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Friends



An old friend of mine underwent angioplasty recently and I decided to visit him today. I asked Maggie to join me since she knew him and more since I loved company for the hour-long drive. The friend is a Catholic priest who was a classmate of mine for 6 years in the seminary. Let me call him S.

   Our conversation happened to graze religion and I mentioned that I was no church-goer. Maggie thought that the priest would find that scandalous. On the contrary, S asked, “What’s the use of going to church if that doesn’t make one a good person? I know a lot of people who attend church as a mere duty. If you are a good person doing good to others, it hardly matters whether you go to church or not.”

   “He has his own spirituality. He meditates.” Maggie offered.

   “What more do you want?” S asked. “God is not the private property of the church.”

   Maggie was neither shocked nor scandalised. Living with me had made her familiar with similar, if not much more radical, views.  I didn’t mention, however, that my meditations didn’t require even a god. My morality and my goodness (however whatever little that is) are founded on the pure logic that goodness is the foundation of healthy living.

   I recalled how a student of mine resorted to a small trick last year to get me along with Maggie to pray in the school’s prayer room during the lunch break. “Would you do something for me during the lunch break?” She had asked me. “Please,” she pleaded. “Why not?” I said without realising what she was up to. However, when she got Maggie to the prayer room I refused to accompany her because I had been assigned a duty by the coordinator. The student wouldn’t believe that I couldn’t take a minute off from that duty for her sake. She felt hurt more because I broke my promise to her than because I refused to join her in prayer. A few months later, however, she told a friend of hers that it didn’t matter whether I prayed or not because I was a good human being.

   “That’s all what matters,” said S. “And people always see through what you are whether you go to church or not.”

   Maggie understood that my friends, very few as they are, are indeed a different breed of people.


Comments

  1. wingsJune 25, 2018 at 10:04 AM

    It is easy to go to any temple or church or masjid or mausoleum and say prayers. Being good is an unattainable pinnacle for both believers and disbelievers. Most of the disbelievers are ideal and strive to be good. They are indeed spiritual.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 25, 2018 at 5:45 PM

      I have also noticed that non-believers tend to be better at heart. Probably, they think and act unlike believers who do what they like assuming the confessional or the Ganga or something like that will wash away their sins.

      Delete
  2. pushpendra dwivediJune 25, 2018 at 1:53 PM

    interesting story telling

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anagha YatinJune 25, 2018 at 2:38 PM

    I so agree that going to temples or churches or mosques doesnt make one spiritual or a good human being. Being true to ones work and self does. Work is worship. Clear conscious is the only mirror where one should see the reflection and not in the eyes of the others.
    A heartwarming story.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 25, 2018 at 5:46 PM

      Thank you for joining me here and endorsing my views on this topic. I too take work as worship. I too believe in keeping the conscience clear.

      Delete

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