuanced thing but the truth is when you're trying to follow something if you've already decided it's bad and wrong before you come to the table you'll find any reason not to follow it and if this is just another reason or excuse not to follow Catholicism because you've just arbitrarily decided it's too strict then how do we answer that we have to go deeper into that but if you're a person who's trying with all of their heart in humility and with love for Christ but you're stuck in this mindset that you just can't measure up because there's so many things expected you expected of you in Catholicism now we have some work to do we got to help you so I'm gonna try to answer this from both perspectives today I'm gonna try to deal with this from the perspective of a person who's just throwing that out there to be a jerk and just to be like or to be obstinate and say oh I could never follow Catholicism it's too strict because Jesus doesn't like rules and I'm also gonna try to answer it from the perspective of a person who's really honestly trying to follow the faith but it's struggling so let's talk about it from the first perspective here's how I would answer that question Alena if someone said to me or that comment if someone said to me hey Keith Catholic faith is too strict the first thing I would say to them if I understood that's where they're coming from it as I would say well compared to what Catholic faith is too strict compared to what and I would ask some follow-up questions whoa okay well then you tell me how strict should it be see if if you if you come from this place in your mind where you feel like any type of rules or requirements to follow any kind of faith means it's too strict then you really are gonna struggle with any faith that you might find because I don't know of any faith that basically just says well hey there's nothing required of you there's nothing that you have to do or believe or think or act upon in order to follow this faith to the way that it's meant to be followed I honestly can't think of anything I can't think of the most even the most liberal person who who thinks that you know Jesus just doesn't care what you do with your life everybody's got something that they're gonna say you have to do or think or believe so really when you ask that question you gotta dig to the heart of it too strict compared to what now the fact is too many people seriously want their faith to be nothing challenging they wanted to make them feel good they want it to be warm and fuzzy and they want it to be encouraging all the time and make them feel good about however they are whoever they are and whatever they're doing that's just sort of the American Way isn't it and I know it's probably true in other parts of the world too but this is what I see where I live a lot of times we just want our faith to be easy cheap and free in some instances we don't want it to require anything of us but really if you think about it that doesn't make any sense does it I mean anything that you're gonna do in this life that's going to help you to better yourself or to grow as a person in whatever way there's gonna be rules there's gonna be things you have to do I mean if I wanted to get in shape and I joined a fitness program and I said well because you want me to like workout three or four times a week that's too strict I don't want to do that Oh or if I want to do to follow a healthier eating plan and I looked at the eating plan I'm like what I can't have Taco Bell four times a week and and you know drink as much beer as I want that's too strict but the reality is there's plenty of people who live their lives that way isn't it my wife and I have been have been looking like at all this some money management stuff you know because we're starting to get to the age where we go hey we met her we might better start thinking about retiring in in 20 years or whatever what are we okay that kind of thing you ever do that especially with with things the way they are right now in this pandemic that's when this is being taped you you might look at things and go wow am I gonna be okay so you start looking into these these strategies for saving and being disciplined with your money and setting a budget and figuring out how to invest and and all of that and realizing oh hey you know what I probably can't just go buy a brand-new twenty five thousand dollar motorcycle that I really want tomorrow even though they have no interest or whatever I can't just go buy that brand new pickup truck or take that expensive vacation or you know any number of things if we want to follow any type of guidance in our lives for anything we have to expect there to be a level of strictness around it otherwise what goods are gonna do and you could almost look at that and say the level of improvement you want to make to your life is going to be directly correlated to the strictest to which you follow a particular set of guidelines and rules or whatever it might be so if you want to lose five pounds in a year you probably have to do a whole lot but if you want to lose 30 pounds in two months you're gonna have to do a whole lot so if all of that is true when it comes to these other areas in your life then why would we expect it to be any different when it comes to our faith why would we do that so have them answer that question Alena asked the question well how strict should it be and I honestly feel like you're never gonna get a good answer from them so let's be honest then who should we ask and it is the Catholic faith too strict and how are we supposed to know where can we go for an answer to that question now I know a lot of you will go to the Bible what does the Bible say about how how strict it should be to follow Christ or to be a Catholic or any other kind of Christian well let's look at some verses in the scripture and see what we can find out okay and of course people who want things to be easy when it comes to their faith they have their favorite verses you know I mean when you're calling somebody out for their sins of course they want to jump in it's a judge not lest you be judged and then you kind of stand there going oh man okay well here's a great verse from Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30 that a lot of people like to say applies to when you think well you know following Jesus really shouldn't require a whole lot of me because didn't Jesus say come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now we all love that verse right that's a great verse we love it but is it really saying that following Jesus means that there's nothing required of us and that it's whatever we want it to be and that Jesus has come to make our lives easy and light and he's gonna carry all of our burdens and he's here to just bring rest to our weary Souls from striving to follow the horrible man-made traditions of Catholicism is that what Jesus meant when he was talking in those verses now I'm gonna advocate that it's really not because what Jesus was do in these texts is he's comparing what he's asking of his followers to what the Jews had to go through in order to follow all of the laws that they had received from Moses and then that they had added to to keep their faith over 600 of them and these people were so obsessed with following all of these rules that they forgot the whole point of it which was to love God that's why Jesus talks about that so much he talks about look the most important rule is love God okay and then love your neighbor as yourself but people take these verse sometimes they go okay we'll pull that verse out of out of context and we'll say that this just applies to anything having to do with your faith Jesus doesn't want you to be stressed out Jesus doesn't want you to be worried that you have to live a life a certain way he doesn't want you to be you know concerned that you have to change your life come to me and I'll give you rest people will cling to that and they'll just shut everything else out of the Bible and grab a hold of that so when someone saying to you hey your Catholic faith is too strict this might be a verse that they might throw at you well let's look at a couple other ones okay let's look at Philippians 2:12 this is a this one is interesting in light of that st. Paul writes these words therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling so how does that jive with come to me and everything's gonna be you know that when people paraphrase Jesus words in Matthew 11 and saying hey I don't have to do anything Jesus burden is light well then st. Paul says no you have to be obedient and you got to work out your salvation with fear and trembling I mean does that ever make you scratch your head and say well who's right because are these things contradictory or are they talking about two different things let's look at another one okay other people say no Keith you don't have to do any that stuff you just have to believe in Jesus if you just believe in Jesus the Bible says that enough I mean after all in Acts chapter 16 Paul is preaching a message to people within this jail after he has has had a miraculous instance of being freed from this jail and and he preaches this message to the jailers family and they and he says they said what do we have to do to be saved I mean how clear is this right and he says to them but leaving the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household so is what Paul is saying is that it is that the end of the story you just take that verse and you just go boom we're done there right if you just believe then you're gonna be saved is that it right people love that and of course the most famous one I think is Romans chapter 10 verses 9 through 10 where st. Paul writes these words because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for man believes with his heart and so is justified and he confesses with his lips and so is saved okay so you read these verses and you go wait a second maybe these people are on to something maybe Catholicism is too strict I mean don't all these verses just simply say that you just have to believe and that's enough well what you have to recognize is that when you get to the core of that question is Catholic faith too strict you got to understand what they mean now what do they mean are they talking about what does it mean to be saved or are they talking about what does it mean to actually practice the faith to the way that Jesus requires of you okay now I know those things might seem like lore are you saying are there different things or whatever are they the same thing well it depends on how you read the scripture it depends on which ways you're looking at it because you have to remember as Catholics we don't believe that we earn our salvation by keeping a bunch of rules as we're often accused of but we do believe that once a person has this encounter with the grace of God that now there are fruits of that and there are requirements for how a person should then live into their identity remember identity is everything who are you as a person are you a person that's just a rule follower with no relationship with Jesus okay that's not Catholicism or are you a person that feels like oh I don't have to follow any rules I just make it up as I go along because God doesn't care if that's who you are then I don't think you've really read the scriptures or understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ you see there's a difference between what makes you saved and how you should live as a result of it and I know that it's not an easy thing to always understand the how those two things are put together and where they're separated they flow together but yet at the same time we have to understand that our salvation is a work of God it's by God's grace but yet we are called to cooperate with that grace and that cooperation looks like rules it looks like a standard of belief it looks like obedience to Christ let's look at what Jesus says in John chapter 14 verse 15 and this is about as plain as you can make it if you love me you will keep my commands that's what Jesus said to his disciples - to these men who had given up everything to follow him and we're trying to understand what was happening to them and he's talking all about this new command he's given them to love and he's he's said to them so many times about how look all of the laws that you've grown up with all the rules that you've been following can be summed up in the law of love but yet at the same time it's still a law isn't it and Jesus basically breaks it down says look if you love me you will keep my commands you're not going to sit back and go all these commands are too strict because you're gonna love Jesus and when you love Jesus this whole idea of what makes something so strict doesn't even really enter your mind because if you're more concerned about the rules and keeping them perfectly out of fear of punishment or out of some sort of desire to be perfect in and of yourself then you've kind of missed the point of the gospel anyway because the gospel isn't here the rules follow them the gospel is Jesus Christ has come to fulfill the law and dine across and rise from the dead and redeem us by his sacrifice he is the Lamb that that frees the world from their sin the land that takes away the sins of the world he's offered himself on our behalf to the Father he's cleansed us from all unrighteousness and if we put our faith in him if we believe in him then the Bible says that that faith saves us but yet that faith as we believe so strongly doesn't leave us with nothing to live out as a result of it and if you understand it that way you go WOW okay I'm being called to something amazing as a Christian and as a Catholic I'm called to this life of sainthood of holiness well how are we supposed to figure that out if nobody ever tells us what it looks like see here's the thing Jesus isn't just calling you to believe something or to do something he's calling you to be something and what is he calling you to be a disciple and what does the disciple do a disciple learns and a disciple follows Jesus said if anyone would come after me he must take up his cross and follow me that's not a call to just you know do nothing it's a call to follow him and where did Jesus go look at what he did look at what he suffered look at how he fulfilled the Father's will for his own life you could say it was pretty strict couldn't you in some sense but another sense it was completely freeing and that's how it is with us so we have to reorient ourselves to this understanding when it comes to our faith and stop evaluating it based on how easy or difficult it is because ask yourself this question does it really matter if it's easy or difficult if it's the truth is somehow it less true because it's harder to follow think about that for a second just does the truth of our faith revolve around whether or not somebody arbitrarily thinks it's too strict or not of course not math is super strict it's really really hard can you imagine if I went to my math teacher and in school and said I'm sorry but I can't buy any of this math stuff it's just too strict I don't think that two plus two should equal four I think it should get to equal 79 and because you say there's only one right answer to that I'm rejecting this whole mathematical system anyway you know what they'd say to me well okay you can reject it all you want but it doesn't make it any less true and you fail we have to stop evaluating things based on how we feel and evaluate them based on whether or not they're true or not that's what matters so the question isn't well why is the Catholic Church so strict the question is what do I have to do to follow it and it all starts with belief like we mentioned belief in acts 16 like we mentioned in acts 2 when when Peter preaches the gospel at Pentecost and everyone says wow they've been cut to the heart what must we do to be saved then what does Peter say repent and believe the gospel will be baptized okay so there's there's a belief and then there's action and then there's a call to a identity because in Christ in Baptism we receive our new identity in repentance we change our life and believing the gospel we orient ourselves to this truth you see this is what it takes what our problem is that we get so hung up in these surface-level rules and we want to go well because these things are there and because I can't find it in the Bible where it says that you're not supposed to eat meat on Fridays in Lent then you Catholics are out to lunch because you're too strict with all your man-made rules okay so now now that we framed this question a little bit differently let's look at some of the specifics of Catholicism what does it take to be a good Catholic and is that different from other forms of Christianity and which is more strict because I think that you're gonna understand something if you really look into it I think what you might understand is Catholicism yeah there are some things that the church gives to us as guidelines for how we're to live our life so we can actually stay within the bounds of truth but compared to other forms of Christianity other expressions of faith I don't think Catholicism is any is really that much more strict than other people I mean let's face it have you tried being Amish lately look at the rules associated with with Judaism look at the rules associated with certain Christians who still want to keep the the Torah I have a friend who is a Torah observant Christian and he he keeps the dietary laws of the Old Testament and celebrates all of the Levitical feasts and has all of these different things and most of what he talks about has to do with okay well when did the moon appear and how are we doing this and what kind of grain is in this and I mean and I'm not judging him I'm just saying that there's a lot of rules associated with all kinds of Christianity isn't there I mean I know people in a church that they have to consult with their pastor before they move or change jobs or date someone there's a lot of Christians who can't drink any kinds of alcohol or listen to secular music or dance or go to an r-rated movie or do it now I'm not advocating for those things at all well you should be able to do them I'm just saying that that everybody has their own set of guidelines around what it means to follow their faith so why is it that us Catholics we're always getting beat up for being too strict you know it's just I think we have to be honest and look at any religious expression even within Christianity and say well what is expected of you if you if you follow this and if the answer is real really nothing do you think that means you're closer to the truth I mean if you can go to church and they can say to you well you don't do anything you just come to this church it's whatever you want believe whatever you want do whatever you want say what I mean it's that thing is I know some churches like that that's that's probably not anything like like anything Jesus would would be a part of because of course look at what Jesus said he gave us commandment so let's talk specifically then about what it is to be good practicing Catholic and how strict is mean churches okay so let's look at what the church refers to as its five basic precepts okay and where do you find these things of course within the Catechism of the Catholic Church you see me use this book a lot on this podcast paragraphs twenty forty one through twenty forty three lay out these basic precepts that the church gives us and here's what they are now I'm just gonna give you a spoiler here or a disclaimer some of you are gonna hear these and go oh my gosh the church is so strict there are a bunch of meanies how could they do that others of you are gonna hear this and go that's it those are the five precepts that's the basic that's like the minimum Wow I thought there was a lot more than that I'm just gonna tell you what they are and you can you can decide for yourself where you fit into that okay so the first one the precepts of the church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life the obligatory character of these positive laws be true decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort in the growth in love of God and neighbor okay so don't just blow that sentence off or that couple sentences off basically because people would say if I read these precepts like always there's nothing in there about loving Jesus you you wicked people you're just about following the rules show me in your five precepts where it says you gotta have a faith in Jesus remember what this says all these precepts exist within this context of a moral life okay so you're trying to live morally you're trying to live according to the moral law of God and you're also living out this liturgical this liturgical life now I know some people go what does that just mean you have to go to the right kind of church well what it the liturgical life is all about submission to Christ and worshipping Jesus Christ in the proper way so this is the context for these effort and basically what this is saying is two faithful people okay it's saying this is given to faithful people this isn't an evangelistic tool you're not going to hear some catholic street preacher going out saying hey you all need to follow the five precepts a good preacher is going to talk to you about the gospel of Jesus Christ and then once you've come into that and saying okay what does it mean for me to live this out now here are these five precepts okay so I just wanted to clarify that before we dig into what they are this is in the context of a life of a person who loves God and wants to love other people okay number one the first precept you shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation okay that's the first one now this requires the faithful to participate in the Eucharistic celebration when the Christian community gathers together on the Day commemorating the resurrection of the Lord now boom that used to freak me out before I was a Catholic are you meaning to tell me that the church requires me to go to church on Sunday yeah that's the bare minimum that's precept number one people look if we're not doing that if we're not at least attending Mass on the Lord's Day and these other days of Holy obligation we'll get to some of those in a minute then what are we saying if we can't even do that how can we claim to have some big great love affair with Jesus and and oh I love the Lord he's my god he you know if you can't gather together with the faithful to celebrate the Lord's Day then really you're sort of like you're on an island when it comes to the worship of the one true God I mean look at what the Jews did they they practice their worship on Shabbat okay and do you think that they just sort of was that like optional for them you think the you think that the practice is surrounding the the Jewish worship of I don't I on Shabbat were like well if you feel like it if you got nothing better to do absolutely not the worship of God was very structured in that way now as Christians we sui we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we do so as the churches has always done on the Lord's Day Sunday little tangent we as Catholics don't believe that Sunday is the Sabbath okay people I call the Catholic Church change the Sabbath from Saturday so no we didn't sunday is not the Sabbath the Sabbath is Saturday that's another topic for another time we'll get to it but we worship God on the Lord's Day because that's when Jesus rose from the debt and that's what the Christians have done from the very beginning so if the and if you think that that should be somehow optional when it comes to worshiping Jesus then I'm just gonna throw out you know this idea of well how much do you really love him if you're not even willing to do that then we got some serious problems okay we've got some serious problems now I know some of you already checked out you're like I don't really need that and hey you know what if you don't I'm not here to condemn you I'm just here to tell you you should so at the very least if you're like a person going Oh Keith I'm really trying to in my faith to come closer to God well are you are you doing these things are you living out your faith according to the first precept are you going to Mass on Sunday and if your answer is well when I feel like it then step that up okay see what happens it'll it'll it'll be pretty awesome okay so there's number one go to Mass on Sunday and holy days of obligation I forgot to talk about those so what are the holy days of obligation okay there's there's several throughout the year that the church gives to us different feast days and solemnities that we are to attend Mass and really there's like six or seven of them depending on when they fall throughout the week they're not like these days that are going to take over your whole entire life so think about it from that standpoint it's the holy days of obligation aren't meant to burden you they're meant to cause you to celebrate okay so that's the first precept attend attend worship on sundays and holy days of obligation the second precept okay you shall confess your sins at least once a year once a year go to confession once a year this ensures preparation for the eucharist by reception of the sacrament of reconciliation which continues baptisms work of conversion and forgiveness okay have you been to confession within the last year and the reality is I know a lot of people are like now I haven't been I talk to people about confession all the time and it's amazing to me how many I talk to you who who considered themselves practicing Catholics but you haven't been to confession in years and my encouragement to you is this look at your life do you not believe that you have sin in your life that needs to be confessed and why are you hanging on to it why are you depriving yourself of the grace that God wants to bring to your life through the sacrament of reconciliation to me it's like choosing not to breathe it's like saying yeah I don't feel like breathing today so I'm just not going to do it I don't feel like eating food today so I'm just not going to do of course you're gonna do the things that bring you life and I'm just telling you this if you haven't been to the sacrament of reconciliation in over a year you just need to drop whatever you're doing right now and go do it make an appointment if you have to you figure it out get to it okay now why does the church require that of us because I think the church is very will go with giving you the benefit of the doubt in saying that it should only be once a year to ensure that you're prepared to receive the Eucharist if anybody's gone more than a year without sinning I want to meet that person first of all I'm not saying they're not real but I'm just I'd like to meet you if you if you've got an entire year without sinning I just want a high five you and say way to go that'd be pretty awesome so the church is saying you're probably gonna need you're absolutely gonna need to go to confession at least once a year at least once a year so I don't think that's too strict is it I mean how long his confession take you know I mean I remember my first confession I was worried it was gonna take like hours it took about a half an hour and that wasn't so bad what's it gonna take you it's worth it believe me so go to confession okay so we're gonna go to church go to confession you know what's awesome like you can always go to confession typically before Mass they should offer it okay the third precept you shall humbly receive your creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season that's the third precept receive the Eucharist at least once a year in the Easter season okay go and receive Christ and remember when Jesus Christ gave us the Last Supper when he gave us the Eucharist think about that Good Friday that was that our holy Thursday and he offered himself up on Good Friday but think about what that means for us to be in that season of Easter celebrating his resurrection because in the Eucharist we receive the resurrected body of Christ we receive his flesh we receive his glorified body okay it's it's it's given to us we celebrate that so do that why again why would you not want to do that does that sound so hard to do I don't think so okay so yeah so that guarantees is a minimum the reception of the Lord's body and blood in connection with the Paschal feast remember Christ is the new Passover lamb the origin and center of the Christian liturgy everything revolves around Passover in Christianity it and it did in Judaism - it revolves around this sacrificial lamb being slain for the sins of the world and that lamb of course being Christ he gave himself up for us the Eucharist is the reception behold the lamb of God behold him who takes away the sins of the world blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb that's what we receive when we received the Eucharist we received the body of the Lamb and that's connecting us to what God has done for us and who we are as Christians so we need to participate in that okay so far we're not doing too bad are we super strict are we saying that okay we're saying you gotta go to church on Sundays and the holy days of obligation go to confession once a year and receive the Eucharist during Easter these aren't too difficult number number four the fourth precept you shall keep holy the holy days of obligation completes the Sunday observance by participation in the practical liturgical feasts which honor the mysteries of the Lord the Virgin Mary and the Saints okay what does it mean to keep these days holy what does it mean to keep them holy okay and I think we can look toward as a perspective we can look toward what God required of the Jews to do on the Sabbath as a way for us to to gain some context to it but really to keep something holy it's kind of even almost up to us to figure out what that means isn't it now we have guidance from the Church Fathers we have guidance from the Saints but to keep holy those those days of obligation it could mean different things according to different days so sometimes it might mean fasting on that day it might mean say in certain prayers going to church it basically just means that look don't just go through the motions don't just walk through these things go well okay I did what I had to do actually work at holiness and keep these days holy if you don't have to work then don't work if you don't it if you just think about what you can do to set those days aside for God how tough is that now that honestly that might be tough for some people because some of us get pretty addicted to our work don't we we get pretty addicted to being productive and being focused on ourselves but what this precept calls us to do is to remember why we're doing the first precept that's a big deal isn't it because if we don't remember why we're doing it then why we're doing it then the doing of it is practically nullified if we don't remember why we're doing it the doing it doesn't mean a whole lot and that's certainly what was consistent with Jesus that's what he talked about when Jesus was was scolding the Pharisees for for taking their man-made tradition and elevating them above the Scriptures that's what he was talking about he wasn't saying that all tradition is bad or all rules are bad he was saying that if you missed the point because you're too busy trying to do the thing that you missed the point of the thing then you've you've lost it but he never said the thing itself was bad so yeah you can go to church you can do these things but if you don't keep these days holy if you have it in your heart sanctify them as holy and giving yourself over in your spirit then what you do with your body really doesn't get you all the way there okay think about that it's it's very important very very important the fifth precept you shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence ensures the times of assessees and penance which prepares for the liturgical feast they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of okay now now we're getting into some rule stuff here right okay you shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence now what are fad what is fasting and abstinence means and if you try to tell me that's well that's man-made rules well look in the Bible Jesus talks all over the place about fasting now abstinence simply means that you completely abstain so like for example during Lent we Catholics we abstain from meat that means we eat zero meat fasting is a little bit different fasting means you deprive yourself from something for a particular amount of time in a particular quantity so I know that like people have different ideas of what's required and and that can change depending on where you are but like for example you might say well I'm gonna fast today well the the way that the Catholic Church understands fasting is that basically you avoid excess amounts of food you're allowed to eat what they call Co elations which is like two small things and then one meal regular meal later on in the day now is that really that hard I don't think it's that hard to me like when I say I'm gonna fast that to me that's that my fasting personally looks more like abstinence but for some people it's like no I'm gonna fast from this me I'm gonna skip lunch today and sometimes I just do that I'll say I don't want to offer this up as a fast and basically what what this means is the church is going to say to us because of the command of Christ that fasting is is part of our faith we're gonna talk to you about when that's appropriate and why we should do that and we do that this is interesting we do that communally because it's a way of the church unifying itself together in this act of fasting and penance presenting that to the Lord that's a beautiful thing it's a beautiful thing it isn't just everybody's on their own doing their own thing it's hey yeah there are times when we're gonna do that in our in our in our lives but there are also a set few times okay in the Catholic Church there's there's really just a few moments when we're called to do that throughout the year and we enter into those moments together Ash Wednesday Good Friday okay those are the days of the year that were called - too fast mandatory ok now you might choose to fast other times you know and that's very important to your faith but these are the precepts these are the precepts and then whatever other days the church requires of us now why do we do that at court I love I love the the reasoning here it says it helps us acquire mastery over our instincts in freedom of heart and I talked about this in my book a little bit the conference guide in Roman Catholicism how even as a new convert to the faith learning about fasting with the writ with especially with regard to the communal things that we do to fast how it helps us to to take captive those things that so easily want to entangle us when we show our bodies through fasting that our bodies aren't the boss of us and our desires aren't the boss of us that helps us to say no to temptation and sin very very important it's not that difficult it's not that oppressive to follow the church's precepts so those that's for the 5 precepts right that now there's one other when they sneak one other one in here and I don't know that this one is necessarily a precept but it's another obligation that we have it says the faithful also have the duty of providing for the material needs of the church each according to his abilities and I think that that is not necessarily one of the precepts because I feel like first of all that's something that almost goes without saying that's something that that's like we should be involved in in giving our resources for the work of the Lord and a lot of people wrestle with that - you don't think but we should automatically be thinking that way that shouldn't be something that the church should have to come to us and say hey by the way you should do this because of course Jesus talks about what it's like to serve two masters and says you can't you can't serve money and you can't serve God at the same time so the fact that we can give our gifts to the church and bring our offerings to the Lord proves who the lord of our heart really is and we have that's our duty that's not even really a rule that's just our duty okay so how does that sound not too much these five things that I listed out for you is it sound unreasonable now let's face it for some people that would be a major life change wouldn't it and be huge and Elena maybe for your friend who's making that statement to you saying well the Catholic faith is too strict maybe for them like ask them well what is your faith require of you what does that look like and and that might help you to understand because really honestly if we can't do these five things out of our love for Jesus then we have to really get to the heart of what it is to follow Christ and and do we really love him okay so let's ask ourselves you know can we do this in some sense I think we can so my encouragement to you guys is to recognize that these things are not given to you to make your life miserable they're given to you to help you grow in your faith but I know I know some people are still gonna be like look this is exactly the point Keith this is exactly what you're talking about all these five precepts when you're saying them I'm just in my heart going ah that's so UNCHR iced like that's so unchristian following Jesus should be easy for everybody well let me just I want to throw another verse at you in the middle of all this and this Matthew 7 chapter 13 through 14 let's look at what Jesus says about this enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take it for the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it that's Matthew 7:13 and 14 now does Jesus sound like he's trying to make it easy to follow him does that sound like that it doesn't to me it sounds like what Jesus is saying is look there's few people who are actually gonna live up to what I'm calling you to do but those that do are and those that do are gonna walk a narrow difficult road meanwhile there's a lot of people who are gonna say oh this is a hard teaching who can accept it sound familiar John chapter 6 there's a lot of people that are gonna say oh well you know let me first go and do this before I follow you Jesus or I've got other priorities in my life or I've got things that I have to do that are more important Jesus says a lot of people like that and he says that road is an easy road but it leads to destruction man I'll tell you what it is it is true you know how so many people who call themselves Christians and wanna want to wear that badge of yeah I go to church I follow God when when the rubber meets the road and they really don't they really don't I remember having these interactions with people in my in my ministry where I used to call out all the time you know when people would say things like well I won't see you in church for four months because you know my kids in volleyball or soccer or whatever and then it's like soon as kids sports show up boom they're just gone and I remember I said something about that one time in a sermon and we got some nasty grams about that sent to the church how dare Keith you know make us feel like we should have to choose between what we want to do in our family and and worshiping God and I'm like okay is that not what Jesus the picture of Jesus when someone comes to him and says hey I want to follow you okay well then let this other stuff go I mean what are we trying to do here people so for again it all goes back to your perspective now everything I just talked about and those precepts I shared with you how are you receiving that right now this is super importantly you know when you when you talk to people find out where their heart is with this because when you look at what Jesus says about this road you have to ask yourself how do we evaluate roads do we evaluate them by how easy they are to travel and how many other people we see along the way where do we evaluate them on where they lead you know sometimes the toughest roads lead to the best views don't they will be going to Colorado here pretty soon my my parents have a cabin out there and we'd like to go out there and go hiking sometimes and some of the views you see out there absolutely amazing as you hike through the mountains but you know what when you get to the really awesome places I'm gonna talk about the ones that you just pull over on the side of the road and get out of your car and and walk 10 feet and take a picture of an overlook I'm talking about when you get out of your car and you have to hike like a mile and a half to get to the trailhead and then you hike up these steep rocks and you go for hours and hours and then you get to someplace where not everybody gets to you where there are a few people you know you stop at those places on the side of the road those scenic overlooks a lot of times they're super crowded but when you get out into the into the wilderness and you take those those trails that aren't maintained very well and there's certainly less traveled and you get to the top you might not even see another person on the way but when you do it's like wow hey you stop and talk to him because you recognize you have this community and you go wow this is amazing you know that's what it's like to follow Jesus when you follow him on this road it's a tough road but it leads to the most amazing destination that you can consider and you will encounter some people on that way and when you do it's like you lock arms with these people and you say these are my people this roads tough you got an extra Clif Bar you got an extra canister of water I'll share mine with you and if you're coming down and they're going up what do you tell them oh man you're almost there it's gonna be awesome hanging with it you're almost at the top keep going don't quit I remember that happened to me plenty of times when you're thinking I don't know if I can make make this any further and then you see somebody coming down and you ask them how much further is it and they say it's just ahead and it's amazing I can thinking that can motivate you can't it think about how true that is and your Christian faith friend when you're burdened down by what it means to follow Jesus sometimes when it's been tough and you're struggling and that narrow road you're walking is challenging to you when you see a fellow traveler and receive encouragement from them you know it'll help you get through and you know that's what the Saints are to us the Saints are the ones that have been to the top and have come down to to tell you hang in there you're almost there it's awesome so we have that fellowship of saints that community that community of saints the cloud of witnesses that can share with us keep going you're almost there it's worth it but then we also have though around us that were on the journey together we say hey I wonder how much further you think we can make it yeah I'll share some of my stuff with you if you share some of your stuff with me is that the heart you have when you're talking about the strictness of the Catholic faith because here's another way to say it how about this Wow banasur strict to follow the Catholic faith isn't that awesome think about that right it's so tough but the tougher it is the more I become like Jesus when I live into it that's the best way to answer that question when someone says you know what the Catholic faith straight yeah it is can you step up to it you think you can do it boom that will change some hearts that will change some hearts and that's the way that I want you to to to frame this whole conversation Elena and anyone else who's wrestled with that don't run from it don't try to say like oh no it's not that bad now I've shown you that it's really not that bad haven't I I've shown you the Five Precepts and they're really not that bad but remember that's just the beginning there's so much more you discover and learn and grow and guess what so many more things that you have to say okay yeah if I'm gonna really live out my faith to the to the fullness of it then yeah I am gonna follow these rules and these things that are given for my benefit so that I can stay on the course why would you want to avoid that why would you want to avoid that if you were dying of a deadly disease and the doctor said look there's only one cure for this disease but it's gonna require you to drink some nasty stuff you're gonna drink some some some weird beet juice carrot juice combination with some kind of grass mixed in and it's kind of gross would you be back sitting there going oh man this is too strict no you'd be like all right where do I get that how many times a day do I drink it can I just drink a little bit extra just in case is there anything else I can add to it to keep me healthy right think about that that's how you'd be people we are all dying of a fatal terminal disease it's called sin and God has said to us eight news there is a cure and the cure is the gospel and here's the way that you've been given to walk in it isn't that great news you don't respond to the cure with oh but wait a minute I don't like the way that tastes can I you know can I have a mojito instead or you know a margarita and can that heal me because that's what I really prefer no of course not you don't get bent out of shape that the Cure doesn't taste the way you wanted to you give thanks that there is a cure friends there is a cure to our spiritual condition and his name is Jesus Christ and he's given to us the medicine that we need his flesh and his blood and his word and the truth and the church to help us to be freed from our illness let's not complain and whine about the way it tastes once in a while or that it requires something of us let's give thanks that it exists let's give thanks that it exists so how you gonna do this quickly I want to I want to close with with what the rubber meets the road and I've got you know let me just be honest with you guys I've jumped around in my notes here so some of the things I've already said that I'm supposed to say now but you know what I don't really care this podcast isn't supposed to be some theological manifesto that's perfectly formed and like it's gonna be written in some book basically it's me talking and the way I talk I jump around a little bit so I hope it makes sense but how do we do this I got three things I want to share with you in closing the first one is this you've got to rely on God's power remember following the the Christian life isn't about you trying harder and you striving more it's about God's Spirit living in you and working through you if you think you can do this on your own you're gonna be sorely disappointed you can't everything that we've talked about everything the church tells us to do remember the context of what it said and the Catechism is within this context of a loving relationship with Jesus you've got to respond to the grace of God but it is the grace of God it's not your it's his so when you feel like you can't do it that's when you praise it God I need your power I need your grace you got to rely on God's power number two you've got to use the tools that God has given to you so many awesome tools that we have in the church how about this as a tool okay we've give us a rosary I don't know if you can see it's kind of dark in the background you've got a rosary you've got the scriptures you've got the catechism you've got the lives of the saints you've got the devotional life there's so many things that God has given to us to help us along the way use them are you doing these things are you praying your prayers are you taking advantage of the resources that God has put forth for us in his church or are you sitting back alone we'll wait that would be something extra remember if your mindset as well just tell me the minimum that's enough you've already lost the war okay or at least the battle take the tools that God's given you and use them it will help you tremendously and the last thing is this use the community that God has given you you don't have to do this alone you're not an isolated Christian even the monks and the Desert Fathers were never truly alone even those people who who live in isolation you don't have to do your faith well that's part of our our Sunday obligation it's to come together and the church does that because it recognizes how important it is for people to dwell in unity and to live in this community called the church we're a family don't try to do it yourself reach out to other people get with other people encourage each other fellow travelers along this road this narrow road don't walk through it alone so Elena that's my answer to your question and I pray that that's helpful to you and I know that my answer may not be exactly what you were looking for but I hope that I hope that it's been helpful and I hope that that all of you consider in your own lives you know where are you on that journey are you so one who's like standing by watching people walk by in this journey or are you like in the thick of it you know what here's the great thing about following Jesus wherever you are right now he's always called he's always calling you take another step you never get to a point where you go whoo I'm done you're not even done when you get to heaven like in our in our pictures of heaven from like revelation and different things like that when we see what the saints are doing in heaven are they just sitting around like chillin no they're they're worshiping God in all you for all eternity offering up prayers and and and praising God that's that's awesome we're always being called to a greater level of holiness and discipleship so wherever you are on your journey you're being called to take one more step what's that step for you I would love to hear about that I would love for you guys to email me you can send your questions and comments to feedback at Catholic feedback com if you've got a question that you'd like me to tackle on this podcast feel free to send it in I'd love to hear from you and as always I want to thank you for supporting me and supporting this channel for watching my videos on youtube for bringing me to your parish I'm excited to get out and travel if you want me to come and speak at your parish or event please get in touch I'd love to make that happen please tell somebody about this podcast share with your family and friends and I'm so blessed and thankful that you've spent this time with us today god bless you and make sure you come back next week take care thanks for listening to Catholic feedback with Keith nester send in your questions and comments to feedback at Catholic feedback com this podcast is brought to you by stewardship a mission of faith and is also supported by our team at patreon.com forward slash Keith's nest please consider joining our support team Catholic feedback is a production of down-to-earth ministries for more information about down-to-earth or to bring me to your parish or event visit down the number to earth ministry org see you next time

Channel: Keith Nester

Views: 3,079

Rating: 4.9867988 out of 5

Keywords: Keith Nester, Catholic Feedback, Catholicism, Roman Catholicism, Christianity, Catholic Converts

Id: x_1q6ZdvJmE

Length: 59min 44sec (3584 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 02 2020