Coming from a Catholic school in the south, I have noticed many differences in how the faith is taught. In the North, priests aren't afraid to talk about immigration and current racial issues in church. When events such as DACA and the White Supremacy Rallies occurred, they didn't hide it, but rather they dedicated homilies to it. Don't get me wrong, in the south, kindness and love are preached, just in a more discreet way. They often don't directly address current issues, especially those directly related to Government (which I think are most important) in fear of angering a crowd. 7:00 pm on a Thursday in NYC is the time I have theology class and I want to start by saying that faith and religion, in general, are very controversial issues. I know that. And I'm not going to talk about what to believe and what to not believe... or even share all of my religious beliefs, but I will tell you how this night's theology class made me think and left me looking like this meme in class: First, my teacher asked the question "If God is all powerful, why does he not stop all suffering in the world" which is a solid question... at least I think. No matter if you are a strong Catholic or Atheist, you must admit that when looking at this, it is a solid question... so bear with me. My teacher mentioned people who had said "God is punishing Texas for having a homosexual governmental leader" and others who referred to God as "making the suffering occur." My teacher then said (referring to the people who said that) "No. It's not God. It's climate change... now go breath your coal some place else." Haha.
Then, we talked about evil being the absence of good which I applied to the scientific fact of darkness being the absence of light. This idea made me think, think, think. If evil is the absence of good... then doing nothing good or bad would still be considered evil. An absence of good is evil. It was then my teacher started talking about kenosis- the idea of emptying yourself and giving yourself- through relating it to the biblical story of Jesus dying on the cross for humanity. Usually, I look at that story and think 'wow, what a cool dude'. But this time, I looked at the message and thought about how he gave his life in order to 'forgive the sins of the world'. In the story, the cool dude Jesus has all the power to stop people from killing him, but he doesn't.... he doesn't because that would mean that humans couldn't have free will and that he would be, in a way, oppressing humanity's wishes (which were to kill him). Let's get this straight, he would rather die even though he is innocent than halt a person's ability to choose. This idea is so beautiful to me because it made me aware of the power of free will and the choices we are able to make each and every day through it. Just like this Jesus man, countless people (many from the U.S.) have risked their lives or actually died in pursuit of liberty and justice for each of us in times we, as one humanity, were oppressed. People DIED and CONTINUE TO DIE for our right to simply choose. After these thoughts, it saddened me to think of all the people in the world who are doing awful actions, but more so all the good people who are being evil simply by doing nothing- myself included. By doing nothing, we are adding to the evil in the world. We need to start choosing. Especially in this age of divisive partisanship, we need to start fighting for what we have a right to fight for. We are the ones who can make a change. We are the ones that can impact the world through kenosis. Not just whoever or whatever your God is, WE as HUMANS have a purpose and choices because of the greats that have come before us. We were made to set the world aflame with our burning fires, yet here we are, too often sitting still holding the lighter as the liquefied gas falls to ground. |
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