On Religion
I was reading an article today about Pope John Paul II and his path to sainthood. Being of mixed mind about God and religion to begin with, though having an avid fascination with the lengths people will travail for entrance into whatever heaven they believe in (aka what people do in the name of religion), I decided to check out what they had to say. It happens to be an appropriate time for such an article to fall into my lap. If I call myself a Christian and claim to be of the religion of my up-bringing, then I haven’t been a very good one. I haven’t been to church in over a year (It was Christmas 2008 - At Easter last year I couldn’t go because I had to work, the semester not yet finished for teaching, and as a result having to work all weekend long both because of my teaching schedule and because my boss was apt to take the weekend off if she could finagle it, leaving me to clean up after her mess. Then of course for Christmas 2009 I was in Watertown because my sister-in-law was about to give birth to the most beautiful and brilliant baby niece ever and couldn’t travel.) So to quote Puck from Glee, “I feel like such a bad Jew”. Well, obviously a bad Christian in my case though bad Jew isn’t that far off. Not that I was good before, be one of those who lapsed to the point of only being able to bring myself to attend on major holidays. (But aside from enjoying sleeping in on Sunday mornings because I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t, I also felt like a hypocrite attending regularly when I wasn’t sure I believed. That’s the reason why I stopped receiving communion after I went away to school. It wasn’t right.) Since I moved to Alexandria, I’ve been toying with the idea of giving church another shot. With Easter coming up, I feel compelled to make an effort so that maybe God will see me trying to meet Him half-way or something. Of course I haven’t the foggiest clue where there is an appropriate church nearby and much of this week’s free time will be spent trying to find one. I’m also reading a book called Lamb (The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pall) by Christopher Moore, which is hilarious in its complete irreverence. But for all of its sacrilege, much of it rings true. And reminds me of what I might be missing.
So I read the article and of course there’s a part of me that is dubious about the existence of miracles, especially in the modern age and everything we can do without divine intervention. But there’s also a part of me that recognizes what faith can give to people. It hasn’t been much comfort to me since I was young. I guess there’s a part of me that will never be able to let go of the idea that when I needed it most, faith couldn’t help me and God remained silent. Who knows, maybe at the time I was praying for the wrong things and that’s why. Or maybe there is no God and that’s why. I don’t know that I’ll ever have an answer to that, and that might be my burden to bear. But for so many people, faith is a warm blanket on a cold day. They can wrap themselves up in it and never worry about the chill. And some days I envy them. There apparently is much debate over the eligibility of Pope John Paul II to be beatified, the first step to sainthood. Most people will not deny that he lead a good and virtuous life. Their objections tend to come in the form of accusations about his handling of the church scandals in recent years, and his lack of knowledge of what had been going on behind closed confessionals. But even then they are slung without much vitriol and most can agree that not even the infallible Pope could know everything, and his handling of the situation was as good as could be expected. The main obstacle is the miracle. In order to be beatified, the dead person in question must be part of a miracle. The most common miracles these days are spontaneous healings. People who are gravely or deathly ill are suddenly cured of what ails them. John Paul II’s first certified miracle is likely to be the healing of a nun who had Parkinson’s, the same disease that killed him. There is some hesitation there though, as she is young and the disease could have been something merely similar to Parkinson’s. Because she is young, the disease could also come back and many feel that for the healing to be deemed complete, beatification must wait until the nun lives out her life and dies Parkinson’s free. There’s a lack of faith in that desire, but a practical one none the less. And it’s not as though there aren’t dozens more people lined up with supposed miracles to offer in order to make this holy designation happen.
I’m not sure what to think of this. I am not Catholic and do not have much personal knowledge of the late Pope. I only know what I learned through the media. But in this day and age, a few more saints probably wouldn’t hurt. What really got to me is that I checked the comments and the first several comments were all made by people who claim to be atheists. And here’s the problem I have with atheists. I believe everyone should be free to feel how they want to about religion, and we have a right to express those feelings. But there’s no good reason to attack people for what they believe, nor is there a good reason to shove your beliefs down anyone else’s throats. (I also have a problem with missionaries for this same reason, but at least they’re doing so because they genuinely believe it’s good and that they are helping people.) For all they shout about religious people trying to force their beliefs on atheists and they reserve the right not to say “under God” when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, they’re just as bad by trying to force people not to express their faith and they’re rude when they talk about the naïve aspects of faith. I’m sure this is not true of all atheists, and I’m sorry for generalizing, but most of my dealings with them tend to be that way.
I think that people are suffering from a grave misunderstanding of religion. And I mean all religions, and I suppose of atheism and agnosticism as well. People would be better off if they understood how religion (or lack thereof) can motivate a person. And there would be a lot less spewing of useless and angry words. Maybe people would even pass around a little more love.
Also, just a pet-peeve of the day kinda thing: “Jaundiced” does not = “Jaded”. So if you are trying to discuss the way a person views the world and if they seem weary of it, they would be “jaded”. If a person is yellow and badly in need of sunlight, then they are “jaundiced”.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100329/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_john_paul_ii