Eastern European Adventure Part V: Beautiful Churches

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” ~Ghandi

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna might be the most breathtaking church I have ever walked into.  The huge Gothic-style church is beautiful.  It has intricate columns, a beautiful alter, a moving crucifix hanging in the center, and color-striped windows.  After seeing it, beautiful felt as though it might be an understatement.  I excitedly went back to our apartment after stepping foot into the church on a search for Mass times the next day.  I even convinced my friend to come to her first Catholic service with me because it was in the beautiful church.

What happened next left me angry.  Like smoke coming out of my ears, want to lecture someone, saying, 'this is what is wrong with Christianity' style angry.  When I was explaining to my friend some Christian beliefs and Catholic traditions quietly before service started and she asked what she should and should not do at the service, we were rudely shushed by another attendee.  I next watched two men get into a fight about who could sit at the end of the pew.  Another man rolled his eyes and acted imposed upon when a woman showed up a couple of minutes late and asked to scoot into his pew.  And then a lady stole my service program (okay, it was in German and I do not speak German, but still) without even asking, saying thank you, or giving it back when she was done.  These people sat in a house of God, one of the most beautiful in the world, and acted in such an ugly manner, so unlike the Jesus to whom they were there to pray.

It made me think of the churches that I have been to that may not be much to look at, but which the people made so much more beautiful.  A tiny Methodist church in Eastern New Mexico where we stop the service to introduce people visiting.  Soul Mate Friend's church that does not have a building, but has created a community that is like a family for her.  The plain-looking church in my college town where an elderly couple said hello to two college girls one day 9 years ago and began an amazing friendship.  The Catholic church in Albuquerque where the sweet little Irish man runs all over the chapel to wish everyone there peace with a handshake at morning Mass.  All of the small town churches that I have repeatedly watched rally around families when tragedy strikes to put together a feast fit for a king in less than a day.

These churches are doing something right. They are following Jesus' example.  They may not be Gothic style.  They may not cause people to reach for cameras, or buy postcards with their photos on them, or write blogs about their beauty.  But in my mind--and I think that in Jesus' mind as well--the people make them so much more beautiful than all of the cathedrals in Vienna.