Sunday, January 08, 2006

What Should We Believe?


What Should We Believe?

McAllen Monitor Newspaper
January 8, 2006

To the editor:

My name is Adam Moya, and I am the one that gave the speech, now deemed "The Second Sermon," during the 6:30 Christmas Eve Mass at Holy Spirit. For the readers just finding out about this — let me catch you up to speed.

My family goes to church every Sunday to hear the same sermon. It always follows three topics: the Eucharist, Mary, and the Knights of Columbus. Quite frankly, I can only see two out of three of those worthy of a sermon. And every Sunday, we hear how the Eucharist is the center of our lives because it is Christ present in front of us. I agree. The Eucharist is one reason I remain Catholic.

However, I have an issue with what I am being asked to believe. We, as a parish, have been asked to believe that the Christ present in the bread and wine upon the altar is more valuable than the Christ found in the heart of a person. I refuse to believe so. Surely this would be sacrilegious to some. To those who would argue with me: What would you have me teach your children?

I have taught every grade from middle school to high school. I have taught students who do not care and students with more faith than I could dream of.

I teach your children. Would you have me tell them to show more respect to the Christ in bread and wine than to the Christ found in living people? I cannot bring myself to believe that God would ever ask us to kneel before an altar before we bent our backs to help a brother.

I see my priest show more respect towards bread and wine than towards my family. That is why I have spoken out. This is not an attack on my priest. This is a question of what we should believe.

God bless.

Adam Moya
McAllen



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2 comments:

Kanickers said...

What should we believe?
Adam, I want to congratulate you for the courage you have shown. I want you to know that even though I am a lot older than you, I have asked myself the same question many times. We should just believe that Jesus came because he wanted to show us the path to his father. Please Adam, if you hear negative opinions for doing this, you should never feel guilty or bad in any way. You did the right thing. If things got out of hand, it was somebody else's responsibility, not yours.
~A Reflections of the Spirit Reader

Kanickers said...

Please add this as a comment to the Jan 8th, 2006 blog "What Should We Believe":

Don't know if you'll (Adam) see this or not, but my prayers are with you, Adam.

You struck me as a young man of faith and conviction, and I'm saddened by the heartache you, your family and your parish are expreiencing.

Many, many prayers for a just and charitable resolution to the conflict in your world.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo (De La Rosa) (the guy that facilitated several retreats at Holy Spirit, which Adam attended and whom Adam subsequently helped as well) :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo
MSN & Yahoo IM: hugodlr
AOL IM: hugodlr001
http://shadowmage001.blogspot.com/