The Backwards Catholic

Like many other Christian churches, the Catholic Church shares a mission to love God, love other people, and to go make disciples. The treasures of the Catholic Church are abundant, but without God and His love they would absolutely meaningless. God's love needs to be magnified first before someone can grasp concepts such as the Eucharist. How is someone going to understand the Eucharist if they don't have a concept of the unconditional love that God has for them? How is someone going to understand the commandments if they don't have a general concept of love and respect for God, themselves, and others?

I have heard a few Catholics mock the Protestant faith about their "growing relationship with Jesus Christ". As Catholics we should not be mocking this idea because this is exactly what our faith is all about and to think or believe otherwise would be a little backwards. We can have a growing relationship with Jesus through the the sacraments and the saints, but that relationship can also be obtained in other ways (i.e. through prayer).

There needs to be a balance between tradition and faith. If there is not we can easily turn into the Pharisees. The Pharisees were so focused on their traditions and rules that they missed out on the message of Jesus and His love. In fact, they eventually led Christ to his crucifixion.

There are a large number of misrepresentations of the faith and it is our obligation to the Catholic Church to represent the faith well and to highlight the love that our church offers. We can teach the tradition and the rules, but we need to tie them into love to provide meaning. Unfortunately, this step is often times missed or forgotten because people are too focused on the rules and not the relationship. If your focus is on your relationship with God and directing others to that relationship, then everything else will fall into place.