God Is Not a Computer

Following rules to avoid Hell is not Catholicism

Photo: stuartmiles via BigStockPhoto.com

Is there a revolution going on in Catholicism?

If you talk to many Catholics, you will learn of all the rules in Catholicism. Don’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent. Do not receive communion if you have not fasted for at least an hour. Go to Mass every Sunday and holy days of obligation. Many of the rules, must be obeyed under pain of mortal sin. If you die with a mortal sin on your soul then you will go straight to Hell.

This kind of thinking was, and in some places, still is endemic in the Catholic Church of the United States. However, is it accurate?

No. The rules are real but what is the motivation for obeying the rules? So that we will not go to Hell.

If A then B

One thing I always teach is: “God is not a computer.” God as computer thinking is the kind of thought process you learned in middle school math class—“If A then B; A, therefore, B”. “If a Catholic misses Mass on Sunday, he or she commits a mortal sin. I missed Mass on Sunday. Therefore, I committed a mortal sin.”

If we make God out to be a computer, then this is the result.

However, in that equation, where is God in all of this?

Where is there any relationship with God in any of this? This is what that kind of computer thinking leads us. We follow rules. However, this is not Catholicism and by the way, this is not what the Church teaches.

What do the Gospels teach?

Let’s go back to what the Gospel teaches. How do they begin? With the arrival of Jesus on the scene. We learn of who Jesus is and then we discover his teachings and we watch his ministry and sacrifice. So, the Gospels begins by meeting Jesus. In fact, Jesus says that now is not the time for fasting, when his disciples are not acting like others in the Jewish community. (cf MT 9:14-15)

So our rules begin, first by encountering Jesus and learning from Him. This means that we develop a prayer-life and we seek to do his will as we would seek to do the will of a good friend who asks us a favor. This is where our faith begins. It does not begin with rules. Part of our relationship with God includes going to Mass on Sunday. This is what God wants of us so that in Christ, he can give us of himself and we can give ourselves to him. The rules say, we must attend Mass or God can cast us into Hell. The relationship says: “God invites us to draw us closer to Him as we draw him closer to us. We come to know him more and serve him more and experience his love for us.” That is a far cry from: I must go to Mass or I will end up in Hell.

It is the former and not the latter that is to be our attitude. The Church calls us not to eat meat in Lent as a reminder of God’s love for us and to deepen our love for Him by this minor sacrifice.

A real problem in Catholicism

The list goes on. The loss of this understanding is a real problem in Catholicism. We miss this when we drop our pursuing of relationship, when we lose the prayer discipline we then resort to the stone floor of our faith, following rules to avoid Hell. That stance hardly defines Catholicism and it must be avoided. In fact, it is the door away from God. It is the mindset that leads us to realize our motivation is meaningless.

If you find yourself struggling with the rules, evaluate your prayer life. What is the motivation for following rules? Do you find some hard to follow? That is OK. Are you bringing your struggles to prayer? Do you understand the spirit of the law? Are you living by it or are you following the letter of the law which is what Jesus fought against when he argued with the pharisees.

Are you being merciful with yourself when you find you cannot follow the rule? If you read Church teaching, you will see baked into it is the understanding that no one can follow the rules perfectly. This understanding is central to our teaching. When some Catholics scream out that those who are imperfect may go to Hell, they throw away the whole understanding of what we truly believe.

Let me give you an example: What is The Sacrament of Reconciliation? Is it that action you have to complete in order to receive communion if you have a mortal sin on your soul? Or is it something else.

If it is nothing more than something you must complete in order to receive Communion and or get to Heaven, then it is computerized thinking. It is like playing a game of May I.

Person 1:“May I go to Communion?”

Priest: “Yes, you may.”

Person 2: “I am going to Communion!”

Priest: “Did you say, ‘may I’?”

However, what is the sacrament supposed to be? An encounter with Christ in which you bring to Him your inability to live as He calls us to live through the teaching of the Church. It is a time to bring up not your failures but you desire to live in the level Christ calls us and your lack of ability to do so either due to weakness or ignorance or even infirmity or even just plain being human.

Let me illustrate this.

Let’s put ourselves in the time when Jesus walked the Earth

You are one of Christ’s disciples and you seek to follow him. So you go to Him to deepen your friendship with him and to ask him for forgiveness and for help in doing his will. You go to see him and maybe you with others meet with him weekly or more.

Maybe there is even a weekly meeting over dinner in the wilderness where encountering Christ as a community is central to you growing as a disciple. There you are with other disciples. There is a fire in the center of a circle where you are all seated. You can hear the wood crackling as the fire grows and one of Jesus’ assistants stacks wood nearby to replenish the flame. Jesus is in the circle speaking of what is central to everyone’s part in his mission. Behind him is the darkness of the night sky filled with stars, it is a moonless night. The fire is shining on everyone’s face bringing light into the darkness. You sense a feeling of awesomeness in the air. It is a time you realize is special to you.

You are all there because you know that Jesus is not like the others and in time, you come to realize that Jesus is teaching truths that lead one to have a greater understanding of our existence. These are truths that encompass everything in science and still more that science has yet to understand. (Science strictly deals with the material world. Jesus himself teaches that God is spirit which science is not equipped to address.)

There is even time either privately or as a group to discuss with him where you missed the mark in doing that part of the mission he asks you to do. You grow to a deeper understanding of your call and this is how you evaluate your actions in light of that growing comprehension of the mission.

Maybe you have a terrible temper and people experienced it and then mocked your relationship with Christ. Maybe your inner strength is not what you expected such as Peter learned at Jesus’ arrest. Maybe your passions got the best of you, whatever. However, you bring this to Jesus in your weekly meetings.

This is really what the Church and Church teaching is. The above-named revolution is to eliminate this “God as computer way of thinking” with all that goes with it and recognize we are missioned at our Baptism to be witnesses to whom Christ really is.

We cannot be His witnesses if we do nothing more than follow rules and get frustrated doing so. So we have to deepen our relationship with Christ by understanding the place of prayer, Mass and seeking to be witnesses to the truths we learn that are not discoverable by science while we plumb the depths of everything science and faith has to offer.

So how do we do this?

First—Reject anything and anyone who teaches the God as computer mentality. Do not participate in forums where this is found either online or in person. God is not a computer. Jesus made it clear that He is our Heavenly father. Therefore, he wants each one of his children to know him personally through His son and let that experience affect every part of their lives.

The Church teaches that certain actions are grave but the question of whether one commits a mortal sin is dependent on several criteria that can only be determined by the “sinner” and maybe with the help of a priest in confession. I came to realize that this is why the conscience is so important because it is there that one understands his or her actions in light of God’s call. That understanding cannot be one size fits all; there may be mitigating factors and this is what the Church teaches.

Second—Make sure you develop a life of prayer. It is here that you encounter the Christ who calls you to be His disciple. Bring your needs, desires, struggles and pains to prayer and know that in his ways, God will answer them by giving you the tools to deal with them. Trust in this. I do.

Three—Have a well-formed conscience and know how to use it. This is the one that confuses everyone. If you really understand Church teaching, you will realize that the principles Christ seeks us to live are all there, however, the Church also understands the complications of life make some of those principles hard to live at times.

A well-formed conscience is not one that tyrannically forces you to obey all the rules by threatening painful guilt trips, rather it helps you understand the right thing to do and to know when you have done the wrong thing. Then, and this is key, it invites you to examine why you did the wrong thing and what factors contributed to it. It helps you understand what level of culpability there is and how to correct your future actions. It should teach you to be merciful to yourself so that you can be merciful to others. This has to be done in prayer maybe with the help of a good confessor and not by beating yourself over the head for failing to live perfect standard.

It also means that special situations may arise that some will call mortal sin but the Church teaches may in fact not be mortal sins in certain situations. They may be sinful but the Church also calls people to examine the levels of culpability to determine whether it is high or even low. Seek the expert opinion to help you understand how to deal with these special situations in Christ again as an avenue to coming to where Christ is leading you through your difficulties.

It is time we unplug the God is computer mentality and return to the call Christ gives to us through his Church as his disciples. We need to grow in our ability to experience his love for us as we grow in love for him. Let that affect our way of being more and more each and every day as we fulfill our baptismal vocation to be His witnesses in our lives, families, work and communities just by doing his will as best we can.

Fr. Robert J Carr is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA

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