Faith and Repentance on 64th Street

It was a Tuesday around 2:30 and I was on my way to work as usual in a hurry and rushing from class.  It was a pretty dreary day, having just stopped raining, the ground was wet and full of fallen leaves. To be completely honest this assignment was the furthest thing from my mind.  That is until I stepped on a little damp booklet right outside of work on 64th street, and I was curious to see what it was all about.  I picked up the booklet noticing that the pages were wet, some torn, it was covered with dirt, and it looked like it had been stepped on quite a few times.  As soon as I read the title, however, I thought of this assignment, picked up the booklet and started to think more deeply about the object and its religious meaning.  

Peter’s Repentance by Pastor Ock Soo Park: the title of the booklet.  Since the pages were so wet, I couldn’t really examine it right then and there, I had to wait a few days.  Once the booklet was dry I had the opportunity to explore it while thinking about this assignment. The booklet seems to be the first in a series titled Repentance and Faith.  At first I thought it was the first of three, as the following two parts are listed on the booklet.  However, I was pretty curious about it, and was trying to figure out where it came from, that I Googled it and found out that it is actually the first of nine parts in the series.  Reading the preface and Googling the series, I found out that the booklet was from the IYF World Camp in 2006.  But I didn’t know what that was either, so I looked it up as well and found that IYF stands for the International Youth Fellowship, and its mission is as follows: “International Youth Fellowship (IYF) is a Christian-based global youth initiative of International Youth Fellowship Educational Foundation (IYFEF), a non-profit organization in the state of California. IYF is dedicated to the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth of young people around the world” (IYFUSA).

This particular booklet, Peter’s Repentance, is essentially an informal homily by Pastor Ock Soo Park, addressing those at the 2006 IYF World Camp.  He uses personal anecdotes paired with passages from the Bible about Peter and his repentance.  It specifically discusses Peter’s betrayal of Jesus and the weeks to come after, but uses modern stories and examples to help make the lecture more relatable to the audience, which is primarily the youth. Reading pieces of the booklet, it is clear that the lecture was designed to be interesting, engaging, and relatable to young people.  Having gone to countless masses as a practicing Catholic, I know a boring homily when I hear one, but this booklet was quite the opposite and this story of Peter’s Repentance was delivered in a refreshing way.  

After learning a little more about the object’s origin and content, I was pretty curious to think about the meaning behind the object itself.  Why, if this lecture was delivered to youth at the conference was it reprinted in a booklet? Why do all of the booklets in the series deal with repentance?  Why are the words in booklet form, why not simply a card or paper with the website URL?  I think that the purpose of this object as religious is to act as an evangelical tool.  Yes, maybe some people who own the booklet keep it as a reminder of their Christian faith and trust in Jesus.  But I would bet that the purpose of this booklet is to spread the message of God, the message that all sinners can repent as Peter did, specifically to those who are out of touch with God.  I think using repentance as the focal point, is done because everyone is a sinner; everyone (according to christianity) has original sin, so anyone who picked up the booklet can relate to its message of repentance. Putting the words in a booklet instead of just directing the person to a website, takes away the reliance on that person to take the next step and actually go to a website.  The booklet provides them with the entirety of the message, right there in a compact form.

But why was this particular booklet discarded on the ground, probably stepped over and ignored by many before I got to it?  There are a few things that could have happened, none of which I can be 100% certain, but all which are worth considering. Maybe it belonged to someone who really valued it, kept it with them as a reminder of the message of repentance and faith.  Maybe it had just accidentally fallen from their bag.  Maybe and evangelist was passing out the booklets and just dropped the one.  Or maybe someone received the booklet, was uninterested in the message, and discarded it on the ground.  Whatever the case, the fact remains the same: the booklet did fulfill its evangelical purposes because it did end up in someone’s hands.  Someone, maybe even multiple people, held it, read the title, maybe delved into it, maybe did not.  Nonetheless, it spread its message in someway.  Being rained on, or stepped on, or covered in dirt does not take away its religious meaning; rather I would say, enhances it.  I would say that being worn and torn is a sign of being used in some capacity, which in turn means that the message of the booklet was spread in some capacity.  

I don’t know how many of these booklets are circulating throughout New York City or even the country, but only if one of them is able to pass the message of repentance onto one sinner who then transforms his/her life, I think that the booklet did its job.  At first glance, the damp, dirty booklet seemed useless and meaningless, though with just a little examination I was able to discover its meaning, and I am sure I have not been the only person to do so!