Dear friends, Here is my homily for Sunday - another Feast with special readings. When I was in Ontario recently, one Sunday afternoon I hosted a potluck with thirteen friends from high school. We have all been friends for forty-six years! Some of us knew each other even longer. We all got together when, in 1969, St. Jeromes High School (for boys) and St. Marys High School (for girls) put on West Side Story. We boys were involved in the building, and painting of sets, and some of the girls on makeup, costumes or orchestra. The next year the two schools put on Camelot and my cousin (who visited me just two weeks ago) and I were in charge of designing, building and painting sets. She was the creative one, and I was the one who knew how to construct the sets to make it possible. We even went so far as to cover the walls of the gymnasium, where the musical was staged, with sets to look like castle walls. Even the guardrail around the track was covered over. The basketball markings on the floor were about the only indication that it was a gymnasium. I thought of this transformation of the gym when I began reflecting on the reading of the gospel (John 2:13-22) for this celebration of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. I thought of the transformation of a structure into a holy place, and how we are called to reverence the holy place. A church is basically a building, yet it has been set aside for a special purpose. A Church, whether it is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, or St. Theresas Cathedral, is that it has been consecrated and set aside for a particular function, for worship and praise of God by the faith community. Jesus recognized the holiness of the temple in Jerusalem when he dramatically threw the money changers out. It was to be a house of prayer. And so, each Church is consecrated to God by the anointing of its walls with Holy Chrism, the oil consecrated by our Bishop in Holy Week. The altars have been consecrated, as have the sacred vessels. The tabernacle, in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, makes this building holy because within it is the Body of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. We show our reverence for this consecrated building when we dedicated it to prayer and worship, and create a decorum and atmosphere that raises us up to God. Our music and song reflects the solemnity and the joy of our celebration. Our respect for the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ, reflects the presence of God here and now among us. Our participation and our witnessing to one another proclaims our identity as a people, as a community, as a family of faith. This is the place of encounter with God, and with one another - with God at the centre of our relationship. The First Reading from the Prophet Ezekiel (47:1, 2, 8-9, 12) proclaims in the vision of Ezekiel, that the temple is a place from which life flows, symbolized by the water that flowed from it and brought life and renewal to all that it touched. In our Second Reading, from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (3:9-11, 16-17), tells us that we are Gods building, and Jesus Christ is our foundation. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, and we too are consecrated - in our Baptism and our Confirmation - and made holy by God. We reverence this place also by the way we conduct ourselves - by our respectful clothing (that makes it clear we are here to worship, not to go to the beach), by refraining from eating and drinking (even chewing gum), and by not distracting others by conversing. In our modern age there is also the distraction of people telephoning and texting during Mass. All such things should be turned off here. I remember once at St. Patricks someone telling me that a young person was sitting in one of the last pews, texting all the time. I said perhaps they were texting my homily to someone. In the Opening Prayer we are referred to as living stones, living stones that come together to form the Church. To be these living stones requires us to be more than just physically present, but to give our attention to what is being said, and what is being done. We are only here one hour of our one hundred and sixty-eight hour week. It should not be too much to spend this one hour participating and sharing in what this place is all about - our encounter with God in his saving Word and in the Body and Blood of Jesus. Another temple that we need to show reverence for is our body. Our bodies are fragile, more so than we would like to admit. And so we regard it as a temple when we eat in moderation, when we exercise, when we get sufficient sleep, and when we protect our bodies from illness or danger. If our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, we should regard it as a gift from God that we are to be good stewards of, and in that way show our gratitude to God. And so, this Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran is not so much about a beautiful structure in Rome, but rather in our place of worship and in our very selves. Let us reflect today on that reality and how we - as individuals, families, and a Parish Community - reverence our Church. In doing so we are uniting ourselves to God who made it holy. That same God has made us holy, and let us commit ourselves again today to caring for ourselves and those under our care - each one of us consecrated and made holy by the power of God.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 14:27:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015