My friend Eli

Every once in a while I get a chance to meet up with a friend of mine, Eli, with whom I used to practice martial arts and we now just stay in touch. We usually go for Kosher vegetarian Indian food in the New york and that is what we were able to squeeze in yesterday.

While he is a very busy guy, involved in real estate and continuing his education, while being a husband and father of two, we always get back to the topic of religion. Eli is an "orthodox" Jew (although he has disdain for labels), so often we speak of the similarities and differences of our two faiths. Marriage, marriage preparation, birth control, prayer and spirituality, philosophy and history are just some of the topics we discussed last night and are usual areas of conversation.

What I truly appreciate about our friendship and conversations are that we truly listen and appreciate the differences in our beliefs and belief systems and the more we know and understand, the greater respect we both have for our respective faiths. There is never a debate but there is always a dialogue that leads to better understanding. This always leads to fun and enjoyable evenings and greater understanding.

Last night I felt like I had continued my class on World Religions and found our conversation to be enlightening and edifying at the same time. While we are world's apart in many ways, we are both in search of much of the same thing.

"A Catholic priest and a Jew walk into an Indian restaurant and the waiter is a Muslim..."


--Fr. Marc A. Vicari