The Catholic Writers Guild

Without a doubt, this is the BEST time of the year!   You are still in party mode, aren’t you?   Our celebration lasts until June 8^th.  That’s a full 50 days!  Add that to our “pre-celebration” and that would be a full 90 days!   Oh yes, don’t forget that canonically every Sunday is a feast day, even during Lent.

As a tangible witness to celebration all you have to do is take a trip to “our roots”; Rome, Italy. Rome was “the” spot that wound up being a hub for Christianity in the ancient world because of overpowering political influence.  Rome ruled the world at the time when the Faith was in its infancy and started out as The Church’s biggest booster and in the end, its most vicious enemy.  Any disputes over religion and worship of the Roman emperor or the Living God were settled in the presence of the Emperor if you were a citizen of Rome.  That was your right as a Roman.  Roman’s came to Christianity in droves and the physical city, to this day, is a witness to that.

Did you know that Rome has over 900 churches, all decorated with Cosmatesque, Baroque or Renaissance art and architecture done by masters like Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Durer, Bramante, Brunelleschi, Bernini  and an endless list of Masters.  If you’ve been to Rome you know that there is no “ordinary” in any Roman Church.   In St. Peters there is literally not an inch where you can rest your eyes that will not take your breath away!  Most of these Churches are at least 500 years old and many are much older than that. In Rome you can stand in Church after Church built in, on or next to an elegant Villa, because that’s how the owner of the property celebrated (500-1000 year ago), by having Church in their own house.

Unlike misconceptions that are portrayed about our Church, we are a religion of Celebration. Do you know any other religion that celebrates its foundation for 90 days every year?  The beauty in the mind boggling Churches of Rome is pure celebration.  In these elegant, living masterpieces, nothing was too good for Our God.  No expense was spared, literally. In an interesting historical bit you can learn about the “Cosmati”, a family composed of generations who literally did nothing else but create art for the churches of Rome.  They worked mainly in stone and mosaic and to this day historians can’t unlock the secrets of their stunning techniques. I purposely returned to Santa Maria in Trastevere to photograph a solid marble candle stand that was ten feet tall and had a geometrically perfect twist that was hard to believe.  I couldn’t get it out of my head.  How do you do that with rock hard marble?  Beautiful beyond words! Then there are the Church sites themselves.   Many are the exact spots where saints were martyred.   Instead of somber gravestones on these sites beauty and worship rose up for all eternity.

Last but not least we have “our people”.   This is the celebration of our living witnesses, our Saints.  In all of the churches where our heroes and heroines died their stories are openly displayed, maybe even with the instrument of their death.  Our exemplars are celebrated, giving us strength and encouragement.  If you search the hagiographic literature you cannot find one incident of the martyr who went to their death begging for mercy, forgiveness or clemency.  In fact there are hundreds of stories about how these faithful died singing, praying or speaking the name of the Living God.  Some joked, some doled out forgiveness to their torturers or executioners, all celebrated.  Even the great Saint Augustine was reminded about joy as he preached often on the martyr Crispina (t304): 

“Think how Saint Crispina rejoiced…she rejoiced when arrested, rejoiced when haled before the judge, rejoiced when thrown into prison, rejoiced when bound and led forth, rejoiced when hoisted onto the scaffold, rejoiced when the people listened to what she had to say, and rejoiced on being condemned. In all these trials she rejoiced.  Wretched onlookers deemed her wretched, yet she was rejoicing in the sight of the angels” (From Sermon III,11).

          Joy is our “secret weapon”. There is no other logical explanation for the way we grew from a band of twelve to a world religion of two billion!  People are smitten and fascinated by Frances’ joy.  That’s a big part of his appeal.  Pope Frances reminds us that it is our responsibility to demonstrate joy to the world, not the dour face of defeat.   Joy will bring about conversion like nothing else can.  So we are still in the season of celebrating Easter and the Holy Spirit…….party at your house?