Cappuccinos & the Coliseum
By Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
I just got back from my honeymoon. Oh yeah, and I got married! That was pretty awesome. I have a slight smirk on my face right now, since this is the first thing I’ve typed since getting married, and my wedding ring is right in my field of vision looking at the keyboard.
For our honeymoon, we decided not to do the whole island resort thing (mostly because I have pretty fair skin and look like a lobster after one afternoon at Pt. Pleasant). I wouldn’t have lasted for a week.
So where did we go? Rome. We got to see the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon. We drank authentic cappuccinos and had the best pasta I’ve ever eaten in my life. But as great as all that was, none of it came close to being the highlight of the trip. Well, maybe the pasta. But the highlights of the trip hands down had to do with being in the heart of the Catholic Church.
As soon as we got to Rome (well right after a much-needed nap from the long flight), we went to St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. It’s the one you see on TV all the time when the Pope is doing something important. Up until that point, I was admittedly not super comfortable in Italy. The language is different, the money is different, and the cappuccinos (though delicious) are about ¼ the size of what you’d find at Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. But when we stepped into St. Peter’s Square, I felt at home. I felt like we belonged there.
Our first day we got to take a tour of the excavations deep underground under the main altar of the Basilica to see the bones of St. Peter himself. Later that week we got to see the tomb of St. Paul at another Basilica. In the Catacombs we saw where St. Cecilia was buried. So many saints are buried in Rome in so many beautiful Churches, and just like someone might visit the grave of a loved one in a cemetery, we felt a connection to these holy people and places.
This was more than a spiritual sightseeing tour though. This was what the Church calls a pilgrimage. I kept looking around for other Pilgrims in black and white outfits with little buckles on their hats carving Turkeys, but my new wife informed me that those aren’t the kind of pilgrims we’re talking about…
If I had to narrow it down to one highlight from the trip, I think it would have to be when my wife and I joined a bunch of other newlywed couples and got a special blessing from the Pope during one of his Wednesday audiences. All of us even wore our wedding dresses for this (well the guys wore our suits and tuxes…). Pope Francis drove by in the popemobile literally right in front of us and we made eye contact and he waved to us. Married couples throughout history have been getting blessings from the Pope, and we’re part of that history in a particular way.
Another thing we got to do was visit the “Holy Stairs” which are actually the stairs from Jerusalem that Jesus himself climbed to be judged by Pontius Pilate. They were brought to Rome by Emperor Constantine’s mother in the 300s, and for the past 1700 years, Christians have been climbing these stairs on their knees and praying. Sometimes we can feel like living out our faith is tough, and nobody quite knows what it’s like, but when you hear about a place like the Holy Stairs and about all the people who have prayed there throughout history, you don’t feel quite so alone in this.
We didn’t go to Rome just to learn about our spiritual past as Catholics (though there are literally 2,000 years of our Christian history there), but we went to Rome because we are part of that story. We are part of that history. You and I are called to be modern-day saints. Like the saints and also like the widow in the Gospel this week, we’re called to give all we have for God. Many of the saints gave even their lives. God doesn’t want a half-hearted response from us, he wants our very best.
That doesn’t mean there’s going to be a St. Brian of Bridgewater Basilica some day when I’m gone that people are going to visit from around the world like they do for St. Peter or St. Paul, but one day you and I will be in heaven praising God right alongside all these saints we hear about. Salvation History isn’t just about what God has done in the past – it’s what God is doing in us even now!
Leave a Reply