“Oh my God! There’s a Jesus on that cross!” This was my first thought during the journey into the world of the Catholic university. I was prepared to make my college experience an exercise in “living outside my comfort zone,” beginning with my first-ever Roman Catholic Mass the day before my first class at a university I had long dreamed of attending. I was prepared for a tradition that wasn’t my own, for the open discussion of spiritual ideals and their place in modern society. I was not prepared for a large crucifix.
As a proud product of lifelong public schooling in New Jersey, I have been finding it difficult to embrace the newfound presence of the Almighty in worldly schooling. To me, education about the natural world and the humanities has always been separate from that of the Holy Sacraments and the Ten Commandments.
During Convocation, I felt discomfort at seeing the regalia of the educational world—the flowing robes and flying banners—mixed with that of the religious, as the choir sang hymns of praise. This juxtaposition, mixed with explanations by faculty and fellow students. brought me to terms with the often invoked Jesuit maxim, cura personalis: education at Georgetown will be as spiritual as it will be practical. It is not what I’m used to. Of course, I’m also used to free textbooks, and those won’t be coming back, either.
Walking to class the other day, I saw an Orthodox Jew wearing a yarmulke entering the ICC. My partner in French class comes from Saudi Arabia. Finding Marx on my Problem of God syllabus provided that even atheism has a voice at Georgetown. Nurturing this diversity in belief, as in the University’s Catholic and non-Catholic, traditions, helps us examine educational issues with a greater understanding.
Without examining your own faith and how it contributes to civic life, you would find it difficult to examine the public lives of other people. Embracing your feelings about faith, whether they’re existent or not, allows you to approach key modern issues from a different perspective. Finding a place for Islamic law within a society is a major hurdle for development and international relations in many Muslim countries. One even finds the collision of religious values and civic lives in a country with the separation of church and state: many Americans’ refusal to support stem-cell research is based almost entirely on religious belief. An education without an understanding of life’s religious questions would leave us sorely unprepared for life’s political and social dilemmas.
The next time I see my Savior dangling from a cross, I will know that it is a symbol of His sacrifice, and will not be alarmed. I won’t be appalled to discuss religious views when studying Nichomachean ethics, and I won’t be afraid to explore religious viewpoints as causes or solutions for conflicts across the world. At Georgetown, religion and education are as inseparable as they should be.
