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Monday, March 14, 2005
Carvajal: ‘Come to me...’
By Orlando P. Carvajal
uncutgems
* The Church, in its fight against artificial methods of birth control, often uses the argument that the end does not justify the means. Well, judging, condemning and depriving folks of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is equally a means that is not justified by the end of fighting for the natural method. It is relating to the people involved in the issue with the mind and not the heart. That makes it seem to me to be simply and utterly unchristian.
One of my favorites from Christ is: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28) I am too keenly aware that no matter how much I try, I can never be perfect in this life. I often fall off my high horse, sin, and must hang on to these words of His to get back on. Christianity to me is about salvation and salvation is about forgiveness. Christianity, therefore, is about unconditional love for God loves us as sinners. He does not require us to be good before loving us. On the contrary, it is His love that makes us good in spite of our sinful selves.
That is why my other favorite from Christ is: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged.” (Matt. 7:1) I simply cannot love if I judged. I cannot possibly relate in a positive manner with someone I have judged to be guilty of this or of that. Thus, to give love a chance for a friend, who has been accused of wrongdoing, I need to give him or her what is aptly called the benefit of the doubt.
Thirdly, Christ said at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me.” (Luke 22:19) This is an unconditional invitation to break bread and commemorate His life, death and resurrection. Because of Christ’s invitation, I make the Eucharist my ritual for going to Christ when I feel burdened with my sinfulness. If we made sinlessness as a prerequisite for participating in the Eucharist, I do not think anybody alive can rightfully receive Holy Communion. Hypocrisy aside and in the last and final arithmetic that only God can make, we are all sinners.
Comes now the Catholic Church teaching us, and very rightly so, that Sacraments are encounters with God. You would imagine, therefore, that they would encourage more and more encounters with God, especially through the Eucharist since this is the one Sacrament that can be directly traced to Christ. Unfortunately, this is not so. Not, anyway, in the case of the raging issues of birth control and abortion.
The Church, of course, has the right to defend vigorously its stand on the population issue. But it has definitely no right to prevent people from coming to Christ in the Eucharist, especially since these people are heavily burdened with, caught in, the horns of a dilemma: receive communion or lose my job. By judging and condemning these simple folks, the Church values its stand on a complex issue (on which it could be wrong) more than it values the three straightforward invitations from Christ, “…Do this in memory of me,” “Come to me…and I will give you rest,” and “Stop judging that you may not be judged.”
The government workers (many, most, of whom are Catholics) as well as Church officials agree, I believe, on responsible parenthood as a good end. I also would like to give government workers the benefit of the doubt that they abhor abortion and are involved in “ligtas buntis” because they sincerely believe that they are not promoting abortion. In any case, if Church officials believed these Catholics are wrong, then they should go on a vigorous campaign to understand, then enlighten these workers. More than that, the Church should get vigorously involved in effective responsible parenthood programs using natural methods. In the real world, I believe we call this putting our money where our mouth is.
The Church, in its fight against artificial methods of birth control, often uses the argument that the end does not justify the means. Well, judging, condemning and depriving folks of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is equally a means that is not justified by the end of fighting for the natural method. It is relating to the people involved in the issue with the mind and not the heart. That makes it seem to me to be simply and utterly unchristian.
For comments: e-mail address : opc(at)sunstar(dot)com(dot)ph
(March 14, 2005 issue)
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