Feast of the Dedication of St John Lateran Basilica

This  Sunday, in place of the Thirty-Second  Sunday 

in Ordinary Time, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication

of St. John Lateran Basilica. Why do we celebrate the dedication

of a basilica? I find the homily of Fr. Munachi Ezeogu,

CSSP quite informative and challenging. So, here I share it with you.

* * *

By Fr. Munachi Ezeogu, CSSP

“My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17 John 2:13-22

A study on accidental death occurrences shows that (a) 20% of all fatal accidents occur in automobiles, (b) 17% of all accidents occur in the home, (c) 14% of all accidents occur to pedestrians on streets or sidewalks, (d) 16% of all accidents involve travelling by air, rail, or water, (e) 32% of all deaths occur in hospitals, and (f) only .001% of all deaths occur in church during worship services. According to this study, therefore, the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is not in your car, or in the home or in the hospital – but in church!

Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome.

Why celebrate the dedication of a church in far away Rome, you may ask. It is to remind us of  the importance of the church building as sacred space  set apart for personal and collective encounter with God.

Historically, the Basilica of St John Lateran is the  oldest church  of Rome and the highest ranking church in the world, followed by St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. As such it is the  mother of all churches. When we celebrate its dedication to God, therefore, we celebrate  the mystery of God’s special presence and indwelling  in buildings set apart for divine worship, including our own parish church.

We know that God is everywhere. Yet when the people of God erect a building and dedicate it totally to God’s service, God’s glory comes to dwell in that building in such a way that the building can now be called the  house of God. Solomon recalls this mystery in his prayer of dedication of the temple in Jerusalem: “Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings  8:27). So, while we celebrate God’s special indwelling in a temple, we must remind ourselves that God’s presence is not confined in the temple. God is still everywhere. But  God manifests His glory in a special way in some persons, places, and things. A temple or church is one such place.

In earlier days, a temple, church or shrine was revered so much as to suggest that God dwelt exclusively in such places. People went to church, participated in service, received communion and went home without knowing who was sitting beside them in church. Spirituality was very individualistic and the man or woman sitting next to you was rather seen as a distraction in one’s intimate communion with God.  Worshippers forgot that we are brothers and sisters,  and  that we come to church to worship God as family.

To discourage this self-centered religiosity,  Vatican Council II introduced some changes in worship such as the priest facing the people at Mass and worshippers exchanging the sign of peace.  But we swung from one extreme to the other, and  today many Christians have lost the sense of the church as a sacred place,  to the point that the  comportment of many worshippers  in our churches today  borders on irreverence. Many Christians have altogether abandoned traditional practices that were meant to remind us that we are in God’s presence when we enter the church. These include such little things as  dressing in a decent manner for church,  signing oneself with holy water  on entering the church,  genuflecting or bowing  to the altar or the tabernacle before taking one’s seat or before leaving the church,  not chatting in church, and  lowering one’s voice when one has cause to talk in church.

The loss of the sense of the sacred in church buildings and church worship might be one reason why young people are no longer keen on church attendance. If they come to church thinking it to be another social gathering, no wonder they find it so boring. But  when we realize that the church is a holy place, a place of encounter with God, with one another and with oneself, then we bring a certain disposition of mind and body to church service which helps make worship an uplifting rather than boring experience. Today’s celebration of the dedication of St John Lateran  invites us to renew our faith in the church as a house of prayer and to cultivate habits and practices that make it easy for God to encounter us whenever we go to church.

* * *

Perhaps today is a good occasion for us to reflect on our own attitude toward the Holy Eucharist – the most precious gift of our Lord to us.

 1. Do I look at the Mass as a special gift of love of Jesus to me? Do I look forward to meeting him, to discover what he will say to me or share with me? Do I participate actively at Mass, or am I just a spectator, or do I just sit there waiting for it to be over soon?

There are three kinds of people in the world: Those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those that wonder what happened. Which of the three am I at Mass?

 2. Do I dispose myself to have a deeper appreciation on the Mass? Perhaps to reflect on this great gift of love, look ahead at the readings and reflect on them?

 3. People make sure that they are not out of place with their attire at a party. You do not wear formal attire like coat and tie, or Barong Tagalog, or long gowns when you go to a beach party. Neither do you wear swimsuits, or basketball shorts when you go to the grand opening of a concert, or a graduation party or a wedding party. What would be the proper attire for attending the banquet of the Lord?

 4. Do you look forward to partying with the Lord at Mass? Or is the Mass a burden that you have to endure to avoid committing a mortal sin?

 5. The Mass is greatest party we have. And the church is the favorite venue.