Church, A Place Where Mystery Happens - #5

In the last four columns I have stated a few principal ideas that can guide a church community when it builds or makes over its church building. These guidelines can also help a church community to improve the quality of its Christian life. First, trust your eye. Before you enter a church building, notice the setting. The grounds should convey that God is present here, that grace breaks through into the hearts of this community. Beauty, simplicity, handsomely crafted and cared for buildings and grounds attract people, invite passersby to stop and visit. Second, trust your gut. Beautiful buildings are enhanced when gracious people dwell therein. Hospitality, welcome, warmth are crucial ingredients for successful parishes. These ingredients surprise, delight, and refresh newcomers. Third, trust your heart. God does God's part in the enterprise called church. The Spirit calls the parish together, beckons a people to come together and to encounter holy mystery. The church building and the church community should be able to bear holy mystery, the paschal mystery of Christ crucified and risen. Fourth, trust your judgement. The church building is not a museum housing memories of Catholicism's past. It is the place where the church community does its public works today. It has to be a space that can serve the liturgical events that the community does.

The church building is a dwelling place that kindles a hope for Catholicism's future. When the church community builds a new place or makes over an old one, it needs to envision the future. The Christ of Galilee and Calvary, the Christ who dwells in the heavenly homeland, beckons the parish community to move forward. The journey forward always demands trust. So I say to you, O church, trust your eye, your gut, your heart, and your judgement. Then take a chance and dare to dream some dreams and dare to embrace the surprise of God.

This leaves any church community with some important questions. How do you envision the future for your church community? How will that vision be concretely expressed in the design of our church building? Do you sense a future that is in continuity or discontinuity with your past? Do you think the vision will inspire newcomers and invite others to follow Christ?

I suggest that the answer to these questions is hidden in the words that every assembly prays: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again! When you pray that Christ is risen, you acknowledge that Christ is present in this community of faith, in its common life and shared experience of public prayer. Then you pray - Christ will come again, you fix your eyes on the horizons, the hope, and the homeland that beckons the church forward into the future.

Church buildings become the dwelling places where the church community finds the living Lord, where the Spirit breathes,, where the holy bath births new Christians, where the cup of sweet, cool waters refreshes, where the broken bread is shared, and where words of kindness are spoken. The church building is the tent of gathering where words of kindness are spoken. The church building is the tent of gathering where Christ shows himself in the assembly, the priest, the Word proclaimed, and the Eucharist offered and shared.