Why does the Catholic Church have so many man-made rules?

“Where in the Bible it says that [the Sabbath should be moved to Sunday | we can eat pork | abortion is wrong | two men cannot marry I have to confess my sins to a priest | we have to go to mass every Sunday | a woman cannot be a priest | I can't eat meat on Friday during Lent]. Didn't the Catholic Church invent all these things? This is the problem with the Catholic Church: he is too preoccupied with man-made rules, and not with what Christ actually taught. "

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked such a question, ThoughtCo would no longer have to pay me, because I would have been richly rich. Instead, I spend hours every month explaining something that, for previous generations of Christians (and not just Catholics), would have been evident.

The father knows it better
For many of us who are parents, the answer is still evident. When we were teenagers, unless we were already on the right path to holiness, we would sometimes get angry when our parents told us to do something that we thought we shouldn't have done or simply didn't want to do. It only made our frustration worse when we asked "Why?" and the answer came back: "Because I said it." We may also have sworn to our parents that when we had children, we would never use that answer. Still, if I took a survey among readers of this site who are parents, I have the feeling that the vast majority would admit that they found themselves using that line with their children at least once.

Because? Because we know what's best for our children. Maybe we wouldn't want to put it this bluntly all the time, or even for a little while, but that's really what it's at the heart of being a parent. And yes, when our parents said, "Because I said it," they almost always knew what was best, and looking back today - if we've grown enough - we can admit it.

The old in the Vatican
But what does all this have to do with "a group of old bachelors who wear clothes in the Vatican"? They are not parents; we are not children. What right do they have to tell us what to do?

Such questions start from the assumption that all these "man-made rules" are clearly arbitrary and therefore go in search of a reason, which the questioner usually finds in a group of joyless old people who want to make life miserable for the rest. our . But until a few generations ago, such an approach would have made little sense for most Christians and not just Catholics.

The Church: our mother and teacher
Long after the Protestant Reformation tore the Church to pieces in ways that even the Great Schism between Eastern Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics had not done, Christians understood that the Church (broadly speaking) is both mother and teacher. It is more than the sum of the pope, bishops, priests and deacons, and in fact more than the sum of all of us who make it up. It is guided, as Christ said it would be, by the Holy Spirit, not simply for his sake, but for ours.

And so, like every mother, she tells us what to do. And like children, we often ask ourselves why. And too often, those who should know - that is, the priests of our parishes - respond with something like "Because the Church says so". And we, who may no longer be teenagers physically, but whose souls may lag behind a few years (or even decades) behind our bodies, are frustrated and decide to get to know him better.

And so we might find ourselves saying: if others want to follow these man-made rules, that's fine; they can do it. As for me and my home, we will serve our own will.

Listen to your mother
What we are missing, of course, is what we missed when we were teenagers: Our Mother the Church has reasons for what she does, even if those who should be able to explain those reasons to us do not or cannot even do so. Take, for example, the precepts of the Church, which cover a number of things that many people consider man-made rules: Sunday duty; Annual confession; Easter duty; fasting and abstinence; and materially support the Church (through gifts of money and / or time). All the precepts of the Church are binding under the pain of mortal sin, but since they seem to be rules so obviously created by man, how can this be true?

The answer lies in the purpose of these "man-made rules". Man was made to worship God; it is in our very nature to do it. From the beginning, Christians set aside Sunday, the day of Christ's resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, for that adoration. When we substitute our will for this fundamental aspect of our humanity, we do not simply fail to do what we should; let's step back and obscure the image of God in our souls.

The same applies to Confession and the obligation to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, during the Easter period, when the Church celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Sacramental grace is not something static; we can't say, “I've had enough now, thank you; I don't need it anymore. " If we are not growing in grace, we are slipping. We are putting our souls at risk.

The heart of the matter
In other words, all of these "man-made rules that have nothing to do with what Christ taught" actually flow from the heart of Christ's teaching. Christ gave us the Church to teach and guide us; it does so in part by telling us what we need to do to continue growing spiritually. And as we grow spiritually, those "man-made rules" start to make a lot more sense and we want to follow them even without being told to do so.

When we were young, our parents constantly reminded us to say "please" and "thank you", "yes, sir" and "no, madam"; open doors to others; to allow someone else to take the last piece of cake. Over time, these "man-made rules" have become second nature, and now we would consider ourselves rude not to act as our parents taught us. The precepts of the Church and the other "man-made rules" of Catholicism act in the same way: they help us grow in the type of men and women that Christ wants us to be.