The Church celebrates the dedication of the Lateran basilica as the mother of all churches within and outside the city (Rome). The church derives her prominence from the fact that it is the cathedral church of the Pope as the bishop of Rome. The great issue in the dedication of a church is not just the acts of a people in setting aside a place of worship wholly for such. The real big issue is the act of God in accepting a place as his special dwelling place. The people of God are assured that God has made this acceptance based on the powers Christ gave his church when he said; whatever you bind on earth is considered so in heaven. The dedication of this feast is celebrated even on a Sunday to highlight its importance because the physical Church is a sign of both the congregation of Gods people on earth and the dwelling place of God in heaven. Each individual member of Gods people is like a living stone in the edifice of Gods people/church. Signs and sacraments are for a time and so the time will come when the beautiful church will be destroyed with no stone left on another. The physical will go but its spiritual dimension will survive just as the individual member bodies may decay but all souls will perdure. If only the spiritual dimension will survive then all must be careful not just of the kind of church we build but above all of the spirit with which we build as this is the real thing that will survive. The dedication of a Church as prominent and universal as the Lateran basilica is the dedication of our Christian faith and invariably our individual faiths in the church of Jesus Christ. So let us renew this dedication in this celebration. Happy feast The great issue of a dedication of a church is not just the acts of a people in setting aside a place of worship wholly for such. The real big issue is the act of God in accepting a place as his specialdwelling
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 23:22:00 +0000