A Dose of Reality

Sometimes, I want to give this trashy blog a dose of social relevance instead of being a wastebin of my so-called life, even being outdated by my trashy consistency about things. I just can't seem to get a grip of myself, sometimes.

So for a change, I would like to talk about some important stuff that I have observed lately and would like to rant about. Okay, this would still be a rant, I am warning you now, dear reader, but would be about some of the more relevant things.

Yesterday, I went to mass with my high school friends. Yes, I went to mass, after about a month of being a non-practicing Catholic girl. Maybe it is my sociologically open mind that had obstructed my once-sponge-like mind about my religion's teachings, but I am not really sorry or anything about it. I would like to think that ever since I had been awakened to Louis Althusser's concept of the Ideological State Apparatus (or ISA), I cannot look at the belief system I grew up with the same way again.

Okay, so the Gospel was about the Great Commandment, which is, as I have learned from my Catholic school background is "Love God above all and love your neighbors as you love yourself." So okay, I accept that. But the sermon that followed really agitated me that I needed to rant about it to someone while it is ongoing. Okay, Father was talking about charity, dignity, and graciousness. But the sermon was inconsistent and contradictory. Okay, so we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And dear Father went on talking about how "undignified" sidewalk vendors are, taking government-owned spots on the highways, annoying the passerbys, driving the visitors (meaning tourists, or if I knew better, foreign or wealthy ones) away. Come on, as we must love our neighbor as we love yourself, you do not tell people that they are undignified unless you can give an alternative way of giving them dignity. It's not like those "undignified" people has enough capital to afford a legal stand or something. If they have to be displaced, give them alternatives. Or better yet, give them formal jobs. If you can love them, Father, as much as you love yourself, you must not go talking about how "undignified" they are. Instead, go figure how they can be helped. Charity, as has been mentioned by dear Father, enters here. Well, I have grown in a Catholic school where charity is highly valued, as it is the highest form of love. But hey, Father, was telling us that those beggars should not accept money or any form of assistance in the context that they should be nationalistic. Not to be self-sustaining, but to be nationalistic! Come on, I could have believed and agreed with him that the beggars should not depend on the help that they can derive from people as they pass by if he said that they need to work hard and all that, but to be nationalistic? When our own State is weak and cannot provide for the needs of its citizens? It is hard to be nationalistic when your own State is foreign-oriented, you know. And see, as Father has mentioned, those "undignified" people are scaring "visitors" away. And as I have defined if I knew better, those visitors could very well be foreigners and/or wealthy tourists, giving the economy a lift with their money. Okay, capitalism on the roll. Charity in the context of capitalism.

I was just so annoyed with the sermon that I think my rant above is incoherent itself, but hey, I am very much agitated now, just remembering what I heard yesterday. It saddens me that a lot of Catholics don't see this leanings of our leaders. And I don't want to blame the Scriptures because it is the interpretations which cause the actual rifts and departures. But really, if more of the Church leaders look at the social situation now the same way, I am very much thankful to Louis Althusser for his utter brilliance.


PS. It has never been my habit to proofread my entries, so please forgive my incoherence, grammatical errors, and redundancy.