Marian Pilgrimage Diary: Day 10

Day 10: Does God Live In Rome?
Assisi To Rome
Before telling you what we did, let me tell you a story.
One day, a man was in Paris and attended Mass. After communion, he went to the altar to light some candles. He was surprised to see a golden telephone on the altar, and with this message: “$10,000 per minute”. He shook his head, shocked at how expensive it was. He asked the priest in the Church why it was so expensive, and the cleric said, “Because that’s a call directly to God.”
“Wow,” the man gushed and went on his way.
The man went to Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, etc., and was fascinated to see exactly the same golden telephone in all the churches, all of them charging the same $10,000 per minute for a phone call to God.
But finally, when he went to a church in Rome, he saw the same golden telephone on the altar, but with a different message: “50 cents per minute.” Shocked, he asked the priest, “Father, why is it cheap here? All over Europe, it was $10,000 per minute? Why is yours only fifty cents per minute?”
The priest smiled, “Son, you’re in Rome. It’s a local call.”

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From quiet, rural, hilltop Assisi, we drove two hours and suddenly found ourselves right smack in the middle of noisy, busy, bustling Rome.
Each year, 15 million tourists visit this city.
For many people who haven’t been here, Rome is the Pope. Rome is the Vatican. Rome is the Catholic Church. And yes, it seems as though God lives here too, so a phone call to Him is a “local call”.
But when you stay in Rome, you realize it’s not that simple.
In fact, you realize there are actually three Romes living beside each other.
First, there’s the Ancient Rome. With 2500+ year-old palaces of the emperors, the giant coliseum, violent gladiators, and one of the greatest empires ever known to man.
Second, there’s Christian Rome. The great Martyrs shed their blood here for their faith. And Emperor Constantine welcomed Christianity here as well. His mother, St. Helena, lived in Jerusalem for three years and returned with shiploads of holy relics. Pieces of true Cross. A rusty nail used on the body of Jesus. Two thorns of his crown. And 28-steps of the stairs of the palace of Pontius Pilate. (If you’re the mother of an emperor, I guess your balikbayan box is pretty big.)
Finally, there’s Modern Rome. A busy city and economic powerhouse. And like any modern city, there’s dirty graffiti on the walls, drugs, prostitution, and syndicated crime. The Mafia, just in case you forgot, comes from Italy.
Many years ago, my father took a pilgrimage here, and a man accosted him on the street and stole his watch. That shook him to the bone. Why, of all places, in Holy Rome?
Two of our pilgrims, while walking on the street, met two men who claimed to be policemen. They asked for their passports—and wallets. Thankfully, they had very little money and left them unharmed.
Don’t get me wrong. Crime isn’t much more in Rome than in other cities. (I’m sure Manila has more petty crimes than Rome.) And the Italians I met in my trip were wonderful people.
But crime in Rome is disturbing for a pilgrim because pilgrims expect it to be a holy place. For crying out loud, this is where God and his assistant, the Pope, live!
Here’s another thing about Rome—and Europe as a whole—that you may not know about. Twice in this trip, we visited giant basilicas on a Sunday. My heart broke as I saw less than two hundred people attending Sunday Mass—almost all of them above the age of sixty.
If not for pilgrims from all over the world, churches would be empty. Many of them have become museums.
Most Europeans no longer go to Church.
So we ask a difficult question: Why? Isn’t this where most of our favourite Saints come from? Isn’t this where God’s church has its headquarters? Wasn’t our faith exported from Europe? Why are they losing it?
A more difficult question: When the aging generation who still go to Mass pass to the next world, will Christian Rome become part of Ancient Rome? Will everything simply become a museum?

I will answer my question tomorrow.

Abangan…

I remain your friend,

Bo Sanchez


PS. I am preaching in the United States on the following dates and places:

May 21, 2007 St. Christopher Catholic Church Moreno Valley, CA 92553-4373
May 22, 2007 St. Ciprian Church Long Beach, CA 90808
May 23, 2007 St. Patrick's Catholic Church North Hollywood, CA 91606
May 24, 2007 St. Lorenzo Ruiz Catholic Church Walnut, CA 91789
May 25-27, 2007 Northern CA Charismatic Convention
Santa Clara Convention Center
May 27 , 2007 All Saints Church (7pm Mass), Hayward, CA 94541
May 28, 2007 St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church, SF, CA, 94124
May 29, 2007 St. Augustine's Catholic Church, SF, CA 94080

For more details, click here. Tell your friends to go!


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