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I’m A Skeptic, So Sue Me

4 February 2008

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photo by: Pullao

I’m not the religious type, the kind that will never miss church service on Sundays. But having been brought up a Catholic, I can’t avoid feeling guilty about a lot of things that I do or failed to do. However, I believe I’m a prayerful and spiritual person. As much as possible I try to keep a close relationship with the Lord. I prefer praying over attending mass but I do my best to attend one, more for avoiding that guilt than anything else.

I believe in miracles. I believe the reason my mother is still alive today after what she’d been through, is because of a miracle from God. All I did was ask God to heal my mother and leave it all up to Him. Would I have brought her to a healing mass under the state she was in at that time? Certainly not. If there’s one place that the sick should be, it is in the hospital, where they can get the professional help they need. A priest is likewise available at the hospital to anoint the sick when needed. To bring a very sick loved one to a healing mass, where there are thousands of people, where they can be exposed to all the elements, I think is not the proper thing to do. It will only aggravate their pain and suffering. Isn’t it that God is omnipresent and omnipotent? So I think our prayers are already enough for God to hear us and let His will be done. My heart bleeds for those sick persons who are made to endure the heat just so they can attend the healing mass. Any mass is the same no matter who is officiating it. It is our faith that makes the difference.

I believe God’s healing gift is not only given to those in the priesthood but also to ordinary people. Doctors did not become doctors for the sake of money but because they have a genuine love for caring for the sick. There are people who cannot heal by the mere touch of their hands but can touch others so that they can help those who are sick. Mother Teresa did not heal the sick but she helped them not merely in their physical affliction but so that they may gain their human dignity. She inspired others to do their part in helping others in need. That is the kind of healing I’m more inclined to be part of.

I cannot blame the family of those people who are sick and dying, who have somehow lost hope. I personally know people, educated and devout Catholics, who in an act that I can say that of hopelessness, would go to faith healers and quack doctors in the belief that they can succeed at what the doctors have failed at. I don’t have the heart to tell them to accept God’s will for who am I to stop them from hoping? But lest we forget, in the darkest moments of our lives, only God can provide us with strength and only He can heal. If we believe in God let’s pray to Him and only to Him.

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7 Comments »

benj said:

Hi. With all due respect, I don’t think that you’re a skeptic.

I think it’s more of mental anguish and emotional fatigue as opposed to a genuine doubting of your god’s abilities.

benj’s last blog post..Jomalig

# 5 February 2008 at 11:32 pm

gladita (author) said:

@Benj - I don’t doubt God’s abilities. It’s just that I don’t believe in faith healers.If you have faith then you don’t need anybody nor have to pay anybody to do the faith healing for you. I hate seeing people who are too sick to stand up on their own yet are made to wait in line for healing sessions or healing mass.

# 6 February 2008 at 12:44 am

verns said:

I once saw this documentary on TV about quack doctors. There was this very old and sick man…I think there was something wrong with his legs that he couldn’t walk because of the pain. You know what the quack doctor did to the old man? He sat on the old man’s legs. My eyes watered when I saw that scene…”sakit sa dughan”. You can see how much in pain that old man was and yet he allowed that stupid person to aggravate it.

Sometimes we take desperate measures, sometimes we lack the knowledge, sometimes it’s just how we were brought up…that’s why sometimes you really can’t blame these people. But those quack doctors who inflict more pain…they should be flayed alive..alright, that’s barbaric but really!

verns’s last blog post..the initiation of the future roadgeeks?

# 6 February 2008 at 12:06 pm

gladita (author) said:

@Verns - Haay, that quack doctor deserve to be flayed. I now somebody who ended up losing a lot of money because of a quack doctor. That money should have been well spent with a real doctor. I am tempted to tell her how useless it is but that would only get me into trouble and earn the ire of many people. I know they would tell me ‘daw si sin-o gid ko’ so I just keep quiet.

# 6 February 2008 at 8:46 pm

gladita (author) said:

@Tikalon - Hahaha! Is that so? I was planning to send my daughter to your school if ever I’ll have one in the future. Having me for a mother would get her into trouble with the sisters then.:-D

# 6 February 2008 at 8:50 pm

lazarus said:

a grand aunt is a quack doctor. but she wasn’t able to heal my dad when he was a kid almost about to die. She said that there’s something in him that prevented her powers.

lazarus’s last blog post..I’ve Never Been To Palawan

# 10 February 2008 at 7:47 am

gladita (author) said:

@Lazarus - Maybe your dad has higher powers than her.