It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

What are you?






People still ask me, not so much am I Christian, but am I Catholic ["Roman" and capital C implied]. They assume that I am Christian for some reason. I was pondering that today.
What would I call myself? The problem is not calling myself something that identifies me as a follower of Jesus -- stumble though I do in that following. It is that the labels are not usually about a relationship with Jesus but about an implied relationship with a religious institution. I have no significant relationship with any religious institution, although I am still on the Catholic church's books somewhere.
 
So what am I?

Most anything I can come up with implies a connection to a church or ecclesial tradition -- disciple, for example, or friend or even plain old Christian.

So what am I?

Perhaps the secret is in the Name of the Unnamed One -- I AM. Period. Not in the way Ha Shem AM, of course. But maybe the sentence doesn't need a subject complement, "subject completer." It is enough in itself.

"What are you?"

I am.

"No, I mean what religion are you?"

I am not a religion.

"I mean, what church do you belong to?"

None.

"Well, what do you believe?"

I don't believe what. I believe SomeOne.

"What SomeOne do you believe in?

I don't believe in SomeOne. I believe SomeOne.

"What do you believe about that SomeOne?"

SomeOne AM.

"Huh?"

Yeah. That's what I think, too.

Oh, yeah. SomeOne AM. I am, but I am not SomeOne. Not that SomeOne, anyway.

Capiche?

1 comment:

  1. People are always trying to put other people into a box with a specific label.

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