Monday, April 23, 2007

Was Jesus a Christian?

After seeing Gerry and even Sr Wendy updating their blogs, and the constant reminder by a fellow brother that Christ has resurrected already, its time that my blog rose from its silence since Ash Wednesday. And with even MSC starting to blog on not one but three blogs, how God is working in their lives, really gives me the motivation to follow their example. You can find the blogs here, here and here.

This also coupled with the fact that I've had a constant theme hammering into my head from friday to today.

It all started with the Gospel on Friday Jn 6:1-15, when we were doing sharing, the phrase that struck me was "A large crowd followed him". This verse struck me, because just the day before I saw this interesting post on the S.A.L.T. blog on Godtube.com, the christian version of youtube. There I saw the christian version of the Mac vs. PC ads, Christian vs. Christ Follower, which i've put at the end of this post for your viewing pleasure. Anyway back to the Gospel passage, I contrasted the "Large crowd" that followed Christ but were receiving, and the disciples who were serving.

This got me thinking of what it means to be a Christ follower like in the videos. Ironically as much as the spoof ads were trying to criticise the "Christian" with his rigid rule following, the "Christ follower" goes the other extreme of not bothering with any rules, going on own personal preferences. There is another video on Godtube which talks about this. The balance that we need to find is not to be a slave to rules of the religion, and also not to totally disregard the rules. Like Jesus said, the Law was made for man, to help man to live the way God intended. but not to take it to the extreme of the pharisees. We need to know what the spirit of the Law is, and how it is helping us to live the Christian Life.

Anyway, over saturday, I was struck down by severe diarrhea, and during the many times I was on my "thinking seat" a question occurred to me - "We know Jesus was a Jew, but was Jesus a Christian?" It really made me think, and fundamentally it really boils down to what is the definition of a Christian. Is he one who believes in Christ? follows Christ? does good? As I thought about it further, it wasn't about reaching a yes or no answer to the question, it was really about what it meant to be Christian.(must be all the philosophy classes getting into my head) But anyway I got carried away, and started thinking how maybe that would be a good way for cathechism or RCIA, where the class debates over yes or no. Ultimately they will have to answer what it means to be Christian first.

Anyway, carrying on the theme of following Christ, in Sunday's Gospel, we see again Jesus' command in the last two words of the Gospel - "Follow Me". This being after Christ asked Peter of his love, and to feed and tend His sheep. And in today's Gospel, we see Jesus' commenting on the "Large crowd that followed Him", that they were following Him for the wrong reasons.

So really, what does it mean to be Christian, Christ follower, disciple, believer... at the end of the day the name itself isn't important. It is how it translates into our life that counts.

I will end of with this inspirational story that I received this morning, then I have to get back to my studies and all my assignments.

P.S. Jude just passed me a copy of the Catholic News. And on the front page the quote says "Come, follow me. I will make you Fishers of Men."

A priest moved to a new parish and some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the city. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a 5 cents too much change.

As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, "You'd better give the 5 cents back. It would be wrong to keep it." Then he thought, "Oh, forget it, it's only 5 cents. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God' and keep quiet."

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the 5 cents to the driver and said, "Here, you gave me too much change." The driver with a smile replied, "Aren't you the new priest in my parish? I have been thinking lately about going to mass. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday"

When the priest stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest lamp post, held on, and said, "Oh God, I almost sold your Son for 5 cents."

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Catholics and will put us to the test! Always remember (as I try to remember) that you carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself "Catholic."
Christian vs. Christ Follower Ads


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1 comment:

neko said...

You know, this is one of those times where I thought I'll pop by and see if I can find any inspiring blogs and I did.

The commercials were very true and reflect very much on our "Christian Society". If I could use a word for it, many out there in the world, whether you call yourself Christians or Catholic, are "pharisee-like". We're religous. We have the form of godliness but not the power. We wear the cross on our neck but do not carry it on our back. Sad but sadly true.

Can I share my thoughts? I may be totally wrong, blunt, insensitive, rude to certain extent, ignorant but I would rather share than to regret.

I had this thought bout u the other day. Would you be more fruitful being a layman or a leader in some youth groups than as a priest? You are one of the few catholics I know personally who wears Christianity on their heart and not on their sleeves. Bless those who do, I'm not condeming them but Christ has truly called (and still is calling) us to be followers, to make and be made disciples. With my limited knowledge (and what I've seen in movies), I find that the lifestyle of a priest is very structured, routine, rigid, bound by unnecessary rules at times that has been passed down from history. The Mass, the Sacraments and I don't know what else entails in the vocation of a priests but I don't think this help to make disciples. Yes, a father so-and-so will impart their life, their knowledge to other priests-to-be. A father so-and-so will have night sessions in church to teach on one of the books in the Bible to the layman. Mistake me not, all these are good things but would it bring to the true fulfillment of what Jesus has commissioned in Matthew 28: 19-20?
The only reason why I'm bringing this up is because your passion, your beliefs is beyond the boundary of the normal catholic system. A position as a priest sets himself apart from the rest, from the layman. It is rather difficult for one to build a relationship from the altar. So many a times, it's more duty calls than anything else. I do not understand how can one minister to another without a relationship? I cannot understand the concept of a person walking into the church, goes to the confession box, confess his or her sins, have the priest says something and he or she walks out, having obtained forgiveness but without the sense of repentence. Why? Because all they hear is that "Your sins have been forgiven" but have they also heard,"Go and sin no more"? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I don't know?! Maybe if they did, they might never come back to the church. This scenerio happens not only in catholic churches but christian churches also. We are so prone to preaching the soft message because we do not want to offend. But where would this lead us to? Do we just want to feed bread and fish and keep the 5000 happy or do we tell them, you have to drink of His blood and eat of His flesh to become true partakers? I know my thoughts are everywhere but I just want to share this with you. Do you think you'll be able to do more for Him, advance His kingdom further without entering into priesthood? Without the limitations, without the rules, without the boundaries? This thought weighs heavily on my heart and in my spirit because I really feel there can be more. May the Holy Spirit guide you and may His grace be upon you. Saul of Tarsus did not remain as Saul. God changed him to Paul. May you become a Paul and not a Peter.
Amen