This is perhaps a strange post to begin rejuvenating this blog, but it came to me while riding in an elevator, so I'll attempt to flesh it out somewhat. Also, thanks to Andy Morgan for the motivation to, at least temporarily, get back to this. Preemptive apologies for my rather rusty writing, I'm out of practice.
As I was making lunch today, I heard the Muslim Call to Prayer, the Adhan (this version has better quality audio). I have no idea where it came from, as we have no mosques near by and I have definitely never heard it in Belgium. I find it hauntingly beautiful, especially in the context of a crowded city in Turkey, where I first heard it, where all activity ceased, briefly, in favor of respectful prayer.
For many westerners, however, the Call to Prayer is an audible symbol of everything foreign and threatening about the Muslim faith. Even, friends and acquaintances traveling to Muslim countries, generally the most open of people, have expressed their unease and even fear when they hear it. Minarets are banned in some normally open countries, like Switzerland, for fear that they will encourage radical Islam. If nothing else, it is most agree that the call and what it represents is certainly not Christian.
As a Christian, and especially as a Catholic, I believe that we can learn a lot from the Adhan, that its message is central not only to Islam, but to our own faith, and the imitation of the practice could lend a new life to the Catholic faith.
Among the central tenets of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), and indeed the Christian churches as a whole, is that we are one in Christ, unified in Christ. We believe that we are one body in Christ. Even the word 'Catholic' means universal. Every week, Catholics around the world celebrate, in unity, the same mass. We all read the same readings from missal, pray the same prayers, and, importantly, profess the same core beliefs in the Creed. It is a great gift of the RCC that I can go anywhere in the world, in any language, and fully participate in the celebration of our Lord's death and rebirth.
The call to prayer is nothing less than this. Five times a day, Muslims around the world cease their normal activities and pray together, united as brothers and sisters in submission to the same God. As one body, they profess their belief in and submission to God, and the manifestation of his desires. The same God, in fact, to whom we also profess our devotion. For a few brief moments, the chaos of the day is set aside in exchange for the peace of a communion with God, facing the holy altar of Mecca.
As I was making lunch today, I heard the Muslim Call to Prayer, the Adhan (this version has better quality audio). I have no idea where it came from, as we have no mosques near by and I have definitely never heard it in Belgium. I find it hauntingly beautiful, especially in the context of a crowded city in Turkey, where I first heard it, where all activity ceased, briefly, in favor of respectful prayer.
For many westerners, however, the Call to Prayer is an audible symbol of everything foreign and threatening about the Muslim faith. Even, friends and acquaintances traveling to Muslim countries, generally the most open of people, have expressed their unease and even fear when they hear it. Minarets are banned in some normally open countries, like Switzerland, for fear that they will encourage radical Islam. If nothing else, it is most agree that the call and what it represents is certainly not Christian.
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| Christians protect Muslims who are praying during the 2011 Egyptian uprising in Cairo. |
Among the central tenets of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), and indeed the Christian churches as a whole, is that we are one in Christ, unified in Christ. We believe that we are one body in Christ. Even the word 'Catholic' means universal. Every week, Catholics around the world celebrate, in unity, the same mass. We all read the same readings from missal, pray the same prayers, and, importantly, profess the same core beliefs in the Creed. It is a great gift of the RCC that I can go anywhere in the world, in any language, and fully participate in the celebration of our Lord's death and rebirth.
The call to prayer is nothing less than this. Five times a day, Muslims around the world cease their normal activities and pray together, united as brothers and sisters in submission to the same God. As one body, they profess their belief in and submission to God, and the manifestation of his desires. The same God, in fact, to whom we also profess our devotion. For a few brief moments, the chaos of the day is set aside in exchange for the peace of a communion with God, facing the holy altar of Mecca.
Even the Call, a Creed unto itself, is incredibly Christian, something we would be proud of.
God (Allah) is [the] greatest.
I bear witness that there is no deity except God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
Come to prayer (salat)
Come to success.
[The time for the best of deeds has come!] - from the Shi'a prayer
God is greater.
There is no deity except for God.
Replace, "Muhammad is the Messenger of God," with "Jesus is the Son of God," and we have a simple Christian Creed. Add, "I bear witness that Christ died for our sins, and rose again, triumphant," and we have a complete, if simple, Christian Creed.
I do not think that it is strange to suggest that we Catholics would benefit spiritually, theologically, and communally from a pause from the material world, where we, as one body in Christ, lay our lives before before him and publicly, for all the world to see, profess our faith and spread the joyful news of the Resurrection.
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