9th November 2003
 

There are four main Basilicas in Rome. If I asked you to name one - you would name the most famous: St. Peter's Basilica. That is where the Pope lives.  But like our Cardinal here in Toronto,  the Pope is also a Bishop with his own Diocese - Rome. And the official Church of the Pope is St. John Lateran, the feast we celebrate today. Just for curiosity sake, the other two Basilicas are St. Mary Major  and St. Paul outside the Walls  where Paul is believed to be martyred - which is near the Abaazia delle Tre Fontane.

2. Surprisingly this Month of November we celebrate three of these Basilicas. Today St. John Lateran - and on the 18th of this month we celebrate St. Peter and St. Paul. You and I know what it is to celebrate a birthday, to celebrate an anniversary - to celebrate the graduation - but what or how do we celebrate a Church. Do we go around and embrace the pillars, kiss the floors, touch the walls. That is what we do when we celebrate a person.

3. St. John's was built by Constantine on the grounds given to him as a gift from an Italian family called Laterani. Hence the name St. John Lateran. It was the Church were all popes were consecrated as Popes until the 14th Century. At that time the Pope was in exile in Avignon France, and when he came back, he found that the Church and the adjoining palace was totally destroyed.

Pope Innocent X commissioned the Basilica in 1646.

It was in the same year, St. Isaac Jogues was martyred for the Faith in North America -  near Albany, NY and the Taj Mahal was being built as a monument of love in India.

4. And perhaps these three events: rebuilding of St. John Lateran, the Martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues and the building of the Taj Mahal will give us a clue as to why we celebrate a Church. Churches or Majals were built as a symbol of the struggle, the pain, the persecution, the sorrow of the people - it is also a symbol of tremendous love.  Isaac Jogues suffered because of his faith and love of Jesus. 

The more intense the pain, the greater the suffering - usually the more magnificent the Church or Basilica. And if you read the suffering of the Christians for the first five centuries you will not wonder at the beauty and grandeur and the magnificence of this Basilica. - and the other three.

5. Perhaps for the same reason - we look at some of our churches today. In many countries there is no pain, no suffering, no persecution for the faith - very often the churches here look like glorified gymnasiums - as one of my architect friends describes them. Perhaps that is the reason, why some people spend more time in Gyms and Keep Fit Schools than in our churches.

6. But coming back to St. John Lateran - we celebrate there as we celebrate in our own churches - the joys and sorrows of our people. We celebrate the faith that takes men and women there in good times and bad, in sickness and in health in wealth and in poverty.  We celebrate the woman who comes in confusion wondering why her husband of many years has walked away from marriage, the man who is gay and sits in the shadows or at the back of the church - knowing that he is still an outcast from society - and frowned upon by the church. And yet he is faithful to Christ, the widower who is lost; His whole life centered on his wife, now that she has died, life is empty and has no meaning. The food is tasteless, the TV plays on the whole day - but he neither hears nor watches. His fidelity to God drags him to church where he seeks an answer to this mystery.

And then there is the other mystery - the young girl who has passed her university and finds a job in our competitive society. She lights a candle - because many do. If you ask her why - she shrugs and says - I suppose it is a way to say thank you.

It is the young man - who goes to Serra House - with a deep feeling that God is calling him to the priesthood.

As we celebrate the First Church in our Catholic World - we celebrate all the churches where we pray: Think of the churches around your area. These are filled with women and men, like you and me. Men and women with deep faith and sometimes very heavy crosses. Hence our churches must be beautiful, must be magnificent... because they symbolize the cross, the blood, sweat and tears of the people of God. When people say, we should sell the costly statues and jewels - they miss the point - these stand for our friends, our families who have gone before us - who made tremendous sacrifices for us, and for our faith. What price would you put for their sacrifices, their tears, their sweat ? I think of Churches like:

St. Andrew's in Thunder Bay, Mary Immaculate in Chepstow, Holy Cross in Georgetown, St. Ignatius in Winnipeg, Our Lady of the Sea in Terrence Bay, Nova Scotia. The small churches in Baie Verte, Harbour Round and La Scie in Newfoundland.

7. And we do not celebrate just walls and bricks -  St. Augustine was born soon after the first St. John Lateran was built. He says that  as the Walls of the Basilica were rising - those who believed in Christ were brought together. The Basilica was built by carving out mountains and forests, producing stones and timber. However the people were brought together by catechism classes and baptism, instruction and preaching. While the Basilica was shaped, squared and planed by the hands of workers and artisans, - it never really became a house of the Lord until it was fitted together by the Love of the People. And that is what we celebrate today.