During Synod16, one thing we talked about at length was how parishes and the archdiocese could help create a church filled with joyful missionary disciples. Since then, I’ve reflected a lot on this question and come to the conclusion that our churches have to be different.

When someone new walks through the doors of our sanctuary, it needs to feel different than the social gathering space of the vestibule, it needs to be different than a local VFW hall, it needs to be different. It needs to feel sacred.

One of the things I love about Catholicism is it’s a full sensory experience. We praise God with our eyes through reading scripture or watching the priest during consecration. We praise God with our ears through music or listening to the homily. We praise God with our mouths by singing or professing our faith. We praise God with smell by offering incense. We praise God with our touch by receiving Him in the Holy Eucharist.

When we walk into a church for Mass or private prayer, the silence of the sanctuary is a reminder that this isn’t about us. It’s different. It’s drawing our focus to the mystery of Christ in the Eucharist being present in the Tabernacle. If we’re telling people that He is truly present in our church, then reverence to the Eucharist makes an impact on that experience.

“Even before the celebration itself, it is commendable that silence be observed in the church, in the sacristy, in the vesting room, and in adjacent areas, so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred action in a devout and fitting manner.” General Instruction of the Roman Missal Number 45

In addition to silence, we must ensure our church is beautiful. That our tabernacles are out, accounted for, and properly reverenced. That our whole congregation acts as if they are actually in the presence of God. Those things will reinforce the personal testimonies that we share.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one who thinks beauty can point us to truth. It’s part of a lot of Catholic philosophy. Pope Benedict said in 2008 that there is an “urgent need for a renewed dialogue between aesthetics and ethics, between beauty, truth and goodness.”

My biggest fear in evangelization is this:

I share my personal faith journey with someone, complete with the amazement of Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist. Maybe it’s a one off conversation, maybe it’s a continuous relationship. It starts something in their heart. Maybe it’s that next Sunday, maybe it’s in 10 years. They seek out Mass. Maybe we’ve lost touch, maybe they don’t want to get my hopes up that they’re interested, maybe they’re just not comfortable telling me. They walk into Mass and are confused. The way I described Jesus’s presence is not portrayed in the Church they went to. It’s just feels like another place, not the mystery and mystical experience they were told about. And then they’re lost and my credibility as a Catholic is shattered.

I don’t think beauty means it has to be fancy European-style architecture. Simplicity is beautiful. The key is to make sure the sanctuary is different. It’s prayerful. It’s beautiful. Both of the pictured churches have been key parishes in my faith journey. They both have very different physical characteristics, but both have a few things in common, including the prominence of the tabernacle and a proclivity for quiet before Mass.

St. Mary’s, Mt. Pleasant St. Hyacinth, Detroit

My prayer these days is that every church may be beautiful in proclaiming the True Presence of Christ. If the New Evangelization is going to work, then churches everywhere will have to be ready for the seeds of evangelization to sprout.