a serving of theology

Last Saturday night while having after-concert drinks with my friends, the most unlikely topic came up -- religion. I am a Catholic with rather liberal views and I feel that my faith is more or less whole and unquestionable. I know what I know and I believe what I believe. I read the Picture Bible as a child (my first and only foray into "graphic novels") and I have learned the "Scriptures" based on this. It may seem funny but it's substantial to me and my Bible knowledge has not steered me wrong thus far.

However, talking to my friend or rather listening to him talk about the fundamentals of religion, various schools of thought, the history of Jesuits and even Opus Dei history I can't help but feel a certain loss for not having known such things. It was honestly the first time I felt bad at not having any Theology classes. Theology. I don't believe I have ever used that word. There was no need to. There was religion and faith and belief and the Gospel and Jesus and His Passion but not a study of it. All of a sudden I realized that I could use a little bit of Theology myself if only to back up my faith to have a keener understanding of what it is I am standing for.

My friend said that we are meant to suffer on this Earth as Jesus did and I argued that didn't Jesus suffer so that we don't have to? But in the end, how could I have argued when I was given a serving of Theology, and I must admit that my Picture Bible knowledge could not come in to use that night. Another friend said that the Bible was ambiguous and that this was used to serve various schools of thought which was argued against by another friend that the New Testament shed new light to the Old Testament because that was the role of Jesus. We talked about hedonism and the pleasure of self and how that total headbutted what we are here on the earth for. Then we got to talking about a different kind of sin... social sin. and in my head I was like WHAT?!!!! how come no one told me that before. I only knew about mortal and venial sins and of course the 7 what do you call those again???? you mean I might be sinning now and don't even know about it??? in a panic, i began to berate myself for having gone to UP where Theology has no place instead of Ateneo where obviously they knew their stuff. whew. what a Saturday night.

In the end, I write about it now because I have a sinking suspicion that blind faith might not be enough. As in all things, we need to keep on learning. Keep on challenging ourselves. Keep on uncovering new things which will help us understand what it is we believe in. I am a Catholic, I go to Mass, I pray and I have faith, but it begs the question....is this enough?