The news of the new Pope washing the feet of women, that too one being Muslim, as part of the rituals has come as a surprising relief to me. I see this as a sign of more relaxation and inclusion from the other wise tight controlled and exclusion oriented policies of the Church.
It was always a pain to see the gap between the real preaching of Christ and what the Church in his name imposed on the believers all around the world.
Compared to Hinduism at least, Christianity was expected to be more humane and based on human conditions rather than rituals and rites. But then in its drive to conquer lands and people's support, they broke all these and went ahead to just bring people under the umbrella of Christianity. The ripple effect of such practices can be seen even to date with lots of mindless rules that excludes people of certain social strata from the Church's ability to improve standard of life.
There has been lots of efforts from many people and associates of the Church to rectify these. But not so much was forthcoming from the higher echelons of the Church. Now, with the new Pope starting off with simple robes and now breaking liturgical rules to reach out to more people,it seems promising and hopeful that more acts of forgiveness,charity and well being would be carried out by the supreme body of Christianity.
From the time I first laid my eyes and mind on the teachings of Christ and the way priests and nuns like Mother Theresa have laid out their entire lives for the well being of the downtrodden without caring much about the rites and rituals of the Church, I have great hope and respect for Christianity. Nurtured in the right way, its teaching could bring a lot of relief to the pain stricken world.
Amen. Wish you all a wonderful Easter season.
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It was always a pain to see the gap between the real preaching of Christ and what the Church in his name imposed on the believers all around the world.
Compared to Hinduism at least, Christianity was expected to be more humane and based on human conditions rather than rituals and rites. But then in its drive to conquer lands and people's support, they broke all these and went ahead to just bring people under the umbrella of Christianity. The ripple effect of such practices can be seen even to date with lots of mindless rules that excludes people of certain social strata from the Church's ability to improve standard of life.
There has been lots of efforts from many people and associates of the Church to rectify these. But not so much was forthcoming from the higher echelons of the Church. Now, with the new Pope starting off with simple robes and now breaking liturgical rules to reach out to more people,it seems promising and hopeful that more acts of forgiveness,charity and well being would be carried out by the supreme body of Christianity.
From the time I first laid my eyes and mind on the teachings of Christ and the way priests and nuns like Mother Theresa have laid out their entire lives for the well being of the downtrodden without caring much about the rites and rituals of the Church, I have great hope and respect for Christianity. Nurtured in the right way, its teaching could bring a lot of relief to the pain stricken world.
Amen. Wish you all a wonderful Easter season.
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