Monday, October 20, 2008

Freedom

Every Friday night is a movie night for us. I’m not a big TV fan and I only watch news on CNN and get some updates in The Filipino Channel every Sunday or listen to some insights from one of my favorite Fr. Groeschel of EWTN.

Last Friday, we watched the movie, Religulous. According to “Rotten Tomatoes” the movie Religulous is funny and offensive in equal measure, and aims less to change hearts and minds than to inspire conversation.
I admit, it was funny and Jim was laughing all throughout the movie as he can relate to Bill Maher than anybody else. He had the same problems, questions and ample of doubts about God’s existence. Both his parents were Catholic and I would say, they are people who live beyond the label of being religious. They started a foundation and had lived their entire lives according to truth, honesty, integrity, kindness and gentleness. The most confusing part though is nobody in the 5 kids believed in God.

Well, religion is a personal view of the world which means everybody is different. The movie is not at all offensive to me nor informative. However, it serves the purpose of making fun of people who consider themselves religious. In the end, I felt sad for him.

I just like to share this passage from Kahlil Gibran on The Prophet:
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

Shawie

2 Grateful Heart's Words:

Unknown said...

that's an interesting movie, sha. i'll see if i can get it next weekend. am not much into comedy but i do watch interesting movies like this. but unlike you maybe... i'm a big movie buff! hahaha! i'm a home theater hobbyist and i love watching movies at home and in theaters!

have a great week ahead!

escape said...

i think it's a misconception on how people see at religion. basically, it's not all rituals and traditions. it's simply the system of believing, worshipping, loving and serving our God.

but we cannot blame people on their belief. in time they'll realize.