Tuesday, November 23, 2004
THE MYSTICAL CONCEPT OF CHURCH
Last Sunday in the Latin Church was the Feast of Christ the King - the last Sunday of the Church year. It's one of my favorite because it's so filled with the certainty that Christ rules and the ultimate outcome of the struggle of good and evil will be His.
Father gave a homily I don't ever recall hearing in the Roman Catholic Church before, but one that will be familiar to Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic readers. He talked about the purpose of Mass being primarily worship and he spoke about time stopping at the church doors where we enter into eternity--a corner of heaven on earth--when we enter the church.
Most Roman churches lack any sense of mysticism in their furniture and decoration. They appear very much places of the earth. That is not true of the otherworldly interior of a Byzantine/Orthodox church. Yet this concept of entering into eternity when we enter the church is equally valid in both Eastern and Western Catholicism.
If mysticism is the nature of the future of religion, our shepherds need to recapture for us the mystical side of our faith. The fact that our churches have been stripped of reminders isn't going to help much.
