Day 8: The Church: Building and Blood

Read: 1 Kgs. 5: 18-32 Jn. 12: 1-8

"Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Judas the Iscariot said, 'Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?' Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.' (Jn. 12:3-8)

The fact is, the Church should be a beautiful work of archecture and be filled with the very best that we have to offer. It should, according to Roman directives, reflect our culture and time, it should reflect the very best work we are capable of TODAY. Baroque Churches were great -- in the baroque era -- but we're in the 1990s! Today, the Church asks us to put our TASTEFUL minds to use and come up with the best we can. Many of our multipurpose room type churches could serve better for other uses.

Many people feel detered and frightened by the cost or the criticism for spending so much on a Church building. Do you seriously think that the Cathedrals of Notre Dame or Cologne were cheap? And they were built by peasant's labor and sacrifice! Many of Europe's precious Church's were built by the dedicated work of the townspeople. Today, we want fast and cheap. It is a reflection of the age.

A building is not all that there is to a Church... more important it is what we put inside the building that counts. Here we are speaking not of statuary (important in their own right) nor of other accoutrements (all these should be equally fitting and tasteful). Rather, we are speaking of the People of God that make up that Church.

Wherever we are, gathered around our parish priest in union with our bishop, in the Celebration of the Holy Mass, there is the Church. Buildings come and go. They should be a fitting expression of our love and faith and a place of pride where the Blessed Sacrament will be reposed at all times. BUT the building is but a reflection of those who build it.

Psalm 22:26 "I will offer praise in the great assembly."