Do NOT Explain Inside

In the Holy Land this past January, in Capernaum to be exact, I walked up to the Church of St. Peter's House, a church built in the 60s over the ruins thought to be the House of Peter. It is a beautiful church and beautifully done in order to be present in, but not take away from or destroy, the ruins beneath. I highly recommend you enter in if ever you go there. What intrigued me on this visit was the sign outside, which along with other instructions, says, "Do not explain inside."

 

I surely got the point, that they do not want tour groups going into the church and explaining, or looking at the ruins and telling the people what they were looking at. They were asking that all of that be done outside. I got it, and yet I was so enthralled with, what I perceived to be, the irony of it all. It made me think of something I heard a few years ago and am still processing, that the Church keeps answering questions no one is asking. The irony for me is just how much we try to "explain" inside, and yet I have to wonder if we are touching on anything the people who venture in really want to know? And then, there is the other angle on this, perhaps we don't need to explain anything inside, just let it be. Maybe the "explaining" needs to be done outside, and maybe we, being the Church, are not the only ones to do the "explaining." The inside of the church is not, ultimately, about explaining the ruins. It is about pointing to the transforming of the world and even more about becoming part of that, not inside, but outside the walls.

Bishop Greg