A Homily for the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran

 

 

The houses of your village have eyes.

They seek to see the sun.

Who lives beneath the pink and yellow roofs?

Who lives inside?

 

These words were written by Irma Pineda,

a poet from Oaxaca, Mexico.

 

Until I read this poem,

I never imagined a house having eyes.

But they do.

 

A nephew of mine, 

a long-haul truck driver, 

once told me 

that his favorite time to be on the road is at night,

not because there is less traffic,

but because, 

when he sees the lights of a house

on a lonely stretch of road...well...he feels less lonely.

 

How so?

Because, when he sees a house

with light in the windows,

he thinks about who lives inside that house:

                   Is there a mother folding laundry?

                   Is there a teenager doing homework?

                   A grandmother praying the rosary?

                   A father fixing a broken chair with a wobbly leg?

          

Yes, for him houses have eyes…and hearts…and souls.

Can the same be said of a church?

 

 This past week, 

I stopped at a gas station in Childress.

          A young girl behind the counter 

          noticed my clerical collar.

          “Are you a priest?” she asked.

          “Yes.”  

          She smiled. Her eyes sparkled.

           "I belong to Holy Angels Church." she said.     

           “I was once the pastor of that church." 

            She kept smiling.

            “I just love that church,” she said. 

             “I love Holy Angels.”

 

Well, today’s Mass 

commemorates the first church

ever built in Rome, St. John Lateran.

It is the cathedral of the pope.

And it is built on the site 

where Christians were once martyred.  

 

The Basilica of St. John Lateran is far away but,

like this church of San Jose in Hereford, Texas,

it is a House of God.

In today’s epistle, St. Paul reminds us,

“You are God’s Temple.”

 

Yes, indeed! 

God lives in our midst!

So, keep this mind:

          Every house has eyes.

          Every church has a soul. 

                And your heart, 

                your very heart...is God's house, God's home.