I have faith. I do. I’m Catholic, just like I’m Polish and Scottish and Native American. I was born into it. And never thought to change it or explore other religions because it's worked for me.
But I heard a phrase on a TV show that I happened upon this morning. “Cruise-Control Catholic.” Now that’s pretty apt. And probably really disappointing to those that love me.
To me, being Catholic meant going to C.C.D. and Jenny Gammons' dad giving us Hersey bars when we memorized the Apostle’s Creed...and decoding notes from Dominic Konopka in 2nd grade...and having crayon wars with Derek Walkush in 10th grade. It mean going to 12:00 Mass and knowing that Fr. Ritter would cut the homily short if the Browns were playing at 1…and hoping that I’d see the Kocsis boys….or that kid Gerel from Firelands.
My religion meant going to my Grandma’s church during Lent every Wednesday and listening to the Stations of the Cross…and then stopping for a chocolate shake at McDonalds after. Or going to my Grandma’s church the day before Easter and getting our food blessed. Or going to that church and hoping against hope that the Shildwachter brothers were the altar boys on that Saturday night.
Being Catholic meant that I got married before I baptised my first baby - even if it WAS the day before. It meant the when babies two and three arrived, they were baptised too.
Recently I’ve found that my Catholicism is an active boomerang. You may fling it away, even unconsciously, but it comes back…and usually just in the nick of time.
I went to church today. Mainly because I had a Sunday off from my job and could…but also because I had this deep seated need to reconnect with the familiarity of my upbringing. I’d recently joined my friend’s family at their church for a Friday night event (the minis had a blast!) and the same friend said the rosary next to me while we drove in horrendous, Wizard of Oz like weather (I don't think I even could say a 1/19th of a rosary!). The signs were all around me, so I made the 5 minute walk to the church.
I sat in the pew and I heard in my ear, “open your heart.” So I did.
OK, here we go. I have some real problems with organized religion. As you know I was a catholic altar boy. ( was I too ugly to get hit on? Not 1 priest ever looked at me twice). Mr. Strohm started it all. DO you remember when he had us read the same bible passage from 5 diff religions bibles? one catholic, protestant, lutheran, etc. Each one was different enough to shift the connotation of the passage. All supposedly came from the same place, ie. the original bible. What really gets me is that there are several gospel books that were left out because the church didn't like what they said. 12 apostles, 4 gospels. The History Channel always has shows on about this.
ReplyDeleteI could go on for hours, but am going to try to be concise. At this point the church is teaching based on what they want to promote from a book translated and re-translated from ancient languages and old forms of modern languages that don't translate directly.
Most people scoff at ancient civilizations that worshiped say a sun god, or made sacrifices for good harvests. But we believe that god changes water to wine, parts seas, cures the blind. And we should sacrifice MONEY to have our souls saved. The whole scientific angle really makes faith hard.
Bottom line, The Chronicles of Narnia, if they were 2000 years old could just as well be modern religion.
All that being said, religion, for all its shortcomings, helps a lot of people have meaning in their life. I have seen people get religion and feel better about their lives. A world where 95% of the population believed there were no consequences for their behavior once they died would be violent and dangerous.
So embrace it if it works for you, I may well be back someday, just not now.
very interesting comments...our search for religion is really a search for ourselves.
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