Homily for Anniversary of Dedication of St. Matthew's Cathedral

Homily for the Anniversary of the
Dedication of St. Matthew’s Cathedral             

Nov. 14, 2018                                               

John 4: 19-24
1 Kings 8: 22-23, 27-30
Ps 84
Our Lady of Lourdes, Bethesda, Md.                  

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth” (John 4: 21).

http://www.stmatthewscathedral.org/events/anniversary-dedication-cathedral-church-st-matthew?e=0

We celebrate today the anniversary of the dedication of our cathedral, which—surprisingly—took place only in 1976, altho St. Matthew’s served as the cathedral from the day when the diocese of Washington was carved out of the archdiocese of Baltimore in 1939.  But its solemn consecration was carried out only after the interior and some other features of the cathedral were completed 37 years later.

St. Matthew’s is the spiritual home of our bishop and of the entire people of God in the archdiocese.  As an aside, it’s a good moment to pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire the Holy Father to appoint a holy and wise shepherd for our archdiocese.

The building—the cathedral in downtown Washington—is a symbol.  What we celebrate is really our Lord Jesus, who calls us together to be his holy people, united with him and in him around the altar where his high priest, our bishop, presides and celebrates the Eucharist; and at the chair, the cathedra, where the bishop teaches us, nourishing us with the Word of God; and at the font where he washes new members of God’s family clean of their sins at the Easter Vigil.  The Spirit of God is at work in all these sacred mysteries, revealing to us the truths of God’s love and the truths of how we are to carry that love into our own lives.

Since we can’t all fit into the cathedral, and the archbishop can’t be everywhere in the diocese at once—obviously—he ordains presbyters and deacons to assist in his ministry of teaching, sanctifying, and guiding the flock of Jesus Christ, which goes on in our parish churches and other places of worship.  But the parish par excellence, the home church for all of us, is the cathedral.  So we celebrate the building, the cathedral, and what it represents—Jesus our good shepherd, the earthly shepherd whom he chooses for us, and ourselves as his people—on its birthday, the anniversary of the day when it was solemnly consecrated for the worship of the Father in Spirit and in truth.