First-class relics used to seem somewhat "creepy" to me until I tried to think of them in continuity with the early Church. If the first Christians had to worship in the catacombs, then just by necessity the bodies of the martyrs would have been right there with them, right? What a powerful testament to the faith that told them their beloved dead were closer to them than ever before. And after a couple hundred years of that, once the Church got to come out of the catacombs, of course we would want to bring this physical manifestation of the "cloud of witnesses" with us!
Great article. And if you've never been to St. Anthony's Chapel, it's worth the visit. My dad was an altar boy at the parish that oversees the chapel. Growing up not far from there, my family went to Stations there once every Lent. They have beautiful, carved life size Stations.
To nitpick, St. Anthony's is on Troy Hill, not the North Side.
I like how Aquinas states it in summary of the perennial tradition: "It is written (De Eccles. Dogm. xl): 'We believe that the bodies of the saints, above all the relics of the blessed martyrs, as being the members of Christ, should be worshiped in all sincerity': and further on: 'If anyone holds a contrary opinion, he is not accounted a Christian, but a follower of Eunomius and Vigilantius.'"
First-class relics used to seem somewhat "creepy" to me until I tried to think of them in continuity with the early Church. If the first Christians had to worship in the catacombs, then just by necessity the bodies of the martyrs would have been right there with them, right? What a powerful testament to the faith that told them their beloved dead were closer to them than ever before. And after a couple hundred years of that, once the Church got to come out of the catacombs, of course we would want to bring this physical manifestation of the "cloud of witnesses" with us!
Great article. And if you've never been to St. Anthony's Chapel, it's worth the visit. My dad was an altar boy at the parish that oversees the chapel. Growing up not far from there, my family went to Stations there once every Lent. They have beautiful, carved life size Stations.
To nitpick, St. Anthony's is on Troy Hill, not the North Side.
I like how Aquinas states it in summary of the perennial tradition: "It is written (De Eccles. Dogm. xl): 'We believe that the bodies of the saints, above all the relics of the blessed martyrs, as being the members of Christ, should be worshiped in all sincerity': and further on: 'If anyone holds a contrary opinion, he is not accounted a Christian, but a follower of Eunomius and Vigilantius.'"
Maybe a nitpick, but it’s distressing to read about a tabernacle having been stolen without being told whether the Blessed Sacrament was still inside!