Sunday, January 08, 2006
CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD, EMMAUS CATHOLIC PARISH
Over at Bettnet Dom has posted pictures of a church he visited while vacationing in Texas, and invited comments.
The website for the church is here, where more pictures of the church can be seen.
It was completed in 2001, and is certainly a curious combination of architectural styles. The interior is gothic, or perhaps some kind of neo-gothic revival would be closer to a description of it, since a look at the aerial view certainly does not give a gothic impression at all. That roofline immediately brings to mind the Temple of Understanding in New York, where all faiths are equal; but there doesn't seem to be a picture of the NY building online anymore that I can use for a comparison.
In any case, architecture is symbolic. It intends to speak to us in images rather than words. It conveys a message, or perhaps I should say messages, since more than one interpretation is always possible, just like Vatican II.
Churches, for example, have been cruciform because the cross is our salvation. The Columbus cathedral shows how the gothic arches can draw our eyes up as though we were looking toward heaven. Notice that there are windows up there at the ceiling level. Those windows bring in the light so there is no darkness in the upper region of the church.
Gothic cathedrals were constructed in stone. Stone is permanent and unchanging. The Texas church uses gothic arches but they are constructed in wood. Wood is organic, growing, changing. It does not imply permanence like stone does.
Take a look at the picture of the centeral nave of this new Texas church. What is the symbolism there? We believe Christ is the Light of the World. There is light at the lower level. But what's up above? The high gothic arches that draw our focus up are unmistakable in this church. But to be effective--to speak to us of the Light of Christ--there must be light up there. What I see in this picture of the nave is an interwoven web of semi-darkness. Can one penetrate that web of darkness in thought, or is it a barrier between us here on earth and heaven where God dwells? Is that interwoven wood symbolic of a net keeping us down? That, in any case, is what I see there. Perhaps others interpret it differently.
There are other confusing symbols in this church where the Catholic images seem to fight with the architecture.
Look at the sanctuary in that picture of the central nave. That cross displays an image of Jesus rising above it, or coming down from it--rejecting it, in any case. The sanctuary is where the sacrifice of Christ takes place. If there is no crucifixion--if Christ rejects it, or comes down off of the cross--our salvation is in question. If the crucifixion does not proceed to the death of Christ, the Eucharist is just bread. Christ rose from the grave, not from the cross.
Instead, that is a Gnostic Jesus rising from the sanctuary cross.
When on the cross, Christos and Sophia left his body, and returned to their own sphere. Upon his death, the two took the man Jesus," and abandoned his material body to the earth; for the Gnostics held that the true Jesus did not (and could not) physically suffer on the cross, and die...
There is another message. Here is the floorplan from the church's website. Look where the tabernacle has been placed. It's an afterthought, resting up against the wall of the restroom. It has no place in the sanctuary because in the sanctuary is where the gnostic Jesus rises.
Dom has a picture of the tabernacle. Back there against the restroom wall is the dying Jesus suffering on the cross for our salvation. The message seems to me to be that the dying Jesus theology is outmoded, is essentially "dead," and the gnostic Jesus who rejects the cross is what we celebrate now. Notice that the dying Jesus is even walled off from the rest of the church. As the explanation of that Gnostic Jesus linked above tells us, when Jesus left the cross and left his body, he returned to our own sphere. He resides in the earth now, and so in the church that celebrates his advent there is light on the earth, but there is no longer any light in the heavens. The faith in the gnostic Jesus is earthbound. The gothic arches in this church tell us to look up and see that the heavens are empty and darkness is all we will find there. Then our eyes come back to the sanctuary dominated by light and by that Jesus who is rejecting the cross.
There is more of interest in the Texas church website. The parish website indicates they have a "Christ Renews His Parish" program. The link for it seems to be broken. Anyone who has been around the Catholic web for any length of time knows that the renewal programs belong to the liberal Call to Action people where Sr. Joan Chittister finds herself at home. Sr. Joan has been the principal speaker at a John Main Seminar, which is an interreligious activity of the monks at Monastic Interreligious Dialogue.
Those are the same monks who promote centering prayer activity. Another monk from Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, Fr. Thomas Keating, has given centering prayer retreats at another church within the Austin Diocese, the Church of Conscious Harmony, which isn't Catholic, but rather is interfaith.
On the website of the Emmaus Catholic Parish is a calendar that indicates the parish has a meditation group which meets every week. Is this the meditation of the sort promoted by the monks of Interreligious Dialogue/centering prayer? There is no way to tell.
All things considered...
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for the parishioners at Emmaus Catholic Parish that they will be able to hold on to faith in the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ. And...
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
