The great Christian Basilicas furnish a parallel in the material order.

They are the house of God and the home and possession of every member of the Church militant without distinction of age or rank or learning.

But they are not the same to each.

Every one brings his own understanding and faith and insight, and the great Church is to him what he has capacity to understand and to receive.

The great majority of worshippers could not draw a fine of the plans or expound a law of the construction, or set a stone in its place, yet the whole of it is theirs and for them, and their reverent awe, even if they have no further understanding, adds a spiritual grace and a fuller dignity to the whole.