Hearing this evening for the second time about a Sister who met with an accident several years ago and how she survived the accident and the incident that took place thereafter in the hospital, provoked in my mind the same question again.
That the Sister, while recuperating in the hospital from a near death-accident, was told by a famous doctor to throw away the rosary/crucifix stating that, that was the cause of her suffering. How she replies back saying that he is free to think whatever he wishes but for her the Cross remains life-giving and meaningful.
Later the Sister left religious life! I was wondering how could one say such beautiful and convinced things and then discontinue? What happened to her faith? But I also know that after leaving the congregation, she remained a spinster and has done much good. The answer that came to my mind was perhaps her faith as a Catholic had nothing much to do with her religious vocation. Analysing myself I realised I had monopolised faith to religious life alone! Some how I had associated religious life with superiority of faith. When this Sister left, her faith was intact, only she discerned and felt that religious life was not her vocation.
Faith after all is much more than religious vocation. Each one of us is called/gifted with it. May be in the eyes of God, what we do with it is what defines us, not necessarily our religious vocation.
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