The second day

Today is the second day of Easter. Didn’t you know that Easter had two days? So do Christmas and Pentecost - at least in Belgium and the Netherlands. For Christmas people might be familiar with ‘Boxing Day’. Here, that is the second day of Christmas. Each of the major Christian holidays is celebrated with two days. Some are official: people get off work the stores and banks are closed, and people do family things or go on holiday.
It is interesting to see how much people want the holidays without much knowing what they are for or what they mean. At the same time, it is good to be able to speak of Jesus and his resurrection since people will be aware that that is certainly done on this holiday.
Here in the Catholic south of the Netherlands, or in Catholic Belgium, most would expect to go to mass on Easter Sunday. But most of the churches these days are struggling to find enough priests for the various churches. Our village celebrates mass weekly on Thursday. The village over on Saturday. The village up the hill on Monday. This because there is only one parish priest who has to spread his time around.
This is an addition to the disconnect that occurred during the corona years. At that time churches in Belgium were shut down, officially. In theNetherlands, although the constitution made it possible to still meet together, many churches closed their doors and tried to open internet windows. But people who were already separating themselves from religion in their daily lives found it even easier to do so.
So it has been interesting to see, now that these restrictions are no longer in place, how people have welcomed certain elements back into their lives. In Maastricht, there has traditionally been a procession on Good Friday. It was once again well-attended. In many places you can hear people saying “Blessed Easter” instead of “Happy Easter”.
In our conversations we often talk to people about being a cultural Christian. Many would say that they are Christians because they see this as a cultural distinction. They are not Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist. They are Christian. It does not necessarily describe any belief or faith on their part. It is their tradition, their family history.
And family is good. Even better when we truly know why we belong together. There is family that we are born into and family that we choose. We are looking forward to seeing our family all around the US soon - both our family into which we were born, and the family into which God placed us at our new birth.
And here, when we go walking on the second day of Easter and meet others walking, we may say to some: “He is risen.” Some will know what we are talking about. Others might even respond: “He is risen indeed.” Some still know this phrase. Many do not consider if they truly believe it or not. But for a day, for a moment, there is a focus on what is true and amazing, even on the second day. On the third day, and each day afterwards, we will continue speaking of this amazing love, hoping that people will see that this is more than a tradition or religion.

Whodunit Wednesday: Biblical names in society

The first two days of this week I was off with a group of Catholic kids and leaders and had the opportunity to talk about faith in work and about what we find in the Bible. Religion and faith are words on many peoples tongues, but concepts which are often far from the heart. As a matter of fact, the news stated this past week that trust in religion is in Belgium the lowest of all Europe. People in Belgium feel that religion is dangerous.
Faith, on the other hand, is something that most people still talk about. During these two days with these teens, they took a quiz (using QR codes and their phones). Questions popped up about how many apostles there were, what the name of Jesus’ father was (nice trick question) and more. Another activity looked at what they say to believe and if they truly believe it. A third activity looked at what the names of the children meant and where they came from.
In all of this it was amazing to me how important names are. Pontius Pilatus was a real historical figure. Some of the kids’ names came from names in the Bible: Mathis from Matthew, Thomas (with an ‘h’), Maria and Marit (both from Maria) and more. In Belgium and the Netherlands we have lots of names that come from this biblical history and culture, even if they do not always immediately sound like it.
Maria is, of course, a well-known and well-used name in Catholic Belgium. It may show up a bit less in the Netherlands (mostly in the south where we are), but versions of it will still show up. Remnants of the Roman past also show up in normal everyday names. Some are Roman and Biblical at the same time.
My younger brother’s name is Marc - with a ‘c’. This was very different when we were growing up. But here in Belgium it is very common. In fact, Mark - with a ‘k’ - jumps out immediately as different. This is because in Belgium they are working with the name ‘Marcus’ - the Biblical name of the 2nd gospel and a typical Roman name (i.e. Marcus Aurelius).
There are some differences between the countries. Take, for example, Luk or Luc. The Dutch will more likely use the ‘k’ where the Belgians will use the ‘c’. The Dutch language version of the name is ‘Lucas’ but this can also be spelled ‘Lukas’. And then there are all the varied versions of Peter: ‘Peter’ (pronounced ‘pay-ter’), ‘Pieter’ (pronounced ‘pee-ter’) and of course also ‘Pierre’. These kan all be shortened: ‘Peet’, ‘Piet’ or otherwise.
When we named our son, Sean, we thought to be right on track. Sean was born in Belgium (Stephan was born in Abilene, Texas, just before we moved here). There are various versions of ‘John’ here: Johan, Johannes (which can shorten to ‘Hannes’ or ‘Hans’) or Jean (the French spelling and pronunciation). You could also use Ian, John or Johnny (or Jonny) here.
We chose for more Anglicised version, but one we thought most people would recognise, since the actor Sean Connery was well-known. It turned out that many people pronounced ‘Sean’ as ’see-un’. The way we were pronouncing Sean was closer to the pronunciation of ‘Jean’. But it was even closer to ’Sjaan’ (pronounced ‘shaan’ with a long, open ‘aa’ as one would do at the doctor). This name, however, is a girl’s name, so it obviously did not fit Sean.
In the end, people get used to using your name if they get to know you. That is also what we try to get across to the young people we work with. It is possible to get to know the people in the Bible, even if we can’t quite hear how they might have pronounced their names. Then the question is whether we will share in their faith or not, live as they lived in trustin God.

Whodunit Wednesday: Scholars

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘scholar’? If you search for important scholars throughout the ages, you come upon several connected with the Netherlands. 

Many university students would like to get an Erasmus scholarship. The Erasmus program encourages and assists with international study through its scholarships. The scholarship and program is named after the scholar Erasmus, who was full out: Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, or Erasmus of Rotterdam. He was a philosopher and scholar in the mid-15th through beginning of the 16th century. He wrote about changes that needed to be made from within the Catholic Church during the reformation and is considered a Christian Humanist.

Baruch Spinoza, or Benedictus de Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in the 17th century to Portuguese-Jewish parents. He was one of the exponents of rationalism and pushed the idea of the Enlightenment. He developed ideas against the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and was considered by many as an ‘atheist’, which meant that his works were banned for a time. 

More recently, Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has made a name in philosophical and scholarly circles. She was a member of the Dutch parliament before moving to the US in 2006. She has especially been outspoken against the Muslim faith and considers herself and atheist. She continues to work against the influence of Islam, especially as it has to do with women. This has put her high on the death-threat list for terrorists. 

These philosophers, scholars and politicians have greatly shaped the Netherlands and how people here think - about God, about the world, about religion.

(PHOTO: Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Scholar in His Study” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/scholar-in-his-study/ (accessed December 14, 2022).)