In this talk, given at a 1986 South Bend community meeting, Paul DeCelles used cathedral-building as an image for building Christian community in the People of Praise. It is a long-term project requiring the investment of time and resources. It involves many people working together, putting aside personal style and preference for the sake of unity and following a specific vision for the glory of God.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
Paul: . . . Well, this is going to turn out to be one of the best-orchestrated meetings we’ve ever had. Because all the prophecies and Bud’s little teaching before, and every—all the songs, all lead to the same thing, which is what I’m going to talk about. So, it should be easier for—to understand me today, because you’ve already heard it three times! Okay, you kids listening? Okay.
How many of you kids have ever seen a cathedral? Raise your hands, real high. Oh, good! Good! A big cathedral?
Okay, how many of you kids have seen the Hancock Building in Chicago? . . . How many of you have been to Chicago? Then you’ve seen the Hancock Building. [Paul chuckles.] Because it’s a very big building.
I want to describe a little bit of something to you. When—once my family and I had a chance to go to Europe for a while. And while we were there, we got to see a lot of cathedrals, because almost all of the old cities that were of any, you know, real stature, and even the smaller ones, had cathedrals.
One time we were driving along. We were in this very large city called Cologne, and it’s in Germany. And as we were driving along, I—we were looking for the cathedral. This is very unusual, because normally you don’t have to look for the cathedral; the cathedral just dominates everything. I mean, as soon as you come anywhere near the city, you can see this huge building, way—you know, the spires way up in the sky. Just a big block of stone and spires and towers and gargoyles and all kinds of bells ringing and everything else. That just—these cathedrals just dominate the cities. But in this city, Cologne, which is a very, very large city—it’s about the size of Chicago—as you drive into it, it’s a little more difficult to see the cathedral. And all of a sudden, I was beginning to wonder if there was one. I, of course, had heard about it before, you know, having read a lot.
Anyway, we were driving—having read the tour book, really. Anyway, all of a sudden, we came up over a hill and got close to the river, and there in front of us was this cathedral. It was still about two miles away from us. But it completely dominated the skyline. And it was just that we were so far away, and apparently, it was just, you know, hidden by a hill or something like that, that we couldn’t see it before. But anything—when you get anywhere near the heart of the city, there is this gigantic cathedral. Oh, it’s just magnificent. It just goes on and on and on and up! I mean, it’s lost—the top of it is lost in the clouds. It’s just so beautiful.
Recently, I saw a TV program on cathedrals. Did anybody here see that? That program? Did you see it? Oh, good. Well, it was a very good program. And if you get a chance to see it, I recommend that you see it. It’s—and everybody of all ages, I think, will enjoy it, because it’s got a lot of cartoons in it (which I really enjoyed). And it’s got a lot of talk, too. So, I really recommend that you take a look at it. It’s on PBS; I’m sure that they’ll show it again. It was written up in Christianity Today. It was a very nice review. And if you can’t see the original thing, then read the review in Christianity Today, because it’s quite nice, and really makes a good point in that review.
The thing that was striking about that program was that it showed a lot of what the architects had to do with the building of the cathedral. And it showed how many years . . . everybody had to work on it, and what kind of skill it took to do all kinds of things. For example, they were describing a fictitious cathedral just—it was a kind of a typical summary of all the cathedrals and what you had to do to build one. This particular one that they were trying—you know, they were making up: they had more than 20 stone artists who could—who were sculptors, who could work in stone, stone cutters. And they showed—they pointed out how these brilliant artists, you know, like the Matisses and the Picassos of their time, would donate all their time to building this cathedral. They also—they worked for a living there, but they worked together. And the amazing thing is, and I had never thought of this before, they all had to do the same kind of work. When you look at these cathedrals, you can see that there isn’t—you know, from one side to the other side, there’s not a huge variation in artistic style. I mean, you didn’t have a Picasso doing his thing on one side, and Matisse on the other side doing something completely different. They were really—they had—they worked according to a plan. That’s one of my first points. There’s actually—there’s a point in all this, you might suspect.
One of it [sic] is that wonderfully talented people had to put all of their energies in a pool to accomplish the building of the cathedral. And they had to be willing to work together under the direction of the general artist, or the general architect, the one in charge of the building itself. And they had to—they had to come up with the one design, the one style, and they would all have to adhere to that as they worked all the way around the building.
One of these cathedrals—we went up the staircase, and you know, it must—you just get exhausted, walking up the stairs. They’re so high, everything is so tall. But I remember in one of these places where I stopped, while I was panting, trying to catch my breath, while the kids were running ahead, and I leaned out this little bitty turret. I had to actually—I had to step way over on the side, and I had to crane my neck way around, in order to even find the turret. I knew that there was some light coming in there, so there had to be a hole. And I reached way around, and then. . . . I’m sure that very few people in the last four or five hundred years did what I just did, okay? That is, actually looked out that window.
Now, when I looked down, I could see a car, and the car was about the size of, you know—I don’t know how small—it was just—it was just tiny. It was like a ladybug down there. There was the—I was so high. And I’m sure that anybody down there would not have been able to see me at all. And as I looked out there, and I craned all the way around, I saw a magnificent statue that I think could probably only be. . . .1
[Inaudible for a few seconds.]
. . . this were kept around all over the place, and the only person who could see that was God! They did it for God! They built that magnificent building for God! They—the whole town, in fact, the whole area, would pour all of its energies into building this magnificent cathedral for the sake of the Lord, to please him. And that would take 100 years. Can you imagine that some cathedrals took longer than that, and some cathedrals they’re still building, they still haven’t finished them?
Now what I want to offer to you is that this is an analogy for our life. Our lives today . . . are like the cathedral. We cannot make progress in building up our lives unless we work according to some kind of plan. You know, there’s so much about this in Psychology Today. A lot of psychology—of course, there’s a lot of good psychology, too. But so much psychology tells you that what you do really doesn’t make any difference. That life basically just has to happen to you, as opposed to you doing, taking your life in your own hands, and accomplishing something.
That’s just not the way it is with the Lord. The Lord says that it does depend on us. It depends drastically on what we do. What kind of a life we’re going to build. Is it going to be a cathedral? Or is it going to be some little shack, a tin shack someplace with no plumbing? What kind of a life for Christ are we going to build?
In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, there are some passages that point out all kinds of things that we as Christians should be concerned about. For example, in verse—chapter 5, verse 17, he says:
Don’t think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them, for truly I say to you, though heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever, then, relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
And then he goes on to speak of all kinds of things that we should take very, very seriously because we want to live the Christian life. In particular, I want to read you—want to—verse 30. “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Oswald Chambers, in his book My Utmost for His Highest, says this about this. “There are many things that are perfectly legitimate. But if you are going to concentrate on God, you cannot do them.” And then he goes on to say, “This line of discipline is the sternest one that ever struck mankind.”
Today, I think we have to ask ourselves the question: What is the modern world building instead of cathedrals? What is the cathedral of today?
Well, I think that the Lord has called us, the People of Praise in the South Bend branch, to be a cathedral people. I think that we should be something that is so clear and visible and good and wonderful to view that when people drive into the town, they can see us. They can say, “What’s the cause of this?” They ought to be able to see a difference in South Bend because we’re here. They ought to be able to look up, so to speak, and see us, pointing toward heaven. We need to make that kind of a difference.
And in order to make that kind of a difference, we have to be a cathedral ourselves! We have to put our own talents in the pool; we have to work according to a plan. And we have to build something really good and beautiful and true and holy, for the Lord our God.
This is a project which is worth 100 years’ investment. We should make the People of Praise a cathedral in South Bend. And we should make the People of Praise a cathedral in Minneapolis and St. Paul and Hastings. We should make a cathedral in every town we can possibly make a cathedral in. We should make a cathedral of people who give glory to God by the way in which we work together and the way in which we serve God first, foremost, and last.
Instead, I ask you, what do people spend money on now? In those days, when cathedrals were being built, people spared no cost. They poured all their energies into building the great cathedral, because it always was before them as a sign of what they were called to in this life: to live their life for God. Today, what do we spend our money on: football stadiums and fancy homes?
I think our Lord is asking us to take very seriously all the prophecies which we’ve received earlier today. This is a project that God has given us wisdom for. And what he’s asking us to do is to not hold back even our right arm, so to speak, even those legitimate and wonderful things that we may do. But rather, offer them up, so that we may accomplish more for the Lord our God, together in his service.
So let us praise God together. Let us offer a holy and worship—worship, praise of God, day and night. Let us write our own history. You know, someday, this is going to be the case; it’s really going to be true. Someday you’re going to die. And when you die, you will be in a situation where somebody could write a book about you. They could say, “Ah, yes, David did this, and then he did this, and then he did this.” And they will be able to document it; these things will have happened. You will have done this and this and this. You are writing your histories. Now. Each one of you has a history! You’re making history now!
Now the question is, what do you want written about you after you’ve gone? Will it make a difference?
Every single day, at the beginning of the day, contribute your energies to building the cathedral. And ask yourself, “What contribution can I make today by the power of the Holy Spirit given to me, [so] that, in fact, I will make a difference, and that my life will be a glory and a praise to God in the People of Praise?” Every single day, think about how you would like your history written for that day. What would you like to have accomplished that day: today, this afternoon, this moment? And ask the Lord to give you all the power and wisdom to pursue the plan which he’s laid out before us.
Amen. [Applause.]
Endnote
1. Here is a gap in the tape. Paul is describing looking out of a very small, very high window in the Cologne Cathedral. He says he, “saw a magnificent statue that I think could probably only be seen from that place. Those kind of special touches were tucked around all over the place.” The italicized words (as best Paul can remember them) are missing from this recording. Return to text
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