Being Catholic and Open Religious?

December 1, 2023 Open Religion No Comments

The question is relevant to any faith or denomination. Does Openness (to one’s deeper self) open faith or preclude it?

Feeling Catholic

It may be better to think about feeling than being. What else to do if you think you’re Catholic, but you don’t feel like it?

On the other hand, if you profoundly feel Catholic, then what does it really serve to if you or anybody else thinks you aren’t? Does it serve to anything related to religion in a worthwhile sense?

Whether you do or do not feel Catholic, you might contemplate a bit about such questions. The answers – or even more, the contemplation itself – may teach you some interesting things about yourself.

As a choice, from the inside out

Of course, this is not about a surface-level choice — like “Shall I eat one or two slices of bread?”

The choosing is particular in this. It has a flavor of being chosen — of surpassing oneself, of leaving oneself behind, and, at the same time, encountering oneself from the other side,

One gets the choice as a total person. To me, that also goes to the core of any religion.

I’m writing this inside Antwerp cathedral, really, with a view on this:

By P.P. Rubens, of course. If this has no chance to reach your heart, then I don’t know you.

It doesn’t necessarily reach mine, though. I have to open myself. If I Open myself, then I also see the human drama that has no end. Therefore, it lingers on. Jesus has and is still sacrificing his life as a total person — his choice entirely. His mother has been and is still weeping over it..

Feeling Catholic?

In a sense, I am now. In another sense, I’m not. Even this is more complex than any simple answer can accommodate.

So, AM I partly Catholic now?

Please let me know.

To me, it depends on human depth.

Entirely.

Therefore, is there actually any religion that is not profoundly Open? Is anything else – in the religious domain – not self-contradictory?

Can one be Catholic without Openness?

Another view from where I’m sitting and writing — Christmas pending.

You may also discern Jesus again somewhere, going up this time:

I love this cathedral.

Yet, I don’t ‘believe’ in the material reality of any of the stories. I’m a blatant atheist in that sense. Did Rubens believe in any of the material stories while painting? At least, he felt them. Did he believe in the concrete crucifixion of this man Jesus? At least, he felt it.

Being Catholic (or of any other faith) is also about the stories themselves.

No doubt about that — presently. Yet, it’s not necessarily the end of this story. All faiths will have to accommodate a future global understanding that in any human endeavor, surface and depth are different things. This issue has already been relevant for a long time. It will become more ubiquitous and insurmountable.

It would be a pity to lose the deep stuff.

I think the only way to prevent this is to Open up anything and anyone involved. This doesn’t mean becoming non-Catholic. Nevertheless, a fundamental change is due.

Open Religion is compatible with profoundly feeling Catholic for just a while or for a long time. The combination is much preferable to losing the faith.

Thus, I long for a future in which people can remain Catholic and become Open Religious.