Feast of John Lateran

Feast of John Lateran
November 9, 2003

What is does your favorite church in St. Louis look like? (and yes, this is a trick question?)

On this feast that celebrates the “Mother Church of Rome” – St. John Lateran, - the home parish of the Holy Father, I found myself asking: What does my favorite church look like? There are some whom would argue for the New Cathedral’s combination of Byzantine and Romanesque architecture filled with those wonderful mosaics as their favorite. Others are drawn to the gothic style of a St. Peter and Paul or St. Francis De Sales. Others enjoy the clean lines and focus on community that some of the more modern churches enjoy. Some care less about the building, but are more drawn to the community that inhabits it. Epiphany and St. Ann’s are two parish alike in this regard. What does your favorite church look like?

I’ll show you what mine looks like. And I have a little audio-visual to demonstrate. Here is what my favorite church looks like. (unveil mirror – let people see themselves in it…) I told you it was a trick question. Or maybe not! We are so accustomed to thinking about ‘church’ as buildings, as the physical structures that we inhabit. But in so doing, we miss the key component of church. Church is less about the place and more about the people and the quality of relationships we are a part of. If there is a gift that this current generation of upcoming Catholic Christians brings to the church – it is that they are not enamored of the church’s institutions and buildings. What is key is the shared life and love that they experience – or don’t as they experience the relationships we call church.

What the feast of John Lateran invites us to trust and know is precisely that. The scriptural image of the river that flows from the temple bringing life to all that touches it, is a profound invitation for what we, the church are called to be. St. Paul tells us: “You are the temple of God and the Spirit dwells within you.” And in the preface, we hear: “You give us grace upon grace, calling us to create the beauty of the temple by the holiness of our lives.” If you hear nothing else this Sunday, hear this message. You and I create the beauty of the temple by the holiness of our lives. This chapel is a beautiful structure, a beautiful church, but it is you and I that are the living stones, the cornerstones of this structure.

However, the other side of the coin of today’s feast is our connection to the concrete, historical church – symbolized by the church erected on the Lateran Hill in Rome. For as important as the spiritual connection to one another that creates the church, that is only half the story. There is a danger to un-anchored spirituality – to a spiritual life devoid of a concrete connection to reality. Unlike prescription drugs, there is no such thing as GENERIC HOLINESS. That doesn’t exist. We are holy in this time and this space and this cultural situation. And either we belong to the church that Jesus intended to found, and find our holiness there, or we have missed the boat.

In an era that has seen so much scandal in the church, that is a hard message to preach and a hard message to hear. We cannot do generic church/spirituality. The temple which Jesus cleansed was a very concrete, historic place with its traditions and roots and history. The temple of Jesus’ body that we hear about in John’s gospel is the church that you are I are the continuation of. Right here, right now, in this place called Normandy, Missouri, in the year 2003. We belong to the Catholic Church – the one Jesus founded. And it is THROUGH the church, not despite it, that we are faithful to the message and witness of Jesus.

Hold mirror back up. It is the most beautiful church I have seen, built into a temple by the holiness of our lives. What you see reflected here – is each other and the physical building which symbolizes the Catholic church founded by Jesus. Together we are the church of Jesus. Not generic holiness – but the living, breathing, struggling, sinning church – on our pilgrim way home to the Father. Will you love the church this week by the holiness of your lives? Will you be fertile water to all who need grace this week? And will you renew your commitment to this church – both saint and sinner – by the choice to love all whom you see in this mirror –all who are the Body of Christ in this concrete time and space and place of history?