{"id":1488,"date":"2014-11-09T12:09:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T17:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2014-11-09T12:09:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T17:09:24","slug":"feast-of-the-dedication-of-the-lateran-basilica-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/feast-of-the-dedication-of-the-lateran-basilica-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica<\/a>
\nEzekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
\n1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17
\nJohn 2:13-22
\nNovember 9, 2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.\u00a0 There are not many days that take precedence over the normal Sunday readings.\u00a0 Last week, All Souls\u2019 Day was one and now this feast today.<\/p>\n

Just like last week, this begs the question why is this feast so important.\u00a0 A lot of people might wonder where the Lateran Basilica is.\u00a0 Honestly, if I didn\u2019t look it up a few years ago for this feast, I won\u2019t know myself.<\/p>\n

If one had to guess, one might guess the Lateran Basilica is in Rome.\u00a0 After all, there are a lot of churches in Rome.\u00a0 It is indeed in Rome.\u00a0 So what makes this church so important?<\/p>\n

I think a lot of people, if asked what church in Rome was most important, might say St. Peter\u2019s Basilica.\u00a0 The Lateran Basilica is actually the highest church in importance as it is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and hence, the Pope\u2019s \u201chome church.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the Lateran Basilica stands as an image of what it means to be a church.\u00a0 Physically we can think of the physical building.\u00a0 A church is not a marketplace or a money exchange.\u00a0 The church is a place of worship and hence has an altar, a tabernacle, and an ambo, and images of our faith like our stained glass windows and statues.<\/p>\n

Our church buildings are very important for our faith but they are not the \u201cbe all\u201d of what it means to be a church<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the first reading Ezekiel is describing the temple he sees.\u00a0 What we need to understand is that he is not looking at a physical temple.\u00a0 The temple had been destroyed.\u00a0 Ezekiel is telling us about a vision God gave him of the temple to be.\u00a0 Our reading today doesn\u2019t include all the verses.\u00a0 As the water flows out from the temple, the water spreads and grows.\u00a0 It is life giving, living waters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ezekiel speaks of how wherever this water flows, every sort of creature thrives.\u00a0 For us the living water<\/em> comes it in the form of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 We also receive it in the sacramental life of the church.<\/p>\n

God gives us the sacraments as a gift of experiencing his grace.\u00a0 The sacraments are not the only way we experience God\u2019s grace but the sacraments are designed to be visible moments of receiving God\u2019s grace, the living water<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The way we most regularly receive the grace of the Sacraments is, of course, in the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Jesus <\/em>continued in bread and wine.\u00a0 For us as Catholics, the Communion we receive is not just a reminder of Jesus.\u00a0 It is Jesus.\u00a0 This is fundamental to our faith.<\/p>\n

Moving beyond the sacraments, as Catholics it is also important to understand that God gives us Truth<\/em>.\u00a0 When I say \u201ctruth\u201d I mean not just some facts here and there that can be debated.\u00a0 I mean truth with a capital \u201cT\u201d set by God.\u00a0 Relativism would say there is no universal \u201cTruth\u201d.\u00a0 The way we live our lives is just a matter of opinion.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what our Catholic faith teaches.<\/p>\n

As Catholics we should also understand that our faith is not just one part of our life that we experience on Sunday morning.\u00a0 No, our Catholic faith is fundamental<\/em> to our individual and communal identities.<\/p>\n

Recognizing the Truth God offers us and the need to make our faith part of our identity, should lead us to realize that learning about our faith is not just for children.\u00a0 We need to keep learning.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Pat leads the adult faith sessions he does.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I do the presentations I do like the series starting next month where I will lead into what the Creed what profess means for us.<\/p>\n

I see these items as important but it isn\u2019t just me.\u00a0 Our Parish Pastoral Council has been specifically talking about these very ideas since March.\u00a0 We were looking for ways to discern how we are doing as a parish.\u00a0 We, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, developed eight \u201cGuiding Principles.\u201d\u00a0 The items I\u2019ve mentioned today in talking about what it means to be \u201cchurch\u201d are all in the Guiding Principles.<\/p>\n

To help all of you learn about these \u201cGuiding Principles\u201d you will find an article in our next newsletter that we will be mailing out soon that discusses them.\u00a0 I invite you to take some extra time to reflect on these principles and how you are doing on them.<\/p>\n

As a parish, our Parish Pastoral Council will use the new \u201cGuiding Principles\u201d as a means of evaluating how we are doing.\u00a0 We are also emailing them to all the committee chairs for the committees to review them and discuss how their ministries fit into these principles.<\/p>\n

We are a Church, a church that believes in God\u2019s Truth, the sacraments, especially the Real Presence in the Eucharist, and that we need to share this faith with others.\u00a0 May God always guide us in living our faith in all<\/em> we do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17 John 2:13-22 November 9, 2014   Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.\u00a0 There are not many days that take precedence over the normal Sunday readings.\u00a0 Last week, All Souls\u2019 Day was one and now this …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[67,82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-o0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}