Then and Now: Biblical Connections in Childhood and Apocalypse

From these stories, I learned from hearing these stories as a child that God’s love is always around us, and he will do no harm to those who follow Him. Stories that I remember that were constantly highlighted throughout my childhood were the “Prince of Egypt,” “Noah’s Ark,” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den,” stories that told us about how God, no matter what, was always there for His people. 

Growing up, these stories that are told to children to help them understand the simplicity of the complicated Bible start to wither away and curiosity and questions start to grow. I know for myself, personally, listening to the liturgical readings in mass and hearing what the priest has to say about the overall theme of all the readings for that mass is always interesting, especially because different priests have different ways of perceiving the liturgy. Something about a Catholic mass that has always interested me is when the priest gives a homily on the readings. This is a part of the mass that gathers my attention because, although as a child the cute stories they tell you during Bible school make perfect sense, reading straight from the Bible is a little more complex and sometimes takes a couple of read-throughs to fully understand. Hearing the liturgy and the priest taking apart what all the readings mean and what God is intending with His people brings a clear understanding on what exactly these readings were intended for. Sometimes after the priest has finished his homily, I am able to dissect the readings for myself and have my own personal opinion on what I think God meant for His people. 

Working on my current project for The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP with Professor Joshua Hevert on understanding Christianity and how it played a role in the Spanish Conquistadors’ ideology of apocalypticism has sparked an interest in my own religion and a desire to acquire a more in-depth understanding of what these stories from the Bible that shaped their apocalyptic beliefs mean. While conducting the research for the project, Professor Hevert first had me start off by learning the background information of what motivated the conquistadors to have this ideology of the apocalypse. For this process to happen I first had to gather knowledge on what the readings from the bible motivated this ideology. I read the books of Daniel, Isaiah, 2 Kings, and Revelation from the Bible. 

Reading through these stories and comparing them to what I learned as a child, things were starting to click about what I was taught that they meant as a child. These Bible stories from my childhood were part of much larger stories from more extensive books in the Bible, and having this background from church and religious classes I was able to understand the bigger picture on the complexity of these stories. While conducting this research I began to get more curious, and the knowledge I had gained as a child was starting to come back to me. I started to read other stories in the Bible and watch other videos to gain a better insight on what other books in the Bible were trying to depict to God’s followers such as the book of Exodus and the book of Genesis. With a better understanding of my religion through this research as well as the knowledge I had already had as a child but forgotten, I was able to understand the concept of our project a little more and allowing me to appreciate Catholicism a little more than I had before. 

With my appreciation and knowledge of my religion increasing, I found myself paying more and more attention to the Catholic mass and to the different readings that were being read throughout the Order of the Mass. I was also able to understand a bit more why the mass is in the order that it is after reading The Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century, by Katherine Allen Smith, which summed up what each portion of the mass means and why it’s included in mass. This went on to explaining why Psalms played an important role in the mass, the sermons the priest gave, the order in which the mass was conducted in as well as the music that was chosen to play and when it was played. Every Sunday when I go to mass in the morning, I’m amazed at the information I’ve been able to gather from conducting my research on the project and comparing all that to the experience of the mass itself, with the simplicity of the Psalms in the beginning of the mass, to the several different liturgies being read, to the blessing of the eucharist. All of these components have a special meaning to why they were included in the mass. 

Another thing that I started to notice during mass was the readings. By comparing those previously mentioned children’s Bible stories to the different readings I had to do for the project, I started to noticing the same names and stories during the priest’s homilies. The reading from the Bible has always been very difficult for me to understand because of the many metaphors and symbolism intertwined with the readings, but what I have learned from Professor Hevert and listening to the priests give their homilies is that the Bible can be interpreted in whatever way you see fit. Many people view a reading several different ways, it’s all just based off what you take from the readings and how you put it all together as God’s words, something that I started to realize while listening to the different readings during the mass as the priests used several different parts of the book of Daniel, Isaiah, 2 Kings, and the epistles. Once having a background knowledge of this information, I am able to apply that to my everyday life, particularly with regards to Catholicism. 

Applying all this newly acquired knowledge and deepening my understanding and context of Biblical stories that I was previously only aware of through my childhood to my everyday life has allowed my religion to make more sense to me. I’ve also realized an application of this understanding to how some individuals might even view our current situation: I’ve noticed while reading the book of Revelation in particular that it refers to a dense of dread and desperation occurring then as we similarly now experience the COVID-19 pandemic today. It is easy to see how some readers can view the pandemic as a form of divine judgment, and seeing this response to our present circumstances helps me to understand what I have read about the Conquistadors. . Thus, conducting this research for the project with Professor Hevert has happened at a perfect time, as it has allowed me to have a better understanding of what these words in the Bible could actually have meant to the eyes of the Conquistadors and their Apocalypse. 

Written by Jordan Galaviz-Wright, Undergraduate Research Fellow
The University of Texas at El Paso, The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP