It's Lenten Season once again and it's the same story. I remember reacting to last year's observance and I feel like I'm having a deja vú. I went to our newly opened SM City Sta. Rosa yesterday, Ash Wednesday. For us Catholics, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten Season characterized to encourage Catholics to sacrifice in preparation of the coming of the "groom". On Ash Wednesday and on Fridays of Lent, we are asked to offer a simple sacrifice of eating only fish and other seafoods. What is difficult in following this routine every Friday in the Lenten season? I saw people eating at KFC (I doubt they ate there to order just salad) and lining up at Tokyo Tokyo (I hope they were going to order Ebi Tempura or Ika Fry). I struggled not to look at anymore restaurants because I didn't want to criticize the ignorance and stubbornness of Filipinos.
I recall one time in Church when I reminded my "pew mate" that she ate a piece of candy during mass and that she should observe the one hour Eucharistic Fast (you don't eat one hour before you receive communion to keep your system clean of any other matter to give reverence to Jesus' body and blood). She only reacted, "Ay! Uso pa ba yon?" The person reacted this way maybe because she sees people who do eat during mass and still receive communion. They learn through observance.
Most Filipinos are blind Catholics. The Catholics in the Philippines lack basic Catechism from the poor to the elite. Their basic Catholic education is only based on their observance from their own parents. Yes, we do have Religion classes in schools, but they are not reinforced at home so what the students learn do not make sense when they go home because the parents do not practice them. Very few Filipino Catholics practice their faith using their brains.
A Challenge: Would you like to lessen the blind Catholics in the Philippines by learning basic catechism?
No comments:
Post a Comment