Sacred

Being a practicing Catholic, when I saw an ad at one of the tube stations for the exhibit, I'll admit I was intrigued. I wouldn't necessarily call myself religious, but the Catholic faith has been a major part of my upbringing and has greatly influenced who I am. To my surprise, "Sacred" utterly blew my mind away and it was the overall exhibit and the way it was put together that moved me, rather than one piece. First off, I thought it was a beautiful idea to highlight the commonalities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, especially during a time when there are so many political affairs around the globe occurring in relation to these religions. The exhibit was all showcased every aspect of the 3 religions: their worship place, holy books, wedding customs, death practices, divisions within the religions, and prayers. One thing that caught my eye were the 3 televisions you see when you step in. When looking at the screens, they are all playing the same video simultaneously, but one is on the Islam segment, one is on the Jewish segment, and one is on the Christian segment. You see symbols of the 3 religions on the screen simultaneously as adjectives such as son, daughter, teacher, etc. and silhouettes of people slowly flash across the screen. It set the tone for the exhibit, cementing the fact that the people who are these different religions are all the same. Seeing so many early documents, all documenting the scripture that I had been raised in, was amazing as well. I had never thought about being able to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, but here they were right before my eyes! It moved me to see the different Holy books of the different religions and especially how diligently they had been put together. There are books from as early as 460 CE, all hand written elegantly in their appropriate text and ornamented beautifully, some with gold. The fact that people had taken the time to document the words of their faith to ensure that it was carried on, even despite any persecution they experienced, is a reflection of the deep faith they have in their religion, and I found this inspiring.

Marissa Verdeflor