Sunday 9 November 2008

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica 9 Nov 08 Sermon

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica 9.11.08

This feast tells us of Unity and Universality.

Unity: if there were only one Catholic church in the whole world we would all be crowding to get into it. Many would have to wait outside but the convergence of so many would be evident. Who are all these people trying to crowd into one place?

Today’s feast of the Cathedral church of Rome reminds us of the centripetal force of Catholicism. We are all drawn to the central identity with Christ, and thus with the Church which He has founded.

If we express allegiance to Christ we must go to where He is found, and this is most fully in His eucharistic presence in any Catholic church, but for symbolic reasons even more so in a cathedral, and the cathedral of Rome more so still.

We might answer the call to follow Christ as individuals but having done so we are automatically and necessarily integrated with each other. We might say at first, well, I don’t need anyone else if I have Christ, but if we have Him we also must have each other.

We gather in the one place. For practical purposes we must be separated by space and time, but all in union with Him are also in union with each other, forming the Body of Christ, the Church.

Centripetal force: how can we resist the call to follow Him, to come to Him, to be healed, forgiven, nourished, formed into all we are meant to be, both individually and communally?

Belonging to and identifying with the Church is just one more stage of our progress towards Him. Curious that people could think they can have union with Him but not with His Body. To have the Head but not the Body of which He is the Head.

So many today say they believe in Jesus but not the Church. Or they make it sound as though Jesus is all love and compassion whereas the Church is harsh and authoritarian. But the Church is simply the presence of Jesus in the world. The Church says or does nothing other than Jesus would say or do.

Granted there are human frailties with the Church and the connection is often blurred, but in principle we cannot separate Christ from His own body. As to the faults of the Church, well, we set about correcting them. The Church is ever in need of purification, but not in need of being closed down.

So we come to Rome. We come to this one church, one Church, and discover as well as express our unity.

Having made the trip the next thing is to be sent back home! Having been nurtured and nourished, what does our Head tell us to do but go out and baptize all nations, to bring all the distant ends of the earth to unity with Him. A centrifugal force going out to bring everyone back in.

This is Universality. The Church is based in Rome but is not meant to be confined there. Sometimes people say ‘Roman Catholics’ as a way of restricting us to one particular group, one denomination, one among many others.

This cannot be. We are simply THE Church, not one among many, not just a listing in the phone book, but the ONLY Church. Every other church or group is in some way an offshoot of the one true Church.

The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Catholic meaning Universal, covering the whole world. One meaning there is and can only be one. Apostolic means sent out to convert whoever does not yet know full union with Christ. And Holy meaning the only way we can hope to convert people, as well as being an end in itself.

We come in to go out. We go out to bring in. One God, one People, one flock, one Shepherd. Head and Body together, one Church. May God preserve and increase that which He has begun.

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