Sunday, July 24, 2005

Radicalism vs Conservatism

I couldn't wait to go for mass today. After a long period of sliding down the spiritual ladder, I think I'm finally (but slowly) climbing up the ladder again. Faith has its ups and down; and I think this is the nature that determines how strong our faith in God is, whether we give up easily, or thrive for the LIGHT, no matter how distant we are from it. Right, Sarah??
The Saint Francis Xavier Church has now a new priest ( in addition to our favourite Father Simon), Father Aloysius ( I'm not sure if its the correct spelling for his name) who is a rather radical priest, so to say, with new age mentality in regards to the progress of the Catholic Church.
Today, he gave a sermon about how we actually SHOULD love the world. Appalled? I was too. In accordance to today's gospel reading, he claims that the kingdom of heaven that was spoken about is this world and we should enjoy the time we have here on earth as it is God's blessing, something he made for us to enjoy and have a pleasure living in.
Now, don't get me wrong, he was definitely not saying that we should gamble, have random sex, etc, what he was actually saying is that sometimes Catholics make too many restrictions, or, on the whole, Christians sometimes make too many restriction in regards to the religion in the sense that we create unnecessary rules and relations to abide to. For example, some Christian churches believe that Teletubbies are satanic, they also feel that P& G is a satanic company because they endorse satanic churches. Father Aloysius was saying (in his very straight tone of voice), that we should all give ourselves a break, to put it in his words. "......... go read Dan Brown, watch movies, and for goodness sake , let your children read Harry Porter ( at which I noticed a boy nudge his mother's shoulder), just have some fun! I grew up reading all this type of books, and look at me, I'm not a satan worshiper!"
He emphasizes that we should expand our knowledge of the world, and not just stick to our believes and restrict ourselves un-intentionally. " To tell you the truth, if I meet these people everyday, I wouldn't think twice to just classify these people as an utterly boring lot"- he said, on people who just talk about churches, churches, religions, etc etc and all things good. In fact, Fr.Alloysius says, we should go over to other temples (Buddhist) to listen to the monk and heed what they say about peace and integrity, or watch a documentary on the Israel-Palestine conflicts.
To make things short, I think, what he wants to relay to us is that we should not be confined to our sole believes, instead, we ought to expand our horizons and learn and understand and more importantly experience that which is around us in our very own world. It will ensure that we get a better grasp of what is really happening, enable us to contemplate, and with this association, somehow understand the Beauty that GOD made for us to experience, love and cherish.
*Oh, ya, this was the very same priest who said that it is about time we had female priests, and argued the validity of the sin of killing and capital punishment; claiming that there had been instances (recently too) of beheading in the Vatican. He asked us to Google this piece of trivia and get the utmost information on what is really going on* - I've yet to do it. Will do so soon. =)

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

may i correct ur english? may i? may i? itching to do so :p i'll just correct one. radicalism versus conservatism :D it's an old issue, really. just as the concern with the new pope's relativism versus absolutism. and for frig's sake. harry potter is just a book, as i am sure the good father would agree. how well one dissects or filters the book depends on up-bringing. and really. being liberal does not equate all the negative connotations of NOT being devout. :) can discuss this whole issue over long lazy afternoons of tea-drinking, and still not reach a solution!

1:39 pm  
Blogger EH said...

Hallelujah!!! Finally a Catholic I could actually like. Haha... He's my kind of priest, this Father Aloysious. Sheena definitely has to hear this.

Hear, hear...

11:26 pm  
Blogger Sheena said...

To quote Paul Moss, "That was RUBBISH."

Not you, V. I meant Fr. Aloysius. People, the CAFETERIA IS CLOSED. Quit picking & choosing Catholic doctrines you like, leave aside the other's you don't, and still label yourself a good Catholic. Jesus was NOT kidding when he preached humility & obedience.

12:30 pm  

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