Sunday Reflections

Just like last Sunday’s readings were supplanted by the Feast of All Souls, this Sunday we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. It may strike as strange to celebrate a church or a building, but the reality is, we are not celebrating a structure of mortar and stone, but what it stands for.

It is estimated that some 75 % of Roman Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Admittedly, this is a mystery that borders on the miraculous to believe that in that small host or sip of wine, we eat and drink the very body of the Risen Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator of the Universe, the Beginning and the End of Everything. And yet, that is what we believe.

When we come to holy communion, and the host and cup are raised for us, declaring ‘The Body of Christ’ or ‘The Blood of Christ,’ we respond ‘Amen.’  That ‘Amen’ is an affirmation of faith that we believe what we are receiving is the Risen Christ, but it’s much more than that.  It is also a statement of belief that the priest is the embodiment of Christ and that Christ is embodied in us individually and as a gathered community of faith.  St. Paul in the second reading says that Christ is the foundation and we are God’s Temple. It is no wonder that we treat each other and the world so badly when we struggle to believe this truth.  Again, St. Paul reminds us that it is in God we live, move and exist. We are in God and God in us – the Body of Christ.

The Lateran Basilica is considered to be the mother of all churches. It is the Pope’s church, not St. Peter’s Basilica, as many would believe. As such, it stands as a symbol of Christ who gathers all people and all creation into his Body.  Today, as we mark this feast, let us ask God to deepen our sense of the Real Presence and to renew our identity as members of the Body of Christ.