When the stones cry out

Chris Cartwright reflects on Antoni Gaudi's remarkable basilica, La Sagrada Familia.

On a recent visit to the city of Barcelona I was able to achieve a long-held ambition to visit Sagrada Familia, the extraordinary Basilica in the heart of the city which was the lifetime work and legacy of the brilliant architect Antoni Gaudi.

Gaudi was just a young man when he was given the commission of being the lead designer for the new church.

What began as a project became his life’s mission.

He was a young man of deep Christian faith and he began to dream of a building that could not only be a place of worship on the inside but could speak out to the city as a witness to Jesus Christ.

Over the next 43 years he poured his talent and energy into imagining and beginning to build so much more than a building.

I was variously moved to tears and experienced moments of great joy as I stood inside this wonderful space.

Gaudi reinvented and reshaped architectural principles to create something beautiful, startling and profoundly moving.

One of his greatest achievements was the way in which he was able to allow light to shine into the building and to shower the darkest corners with colour and clarity.

Yet, as amazing as the inside is, the outside is even more spectacular.

Gaudi had the audacious goal of designing a building to literally ‘speak’ – to tell the story of Jesus to the city and the people of Barcelona.

So, each ‘façade’ has a theme.

From Jesus’ birth to his passion and his glory, the building speaks the message of Jesus’ love, his saving work on the cross, his resurrection and promised return.

‘Can a building speak?’, I asked myself as I walked around its walls. Gaudi thought so.

What’s more he believed that it wasn’t only about light on the inside for those who were already following Christ, but that Jesus wanted to shed his light and life and love outwards into the darkest places of our human experience.

Walking around Sagrada Familia, I was bombarded by a range of thoughts and emotions. I marvelled at the beauty and tranquillity of the inside spaces for worship and prayer.

Yet, I found myself also thinking of the Scripture verses proclaiming the power, majesty and splendour of our God who cannot be contained by any building.

In that tension, I suddenly found myself thinking, “Lord what do you think of this?”

Though I felt immediately foolish for asking the question, I quickly fixed my mind on Jesus, the carpenter; Jesus, who spent most of his earthly life working with wood and stone.

Under Joseph’s guidance and training, Jesus became a master craftsman.

It is inconceivable that Jesus would have had anything other than a ‘master’s’ eye for form, detail and structure; for beauty and for design.

Scholars tell us that Nazareth, where Jesus lived most of his life, would have had little regular business for a carpenter.

It is likely that Jesus would have worked in the nearby city of Sepphoris, a prosperous Jewish city with fine Greco/Roman-style buildings presided over by Herod Antipas.

When Jesus spoke in Caesarea of the Temple being destroyed, he was surrounded by fine buildings displaying the power and authority of Caesar and of Rome.

Here he asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” The buildings indeed ‘speak’ of earthly empires and human ambition, but Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Only one final section of Gaudi’s Basilica is still to be completed.

As the project comes to its conclusion, it stands as a remarkable witness beyond words – that Jesus is indeed the Saviour and the Hope of the world.

In an age and culture where the Christian story seems less and less known and increasingly silenced, I thank God for Gaudi’s bold and creative evangelism.

Maybe he recalled Jesus’ words on entering Jerusalem before his crucifixion, when some Pharisees complained about the crowd of disciples praising God: “If they keep quiet, even the very stones will cry out.” 

 

This article first appeared in the July 2022 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details please click here.

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