Hallie Atwell

What Makes a Good Person?

        According to Wikipedia, common sense “is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things that are shared by (“common to”) nearly all people and can reasonably be expected of nearly all people without need for debate.” Most concepts or ideas that appear to be rational are accepted by all people; however, when it comes to question of “What makes you a good person,” many people have different opinions. Yes, this question can be answered with various responses that are justifiable, but some of these answers do not pertain to common sense. These answers that don’t concern common sense come from the Catholic Church and its beliefs.

        The Catholic Church, one that I have been associated with since birth, has firm beliefs on what makes a good person, or furthermore, what will help a person on the path to heaven. In order to be a respectable person in the eyes of the Catholic Church, one is expected to attend mass every Sunday. They state that this is necessary in order to receive communion and hear the Word of God. Another integral part of the Catholic religion are the scriptures and parables that are found in the Bible. Being a good Christian, in terms of this, means putting one’s faith in a book that was written nearly 3,500 years ago. Although I have been a part of the Catholic Church since my baptism, it still confuses me as to how attending mass every Sunday and reading the Bible will lead me on the right path to heaven. I strongly believe that if I live my life being the best person I can be, then God will allow me to go to heaven. This does not mean that a person must go through life not making any mistakes or committing any sins, because God knows that we are all human and subject to temptation. It means He does not expect us to be perfect, but instead, God wants us to learn from our mistakes, love each other as He loves us, and be the best persons we can be.

         These ideas of the Catholic Church are important in many ways, but being a good Christian does not always mean that one is a good person. For example, one person may be a devout Catholic and attend his or her community church every Sunday to listen to the Gospel. However, this same person could live every day treating others poorly, ignoring the needy, or even committing major sins. Is this person still on the right path in order to be accepted into heaven? Many people are married through the Catholic Church and have been unfaithful to their spouse, but they still make it to mass on Sunday. Does this make them a good person? How about the Catholic couple who realized their marriage no longer works for them and decide to get a divorce? In this common situation, the Church does not believe in divorce and therefore does not see this couple as fit for entering heaven. On the contrary, I am not saying that there are no decent Catholics, because that is not the case in the slightest. Some of the best people I know are Catholics. It is the fact that people who devote a great deal of their time to God do not have the common sense to understand that those who are good people in their daily life are worthy of going to heaven; regardless of their beliefs or how many times they’ve been to mass.

         The beliefs of the Catholic Church go on and on. These are not the only opinions of the religion that do not have substantial reasoning behind what makes a person suitable for heaven. Along with attending mass and reading the Bible, it is in their opinion that those who are homosexual are immoral in the eyes of God. It should not matter which gender a person loves, as long as they are loving one another as God wants us to. He did not create humans to conceal their true selves and act in a way that society tells them to. Instead, he created us to be happy and to treat one another with respect. A man may love another man, but he is also caring, kind, and respectful of others; therefore, with common sense, this man is the type of person who should go to heaven.

         My intention is not to discredit the Catholic Church and their firm beliefs that have been around for many years. As an American, a person has the undeniable right to take part in the religion of his or her choice, or perhaps to not take part in any religion at all. With this, each religion has different views and it is important to respect the beliefs of one another. However, this does not mean that we must agree. Every day I aim to be a good person, whether it is doing small actions, such as holding the door for the person behind me, or doing something monumental. I make mistakes, I learn from them and I grow every day as a respectable human being; but, I don’t go to mass every Sunday and I stopped reading the Bible the moment my religion class concluded in the 10th grade. I don’t believe that this makes me a bad person, and therefore should not hinder me from living eternity in heaven.