Most of us walk the way of the world rather than walk the way of heaven. Religious-wise, that is. In the strict sense of the purpose of our existence here, it should be the contrary. Because, in the first place, we are supposed to live that way. Think heaven. Act heaven. Walk heaven.
Poor Judas was an apostle lost. He succumbed to the world when he frowned on the pouring of the expensive fragrant oil by Magdalene on Jesus' feet. When he was appalled by Jesus' anger when He up-ended the tables of the vendors in the church. Judas misinterpreted the focus of both incidents. The ultimate came when he planted the kiss of betrayal on Jesus' cheek for a sum of thirty pieces of silver. His acts demonstrated mundane greed, corruption and the discontentment in him.
His, as in ours, is the way of the world. We are not to say that we are not wimpish to material things. Fame, power, wealth. These are the things we pursue - covetously, unscrupulously, enrapturedly and incessantly.
In the bubble race for celebrity stature - envy, pride and intrigue breed in us. In the hunger for power - madness, hatred and ego build in us.
Now, we are even going to the extent of selling Christ again - in falsehood, in blasphemy, in opportunism. At present, there are a couple of books and a movie, all fictionalizing the incredible fantasies of a supposed dark side of Christ. How absurd!
Not long ago, in still another book, an author had also profanely speculated on the life of Mohammed of the Islam faith. There were ugly caricatures depicting the same prophet. Maybe they will be doing one on the Buddha. Soon, exploitation of beliefs and the prophets will flourish as another dirty business opportunity.
Religions must be respected, revered. Why touch them? Why pick on them? The worst is creating untrue, deceptive and illusory yarns about them and, as a great escape, labeling them as works of fiction. In such case, I have more respect for the atheists because they don't blast religions this way.
Did I watch The Da Vinci Code? No, I did not, though I'm a complete movie buff. Personally, I don't want to feel bad catering to a "thirty pieces of silver" movie ticket.
So much for DVC (as in the Da Vinci Code). Too much world make up for a sick, ugly and dark world. It's a mess-up world we are "enjoying". We live with all kinds of inequities and improbities. We are everything the bad persons that we are and everything the bad qualities we have. All the vices, wrongdoing and evil are with us. We are all sinful, decadent and selfish. There is no need of expounding on these matters. Just look around you. Our world is becoming more of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Think world? Act world? Walk world? It's about time we stop.