Faith, reimagined for our times
1.11 | May 31, 2020 | Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Cor 13:13
IMAGE: Josh Applegate
Walking to church as a kid, my granny had a strange way of pointing to the clouds when talking about God. Now in the course of the pandemic, as church services increasingly move online, internet cloud services are in vogue. My granny, now long gone, could have sounded futuristic; but we are now left asking — what would religion during the pandemic, and after, be like?
For all the restrictions we now live with, research indicates that there has been an intensified demand for religion as people searched for prayer and religious services online. With religious practice now receding to a more personal space, congregational spaces of worship lie empty. But what happens to religious faith practices that are embodied within community worship? For instance, the pandemic enforced new forms of celebrating the Jewish Passover, the Christian season of Lent and Easter, as well as the Muslim observance of Ramadan. Apart from community, what is further challenged is the understanding of sacramentality connected to worship. We wonder — is this really it? Is this for real?
A multi-faith research project by the faculty of Religious Studies from Texas A&M University already explores The Future of Religion in a Post-Pandemic World. An insight worth considering could be Heidi Campbell’s study on “Religion Embracing and Resisting Cultural Change in a Time of Social Distancing” that proposes, rather boldly I must say, that religious faith practices might want to rethink their dependence on older models of community and religious commitment. Her research suggests that “people are looking for a faith-based social network where they can build relationships, share their faith, and find meaning and value.”
While we could sit back and lament at the passing of the old order, we could also see how a renewed situation could bring new meaning and creativity to our faith practice. Fr. Warner D’Souza’s kitchen pulpit in suburban Mumbai that combines cooking with spiritual hunger is a case in point; but so are Episcopal and Anglican churches in Latin America that provide spiritual accompaniment.
Moreover as the message is now mediated through a different medium like television or internet, we could ask what takes precedence — the message or the medium? To what extent does it lead us to encounter God, and in turn, one another? Jake Martin SJ’s piece on learning to pray in front of the television is a compelling read on how even a film can be the source of a spiritually enriching practice that deepens one’s faith.
Last evening as I joined the Jesuits globally for an hour of Ignatian Pentecost, one could experience how the pandemic had occasioned a new form of global solidarity for our religious faith and practices. As multiple voices from Colombia, Honduras and the United States to Spain and Italy, to Chad and Kenya to India and the Philippines shared their faith experiences, we were witnesses to how our faith and practice was also being reimagined through a community built on global solidarity.
Wishing you faith, hope and love,
Rinald D’Souza SJ
HISTORIA DOMUS
Readings
FAITH
Learning to pray in front of the television
If you have found yourself spending more time in front of the small screen in recent weeks, you are certainly not alone. Jake Martin SJ suggests that ‘instead of seeing film and tv as an “escape”, we can instead look to integrate it into our spiritual practice’. How can we learn to identify the films and programmes that are leading us towards consolation rather than desolation?
Jake Martin SJ | Thinking Faith | 24 May 2020
For many of us in the days before Covid-19, film, television and other forms of new media were something very much separate from our spiritual realm; but then we had more tangible resources, such as our parish community, retreat centres, classes, etc., which we can only access now in a limited way. Just as we see various new means of coming together emerging across various social media platforms, so too must we begin to think creatively about how to nurture our souls from within the confines of our home. So, instead of seeing film and tv as an ‘escape’, we can instead look to integrate it into our spiritual practice.
By becoming more engaged spectators we can turn the process of film-watching into an experience that does not just ‘pass the time’ in the midst of a lockdown, but one that becomes a spiritually enriching practice that deepens your faith and brings you closer to Christ.
HOPE
Religion in Quarantine: The Future of Religion in a Post-Pandemic World
Heidi A Campbell (ed) | Texas A&M University | 19 May 2020
Religion in Quarantine: The Future of Religion in a Post-Pandemic World, is an eBook collection of essays written by religious studies faculty and graduates students from Texas A&M University. Coming from a variety of religious traditions — including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism — each essay considers what future of religion might look like in light of the changes facilitated by the current COVID-19 pandemic and the potential challenges this may raise for religious communities. The first section of essays are narratives from different professors on their own spiritual journeys during the pandemic lockdown. These are very personal reflections where scholars reflect on their experiences of and connection with a specific religious community both as practitioners and scholars. The second-half essays feature reflections from faculty on recent research projects and how that work has been influenced by the pandemic. Here, faculty focused on how current conditions and trends observed in religion’s negotiation with the culture of COVID-19 have caused them to critically reflect on their own religious studies-focused research.
LOVE
Making his kitchen his pulpit, Indian priest highlights the pandemic’s hungry
Priyadarshini Sen, The Associated Press | National Catholic Reporter | 23 May 2020
D’Souza first reached out to the poor in his church’s community with food supplies, medical and financial aid. But as a “religious leader with a social conscience,” as he calls himself, he wanted to do more to instill hope in people across different faiths.
“I felt the pulpit could be the church or the kitchen,” said D’Souza. “The stereotype of a priest in a white cassock with bent knees takes away the humanness of a person.”
In his first video about conscious eating, D’Souza tried to shed the image of a “demigod priest.” Wearing a black apron over a T-shirt, he read a passage from the Gospel of Luke in which a resurrected Jesus sat down for a meal on the road to Emmaus. While stirring a pot of chicken in barbecue sauce, D’Souza observed, “Jesus did a lot of faith-teaching through food. So must we.”
Postscript
Postscript
One Spirit, One World, One Vigil: Ignatian Pentecost
Jesuits Global, Society of Jesus | 30 May 2020
We are here to Help
For it is not so much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul,
but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, #2
What is Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona all about?
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