THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA (FEAST)

You are God’s building. 

As the doors of this church were first thrown open in the year AD 313, it’s easy to imagine the contagious joy the Christians there felt. After nearly three hundred years of celebrating Mass in secret and hiding their faith for fear of persecution, believers could now come into the light: the emperor Constantine had made Christianity legal! Not only that, but Constantine gave them their first official church: a place where they could gather in full view of the public.

Ever since then, this church, the Church of St. John on the Lateran Hill in Rome, has been the central church of Catholicism. It remains the official seat of the bishop of Rome, the pope, and therefore holds a special place of honor, even above St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican!

It’s amazing to consider all of the Masses and celebrations that have occurred for nearly two millennia on the site of this church. Yet we should also consider what has come out of this church.

The word “Mass” itself is translated from the Latin word missa, which means “dismissal.” That’s why our Mass ends in a commissioning that urges us to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

That’s exactly what has happened at the Lateran Basilica for all these centuries. God’s people have come through its doors to strengthen their faith, and then they have gone out ready to bring the good news of Christ to the world. Entering this church, they become more fully the Church—the body of Christ—that Jesus wants them to be, and they bring his light to everyone else.

Just think, if it weren’t for this “mother and head of all churches in the world,” you might not even have a church to go to. So it’s only right to honor the day of its dedication. Remember that the next time you walk through the doors of your church. You are going there to be fed. You are going there to receive Jesus into your own body and soul. All so that you can then go out and witness to his glory and his love.

“Jesus, strengthen me so that I can fulfill my own mission to love and serve you in this world.”

1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17
Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
John 2:13-22

WORD AMONG US