Bulletins
November 9, 2014
Download the Bulletin as a PDFWhen I was a boy I thought that “St. John Lateran” was someone’s name. Eventually I learned that the Patriarchal Basilica on the Lateran Hill in Rome was originally built and dedicated in the year 324 and named after the Most Holy Saviour. Three centuries later the names of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist were added to it title. Now we usually call The Basilica of St. John Lateran. It is important because it is the Pope’s cathedral.
As we enjoy the first weekend with our new dome, this Sunday’s Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica could not be timed better, when the church celebrates not just the anniversary of the blessing of a building, but the material and spiritual reality of the Incarnation.
The Pope Emeritus commented on this very day in 2008:
The beauty and harmony of the churches, destined to give praise to God, also draws us human beings, limited and sinful, to convert to form a “cosmos,” a wellordered structure, in intimate communion with Jesus, who is the true Saint of saints. This happens in a culminating way in the Eucharistic liturgy, in which the “ecclesia,” that is, the community of the baptized, come together in a unified way to listen to the Word of God and nourish themselves with the Body and Blood of Christ. From these two tables the Church of living stones is built up in truth and charity and is internally formed by the Holy Spirit transforming herself into what she receives, conforming herself more and more to the Lord Jesus Christ. She herself, if she lives in sincere and fraternal unity, in this way becomes the spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God.
Dear friends, today’s feast celebrates a mystery that is always relevant: God’s desire to build a spiritual temple in the world, a community that worships him in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:23-24). But this observance also reminds us of the importance of the material buildings in which the community gathers to celebrate the praises of God. Every community therefore has the duty to take special care of its own sacred buildings, which are a precious religious and historical patrimony. For this we call upon the intercession of Mary Most Holy, that she help us to become, like her, the “house of God,” living temple of his love.
As we pray every Sunday, may Almighty God bless this holy house and those who enter it with faith, reverence, and the fear of God. May our souls reflect the Lord’s glory as much as our Church!
Fr. Christopher J. Pollard
