The Similarities and Differences Between Lutheranism, Catholicism, and Buddhism

For my final project I compared a Buddhist library and a Catholic Church to my Lutheran Church. The Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church had much in common because they are both Christian, and the Buddhist Library was very different.

The Catholic Church I visited was St. Elizabeth Seton Parish (SES); it is a very large church. When people came into the church, they would use the Holy Water to bless themselves. I found it interesting that the Holy Water is just tap water that has been blessed by the priest, and does not come from anywhere in particular. I also learned that the Holy Water is in the Baptismal Font, which is where baptisms take place. Before they went into the pew to sit, they knelt next to it and made the sign of the cross, the person I interviewed told me this was to respect the altar and the tabernacle, I learned that the tabernacle is where any unused bread, the body of Jesus, is kept after communion.

The service began with a reading followed by the placing of the first candle on the advent wreath, which is only done during the advent season. The service went relatively quickly I thought, compared to the service at my own church. The sermon was very short in comparison to the sermon at the Lutheran service. Before reading the gospel message for the day, the congregation sang halleluiah while the deacon carried the bible around over his head. This was different from my church where the pastors bring a personal bible to read from, I learned in the interview that the reason it is carried above the deacon's head is to show respect for God's word. I found it interesting that the gospel reading for the day was the same both at the Catholic Church and the Lutheran church that day; I think it was because it was the first day of advent. At many points in the service the congregation responded to things the priest or deacon said from memory, I learned that there is a booklet available called a missile that has all of the responses listed. During the interview I learned that the way they know what to say is just because they have done it so many times. At my church, even the parts of the service that are said every week are printed in the bulletin. The congregation also had memorized what parts to sit, stand, and kneel for, as far as I could tell there was no signal for when to do which.

In the interview I found out that the majority of Catholic churches have kneelers though some have decided not to have them anymore, and that kneeling is a prayer position out of respect for God. Around the room the service was in, there were small sculptures on the walls. In the interview I was told that there are fourteen of them and that each one represents a different point in the end of Jesus' life, from his arrest to his death. In the bulletin I noticed a message asking the congregation to "Please give Jesus an extra minute or two of your time. Do not leave mass until the procession of the Priest and servers has reached the rear of the church." I thought it was strange that there was a need for this message because at my church everyone waits until after the pastors have gone to the back of the sanctuary to leave, but at St. Elizabeth Seton, almost half the congregation had left before the priest was at the back. In my interview I confirmed that Catholics are required to attend church weekly as well as on a few holidays throughout the year. I think this may be the cause for the differences between the churches at the end of the service, I think that because the Lutheran faith doesn't require weekly church attendance the people who come to the service truly want to be there, while some of the Catholics may only be there because they feel obligated to be.

In addition to learning about the Catholic faith through observing the service I interviewed the church's High School Youth Ministry Director, Mike Kuhn. He explained the parts of the service I didn't understand and answered some of my questions about the religion. He explained the difference between a priest and a deacon, a priest is ordained while a deacon is not. SES has five deacons, in addition to helping with the worship service, each deacon heads a different ministry; one is in charge of helping people who are converting to Catholicism, another helps Catholics who have stopped participating in the religion return to the church, and another visits sick members of the church.

After reading the article about Mary in class, I was interested in his explanation of why Mary is more important to the Catholic Church than Protestants. He said it was because of the Immaculate Conception, and said that she was like the most important of the saints. He also explained how someone becomes a saint; first, they have to live an extra religious life to be considered, then after their death there must be multiple miracles that are considered their doing. I also learned that there are currently a lot of Italian saints because that is where the Church is based, but the number of saints from North America is going to increase because of the growing number of Catholics here. I also learned more about the Eucharist; I learned that the miracle that changes the bread and wine into Jesus' body and blood only changes the substance, not the form. Because of this change Jesus' body still looks and tastes like bread and his blood still looks and tastes like wine.

I also visited the Amitabha Buddhist Library in Chicago to learn about their beliefs. I attended a Dharma talk, which was done in the library. The library is located in a retail space, which is different than the other two worship places which were built as churches. The inside was just like a library in one room, the other was a worship space. Their service is longer than the other churches, they have a practice beginning at ten in the morning, and the Dharma talk ends around one thirty. In between they serve a lunch. I was invited to attend the Dharma talk, which took place after lunch. Everyone sat around the library and one of the co-directors of the library read from a book and interpreted the reading. The other co-director translated the speaker's message into English for the three (including me) people who couldn't understand Chinese. It was hard to understand the message because of the translation. The talk was very laid back; people weren't dressed up for it, and had not been for the practice either. Also, during the talk people got up to get more food for lunch, and some asked questions. It was like a classroom setting, the co-director taught and the others asked questions when confused, or shared stories to help clarify for others. I was surprised to see the method of explaining was similar to my Lutheran church. In both messages the leader used stories from their own life to clarify the message they were trying to get the group to understand. I believe the Dharma is the religious law for Buddhists, at this service they were reviewing the eighth point and then covering the ninth. Everyone read along in a book that had an explanation of what was meant by each of the ten points, and I used a similar book that also contained the English translation.

Much of the message was about treating everything kindly because all things in life can help you. The co-director told a story of how an unknown spirit helped her husband realize he had left the door to their house unlocked the night before and reminded him to lock it. A part of this teaching that I found very interesting was about monastic people and vegetarianism. I learned that because the Buddhist monks and nuns rely on the kindness of others they aren't vegetarian, so they are less of a burden to the people who are helping them.

After the Dharma talk I interviewed one of the library's co-directors, Bert Tan, about the beliefs of Buddhists. He informed me that Buddhism is not a religion. When I asked him about reincarnation, he told me that he did not believe in reincarnation and that it was a fact. He explained reincarnation as a "vicious cycle" which Buddhists are trying to escape by becoming enlightened. To describe the beliefs of Buddhism, he told me it was about cause and effect and used an analogy to explain it using a melon seed. He said that if you leave the seed sitting somewhere it will remain a seed, which is what it is like if you do nothing with your life. However, if you put the seed in soil it will begin to grow; everything you do in your life is planting a seed, or nurturing a seed to help it grow. When the seed grows into a plant and produces melons, the melons have more seeds and your actions continue to have a lasting effect. I asked him about the significance of some large flower sculptures and he said they represent spiritual growth because flowers come before the fruit. I asked about the spirits within humans, animals, plants, and rocks. I asked why it was ok to eat plants, but not animals and he explained that they are a different kind of spirit. Plants and inanimate objects cannot achieve enlightenment or be reincarnated as humans or animals. They have feelings, but the feelings are different than humans and animals have. He said that plants and animals come from the same basic roots but in the end they are different.

To explain enlightenment he used another analogy, he said it is like a dream, where everything seems real and you experience different emotions until you wake up and realize that none of it actually happened. And that enlightenment is like waking up from the dream of life, everything you see and feel is like a dream and when you are enlightened you can realize that. Once you become enlightened you become a Buddha. I learned some very interesting things about Buddhas. One thing is that they can return in whatever form they wish; they can be animals to help animals achieve enlightenment or humans to help humans. He told me that one Buddha has returned to help others achieve enlightenment over 8000 times. I also learned that if a Buddha tells anyone they are a Buddha they cannot stay in that form anymore and will be gone almost instantly. There are many Buddhas at a time on earth helping people and animals achieve enlightenment, but there is also sometimes a more important Buddha. They know who it is because the previous one tells them who it will be, because the next one won't be able to tell them without dying.

It was very interesting learning about the different religions, and noticing the similarities and differences between them. The Catholic Church had the largest congregation; the Buddhist library has the smallest. SES has stained glass windows and sculptures in their worship space, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church has only a cross and an altar to mark the worship space, and the Buddhist library has many statues around the worship room. Despite the differences in the worship spaces, and the beliefs of each, there are commonalities between all of the religions.