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Orthodox Christianity: A Faith-based and Action-Oriented Religion PART 1.
First, I would like to say, my blog is purely reflectional. Nowhere in my blog entries have I claimed that I'm writing for scholarly purposes, nor will I claim thus in the near future. I am an Orthodox Christian within the Antiochian Jurisdiction. I am just a simple person musing things through my Orthodox faith.
I know that I'd be risking sounding arrogant (pardon me), or even naive, but I know that this post is a KIND OF rebuttal against protestant accusations of Catholicism. I don't shy away from owning the word Catholicism/Catholic because that's what Orthodox is: UNIVERSAL.
I know that I'd be risking sounding arrogant (pardon me), or even naive, but I know that this post is a KIND OF rebuttal against protestant accusations of Catholicism. I don't shy away from owning the word Catholicism/Catholic because that's what Orthodox is: UNIVERSAL.
I would like to start from my own experiences: how on earth did I become an Orthodox Christian?
I was baptized into the Roman Catholic faith a week or so after I was born. Born in a tumultuous marriage of Miriam Malapitan Tumacas (mother) and Renei Arcuena Tumacas (father), my baptism, as is true of all Filipino household whose members were baptized as Roman Catholics, was a hallmark for the family: it was a Rite worth cherishing.
My fondest memory of my Roman Catholicism was when my mama prodded me to recite the "Angel's Prayer" before my maternal grandmother. I was in my preschool days. It was a contest really between my older male cousin and I. The prayer was a short one:
Angel of God my Guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here.
Ever this day, be at my side,
To light and guard,
To rule and guide,Amen.
I can't remember now what the prize was but I can remember the giddy feeling after my grandmother commended me for having memorized the prayer. And ever since, it stucked with me. At that point my elders in our home noticed my ability to memorize things that I've read or memorize and paraphrase things I have heard. I was, and still am, a word-smart kid. And this God-given ability was one of the driving forces in my pursuit of biblical truth.
Fast-forward to my gradeschool days. I was in my fourth grade when I discovered an affinity for the Word of God. I started reading the Bible. If somebody asked me at that time what religion have I got, I said "Catholic".
Did I ever memorized the Rosary? To be honest, NO. I was never taught by anyone about it.
A voracious reader ( a gift, really, from my mother who instilled in me the value of Reading), I started book-hunting in the house and in the modest library of our private elementary school. By and by, I discovered Charles Spurgeon, A.E Norrish, Reinhardt Bonke, Tim La Haye, and a dozen booklets on Protestant theology mostly in Baptist and Pentecostal traditions such as The Daily Bread. I deeply admired the power in the sermons of Charles Spurgeon and Reinhardt Bonke. A.E Norrish spoke of Christian leadership and Tim La Haye spoke in psychological tones. I was immensely apprehensive of Protestantism. I combined research with Bible reading. My first Bible was a tattered King James Version with thick English wordings. It was a well-worn Scofield Bible which was used by my uncle who's now a Pastor. I was overjoyed when I received a new Zondervan study Bible with strategies on how to read the Bible with everyday plan. When I went to church, I would respectfully refuse the prompting of our church elders for me to go with other kids and have Sunday school lessons. My reason, for a sixth grader, was simple yet profound: I didn't want to miss the sermons of the pastor. For me, as a sixth grader, THAT WAS THE REAL STUFF. No elder could remove me from my post as I listened to the engaging sermons. I diligently took notes of what the pastor said: I recorded Bible verses that I would later re-read at our house. I would write down key-words: Jesus only. Personal Savior. Have faith only. Praise and Worship. Salvation is through God. Man-made religions. Church community. I was taking in the message of the Bible the way our pastor reads it.
The encouragement to read the Bible was fierce: it was reinforced in Youth groups and discussions. Even fierce was my grandmother's objection to the Protestant faith. She is a Roman Catholic.
At home, you'd be easily ridiculed by Catholic household members when they caught you reading the Bible. (My whole family, both on mother's and father's side, DO NOT read the Bible, albeit they claim Catholicism.) At that point, I had no good role models on how to read the Bible except my church-mates. I had never seen (until now) anyone praying the Rosary, yet they say they are Roman Catholics. At that point I was feeling hopeless and desperate. I began to see Catholicism as anti-spiritual freedom. I began to see Catholicism as a heartless, brutal, suffocating, man-made religion.
Coincidentally, a number of folks in our household started watching Bible Exposition program of Eli Soriano that bitterly attacked the Catholics. Soriano's words were considered vulgar in the Evangelical circle, that even they (Evangelical protestants that include Born Again), refused to acknowledge Soriano. I remember at one point our pastor would remark that everything Soriano said was true, except that we Born Again must never say vulgar or bad words or curse words while defending the Word of God. The rival program, that of Iglesia Ni Cristo of the Manalos, also did not think highly of Catholics: their view had and has always been that the Roman Catholic Pope is the anti-Christ.
With all these, evangelicals, Sorianos and Manalos had one thing in common: they said that the Liturgy going, Cassock wearing, Saint worshipping, Pope loving Catholics had been duped. These denominations ALL CLAIMED that Catholicism put Faith on Jesus, second place, and man-made traditions, first place. They said and taught that Catholics had added to the Bible unnecessary stuff such as masses, Eucharist, priesthood, worship of saints, worship of Mary, etc. They also said and taught that Catholicism reduced the importance of Jesus and heavily emphasized the WORKS: confessions, tithings, praying repetitively, kissing the hand of Bishop, Feast of Saints, etc.
With the cruelty in our household combined with invectives against Catholicism, I began to adopt a hard-core stance against what I deemed as works-based religion: I called Catholicism and the likes of it pure evil.
I joined the Youth Camp organized by the Born Again church. I was baptized and officially became a member when I was in my sixth grade. By the time I stepped into High School I was a staunch protestant believer.
In high school, it was a relief to find out that our public high school had a large library; larger than my previous school by two rooms only. I started hunting for books again but this time, I found secular books that are not friendly towards religion; not aggressive, but totally dismissive of religion. At this point I realized a searing pain within me.
I became depressed. I felt like what I have been doing, studying the Word of God, was worthless. I began to have doubts. When I went to Church, the enthusiasm was there but I began to see the capriciousness of my church-mates; like I was seeing them for the first time. Some of what they accused of Catholics was very much alive in our lives: the capriciousness, the pursuit of being known, internal conflicts, etc. Still holding on to my protestant beliefs though, by and by, I committed tardiness on church attendance. All the while I gravitated towards the teachings of Eli Soriano and his Ang Dating Daan group. The anti-Catholic rants were steep in his teachings. His tactics included heavy reliance on sola scriptura (which basically, in my view, is an argument from silence: the Bible says nothing, it means a stuff isn't true), half-baked knowledge on Hebrew, Greek, and Latin for unsuspecting and naive listeners, and Catholic bashing. His bashing included the age-old claims of Protestantism that Catholicism added unto the Bible non-truth.
At one point I considered joining the Ang Dating Daan (the old path). I dropped the Born Again title called myself a Christian.
Soon, I began losing interest in religion altogether. Through my Protestant "upbringing" I rationalized my not going to church by making myself believe that I am a spiritual person but not religious. I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, that should be enough. Church was not important. The Bible must be read, according to one's schedule and mood. Me, myself, and I and Jesus. Once saved, always saved.
By the time I reached college, I had completely jettisoned my "belief in religion". For me, at that time, religion was not important, Jesus was. It's enough that I read the Bible and prayed.
Yet my mental and spiritual convolusions caved me in. And I caved in to that urgings.
I told myself: THIS CAN'T BE... That at some point I couldn't be ALL ALONE with Jesus. THERE MUST BE something else. Something was bugging me... At the back of my head, I believe that there must be a religion wherein Christ is present; that it's not true that religion was an obstacle between me and Christ. Religion IS being with Christ. Faith MUST BE manifested through works...
(to be continued)
PHOTO CREDIT:
http://www.dokimos.org/gifts/FaithAlone.gif
from
http://www.dokimos.org/main.html
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