We are governed by our culture
12th March 2012 · 0 Comments
By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Columnist
Dutifully recording in oil everything they themselves have experienced in their own birth, upbringing, culture, environment and circumstances of life, practically all artists, including the great masters, depict Jesus and his apostles at the Last Supper seated at table. The problem is that Jesus and the apostles were not seated at the Last Supper.
For, talking about the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, Matthew 26:20 tells us clearly, “When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve.”
Reclining at a table was not a custom native to the Jews. The ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, and Greeks used to eat sitting on mats spread on the floor. Thus, we read of the former Egyptian slave Joseph banqueting with his brothers. Genesis 43:33 speaks of Joseph’s brothers sitting on seats at a banquet in Egypt.
In a similar way, 1 Samuel 20:5 depicts David having a seat at the table of King Saul. This case, as the one in Egypt, involved royalty or high position. On ordinary occasions, the “chair” used by the vast majority of Israelites was the ground or floor on which the Jews would spread a carpet or a mat for comfort.
The Romans and Greeks casually reclined on three couches arranged around a table so as to form three sides of a square. The open side was for the servants who brought the dishes. The three couches were designated highest, middle, and lowest, the highest being the place of honor with no one facing his back. One’s body would lie diagonally on the couch, his head being near the table, and his feet stretched out toward the back of the couch. His left elbow rested on a cushion that supported the upper part of his body, while his right arm was free to eat the food.
This explains perfectly the statement of John 13:23-25, “One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, ‘Master, who is it?’” What a far cry from some of the milquetoast paintings of this scene!
It is fitting and wonderful to be totally immersed in one’s own culture, so that life comes at us without a hitch, almost as a spontaneous reaction to our environment. That’s very good, but it can be dangerous where and when folks of other cultures enter the space of our thoughts, words and actions. Reconciling cultures can be a bit more than dicey.
Such reconciling is vital in every profession, every vocation, every walk of life, no matter where one goes, lives or works. Thus, we find interpreters and counselors helping Latino baseball players get over the hump. They learn quickly that the toughest part of the hump is not lingual, but the very new and different culture that they must adopt.
Adopting a new culture does not mean forsaking our own.
Rather, it means that we learn to accommodate ourselves to what is precious among whatever ethnic group with whom we live and work. Paul exemplifies this in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22,
“Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win over Jews; to those under the law I became like one under the law – though I myself am not under the law – to win over those under the law. To those outside the law I became like one outside the law – though I am not outside God’s law but within the law of Christ – to win over those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some.”
Until recent, more enlightened teachings and understandings, even many zealous, dedicated missionaries wittingly or unwittingly exported their own language, music and culture to peoples of the countries they set out to evangelize. Needless to say, much of that mode of spreading the Good News went over like a lead balloon among those folks.
Just as many, if not most, white folks have a tough time singing and enjoying Black Gospel music, so do many, if not most, Black folks have an equally tough time singing and enjoying white music. You say, “Isn’t music the universal language?” Certainly! But music is also very cultural and, therefore, not equally assimilable by all cultures.
Notwithstanding, as Paul, we can strive constantly to be all things to all people.
This article was originally published in the March 12, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
