Religious Fervour

   A couple years ago, we visited the Church de San Merced in Antigua Guatemala when an elderly Mayan man offered to take us on a tour. The architecture of the ancient yellow church is stunning. Carved stone and soaring ceilings. Our tour guide identified as Catholic but in a sort of apologetic way he said his wife was more religious with the rituals than he was. He told us of atrocities the Jesuit priests performed in the city as we stood on the rooftop with its mountaintop views. He gestured toward the graveyard of babies left behind on the other side of the mountain that attest to past cruelty . He said todays Catholic religion is not so cruel like the Jesuits were when they ruled the political and religious regime. He showed us the door  to the room where you can go in and make confessions to the priest to clear your way before you go in prayer before the saint of the church.

   He proudly showed us the large image of Jesus that takes forty men to carry during religious processions. There were other images in large cases all around in the church and people praying before them, specific saints for specific needs and also specific prayers. The main saint at the front of the church is the saint of mercy and appealed to for prisoners or people in bondage. One older Mayan woman was making her way up the main center aisle on a pilgrimage of prayer. On her knees, painfully and slowly, she paused and prayed and leaned on pews as she went. A rosary was in her hands and she was in agony of tears. Out of respect for the worshipping people, we only whispered if we talked at all inside the large sanctuary.

   Something about religious fervour like that is touching and I respect it. It made me feel like crying as i wondered if she’d feel her prayers were answered for her loved one. I want to love like that but I also want to take my prayers to a living Jesus, the Son of God.

   I’ve been praying this month to draw closer to Jesus and  been reading long passages in the Bible. Perhaps thinking of the Advent is a pilgrimage of sorts. Like Jesus said in John 4:21-24 to the woman at the well, “Believe me, the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

   God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”

   In other news, I saw a headline in a Spanish site and read the article how millions of pilgrims are expected to visit the Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico this December. They sleep outside the basilica and sing “Las Mañanitas” to the image of Mary each morning as a tribute to her.

   Tradition says that in 1531, the virgin appeared to the Indigenous peasant Juan Diego. Her image then appeared on his cloak, which you can view inside the church he was ordered to build. Juan Diego was later ordained a saint by Pope John Paul II.

Those who make the pilgrimage ask for help from the Virgin or just come in worship.  Some finish the last stretch to the Basilica barefoot or on their knees. Already this year they estimate over 3.1 million have arrived at the site.

   Similar pilgrimages over the nine days of the “posada” are happening in Guatemala and probably many Catholic regions. La posada commemorates the journey Joseph and Mary traveled and if I understand right, these nine days of religious festivity are for the nine months Mary carried baby Jesus. There will be processions down the streets  and fireworks and traditional foods. Perhaps there will also be cold lonely nights and tears cried afterward. Perhaps the performing of ritual acts will soothe some people’s heartbreak.

   I do not know how much of my religion is simply an act or a ritual I go through. I do know that I can pray wherever I am to Jesus and I feel He answers many of my prayers. In one Christmas program we listened to yesterday they sang the song, “Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word.”

   That is my prayer,I want the story of Jesus to be alive in my heart. I know He is alive. I know the Bible is a living letter from God.

   I do not know all the background and reasoning behind others’ religious traditions. Often traditions can become empty spaces unless the heart is right. Sometimes religious fervour, even though it comes out wrong, gets answered by the true God. I have always loved the part in C.S. Lewis book, The Last Battle, where the young Calormene enemy soldier with a peaceful look on his face offers to go into the stable to meet what he thinks will be his god when the group gets told his god and Aslan are one. They are trying to persuade the Narnians to go into the hut to get killed by enemies.

   After he enters, he does not meet his god but he meets Aslan who represents Jesus. He also discovers that the inside of the stable is much bigger than the outside, for within it was an immense space of sky and wide lands and sweetness and grass. There Aslan came to meet and he recognized Him as The Glorious One. He worships and repents, saying,” Alas, Lord, I am no child of Thine but have been the servant of Tash.”

   Aslan answered and said, “Child, all the good service you have done for Tash, I account it as service done to me. All the desires and longing you have had are for Me.”

   Surely there is mercy for those who have a fervent and humble heart, ready to seek and learn more. Like the Samaritan woman at the well whom the Jews reviled but Jesus chose to converse with, God continually gives second chances.

   As I wondered more about religious fervour and whether I have done wrong like the Catholics in the past out of a zealous heart, I studied more and read others’ writings. Here is what A. W. Tozer says on the subject.

   “Not the quantity of zeal matters to God, but the quality. The significant question is not how zealous is the Christian but why is he zealous and to what does his zeal lead? To the church at Laodicea our Lord said, “Be zealous, therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19, KJV). The zeal that leads to penitence, restitution and amendment of life is surely dear to God. The ardor that drives a man to his knees in intercession for others was found in men like Moses, Daniel and Ezra; but there is a kind of zeal that gives to the world such misshapen religious examples as Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy.

That many Christians in our day are lukewarm and somnolent will not be denied by anyone with an anointed eye, but the cure is not to stir them up to a frenzy of activity. That would be but to take them out of one error and into another. What we need is a zealous hunger for God, an avid thirst after righteousness, a pain-filled longing to be Christlike and holy. We need a zeal that is loving, self-effacing and lowly. No other kind will do.

That pure love for God and men which expresses itself in a burning desire to advance God’s glory and leads to poured-out devotion to the temporal and eternal welfare of our fellow men is certainly approved of God; but the nervous, squirrel-cage activity of self-centered and ambitious religious leaders is just as certainly offensive to Him and will prove at last to have been injurious to the souls of countless millions of human beings.”

   Many times throughout the gospels it is also made clear how important it is that our worship and zeal leads to Jesus. When Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms at the temple, he did not praise the mother of Jesus, the virgin Mary. He praised Jesus as the Son of God.

   "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34)

   The apostles did not give Mary a saintly role but she appears as a servant of God. Her death is not recorded in the Bible. I pray that those who are on a pilgrimage to sites where she has been said to appear will somehow encounter Christ as their personal Saviour. Instead of healing from the Virgin, maybe their pain can be eased by knowing the Truth of Jesus’ salvation. Maybe like Paul experienced on the road to Damascus, religious fervour can be transformed into a worshiping servitude. Sinner converted into everyday saint.

   For myself, I want to be like Mary, handmaiden of the Lord, ready to praise and obey my Saviour. I want a religious fervour that is lowly and can pour itself out as an offering in acts of service for others.

(Luke 1:46-55)

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

For He that is Mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is His name.

And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation.

He hath shewed strength with his arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.

He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;

As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to His seed for ever.