Friday, January 21, 2005
I have a question for discussion. It's not going to be worded well because I'm tired, but I've been wondering about it lately. I've been thinking about how much of our lives we spend trying to educate ourselves. And, for the most part, our society respects the educated. Heres my question, are we supposed to know as much as we possibly can? Are we supposed to read every book ever written about the Catholic church or are we instead supposed to spend that time in prayer. What does God prefer? Would He rather us sit back, talk to Him and let Him talk back, telling us what he wants us to know or should we be reading to find out? There are some unbelievably smart and holy people who go to college and learn lots about the church and their faith. On the other hand though, you look at people who are not "educated", but are simply innocently holy and beautiful. There are so many examples of people like this such as St. Therese, Mother Teresa and the many of the poor. These people probably didn't engulf themselves in theology books and they definitely didn't spend years in school, but spent more time in prayer and contemplation. Founding fathers of our church did the same, but yet were incredibly intelligent because they spent time in prayer and the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Don't take this the wrong way, I am in no way saying that it's bad to study really deep stuff or go to school. I'm just trying to show both sides. Hope this makes sense. (and I hope I it didn't seem like I took a side, I wanted it to be unbaised) Leave a comment, your opinion and tell me what you think. I'll tell you what I really think later...
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3 comments:
I've kind-of thought about this before and what I concluded is that everyone is called to something different. Some saints, like John V ( I can't spell his last name, it's french) a parish priest at a small french town named Ars, hardly passed his seminary classes. Even after he was ordained, the bishop wouldn't let him hear confessions for awhile, because he didn't think John was smart enough to give correct advice. Other saints, like Thomas Aquainas where probably some of the smartest people of their time. I think that the most important thing we can focus on is trying to find what God wants us to do. At least that's what all the saints seem to have in common. And I also don't think that knowledge equals holiness; the devil knows quite a lot. I guess what I mean is that people are different and are called to different things, so instead of striving toward education or non-education, I think that if we try to follow God's will, we will get just the right amount of education that we need. Does this make any sense? Agree? Disagree?
I think I agree with Sarah. I'll find myself reading sometimes, and I'll have a feeling that God just wants to talk to me at that moment. Then I'll be praying, and an idea wil come to me about reading a particular book, or something like that. I think that dialouge (spelling?) should also be thrown in with prayer and reading, especially for people who have difficulty reading. I think religious dialouge is one thing that we all tend to lack.
I think that we all have a duty to learn the basics of the faith, but I don't think that we all have to learn all the deep theology stuff. It's nice to know, but it's probably not necessary. Priests and people like that should probably learn that kind of stuff, but I don't think that the laity have to feel guilty for not knowing everything there is to know. Being a Christian is more than just being knowledgeable.
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