How do you get to heaven? This important question often is met with a very simple answer: “Be a good person.” Such an answer is a simple way to understand the purpose of heaven and hell. Good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, right? Therefore, the next question is: “How do we become good people?” We follow the rules, right? As long as we follow more rules than we break, we can consider ourselves good “moral” people. Wait a minute… so is religion just a set of rules to live by in order to get to heaven? The truth is, God did indeed give us commandments, and He does ask us to follow them. However, He did not give us commandments or teach us about morality to simply oppress us or make us miserable. St. Paul says, “For freedom, Christ set us free.” If religion is just about rules, where does a relationship with Christ fit in? Hear me when I say this: religion isn’t just about following God’s rules; it is also about a relationship with Jesus. When we live in that relationship, we find a true and full freedom that can never be taken away from us. Let us explore this little bit more.

In one of the creation accounts in Genesis we read, “God made man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.” Love and goodness are part of God’s nature; God is not compatible with evil. Evil is the opposite of God and “goodness”. Because we are made in His image and likeness, love and goodness are a part of our nature, too. This means that we are at our highest potential, when we are charitable and good (when we live by Jesus example). God does not force us to practice goodness because that would be against our free will and against love. He wants us to freely choose to live in the truth, to proclaim the truth, and to be good because He made us to be.

In this months Journey event we are going to be exploring the truth about the moral life and how we are called to live it obediently.