“Lex orandi, lex credendi”. You can understand that latin sentence in a number of ways, but what it comes down to is this: our liturgy is a classroom of faith. Courses in theology, scripture, spiritual books and devotions are fine but they don’t supplant the liturgy of the church for building our faith.

The liturgy is a catechism of days, feasts, and seasons. It brings us Into the mystery of Christ and his saints. The chapel above is my present classroom.

It anchors us in history. Take the feasts we celebrate this week. The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome (Nov 9) takes us back to the days of Constantine and the beginning of the 4th century ending the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Churches were places where faith could be freely proclaimed and expressed. In some parts of the world today churches are being built. In our part of the world they are being closed. What do we make of it all?

Pope Leo (Nov 10) is called great because he led a church threatened by barbarian armies who were chopping into pieces the Roman world in the 5th century. Yet there Leo was, firm as a rock in a storm. Does his feast tell us God always provides the leaders we need, especially in a storm? I think we have one now in another Leo.

We celebrate the feast of Martin of Tours (Nov 11), a saint who spanned the years of persecution of the church and its establishment in the Roman world. He revealed in his famous meeting with the poor beggar that the church always has to care for the poor. Martin asks what are you doing for the poor? November is a month we prepare for winter. Are we putting aside something for the poor?

Josephat (Nov 12)  was a bishop who sought the unity of Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. He suffered martyrdom for his efforts. We’re challenged to work for the unity of our churches, keeping them big, not small.

Mother Cabrini ( November 13) a dynamic little Italian nun,  championed poor Italian immigrants who came to the United Stats expecting streets paved in gold, but found hard cold cobblestones instead. Who’s championing immigrants today? 

The saints are part of our catechism. They’re joined by daily readings from the scriptures that bring us the wisdom of the Old and New Testament. We bring them our questions, and they question and challenge us in return.

Above all, the liturgy brings us into the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.The liturgy is a school that has Jesus Christ as its Teacher and Lord. We are blessed.  

For this week’s readings and homily please watch the video below.

Why remember an old church? Well, churches have stories to tell, and this church, St. John Lateram in Rome, takes us back to a significant moment in our church’s history. The Emperor Constantine came to power early in the 4th century, He gave Christians freedom to practice their religion throughout the Roman empire. He also built them churches– St. John Lateran was the first of the many he built. At its entrance is an inscription, “The mother of churches”. Rebuilt many times, It’s been there over 1700 years’

Rome’s Christians must have been thrilled when the church, holding g 10,000 people, was dedicated around 320 AD. Many were persecuted or had seen relatives, friends or other believers jailed or put to death during the reign of Diocletian, before Constantine.

Now, a new emperor built them a great church that all Rome could see. He built it on property belonging to his enemies, the Laerani family, which is why it’s called St. John Lateran. Built in the southeastern edge of the city, away from the Roman Forum, the church was a sign that Christianity had arrived.

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Before this, throughout the Roman empire, Christians had no churches but met  in ordinary homes or small buildings. In Rome 25 of these “house churches”can be identified,

The choice of Christians to worship serparately and not participate in Rome’s public rites and religious sacrifices made people wonder about them. Why not worship as good Romans did? What kind of religion was this anyway, people said? They’re godless atheists plotting rebellion, the 2nd century pagan writer Celsus said. They were “ people who cut themselves off and isolate themselves from others.” (Origen, Contra Celsum,8,2)

The church of St. John Lateran signaled changing times. After centuries meeting apart in homes and small community settings, Christians now gathered as one great family.

That’s what churches do; they bring people together as one body, one family, one people. That’s how Paul described the church in his Letter to the Romans: “As in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans12, 4-5)

An important part of the church of Saint John Lateran is its baptistery,  a large building connected to the church itself, worn and patched, as you would expect from a building over 1700 years old. You can still see bricks from Constantine’s time. For centuries Romans have been baptized here. Conveniently, it’s built over a Roman bath supplying water for baptism. The church is called St. John Lateran because St. John the Baptist is one of its patrons, along with St. John the Evangelist. A beautiful Latin inscription over the big baptismal basin and fount says:

Those bound for heaven are born here,

born from holy seed by the Spirit moving on these waters.

Sinners enter this sacred stream and receive new life.

No differences among those born here,

they’re one, sharing one Spirit and one faith.

The Spirit gives children to our Mother, the Church, in these waters.

So be washed from your own sins and those of your ancestors.

Christ’s wounds are a life-giving fountain washing the whole world.

The kingdom of heaven is coming, eternal life is coming.

Don’t be afraid to come and be born a Christian.

One last thing about St. John Lateran, which many people don’t know. It’s the pope’s church. From the time of Constantine till the 15th century, the popes, leaders of the Church of Rome, resided next to this church. Then, they moved to the Vatican, where they live today.

Celebrating the dedication of a church, as we do today, reminds us  how important church buildings are for our faith. God speaks in our churches, God comes to us in our churches.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God,

and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” St. Paul says.

“If anyone destroys God’s temple,

God will destroy that person;

for the temple of God, which you are.

The Lateran Basilica was the central worship place for the Roman church and home of the popes until the 15th century. The Eucharist and other sacraments were celebrated here. Important church councils were held here. Christian pilgrims came to venerate Christian relics honored here. The site is important in Christian history.

By the 15th century, Rome’s fortunes had faded and the southeastern parts of the city became isolated and depopulated, an easy prey for invading armies. Fires and earthquakes left the Lateran church and its surroundings in ruins many times. The popes decided to move their residence and church offices to the safer areas of Vatican Hill and St. Peter’s, across the city. Still, the Lateran Basilica remains Rome’s principal church.

Tides of change wash over the church, as we see so well here at the Lateran. The Lateran Basilica offers an image of change. We’re losing our churches now in some parts of the world, as people turn away from them. What shall we make of it?

In Luke’s gospel read today, Jesus calls Zachaeus, the publican, the outsider, to come down from the tree where he watches from a distance. “I want to stay in your house today,” Jesus tells him, and he brings salvation to his house. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for many nations,” we read from the Prophet Isaiah.

We need to cherish our churches, signs of the God’s presence. They’re places we meet God.

A video on the Church of St. John Lateran is here.

How do you begin your day? Some rush out and take it on right away. Some take awhile, maybe a little quiet time; a few minutes to get ready. Some practice mindfulness.

Shouldn’t prayer be on that list too? I’m not sure what “mindfulness” is. It seems to mean getting your thoughts together, breathing in and breathing out, gathering strength and attention for the day. Reaching into yourself.

Instead of reaching into yourself, prayer reaches out to God, who is much stronger than we are and stands ready to help.

My own spiritual tradition says that daily prayer is important and points to the beginning of the day and the end of the day, morning and evening. as the best times to approach God in prayer. The Liturgy of the Hours, the church’s official prayer, says those hours are the principal hours for praying.

Jesus prayed in the morning and evening, the scriptures say. He prayed at other times too, but in the morning and evening he prayed the prayers his people prayed, the psalms. He knew them by heart and prayed them each day.

We prayed those same prayers this morning in our chapel and we’ll pray them this evening at vespers, evening prayer. Before I lifted a finger this morning, I heard these words as I entered my day:
“He has strengthened the bars of your gates,
He has blessed the children within you.
He established peace on your borders,
He feeds you with the finest wheat.” ( Psalm 147, Friday Morning IV )

And this evening as the night comes, the symbol of sleep and death:

“The eyes of all creatures look to you
and you give them their food in due time.
You open wide your hand,
grant the desires of all who live.” (Psalm 145, Friday Evening IV)

God’s hand is opened wide to receive us and to give.

I wish more were aware of the treasure we have in our morning and evening prayers–the Liturgy of the Hours. The Second Vatican Council wanted the prayer of the church to be extended to all its people but its efforts only got so far, I’m afraid. Still more to go.

Prayer blesses the day.

The mid term elections are finally over here in the USA. Pope Leo’s Wednesday reflections on Vatican II could not come at a better time. He called for Christians to revive their understanding of the social doctrine of the church:

“The Council Fathers highlight, first of all, the threat to world peace deriving from the imbalances linked to an economic development that is neither equitable nor respectful of creation (cf. GS, 63). This is a far-sighted vision, which was unfortunately borne out towards the end of the last century and which we see even more clearly today. To correct this course, the Document warns, technical progress alone is not enough: “many reforms in the socioeconomic realm and a change of mentality and attitude are required of all” (ibid.).

Therefore, Gaudium et Spes summarizes the Christian vision of economic development, which must always be at the service of humankind and under human control (cf. GS, 64–65). The concept of integral development is already clearly evident here, a concept which Saint Paul VI would later place at the heart of his Encyclical Populorum Progressio (1967). More relevant than ever are the appeals to commit to eliminating discrimination against the most vulnerable social groups and migrants (cf. GS, 66).

The heart of the economy is work. Through it, one develops as a person, provides for family needs, expresses one’s own talent, participates in social life and builds a better world by collaborating in God’s creative work. Work must never be distorted to the detriment of people, the common good or creation. The real challenge is to offer everyone opportunities to make the most of their abilities: unemployment, exploitation and working conditions that endanger health and life itself are unacceptable (cf. GS, 67). Workers have the right and the duty to participate in decisions affecting their work, including through trade unions, resolving conflicts through dialogue and non-violent action (cf. GS, 68).

In this context, the Council recalls one of the fundamental principles of social teaching, namely the universal destination of earthly goods (cf. GS, 69) and applies it to the financial sphere, stating that “whoever makes decisions concerning these investments and the planning of the economy – whether they be individuals or groups of public authorities – are bound … to recognize their serious obligation of watching, on the one hand, that provision be made for the necessities required for a decent life both of individuals and of the whole community and, on the other, of looking out for the future and of establishing a right balance between the needs of present-day consumption, both individual and collective, and the demands of investing for the generation to come” (GS, 70).

Gaudium et Spes then goes on to discuss the political community, noting several positive developments in the contemporary era, above all the fact that “the present keener sense of human dignity has given rise in many parts of the world to attempts to bring about a politico-juridical order which will give better protection to the rights of the person in public life” (GS, 73).

The political community exists for the sake of the common good, which consists of “the sum of those conditions of the social life whereby men, families and associations more adequately and readily may attain their own perfection” (GS, 74). The exercise of political authority must always be directed towards the common good, which must be structured and operate according to local and historical circumstances, but always with the good of the entire human family at heart (cf. ibid.).

Gaudium et Spes reiterates that “the Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other. Yet both, under different titles, are devoted to the personal and social vocation of the same men. The more that both foster sounder cooperation between themselves with due consideration for the circumstances of time and place, the more effective will their service be exercised for the good of all” (GS, 76).

Dear friends, engaging in economic and political life in accordance with these criteria is a way of building peace. As Pope Francis recalled, “war is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil” (Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti, 261). On the contrary, politics that tends to the wounds of peoples and of those who suffer injustice offers grounds for hope for the future of humanity.

For this reason, I encourage young people to follow the example of those men and women who have borne faithful witness in these fields. And I renew my call to Christian communities to revive formation in the social doctrine of the Church.

Our first reading at Mass this week is taken mostly from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. St. Luke describes Paul’s mission to Philippi, ” a leading city in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony”, in the 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. “We spent some time in that city” , Luke says, indicating he’s describing something he knows firsthand. It was a dramatic and fruitful stay.

Paul encounters Lydia, “a dealer in purple” at the place along the river where women prayed. She listened to his message and asked for baptism for herself and her household. She also convinced Paul and his companion to stay at her house, which became a house church. Women play a major role in the spread of the gospel.

Paul also encountered persecution in Philippi when he was accused of causing businesses to fail because of a cure he worked. ” The magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake. ( Acts 16:22-24)

An earthquake broke the walls of the prison and the jailor, fearing the prisoners had escaped, was ready to kill himself. The earthquake led to his conversion along with his household – another house church in Philippi. It also led to Paul’s exoneration by the fearful magistrates of Philippi.

Commentators describe Paul’s warm relationship with the Philippians. It looks like a lot of important people there were on his side, or at least very respectful of his mission. They say he wrote this letter– to Lydia’s house and the jailor’s household– from prison, either in Rome, Ephesus or Caesaria.

Paul had his share of prisons during his ministry. That experience and others like it convinced him to see his life in the light of the suffering Christ. He told the Philippians they were granted “for the sake of Christ, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him. Yours is the same struggle as you saw in me and now hear about me.”  (Philippians 1, 29-39)

Have the mind of Christ, Paul tells them– and us– in this important passage, probably from an early Christian hymn:

Have among yourselves the same attitude 
that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and, found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2, 6-10)

This passage occurs often in the church’s  prayer tradition. On Palm Sunday, it’s read as Jesus enters Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross. In the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church’s daily prayer, it’s read each Saturday evening. The passage even appears before Christmas, a reminder that from the beginning Jesus accepted the weakness of “human likeness.” Unlike Adam who grasped for equality with God, Jesus humbled himself. 

We follow Jesus from birth to death and then to resurrection. It’s not a grim unhappy journey. Commentators on the Letter to the Philippians call it a “Letter of Joy.” Having the mind of Christ make life a journey to glory.