HE ETERNITY OF FOLLY

By. José Raúl Ramírez Vaalencia  

God is not the problem. Many religions are. Some pseudosciences pose a problem since they seem not to clarify God's mystery. Instead they distorts it, overshadow it, make it  weird. “ God does not exist they say, yet there are many religions out there, they affirm, the atheists”. It is paradoxical that many religion expressions do not form autonomous religious individuals, rather they form weak subjects, fearful like empty shelf, spook like refugees within their own emotional doctrines.

As a result, more serious challenges the church faces which are not precisely secularism or religious indifference but fanaticism coming from a certain “popular religiosity”, fed by sensational deists. Facing this affirmation comes out a subtle question: Is the pastoral challenge training faithful individuals in integrity and socially responsible? !Let us be careful with naivete! For instance, little religious medals, pilgrimages with relics, practices without any authentic evangelizing content, something which distracts, distorts and tangles any pastoral work through a set of procedures that in fact diminish an authentic true bold compromise in our faith commitment. !Be vigilant! God could be ambush and finding himself asking for help before so many religious  customs out of tune with true doctrine, something which overshadows his own very being as well as his intervention in the world. We need much more religious thought that emphasizes what is essential, rejecting any man made decorative faith; “ when God disappears there shows the ghosts”, used to say Novalis, the poet.   

In 1784, Emmanuel Kant wrote a letter titled What is illustration? In it, persuasively shook the socio-religious environment  of his time by addressing the comfort of the so called  minority of age: “If I have a book that thinks for me, any pastor that replaces my conscience, any doctor which prescribes my diet, [….] I will not need to prove myself”.

To dare to think is Kant' s  challenge. Could it be that enduring the minority of age is a syndrome of religious questioning? Having a pastor is not a weakness. The difficulty is rather that a pastor may not think by himself or that he thinks for me without examining carefully any responsible religious matter. Let us reflect some points in Kant's letter:

 

1.     The age minority “has become almost exclusively man's nature”. It is proper for a human being to do reasoning and thinking. Accepting any religious practice without the minimum effort in reasoning, falsifies and makes easy not to think by themselves the standard rule, blocking  any careful reflection of the tenets of our faith. Faith without reason falls in some sort of chronic sleep.

2.     “ I hear say: !No reasoning! The official says ! No reasoning, get yourself trained in some skill! The financial counselor yells! No reasoning, just pay! The Pastor: ! No reasoning, just believe! As a result, any authentic religion is far away from contributing to any individual, blinding himself or making him uncritical. Instead, it opens his mind to the believer which does not take away reasoning since with it, the world and God's mystery becomes comprehensible.

3.     A priest is obliged to teach his community according to the church's mindset. As a wise person, ha has the liberty and the mission to communicate to the public, ideas carefully examined and well thought concepts on the church's defects. He also has the duty to make better the church in its institutional frame. Finally, he has to show the handicaps of certain religious expressions which alienate the person, avoiding to make apology of the rather easy sentence that says, “ it is people's faith”: in this way showing a double standard by affirming that in this way the faithful as well as money wood increase.

4.     “Men's excuse seems to be that of their age minority. Declaring so that his is guilty of his own making, especially in religious matters.[....]making it more harmful and shameful”. Any religious teacher could lack criteria let us say in culinary matters, or jewelry, or fashion, etc. but when it comes to religion it is unforgiving that he would not be  a critical thinker, given that any religious thought has a positive or negative impact in society.

5.     “To assume that religious instructors in spiritual matters are also in the minority of age, constitutes a true nonsense; something which leads to everlasting folly”. A religious teacher that lacks coherence and discernment in religious matters is a danger for society. His lack of judgment not only multiply the babble but also diminish his ability to deliver a good sound judgment in religious thought.

6.     In the end, some pastoral practices lack undeniable syndromes coming from certain beliefs whose consequences are the age minority of many religious instructors. However, this prognosis does not apply to all agents of pastoral work anyway.

 P.D. Would be there sick religious practices that makes some people ill? How to identify them? How to treat them?

Translated By, Br. Ireneaus Ceballos. OSb