In today’s noisy and profane world, survey after survey show that people, especially younger people, yearn for the Transcendent, something beyond themselves. Our souls pine to experience God—the omnipotent, omnipresent all-loving Creator of all, who exists beyond time and space. Luckily, as Catholics we have the Real Presence of Christ in our churches. All our rituals, ceremonies, architecture, interior design, comportment, dress, and music should reflect that real, transcendent presence.
The Psalms proclaims what all empty, parched souls thirst for:
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
The question that parishes must ask themselves is whether they are true sanctuaries where the seeker will behold the Holy, the power and glory of Almighty God. Will he or she experience the Transcendence, like the psalmist had encountered. Or, will he or she experience more of a civic center atmosphere that focuses on the temporal and the community ? Do the parishes quench the spiritual thirst of the seeker?
The prophet Isaiah recorded: My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Spiritually arid seekers search for the Transcendent. They know in their hearts that the Almighty’s essence is pure, unsullied, and sacred. Unfortunately, our contemporary society tries to tame God and recreate Him into our own image. We turn Him into a kind of therapeutic, benign grandfather. Likewise, we have reduced Jesus into a soft, effeminate figure with a beard, who has unconditional love, but makes no moral demands or judgements of us. In contrast, Isaiah teaches that God does judge us and through those judgements teaches us righteousness. Isaiah’s God reigns above us and is not one of us. This is the God who relieves thirsts. Consequently, we must ask whether our parish reflects that holy and transcendent, understanding of God. Do we quench their thirst.?