I had the privilege to visit the Cathedral de Santa Maria del Fiore on our recent trip to Italy.
It has become perhaps my favorite building I have ever stepped foot in, and in seeing the symbolism, the story that is being told, it takes the breath away. As the taxi pulled around the corner and I caught my first glimpse of the facade, tears welled up in my eyes. This feeling of awe and disbelief I held as I looked at this building dedicated to the Lord.
The understanding that we as a secular culture could never build something like this again as a testament to the will of the human spirit, as a three-dimensional apologetic to the Truth.
As you walk through the nave of the church, you are inundated with what most would call a “bare” interior. There was a tour guide behind me in the line to enter and he said that the interior is “almost as if it were unfinished”.
It seems out of place in such an ornate building to have such a simple interior with the exterior being of gigantic, larger than life proportion and intricacy.
But then you come to find that it was meant to be that way.
For simplicity is where God is. He is the most simple of beings.
The interior of the Cathedral is a statement, a commentary, on the austerity of a Christian life, the purification and reduction until all that remains is God.
The stripping away of all worldly matters and fears and concerns until the Lord is the only focus.
What became apparent to me was that in walking into a church, you are walking into yourself. Into that which is your true potential, into a place where you are meant to build the body of Christ with all those that are inside. A place to be one with all.
In seeing this cathedral, you are seeing that which your life could be if you were to follow Christ to the natural “end” of following Christ. Heaven.
As you walk toward the alter, you are walking through life. You find at the end of this life the Dome - the final judgement. That which we will all face at our death.
This bare interior gives way to the most beautiful, the most mind-blowing painting in the dome.
As human beings, everything we create has imperfection, for we are made in the image of God, but we are not God Himself. God’s Creation is that which is without flaw, without blemish, without evil. It is only when man’s creation is dedicated to Him that it reaches toward a worldly perfection.
But even this cathedral is not perfect, there are cracks in the dome, imperfections in the facade and in the stonework. But it is on the trajectory toward perfection that I could only pray to come within 1/100,000th of in my own life.
In the town of San Salvatore, I visited mass in a church that took my breath away once more as I was taken away from time and space into another realm. I looked to the front of the church as the priest broke out in Gregorian Chant, and the room warped and moved before my eyes.
I knew then and there that I would return to my baptized faith of Catholicism. I knew then and there that even though the church is imperfect that the gates of Hell would never prevail.
It was then and there that I felt called back to the Lord.
To take up the walk once more, for the rest of my days.