da vinci code and christian maturity

i used to think that christians have already matured after two thousand years. but in the face of this da vinci code bruhaha, it looks like the immaturity of the middle ages, the inquisition most especially, is seemingly back. the intolerance of opposition and of ideas different from the mainstream or the orthodox are symptoms of immaturity.

immaturity is a mild term. the more accurate should be "unchristianity". because christianity, like it was in the early church, is to be like a lamb--even to the extent of being persecuted, and giving up one's life. real christianity is living the icon of the servant of yahweh. dejected. persecutied. suffering. but saving. carrying the dying of chirst in ones body, so that his resurrection is constantly manifested.

now, everybody seem to be worried just because there is this novel that fictionalizes about jesus who has been married to mary magdalene, theorized as the holy grail, and bore a son who sired a lineage in france called the merovingian dynasty. and that, a secret society called the priory of sion kept the secret which leonardo da vinci, allegedly a member of the said society, kept coded in his paintings.

and we worry about jesus and the church and the faith. we think that this novel will make the church crumble to smithereens. and the faith will be smashed into a profound crisis. something to be alarmed of. but when jesus was on his way to calvary, he told veronica, "do not weep for me, weep rather for yourself and for your children." because, really, a true christian is so stable in his conviction that jesus would know what to do with himself and with his church.

but ahh, we are not talking about jesus and his church, because, after all the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. we are talking about religious sensibilities. religious sensibilities dectate that whenever our religion is being attacked, or badly written about, as in the case of the da vinci novel, christians should be doing something, should be stirred, should rise up in protest--at the least.

so it is religious sensibilities. but where were these religious sensibilities when we need them. look, there are thousands of hungry filipinos. millions more are going to other countries to become slaves becaused of utter poverty. farmers who are robbed of their fertilizers. beggars dejected with social apathy. street children gaping at church doors salivating for some little help from daily communicants. citizens being cheated during elections. people suffering because of corrupt government officials. AND NOBODY THOUGHT OF RELIGIOUS SENSIBILITIES?

we are not only seeing today immature christians. but also hypocrites.

if there is going to be any crisis of faith it is not going to be occasioned by a book theorizing about christ who got married and begot a whole dynasty. crisis is happening because there are less and less signs of faith. people living the faith are getting more scarce.

what is more scarry is seeing a church tolerating government anomalies. what is more painful to religious sensibilities is looking at a church that condons corruption of highest government officials at the cost of millions of lives deprived daily of a decent living. this is alarming.

in the meantime, money flows abundantly into the coffers of dan brown and his publishers who have succeeded in a marketing hype of the century. you see, it's all about money. and church people, too.