|
|
Which feels right?
Did God create us with a debt to pay back or did he create us with the freedom to love?
You could say that the greatest commandments are like a hook to hang your coat on, without the hook the coat falls on the floor. When anything hangs it means it is being supported by something, it depends on something else to hold it up.
Therefore everything in the Christian faith hangs on is the two greatest commandments
Religion has the use of many tools; there is doctrine, authority, spreading the gospels and sharing communion. These religious tools have a purpose, and that is to encourage people to journey towards greater relationships through the greatest commandments.
BELIEFS.
When two sincere people argue over their beliefs, they both see themselves as being right. By its very nature religion must inspire millions or possibly even billions of sincere people to hold firm and conflicting beliefs.
If we could look at the religions of the world through the eyes of God the father or God the mother could it be that God would see us as children arguing and fighting over whose beliefs are right.
Believing in Christ has inspired people to make great sacrifices to help others, build communities, and work for peace.
These same beliefs in Christ have also inspired people to kill, to extort money, and make people live in fear.
The teachings of Christ have not changed, so it seems that we use our beliefs as a means to achieve many separate purposes.
The way we believe is one thing, but it is what we are prepared to do with these beliefs that matters more.
What kind of an emotional burden do we place on God the parent because we are separated against his will?
FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST.
We have interfaith agendas that are written to encourage dialogue, there are agendas that try and bring people together based on a certain doctrine, there are interfaith statements that try and encourage people to do and share projects together.
An interfaith statement is needed that has a very clear purpose; it must be self-motivating and have the power to drive the religions of the world towards one true goal.
To bring different religions together we have to be very careful in how we choose our words. We can say that we all believe in a God but that is vague and has no real meaning. This statement would be perceived as trying to unite us by settling for a lowest common theological denominator. We can change the words believe in God to LOVE GOD - this is not a lowest common theological denominator because in the words of Christ it is the greatest commandment.
When the two greatest commandments are together they are complete, because nothing can be added to them or subtracted from them to make them greater. Christ did not say that there is a third, fourth, and fifth greatest commandment.
If we are to search for an ultimate union between the faiths where I live, we need an agenda that will make this happen. This is the agenda.
1 HOW CAN WE ALL LOVE GOD THE CREATOR ABOVE ALL ELSE, UNCONDITIONALLY?
2 HOW CAN WE LOVE ALL OUR NEIGHBOURS AS WE LOVE OURSELVES, UNCONDITIONALLY?
Christ said these are the greatest commandments. The language used in the greatest commandments is the ultimate expression of love between God and humanity, and their purpose is so that we may journey towards a relationship with God and all people unconditionally.
Do we as Christians have the courage to put ONLY these two commandments down as an agenda to bring us together?
The greatest relationship we can have is to relate to others through both commandments. However there will always be people who do not believe in a God, or if they do, they can believe in very different ways.
If others do not believe in loving God, then we must not put pressure them to love God as we do, because this will mean that any relationship we seek will be conditional on them loving God also.
Most cultures have a golden rule that relates very closely to the second commandment; atheists can also relate to this as being a truthful purpose. The second commandment is what I should do, this is regardless of what anyone else may, or may not believe or do.
We cannot always choose our neighbours, so this next part is hard because it should relate to the community that I live in. We willingly choose to be Christian, we willingly choose the kind of Christian that we need and want to be. There are children of God in the district that I live in who willingly need and want to be Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and atheist.
God created them with the freedom to have these beliefs. If we seek to change them then we are not fulfilling our first priority. We do not need to agree with them, but we must find ways to love them as we love ourselves. This means that we should find ways to love them as they are, and willingly give them the freedom to be a Muslim or a Hindu, a Jew or an atheist
If Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. can all sit in the same room and discuss how we can support the youth, the elderly, the sick and the disadvantaged people in our community, then the world as a whole can make real progress. The aim should be to do this willingly and voluntary, it should not be seen as a business style arrangement where we keep accounts of who does what.
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
Eric Hyom
This user has not written anything in his panorama profile yet.
|
Comments
Is Freedom of Belief Orthodox? Jean Jaindl | Apr 6th, 2004
Though I am only on p. 16, this article is, on the whole, pretty logically layed out. However, I have detected some modernist tendencies (as condemned in Pius X's encyclical Pascendi), which I would like to question. God the mother? Really, this is quite unorthodox. Also, I cannot see how you or any other Catholic can say that we should not try to convert Musilims, Hindus, atheists, etc. to the one, true faith. Certainly God created us with the freedom to believe whatever we want to believe and to do whatever we want to do. Does that mean we have a right to do so in either case? Is it not owed to God that we serve Him in the way He has planned, and to attain to Heaven and the fullness of His love through the Church which He established? If it is owed to God to be loved, honored and obeyed by individuals, how much more so must He be obeyed by society, which is made up of these individuals? It is only through conversion to the truth that there is one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church that we will achieve the social reign of Christ the King. This is very well outlined in The Social Reign of Christ the King by Fr. Fahey
-JJ
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
