Church: A Place Where Mystery Happens - #2

Newly built churches and renovated churches have one aim. They have to be able to bear holy mystery. What is this holy mystery? It is the paschal mystery, the dying and rising of Christ manifested in the lives, the works and actions, the enjoyments and pleasures, the sacrifices and sufferings of this particular people. The people of each parish are agents of God. The Spirit uses their public service to transform this world and to imbue it with the values of the Kingdom of God.

The building is not a testimonial to the architect, the pastor, or the church building committee. It testifies that the Spirit is beckoning this assembly to live holy mystery, the paschal mystery. The building has to be able to serve the public rites of this assembly. It has to express the faith, hope, and love of a local assembly. The assembly uses the building to do its public rites. Here it celebrates the sacraments of initiation, the baptismal bath and robing, confirmation anointing, and sharing at the Lord's Table. Here it reconciles people estranged from God and others. Here it anoints the sick, keeps vigil and buries the dead. Here it calls forth those who enter the catechumenate and others who prepare for religious profession. Here it ordains and commissions church ministers. Here it gathers to witness Christian marriage. The assembly gathers in this building every Lord's Day and here it gathers for the triduum that connects Lent and Easter seasons. Here the assembly gathers for the liturgical hours of morning and evening, for daily Eucharist, for personal prayer in the presence of the reserved Sacrament, for devotional prayer, and for small faith group sharing.

A few things become clear about church buildings. First, many more things happen here than we usually think. The building needs to be large enough to accommodate the Sunday assembly. But it needs other stations, i.e., ample spaces where the assembly gathers for baptismal bath, for waking, for burying, for hearing the Word of God, for blessing catechumens and engaged couples, for sending forth ministers, for reconciling, and for contemplative and devotional prayer.

Second, our buildings speak. They form us wittingly and unwittingly. They communicate a mentality and indicate how status and power operate in a parish. When our churches ignore baptismal space, they ignore the centrality and significance of baptism. When our baptismal spaces are inadequate and do not allow full and active participation, we are shortchanged. When we refuse to provide living waters in beautiful baptismal pools and fonts, we thwart the ministries of the laity. We remain hostage to clerical domination and promote elitism. We diminish ourselves when we do not have living, flowing waters as reminders of a common calling in Christ. When our church arrangements separate the presider, the ambo, and the choir from the rest of the folks, we should not be surprised that the assembly is passive. When the priest and the altar are distant from the rest of the people, the priest begins to feel isolated and the people settle into private piety. The great thanksgiving ceases to be the assembly's prayer and becomes the presider's privilege. No wonder people are reluctant to step forward to claim their part in the church's ministry and mission!

Third, look around your church building. What does it say? What does it promote?