Congratulations Houston Co-Cathedral

So I watched the coverage of the consecration of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, thanks to the generosity of ABC13.com who had a live feed. Their coverage throughout the building of the cathedral has been wonderful and they are really to be commended. I'm grateful that they had this live feed so even a non-TV owner like myself could watch and participate from afar. I think the newscasters and their guest Cardinal Foley did an excellent job of balancing reverential time to view the ceremony with informative discussion at timely moments and even informational clips. So I join the praise they rightly deserve.

The Cathedral itself is wonderful and I admire the vision combined with cost effectiveness of the project. I can tell that everything was made using the best materials, a reverent vision and timeless craftsmanship. Everyone involved with the creating of this place of God should be commended and ought to be very proud of themselves. I especially like the idea of the illuminated 40 foot stained glass window of the resurrected Christ. Many people have grown up without knowledge of the warm glow of their small town church, providing a spiritual and a literal comfort both day and night. When I grew up our church was always unlocked, and always a warm haven for those who wanted to pray in God's house. But times of course have changed and churches must be locked. Here in the south I was told in our local cathedral that the sacred plate ware was stolen even as service ended, say nothing of leaving the church itself unattended, and so it too is locked and I got a peek only when people were changing a light bulb. I can't explain to those who did not grow up with it what they are missing by living in a time and place where the local Catholic church must be kept under lock at all times. But here in Houston you can see the window, with the sign of faith and proof of the fulfillment of scriptures with the beautiful illuminated window of the resurrected Christ. It's not the same as the roadside crosses that we often see (and I'm always glad someone cares enough to show their faith in that way). A Catholic Church is a microcosm of the entry to heaven, and so this grand window is like God having his Son, the Lord, keep the light on for one and all. So this was a magnificent concept and compensates in some small way for the sadness of having to lock the actual house of God itself. After school we kids loved to pop into our local church and pray, light candles for loved ones, and pick up holy cards, rosaries, holy medals that people would leave. The church was always open. And now the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will always be illuminated in promise for those who believe.

I'm impressed that Houston received the last fragment of the True Cross as one of their relics. That is quite a statement of faith and I look forward to the Catholics flourishing throughout Texas, and the South.

There are many challenges in being a modern architect and artist. Most who do so are reverential, but are informed by an aesthetic of spareness and modernity plus they do not fully appreciate the primary purpose of the Catholic sanctuary, which is the performance of sacrifice to God. The Mass is literally a sacrifice, just as it was for the ancient Israelites who hoisted the bullock or the smaller animals, or grains and oils from the poor, to offer up to God, killing and burning the sacrifices. This is why incense is such an important part of in particular the Eastern rite, because they recall that God himself alluded to the smoke and fragrance of the sacrifice rising to heaven. (The news hosts asked about the incense and Cardinal Foley did not have time to fill them in on this origin of incense. Incense is the carry over of the times when sacrifice was literally burned on the altar in offering to God, with the smoke and fragrance carrying the sign of that sacrifice aloft). This is what the Church body gathers to do at Mass, to conduct sacrifice as God himself taught them to do, although now the sacrifice is the Paschal Lamb of Jesus Christ. It is similar to how Muslims no longer require each believer to perform an animal sacrifice during the Haj, but they are able to purchase the conducting of a sacrifice on their behalf and the meat being given to the poor. Jesus freed the Jews who became Christians, and the Gentiles who followed, from having to literally take from their household treasure and sacrifice an animal, a pair of doves, or a bowl of grain to God. But he did not free them from the obligation to sacrifice to God in worship service. Jesus made himself, in the bread and wine, the Real Presence so that he is the lamb that is offered to God, rather than one that is raised without blemish in the pasture for that purpose. It is the perfection of Jesus that allows his suitability to offer himself to God as the real sacrifice of the New Covenant. This is why I am furious when people who ought to know better (I don't mind the ones who genuinely are not informed) "wreck ovate" Catholic Churches to be performance theaters rather than solemn places of sacrifice and collective offering to God. (Hence my rant below about the Milwaukee Cathedral. Just because Vatican II wanted to make reforms to allow better participation and comprehension does not mean that erroneous participation is now a good idea.) The Catholic Mass is not the place for gazing at each other's darling faces while feeling all warm and fuzzy about the "community." It's a place where people gather together to face the altar of God and make the Sacrifice of the Mass.

So detail and overall comprehension of this purpose is very important in the designing of a cathedral, or any church. Modernists "get" the reverence but they don't "get" the dialogue with God that entails coming together to perform the sacrifice. Also, Modernists don't get the nook and cranny part of the Catholic faith, which is the side chapels, shrines and places of intimate worship where one can pray and reflect with the encouragement of the communion of saints. This is why there is what Modernists consider "gaudy" and lots of little "decorations," because the saints are like the family album of the Catholics where you can be in their company and receive their encouragement even though they have died and received their reward in heaven. So as much as I love the reverence of the gigantic beautiful sculptures in the new Co-Cathedral, it's not the same as an alcove where candles and icons and statuary are crammed together to create an intimate "family" space of prayer. So I understand the challenge and this lack of perspective among even those who specialize in religious architecture and decorations of the church, and I accept the marvelous beauty of the floating statues and the lifelike sculptures of the saints. But that teeters more toward museum and art statement than I like, or would recommend. The gap between God and humans is wide, and modernity only increases it from the perspective of the human who seeks to reach across the gap in worship and prayer. Look at how the victims of the earthquake in Peru caressed the statuary that survived the collapse of their Churches, bringing the statue of Christ into the public square to be there face to face with them as they cried over their loss. Catholics have an incredible gift from God in the intimacy of the communion of saints. I am sad when I see it made gigantic and out of their reach. Also, the "realism" of Modernity provides another challenge of how to select the features of face and body depicted. It's distracting from the faith to see statues with the faces of people who live upstairs from me. There was a reason for the generic and primitive idealized art of the saints. The faith is for everyone, that is why it is called "Catholic," but the saints aren't supposed to have the faces of the guy down the street who drinks beer, or the skinny broad upstairs who wears tight pants. They are not supposed to look like literally someone you know. It annoys me to recognize the mug of some celebrity on the statue of a saint. It annoys me when robes are made to drape like they are pants instead of a robe. It annoys me when Jesus is made to look "gay." Now I'm not only speaking of the Co-Cathedral now; I'm talking about other cathedrals and other places too. That does not make it "better" or make them "more accessible." It makes their features a distraction from the message and the mission. Um, remember what the Church is about? The House of GOD. You know, God, the one who thankfully the artists do not depict (and Islam forbids, wisely). When you are thinking about the mugs of the saints and how marvelous the artwork is, and looking for the subliminal messages (and boy they are there), you are not thinking about GOD. GOD. GOD. Get it? Now I'm not criticizing those who have put heart and soul into these beautiful works of art and devotion, because most of them work purely. But you know that along the way "Modernists" like to bake their personal art conceits and "messages" into their art, and so designs get tweeked. I hope that the statue of the BVM does not have "Nina" hidden in seven places in her robe.