As I sat for the adoration this evening, my thoughts on faith, religion and spirituality began to haunt me. I found asking myself, what is it that I answer when people ask me which religion do I follow? I certainly answer, Christian/Catholic. But does that answer stand for my closeness to Christ, being His disciple or is it to mean that I belong to the Church. Well one might say that it is the same but not to me. I might very well 'belong' to the Church: baptised, participating in all the practices of piety, regularly paying my subscription... but that does not necessarily imply me being close to the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, the answer is 'Christian'... but most often we limit ourselves to the latter explanation or realm of meaning. The former meaning - and the core - of Christianity is not what is indicated in our response.
So then, back to my dilemma: Is faith and religion the same?
i think not. thank God and human beings. i think Faith is like the superset which all religions feed. We take out bits of faith to play, eat and live with. And so faith, need not be sourced from one religion only but rather from a collection of sources like culture, religion, education and experience, family among others. And therefore i think faith is completely individual or personal because of each one's way of processing things.
ReplyDeleteAs for which religion i follow- that is certainly a difficult question. I usually say i was born catholic ;) diplomatic eh? I like the word catholic because it means universal which most of the askers don't remember. And if pressed further, I say, an aspiring christian. And then change the topic :D
sorry, the word should be aspirant i guess.
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