We have a special episode this week highlighting the similarities in the liturgical season of Lent and the Holy Month of Ramadan. Listen as Father Charles Oduke and Imam Matthew Schumann, weave a rich tapestry of dialogue, celebrating the intertwining of our spiritual journeys. They delve into the profound practices of Lent—prayer, reconciliation, fasting, almsgiving—and the preparation for Easter, paralleling them with the Islamic observance of Ramadan with its own fasting practices.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to what's the Tea with Ministry, where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit.
Speaker 2:
Mercy bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection and community connection all over a cup of tea Hosted by University Ministry and a student co -host.
Speaker 2:
That's us slightly different kind of podcast episode for you all. A few weeks ago, university Ministry, in collaboration with the Muslim Student Association, hosted an Iftar potluck evening to celebrate Ramadan and Lent. The evening consisted of presentations, breaking fast, prayer and then a large communal Iftar meal. Our presenters were Father Charles Oduke and Imam Matthew Schumann. We created this event to celebrate and share about the fasting traditions in Islam and Christianity. We held it in March because we were in the midst of both the holy month of Ramadan and the liturgical season of Lent. Each of the presenters shared about their own faith tradition, fasting and practices in Lent and Ramadan. We decided to record the presentations that were given at this event to share in educating people about the similarities between Christianity and Islam, and also to celebrate our Muslim community during this special season in Islam. The recording starts with introductions of the presenters given by Sarah Awali, the current president of the Muslim Student Association. Let's take a listen to this lovely evening.
Speaker 3:
So we have two speakers, father Charles and Dr Matthew Schumann, or Imam Matthew, and they're gonna speak first, and then whoever would like to pray we brought prayer mats so that way you can join us to pray and then, after that, we're going to have iftar inshallah.
Speaker 3:
So first I would like to introduce Father Charles, or Abuna Charles Oduke is the Vice President for Mission Integration here at the University of Detroit Mercy. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Kenya and has been a Catholic priest for 25 years. He was a Jesuit for over two decades and his career in Jesuit higher education dates back to 1994, when he taught philosophy and computer science in Khartoum, sudan, alongside Jesuits from the then Detroit Jesuit province. Ustaz, or Professor Uduke earned his doctoral degree in philosophy from Boston College, where he was also on the faculty and taught Lonergan Studies, social Justice Philosophy and African Disappora Studies. He comes to Detroit Mercy from Le Moyne College and in Syracuse, new York, where he served in various leadership positions and most recently as Vice President for Diversity, equity and Inclusion. So if everyone can, please welcome Father Charles.
Speaker 4:
Shukran, shukran, jazilan, sarah, yeah, and thank you very much for honoring me and for this invitation, invitation that I feel very honored to share with you this evening, alongside Imam Dr Matthew. Thank you very, very much. Assalamu alaikum, and tonight I am going to speak on the significance of Lent. Lent is the six weeks period between Ash Wednesday and Easter and this year, for Catholic Christians, the holy season of Lent began on February 14th. It coincided with Valentine's Day and it will go on up to March 30th, because March 31st is Easter and here at UDM we are going to have a break for Easter.
Speaker 4:
Easter is very important in Christianity because Easter marks the resurrection event, and the resurrection event is actually the hope that is at the heart of Christianity, such that even institutions such as our university exist to proclaim the message of hope, exist to proclaim the message of hope, the message of hope that happens through you students, mainly being here and being transformed, and what you are able to do with your life to give the world hope. And at the root of that is Easter, and that's why, for Catholic Christians, they need six weeks to prepare for it, and the preparation takes the form of prayer, reconciliation. At times we refer to reconciliation as penance, fasting and almsgiving. And why is it that we pray? We pray so that we can seek God's will and so that we can be attentive to God's will. So, during these six weeks, catholic Christians they are very attentive to the word scripture, they are attentive to preaching, they are attentive to meditation and prayer in common, just as a way of attuning themselves to what is God's will for them. Then, in response, there is the desire to reconcile oneself with God, to fill in the gap. Because when we are attentive to God's will, we become aware of how far we have moved away from God's, will we become aware of how far we have moved away from God's will. And often it is expressed in the transgressions we have with one another. And that's why, during this period, is a period of reconciliation with one another, because God has put in our lives the other person so that we may love that other person, because that other person is God's image and likeness, and when we transgress that person, we are actually defacing the image of God which is in that person. And so six weeks of conversion, six weeks of change of heart and prayer makes it possible. And so, in addition to prayer that leads to reconciliation.
Speaker 4:
There is abstinence and fasting and fasting. Many of us associate fasting with food, but it is giving up something. So, for instance, we can give up preoccupation with social media so that we can use our time better, because God gave us the gift of time. That which we all have in common is 24 hours to any given day. How do we use that time? So maybe we give up that so that we can use our time better.
Speaker 4:
But then, fasting from food, when we fast from food, when we fast from food, we things that they are part of. So, for instance, the homeless, people in warring situations, the innocent who are suffering, we who fast from food can change that, in the sense that I can choose to walk away from fasting and have food, but these people in those situations cannot move away from it, move away from it. And so fasting makes us identify with those persons whose dignity has been violated, violated as a result of wars, violated as a result of bad policies, immigrants, making us want to do something about it. And that brings the fourth practice of almsgiving. So that which we fast, we save money or, depending on what it is that you want to reprioritize, there are some resources that you save to reprioritize. There are some resources that you save, so, ideally, that which you save, you symbolically donate that.
Speaker 4:
Some people gave up chocolate. It doesn't mean that when it comes to Easter, you'll eat up all that chocolate that you gave up. No, all the money that you saved, you donate that. But that's just a gesture. But in the process of fasting, you keep asking yourself how can I improve the lives of others? And that's where, now, the systemic issues that prayer makes it possible for us to begin to want to collaborate with another person and with the other to transform the situation of our lives. So these practices prayer, reconciliation, fasting and almsgiving that characterize the six weeks dispose us, they predispose us to refocus on that which is most significant in Christianity, which is giving people hope. And I will stop there because I think my ten minutes are over. So I want to say again Ramadan Kareem and.
Speaker 4:
Ramadan Mubarak. Barak Allah, shukran, jazeelan Shukran jazeelan.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, Father Charles. I want to welcome Dr Matthew Schumann. Dr Schumann is a historian and traditionally trained imam who has been cultivating authentic and welcoming Muslim spaces since 2014. After converting to Islam in 2009, Dr Matthew began a knowledge-seeking journey that has taken him across North America, North and West Africa and the Middle East. He holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He also pursued his traditional Islamic studies at Zawiya Foundation in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr Matthew is an expert in Quranic spirituality, prophetic character and spiritual care for Muslims. He currently lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with his wife and three children, so can everyone please welcome Dr Matthew.
Speaker 5:
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, wahab al-minn, wasalatu, wasalam ala sahaba sunan amma ba'du and alhamdulillah. We thank Allah, god Almighty, for bringing us together for a very noble purpose, which is to remember God and also to fulfill one of the commandments that God makes to all believing people, which is to come together under a common word. How do we, as people of faith, of different faith traditions, find a common ground that we can build upon? And I want to thank Father Charles and Anita and the students for creating this space for us to do that, because the truth is that we, as people of faith, have to work together to cultivate light by remembering God, by prayer, by devotion, by doing good deeds, because light repels darkness, and if all of our lights are scattered, the efficacy is very limited. But if all of those lights are focused together and working towards a common purpose, then you can accomplish a lot and do a lot of good. And so I encourage everyone in this room today to take advantage of the opportunity that you have in this institution, which intentionally centers the student experience on religious life. Explore your faith, find your personal connection with God and then come to understand other people's connection with God and find ways that you can work together, because that's the only way that we're going to affect positive change in our lifetimes, and that's that's a fact.
Speaker 5:
Alhamdulillah, we're in the blessed month of Ramadan and I just want to give a little explanation of the purpose of fasting from the Quranic perspective, from the perspective of our holy book as Muslims. God talks about how he prescribed fasting for Muslims and for people of all faiths for a particular purpose, which is to cultivate something that we say in Arabic, we call it taqwa, and taqwa it's a quality, it's a character trait that we can translate as God reverence. And so what does it mean to be a reverent person? What God says in the Quran is that a person who's reverent is someone who sees everything that's connected with God as being alim, being great, magnificent, because God is magnificent. And if you feel that in your heart, then when you go to pray, you feel a certain awe. You say I'm going to converse with my Lord, who is so magnificent. Or if you go into a house of God, whether it's a mosque or a church, you feel something because this is a space that's dedicated for praising God and God is magnificent. And so, like Father Charles said and it's amazing how similar our approaches to fasting are how similar our approaches to fasting are.
Speaker 5:
When you give up your food and your drink and your intimacy with your spouses, as Muslims do during the day, then you have to search for another source of sustenance, and one of the wisdoms behind God creating us to be beings that we require constant sustenance is that it's embedded within our nature. I need to find something that it's going to sustain me for longer and longer, and you know, the challenge of our time now is that what people tell us is that if you want that sustenance, then just consume more. I remember my wife and I were talking about our first ramadans as new muslims, and I remember so. The custom is that we wake up before dawn comes in to have a meal, and so I remember when we were newlyweds, in our first ram, we would wake up and I'd be like, baby, we got to eat, we have to drink all that we can before we run out of time, and so I did. You know she's a lot more sensible than me, so she'd say, okay, I'm just going to stop, but I, and then what you realize is that it's not the food and it's not the water that is sustaining you, just as Father Charles said, you know how many people die with full bellies, how many people live on barely anything. And so when you experience that, it calms your soul. So when you experience that it calms your soul, so we have the Quran.
Speaker 5:
One of the things the Quran talks about is how people's souls, they have a certain neediness embedded within them that if people don't confront that, it can cause them to be stingy. Because if you always feel like you're going to lose, if I give this money, then I'm going to have less money. Or I'm sitting here eating my lunch and the person next to me, they don't have anything, but I have to feed myself. If you're always concerned about yourself, it's very hard to give, it's very hard to give, and so many issues, like Father Charles was saying, that we experience in this world today come from people adopting a posture of stinginess versus a posture of generosity. You know Economics 101, they tell you that the main issue of economics is scarcity. We live in a world of scarce resources and that instantly embeds in your mind the fact that the more that we use, the less that we have. But God tells us, when he created the earth for us to reside on it, he put all the resources we need in the earth. So it's all there. And so how do we transcend that limiting mindset? Well, we practice fasting, because when you put less in your body but you're able to sustain yourself and you're able to do more and you start to feel that clarity of soul and clarity of spirit, it changes your perspective on the world and you can suddenly, as father charles was saying, you can say okay, I need less, so let me give more.
Speaker 5:
And so there's a chapter of the quran. At the end of the quran. It's called surah to leo, the surah of the Quran. At the end of the Quran, it's called Surah Al-Layl, the Surah of the night.
Speaker 5:
And God says that everybody's, all the people in the world. They live different lives, and so you have people who they give and they revere God and they trust in his good promise, and those are people we make it easy for them to have an easy life. And then you have people who they're they hold back, they're stingy and they rely on themselves and they don't trust that God's promise that he'll take care of you. And so we make it easy for them to have a difficult life. And so I invite all of us you know, those of us who are fasting Ramadan, those of us who are participating in Lent to approach it from that perspective. How can we use these experiences to cultivate that sense of reverence that God really is magnificent, that he's generous, he gives every day. Ever since the creation of the earth, he's been giving and giving and giving, and let's see how that can impact our lives so that we can become generous people. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, dr Matthew Schumann, or Imam Matthew, and Father Charles, for being here with us tonight, and I appreciate all of you for being here as well. For you to be here means that you appreciate what we're doing, and I also want to thank the university ministry for helping us out and hosting this event.
Speaker 2:
Weren't those presentations beautiful? We are so lucky to have such a vibrant and diverse community here at Detroit Mercy. I was able to attend this event in person and I was really proud to see the way in which students, faculty and staff came together to listen, learn, pray and celebrate. Also, the food that everyone brought was incredible. We hope that next Ramadan we will be able to host more Iftar parties and we hope you will consider joining us for them. I want to wish our Muslim community a happy end to the holy month of Ramadan and a happy Eid, and to our Christian community and all those who celebrate a happy Easter a happy Eid. And to our Christian community and all those who celebrate a happy Easter. Thank you to Father Charles and Dr Matthew Schumann for sharing their religious traditions and practices with us. Thank you also to all those who have made this podcast possible, especially the Communication Studies Department, our sound engineer, michael Jason, our music composer, dan Gregg, marketing and communications and the whole Detroit Mercy community.
Speaker 1:
We look forward to sharing more of the mission with you next time.
Speaker 2:
See ya.
