As we walked in I thought. “How can something so big and beautiful built in the name of God, feel so empty and cold!?” I was reminded once again of how tragic religion is and how I love and long for more of Gods presence everyday of my life.
After walking around for about 30 minutes and marveling at all the weird and cool altars, the five of us found ourselves in the center of the Cathedral. One by one we sat down in the pews, and one by one we began to sing. We didn’t plan on it, we just wanted to sing to God, and so we did. We could hear our voices echo from one side of the massive cathedral to the other as we kept our voices at what we thought was a respectful tone. It was beautiful and all at the same time tragic.
About half way through a “tour guide” shushed us. He seemed a bit irritated and said in Spanish “this isn’t a disco tech.” For all he new we were singing some inappropriate song. We said ok and quieted down a bit. After he passed with the 30 or so tourists we proceeded to sing.
For about an hour we found warmth in what felt like a cold and empty place. We weren’t trying to be rude or trying to “make a statement.” We were simply moved to sing to God! The more we sang the more I could feel a swelling in my heart and spirit. I wanted to sing louder and louder for God. I felt as if the charge was on- silence vs. praise. The thought crossed my mind if we were offending the 50-100 tourists walking around us. But we were more concerned with blessing God in a place that was ultimately built for Him. Every so often people would walk by and smile- most the time I had no clue what people thought… I had my eyes closed. The acoustics in the cathedral were amazing… we sounded awesome =). Not sure we always sound like that.
I know we weren’t the first people to bless God in that place. I know there are many Catholics that love God who attend the Malaga Cathedral. It’s not about right or wrong! In that moment it was a matter of freedom. Our God is about freedom not restriction!! Behind every word we sang, it was if our hearts were screaming “freedom in this place!”
It’s weird! In that place where it’s so silent and hard-pressed you could whisper the name of Jesus and it would be herd. I felt we touched God in a unique way that day! What a cool and bizarre feeling to know we blessed God!
We quietly got up and made our exit.
