Rising up out of the Metro station and first beholding the scene in Image 1 was almost surreal to me. It felt like a movie.  We were visiting a huge, open area in the middle of Mexico City known as the zocalo (that spelling is guessed).  As I remember it, zocalo in Spanish simply means a city square, and there are a number of them throughout Mexico City.  However, this one we were visiting is basically the city square.  I got the impression that it is like the Red Square of Mexico City. 

There is a deeply historical government building all along one side, with another side occupied by the main attraction - The National Cathedral.  It is a huge stone structure that isn't much different than your typical ancient Catholic cathedral, lavishly decorated and highly revered by those who worship within its confines. 

Approaching the Cathedral, we walked through the center of the zocalo, just looking at the people around and observing all of the activities taking place (Image 2).  There was a drama production in a tent at the back of the zocalo, countless vendors all over the place, the begging mothers and children who by now had become tragically commonplace to us, and even a couple of native dance performances conducted by men dressed in traditional Aztec attire (Image 3).

The cathedral itself is a daunting place, where Catholic mass (worship) was continually taking place in the form of their sacred rituals and reveries.  The inside of the cathedral is lined around the edges with rooms dedicated to various saints and disciples, lined by gold and full of candles, paintings and graven images.  It was amazing to see how seriously the people invest themselves and their resources into the physical artifacts of their faith.  If only they could understand how silly it is, as Paul writes, "... we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).  There is more to be written about this, but it hit the hardest when we visited the Basilica, so I will save my further notes until that page.

Back outside of the cathedral, we circled around it to the right in order to get a drink.  At the side of the cathedral there is a large pool which is a model reproduction of ancient Tenochtitlan, the Aztec city from which Mexico City gradually developed (Image 4).  Just across from this was a large recessed area containing ruins from an Aztec temple (Image 5).

By the entrance to the little refreshment shop we entered, there sat the most deteriorated and helpless man I think I have ever laid eyes on.  He was slumped almost in a laying position, his head propped up by the hard stone wall behind him.  His clothes were totally filthy and his legs were bound with thin rope, possibly to keep them together for warmth.  Around his mouth there was a white foam of saliva, and as we walked in, he could barely muster the strength to look up at us and mumble something which was unintelligible, but surely an attempted supplication for food or money.  The sad thing was that there were so many healthy, good-looking people all around Mexico City who probably look no better on the inside than this dying man that I momentarily beheld.  They are spiritually decaying and oftentimes their pleas for help go ignored by others and repressed by themselves.  Those people need Jesus, and they need someone like you and I to go give Him to them.