Do we respect god of Islam more than The One True God that our Catholic Church worships?

The title of this article is actually a concerned question that has been on my head for several years. I have observed many people’s behaviour regarding respect that one gives to a religious place. I believe after reading that sentence above some people may ask, “Respect? How exactly do you measure respect? You have no idea what is in the heart of those people.” To that I will answer, yes, I do not know what is truly in the heart of anyone because I am not God. However, I do know that whatever is truly believed in the heart will be reflected to the outside with the way one behaves, talks, and dresses.

Now, I believe some people have prepared to object what I wrote by saying, “What about those pretenders who are good at mimicking good behaviours, talk nicely, and dress neatly? From the outside they look great, but from the inside they are very corrupt.” To that I will say, the fact that you know they are only pretenders means rotten fruit will sooner or later exude its unpleasant smell. You could only know they are pretenders because they do something contrary to what they usually portray themselves as, which means it is true that what is truly believed in the heart will sooner or later be reflected on the way they behave, talk, and dress. It is true then, what the Holy Bible has taught us all this time, that “you will know them by their fruits.”

Some people might nod now and wonder what is the connection of all this with the title. Here is the connection. As someone who lives in a country which is getting more crowded from all the visits from foreigners, I can’t help but observe their behaviour when they visit my country, especially the religious places. Once, a group of foreigners (Westerners) that I know visited Cathedral in my place. They came very “casually” with tank tops and hot pants (the girls) and sleeveless T-shirts and short pants (the guys), and I thought to myself, “Maybe they have no modest clothes because they are on vacation and this is tropical country so they don’t want to get hot. But nobody needs such revealing clothing in this tropical country, and why can’t they be modest when they are on vacation though? It’s not like they can’t afford real clothing,” etc. You know, it was kind of like me making excuses in my head for the sake of “benefit of the doubt”, but every excuse that I made for them can easily be objected by the facts on the field.

Maybe for some people who read this, you think that there is no problem in that situation, or maybe even worse you might think, “Well be glad that they at least visited a Cathedral.” Now, hold that thought and let’s continue the story for a while. The same group of foreigners who visited the Cathedral immodestly also visited the Grand Mosque. By now can you already guess what the next sentences would be? They went to the Grand Mosque, dressing modestly. The guys wore long pants and sleeved tops while the girls wore long skirts with sleeved tops, not to mention the girls also had scarves to cover their head.

The thing that made me sad the most was the fact that they actually put effort to dress modestly when they went to a Mosque, but did not give at least the same effort to dress modestly when they went to a Church. That time I can’t help but wonder, what is wrong with us? I do not know what is being taught over there, but I know for sure that I am disappointed. I can try to understand their situation, even though I still can't justify their actions, if they chose to be immodest in both Church and Mosque, with some thoughts like, “Maybe it’s just their culture. Maybe they are too used to be ‘naked’ and see ‘naked’ people on their streets, so modesty would offend them,” or things similar to it. But, that was not the case. They, and many other foreigners, choose to be modest in a Mosque, but not in a Church.

So I asked them why they dressed modestly to Mosque but not to Church. And their answer was very heart-breaking. They said, “Well, it was a Church. Nobody covers themselves in the Church at my place, so why should I?” Now, try to re-read those sentences again slowly and think for a while. Whose fault is it that makes these people have this misguided idea? I dare to say it is the fault of Christians in our respective countries who never give an effort to be modest in the house of God that we profess to worship.

If we do not show respect to the God that we profess to worship, why exactly would others who do not believe in Him respect Him? Now, do not come at me with sayings like “what important is what’s in the heart ONLY” because Jeremiah 17:9-10 has clearly said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”” This is also exactly why it is said, “Faith apart from works is dead.” (See James 2:26)

So, what exactly is the root of the problem? I must say it is the lack of effort, or to explain it better, the lack of sacrifice. I personally think we are too attached to our worldly attachments, to the point it is hard to sacrifice them for the sake of our beloved King of kings. We like to make excuses that allow ourselves to stay attached to our worldly attachments. Now, I believe some people have prepared their objections with sayings like, “You don’t know how hot it is here in the summer, it is ridiculous to expect us to cover ourselves in this kind of heat because we might get heat stroke.” To that I will say, do you think tropical countries are not hot? Do you think Middle East is not hot? How come people can dress modestly in these countries with scorching sun but you cannot? Even if you make excuse and say your place is way hotter than other places on summer, how come there are people who still can dress modestly during summer in your place? Some people there even put on head coverings in that heat, like scarves or hats etc, (which I will argue is actually a good way to keep one feels less hot and protect them from the sun during summer, but that would be for another post) that you think make them feel hotter.

So, is the sun the problem? No. It’s our effort, our sacrifice, which is the problem. For many others, they say, “I do it to prove my love to my Creator; hopefully He will receive my acts of love.” For many of us, we say, “I can do whatever I want, Jesus will understand.” Does this feel like a slap on the face? Seriously, if that can wake us up, that would be enough for me. I believe there are some people who brush this message off by thinking they cannot be bothered with such a “small matter” like modesty. To that, I will present you a Bible verse that hopefully will make us think twice before brushing off such “small matter”, which can be found in Luke 16:10, “ He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” Pax Christi for all of us.