Pilgrimage to Vatican

On Thursday this week, I had an opportunity to explore an extremely important and holy place for all of Christianity: Vatican City, Rome. Protestants, Orthodox and Catholics alike can point to the ancient city of Rome for the relics it holds, the early martyrs who've been killed here, the beginnings of the spread of Christianity and theology being discussed - past and present.

My time at the Vatican was especially rich because I was coming as a pilgrim, partly for  myself and partly for my brothers and sisters (Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic Christians). Not many of my friends have ever been to this beautiful "city of worship" (all of Vatican City really does declare the Glory of God - every fountain, walkway, structure, and of course the basilica, is focused on worship and the whole of it delivers theology in such a tangible way), thus the feeling of being here evoked something deep within me.  I really felt as if I was there, partly on the behalf of friends and family, sharing their prayers and sort of bringing them with me on this journey.  Some of my friends and relatives even commented how they are vicariously visiting with me. And, because of modern mobile technologies including them was very possible. 

I began by exploring the Vatican museum on a tour, becoming amazingly close to ancient marble sculptures created by cultures who, with their artwork, seem to be searching for wholeness either with the earth, crops, continued life (fertility) or even the afterlife. This certainly grabbed my attention, because these cultures were certainly not Christian. In fact some of these cultures tragically persecuted early Christian people in the first few centuries. So, I have to wonder, why would the Church go to such great lengths to salvage and then preserve such works of immense detail and talent, that are directly opposite of my understanding of Church teaching?

As I thought through this, I remember previous discussions by a couple "Heroes" of mine that suggests these cultures were truly looking for wholeness, or completion in something. They searched high and low - in fact we know a few of them even came to worship Christ because they found Him by way of using astrological practices. We celebrate the feast of Epiphany to mark this event; the 12th and final day of Christmas when the wise men found the infant Jesus and worshipped Him.

Wrapping this idea around the "seek and ye shall find" promise I wrote about in a previous post, what struck me was how these people were searching for something: they searched with their [gentile/pagan] ways that were familiar to them. In that search, (which is an action that resulted from some form of faith) the one true God meets them where they are. In the case of the statues and art works in the Vatican museum by pagan cultures, it became so evident to me that these cultures were trying to seek something deeper than what they knew.  It may have been a messy way of going about it in some cases, but in the end, God met them with himself as He so often does - beyond our own messy ways.  He was born of a virgin to destroy, once and for all, the separating boundary between God and man: Death. Even in pagan religions there are stories of a virgin woman giving birth to a son who went on to slay a dragon. How true and foretelling they are because this really did happen. The Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived through the Holy Spirt, bore Jesus the Son of God, who went on to overcome the dragon of death. 

Holding on to these sculptures and preserving them seems to weave a story together of how we as humanity were all so very lost, and then found.  At the basilica of St John Lateran (not inside the Vatican) there is an Egyptian obelisk commissioned by Pharaoh Thuthmos III, and completed by his grandson in the 15th century, B.C. This is the largest standing Egyptian obelisk in the world at 230 tons.  The Egyptian people were not Christians but we know they sought light, life and knowledge. And what a crowning achievement to not destroy this monument, but rather to take it, and redeem it by placing the truth at the top: the Cross of Christ. The message of Christianity is so well illustrated here: not to destroy the lost, but rather to redeem it. Over and over and over, throughout the museum are stories of redemption. The freedom from death has come. You need to do nothing but have faith enough to step out in action (seek!) - eventually it will come to you.