Recently I was invited to a local high school – East Kentwood High School in Michigan – to be on the Board of World Religions and talk with its students about my Catholic faith and share with them my experience of it as an Asian and a seasoned pastor. Although my weekly schedule is always full of pastoral work and parish activities, I was able to rearrange it and make some personal sacrifices to interact with those students and share my wisdom with them. Perhaps it was also a great opportunity for me to talk with them about my books.
The board as well represented by Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Protestant, and Catholic. Its facilitators were able to share knowledge of their own religions and let the students know how they converted to a certain faith. I was moved on how each facilitator had one’s own moment of epiphany before switching to a particular religion. Those spiritual moments confirm to us why we have the rising problem of mental health in our society since Covid- 19 and how vital religion is in our human life. With the leaping progress of science and technology, some might assume that religion might have less important role in modern time and soon disappear from human society. But, I have seen the opposite at this gathering. I have witnessed how our faith life can intertwine with our mental and spiritual well-being and why we cannot survive in this world without religion.
I have also learned how religion can be a useful and powerful tool for students to deal with their own issues. Those include self-image, peer pressure, family relationship, depression, suicide, violence, LGBTQ, and a few others. Faith and religion can give them strength to endure challenging moments and courage to stand up to injustices and do what is right. If they know how to discover the hidden treasures in religion and harness the potential power in a good spiritual life, they would have magic wand in their hands to help them face a challenging world of a teenager with confidence and retain a good mental health. They would surely gain lots of blessings to have faith and religion in their lives.
I look back on this experience and feel that I have made a difference in the lives of these students. I hope that I have turned them away from bad influences and introduced them to a positive source of support in religion. I pray that the positive change in them would spread to other students and gradually make our world a better place.