Trent to Rome--Day 7

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Description

Today we go to see the eternal city—Rome! I feel like the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:13—“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (in Rome).” We depart for St. Peters around 9:30 and arrive at around 10:00 am. Tomorrow we have a longer visit so after an hour of sightseeing we gather at the obelisk and walk to have lunch together at an (what else) Italian Restaurant. The food is delicious. I forgot to mention earlier that wine is served with every meal but breakfast. I think most would call it a “table wine”—nothing fancy but very tasty.

After lunch we drive down the legendary Via Apia visit the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus. When people say, “We went to the catacombs in Rome,” this was the place they are referring to. The catacombs were dug out of volcanic rock in the second century by believers who could not afford a proper above-ground family tomb. The most economical method was to dig down and create small shelves for the bodies. In the third century, the church of Rome (not yet recognized by state) took care of the administration of the catacombs by utilizing land donated by better-off Christians. After Christianity was legalized in the beginning of the 4^th century believers began to see the place where the martyrs of the previous century, as something special and to be preserved and visted. From the 5^th to 9^th centuries the catacombs were seen as true shrines and thousands of pilgrims visited the catacombs. In the 8^th century the Popes removed the bodies interred in the catacombs inside the city because they did not have the means to protect the catacombs. For the next 700 years the catacombs were abandoned and lost but were rediscovered in the 1600 and 1700’s.

The catacombs are fascinating; with plaster walls inscribed with pictures and various names. I expected to see more fabled “icthus” drawings but discover none. The symbol of the Christians, we are told, is the anchor, with the eye of the anchor representing God, the cross beam representing Jesus and bottom part of the anchor, roughly in the shape of a dove, represents the Holy Spirit. One thing we don’t see is evidence that believers would live in catacombs and have worship services here. That, we are told, is largely a myth! Believers met for worship in homes during the first three centuries and only during very brief times of extreme persecution did some gather in the catacomb’s crypts and pray…and then only briefly. Apparently the catacombs were never places of refuge or living!

After the catecombs we drive back to St. Peter's where we queue up to see the Cistine Chapel which is the last stop as part of our Vatican Museum tour--which is all quite impressive--huge tapestries, collections of Greek and Roman statues...all very impressive. The Cistine Chapel is quite amazing. I had been learning a bit about it from my "Art of the Renaissance" class. Michelangelo didn't want to paint the chapel. He insisted to the Pope that he was a sculptor, not an artist. He had never done fresco work before! His first panel was of Noah's Ark. When the scafolding was removed and he looked up at the ceiling he realized the figures were too small to be seen so he painted them larger from then on. At first he employed a number of assistants but as he achieved proficiency, he finished the work alone.

We get back to the hotel, have dinner and have an 8:30 session with Fergus McDonald who gives us a presentation entitled, “The witness of the historic churches in Europe.” Fergus McDonald is the General Secretary of the National Bible Society of Scotland and has joined us for a couple of days. He takes us through many statistics and observations about the state of the church in Europe. Though it is quite late it nonetheless is very interesting. Much of European Christianity is comprised of people who believe—in God (some 77%) without belonging and those who belong (to church) without really believing. In Western Europe, he notes, 60% of the population is Roman Catholic, 21% Institutional Protestants, 21% Orthodox and a mere 1% non-institutional Protestants (Pentacostals, Free Church, etc). He tells us that these statistics highlight the important role the institutional church must play in the evangelization (or re-evangelization) of Europe. He quotes Maurice Talleyrand—“Without individuals nothing happens; without institutions nothing remains.” Fergus tells us “the way forward” is by renewing, reforming and reconfiguring the church. We finish off by 10pm and head off the Lambs and stay up past midnight talking before we close with a little sleepy prayer.

Analysis

I know many people said the favorite part of visiting Rome was seeing the catacombs…I’m just not among them. They were good and interesting but sometime after I got there I began to have my doubts that the catacombs were the places of worship. First, they are very narrow in their construction—too small for any group over 30. Second, they are quite far from the city itself. Since most believers lived in the populous Rome (remember, country folk were called paganas—pagans), it would be quite a hike to come here to worship. I guess also I expected to see a few bones like the hundreds I saw several years ago stacked up in the catacombs in the Monasterio de San Francisco in Lima, Peru. With all the bones gone and no real record of persecuted Christians hanging out here, it seemed more like spiritual spelunking. Maybe for the sake of tourism they should have kept the myth alive about the catacombs being places of hiding, living and worship as they hid out from Roman officials.

Fergus McDonald’s presentation was great. Just a shame he didn’t have more time at an hour when we were fresher.

Application

As Americans we need to pay attention to the spirituality of Europe to give us a glimpse of our future. When describing European spirituality McDonald makes note of several forms of European spirituality. The first is “believing without belonging”—those who have not abandoned belief, they have just abandoned church. Isn’t that what George Barna’s book, Revolution is about? Barna says some 20 million adults in America have left the church, not because they have lost their faith but to preserve their faith. Second, Europeans practice what Grace Davie calls, “vicarious religion.” That is “significant numbers of Europeans are content to let both churches and churchgoers enact a memory on their behalf, more than half aware that they might need to draw on the capital at crucial times;” meaning they are glad the church is there for weddings, funerals, etc. Is that not us? Third is a move toward new age or inner spirituality. An article in Newsweek last year noted how nearly all people today in America describe themselves as “spiritual,” though not necessarily Christian. As Europe is today…America may become.

I need to think about the implications of Tallyrand’s quote: “Without individuals nothing happens; without institutions nothing remains.” Individuals bring about change…movements and revolutions. To preserve the benefits of those changes, the changes are institutionalized through new ritual, new buildings and new processes—new institutions. But who really wants to live in an institution? Church, at its root, is a living organism and form always must follow function. Cathedrals of Europe are largely empty because someone paid attention to the institution but not the life within the institution. We’re told that the average local church in America lasts an average of 70 years. Old forms and structures need to be replaced with new structures that help us move forward and thrive.