Fellow Medievalists,
As I have stated before, I went to a catholic grade school for 9 years, and grew up in the church. I am very familiar with a lot of the religious concepts that we discussed during the Exodus reading and now also the Blickling Homilies. A Homily is a time in the catholic church, in which the priests discusses the reading that was read during mass from the New Testament. The priest will go into great detail explaining the reading and putting it into real world terms. So, before reading, I expected the poem to be about Religious beliefs, mainly Christianity, while connected these beliefs to the real world.
The intro started to explain the reading, "sermons that cover the most important liturgical days" (1). a few of those days include, Easter, Assumption of Mary, Lent, and Palm Sunday. The homilies also include the lives of saints such as Paul, Andrew, John the baptist, and Peter. All though while reading the Blicking Homily I felt as if it was manly about a different topic.
As I started to read I realized that indeed this was like other homilies I have heard before. One thing did bother me, but I will get into that later. Throughout the text I had noticed a lot about the world ending soon and judgement day. As they were talking about the time of the world's destruction, the author stated quite often on how the people need to better themselves in preparation to doomsday. This is what bothered me about this reading. Although bettering yourself and getting forgiven for your sins is not a bad thing, as a good christian, which the Anglo-Saxons claimed to be, should they not of been trying to better themselves from the get go, or most certainly before they are warned of doomsday? I believe that being a good christian should try to be the best person they can be all or most of their lives, not just to impress God on judgement day. My question to my fellow medievalists, is being a good christian do you believe that being a good person should be done earlier in life, rather then when you learn about the world ending soon and judgement day?
I look forward to reading your responses and comments!
Lexie, thank you for sharing your perspective. I also have grown up in the church not a catholic church but a Bible believing, God and people loving church nonetheless. I hope at the end of my life when I come face to face with my Savior that He tells me "well done my good and faithful servant." I will never regret my decision to follow God throughout my life. In an ideal world people would realize and accept freedom through Christ early in life and live accordingly and in turn become a good person. However, my decision all those years ago is just as important, poignant, and transformative as the decision made by the man on his death bed. Perhaps, the goal of these homilies is to make people finally listen, to turn from the dark and to seek the light; to emphasize that life is short/fleeting and people ought to spend their time striving for goodness rather than working toward things that will not matter tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteKinzi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response, it was eye opening for me and put a different perspective on the reading. While, I took the reading as telling people to change their ways because of the end of the world. But your response, makes sense for people to realize they need to change their ways in order to make God happy. People should always be the best person they can be, because ultimately that will make God happy and he will invite them into his kingdom on judgement day.
Lexie, to answer your question I believe that a good Christian should work on becoming a better person each and every day, not just when they realize their time of judgement may be coming. Now I have a question for you... Do you personally think that the Anglo Saxon's relationship with God was based on fear as apposed to friendship? That is do you think their fear of his might outweighed their love of blessings?
ReplyDeleteLexie, to answer your question I believe that a good Christian should work on becoming a better person each and every day, not just when they realize their time of judgement may be coming. Now I have a question for you... Do you personally think that the Anglo Saxon's relationship with God was based on fear as apposed to friendship? That is do you think their fear of his might outweighed their love of blessings?
ReplyDeleteBobby,
DeleteGood question. I do not believe that the Anglo-Saxons had much fear of anything. I believe they knew it was wrong to kill, but they had to become famous. So I believe they thought the love they had for God and "claiming" to be Christians would save them on judgement day.