A Catholic Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A Catholic Life - Essay Example This can be considered as heady years when anything was deemed possible. His schooling was marked by periods of hardship and deprivation. This was clearly in his case a time of intense personal trials as he went to college as a working student to support his studies. There was a time he suffered some form of bullying by his richer classmates and they made fun of his â€Å"nice clothes† which greatly embarrassed him. While still a small boy, he had a different concept of God who is strict and very demanding in terms of penance. But he had taken comfort that he belonged to the most important royal family – that of the Catholics (Wilkes 21). He even aspired to sainthood in the innocence of his childhood (ibid. 23). His high school years saw him earn decent grades since he seemed to have the gifts of an intellectual who can breeze through school without much effort. His faith in his religion is not to be tested yet since he lived sort of a secure life, surrounded by the fam iliar and not yet exposed to the outside world in which new and even rebellious ideas are in ferment. Changes started to occur in his personal life and consequently in his views and outlook in life during the time he started his college days. It was a period of great financial difficulties. Catholicism as a religion emphasizes both suffering and deprivation as a noble act (ibid. 26) and further ingrained with a dictum of living a life for others. Whether intentional or not, this constant barrage of feeling guilty ends up making some people a bit neurotic as in the case of Paul Wilkes. Despite his professional success, his search for God soon brought him to the extreme decision to follow the way of Christ and abandon all his material belongings. Paul’s... A Catholic Life Every person goes through life's incredible journey in his or her own unique ways. It is sometimes called in religious philosophy as the â€Å"process of becoming† for which nobody can know how the end will come about. No one can likewise anticipate the high and low points in this journey of a lifetime. This was what the author Paul Wilkes underwent during challenging times in his life and career. Every person also feels a bit empty, at some point in their lives. In his case, Mr. Wilkes suffered what is called a mid-life crisis so early in his married life when he was still in his mid-thirties, when other people suffer the same crisis at a much later age. A person is shaped by both his environment and by his basic temperament. Mr. Wilkes can be considered as just like any other person, an average person with the usual dreams and ambitions in life. What was a bit different about him was his tenacity in the face of adversity. This was amply demonstrated in his being the runt of the litter, growing up in a poor home, a constant struggle while in school (from elementary up to his college days) and achieved some measure of professional success. If we really contemplate on the real purpose of life, either we go off the edge or end up finding something really meaningful. Some call this process as a catharsis or a conversion, or as an epiphany of sorts like what Saul of Tarsius experienced while he was on his way.