The ultimate sense of entitlement is the assumption of Heaven for ourselves and our loved ones.
I saw this in action recently, someone proclaiming that Heaven has 'gained an angel' with the passing of a loved one. The stupidity, arrogance and total ignorance of our Faith that is demonstrated by such a statement is growing quite tiresome for me and is indicative of our culture's sense of entitlement.
We feel that we are entitled to everything on our terms and in our way. This sense of entitlement even includes our admittance into Heaven! It is the same arrogance and sense of entitlement that has doomed and plagued humans since the beginning of time, starting with Adam and Eve and their insistence on doing things their own way. We have all paid the price of that sin as we continue to pay the price of the sins of our brothers and sisters down throughout the ages.
We our entitled to be happy! We deserve it, right? I hear this continuously - everyone deserves to be happy!
Well, why is that? Why is it that so many of us think we are entitled to happiness, and that and our quest for that happiness entitles us to the behaviors that will lead us there, even if those behaviors are steeped in sin. After all, God is merciful and as long as we aren't Hitler, we will become angels one day, right? Wrong.
Our Holy Mother told Bernadette at Lourdes that she could not promise her happiness in this life. Nowhere in Scripture or Church Doctrine is the meaning of life defined as the pursuit of happiness.
We are to pursue holiness, and the reason God created us is to know and love Him in this life so we can be with Him forever in the next. That is the official Church decree as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. How many of those entitled among us even know what the Catechism of the Catholic Church even is?
We are so quick to proclaim our love for Christ, but most of us define that love as a gooey, squishy, fluffy feeling, without any idea of the sacrifice and suffering true, authentic love for Christ requires, and demands. So many of us who proclaim to love Christ so much can't even be bothered to sacrifice an hour a week to attend Mass on Sundays, much less commit to the sacrifice of time, talent and treasure that true love and devotion exhibit. Most of us really don't love Christ. We are not really friends of Christ - we are just fans. Fans who use Christ in prideful and self indulgent pursuits for pleasure, acceptance and positive recognition.
We 'love' Christ, but we don't obey Him. We break commandments and ignore and disdain Church teaching and doctrine when it doesn't fit into our plan for the happiness we feel entitled to. Yet, we are so quick to assume a Heavenly reward for both ourselves and those we love, forgoing and dismissing any need of prayers and penitence, or sacrifice for ourselves or the those who are deceased. It is really quite pathetic.
We 'love' Jesus so much, yet we don't understand basic teachings of the Church about spiritual life, heaven, hell and the Church. Proclaiming that people become angels at death is a disgusting proclamation of ignorance. And it is a willful ignorance, because the ability to learn these teachings is not difficult. In fact, it is easier than ever to learn about Church teaching, history, living, morals, sacraments, prayer, etc. Just a few clicks of keyboard and the information is before us in seconds, yet so many are still not interested enough to pursue this.
The bottom line is that we have grown to believe that our pursuit of happiness is our first priority, and if authentically living a moral life is at odds with how we obtain that happiness - it doesn't matter, anything goes. Heaven is shoe-in, so why bother?
This is why: if we truly love Jesus - truly, authentically and genuinely love Christ - then we will want to know Him, spend time with Him, and obey Him. If Christ is our friend, we want to be in right relationship with him, and doing that means we take the time, make the effort and commit to the sacrifices it requires.
If we truly love Jesus, we will desire to lead holy lives, and we will sacrifice. Fear of the Lord is a great start - living in right relationship because we fear offending God, moreso than offending our friends and our family - is not a bad place to begin this pursuit of Truth and authentic sacrificial love for the Lord. The truly remarkable thing, is when we do this, we end up obtaining something better than happiness, we obtain Joy.
Happiness is a fleeting emotion. Joy is a state of being. Happiness doesn't bring us the peace that joy does. When we begin to sacrifice and offer service to God, we start to understand that it isn't about happiness, it is about fulfillment, and we are only fulfilled by serving and loving God.
God knows this, so He has given us rules to live by to lead us to a holy way of life and ultimately to that fulfillment we are longing for and that we are trying to substitute with happiness. We've got it all backwards - fulfillment with God will lead us to joy and happiness, and we get that fulfillment by living as faithful and devout Catholics, we live according to God's way and not our own, after all, His ways are far above ours.
We need to find humility, and we need to realize that it's not all about us, it is all about Him, the one who made us. We are playing on his turf and we need to play by His rules. We do this, not because we are entitled, but because He is entitled. He is entitled for us to obey Him and live as he desires, because He made us and this world, and everything in it. All of it, including us, belong to Him, and He decides who goes to Heaven, and we do not, no matter what we may think in our arrogance and pride.
So, God is the one who is entitled, and rightly so. That is justice. The sooner we find that out, the better chance we have of becoming saints, and not angels. There are no Saints in Hell, but there certainly are angels, so perhaps that proclamation isn't totally wrong. Heaven might not gain angels when we or a loved one dies, but Hell certainly might.
