Faith matters

“WHAT do you think about the recent remarks by the President regarding God and religion?”

That was the question asked me by some friends from church. It appears they were bothered by recent statements attributed to the President about what he thinks of God and some of the basic tenets taught by the religious teachers, particularly those who belong to the Roman Catholic Church.

“I understand that there are people seriously upset by the President’s remarks,” I said.

“While I feel that the President has other more relevant subject matters which I would prefer he talk about, I definitely respect what one might call his religious views,” I added.

The fact is that the President may have simply expressed openly what many others have opted to merely accept publicly or to just ask themselves in private. Our view is that it is good for one to question what one is being taught about God. The more aggressive one asks such questions, the greater chances that one might find the right answers. This is important particularly in our country where religion is taught rather than presented, offered and accepted. I have studied in three Catholic schools where catechism, religion and theology were required subjects. God was presented to us as an academic topic. The urge to understand God was spurred more by the need to pass our periodical tests rather than to fill a vacuum in our lives which, paraphrasing Saint Augustine, “only God can fill”.

One can only wish that our first knowledge of God would have been less painful and traumatic than a periodical test in religion.

The President was reported as having particularly zeroed in on the issue of “original sin.” It appears he has strong reservations about the Biblical account of what happened in the Garden of Eden.

We recall that the Paradise story was among the very first topic in catechism class. This particularly approach to teaching religion appears to present God as an angry powerful force who took offense each time his creation enjoyed the finer, more delicious things in life. In a way, this understanding – or misunderstanding – of who and what God is may have been responsible for the image in the mind of many that He is more of a policeman and cruel judge who watches our every move, records our sins and is just waiting for the right time to throw us into hell – or purgatory as many of us hope.

It appears this is the image of God which the President has openly rejected.

Many others may have done so quietly. Then, they embarked on their personal journey towards the discovery of who and what God really is. The rejection of that Policeman God image has led many to discover the very truth that the Bible presents about Him and about Man.

The most important fact about God that many have discovered is this: that He is our Father who loves us unconditionally. “God is love and love consists in this – not that we have loved God but that He has loved us,” wrote Saint John in the New Testament. Many found one expression of that love of God so powerful and life-changing. It is this: “God loved the world so much that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life”.

Contrary to our childhood belief that the God is a policeman-judge who is busy gathering evidence to prove that we deserve hell, the God which the Bible teaches is one who is constantly trying to win us back to him. He wants us for himself so badly that he is willing to let his own son pay for our transgressions. The Prophet Isaiah wrote:

“We have all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all”.

Why did we not get to know God as loving Father early on? We recall that many of our catechism and religion classes focused on how bad we are. “Sin” took centerstage in our lessons. There is original sin. There is capital sin. We spent a lot of time debating about venial sin and mortal sin. We memorized what made for sin, particularly that thing called “full consent of the will.”

We may have failed to realize early on that “sin” made sense only because of God’s love. Sin means forfeiting the powerful experience of being loved by God who is our Father.

“All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” the Bible said. That would have been a cause for despair if the Bible had not also told us to “think of the love that the Father has given us by letting us be called God’s children.”

Our view is that faith in God cannot be taught. It is a gift. It is presented. It is left to us to accept or reject it.

It is a gift that is best presented by one who has it. Not by religious or theological experts.

This is a fact that the Roman Catholic Church itself recognizes.

Many years ago, the Church came out with a document called “Evangelii Nuntiandi”. There, the Pope wrote:

“Modern man listens to witnesses rather than to teachers. And, if he listens to teachers, it is only because they are witnesses”.

A witness is one who has seen, heard and experienced.

Perhaps, the Pope is right. Today, more than ever, we are waiting for those who have seen, heard and experienced the love of God to speak to us about matters of faith.

Witnesses are who we need to answer our objections to the religious tenets we were taught when we were helpless little children who badly needed to pass our periodical tests in religion.

Perhaps, we should encourage others to express their doubts, their objections and their discomforts about faith matters.

It is when we know their objections that we can witness to them about God – the Father who loves us unconditionally.

God is love and love consists in this – not that we have loved God but that He has loved us,” wrote Saint John in the New Testament.