Travel Spain: La Basilica de La Sagrada Familia on the Feast of the Holy Family

(Basilica de La Sagrada Familia)

I was finally standing on the Plaza de Sagrada Familia after walking for 1.3 kilometers to Carrer de Mallorca from Passeig de Gracia just to make it to the schedule in my ticket reservation to enter the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia.

Towering above Barcelona at 566 feet, the Basilica de  La Sagrada Familia is one of the most visited sites in all of Europe, drawing both tourists and pilgrims. That day, I was both.

Designed by a Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, also known as “God’s architect” because of his vision and work on this magnificent place of worship, the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Gaudi died in 1926 after being hit by a tram in the streets of Barcelona.

While admiring Gaudi’s work from the ground up, one reflects the passages of the Bible as they are depicted by one man’s work that started in 1894 and was a hundred years from being completed when he died.

As the architecture and design of the Basilica are based on the Bible and the Life of Jesus, the three monumental faćades of the Basilica, namely, the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory faćades, are being completed to educate a tourist and evangelize a pilgrim.

The Nativity faćade shows the sculptures of the birth of Jesus in a scene that is most familiar to Catholics, the Nativity scene. I realized the ‘belen’ is the most popular Bible story we bring to life:  Saint Joseph and the Virgin celebrating the birth of the Son of God surrounded by shepherds and the Wise Men. This is the Holy Family, the Sagrada Familia.

(The sculpture of an angel guiding the donkey 

that carries Mary and the Baby Jesus with 

Joseph walking after them as they are 

fleeing to Egypt)

And in our celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family, not only do we honor and celebrate our mother and father, but we also should honor our grandparents.

According to Pope Francis, grandparents “are a treasure” and that their wisdom “is something we must welcome as an inheritance because a society or community that does not value, respect and care for its elderly members doesn’t have a future because it has no memory; it has lost its memory.”  After all, when we Filipinos say ‘family’, it includes everyone – from grandparents to grandchildren.

And remembering the meaning of the Basilica’s Nativity faćade that symbolically faces east as the rising sun gives birth to life – life that should revolve around the Christian values of faith, hope, and charity.

On the Feast of the Holy Family and in these times, we should pray for families that are being torn apart, are incomplete, and are facing challenges. We should look up to the Holy Family, the Sagrada Familia, as an inspiration of hope, harmony, and understanding among the family members.💖

As a tourist, it was easy for me to see this Basilica of Sagrada Familia as a monument of man’s devotion to his Creator. But as a pilgrim, it is a reminder of my role – our roles in my own families to look up to the Holy Family as a model Christian family that loves, respects and honors one another.🙏

The Vatican and The Treasures of the Church

It has been two hours since I entered the Vatican Museums, tracing the suggested path of discovering the priceless works of art collected over the centuries by the popes since the earliest years of the Catholic Church.  

Earlier during the day, after two bus rides from the home of Maurizio and Margarita, my hosts, in the Monte Sacro area in Rome, I was at the entrance of the Vatican Museums with my prepaid ticket and fresh legs, ready to discover the ‘treasures’ of the Vatican.  

And with my camera and the Museum’s brochure, I stepped into a different world, one that showcased the Church’s acquisitions that were gathered in one place and have been on display since 1506.

(Priceless marble statues from the antiquities 

on display at the Vatican Museums)

One by one, these bigger-than-life marble sculptures showcased in different galleries fascinated me knowing that each was one-of-a-kind and must have been created by the hands of Renaissance masters I only read about in history books, and that each painting and fresco hanging on the wall or decorating a ceiling was a priceless masterpiece created by the brush strokes of the world’s greatest painters from images and colors of centuries past.

But other than these statues of Roman and Greek gods like the Apollo of the Belvedere, believed to be 1,800 years old and sculpted from one solid marble;  the bejeweled candelabras, ancient maps and priceless tapestries; or the Egyptian monuments and artifacts that outlived the dynasties that created them, there are more artifacts, manuscripts, letters, and books that are kept away and hidden from public view. 

Of all the 70,000 items in the Vatican collection, only 20,000 are on display and I think one could not even digest the enormity and importance of each masterpiece.

Being one of the biggest museums in the world, the collections of the Vatican Museums are in itself an exhibition of humanity; a display of man’s creations over the past millennia.

But after walking more than seven kilometers through the corridors of time, art and intellect, I realized I overlooked the lesson I should learn from this visit. The works of art owned by the Vatican were all physical creations, things that were created by man as an expression of his humanity. They are ‘treasures of a museum’. 

     (The Bramante spiral staircase at the Vatican)

But as I continued to ponder while walking down the famous ‘Bramante’, a spiral staircase designed in 1932, at the end of my visit to the Vatican Museums, a question came to mind. And with both my train of thought and path going in circles, literally and figuratively, I asked myself this: what are the real treasures of the Church?

And I had to turn to a pope for an answer.

I found it, of all places, in a movie.

In the classic 1983 film, The Scarlet and The Black, which was based on a true story and voted as one of the best Catholic films ever made, Pope Pius XII tells Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty that “The real treasures of the church, what makes it imperishable is that every once in a while, someone comes to it … like you.” The Pope was referring to the monsignor’s heroic deeds during World War II.

But that line, though, was from a movie and its setting was a century ago.

Nevertheless, taking a hint from the Pope, I think the real treasures of the church are not the cold, white marbles sculpted into human forms by Renaissance artists. They are not the ones hidden in guarded museums, kept in cold halls and are lifeless.

The treasures of the Vatican are spread all over the world and you don’t even have to travel to Rome to discover them. They are right there in your own parish and you only need to look beyond what you actually see.

It is us.

We, who uplift the souls and lives of our parishioners; we, who help spread the Word as modern-day evangelists; and we, as useful part of Christ’s body, who preserve and practice Catholic values and traditions as they have been kept during past millennia - are the real treasures of the Church.

(The apostles guarding the Saint Peter's 

Basilica in Rome)

So, someday, after you visit the Vatican Museums, you can ask yourself the same question, and I hope you'll arrive at the same answer. 🙏

(December 15, 2019 ADSUM Newsletter edition)

The Church and Social Media: The Bible is a book, Facebook is not

The Philippines being the 6th country in the world with the most Facebook users of 68 million, almost all people we know in our lives have a Facebook account. 

Some users even have multiple accounts for reasons that involve regulating privacy (some teachers have an account for their students and a separate one for family), relationships gone bad (hiding from a possessive ‘ex’), inability to honor financial commitments (hiding from creditors), and for the most notorious reason to bash, attack and spread falsehoods under the cloak of anonymity.

In our use of personal Facebook accounts, have you ever observed how your behavior as a virtual personality in Facebook affects how you behave as a person in the physical world? 

Do you post a status, photo or video to reflect the real you, or are you just posting just to project an image on how you want people to think about who you are?

In our online communities, do you post to impress in order to earn ‘Likes’ and praises in the ‘Comments’ section? In short, do you post in order to boost your self-esteem and inflate your ego?  

Shouldn’t we be using the social media, not just for amusement, entertainment or to improve our self-worth, but as a tool to lift our communities just like we are obligated to do in the physical world?

At the start of this year, to commemorate the 53^rd World Communications Day, Pope Francis delivered a message, one that specifically reminds us about how we should behave around social network communities. 

In his message, Pope Francis reminds us that in the virtual world we “remain simply as groups of individuals who recognize one another through common interests or concerns characterized by weak bonds.”  Simply put, the Pope is saying that our virtual relationships in social media start and end with  “common interests” and anything outside of those interests may not be a truthful relationship.

To find out, check the Facebook groups you are a member of. Aren’t these groups categorized by “common interests” like hobbies, commerce, sports, religion, culture, your hometown, and even celebrities you follow?

Are you just a quiet observer or do you actively interact?

Are you a member who helps lift the community?  

In my case, I used to be just an observer in an online community created by people from my hometown. But when I realized that falsehoods were being propagated as truth by people with deceitful agenda, I decided it was time to counter it with the truth. Using my modest professional experience and skills, I was able to uncover the truth and shared it, using my voice both in the virtual and physical worlds in order to counter the falsehoods created by greed. I also made a point to educate the young, whose minds are easily swayed with what they see, hear, read and experience online. I felt it was my duty to protect the truth and the knowledge from the malicious attacks by those who use the platform for their own selfish agenda.

According to Pope Francis, we should use and engage our social network communities in a meaningful purpose: that to make a community stronger that involves “mutual listening and dialogue based on the responsible use of language.”  After all, Saint Paul, the Apostle, in his Letter to the Ephesians, said, “Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak the truth, each to his neighbor, for we are members of another” (Eph. 4:25).

Yes, more than 2,000 years before the invention of social media, Saint Paul already had a reminder on how we, as members of these online communities, should behave, which should further remind us that these social media communities in Facebook or in any other online platform should not dictate on how we live our daily lives. We should always return to where everything started: the Bible, the only book we really need to be our daily guide in both our physical and online worlds.

Pope Francis recognizes that social media are a source of knowledge and relationships but using it entails responsibility and duty as Christians. Though social media may have improved the way we live, we should always be guided by the lessons of the Bible about goodness, truth, and righteousness.

(Credit first photo: Vatican News website)
(Article reposted from ADSUM Newsletter, December 8, 2019)