Faith
“Chris is in one of those phases in his faith journey where he has a lot of questions.” [Chris’s mother]
There is nothing wrong with having questions. It is in questioning things that we learn. I do believe, however, if one questions something, then one has an obligation to seek answers. Otherwise it is easy to just reject whatever caused the questions and remain ignorant.
None of us was born with a full knowledge and understanding of our faith. I went to public schools and went to religious education classes on Saturday mornings. I actually had a fair understanding of my faith when I was confirmed. However, it was not an adult understanding.
I went to a Jesuit University. All Catholic students had to take twelve units of theology. I learned nothing.
Years later I started teaching eighth grade religious education at St. Anthony’s. I still did not know much more than I knew when I was confirmed when I was in eighth grade.
That changed because of one person.
Ellen and I were at a weekend get-together with some friends of hers from college and their families. This was an annual affair that had been going on for close to twenty years. However, Ellen and I had only started attending the year before. Another woman, who had lost touch with her college classmates, was there for the first time. She had been Catholic but had left the Church years before. Her husband was also there. He was a born-again Christian and member of an Open Door Christian church in Sacramento.
We shared morning meals and evening meals with the others. On Saturday night, after dinner and while the dishes were being washed, the woman’s husband came up to me and started asking questions about what Catholics believe. At the time, I was teaching eighth grade faith formation at my parish. I answered his questions. As he went on his questions turned into arguments against Catholic beliefs. He started raising issues such as Petros vs. Petra and Sola Scriptura along with quotes from the Bible. I had to admit I did not have answers to all of his questions and challenges.
Over the course of the next year I read numerous books on the Catholic faith. I wanted to be prepared for my meeting with this man the next year. When the weekend for the get-together finally arrived, I packed my Bible along with several select books on the Catholic faith so I would be ready for anything he threw at me. I was prepared for all eventualities but one.
I have not seen him since that first time. At the time I felt cheated. I had taken all that time to prepare to wage battle with this guy and he did not show up. Then I realized how fortunate I was that God placed this man in my life when He did. I do not think I would ever have spent so much time studying my faith if he had not been there to challenge me that one Saturday night.
Learning does not end with school.
Learning
I also learned in college that not everything taught in college is good.
In 1941, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote:
On the one hand, secular college and university education teaches in one form or another that there is no such thing as evil or guilt, that there are no absolute standards of right and wrong, that right and wrong depend entirely upon one’s point of view. (War and Peace: A Sheen Anthology)
My Catholic college only had one course of study requirement for all students, twelve units of philosophy of which three units had to be ethics.
The man who taught my ethics course used his own book for the class, Situational Ethics. Per his book, there are no absolute standards of right or wrong. The rightness or wrongness of anything depends on the circumstances.
I do not recall what grade I got in the class. I did not fail. I’m sure, however, my teacher did not like what I wrote in my final paper.
The day before my ethics final, which was a paper to be turned in on a topic I don’t recall, my daughter Adrienne was born. She was born in San Francisco late in the evening. I had not written my paper before having to take Ellen to the hospital. I arranged to stay at my uncle’s house in San Francisco rather than drive all the way back to Novato. After sharing a Guinness Stout with my uncle in honor of the birth of my first born, I stayed up to write my paper.
I don’t remember what I wrote exactly but I know I started with something like this, “Tonight I have been thinking a lot about right and wrong. My daughter, my first born, was born tonight. I believe some things are always right and some things are always wrong. The circumstances have nothing to do with it.”
That was fifty years ago. What Fulton Sheen wrote eighty years ago had spread to religious colleges and universities only thirty years later. Today, situational ethics is probably the prevailing attitude of the vast majority of people. Without a definite standard of right and wrong anything goes. Morality is defined by me. I become the center of my life and my life choices. In effect, I deny the existence of God.
In college you will face many circumstances and opinions that are contrary to what you have been taught by your parents and your church. This is where Psalm 32:8 is good to reflect back on. How you discern right from wrong will greatly determine the life you will live. It is by God’s grace that we are able to make good decisions.
I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. (Psalm 32:8)
Greg Gillen
7/14/2023
Edited 5/12/2024
© 2024 Greg Gillen
Image Credit/Sereno del Mar, CA/Greg Gillen
Quote Credit/Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei
