IT’S not to be self-righteous, nor to impose things on others. That’s not being Christian. To be Christian is rather the opposite—loving, understanding, compassionate, respectful of freedom, forgiving. In short, to be like Christ who loves us till death on the cross.
There’s a crying need for be consistent in our Christianity, since what we usually have around is a watered-down version, showy on the outside but empty in the inside. We have many Christians in name only, but not in substance.
This can easily be shown in the public discussion of social or political issues. The controversy over the RH Bill has surfaced this kind of sad phenomenon.
Just the other day, I was floored when a young man, otherwise articulate and intelligent, brazenly said that in the discussion of the RH Bill issue, Church people should not be allowed to participate, and questions of morality should not be included.
When asked how it can be democratic and open if such exclusions were to be made, he launched on an explanation of a strange political theory that says Church people and moral aspects do not have a role to play in such public debate. Church-state separation was invoked. And he said he was a Christian!
Unbelievable! So now, to be a priest or an active member of the Church disqualifies him to take part in the public discussion of issues? To input spiritual and moral considerations based on faith is to corrupt the process beyond repair?
What kind of ideology is this that is afflicting the world today and is affecting even our very brilliant minds?
There is a lot of ignorance, confusion and errors in the basic aspects and dimensions of our life. It’s not anymore only the so-called global warming or the now emerging pharmaceutical and electronic wastes that really bog us down. It’s ignorance, confusion and errors in the fundamental things of life.
We have to work on the consistency of our Christian identity. To be sure, it’s not only faith that is involved here. Faith has to be go together with reason. Neither should reason, in all its forms and levels, be the sole guide for us. Much less, the emotions and passions.
Faith and reason have to be inseparable. One cannot be without the other, because the very nature and dignity of our humanity require it. We are not only rational beings, but also beings of belief.
We are neither pure matter nor pure spirit. We are both at the same time. And we live in a world that is neither purely material nor intelligible, but also spiritual that opens us to the supernatural world of God, grace, faith, religion.
Also, Christianity is not only a personal or individual affair. It has a social dimension whose proper institution is the Church. It inheres in all natural levels of social life we have—from the family to schools to civil society to different fields of human endeavors to state to world organizations—but it goes beyond them.
Thus, to be Christian entails keeping the mind of the Church too, and not only our own personal religious thoughts and experiences. So we need to be aware of our duties toward the parish, the diocese and the universal Church in the end.
These duties include nourishing our Christian life within the Church—through God’s word, liturgy and hierarchy—because the abiding presence and action of Christ in the Spirit resides in the Church. No one is a Christian independently of the Church. He necessarily belongs to it and is part of it.
One’s personal encounter with Christ always takes place in the Church, precisely because the Church has been established by Christ for that purpose. He came to save and perfect us individually and collectively.
These truths of faith, of course, are not to be imposed on others. But they simply have to be proclaimed, otherwise, other “truths” deriving from some inadequate ideologies or merely personal thoughts would just prevail over us.
The truths of faith never infringe on freedom. They actually nurture our freedom that can easily be distorted and abused by us. They have an inherent forcefulness and attractiveness that is respectful of freedom.
We need to be clear about these basic truths about ourselves, because for so long now, we have been dominated and enslaved by a certain world ethos that marginalizes if not excludes God, faith, Christianity, etc.
It’s an ethos that leaves us to our own devices, unavoidably leading us to abuses of power, then to injustice and inconsistent Christianity.
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