@Escoffier @ShowMeYourLibrary A beautiful church can help the faithful by giving them a crumb of the beauty that awaits them in the afterlife. Man is both body and soul, you cannot separate one from the other, and since we perceive the world through our senses, this is a good way to bring the idea of heaven a little closer to our limited understanding. Furthermore, these magnificent works were people's prayers of glorification, offered Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. There is no excess in what we can offer for the Glory of God.

"And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, There came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table. And the disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying: To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. And Jesus knowing it, said to them: Why do you trouble this woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always. For she in pouring this ointment upon my body, hath done it for my burial. Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her." - Mark 14:3-9 / John 12:1-8