The Integration of Faith and Life August 13, 2008
Posted by Stewart in All posts.Tags: faith, integrity, life
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What we believe we must seek to integrate into our daily lives, so that our beliefs are reflected in our behaviour and conduct. It is the integration of our innermost intentions and principles with our outward actions and responses – the crux of integrity. This is reflected in the Christian Writings which remark, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:20) The meaning behind this phrase suggests that unless our principles are reflected in our actions then they are not principles that we hold or maintain.
In his editorial, Political Debate between Catholic Christians , Deacon Keith Fournier directs this notion of integrity towards Christians, writing that:
“We are called to manifest the continued presence of the Risen Lord in every age. He, in His Sacred humanity, showed us how to live. I could go on at length on the implications of this, but the point is that no matter what arena we find ourselves in, including political debate, we do not take off our Catholic Christian faith as though it is a cloak we wear only at Mass.”
Fournier emphasizes an important point. If we are to be truly faithful, indeed to maintain integrity, we cannot choose when we wish to present Christian principles, and neither can we merely reserve these principles in a single sphere, but rather, they must permeate throughout our lives. The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes notes that “This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.” In other words, as Fournier notes, we cannot merely wear Christianity as a badge or a cloak worn only at Mass. There is a reason why Mass ends with the words, “Let us go forth to love and serve Lord.” The implication here is of course that “the Mass never ends” and that we must “go forth” to the world and live these principles.
The risk of merely reserving our principles to a single sphere or aspect of life, such as religion, is that we may engage in what theologian Dallas Willard calls “consumer Christianity”, which is quite simply consuming the merits and principles of Christ without their integration into our daily lives. God did not enter into the world merely to shake our faith, but also, to shake the foundation of our very lives. He came not so that we may just have a renewed faith, but that we “may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
On a personal note, I admit that I struggle with integrity. Quite often my outward actions do not correspond to the principles I claim to uphold, and in that way, I feel like a fraud. If I were to appear saintly in the eyes of humans, that does not mean that I am saintly before God. For only He can judge the content of my heart and weigh it with accuracy. I pray for the integrity to have my inner principles correspond with my outward actions.
May 21, 2008
Posted by Stewart in All posts.Tags: culture, life, love, relationships, sex, values
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I attended an interesting seminar today run by Valeus4Life – a youth-specific program run by Concern Australia, an organization that seeks to “proclaim the transformational message of Christ’s love, justice and mercy in culturally appropriate ways, demonstrated through advocacy and compassion for those in physical, relational and spiritual need.” (From Concern Australia’s Website)
The seminar, titled “Love, sex and relationships” highly engaged my interest and sought to break through the facade of superficial perceptions of human persons based on unrealistic body image. By that I mean, it sought to encourage individuals to look deeper when they see someone rather than to view them in merely a sexual way as objects of sexuality, but instead to see them as real human persons, where sexuality is only one aspect. This is an important lesson, I feel, to learn that people are more than what they appear and that their beauty runs deeper than one can contemplate from the outset. What did I learn? Exactly that. To view people as people, and not merely sexual objects.
May 20, 2008
Posted by Stewart in All posts.Tags: life
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“You never know what lies around the corner and that’s what makes it brilliant. … You gotta look for the simple things in life that make life great.” Thanks Ash. “You’re not perfect. You’re human. … What’s the point of living if you’re just going to do everything perfectly. There’s not life in that.” Words of wisdom from Ashleigh, to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness March 14, 2008
Posted by Stewart in All posts.Tags: happiness, liberty, life
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If we truly believe that all persons are entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” then that principle must apply to all persons, at all stages of their development, from conception to death.
In the below text, US Congressman Ron Paul, outlines a libertarian perspective on the issue, offering a valuable insight, linking life and liberty and calling for the prevention of tyranny:
“Libertarians believe, along with the Founding Fathers, that every individual has inalienable rights, among which are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Neither the State, nor any other person, can violate those rights without committing an injustice. But, just as important as the power claimed by the State to decide what rights we have, is the power to decide which of us has rights.
Today, we are seeing a piecemeal destruction of individual freedom. And in abortion, the statists have found a most effective method of obliterating freedom: obliterating the individual. Abortion on demand is the ultimate State tyranny; the State simply declares that certain classes of human beings are not persons, and therefore not entitled to the protection of the law. The State protects the “right” of some people to kill others, just as the courts protected the “property rights” of slave masters in their slaves. Moreover, by this method the State achieves a goal common to all totalitarian regimes: it sets us against each other, so that our energies are spent in the struggle between State-created classes, rather than in freeing all individuals from the State. Unlike Nazi Germany, which forcibly sent millions to the gas chambers (as well as forcing abortion and sterilization upon many more), the new regime has enlisted the assistance of millions of people to act as its agents in carrying out a program of mass murder.
. . .We must promote a consistent vision of liberty because freedom is whole and cannot be alienated, although it can be abridged by the unjust action of the State or those who are powerful enough to obtain their own demands. Our lives, also, are a whole from the beginning at fertilization until death. To deny any part of liberty, or to deny liberty to any particular class of individuals, diminishes the freedom of all. For libertarians to support such an abridgement of the right to live free is unconscionable.” – Ron Paul
Carpe diem October 24, 2007
Posted by Stewart in All posts.Tags: education, graduation, life
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You can not always be torn in two, clinging to the ‘was’ or ‘has been’, the past. You must live for the now and seize the day, making the most of it before it too passes into past as the sun sets.
I was honoured to be one of the few Year 11 students able to attend the Year 12 Graduation ceremony, and from the speeches presented there, departing words of wisdom, that is what I gathered. Particularly, I think of one teacher’s speech which involved the writing a particular student who has struggled with two aggressive forms of cancer. She spoke of how the experience made her realize how precious life is and how precious each moment and each experience is that one should not take it for granted, but rather, make the most of it. So true it seems, life is precious gift. We learn through experience, through hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, doing. So in actuality, each moment is a learning experience. As the Latin saying imparts, We learn not for school, but for life.
Hearing these wonderful things made me feel so honoured and fortunate to have not only an education, but a sense of community. And this experience, I cherish, as I realize how this community has shaped me and my understanding of the world and how it has given me a priceless sense of worth, belonging, identity and future.
Only in retrospective do I see it now, how great the experience of school has been, not just education, but community, and I am so thankful for it. I have one more year of my secondary education. One more year that I am thankful for and that I hope I can make the most of. Life is precious, each day is a blessing.
