Seldom that I get questions that strike me. Definitely not the brand of questions fielded to students in school to test their mastery of subject. I'm referring to the questions that make one really stop one's doing or drop one's thing in order to give consideration to the question being asked—even if grades are not at stake.
I encountered such brand of questions in my trip with the KOA last Sunday.
The question came from the most senior of KOA. He's past the retirement age already and I still have to see him serve at the altar (see my post on 11/04).He seems to be busy himself with other stuff apart from the regular load of requirements from school.
We're nibbling away some junk food in the cottage when without batting an eyelash, he asked me if it's okay to still remain a sacristan even if one has committed a "mortal sin" (he didn't use the phrase enclosed in the quotes, I provided them).
I was taken a back. I didn't know that such a question was coming.
Gently downplaying the seriousness of the sin (after all, God is merciful. Being a sinner myself, I support the thesis of the preeminence of love over law) I told him that yes, it's still possible. However, one needs to be sorry about it, one's being sorry about the offense committed should push him to see a priest and confess to him the sin. And finally, one ought not to repeat it once more.
I admit that I was not confident enough with how I responded to his question, I was not sure also if I drove home the point. But one thing I’m certain of is that his question will become an inspiration for me to not treat my formation complacently.
