Each dawn, the early morning incantations are being heard by us through loud outdoor speakers, mounted at the minaret of the sprawling Mosque nearby. Young boys are under their fathers’ tutelage for the chanting of the sacred mantra, and their sons’ novice performances were a source of delight and honor for their respective families. Their faith is freely exercised here, void of any impediments, and the emergence of countless Arabic schools for young children is also fascinating to note.
Bells are keeping tolling to summon the faithful to gather at the Cathedral and to celebrate the Eucharistic mass. The litanies of angelus prayer are heard, and the singing of traditional hymns in the vernacular language is also soothing to hear. There is timely relief, a spiritual balm from many uncertainties and pains; a homily was given by a veteran priest to his listening parishioners.
Sunday is considered a sacred day for many. Most Protestant denominations go to church on Sunday except for the Seventh-Day Adventists who relentlessly believed that the Sabbath rest falls on Saturday. Common among many Protestant churches is the allotted time for Sunday school. Children are gathered to hear stories found in the Bible, and Bible characters were studied, extracting virtues that are exemplary and worthy of emulation.
The emergence of this popular militant genre of evangelism by various sects that has found their way in many urban centers and public places is a futile and unproductive practice. This outlandish public preaching and efforts to proselyte has oftentimes resulted into clash of doctrines and the intolerance of others’ beliefs could be an unwelcome consequence later. The gruesome bigotry of Judaism religion as practiced in Jesus’ days can still be observed today in many of our existing modern sects.
It is perplexing to imagine that inside our churches, where, we continually hear teachings about love, justice and mercy, but unfortunately we also witness the goring practices of bigotry, economic discrimination, and biases due to absence of academic credentials of some fellows, all these are irreconcilable to the things Jesus had taught and practiced during his time.
There are Pharisaical moralists inside our churches that refused to welcome any morally unfit non-church members. These moralists have sadly kept many helpless souls from experiencing the Teacher’s boundless love which He commanded all his disciples to excel in practice.
An insipid kind of affection has drawn us into this unnerving apostasy, and it is eon away from Christ’s all-encompassing love to all sorts of men during his time- those hated revenue collectors that Jesus had dined with, those throng of unclean lepers which the Law of Moses had glaringly mistreated as social outcasts but were strangely touched and healed by Jesus, and the woman caught in a forbidden relation, rescued by the Teacher from the moralists’ stoning penalty.
The Teacher never turns His back on them; His boundless love had embraced them all, and the Teacher was unrestrained in manifesting his love to them, even if, at that time, it was against the prevailing public opinion. Jesus had forsaken the path of conventional conformity and instead chose to be identified with the losers, with the nobodies, and with those unknown irreligious persons of his place then. In fact, the pundits of Mosaic Law had branded Jesus as a glutton, a drunkard and much more of negative characters to be despised by many.
It was the hardworking Paul of Tarsus that had penned these words: “And now these three remain: hope, faith and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1Cor.13:13)