THIS SPLENDID AND FANCIFUL CHURCH in St. Petersburg, Russia goes by several names: The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ but also The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. Completed in 1907, more a museum than an active church, it commemorates the 1881 assassination of Czar Alexander II. The Soviet government closed the church in the 1930's using it as a morgue during the Second World War and the Siege of Leningrad. Still later it was used as a warehouse for vegetables. After a twenty seven year period of restoration the building was re-opened to the public in 2007.
Spiritual genius seems to have designed and built the church while insanity ransacked and closed it. But the world needs this place with the curious name. Indeed, every major city might have a Church on Spilled Blood - not to commemorate a murdered czar or political figure but to call our attention to the blood that is spilled in just about every place on the planet by abortion, genocide, drug-related violence, murders, terrorist blood-letting, internecine wars, bloody revolts, slaughtering attacks and executions.
The Christian can't be simply a nice guy, a law-abider or a good neighbor. A Christian is to feel to his/her very depths what it is to profess and live fidelity to Jesus Christ. Acknowledging our divided nature, and the beckoning of other loyalties, Pope Pius XII said: "Never make a man choose between his Church and his country. He will almost always choose his country."
Seventy years or so later, I would frame it this way, "Never make a person choose between Christ and other loyalties. They will almost always choose the other loyalties."
There are loyalties to political party, firm or corporation, to the media guru or talk show hosts, the loyalties of ideology, our national obsession with fun, sport and entertainment, sensual beauty and physicality.
Blood-spiller rage? At any summer gathering bring up even one of these topics: Catholicism, Catholic priests, homosexual marriage, "gay agenda", abortion, Mexican children fleeing to America's borders, Barack, Michelle, Benghazi, Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman, prison reform. There's a blood-spiller in each human person.
And then there's the blood-spiller-rage that surfaces over our our having been abandoned, dismissed, fired, given away, abused, not consulted, unrewarded, over-looked, trapped, underpaid, betrayed, left disappointed, denied...
The message of the wondrous and luminous church might be, we've got to get the rage out of us. Notice the church's first title is Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. The peace of God in the Easter Jesus!.
That today is Sunday won't prevent blood-spilling. But that shouldn't stop us from contemplating the wisdom and vision of Jesus:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be known as the children of God.
But I say to you; love your enemy,
do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you.
To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also.
And from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well.
Give to everyone who begs from you;
And, to those who take away your goods, do not ask for their return.
And as you wish that others would do unto you, do so unto them as well.
The Christian can't be simply a nice guy, a law-abider or a good neighbor. A Christian is to feel to his/her very depths what it is to profess and live fidelity to Jesus Christ. Acknowledging our divided nature, and the beckoning of other loyalties, Pope Pius XII said: "Never make a man choose between his Church and his country. He will almost always choose his country."
Seventy years or so later, I would frame it this way, "Never make a person choose between Christ and other loyalties. They will almost always choose the other loyalties."
There are loyalties to political party, firm or corporation, to the media guru or talk show hosts, the loyalties of ideology, our national obsession with fun, sport and entertainment, sensual beauty and physicality.
Blood-spiller rage? At any summer gathering bring up even one of these topics: Catholicism, Catholic priests, homosexual marriage, "gay agenda", abortion, Mexican children fleeing to America's borders, Barack, Michelle, Benghazi, Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman, prison reform. There's a blood-spiller in each human person.
And then there's the blood-spiller-rage that surfaces over our our having been abandoned, dismissed, fired, given away, abused, not consulted, unrewarded, over-looked, trapped, underpaid, betrayed, left disappointed, denied...
The message of the wondrous and luminous church might be, we've got to get the rage out of us. Notice the church's first title is Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. The peace of God in the Easter Jesus!.
That today is Sunday won't prevent blood-spilling. But that shouldn't stop us from contemplating the wisdom and vision of Jesus:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be known as the children of God.
But I say to you; love your enemy,
do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you.
To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also.
And from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well.
Give to everyone who begs from you;
And, to those who take away your goods, do not ask for their return.
And as you wish that others would do unto you, do so unto them as well.
