Student Picked 1: Psuedo-Catholic Guilt

 Psuedo-Catholic Guilt 4/30/2021

I have always had an interesting relationship with religion. Since I was a child I've always been very interested in the way Christians interact with Jesus. I've always liked the idea that Jesus brings light into the world and allows for people to love each other however in modern times I don't feel like Christians have really been the light in people's life.  Some Christians do good things but they often push their religion upon people and I just don't feel like as a Christian that's the correct thing to do. I feel like Jesus would want me to bring light into the world without forcing it upon other people. I should be able to bring this light and joy into people's lives without feeling like I have to push Christianity on them. If the light and love of Jesus is going to find someone I can bring it to them but I can’t force it. However, my relationship with religion recently deepened.  During quarantine, I spent a lot of time with a Catholic Family. I think all this time with the Catholic Family is giving me some weird sort of form of Catholic guilt. I always felt like I've been a pretty good person and I've never done anything particularly wrong, however, recently the actions and my not particularly great Karma have started to feel like reactions from God given to me as punishment. I never felt like this before I started spending time with devout Catholics who question my ways and opinions often and I don't really know how to handle it. I know that if I really believed in an all-loving God then I can accept the fact that I make mistakes and know that God will forgive me for them as long as I asked for this forgiveness, but the Catholic guilt for non-catholic is been a very interesting situation that I’m grappling with.

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