By: Alex J. Nagem (c) Rev. August 5, 2024
My trek in search of religious answers began in the late 1970s when I spent a month in Israel walking through the streets and alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem, the paths of Mount of Olives, and the surrounding area. I had the opportunity to talk with people of various religions and sects. My mornings began in a small coffee shop near my hotel. I would sit at the same table each morning, drinking strong Turkish coffee, watching people, and listening to the various languages and dialects.
An elderly gentleman sitting at a table across from me asked my name and where I was going. I thought his English was incorrect. I told him my name and that I was from West Virginia in the United States. He smiled and repeated the same question, “Where are you going?” My response was vague. When you are in a foreign country, you never want to tell someone you don’t know your exact plans for the day. He smiled under his bearded face and said I was on a religious journey. I may not be aware of the journey today, but I will remember this journey in the days to come. He further said people of three main religions come to Jerusalem, people who are Christian, Jewish, or Islamic. He asked about my religion. With minor hesitation, I responded Christian. He smiled back and said he was Muslim. I told him I had been in the Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, when I was a young teenager. He said I should go again, that it would help with my journey. He has a nephew who could take me to the Mosque to pray. He said Christians fall to their knees to pray just as Muslims. We both pray to the same God. He said Muslims believe Jesus was one of the greatest prophets, just not the son of God. He said most religions don’t believe Mohammad was a great prophet or know much about him. Trying not to start a religious war in the small coffee shop in the Old City of Jerusalem, I did not persist with questions or answers about religion, which would only reveal my religious ignorance. I thanked him for the conversation and proceeded to leave, extending my hand to his to shake. He grabbed my hand and kissed it. He said it was a pleasure to meet someone who was beginning their religious journey and to remember that God will always be with me.
That day, as other days, I walked the streets of the Old City listening to conversations in languages I did not know, watching people stop and pray on the Via Dolorosa. I would walk through the different quarters of the city, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian. I would hear church bells ringing calling Christians to prayer, as well as, the Adhan calling the Muslims to prayer. I would see Hasidic Jews rushing through the street on their way to the Western Wall for prayer. I was in my twenties during this time. I had not seen so many people pray so many times during the day. I thought attending Sunday Mass was good enough. The old Muslim man was correct. I was beginning my religious journey. I was becoming aware of my surroundings, not the buildings or the aroma of different foods cooking, but of religious surroundings of prayer to God our creator. During this time, I prayed in the Muslim Mosque, at the Western Wall, at the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension, and at numerous Christian churches and holy places. I was caught up in the moment of prayer. It wasn’t until years later that I would begin to see what meaning this journey would have for me.
As a young man, I became lost in my quest for wealth and the wants of all superfluous. Like many, I had placed personal interests before God. I was complacent to attend Mass on Sunday, giving my hour of worship and thoughts to God. We need that dramatic slap in the back of the head to realize we are headed in the wrong direction. The word “realize” is the word to be emphasized in the last sentence. Realizing you should live as God wills for you is not the same as the decision to do so. The realization and decision came when several family members crossed the threshold, found the answers to all the questions of the universe, and saw the face of God. In a period of a few years, I lost my father, brother, and father-in-law. I wondered what it was like to be confronted face-to-face with God. I have to believe that God is always with us, as to why I end all my writings with the phrase “Vocatus Atque non Vocatus, Deus Aderit,” which translates to “Bidden or Not Bidden, God is Present.”
It was a few decades later that I would remember the conversation with the old Muslim gentleman in the coffee shop in the Old City of Jerusalem. I was on a religious journey. I am in search of what God wants me to see and experience. I have heard countless sermons and stories of how we should love and respect one another, love and obey God. I am in search for those that have made the decision to live God’s will not just coming to the realization through a sermon. In my journey, I have found several who have made the decision.
I have found those who have a life taking care of the poor and the homeless. They are humble in their manners, quiet in the crowd. They do not look for praise, only support to help with the needs of others. For some, they have been blessed with a job or the good fortune that provides the means to help others. They give generously to help others, but do so quietly. I have found those who at a mature age, still pursue wealth and of all superfluous. I have found those that feel they must control others, failing to remember we are all God’s children. He has no favorites. I have found children who are now taking care of their elderly parents, and do so with love and respect. But the journey has not come to an end. There is still much more that God has intended that needs to be found.
“We are driven by self-interest. It’s necessary to survive. But we need wise self-interest that is generous and co-operative, taking others’ interests into account. Co-operation comes from friendship, friendship comes from trust, and trust comes from kindheartedness. Once you have a genuine sense of concern for others, there’s no room for cheating, bullying or exploitation.” (Dalai Lama).
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So, when you give to the needy, don’t announce it with trumpets like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by men. I tell you the truth. They have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-4)
“Faced by all those men without faith, without hope; by minds desperately near the borders of anguish, seeking for a meaning in their life, you found your purpose, Him! This discovery will permanently inject a new happiness into your existence. It will transform you and present you with an immense daily hoard of beautiful things of which you are unaware, and which show you the joyful expanse of the broad path that leads you to God.” (Furrow 83).
It has been many years since I walked the streets and alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem. I am now just beginning to understand my conversation with the old Muslim gentleman. Our path to God is a walk down our own Via Dolorosa.
You and your family are remembered in my prayers and I hope me and my family are remembered in yours.
Vocatus Atque non Vocatus, Deus Aderit
Alex J. Nagem