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November 9, 2017Today we celebrate the feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. You may be wondering to yourself, why do we celebrate the feast for a Church building? I can understand celebrating a saint whose life is an example for us to follow and mimic. For example, St. Pio of Pietrelcina or St. Theresa of Calcutta, each of their lives give witness of how we should be living and loving God and neighbor. But what exactly does a Church building teach us about living and loving God and neighbor?
The key to understanding this feast lies in the second reading from St. Paul. He explains, “Brothers and sisters: You are God's building.” When we walk into a Church, what do we see? We see beautiful art, gold candles, and ornate things that draw our minds and our hearts to God. These externals are meant to draw us into the spiritual mysteries that lie behind them. And when we celebrate the feast of the dedication of a Church, we are provided with an opportunity to reflect on the question, “How does my soul reflect the beauty of this Church building?” We are the very temples of God, the dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. Our souls should reflect beauty, and sacredness, and holy light. Do they?
Just as we would protect any church edifice from being desecrated with zealousness much like our Lord in the Gospel of today, so too we should protect our souls from the desecration of sin and vice. When we are tempted to lust or hatred or anger, we should fight against those temptations with a flood of holy thoughts and sacred things. We should pray regularly to remain faithful to the Lord. We should meditate on what is holy and good so that our souls might be adorned with sacred things like this Church building. And just as this Church needs a good cleaning every so often, we should take advantage of the sacrament of Reconciliation regularly in order to clear out the spiritual cobwebs that holds us back from loving God and our neighbor as we ought.
The more we come to understand our souls as the very dwelling places of God, the more that we realize we are holy in the sight of God, then the more likely we will be to desire to protect that holiness dwelling in us. During this National Vocation Awareness Week, let us pray for the grace to see ourselves as holy in the sight of God and let us pray for the zeal like our Lord to protect our personal, spiritual temples from any profanation. Lord, help to be holy and help us to follow you in whatever vocation you might be drawing us to follow you.