Faith for me, is one’s personal relationship with God. It’s that unique ultimate bond we share with Him.
I grew up a Catholic, was born a Catholic, was molded a Catholic. I’ve seen different religious beliefs and practices as I grew up, witnessed and be friends with others outside the Catholic faith, even attended summer Bible classes instituted by other Christian religions, even went to the point of facilitating such classes. I have nothing against other religious faiths because after all, I do believe we have One Father.
Whatever name we may call Him, I believe that the Father other religions recognize as their Father, is the same God the Father in the Catholic Faith, if not, well then, another version of God the Father, but same qualities and ideals.
What kind of bothers me is when other religions start saying some things about the Catholic faith. Yes, Catholics do also say a few things but more often than not, it’s other religions who criticize the Catholic faith. I get even more upset when new converts all of a sudden disown the Catholic faith by deliberately saying they found God once they are already official members of other religious sects. God was never lost. He is not to be found like in a quest of finding hidden treasures, well maybe, yes, but to be searched as in like to be searched within us, because He is within us.
For me, I didn’t have to change religion to realize that He is there for me, that he is present, because God intrinsically, is omnipresent. I am not saying this because I am a Catholic. If I was born from another religion, I would have defended my faith in the same way I am now advocating the faith I actually grew up with, the Catholic faith.
I am no perfect Christian. I am no perfect Catholic. I have my flaws and I will never stop making human mistakes in the course of my existence. But I know what my faith is. I know the duties as well that comes with it. That I have a responsibility to reach out to others, that I have a responsibility to personally reach out to God, that I have a responsibility to bring Him closer to other people and vice versa. I realize the vastness of the Catholic faith and I realize the limits of the people forming it.
Catholic faith, as in any other religious faith is formed by people, all humans at that. And as humans, we all have same capabilities and limitations. We can only go as far as our capabilities would allow us. We could stretch but still there is a limit to the maximum stretch that we could attain. If members of the church reach out to other people, they can only do so much. Yes, missionaries can travel all over the world but they can never fully cover every barangay, every district, every city, every municipality, every nation, all the more every single person in that every community. Just like a lighthouse can illumine only so much.
A few common sentiments shared by Catholics who converted into other religious sects are they did not feel God in the Catholic faith, they found other religion’s service livelier than the Holy Eucharist celebration, they weren’t able to know the Bible deeply when they were Catholics, again, the most common, they found God outside Catholicism.
If I were to comment, which is what I am doing now, these are but shallow reasons. It’s like saying you no longer love a person because you found a prettier one, more talented, more caring, and more understanding, etc. If you are looking for lively gatherings, Catholic faith has that. Be part of the different religious organizations and you are bound to witness the liveliest praises you could ever imagine. Praise Jam (if you’re familiar J) is one of the best gatherings I’ve ever attended. People just sing their hearts out, jump to the beat of the praise songs and utter out loud prayers of thanksgiving, praise and even speak in tongues. To knowing the Bible even more, attend prayer sessions, even you yourself can personally read Bible verses at home.
Point is, everything that people say they found in other religious faith, is definitely in the Catholic faith too, not to mention, the Catholic faith started all these practices. You should only know how to take part of your mission as a Christian. Sorry for the connotation that I will try to resemble with, but people who have converted to other religions and gave such shallow ideas about Catholics (from which they came from) can quite be resembled with ‘Juan Tamad’, just waiting around for apples to fall down from an apple tree, just waiting for people to offer a hand, just simply sitting around, in short, passive. When I said we have a responsibility as Christians, I meant we also have a personal responsibility to take a step to get closer to God. We just don’t wait for people to invite us in a service, Bible study, etc. I know people who have converted to other religions are well aware of the different Catholic organizations that abound but missed to make a move to be part of these or even if they did, they found a flaw inside the organization, not so good heads maybe, or gossiping members, etc.
It has been a common conception also, once some guy/girl appears to be almost all good, someone would say ‘Christian kasi’ or would refer specifically to the religious organization that he or she belongs to. (By the way, the term Christian shouldn’t be termed as such for Non-Catholics because Christian means ‘Christ-like’ so it is basically a general term for every one of us. But anyway, I guess most understand that when others coin people as Christians, they mean of another religious sect.) Religious connection does not automatically entail holiness, nor does it ever connote perfection. We are all humans and whatever religion we belong to, we will still commit mistakes. Yes, we can be guided, but we can never be sin-free, that’s why we’re humans.
I was out with friends one night and we were just nonchalantly chitchatting about things when we happened to ask one friend in the group if he ever did something not good with his ex, then he said ‘No, bawal yan sa religion namin eh.’ So we asked right away, ‘What is your religion?’ He answered ‘Catholic.’ and we all had a good laugh but that line really got into my consciousness. There was some post-pondering after he uttered that line. Then he said, ‘Bakit, bawal din naman yan sa Katoliko ah.’ And he really made a good sense with that.
When members of other religious faiths say something like, ‘bawal yan sa amin’, I just wish they are really trying to make their religion as a point of reference and not some comparison to the faith of the person they are talking too. Like, not thinking at the back of their minds, ‘bawal yan sa amin, ayos lng nman sa inyo (Catholics)’. We share almost the same practices (except for the Marian notion of the Catholic faith, I guess that is the most distinct difference) so stop saying ‘bawal yan sa amin’ when you meant something common to almost all practices. Pre-marital sex is a no no for most religions (actually I don’t know if there’s a religion allowing that, I guess nil) so if you are referring to that topic, do not assume it’s allowed to Catholics. It’s okay if you refer to topics really distinct to your sect, like not celebrating birthdays (Jehovah’s Witnesses), not cutting of hair when you’re the eldest female among the siblings and you haven’t turned 18 (I don’t know what religion this is but I remembered a friend telling me this), not wearing of jeans during Sunday services* (Iglesia – I guess there are a lot of other religions also practicing this) etc., but if it’s something pretty much general like stealing, lying, adultery, please don’t come clean and refer to your faith for this. We are all generally tasked to preserve goodness in this planet so it’s just not you or your specific religious faith.
Re: all religious faiths and its members as a whole, there can never be a perfect community. We can all try to be one by correcting all our negative actions but we can never attain perfection, so organizations will always have their own set of flaws. Flaws may come in the form of off-beam or out-of-whack heads, preachers, programs, activities, etc. but all these should never prevent us from keeping our relationship with God. Converting from one religion to another will not change these facts/happenings because every religion is composed of the human race, capable of making mistakes. These flaws should not stop us from going to mass or be part of organizations. Maybe it is incumbent upon us to revolutionize these transgressions so instead of being disheartened and shunning away, we must assume responsibility to better the situation and this goes as well to those who converted from Catholicism. If you find anything off with your new religion, it’s okay to go back to Catholicism but it’s not okay to change to another religion again. You can never go from one religion to another just so you’d find a perfect religious community, instead, look for ways to help your community.
Faith is within us. The best way to keep the faith is strengthen it within us and not be continuously swayed by human flaws/imperfections. To be swayed by these is natural but to be constantly won over by these imperfections is a matter of outcome of your own personal choice of being won over. Go to church because you choose to go to church not because you’re accompanying someone to church, the church is air-conditioned, it is required for a school project, your crush goes to church or I guess the most common is, your crush is a member of the choir, etc. Faith must be intrinsic.
We were once told by our high school teacher that there are 3 kinds of values: preferential, instrumental and intrinsic. Preferential refers to our choice of simple things, like the color red over blue. We prefer an item over the other; that preferred item represents preferential value. Instrumental pertains to things we value because from its literal meaning ‘instrument’, it is a means towards achieving something. Like you want to go to Z Mall because you want to catch a mall tour of your favorite artist; Z Mall becomes an instrumental value for you. Intrinsic value is a set of values we give importance to because they are in themselves, intrinsic in nature. Like people, we should never represent preferential nor instrumental values. One should never use a person as a means to accomplish something. Mentoring and seeking help is different from treating a person as merely an instrument to get we want. I guess the perfect example of intrinsic value our teacher gave us is love. You don’t love someone for a reason, you just love. So is the same with faith, we just keep the faith.
I'm actually wonderin' if I interpreted our lesson right. l0l! but I believe I made a good point out of it. Well, that's how I see it. ;)
So we go to back to the reason why we go to church, prayer sessions and other similar religious activities. We don’t use these places as instruments. Sometimes accidentally there is a good outcome in having crushes in religious groups but I hope you don’t get stuck into that level of making the religious community as an alibi. You should transcend to that level where you go to church, because you want to; you go to church, because you decide to; you have faith because you believe; you have faith because you choose to seize it.
Faith is within us. We have the duty to keep it and share it with others. We don’t just wait for people to help nurture and strengthen our faith. We too should make a move. Reach out. Pray. Inspire.
Faith = Me and God and You.
I was supposed to close it as Faith = Me and God but I had to include You because I know God is in you too J and God would always want us to transcend to that level of seeing Him in other people too.
*I just want to express admiration to religions able to practice this. I am not really anti-jeans on Sundays, I even wear jeans when I go to mass but what I want to emphasize the most is other religions wear what they call “Sundays Best”. I am sorry to say this, I know I have a lot of friends who do this, but I am so against people wearing shorts, slippers, spaghetti tank tops, not to mean, tube! backless! during masses. Like c’mon guys, have some respect. We’re not here to party nor are we just in the mall, hanging around with friends (oh, I’m still not even amenable to short shorts and slippers when strolling in the malls, I feel like you’re making the mall as an extension of your living room at home). Other religions did quite a great job in telling their members not to wear jeans and be decent-looking in attending masses.
started writing June 3, 2013; finished June 13, 2013
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