Why does it matter? Homily for Sunday, November 9, 2025

Why does it matter? Why do we celebrate the dedication of a church in Rome? Because it remains important to remind us that to be Catholic is not just about our parish. It is being part of something universal. Readings for Today.

Why does it matter?

At first glance, it might seem odd that the normal Sunday celebration is superseded by the celebration of the dedication of a church building thousands of miles from here. Why is the Church of St. John Lateran so important?

First, a clarification. There is no person named St. John Lateran. The church itself, the only arch basilica in the world, is named for both St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist, hence the St. John part. Lateran is a family name. The current church was built on land owned by the Lateran family, which was where the Lateran Palace was built.

In 324, the present church was built, making it the oldest of the four major basilicas in Rome. The official title of the church is this, “Major Papal, Patriarchal and Roman Arch Basilica, Metropolitan and Primatial Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist in Lateran, Mother and Head of all churches in Rome and in the world.” What a mouthful. You can see why its name gets shortened to St. John Lateran.

The Lateran Arch Basilica is also the cathedral for the Diocese of Rome. In fact, the Pope lived there until the 15th century, and for the Catholic Church, this Arch Basilica serves as the source and the mother of all Catholic churches.

But it is in examining what a dedication of a Catholic Church entails that enables us to see why this matters today. In particular, it is important to note the similarities between the dedication of a church and the baptism of a person. This connection is made most clear as the bishop’s first action of dedication is to bless the water in the baptismal font. Just as water is used in baptism, the people too are sprinkled with water.

The altar, as the place where Jesus will become present in the Eucharist, will receive a copious amount of water. In a baptism, two types of oils are used. The first is an oil to strengthen the one to be baptized against the powers of darkness, sin, and evil. The second oil is the sacred chrism, which is the sanctifying oil used in baptism, confirmation, and ordination. It is also used liberally in the dedication of a church. The altar of the church is poured in a generous amount of oil as the source of worship. Often so much oil is used that it runs down the sides of the altar. The walls of the church are also anointed to show that the church is the house of God.

When something is sanctified, it means it is set apart for a specific purpose. The use of the sacred chrism indicates that both the church and the members of the church are set aside for a specific purpose. The major purpose of coming to church is to worship God. God speaks to us here through his Word. God gives himself in the Eucharist, the way in which Vatican II says in its document on the liturgy, “God is most present.”

But the most important parallel is about conversion. We come to worship God because we need God’s love in our lives so that we continue to change more and more into the person God knows we can be. The bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Jesus. We, each of us together, becomes the body of Christ.

In fact, the general instruction of the Roman Missal says that the person who enters the church at the start of Mass is fundamentally changed at the end of Mass. And our church, St. Dominic’s, provides us with numerous opportunities to know the love of God more fully.

Each week or more, we gather here so that we can see more clearly the Jesus who loves us more than we can know. And we come here to take what we hear in God’s Word and to live it in the world. The greatest commandment given to us is to love God. Jesus tells us that this is the first and greatest commandment.

And every time we come to Mass, we come to worship the God who is love. And we ask God to change us into persons who can love God more and more. But for our worship to be authentic, when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus offers the second commandment, too. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Last week, I spoke about Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, which traced the historical connection between authentic love of Christ and love of the poor. This is the reason we dedicate any church to worship God so authentically we work out the salvation given to us by God. And as those redeemed by Christ, we work to bring that love of Christ to a broken world.

And the celebration of the dedication of St. John Lateran reminds us that we are connected to the universal church. We belong to a church that has been around more than two millennia. We belong to a church where each week we hear God speak to us. We receive God who comes to us, body and blood, soul and divinity.

But most importantly, this celebration of the dedication of the Arch Basilica of St. John Lateran reminds us that we belong to more than ourselves. We are connected to a church that is universal, a church that is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. We belong to a church where we are connected to every other person on the planet, for the way we serve every person is the way we serve Christ. And this is cause for celebration indeed.

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