Are you
apprehensive about your physical death or spiritual death? A relevant question
at a time when man can go – and he goes -- to any extent to look after his
physical well being and comfort. “These
days many of us only care about our physical death. It shouldn’t be like that.
You must be more worried about your spiritual death,” says Rev Fr Biju
Kollamkunnel in a measured tone, choosing his words carefully, but hitting
where it matters in his Sunday homily.
While
running after worldly possessions, Christians ignore their spiritual
possessions or chattels. “Many of us conveniently twist or give our own
interpretation to what’s sin and what’s not sin. Some of us even don’t think or
admit that we are fully engrossed in a sinful life,” says Rev Fr Kollamkunnel
who is the vicar of Little Flower Church Nerul, Mumbai.
He was making a blunt reference to the
lack of awareness or sense about sin. “People think that they are not
committing any mistake or sin, but actually that’s not the reality,” he said in
his Sunday homily. “That may be the reason why people don’t go for confession
and then go and take the Holy Eucharist on Sundays. They believe they have not
sinned and don’t go for confession,” says Rev Fr Kollamkunnel who belongs to
the Eparchy of Kalyan, one
of the Syro-Malabar Catholic dioceses based in India
“Once I went
to see an old woman who is bed-ridden. When I asked the old lady about
confession, she replied ‘why do I need confession…. I don’t even get up from
the bed,” he said. “What all this old woman do or say from the bed… maybe she
doesn’t know what’s a sin.”
Pope John
Paul II had studied the situation and maintained that modern society has indeed
lost its “sense of sin” for which he largely blamed secularism. “I believe that
secular psychology has also had a particularly important role in diminishing
the sense of sin. Indeed, John Paul himself identified secular psychology among
other human sciences as contributing to this loss,” wrote Andrew Sodergren who
has a doctoral degree from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences.
However, a Christian losing his sense
of sin is something grave and profound. This has nothing much to do with
secularism in the modern world. We (faithful) have started deciding what’s
“good and bad” or what’s “right or wrong”. The attitude of many faithful is
“let the church says whatever it wants” and “I will decide what’s right or
wrong”. At this stage, one person undergoes his spiritual death.
There’s no wonder some Christians have
started supporting abortion and gay marriages.
He also took
a dig at the flippant attitude of some of the Christians while taking the Holy
Communion. “They come casually with kerchief, mobile and other paraphernalia in
their hands and take the Holy Communion with least respect. Are they ignoramus
about the Eucharist? What’s Eucharist,” he asks.
This
situation arises when one loses his sense of sin. I won’t be surprised if his
blood doesn’t boil when he sees this kind of lackadaisical attitude of baptized
Christians.
The bottom
line is: don’t be too much worried about your physical health. It’s not that
one should ignore his physical well-being. What matters is spiritual health.
Are you getting enough spiritual food or nourishment? We must remember that our
spiritual body is for eternity and we have to be on the right side of God the
Father.
In his
homily, he also drew references to the Bible story of the Tower Siloam
Our
life in this world will be over in no time – our lifespan is no more than 90 or
95 years. After that, we all will have to go back to our Creator. But this will
hinge on spiritual health, not physical health. Don’t give new interpretation
and definition for sin… but nourish your spiritual well-being.
