above is a picture of (1.)Paul, (2.) Mark and Marko and (3.) my friend Katie and her kids (Jenny and Julia are amazing kids) and Katie's birthmom,Val(what a beautiful person) and Mark, the kids and I. ( don't worry this is all related somehow)
Below is a writing from my dear friend, Paul Sherlock and this is a picture of him...well it looks like him....and below that a writing from Markk and below that from my friend Katie...she's awesome too and has been my friend since 7th grade.
Subject: blessings1.24.07
by Paul
I would love your opinion on this. Anna is receiving her First Communion this spring. On Feb. 3rd she has to go before a priest and ask for forgiveness for her sins. I have a little debate going on with a friend of mine because of the prayer Anna has to say. I think it's negative and that children can not have sin. My friend disagrees. I also can't not say much since I dropped out of church for about 20 years. How exactly do you interpret this? This is the prayer:
My God I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend with you help to do penance to sin no more and to avoid what ever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God have mercy.
I know I'm probably looking at this wrong and feel a little shy talking to my religious friends about it. But what the heck is your take in this?
My feelings about sin
The prayer that you cite although I understand its intent, I view as being heavy handed and in my opinion, of questionable suitability for 7 years olds to be reciting. My concern with the approach that is being used in this prayer is that children will become afraid of their relationship with God as opposed to embracing it. The words I especially struggle with are: choosing to do wrong and failing to good, I have sinned against you. In the literal sense we “sin” countless times on a daily basis. Anything that is less than perfection is a sin against God since God is perfect. But guess what? That is a product of being human. Perfection, no matter how good we try to live our lives will always elude us. That is not such a bad thing. To me that is not a sin. So when I look at the majority of people and the majority of the “sins” they commit, I have a hard time terming those various shortcomings as failures.
When we talk of sin we talk of wrongdoing. Religion has taught us that if we are unrepentant of such wrongs then the punishment is for us to spend eternity in hell. This is a very fear driven approach to teaching right from wrong.. Certainly there is a need to train people in the rights and wrongs that most of us embrace. There is also a need to establish punishment for wrongdoing. This allows for maintaining a continuity within our society and provides people with a great degree of security and freedoms. But when we look at wrongdoing on the scale as it relates to God, my own interpretation of how we interact with God is that our actions are simply either enabling us to move towards God or are causing us to move away from God. I do not feel that our relationship with God is one in which we are judged by our actions in this existence and then either deemed worthy enough to spend eternity with God, or so unworthy that we may not ever experience God’s Love again. In my opinion, that is too simplistic a definition of the relationship between us and God.
Besides if God is Unconditionally Loving then isn’t God able to forgive anything? Even a soul that fails to see the error of its ways?
In our walk with and towards God, there are very real consequences for us not doing what we understand to be the “right” thing to do. When we act in our self interest then we are doing nothing to move ourselves further along in our journey ( I think of the notion of “sin” as being more of an act of being self centered or selfishness). As long as we operate with our self interest in mind we will continue to remain stuck in terms of advancing along our path.
But in my view of things that just means we will take longer in arriving at our destiny, it doesn’t presume that we no longer have the opportunity to get there.
We are creations of Love. We come from Love. Our ultimate destiny is a return to Love. This sentiment of returning to Love applies to all of us even the most hardened of “sinners“, not just a select few. We will continue to “sin” along the way, but as we become more aware of this our true destiny the need to act in our self interest will begin to dissipate and our growth in God will excel.
Namaste, Paul
Re: blessings1.24.07 Oh my. This really irks me. I could go on and on. But I would say, letting my best side shine, that it is important to understand that the word that western civilization uses — sin — is a mistranslation from the original aramaic (the true language of christ) the meaning of which has been skewed in going through greek to get to english. The translation of the word if you go from aramaic to english is basically “the unripeness.” Now, instead of there being an implication of deliberate and malicious wrongdoing, we have the concept of a soul going through stages of development in passage to its highest evolution. If you take it in that sense, let the prayer of the girl’s first communion be, “let my soul evolve and grow to its highest potential in a journey of love.” That can only be a good thing, right?
feel free to feed this info to yr list.
Alphasalam (first peace)
markk
Here are some words from my friend Kate (Katie as I know her)
I think we are closer than you think.
Damning people to hell is very Pre-Vatican II. The way it is explained at our church is that when we choose to commit sin, or put more simply, when we choose to commit a wrongdoing, then we separate ourselves from God, and that separation from God’s Love is a form or degree of personal hell, if you will, with complete separation from God – really, from Love - being the very worst kind of fate. Which I think is what you are saying, too.
You may be lumping “sin” below with what many come to understand as “Mortal Sin” - killing someone, committing adultery, etc., which of course is a more adult version of sin, as opposed to the venial sins, which are and can be committed by anyone with knowledge of what is right. (Not willing to share, not following parent’s direction, using hurtful words) In the legal system, to be legally culpable, someone has to have mens rea, the intention to do wrong, and kids under 7 are generally not considered capable of such. Which I think is why in the church, kids don’t go to confession and then to first communion until they are in second grade – at which time they are certainly capable of knowing right from wrong, even on the most simple scale.
The goal as a Catholic is to follow The Way: The Way of Living and Loving as Christ demonstrated for us, as articulated in the Sermon on the Mount, and in his table fellowship – sharing with those who don’t follow The Way (and those who do) in order to demonstrate, and have others – those who need it most - partake in, God’s Love.
Some Christians focus on the fact that Jesus died for us. My archdiocese focuses on the fact that Jesus came to be with us to show us how to live in God’s Love. The wording of the Confessional is heavily laden with words that trigger reactions in us as adults, catchphrases that others have twisted in meaning. The role of us as parents and as stewards of God’s Love is to make sure that that undesirable part of the legacy isn’t carried forward.
Does that help?
No comments:
Post a Comment