Homily for Friday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time - St. John Lateran

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/110907.shtml

Today’s Gospel discourages us from turning our sacred spaces into secular marketplaces, but it does not discourage us from using our financial resources to build sacred spaces. It is true that the greatest basilicas, including the mother church basilica of St. John Lateran that we commemorate today, are as nothing compared to the temple of a human body, which is to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. It is sad indeed when great basilicas are empty, and are not blessed by the presence of the faithful celebrating the great mysteries of the faith. But we should have such beautiful churches in which to worship God. Oftentimes, we give in too easily to the temptation to think that we should help the poor instead of building beautiful Churches. The reality is that we should sacrifice to do both. It is not an either/or proposition but a both/and proposition. We should not steal from the poor in order to build opulent places of worship, but we should also not give less than our best in the building of a Church and then fail to give to the poor as well, which I am afraid happens more often than not.
Just as the condition of the homes in which we live, the way we construct them, and maintain them, says something about the importance of the family that lives there, so also the Churches we build should speak to the dignity of the family that God is building there. The Church building should not serve simply as a convenient and comfortable place for the faithful to gather; it should be the very best building that a community can build, far greater than any neighborhood home. It should speak to the reality that what happens in the sacred space is different than what happens outside it. Catholic Churches should be especially beautiful since they house the living presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and are the primary locations where the faithful physically encounter their Lord.