Cordoba

Here, a beautiful restoration of the Cordoba mosque. Below, a contrast of two approaches to religion in the same space.

We went to Cordoba. I’d wanted to see Mezquita, the grand mosque there. Once again, I was not disappointed.

The grandeur of the place in wondrous . . . its size (meant to hold 20-thousand), its beauty and symmetry  . . . with an element of earthen color that adds to it all. Though the digital photography shows it as light, in fact it’s rather dark and somehow intimate, and elegantly simple.

It’s a see-sawed history. First there was a Visigoth church . . . remnants of Roman empire turned Christian. Then the Muslims came and put their mosque on the same site. When the Muslims were evicted, the Catholic dynasty built their cathedral, within the same space.

But these builders apparently recognized the mosque’s uniqueness and left a lot of it. (Some say they should have left it all.) So now we have vestiges of history of both approaches to worship in the same place.

Both are majestic and meant to inspire, or at least impress.  The photos below show one of the Muslim walls and one of the Catholic, just to contrast and compare. I could say more about this, a lot more, but I must be brief.

Suffice to say what Jesus might say. In the account of his meeting with a woman on a water-errand from a different sect, he was invited to weigh in on the correct approach (place) for worship . . . hers or his. Jesus as much as said, They both miss it.

Here’s the quote: A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth.*

And those are pretty much my reflections as I look at all this grandeur. Very impressive monuments to human craft, but God’s requirement of us is simpler and more personal.

It’s also immediately available wherever we are . . . cathedral, mosque, or neither.

Traveling on.
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* John 4:23