Others

Growing up with quite a bit of protestant influence, I grew fond of this idea of individualistic faith: I have a personal savior; I am called to be priest, prophet, and king; God has a plan for me (Jer. 29:11), etc.

But there was this praise and worship workshop during our annual Evangelical Catholic Institute that made me reconfigure this notion of spirituality. So we opened up our session with a song "open the eyes of my heart" by Paul Baloche and we sang to our hearts content. Then the workshop leader asked us afterwards, "what's so great just now abour praise and worship?" One answered, "It's a form of praise to God that we offer through our voice," and others say, "singing is twice praying," but what struck me the most was what he gave as an answer. He said,"it's the voice of people standing next to me that makes it great as well."

Over the years, I would hear over and over again that "it's not only about me and Jesus, it's about we and Jesus as well."

We and Jesus

What a concept! It's all come back to the idea of community. We are what our community are (ubuntu philosophy). I was reading a blog the other day that evaluate this catholic practice of ash wednesday, putting ashes on one's forehead. What struck me the most was his observation: that no one put ashes into one's own forehead. Somebody must put that ashes into one's own forehead. That means my priest that just gave me my ashes needs my dean to put that ashes into his forehead. That means the bishop, heck the pope himself (!) have to ask somebody for them to have ashes on their own forehead!

And that doesn't stop there. Baptism, eucharist, confession, confirmation, extreme unction, and priesthood: need a priest or a bishop. Marriage? Need the bride and the bridegroom! We are all connected and in need of each other.

And do you know what break this cycle? It's called sin.

When we sin, we turn our mind to ourselves and say: I know better than God on how to make myself happy. And that includes pride, envy, gluttony, sloth, lust, avarice, and wrath.

I am not saying that I don't sin, that I am holier than thou. No, far from it. In fact, I might have gone to confession more times than you do for I sin, more times than I would like it to be.

So, what's the point of this blog post? It's something that I realize over the year as I become more and more Catholic: that the fabric of our being includes others. And the summit of it all is the Eucharist. So, let us go to the sacrament of reconciliation since, "in confession, the Lord washes our soiled feet over and over again and prepares us for table fellowship with Him." Pope Benedict XVI

(as a side note: of course me and Jesus is also needed. Again, Catholics is not a religion of either/or, we are a religion of both/and.)