Ryan NorrisEven though I have gone through the steps of being a Catholic, religion has never been an overarching aspect of my life. I went to CCD classes when I was in grade school. The only thing that I really remember about that experience is that we all thought CCD stood for Central City Dump. Other then that, the rest of the time I spent in those classes is vague. Attending church every Sunday was something that I always dreaded. Even though I would try to pay attention, I found myself daydreaming during the entire service. Over the years, attending church every Sunday has dwindled down to simply attending on Christmas (technically Christmas eve). Until recently, this has been the extent of my religious practices.
About a month or two ago my boyfriend asked if I would go to church with him. I was surprised by the question, but still said yes. The church is nondenominational. In other words, it’s a Christian church open to anyone who wants to practice their faith, whatever it may be. Attending this church turned out to be one of the nicest experiences. I can actually understand what the pastor is talking about, which is something that was always very hard for me to do at church before. He applies religion to life making it much easier for me to integrate religion into my everyday life. The church is filled with the kindest people, too. Everyone is so nice and eager to introduce themselves and meet new people. In my experience before, you would turn to others and say “peace be with you.” At this church, your given about five minutes just to walk around and mingle. In fact, on Super Bowl Sunday, my boyfriend was invited to play flag football by a group of people that he had just met.
The pastor is going to dedicate the next four weeks to discussing the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” So after church last Sunday, I went to see the movie. It is by far the most powerful movie that I have ever seen. Watching this movie for two hours had more of an affect on me than the past 20 years as a Catholic. I have always known that Jesus died for us, but to actually see what he went through, the torture and the beatings, was at times too much for me to watch. Not only did seeing Jesus suffer have an effect on me, but also seeing Mary suffer. The points in the movie when she went to him made me cry. She knew her son was the son of God and I can’t imagine how it felt to see him crucified because people didn’t believe his message. This is the first movie that I have seen where afterwards the theater was quiet. Now I find it interesting to bring up this movie and see where the conversation leads. It’s amazing that something that we’ve all known about and that happened so long ago can still have such an effect on people after they see it for themselves.
The other day when I was driving on the Blue Route, two of the three lanes were blocked off because of a car accident. I noticed people around me who were on their cell phones complaining or cursing at the person in front of them. While all of that was going on around me, I was just praying that the people involved in the accident were alright. Hopefully, they too could go home to their families as I was. This is how I know that my recent experiences with religion have truly touched me, because a couple months ago I would not have had the same reaction to seeing an accident.
