Today is Easter Sunday.  Today I had the good fortune of celebrating our risen lord with people from every nation on earth.  From the facade of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict the XVI addressed a crowd which could not be contained withing the ellipse of Saint Peter’s Square.  Outside the square itself were thousands of people coming and going and trying to find a viewing position next to one of the Doric columns.  The Pope spoke to each of the nations on earth, and representatives of each nation cheered upon hearing the Pope’s address of their homeland.  For anyone wondering if this is a good time of year to be in Rome, I say yes.  The pilgrim is the standard around the city while Rome’s citizens act as patient, hospitable and helpful hosts to the world. 

I have run into the same missionary couple twice, once at the Colosseum yesterday and once this morning just outside the square.  He is German and she is from South Carolina.  They are very sweet.  It was nice to see a pair of familiar faces, even if I don’t know what the names attached to those faces are.  It was nice to talk theology a little bit with people who, like me, are doing there best to understand what God would have them do.  

I am ready to move on from here.  I don’t imagine that I’ve seen even a measurable amount of what Rome has to show someone.  I don’t believe I understand the people, the language, the history, or the culture, and I don’t expect to.  What I do expect is to come back someday knowing that the river runs south, and that the pizza here is excellent; that Rome was designed on a scale all her own with an eternal vision in mind.  I have walked the streets of the Caesars and seen the skies which inspired the Sistine Chapel; they really are that color of blue.  Rome is as fine a city as Norman Elder could have devised; a city of craft, care, precision and pride.