Father Michael's Column

It doesn’t happen too often, but when November 9 falls on a Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, and that celebration takes precedence over the regular Sunday celebration.

“Wow”, you say. “But why should I care?” 

Frankly, I can resonate with that sentiment, because I thought the same thing when I was younger. I mean, why is the celebration of the dedication of some church in Rome so important that it should be more important than the regular Sunday Mass? 

Because it’s more than just remembering when some bricks and mortar were dedicated as a church. It’s celebrating THE CHURCH, God’s people. As St. Paul tells the Corinthian community in today’s second reading: 
“You are God’s building”—with Christ Jesus himself as the foundation. “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you”, and therefore that temple is holy. This was said by St. Paul three centuries before there were any buildings set aside specifically to be used as worship spaces. St. John Lateran was the first to be designated as what we have come to know as a “church”. It has an inscription over its doors: “The mother church of Rome and of all the churches in the world.” Every church, including ours, is connected to our “mother church”.

A little history might help us appreciate this feast all the more. 

Back in the first century, the Christian faith was declared illegal by Rome, which subjected the early Christians to several waves of persecution for three centuries. There were no official places to gather, but remembering the words of Jesus, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (Matt 18:20), the Christians would gather in homes, or in grassy places, along riverbanks and—in times of intense persecution—even in catacombs where the dead were buried. Wherever they gathered, even tombs, that space became holy. 

Finally, during the reign of emperor Constantine, who converted to Christianity, the Christian religion was legalized. The emperor gave the palace of the Laterani family and its lands to the Church in 313. (This is why the later basilica was surnamed “Lateran”.) A church council was first held at the Lateran in 313, and it has been the site of four other councils. It became the papal residence until the scandalous “Avignon papacy”, when for some 78 years the pope moved his court from Rome to France. Except for that period and during the Italian revolution, most of the popes have been crowned at the Lateran, and many have resided there and conducted official business there. 

Through the centuries the Lateran has been damaged by earthquakes (in 443 and 896). It has been attacked by the Vandals in 455, and by the Saracens (Muslims) in the eighth century. It was destroyed by fire in 1308, and again in 1360. Yet after each of these events, it was rebuilt and refurbished. I wonder if we might see in these events a sign that, despite attacks, scandals, and other disasters, the Church founded by Christ will survive and flourish. 

Today the Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral church of the Pope, the bishop of Rome, and it is considered the mother church of Christendom. 

But we don’t celebrate the basilica of St. John Lateran because of its beautiful architecture or its famed mosaics. Rather, our celebration provides us a time to reflect on the grace of God that flows from his Church, symbolized by the stream that flows from the Temple in Ezekiel’s prophecy (2nd reading today). It is a stream that brings life and healing. We, as a joyful band of missionary disciples, can bring life and healing to our world today, an increasingly pagan and hostile world. We are commissioned to go into the world and bring new members into Christ’s Church That may seem like a daunting task, but certainly less daunting than in the first century when a tiny persecuted band of witnesses who didn’t even have a building in which to gather and pray, were able in less than three centuries to convert the world. A grateful emperor then gave them the “mother church of Rome and of all the churches in the world”, the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

In Jesus, 
Fr. Michael

P.S. Yes, the “Church” is wherever the people of God are gathered, but since I’ve been explaining about the Basilica of St. John, which also has brick and mortar, what about OUR church renovations? (Certainly, people have been eagerly anticipating our return to our normal worship space.) 

First, THANK YOU for your patience and understanding. Some people who have done their own home renovations are very sympathetic with frustrating delays. We were almost ready for moving in during the week of November 17th (what year?), but of course, there was another delay of materials’ shipment. However, we are now very confident that we will be back into our familiar setting for the worship on the first weekend of December. The construction work will actually be done sooner, but it will take us a whole week to move the electronics, music, sound and video systems back from the Activity Center.  Praise God.