I recently went out with a few people and ended up at a friends house. After a few drinks the topic of conversation somehow fell on sex before marriage. As a practicing Catholic this is something I am against but I was in the minority among this particular group of friends. It resulted in a heated discussion between me and a close Catholic friend. I believe the reason he was so passionate on the matter is because he has recently got a girlfriend. His argument was as his girlfriend was on the pill for medical reasons and the bible teachings are full of contradictions then he does not have any feelings of guilt towards the matter. My arguments were that the churches teachings are very clear on the matter, the argument against the teachings of the bible is an anti-christian argument and not an excuse to pick and choose which parts of the faith we follow and just because is girlfriend is on the contraceptive pill for medical reasons it does not justify premarital sex. Premarital sex is not about getting pregnant otherwise family planning could be used before marriage but it isn't. I told him his arguments were rubbish and he was trying to pick and choose which parts of his faith to follow to justify the inconveniences he was encountering. Our discussion got very heated and only ended when I left to go home, I felt uneasy afterwards about the discussion and I felt my faith had been attacked by those in the room.
The next day I was proud that I had stood up for my beliefs as I have often remained silent in the past to avoid awkward questioning regarding my religion. But afterwards I realized that during the events that took place that took place that evening I had lacked the most important quality when trying to discuss matters of faith.. humility. By trying to defend my faith I had actually questioned my friends faith and alienated myself from all those present. I had not been a good disciple and if anyone in the room was considering learning more about the church then my rant on anti-catholic premarital sex was not going to convince them sign up.
I hope I have learnt from my mistakes and I wish to build on the passion that I demonstrated but in a much more productive way. I wanted to get across the fact my girlfriend and I receive many blessings through our devotion to our faith by respecting the rules of the church and following its teachings as closely as possible. I wanted to explain that we aren't perfect and we are all sinners but that just because we sin doesn't mean we can't strive to live our lives according to the word of God. I wanted to encourage those present to see that people who go to mass do not consider themselves better than others, we are all the same but practicing Catholics are just trying to improve themselves in the eyes of God. I wanted to explain why I personally did not think it was beneficial to pick and chose which parts of the churches teachings we want to follow but as long as we strive to follow them as closely as possible then God's infinite love shown through the death of his only son Jesus will always be with us.
I wanted to get across all these things but I didn't... I just acted like an idiot. I pray to God that along with the words to inspire others I am also blessed with the essential characteristic to compliment it... humility.
YCM
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