New Age…
Ahh…New Age Religion. I remember that.
I grew up in the nineties, a magical time when the Celistine Prophecy was a best seller…wait, maybe that wasn’t so magical. New Ageism seemed to be pretty much be at its height then and it still is now. I think its popularity stems from the fact that it often seems to say, ‘if you know right from wrong, and your actions don’t hurt anyone then its okay’. Its like a node to permissive society. To me its often an excuse to not have to really try to believe in anything…not even yourself. I mean ‘know right from wrong’, the world is not black and white, lots of decisions oftne fall into a muddy grey area, without my faith I don’t think I would even come close to making the good decisions. And just how do we know our actions don’t effect anyone, last time I checked my omnipresence is non-existent, I simply cannot possibly know all the consequences of my actions…I just pray they dont’ impact negatively on anyone.
I think we are all little jaded at times, and we all have our moments of saying oh this religion stuff is just so convuluted, can’t it be simpler! Well it is pretty simple really, Love one other, be good to each other and consider the other persons in the world. That’s Catholicism in a nutshell to me.
You know, I don’t really have problem with New Age religions. But you have to be careful. Christianity, like any major religion, has been thousands of years in the making. Many men and women, far better human beings then me, who completely devoted themselves to their faith came up with ways to live a truly good life and made the Catholic faith what it is today… From Moses to our own Mary Mackillop for instance. This faith has been tested and survived. New religions tend not…thats a scientific fact.
New Ageism tends to say ‘You are fine the way you are!’, but thats kind of sad…don’t we all want to be better. For me my faith says, ‘your okay but God believes you can be a finer human being and there is room for growth.’
Ain’t that the truth for all of us!
