It is said that Karl Marx when he was eighteen years old, wrote a commentary on the Gospel of St. John. He was then a good catholic, very close to a parish. Little by little, however, he observed that the church, who preaches about equality and justice, do not really in concrete practice these values which are basically human and christian. As you know, he then later concluded that “Religion is an opium of the people” since the religion that he was exposed to in his time and context, did not really solve the problem of labor, of just wage, of in-equality. I would say till now, the church still is on the way in working out to this “perfect society” which purportedly can be attained fully in the next life. Nietze, on the other hand was more frank when he said, “God is dead”
But we do not need to go to Europe. In the middle ninety’s a song came our from a filipino musical band, which became quite famous. Its lyrics was a religious satire: “Santong kabayo, Banal na Aso, natatawa ako, HEHEHE. “Religious fanatics, Spiritualistic devotees, who don’t seem to be religious at all when they are out of the church, are really a laughing stock, a caricature, not a true picture of what true religion is.
What happened to the precept: Love of God and love of neighbor? These are not two but only One! Love of God necessarily connotes and entails love of neighbor! “How could you love God whom you do not see and hate your neighbor whom you see?” St. John asks. Even Jesus tells us: “Whatever you do to the least, you did it to me.” “TO ME!” take note, He did not say FOR ME. Jesus identified Himself with the least – to those who are lower in the social balance – so that equality could be attained. Gandhi once said something like this: “I love Christianity, it is the Christians I do not like.”
When one dichotomizes love of God from love of neighbor, a false religiousity springs. One could remain in the “clouds” even if he/she is inside a church, a mosque, or a temple, and truly with this attitude, religion becomes and “opium” an illusion, not true and authentic. On the other hand when love of neigbor is separated from the love of God, then philanthropy comes in, dole-outs, paternalism which does not really help the neighbor, since he/she is not placed in an equal footing. He/she becomes only a recipient, forever, and if this is the poor, even with good intentions, ultimately the poor will feel insulted because their basic dignity is not fundamentally considered. They will feel always a parasite, a less-human being, while the giver becomes the better one, the privilegedd one, the richer one. The poor will always feel poor and they will never grow because the very action of helping, or “loving” the neighbor does not come from the right fundamental equality. A expert said, “the poor will finally hate the rich” for that.
Love of God and love of neighbor are one precept. Like the tree, the more its roots go deeper, – i.e., the more our love for God grows, the more the branches grow, i.e., the more the love of neibhbor grows, or vice versa. One cannot be truly be done without the other. The more one loves his/her neighbor, the more his/her love for God grows deeper.
Catholic faith teachers that Jesus is true God and true man. The more we see him as a God only, we fly to the illusionary world of an “opium”; but the more we see Him as only a man, our love would only by peripheral, humanistic and materialistic, without the right motivation. It become manipulative and insults his dignity as a person “created under the image and likeness of God”. Jesus is true God and true man. He identified Himself with any man, especially the least. He is that person who always meet in the office, in the streets, in the market, everywhere. “Whatever, you do. . . you do it to me”, He said. The same Jesus in that box called tabenacle where the Holy Eucharist is, is the same Jesus in the heart of the poor! The eucharist should give us strength to love more the poor!
Enough with this practice of false religion. The world, society, politics, economics, need a light in this already dark and sick, fanatical world.
