Mexican as I am, I was baptized without my permission, and for my whole life I got angry and comfortably pissed at the thought of people considering me Catholic. As I grew older and read more books, and saw more movies, and criticized my "own" religion, I realized Jesus was cool, and he was definitely not the one to blame for church and priests and confession and -well yeah-, my baptism.Jesus is not the one they -by they I mean Catholics, the Pope and the Vatican- portray in the Bible. Jesus is not even bearded.
He really is all around us, if we dare to look. I hope I sound hippie when I confess that Jesus is LOVE, and yes, it is all we need. He broke up rules, he challenged status-quo jews back in the days, he quit his carpenter work with his dad , he decided to travel through the world with one message and one message only: "Love thy neighbor", he even forgot those who harmed him. I wonder how many people can say that about themselves.
He really is all around us, if we dare to look. I hope I sound hippie when I confess that Jesus is LOVE, and yes, it is all we need. He broke up rules, he challenged status-quo jews back in the days, he quit his carpenter work with his dad , he decided to travel through the world with one message and one message only: "Love thy neighbor", he even forgot those who harmed him. I wonder how many people can say that about themselves.
Sadly, religion has made of Jesus its scape-goat. So whenever you go to a church and see its image on the cross, you get either scared or angry or want to scream WTF, because it is what they want. So you can carry out your life as someone that hates or fears Jesus, because he impersonates everything you hate/fear about this world. But I think we're all wrong. The only impersonators of what we hate/fear are ourselves.
So, I like to think of Jesus as a hippie with a flower in his mouth. And I try to practice his word everyday. I really try to love my neighbor without hoping he loves me back (remember how he said he loved everybody and yet, they killed him? That kind of love). No expectations, no harm taken. And everyday I try to make an effort to let myself go, because there are things none of us can control.
Come to think of it ! I like him better when he is naked and body-less, and just an "it". For me, Jesus is the image of love and acceptance. Everybody wants a friend that loves them for what they are. Let's practice love, go out and do it, really DO it. Maybe that would make this world a better and fuller one./ La Flaii
