There was this tiktok trend recently where you asked the men in your life how often they think about the Roman empire. Most men that were asked and made into videos said they did daily or at least weekly. I asked around and got similar answers. People were pondering why so many men thought about this so often, and the men were willing to give explanations from things such as the Roman empire being similar to the American empire, as well as basics such as plumbing and roads. What did surprise me a little was that I didn’t see anyone reply with the reason that I think of the Roman Empire on a daily basis.
No, I am not a man, but I am deeply involved in this trend given that I do indeed think about the Romans often. This has nothing to do with their contributions or parallels to society, and everything to do with 15 years of indoctrination. I don’t so much think of the Roman Empire, as I do the Holy Roman Empire.
You cannot be raised Catholic…literally called Roman Catholic…and not learn about the Romans in detail. We are taught that Peter was the rock the church was to be built upon. And we were taught that that happened more or less, but we were also taught about Paul, probably more than any other figure in the Bible other than Jesus himself.
To summarize, this Roman citizen, Saul, was off to kill some Jesus followers, when the Lord came to him and changed his ways. And name, apparently. When he arrived in Damascus to start with the murdering, he told the people there that he had converted, and the Lord had pretty much put him in charge. And so, Paul started writing his letters to all the people that were following Jesus, organizing and laying out all the rules for Christianity and spreading the gospels.
See, I went to St Paul’s School. So, we learned a lot about Paul, probably more than other Catholic school kids did, but I remember a focus on him at some point every year during religion class. When I don’t remember learning however is that all of this took place about 5 to 10 years after Jesus died. We were under the impression that all of the apostles were chilling together at the last dinner- and yet Paul is considered an apostle, and he never even met Jesus.
So when you really look at the situation from an outside perspective, it is silly. Why did the people of Damascus trust someone who came there with ill intent yet claimed to have changed his ways without any real proof other than his own word? True, one could argue that he never harmed anyone and turned to spreading the word of Jesus, which could be held as proof. However, what he really did was take the word of Jesus and twist it to fit his narrative. The letters he sent out were filled with rules that supposedly came from God, but for which he had no basis. He wrote most of the New Testament, and much of it did not really recognize Jesus’s followers at the time. He essentially commandeered the church, and it is around that time that Roman Catholicism started to take shape.
No, I’m not going to go into an entire history of the Catholic church with you. Although it is fascinating and I highly recommend doing your own research. This is just an example of one of the many reasons that I myself think about the Romans. And again it is never because of the way that their empire relates to what is happening in my world right now, or the fact that I truly love them for their plumbing and their roads and their other contributions to society, but really the only thing I think about when I think about the Romans is the HOLY Roman Empire, emphasis on holy, because that is what we were told to call it. And I think about it daily, because I went to schools that made me think about it daily.
I was talking to one of the kiddos about religion the other day. I don’t remember how it came up, but she mentioned hating going to church as a child with her grandparents. She recalled when her grandfather wanted to get her baptized, and everyone was against it. Now, I had no control over whether or not these children were baptized, and I had no say in the matter whatsoever, but of course I am grateful that they we’re not positioned as I was at such young ages. Through this kid’s own research of life, she has decided that she does not believe in a god, although she does believe in an afterlife very similar to the one that I subscribe to. This I found very interesting, considering that I never told her anything regarding my belief structure, yet that is the hypothesis she came to on her own.
So fortunately, my children will think of the Romans in a light differently than I do, perhaps for contributions or parallels or perhaps even for their gods and goddesses that we have buried with the mono-god. Or, maybe they won’t think of them at all, because other pressing matters will be in their heads. I often think that it is ridiculous that I was given 40 minutes each day devoted to religion, when we could have used those 40 minutes to learn of things I really needed, like how to buy a house or pay my taxes. Fortunately, my heathen children go to public school and I don’t have to worry about that. Happy Wednesday, friends.
Ham 'N Eggs- by Brigid Hannon 