How serious are Christians in their faith? Many of the Christians -- Catholics included -- are not taking their faith seriously. I would rather say many of us are also-ran and behave like mummies in a museum. We are not seeking Jesus Our Lord; He is not considered as our Saviour and Redeemer.
For
many of us Christians, Church is some kind of a club to climb the social ladder
or get business deals. Many of us treat Church as a place to be seen and manage
things. And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes
shape: “the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all
appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and
degenerating into small-mindedness”.
As Evangelii Gaudium says, a “tomb psychology” thus develops and slowly transforms
Christians into mummies in a museum. Disillusioned with reality, with the
Church and with themselves, they experience a constant temptation to cling to a
faint melancholy, lacking in hope, which seizes the heart like “the most
precious of the devil’s potions”.
Called to radiate light and communicate
life, in the end they are caught up in things that generate only darkness and
inner weariness, and slowly consume all zeal for the apostolate.
Most of us are like the crowd that followed
Jesus when he went to the house of Jairus to see his sick daughter. (Please
read Mark 5:21-43). A big crowd was
milling around Jesus. They didn’t know know who Jesus really is. They just
followed him and saw His miracles. “Many of us are like the crowd that followed
Jesus. We don’t know him. We go for Holy Mass and sit in the church as if some
drama or cinema is going on there,” says Rev Fr Biju Kollamkunnel.This mentality was displayed by the crowd around Jesus who was on the way to Jairus’ house.
That said, there are some people who have deep faith and belief in Jesus like that woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering,” Bible says.
The small group of people like the sick woman seeks Jesus and trust in Him. And miracles happen in their life. This small group gets healed.
Mark 5:35 says, “while Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” The people who said this don’t know Jesus. They didn’t know He was the son of God. If they had known that they wouldn’t have said this.
The Bible continues, “He went in and said to them, ’Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.’ But they laughed at him.” The Bible says “they laughed at him”. They thought Jesus arrived late and the daughter of Jairus has already died. So what can Jesus do now? The crowd underestimated Jesus. Later we read that Jesus brought her back to life.
Yes, we are also part of this crowd. We don’t know Jesus. We also behave like the way this crowd behaved. We attend the Holy Mass or praise and worship without knowing Him. We sit in the Church or prayer hall as if we are in a cinema hall or a theatre. And then, we call ourselves Christians.
