Avenue of Thoughts

Chain letters are a complete and utter waste of time! As you say, maybe they will encourage people to pray, but what sort of praying are we talking about here – fear of the consequences that will be inflicted upon you by a supposedly loving God if you do not “pass it on?” There is a logical contradiction here in that God cannot be both loving and at the same time one who metes out punishment when someone does not “pass on” a chain letter.

When we pray, we ought to be praying out of our faith and trust in God! Yes, at times that can be lacking to a degree or we can be struggling with something in our faith, but this is not the same thing as acting out of fear. There is no satisfaction for a loving person to see someone relating to them out of fear! This is not true love.

God wants us to make a free choice when we relate to Him. He will pursue us out of Love for us, but He never seeks to force us to love Him out of fear. If someone emails/writes/call/wall post/tweet etc and asks you to freely choose to pray for a particular cause then feel free to do so, but also feel free not to do so! If the need is genuine, I am sure there will be something prompting us in our hearts, our conscience maybe, to be generous and send off a prayer or two regarding the particular intention. However, you will know when you are acting out of fear compared to when you’re acting under inspiration of your conscience; the difference has to do with our acting according to an understanding and experience of the duty of love – not out of fear.

Fear can be a motivating factor in some of the decisions we make, but it should never be the main motivation when it comes to our relationship with God. Let us seek to act out of our love, even the duty attached to love, but never out of fear that God will punish us if we do not do something or another. That sort of punishment is simply totally alien to the character of God.

-Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

Source:

Fr. Tynan MGL, Steve.  “Should I Forward ‘Spiritual’ Chain Letters?”  

      Kerygma Nov. 2007: 9.

I have always thought that chain letters have business motives behind it, pero kung “spiritual chain letters,” confusion starts to strike me. Siyempre, matter of faith and reason yan eh. Kaya, when I read this article, naliwanagan ako, it’s not the ‘act’ that makes it unnecessary, but the ‘purpose.’

So kung magpapasa man tayo ng mga chain messages, was it out of fear of misfortune or genuine inspiration drawn out of it?