profile

Cecilia Lanny Winata
Aliases: Lanny/Cecilia/Xenopus
Location: Singapore
Occupation: Grad Student, National University of Singapore
Interests: Zen, Martial Arts, Japanese Culture and philosophy, Life Sciences, Religious philosophy, Christianity
Hobbies: exploring new places, learning new things, walking (preferably outdoors), cooking, eating good food, home making, swimming, sea sports, anime (Naruto being the best by far), good music to accompany my different moods, and good books to read
Schools/Past Affiliations: TK Bunda Hati Kudus, Jakarta (Kindergarten); SD Bintang Kejora, Jakarta (Primary 1-2, 4-6); Ironside State School, Brisbane, Australia (Primary 3-4); SLTP Santa Ursula, Jakarta (Secondary School); SMU Santa Ursula (High School); Indonesia International Taekwon-Do Federation (Jelambar, Jakarta); National University of Singapore



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affiliates

5h4d0w's Lair
My old Friendster blog








credits

skin by: Jane
Sunday, October 12, 2008 @ 11:42 PM
Something that sounds like... ME

Currently, I have no inspiration for writing my thesis.
I feel guilty for staring blankly at my notebook screen for sometime, so I thought maybe i can get some work done here.

I also wanted to say that I really dislike my previous post. Why? Coz it sounds pathetic. I know I couldn't really change the way most people think or behave. And yet, I still like to poke fun at them, especially my fellow Catholics!



Father RA's talk last friday was a reassuring one. It was about true biblical faith which stems from knowledge. How can we believe in what we do not know? If a Christian says he/she believes that Jesus had saved them, can they really provide a convincing evidence?

Believing in something you don't really understand sounds rather childish to me. If I were to tell someone that I am actually an alien princess sent from another galaxy to destroy earth, I don't really know what to call him/her if he/she really accepted what I said without proof. Same goes for our faith. We know and understand something to be true, therefore we believe in it. Not the other way around.

A certain religious figure which I adored (among the very few), once asked a group of us, "What is faith? What do you believe in?". After several attempts to describe what the Catholic faith is, she said again, "That is the church's belief. What is your faith?". After a long silence, she explained, "since we are Christians, we believe in (the teachings of - ed.) one central figure, Jesus", to which we all nodded in agreement. And then she asked again, "do you know Jesus? if not, how can you believe in Him?".

And how do we know Jesus? Without doubt, through studying the compilations of testimonials about Him and His teachings - which we affectionately called the Bible.

Somehow, I felt that today's Catholics are more concerned about rules and regulations of the church. They spend their time to argue about church rules; whether contraception is against the church, whether women can be priest, how to run a mass, who can accept holy communion, if you wear this talisman thingy you can definitely go to heaven, if you pray this novena 13 times in a row you can save people from hell, etc. Many Catholics today know how to recite the CCC out of their heads and know all the details about the teachings of the church. But I do wonder if they really care about Jesus. Whether they really love Jesus.

And all these inspirational stories about people who got sick, then prayed to God, and got healed. What do they tell? Jesus's mission on earth 2000 years ago was not to be Santa Claus who gives out what people ask of Him. His purpose was not to come down here to heal people or even save everyone for free. Instead, I believe that it is to teach humans about themselves. About how they are loved by their creator, and how they should live as a result. About the way that leads to eternal peace. I think many people missed this point.

Before I start to sound like some revolutionary anti-religious person who is ready to set up a heretic movement of her own, I guess I must get back to my thesis writing.


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