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Santa Prassede - Judy |
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written
by jwang3 / 10.24.2005 |
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Assignment |
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I’m struggling with this paper. From the very day it was assigned, I strove to find a theme upon which to center my paper, a distinct note of comparison between the two churches.
It is the final day before the paper is due, and I have yet to find that comparison. I simply do not see it. Certainly, Santa Prassede is less elaborate than St. Peter’s basilica. It is smaller and less showy. It was built earlier and therefore, not subject to the propaganda that increased with the popularity of Christianity. Its apse mosaic is its main feature, depicting Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the sisters Prassede and Prudenziana, while the focus of St. Peter’s is Michelangelo’s enormous dome. Its message honors the sisters who gave the apostle Paul hospitality when he visited Rome, while St. Peter’s reveres Peter to whom Jesus says in Matthew 16:18, “upon this rock I will build My Church.”
These distinctions are quite obvious and indeed set the two churches apart, in that one can be categorized as “simple” and the other “extravagant.” What I see, however, is not this progression from early Christianity to papal-based propagandistic monuments, but rather, the striking contradiction of the Bible, the basis of Christianity, found in these both of churches. In Exodus 20, the Lord says, “I am Jehovah your God … You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor the form of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water beneath the earth. You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them.”
It seems crystal clear to me. Not only does the Lord command His people to serve Him and only Him, but He also commands them not to make any idols, images, or forms, and not to bow down and serve them. Yet, I see in Santa Prassede not only the image and form of Jesus, but also the deification of Peter, Paul, and the two sisters, indicated by the halos above their heads. I see no difference in St. Peter’s basilica, with the statue of Peter being worshipped by all those who come and kiss his toe, the Monument to Pope Alexander VII, and Michelangelo’s famous Pieta, the Virgin Mary holding a crucified Jesus. I cannot come to terms with what I see. The Bible states explicitly God’s commandments that His people shall not have any forms or images and shall not bow down or serve these images. Instead of the worship of God in these two churches, I see the defiance of Biblical scripture.
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