{"id":41,"date":"2011-07-25T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/2011\/07\/how-to-be-free\/"},"modified":"2012-01-04T16:33:30","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T21:33:30","slug":"how-to-be-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/2011\/07\/how-to-be-free.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Be Free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cI dare say that when I get out of this bed I shall do some deed of an almost terrible virtue.\u201d \u2013 GKC<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

T<\/span>here\u2019s a simple way to look at a Catholic. It\u2019s to take the rosaries, the scapulars, the devotions to obscure Saints, the novenas, the ashes, the fasting and the abstinence; to see all these practices and say, \u201cLegalism. These poor\/stupid people are bound to medieval practices. They are not free.\u201d It is this view that causes our Fundamentalist brothers and sisters to inform us that we Catholics believe we can ONLY reach God through a priest, that we are not free to \u201cfind God\u201d on our own. (Thanks guys, I was horribly ignorant until you corrected me). It is this same view that allows our secular brothers and sisters to inform us that we are oppressed, suppressed, repressed and all the rest, that we are not free to live as we truly, deep down in our loins, want.<\/p>\n

But the truth is better. It is because<\/em> we are free that we pick up our rosaries, it is because<\/em> we are free that we put on our scapulars or fast during Lent. That\u2019s the beauty of the Church; we know that Christ saves us, we know that he meets us in the Sacraments, and every devotion after that \u2013 every Catholic practice \u2013 is simply a gift we may use or not use. We wear scapulars because we don\u2019t have to wear scapulars. We pray our novenas because we are free not to. Being a Catholic is a little like this; you wake up in the morning and say: \u201cI feel like walking barefoot to the nearest shrine in reparation for the sins of mankind. Well, why the hell not? God loves me.\u201d Or singing a Latin chant of thanks before lighting a cigar, or pouring a beer, or jumping into a large body of water. Because why on earth not? God died for us, gave us every good gift, so why not react to those facts, in whatever way we please? We are free to burst into song. We are equally free to burst into silence. We are free to ditch our suburban lives and go be a hermit, or leave hermitage to live in Suburbia, because, again, why not?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s the freedom found in Augustine\u2019s words, to \u201clove God, and do what you want.\u201d Because we are grounded in the love of God, the entire world opens up to us. If God loves us, why do we care what society thinks of us? If God loves us, why do we care whether we\u2019re making money? If God loves us, why not get a massive tattoo of Aragorn on my back, because frankly, nothing is going to change that one fact. The Catholic fully living Catholicism had utterly no obligations to the world, to its social norms and\u00a0niceties, or to its odd insistence that we don\u2019t sing in public.<\/p>\n

Because I know God loves me, I can freely do what I want, within that truth.\u00a0And so I pity \u2013 not the Catholic covered in the medals of his patron saints \u2013 but those who do not believe that God loves them. Because when this isn\u2019t the central fact of existence, something else must take it\u2019s place. The Catholic knows that God loves him, and is free to do whatever he wants. The atheist denies that God loves him and must<\/em> do whatever he wants. Do you understand the difference?<\/p>\n

What joy is there in saying, \u201cI have a great life. I drink, eat, smoke weed, watch porn, and make money,\u201d if you cannot \u2013 with equal joy \u2013 say that you don\u2019t? I\u2019d give our atheists and agnostics and post-Christians a lot more credibility if I knew they woke up in the morning and said, \u201cI think, for no other reason then that I can, that I will not eat today,\u201dor \u201cI think, because I know that there is no God, that I will not smoke weed.\u201d That\u2019s freedom. Everything else is a commitment, a bondage to a thing, and let me tell you, a commitment to money or sex or status is a poor, poor substitute for an assurance in the Father\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

But Catholics beware. If you are wearing your mantillas because you believe you have to, or wearing your scapulars because you must, then take a step back. God loves us. The devotions he provides are gifts, signs of his love, conveyors of his grace, but they are there for us to freely choose. If you are panicking because you forgot a day in your novena, or missed your daily Rosary, you may very well be missing the point of the novena, and the point of the Rosary. If you think that your salvation is in\u00a0jeopardy because you stopped your devotion to St. Therese or saying the Angelus, then again; take a step back.\u00a0The best advice I\u2019ve had in a long time is also the most offensive, so I apologize, but: \u201cGod\u2019s not a douchebag, and Mary\u2019s not a bitch.\u201d The Heavens love us. We are free. Life is good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI dare say that when I get out of this bed I shall do some deed of an almost terrible virtue.\u201d \u2013 GKC There\u2019s a simple way to look at a Catholic. It\u2019s to take the rosaries, the scapulars, the devotions to obscure Saints, the novenas, the ashes, the fasting and the abstinence; to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Be Free<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""I dare say that when I get out of this bed I shall do some deed of an almost terrible virtue." - GKC There's a simple way to look at a Catholic. 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