Webjugate

I’ve never been one to think things through. I like to act on impulse and pretend that whatever happens was part of some master plan I had all along. It’s how I end up finding myself in situations that aren’t typical. It’s how I ended up in a an upper level World Religions course.

A few months ago, an old friend of mine wrote a paper on religion and peace. I
scanned through it and misinterpreted his argument entirely. For some reason, I
felt that he was arguing that religions are exclusive and therefor cannot be used as
vehicles for peace. I was so distraught that in order to form a solid rebuttle I
decided to sign up for a course on world religions.

It turns out, this course is easily amongst my all time favorites. If I had to
recommend a single course to you, I would recommend World Religions. It gives
you the opportunity to appreciate both the similarities and differences between
various religions. We spent the last 14 weeks studying various religions, dispelling
popular misconceptions, myths, lies while establishing truths based on
archeological evidence I had no idea existed.

Outside exams, the largest portion of our grade comes from a report we’re to write
based on a religious ceremony outside our own religion. As a Hindu fascinated by
Christianity, I decided to base my report off an interview I conduct with a Catholic
priest. The ceremony being researched was Mass, and the following is the interview
Sushant Mahajan and myself conducted with Father Joy of the church of St. Thomas
the Apostle in Smyrna, Georgia.

Thank you so much for meeting me, Father Joy. I believe Father Jim had mentioned
to you that I had attended Mass on Thursday.

He did. He also told me about your course. I’ll try to do my best to answer your
questions.

Thank you. For the time being, I’d like to focus my questions on the ceremonial
aspect of the service. What is Mass? Mass is
the central activity of worship in the Catholic Church. It is a moment in time where
practitioners of the faith reflect on three very important things; those being, a) the
life of our lord Jesus Christ, b) his suffering and c) his death. The mass itself
reaffirms our faith but more importantly it reaffirms our knowledge that a covenant
was made all those years ago and we, as humans, are bound to the covenant that
saw the Lord sacrificed his only son.

How Often Are Services Held?
If I’m not mistaken, you attended yesterday’s service, is that correct? Thursday
services like most weekday services see an average attendance of less than 100
people. This is probably because most people work and lead busy lives. Church to
the average Christian is an activity reserved for the weekend. This is unfortunate,
but a reality of the times we live in. Because of this, weekday Mass is limited to one
service a day outside special holidays. Weekend mass however is a completely
different scenario.

The Church, as you’ve noticed, can comfortably seat 800 people. During typical
Sunday mass, the Church sees at least 1200 people walk through its doors. That is
not a sum total of 1200 people all day. I mean, 1200 people per service for each
service on Saturday or Sunday. If that number doesn’t astound you, consider this -
we have 3 services held on Saturdays while 7 (four in English, three in Spanish) held
on Sundays.

In my limited research, I came across an interesting tidbit. Jesus was Jewish, was he
not?

That’s right. Jesus was born into a Jewish home in present day Israel.

Yet, if Jesus was born Jewish, why is the most important Mass reserved for Sunday
and not Saturday? It is my understanding that in Judaism, Saturday represents the
Sabbath.

This is true; Saturday according to the Old Testament represents the Sabbath. We
celebrate Mass on Sunday for two very different reasons. Sunday represents Easter,
the day the Lord sacrificed his Son to wash the sins of humanity and begin a new
covenant. The most important services or in most cases, the largest services are
saved for this day for this reason. It allows us to reflect on the sacrifice the Lord
made for us, and the covenant we entered with him because of this sacrifice.
Sunday is also used because it has been thought of as the Holy day long before the
concept of Sabbath. In the beginning, God created the world in 6 days and rested
on the 7th. In our calendar, Sunday represents the seventh day, the day God rested.

I noticed that during the service, several people participated in saying a small prayer
of their own when the Priest opened the floor.

(laughs) You will rarely see this happen during weekend services. On a Thursday
service when few people attend, we can do this. The members of the congregation
that attend on Thursday are not only deeply religious and committed to God; they
also know each other very well and are comfortable in praying in the company of
their friends. For example, if you and your girlfriend had a problem, you wouldn’t
go tell random people on the street would you? You would probably speak to
someone you knew. Similarly, on Sunday in front of 1200 other people, it is very
unlikely that you would want to personalize the service by voicing your problems to
an entire community. Personal prayers are usually seen, at least at this Church,
during weekday services.

At the end of the service, several people got up and drank from a cup. Could you
explain what they were doing and the significance behind it?

What you witnessed was Communion. The word itself is significant because it
emphasizes this idea of union of community. This is what Jesus stressed at his last
meal on earth, the idea of a global community bound together by love for the Lord
and love for ones neighbor. The communion itself symbolizes a commitment made
to Christ and therefore the Lord, of the covenant we made with him. The “bread” as
Jesus said represented his body, while the wine, his blood. The consumption of
these two things is more then just consumption of the body and the blood of our
Lord. It is a symbolic gesture of our commitment to God and our love for him. It is
our commitment to continue living the covenant in the way Jesus himself asked us
to at the last supper.

I notice you’ve mentioned this new covenant several times. Is this new covenant
different from the one God made with Abraham?

Yes it is. It is very different. In the Old Testament, the relationship between the
Israelites and God was not the full all encompassing relationship Jesus brought.
The covenant made with the Israelites was more a promise and as such could be
broken. The descendants of Abraham did not grasp the full nature of the divine in
that; they saw God as vengeful, angry and even jealous. These may be true, but
these characteristics are not the embodiment of the divine. Jesus showed us that
the Lord is more than a supreme being, who would punish you when you crossed
him. Jesus understood that above all things; the Lord was a being of infinite love.
Jesus spent his life trying to share this - the true nature of the divine with the rest
of us.

Does that mean the rules and regulations set forth in the Old Testament no longer
apply?

In a sense, yes. But that does not mean, Jesus said it is now permissible to commit
adultery, kill, steal and such. As a Jew, he said the exact opposite. He taught that
you should still practice the rules set forth in the Torah but the law of love was
above all others. The 10 commandments is a good example. Rather than just
saying, follow the 10 commandments, Jesus summarized them by stating, you
should love God with every fiber of your being, and equally as important you should
love your neighbor. If we can accomplish that, we will be living by the laws set forth
in the Old Testament.

I’m fairly certain I can write the majority of my report based on this information.
The following questions are to satisfy my own curiosity. Is there anything you
would like to mention before I move on?

I’m sure you’ve noticed that during the service yesterday Father Jim read from the
New Testament. On weekends during Mass, we have 3 readings; one from the Old
or New Testament, and the other 2 from the Gospels. I just thought that if you
were interested, you could attend this weekend. You may find more information for
your paper.

Thank you for the invitation, I’ll definitely try to make it. Throughout the interview,
you used the terms, Son of God, God and our Lord interchangeably. I had always
been under the impression that Christianity was monotheistic, yet the existence of a
trinity in my mind seems to dispute this. Is Christianity monotheistic, and if so can
you explain the concept of a Triune God.

When Father Jim mentioned you were going to ask some questions, I assumed this
would be one of your first. Rather than attempting to explain this, I made a copy of
a paper that was written on the subject for you. I’m positive you would get a better
and clearer understanding from the paper, rather than my attempt at an
explanation.

Thank you for that. For the sake of satisfying my own curiosity, would you be able
to talk to me a little about the Papacy?

I’ll do my best, but it’s been many years since I’ve studied the history, so please
don’t expect any dates.

That’s no problem. Who is the current Pope?

The current Pope is the Holy Father Benedict XVI, successor to the Holy Father John
Paul II. You’re starting off easy I see.

Who was the first Pope?
The first Pope was St. Peter, an Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told him that
he was the rock from which he would build his church. We believe that passage in
the Bible is direct instruction from Jesus to the disciples that a Church with a
papacy was to be created.

I always found Peter to be an interesting choice? Jesus himself told Peter that he
would deny him 3 times after his arrest. Why was Peter chosen rather than one of
the others?

I see you’ve done your homework. I wont pretend to understand the infinite wisdom
behind the Lords decisions, but I believe Jesus new Peter to be a strong willed
steadfast believer who would repent. Jesus was right and Peter did repent, so much
so that during his eventual crucifixion, he asked to be crucified upside down as he
felt unworthy to die the same way as Jesus had.

The following successions of Popes were not direct descendants of St. Peter, were
they? Why isn’t the Papacy inherited?
Well, Peter gave himself to the Lord and therefore did not belong to a single person
or family, but the community as a whole. I believe this is why each successive Pope
was elected.

That wraps up my questions. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy
schedule to meet with us. We are very grateful.
It was no problem at all.

Even though I live in the deep south, the Bible-Belt, this was probably the most
interesting conversation I’ve had regarding Christianity in a long time. I hope to
speak with Father Joy again in the near future about all things Catholic. Until that
time, I’ll do my best to post a complete and edited version of the term paper I plan
on writing based off of this interview.

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