Roman archeology and theology

Our younger daughter Claire is a primary school teacher. Julian and I, together with Claire and Simon, our son-in-law, had a week this month staying in Frascati to visit nearby Rome to help inform Claire's teaching about the Romans in history and RE . The highlight of the visit, for me, wasn't the Catacombs (though I thought it would be), or the Coliseum and other Roman ruins and remains (sites where many people died make me feel physically sick, so I didn't hang about for long there!), but the Vatican. We had a wonderful guide called Vincenzo, who shepherded his large group of touristi with grace and godliness, making our visit a gospel experience. Speaking to us through his throat mike and our headphones, he patiently and gently led us through the courtyard of the pines, the Vatican museum, the Sistine chapel, and into St Peter's. Here, almost at the end of our tour, he showed us a large sculptured tomb above a door, made of three different kinds of marble, in contrasting colours. Under the deep, carved folds, we could just make out the carving of a skeleton. He told us that this represented death, and that the doorway signified that death is not the end, but simply the doorway to the future, and life in eternity, life in all its fullness, if you had faith in Christ. I'm pretty sure that there were quite a number of people in our large party who were not Catholics, and who weren't Christians at all, and I realised that this could be a moment of conviction for some of them, so I was praying pretty hard. I hope the visit was even more special for them than it was for me.

Go Vincenzo!