When people start liking my profile picture on Facebook,

They're all like, "Aw Sammeh, you're so preeetty..."

And I'm just sitting here like,

"Well, thanks for noticing, but have I not always looked this way awesome?"

Given.

Isn't it odd how sometimes the most profound moments of life come by when we least expect it?

Tonight was one of those profound moments.

Never has it occurred to my mind that I might one day face having to forgive my sister for destroying something I cherished so close to my heart. But tonight, the first night of the new year according to the lunar calendar coincidentally, I was.

My sister and I are living reflections of each other and worlds apart. We follow the same code of moral conduct, we share the same distaste for Lady Gaga the Illuminati queen, we are both weight-obsessed chocolate gluttons. But she does not feel the way I do or express herself the way I would. Where I would toss her stuff all over the floor, lock the doors to the room and curse her with my thoughts, she would instinctively steal and vandalize my property - and in the heat of her fury, that which I prized the most.

Do you think I was mad at her? I suppose it might reflect better on my self control if I admitted I hadn't been, but then I'd be lying. Even Scripture tells us Jesus got flaming pissed at times. And at that moment I was, enough to think of her most precious possession I could take the scissors to in turn
You can call me a coward for not finding it in myself to pay her back in kind. You're probably right. I never have had the guts to give others what they rightly deserve in the eyes of the world. I am a weakling, you see, content to accept everything as it is even if it might screw me over.

But at that moment, I guess I also found ourt that that which I truly gave a damn about not my sister or anyone else could have taken from me. For the treasure with which my heart lies does not belong to this world.

Thus armed with the revelation, I unlocked the doors, composed myself, prepared my one-hour speech and marched down the stairs to announce her undeserved pardon that was within my royal power to bestow.

You may think even less of me, for none of that came out. I could barely whisper that I forgave her. But that carefully worded speech was never even needed - not that the cowardly me would have been able to say it anyway.

My sister never apologizes to anyone, if my memory serves me right. Not honestly, not to me, not even to my mother in tears. And my sister never cries. We have grown too strong, too cold, too bitter to reveal our tears to others.
But most unexpectedly, not tonight.

I am always proud of her, but tonight I am even prouder. I have never considered her any less than me. Now I have reason to hope she might believe that. I did not deign to forgive her because it put me above her to do so. I did it because I'd have hated to reveal her in such a light to my parents, because she was sorry, because I know it would suck to he locked out of the room again, because she's my sister, because I love her.

And also because I'm actually grateful to her for teaching me something tonight.

My softhearted sobs have been reduced back to my flu-induced sniffs, but I don't think I am much bothered. I will sleep well in my own bed tonight and so will my sister.

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Jesus vs. Religion

In my humble opinion, I disagree.

In the opening line, he immediately claims that Jesus came to abolish religion. He provides some explanation to sustain that point (to which I will refer later on), but as far as I can tell, he can't verify it. Firstly, if Jesus came to utterly destroy religion, why does He show, from the day of his birth to his death, an utmost reverence for the Law of Moses and ancient customs of Judaism? Why didn't he put an end to the establishment of the Sanhedrin - if he and his disciples didn't throw flaming torches at the synagogue, they could've at least taught their followers how to bulldoze the concept of religion. But no, 2000 years on we're still stuck with it.

By the way, the last time I checked, Jesus came to save the world from sin and lead whosoever believeth to Him eternal salvation. (John 3:16)

Yes, religion was created by man in an attempt to search for God. But that's the point, isn't it? Man is not perfect. Man makes mistakes, and very grievous mistakes they are too. It is our own human imperfections, what we believe is the quest of godly righteousness that leads mankind into wars and colonialism and torture and abuse. Religion, being conceived by the human mind, can never be perfect. Yes, various religious institutions try to mask their problems, many religious people are hypocritical and there are a lot of things people could do better. But please, for a moment, take your mind of the flaws that could be mended if man wasn't so proud and foolish.

If it is true that religion is man searching for God, then religion is necessary for he who claims to love God. You can't just have what you call Christianity - God searching for man and running after us when...what are we doing again? Busy watching porn? If it's true that we love Jesus, can we hope to sustain a relationship of mutual trust and affection when we can't be bothered to search for God? Can we even call that love?

The point of religion is behaviour modification. The point of religion is for people to be able to change their lives in an attempt to get to God as much as we can. Religion doesn't make us perfect, its rules are there to discipline us in order for us to stay focused on our quest for God instead of thinking about getting laid every weekend. Sure Jesus condemned the Pharisees for "just following some rules" because they did not appreciate the value these rules held in bringing them to God. They, like us at points in our lives, only went to church or a Planetshakers concert because all our friends were there and it was cool. But Jesus himself was circumcised according to the Law, celebrated the Passover and in many instances quoted the religious Scripture. He followed rules of fasting where I'm sure He wanted to eat - because if Jesus didn't enjoy eating, I'm sure He wouldn't have given the 5,000 men so much fish and bread to stuff their stomachs that they even had leftovers. The son of God himself submitted to earthly regulations, are we so grand to think that we have no need for the law?

Religion does not make us slaves, at least not where Christianity is concerned as far as I know. Christianity makes us servants to one another despite being sons and daughters of God. It teaches us to be humble, to put others made in the likeness of God before us as we would put our Lord before us. It only makes us slaves if we choose to see our servitude as a form of slavery and we cannot comprehend the commandment to love one another as Christ loves us.

Yes, we are saved because of Jesus' obedience and not our merits. But does that mean we can get high and waste our lives just because salvation depends not on what we do? Faith without actions is dead. And according to the much-loved man named Jesus, to truly be saved and inherit eternal life, one must keep the commandments. (Matthew 19:16-19, Mark 10:17-21 and Luke 18:18-23, to cite a few of passages.)

Again in my humble opinion, religion acts to complement to human-God relationship, even if it isn't always sucessful. Without religion, there would be no religious teachings, no holy books, no unity of a single cause that could (and I only mean could) result in peace by a majority of global population because they hold fast to the same beliefs. It's odd how he says he "loves the church" and "loves the Bible" but overlooks that without the Catholic faith there would be neither.

In any case, Christianity is technically a religion. The Church is a religious institution. The Bible is a religious book. Religion, defined word by word, is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Assuming you believe in Jesus as both a divine and human being and your personal Lord and Saviour, I can safely say that you have a religion.

So.

Cheers.

Hello, 2012. If there's anything I must ask of you this year, it would be a beer. Maybe a few beers. And good wine.

My beer cravings are getting ahead of my legal permission to buy a beer which does not arrive for the next eight months - and yes, it is horribly upsetting when you've been craving a beer for the last two weeks.

Red wine is a sacrament. The French Benedictine friars gave us champagne. Chartreuse is still made by the Carthusian monks. Jägermeister is under the patronage of Saint Hubertus and Saint Eustace. Buckfast Tonic Wine – known affectionately as ‘Wreck the Hoose Juice’ in Scotland – was made by Benedictines. Frangelico was originally created by a hermit and is shaped like a Franciscan. Good beer was brewed almost exclusively by monasteries up until the twelfth century. You’ve got the Crusades to thank for the fact that we aren’t under Islamic Prohibition. And Catholics were a great source of alcohol during the American Prohibition – we were allowed to keep our vineyards running for communion wine. Catholics bootleged like nobody’s business. (It was the general outrage of the Irish Catholics – who must have thought the Apocalypse upon them – that helped end Prohibition.) We have beer blessings. Catholic teaching has only ever asserted the goodness of the grape and the grain. As Hillare Belloc versed: 

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!” 

The Latin – and I have this on the strictest authority – means ‘”bottoms up!”

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2011/11/5-things-no-one-knows-are-ridiculously-catholic-but-should.html (God bless the typing fingers and soul that pours forth from this man. You have totally just justified my life.)


In view of that, as a Catholic I have every right to demand beer. My very request is blessed.