Yesterday evening a friend and I went for the last session of the Living Faith talk by the Lay Dominicans. A month or so ago, I posted an entry about the first part of the Living Faith, on the grey area between being a good Christian and being just human. Last Friday was the last session of the talk.
Last night's talk was on the split between Work and Religion. I missed the previous session due to a CHOICE Story-telling, so I could not give a proper unbiased feedback on what the sessions are like, but at the end of the whole session, it has been rather enlightening somewhat.
Essentially, one must try to be a good Christian and adhere to the Christian way of life. However, how do we split between the things we need to do in our lives and religioin? For instance, if we need to work overtime but had to be involved in a church activity at the same time, which comes first? The boss is not going to let you go just because you need to be religious; rather he wants you to finish work first rather than anything else. Similarly, your church leader may frown on you as to him, God comes first.
I experienced that when I was undergoing baptism. That period of time, I changed jobs in the interim. As a result, I had to settle in my new job and spent more time at work. I missed a few baptism classes. The leader was quite upset with me. She said I have to adhere to my principles, that is why she always told her boss never give her overtime on that day due to her church commitments.
However, work has to be done means work has to be done. My boss is not going to say I can go just because I have baptism classes. In fact, I know a friend who got called back from a church camp just because of work exigencies. So how do we split? It seems that we are torn between this issue quite often.
Another issue is the split between our family life and religious life. If I come from a pure Catholic family, then perhaps things will be easier. If my parents are the kinds who put God above everything else, we will have to go to church first and fulfil whatever obligations we have before anything else.
But the fact is my parents are not Christians. They are traditional Chinese parents who view family as above everything else. So even though this weekend is a weekend of obligation to Mother Mary, I have to miss mass due to the international reunion tomorrow. My mum is not going to allow me to back out of a family gathering just to attend church. This has happened too many times already, in the past she would tell me not to go to church and go with her to attend some relative's gathering, but now she tells me there is a gathering and expect me to know what to do.
My ex never understood. To him, his family is pure Catholic, so going to church is a given. Anything else comes only after church. But I have to cater to my family's wishes if a family reunion is at a certain time that clashses with mass. We used to have quite a number of arguments in the past due to that. Just as well he married a Catholic girl from a pure Catholic family.
At times I wonder how to split between spirituality and reality, because in the world we live in now, it is hard to always put God first in every circumstance. Yes, I pray, I go to church, I try to be involved in activities, I try to fulfil my obligations, but when it comes to work and family, these two still take precedence for a lot of people.
Staunch Christians will frown upon this, because to them, they think God is above everything else, but if one loses the job or get a bad report, what is one to do then? If one quarrels or falls out with the parents, what is one to do?
Of course I also wish for the day when everything can be integrated, but the world is not as idealistic as that. So we just have to adapt to situations as best we can and hope for better things to come.
Last night's talk was on the split between Work and Religion. I missed the previous session due to a CHOICE Story-telling, so I could not give a proper unbiased feedback on what the sessions are like, but at the end of the whole session, it has been rather enlightening somewhat.
Essentially, one must try to be a good Christian and adhere to the Christian way of life. However, how do we split between the things we need to do in our lives and religioin? For instance, if we need to work overtime but had to be involved in a church activity at the same time, which comes first? The boss is not going to let you go just because you need to be religious; rather he wants you to finish work first rather than anything else. Similarly, your church leader may frown on you as to him, God comes first.
I experienced that when I was undergoing baptism. That period of time, I changed jobs in the interim. As a result, I had to settle in my new job and spent more time at work. I missed a few baptism classes. The leader was quite upset with me. She said I have to adhere to my principles, that is why she always told her boss never give her overtime on that day due to her church commitments.
However, work has to be done means work has to be done. My boss is not going to say I can go just because I have baptism classes. In fact, I know a friend who got called back from a church camp just because of work exigencies. So how do we split? It seems that we are torn between this issue quite often.
Another issue is the split between our family life and religious life. If I come from a pure Catholic family, then perhaps things will be easier. If my parents are the kinds who put God above everything else, we will have to go to church first and fulfil whatever obligations we have before anything else.
But the fact is my parents are not Christians. They are traditional Chinese parents who view family as above everything else. So even though this weekend is a weekend of obligation to Mother Mary, I have to miss mass due to the international reunion tomorrow. My mum is not going to allow me to back out of a family gathering just to attend church. This has happened too many times already, in the past she would tell me not to go to church and go with her to attend some relative's gathering, but now she tells me there is a gathering and expect me to know what to do.
My ex never understood. To him, his family is pure Catholic, so going to church is a given. Anything else comes only after church. But I have to cater to my family's wishes if a family reunion is at a certain time that clashses with mass. We used to have quite a number of arguments in the past due to that. Just as well he married a Catholic girl from a pure Catholic family.
At times I wonder how to split between spirituality and reality, because in the world we live in now, it is hard to always put God first in every circumstance. Yes, I pray, I go to church, I try to be involved in activities, I try to fulfil my obligations, but when it comes to work and family, these two still take precedence for a lot of people.
Staunch Christians will frown upon this, because to them, they think God is above everything else, but if one loses the job or get a bad report, what is one to do then? If one quarrels or falls out with the parents, what is one to do?
Of course I also wish for the day when everything can be integrated, but the world is not as idealistic as that. So we just have to adapt to situations as best we can and hope for better things to come.
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