What are we to make with those Apostles who reclined at table with the Lord?
What about it? That was common in their culture.
If you walked into Donald Trump’s house and he made you take off your shoes and sit on the floor, what would you think? I know I would think it would be very odd, as that is not something that is custom to my culture nor his.
But if I was in Japan, I would expect such a thing.
What respectful in one culture is fine, but should not be used in a society that does not feel it to be respectful.
Cardinal Arinze talked about this when he discussed Liturgical Dance. He mentions how it’s fine for Africans because that’s a cultural form of prayer and worship, but it’s not OK for the majority of Europeans, North Americans, and South Americans because dance is not a cultural form of prayer for most of those cultures.
The point is: if people kneel to royalty, why would they not kneel to God? Part of the issue is that with republican societies, we often kneel to no human, which starts to make the idea of kneeling to God a foreign concept.
My point, you can’t always directly compare societies and you can’t always directly compare different time periods.
I pray I’m making some sense.
God bless