Floods, God, Providence

Filipino weather is bizarre. Yesterday, Karl, Tita Lydda, and I went to the noon mass and it was pouring outside:

Yet this did not seem to faze anyone. Kids were playing basketball despite huge puddles in the middle of their courts, shooting baskets against the wind. People were biking despite six inch high waters:

Mass took an hour and a half. It was especially interesting for me; my family's Catholic and Karl's family is Born Again. The name of their church is Christ Commission Fellowship. This was my first time attending a non-Catholic mass.

The differences in how the masses are designed are pretty clear. I'm no theologian and I've forgotten everything they taught me in Sunday school and apologetics classes, but I view the Catholic mass in four parts: 1st reading, 2nd reading, the homaly (a ten minute sermon), and the Eucharist (eating the bread and wine, or rather, in the Catholic tradition, eating the actual body and blood of Christ--see "transubstantiation"). The congregation sings at the beginning, in-between all the parts, and at the end.

The Christ Commission Fellowship mass, by contrast, seems to comprise only the sermon. Instead of a 1st and 2nd reading, the pastor works Scripture into an hour long sermon, which he appears to draw from the verses that support his argument, and there's no Eucharist to follow. The music is certainly different; the Congregation sings before and after the sermon, and the music is much more soulful than anything I've heard at a Catholic mass, powered by a full band and not just an organ or piano, and--this is a huge difference--the Congregation actually sings. Okay, Catholics sing, too, and our music is pretty but reserved.

The pastor spoke on God's unconditional love, i.e. sola fide, or salvation through faith alone. This is a huge difference between this church and the Catholic tradition, which preaches salvation through faith paired with good works. But in my opinion, this difference is actually semantic; although the "ten word phrase" describing each of these positions--sola fide vs. faith and good works--implies a huge difference, both this Born Again pastor and my Roman Catholic priest made the exact same argument in their sermons. They both argued that good works are an illustration of true faith. Theologically, the assumptions underlying these arguments are, of course, different, and both traditions argue different approaches to salvation. But operationally, they are both saying the exact same thing: do both.

The most valuable of the sermon came when the pastor invited up a middle-aged woman to make a confession to her fellow congregates. She gave a genuine and painful account of her life story. Growing up, this woman felt driven to perfection and success in order to please her parents, scoring highest honors in high school and college and becoming a high-powered lawyer. Yet later in life, she learned that her mother had tried to abort her, triggering a crisis of faith and leading her to this chuch. But her confession was that recently she realized that had been taking out her anger on her son, also driving him to hollow perfection. She came to this realization when she asked, "Mom, is it okay if I get second place?"

For me, the value behind this experience is not in understanding theological differences or finding alternatives to Catholicism. Rather, this experience brought me closer to my cousin, his family, and his community. And it was good.

After mass, we discovered that it was absolutely beautiful outside. Except for some fallen branches and trees, it was like nothing had happened. People were still using their umbrellas, though, but this time protecting themselves from the sun instead of the rain.

My morning, in short: floods, God, providence. Coincidence? Hmmm...

Oh and this is for my mom: