Yesterday, I visited Mount Mary Church at Bandra for Christmas and that's how it went.
I am Yash Gadade, writer of this blog: The Eternal Texts. Along with that I also write on The YG Take and Offshore Scribe. Recently I published a book name, "The Building Across My Window". The next book I am writing has some catholic characters , which led me to feel that it was important to understand Catholic spaces, rituals, and ways of seeing more closely not from a distance, but from within by being one of them.
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| Yash Gadade Image |
Thanks to my friend Adv. Christopher Moses for taking me out for mass and showing me the Christmas celebration at night. We have been good friends for years now. We often click each other’s photos, yet somehow, we still do not have a single photo together. Funny, isn’t it? Maybe that is a sign of a good friendship, being present without needing proof. Fun Fact being in Mumbai for 22 years and this was the first time I visited Mount Mary Church at Bandra.
The Night As Theology
Christian theology has always treated the night with seriousness I think because Christ was born at night. The shepherds receive the message in darkness. Resurrection itself is announced before dawn. Darkness, in Christian thought, is not absence it is expectation.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”— Isaiah 9:2
At Mount Mary, the night did not feel empty. It felt prepared as it was too much crowded not with just Christians and Catholic but with more Hindus. The lights were not aggressive; they were restrained all long. They did not overpower the darkness but rested within it. The Father gave a speech and some verses while choir was held beautifully. This mirrors the theology of the Incarnation: God does not erase the world’s darkness; He enters in it and makes it bright.
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| Inside the Mount Mary Church |
Silence as Sacred Language
What struck me most was the silence between movements even though it was so crowded between prayers, footsteps, candle lighting and people of other religions it was well organized. In theology, silence is not a gap; it is a language. It is where mystery is preserved rather than explained.
While I was in there, people stood quietly before the altar, not performing belief but inhabiting it. No one rushed Catholics were enjoying their mass while outsider where witnessing. No one demanded answers. Faith here did not announce itself—it waited as people.
This reflects a deeply Catholic understanding of presence: God is not always encountered through emotion or clarity, but through nearness. As I went into Chapel because of my friend it was a all together different peacefulness.
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| Adv Christopher Moses |
Life's a Mess, but Thanks Anyway
I remember writing this blog once and yesterday it was connecting, "Life's a Mess, but Thanks Anyway". People with all class waiting in single line to get in church- no discrimination, no VIP line just people being judged as a people. This is something Hindu business making mandir should consider.
Just diversity of people who following Christ wear in line praying and hoping to lord to solve their problems. Indeed a great time while exploring the theology while being in present.
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