Some years ago a publisher asked me to write a Book of Saints. He wanted short biographies of saints from the church calendar, saints that people would hear about at Mass.A book of a couple of hundred pages.

In the liturgical reforms of Vatican II saints fall into two categories, memorials and optional memorials. The categories are a way of reducing the excessive number of saints in our previous calendar of 1962 that took attention away from the reading of scriptures in the liturgy and the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I wrote about the saints who are memorials in the calendar and left out saints who are optional memorials. The memorial saints had a special impact on the history and development of the Roman church. Representing different times and places in our church’s history and development, they witness that God’s at work in every age and time.

Ordinarily, we remember saints in our calendar on the day of their death. Unfortunately, that   doesn’t help see them in historical perspective or in the context of their time. This week, however, we celebrate  three feasts historically connected: the Dedication of St. John Lateran about the year 320, Martin of Tours ( 336?-397) and Leo the Great (440-461). Together, they offer an interesting picture of the Roman church and the challenges it faced in the 4th and 5th century. They remind us too that some challenges we face now are not new.

Let’s not limit Martin of Tours, for example, to the wonderful story of Martin giving his cloak to a beggar as the winter cold set in. There’s more to him than that. Martin was born into a powerful military family. His father was a Roman commander charged with keeping Rome’s frontier safe from barbarian armies like Attila’s, who later in St. Leo’s time would come marching on Rome.

Martin, named for the god of war, renounced a military career and war itself on becoming a Christian. His father never forgave him. The church in that day increasingly faced the challenge of war and peace. St. Leo, who had no army, took the path of negotiation.

Can we hear the same challenge of war and peace from those centuries facing the church of another Leo today?

Constantine’s gift of the great church of St. John Lateran to Christians signaled the end of centuries of persecution and martyrdom. Besides the gift, however, the emperor and his successors began using the church, especially her bishops, to assist in government administration. The result was that some bishops became more government administrators than bishops.

Martin, called by the people of Tours to be bishop, reluctantly left religious life to be a bishop dedicated to the poor. The relationship of church and state that faced those centuries still faces our church today.

Finally, Martin of Tours put a new face on holiness. He was not acclaimed a saint because he was put to death in a persecution. He became a model of holiness of another kind – the martyrdom of dealing with his time and the challenges that came with it. 

“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.

e.

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.