I ask myself if what
I am writing makes sense. It is because it is going to be religion. I
understand that religion has its own territory. When people of certain
religious group finds intruder, i.e. saying something against or attacking its
territory, they get hurt and offended. And the natural impulse is to defend it.
In theology there is a subject that devotes on how to defend religion called
apologetic.
But there is another
way wherein religion is being intruded. This is something very subtle because
it is an indirect offense, but its effect is really deadly. By this I mean the
presence of technology that gets the attention of people away from religion. It
is because technology is something that is entertaining, concrete and
satisfying. I am not saying that religion is not entertaining, concrete and
satisfying, but it is not felt.
I believe religion
calls for action. It is action that concretizes the abstract. And if I am not mistaken,
Vatican II proposes that witnessing is needed in this present and modern world.
It is a basic idea like when we express our love towards the beloved, we do
something unusual, but it is extraordinary, in order for the beloved to see our
intention and love. Thus, what is abstract is now being felt.
St. James in his
letter also affirms that faith without action is dead. It means or we can infer
that non-action makes faith soul-less because a body without soul is not
anymore a body. It is simply a cadaver. Cadaver signifies that there is no soul
present in it. Conversely faith becomes alive when it is accompanied with
action. It is action that becomes the principle of faith in the midst of
technology by making faith entertaining, concrete and satisfying.
A person claiming to be Christian believes in
what Jesus Christ did and said. If that person puts everything what Jesus did
and said into action, that person is successful in making his religion alive.
It is the religious person, in participating in the mission of the Church, who
gives life to his religion. I do believe that our action as Christians
legitimize our religion. But if people who does not put the words and works of
Jesus into action they are killing their own religion. They become the modern
walking cadavers and intruders within the territory.
