It's true. Most mexicans were raised as catholics so you would think that being a mexican I would have more knowledge of catholicism, but I was raised as a follower of Jesus Christ and the one and only living God, what some may refer to as a "christian". Only the label "christianity" can be a word that refers to many different denominations whose beliefs may differ and at some times contradict one another. So as a side note when someone asks me what my religion is or if I am a "christian" my answer is a constant struggle within myself because I don't define my faith as a religion or by labels. The only thing that matters to me is that I have a relationship with Jesus Christ who is the son of the one and only living God; Christ was sent by God to the earth to die an earthly death on the cross because God loved, and still loves us, with an unfailing, everlasting love; Christ died and returned from the dead three days after death and through him and him alone we find the gift of grace and atonement for sin; God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three in one (the trinity) and the Holy Spirit (essentially all three since they are one in the same yet separate) lives within you when you admit that you are a sinner, believe that Christ died for your sins on the cross and rose from the grave after three days, and confess that Jesus is Lord and Savior of your life. Sorry, I know that I just ran off on a tangent, but I felt that that above all was necessary for this entire blog. I may be expressing my views of these experiences with an unbiased opinion, but in all reality that is a choice I am having to make for anthropological reasons. In all reality my opinions, outside of this blog, are biased towards what I believe because it is, in fact, what I believe. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my faith in the things above mean the difference between life and death for me.
Alright, back to the second Sunday experience.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that the little information I know of this specific religion/denomination of christianity comes from the drawn out weddings of distant relatives that I have attended, a religion class that I took at the community college (which seriously neglected catholicism to focus on more "exotic" religions), and the movie Nacho Libre. Not very solid resources if you ask me. With that being said this specific blog may not be too great but bare with me if you would.
One thing that was interesting was that there was scripture read but I never really understood what they were reading from. I recognized some things being from the bible such as a reference to Matthew 10:37 which refers to the fact that if you love your father or mother more than Jesus then you are not worthy of him. The whole idea was that you must love Christ above all. But there was more to that specific reference that I did not find in the Bible. It makes me wonder if what they were reading was a different version of what a baptist or someone like that would read within the Hebrew Bible or if it was something that was not originally placed within the Hebrew Bible but rather a Deuterocanonical book meaning that it is scripture but not apart of what we know as the Holy Bible. I have heard that catholics do use more than just the Bible as a religious text.
While the priest spoke about taking up our cross (which is found in Matthew 16:24) and following after Christ, it made me think of how different this sermon was from last week. Last week was all positivity. In this sermon I felt that the priest was being more real with us, aside from the fact that he was reading from an unknown (to me) text. He told us that it would be hard but that it was important to rid yourself of earthly burdens and follow after Christ. Now that is truth. He also mentioned that our faith is tested everyday in the 1000 decisions we have to make. So true! We are constantly having to choose right from wrong and what will bring Christ glory instead of glory to myself. Right on Mr. Priest :)
Lastly, being that I have very little understanding of anything that went on during this mass, I noticed something interesting. It interests me that they take communion every week as a church body. Many churches differ on this making me wonder what God would prefer us do. Catholic mass has a sort of mandatory/habitual communion weekly, some churches do it on a schedule and it is orchestrated by the pastors and deacons, and other churches set it up for members to do it as they please. Just thought it was interesting to see.
Overall this Sunday left me with many questions. If the priest was talking about following after Christ does this specific church recognize Christ as Savior and believe in salvation by faith or by works? What is the proper procedure for communion and how often should we practice this... what is God's intention for this?
So many things went through my head during this last Sunday. I know this was a rough blog, but I was honest and I promise they will not all be this confusing or hard to produce. Hope y'all have a great week!
Sunday Vagabond Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment