Today, our question of the day from our SALT training was “what is the church?”
We explored the question by immersing ourselves in 2 very different experiences in Christian history: the persecution of the early church, and the rise of Papal Rome. We spent this morning visiting St Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. We were dumbfounded by the level of artistry and the sheer magnitude of it all. We enjoyed being able to follow the life of Jesus through paintings on the wall and tapestries throughout the museum, but we also felt overstimulated and had to wrestle with the reality of the sheer wealth expressed through the architecture and decor.
Photo Cred: Luis Batiz
We then took a bus ride out to the catacombs outside the city walls. The catacombs are underground cemeteries dug by early Christians. They began by using tunnels left from construction of the Roman trade roads, and ended up providing burial locations in about 60 catacomb locations. At the site we visited, 500,000 people had been buried. Over a third of these were children and infants–many of whom had been abandoned on the roadside by their families, but picked up by Christians to care for and provide a decent burial for. The Christians buried their dead underground because of persecution by various Roman emperors who would not allow them to be buried in the above-ground locations that the rest of the population at the time was using.
Many Christians also spent time hiding in some of the catacombs to escape persecution, and would have church gatherings there as well, when necessary to remain out of sight. However, our tour guide was quick to remind us that not all catacombs were hospitable to human life–the one we visited had high levels of sulfur in the wall materials and extended exposure would cause health issues. He was also quick to remind us that not all Roman Emperors were too hard on Christians. Some found symbiosis with the followers of Jesus, while others did not.
Dinner!
Our evening held time around the table–another facet to our conversation about the nature of the church–and even as I write this, Rick is leading the youth in a SALT conversation on the topic. I’m sure gelato is soon to follow!
Deep in discussion. What is the church?