Only now I know why we do what we do

Apr 24, 2014

“I am a cradle Catholic and had attended enough Sunday school to receive the Holy Eucharist. Since then, I played truant and missed out on my Rite of Confirmation. Truth be said, I did not see any significance of getting confirmed.

“It was only after I proposed to my beloved fiancee, Alicia, that I was advised by the Church to get confirmed. Since I am only going to get married once, I thought, why not? After all, how hard could it be to get confirmed? Without a second thought, I enrolled myself for the RCIA classes.

“Then I realized that I had to attend a year’s worth of weekly RCIA classes in order to get confirmed. I found the lessons absolutely dull and mundane. The lessons gravitated around the descriptions of what the Church is and who was God. I am neither an atheist nor a non-Christian. These are alien to me as I have been a Catholic all my life. I knew very well who Jesus was!

“Having to sit through two hours of boredom made me regard RCIA as a bothersome procedural hurdle. I grudgingly attended each class with the greatest of reluctance. I soon fell into the rhythm of picking the classes that I wanted to attend, which later precipitated into the habit of not attending class at all. As a result, my attendance was appalling and I was subsequently barred from confirmation due to my lack of commitment.

“Upon learning that I would have to join the next RCIA intake, I was on the verge on giving up. However, Alicia persuaded me to start afresh and to join the RCIA programme at the Church of St Thomas More. She also said that she was willing to journey with me in this RCIA programme.

“I felt obliged to attend each class, now that Alicia was with me. During each class, she would badger me with questions. I used to brush them off easily but then I found great difficulty in answering her. “Why did Jesus have to die? How can man’s death save us from our sins? How do I pray? What do I have to say when I pray?”

“It was my inability to answer these questions that made me doubt myself. I was oblivious to who God really is and what the Catholic Church really is. I realized that my ignorance could mislead Alicia into having a wrong perception of the Church and the Catholic faith.

“I promised myself that I would be more attentive throughout the RCIA. I found that there was so much more about God and the Church that I did not know about. I realized that I have been observing Mass and adopting Catholic practices without knowing the reasons behind them. It scares me to think how blind I was towards God and his Church!

“The RCIA taught me the ways of being a good Catholic and the proper workings of the Church. I appreciate the biblical and canonical teachings that have been imparted in great depth.

“Looking back, I find myself adopting a different outlook on what being a good Catholic truly is. RCIA has saved me by helping me to re-discover my faith. This programme is a definite life changer and words will never be enough to describe this experience.” -- James Au