Silent Roman Catholics

I think its about time that I post my reply to Fr. Larry Tan, SDB's question on why us Catholics don't react as loudly and and sometimes violently to what others are saying or doing against Jesus Christ unlike our Muslim brothers with regards to Allah and Muhammad?

One instances he cites as I can recall is Madonna's act on her concert in desecrating the Cross which for us Christians symbolizes Jesus. Compared to what the Muslims reaction to Muhammad being drawn in caricature our silence is eerily silent. Except for a few protestations here and there it is nothing compared to the outrage of the Muslims whenever those they considered sacred are being desecrated from their point of view.

My answer to that is we were raised to be forgiving and ask God for mercy to those who did us and Him wrong. We were raised to LOVE not only God and ourselves but also our enemies, in fact I was taught while studying that the teachings of Jesus can be summarize in one word: LOVE.

We were also taught to be forgiving and in fact in one of Jesus' lectures He was asked how many times should we forgive our brother and he replied seventy time seven. Seventy time seven during those times was a large number or infinite. Quoting the Lord's Prayer "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sinned against us" it doesn't say there that a prerequisite to forgiving is asking for forgiveness. It is just that we have to forgive those who did us wrong. Before Jesus came we have been doing wrong against God but instead of handing us punishments, He sent his only Son to die on the cross for us. Now if God can do that, who are we not to forgive.

So if we don't react as violently and as loudly as our Muslim brothers, it is because we were born and raised in LOVE.