It is clear that there is plenty of history here in Italy that pertains to the Catholic religion. From Vatican city to all of the old churches all over Italy such as San Marco, San Pietro and so forth. These from a Catholic/Christian standpoint could be very intensifying for your faith, but for others it may not seem as faithfully satisfying.
At first glance, these churches are breathtaking. The way they take a church and make it a work of art with many beautiful paintings and stained glass windows are very mesmerizing but that is from a art lovers point of view. Visser talks about in Smiles of Rome how "theater is like church" in ways such as gathering together to watch a "performance" in hopes that it changes them somehow. And while the beauty of the churches are helping to open our eyes to new beauty i do not think you have to know it's history for it to do that.
Also knowing the history behind a place can be disturbing. For example knowing all of the dead bodies that are buried within the church seems kind of morbid. Yes i understand that people like to go there to pay their repsects, but i do not believe that if these people, such as past popes, were so esteemed then i do not believe that should be buried where millions of people will walk on their grave unnoticed. They should have a special burial site where they won't be walked on like they are nothing.
One last reason i think history does that could help or hinder faith is the test of knowing if something is truly from the past or not. For example having pieces from the cross where Christ was buried or the chains that bound saint Peter, how do you really know they are from that exact moment in history? Yes we can do tests to say yes this is from around that time period so it would make sense, but we did not have camera verifications. While some just have faith that these things are so, many people who are not strong with their faith may have a hard time believing these things are so.
While the history does help create a clearer visualization in our mind, there is always something to be skeptical about. I have always been told to never believe anything 100 percent and to question everything. Because there is always more to be found.
Ciao Cory,
ReplyDeleteGood blog. I like how you tried to integrate the readings with your experiences. I do think there were opportunities to integrate the letters from Peter and Paul as well. Maybe even Gaudium could be used. Using the texts more will make your blogs even better.