WHY GOD?

Wilhelmina S. Orozco
Why do people worship God? Actually some don't or they just forget to pray and worship God. Others do so very religiously, praying upon waking up, before meals and after, and before retiring at night. All these are done with a sincere heart, most of the time. I am not being skeptical, but I give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Actually, I really like communing with God not only when I have problems but when I have unanswered questions about people, about issues, about problems at home, or even of the country. Like I ask God, "What shall I write about God? How shall I write it?" And with peace and quiet, the answers reveal themselves one by one.

I think some people have forgotten how to pray intimately with God and prefer collective worship. So they go to Church, whether in short shorts or long skirts, then kneel, sing, recite the missal, and do all the rituals inside the Church, even if the next agenda to the service is a litany of expenses and income necessary to run the Church.

No Folks, I am not seeing that as a negative thing -- to think and meet about how to run the Church. But perhaps, such discussions should be done outside of the Church, somewhere where we do not see the altar, where presumably we have just listened to the word of God, have just experienced the aura of holiness surrounding each prayer said.

Maybe I am a conservative when it comes to religion. Actually, I don't really fancy organized religion. So I worship alone. But I do join some collective worshipping now and then. I go by the flow of my spiritual energies because I want to be true to myself.

I have attended masses when I was young when I would smell incense, and the mass said in Latin. That was at the Old Sta. Mesa Church. I really liked going there especially every first Friday when I used to have a novena to the Sacred Heart because I wanted to get an honor in the elementary grades. I did -- salutatorian. Prayers answered.

Now, a day in January is always devoted to the Nazarene, the image of a suffering Christ. Expected to attend could be 10 million devotees, clad or shoeless following the image around Manila and ending at the Quiapo Cathedral. I just passed by today the Quiapo Church and I saw how two videos were screening the mass inside thit. I was rather surprised -- not knowing how I would react.

Should I decry the use of technology, the lack of silence, of holiness in the streets of Quiapo where the sermon of the priest is being blared? Should I cringe at the scenery of a woman reading the fortune of a customer with her tarot cards? Or should I pity the vendors who probably did not have time to go inside, or may be could not squeeze themselves inside the Church and pray to the black Nazarene?

Whatever, I think that the Nazarene parade around Manila is really going haywire already. Shouldn't the Church start rethinking of how the people could be theists, without appearing idolatrous?

The devotees surely are looking for a Christ now, someone who possesses the qualities of Jesus who looked after the welfare of the poor, the miserable, the sickly, the downtrodden of society. A Christ who is sincere in helping and also one who knows how to speak in parables, someone who is intelligent and can deal with and speak the language of the rulers and the ruled, who could rebuke the oppressors without hesitation if need be, yet would secretly hide himself once his security is endangered so that he could continue to share the wisdom of God.

Maybe we need real live Christs, priests and nuns, or even lay people, who speak, behave and act out the ideas of Jesus Christ so that the people would not be looking pathetic, running after a kiss, a touch, a pat of any part of the Nazarene and then leaving with the thought that for a year, they would be blessed and protected from economic and whatever harm could be awaiting them in this world.

Oh, God, let us rethink processions and find new ways of worshipping the ideas of Christ. Don't allow us to wallow in self-pity but rather with great discernment and moral courage, permit us to face the world's challenges. Give us that foresight to see the future and what we should do to reach our dreams -- simple though they may be a three square meals a day, shelter, clothing, education for children, and a peaceful sleep every night. Amen