The history of the religious education of the person I interviewed confirmed that every believer has their own path to faith. My neighbor and I often meet on the street and in the church that I have attended since childhood, so I have always been interested in the reasons why he goes to the Catholic Church. According to the young man, his faith is very much connected not only with the religion of his parents, but also with his personal religious experience.
According to him, being an obedient child with calm and balanced parents, he attended church on Sundays. Faith seemed to be an unshakable reality in his mind precisely because it was not a subject of discussion. The Catholic faith pervaded much of family behavior and decision making. From time to time, the life of the family was associated with Catholic rituals, sometimes together in prayer. However, this did not mean that as a child, the boy understood the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice and realized the essence of his faith. Prayers and going to church seemed more like a fun game to the boy, which seems logical at a young age.
It was only when he started asking his parents questions that my neighbor began to understand the ethical and spiritual value of Christian teaching. His parents gave him the New Testament, a story that deeply influenced the child as a story of the great power of human and divine self-sacrifice. After that, visiting a Catholic school only strengthened his interest in studying the Bible, which he perceived as a text capable of giving the necessary life and spiritual guidelines. After graduating from the Catholic school, he, however, did not continue to study religion, but began to live according to Christian values. The concept of generosity, described in the Bible as inherent in people of pure faith, greatly influenced his career decisions (Fleming, 2018). At the moment, as I found out, my interlocutor is working as a volunteer, raising funds to feed the homeless and needy.
Reference
Fleming, J. B. (2018). Spiritual generosity: Biblical hospitality in the story of Lydia (Acts 16:14–16, 40). Missiology: An International Review, 47(1).