In lieu of this week’s emailed questions, I am going to talk about our recent guest speakers, Father Wildes and Sylvester Tan, S.J., and my impressions of them and the impact their words had on me.
What struck me most about Father Wildes is how normal and human-like he was. Now obviously he is human, but how I feel about many priests (and I don't think a lot of people would disagree with me on this) is that they seem to the rest of the world to be very noble and perfect, simply because of their place in the Church and their relationship with God. I believe it is simply an image that the rest of us create in our head about those who have dedicated their life to the service of God, the Church and the rest of humanity. Father Wildes even alluded to this a little bit when he spoke about growing up around priests; they had always been normal humans to him and not untouchable, intimidating people. I'm not sure how well I am explaining myself, but I have just always felt something very intimidating about those who are very high up in the Church. Anyhow, Father Wildes was just a very easy-going, relaxed and fun-to-talk-to person, completely the opposite of a stuffy priest. I have even commented to my friends that he even sweared while speaking to us! It was just a very nice change of pace to have the president of my university conversing so easily with a class of college students. It was also very nice of him to make the time for us and I sincerely enjoyed his visit.
As for Sylvester Tan, I found that I quite identified with his experiences growing up; a few things he said even made me feel as though he were talking directly to me. He spoke of always being concerned with having more; more money, more power, and more recognition and of being attached to material things. I know many people struggle with this, but I can definitely identify. He also said that he always felt God was calling him to do something else, but he didn’t want to address the situation while in college so he just told himself he could live now and deal with it later. Some nights at the Boot, I’ve often had this same attitude; “I will live now and make things right with God later,” I’ve thought. His words definitely had an impact on me and have forced me to think a bit more critically about my life in the past few days.
Overall I really, really enjoyed the guest speakers and felt God was trying to say something to me through them, though right now I’m praying that God helps me successfully make it through this exam tomorrow.
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