A Sunday morning in Mexico

What does a Sunday morning look like in Mexico?  Well, it depends on where you are.  But I can speak for our little corner of Mexico here in Cuernavaca.

Weekends are a time for parties, for one thing.  On one side of us is a weekend house for a family from Mexico City.  Every once in a while they come for the weekend, but nothing has been quite like this weekend.  The party must have started after midnight, and the music blared until after 10am this morning!  Mostly English, which in this case was unfortunate because there were lyrics we’d rather our children not hear (I think they were sufficiently distracted this time, though).

As you head down the street, you’ll see the the local cathedral.  There are cars lined all down the street as people come for mass.  You’d think that this was the popular Sunday morning activity, if you didn’t drive any further.

But you do drive further, and get a very different picture.  Businesses are opening, people are shopping, and the traffic it picking up.  Yes, it’s pretty much like any other morning of the week, except that some people do have a day off – so they can sleep in after the party or shop.  All the stores will be busy.  WalMart will be full.

People outside of Mexico have interesting ideas about religion here.  I think Sunday morning gives you a pretty typical picture.  There’s a lot of religion in the culture, but it doesn’t show in ways you would expect.  People aren’t going to church (that cathedral on our street is unusually busy, but even so most people in the neighbourhood weren’t in it).  They’re not letting religion get in the way of the rest of their lives.  After all, people in Mexico are suspicious of religion when it gets too much power, and I think most people would rather control it than have it control them – or influence them in any meaningful way (I guess that would be true in any culture!).

You can read between the lines and see that it’s a mixed picture.  Some of the popular views of religion here are very healthy, others are like an innoculation against God’s truth.  Please pray that people would see what true worship is, and why it’s the incredible centre of our lives.

Nitpickers note:  This photo was not taken on a Sunday morning.  But the point is that Sunday morning looks a lot like every other morning here.  Photo courtesy of kirkh.