Homily for Feast of Dedication of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Homily for the Feast of the Anniversary
of the Dedication of St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Oct. 5, 2021
John 4: 19-24
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle, N.Y.

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

We celebrate today the anniversary of the dedication of our cathedral, which took place on this date in 1910.  Altho Abp. John Hughes had laid the cornerstone 52 years earlier, in 1858, and the cathedral was opened for public worship in 1879 under Card. John McCloskey, replacing Old St. Patrick’s on Mulberry St., its solemn consecration was carried out only after Abp. John Farley had finished paying off its debt.  The total cost of construction was $4 million.  I have no idea what that would equal today.

St. Patrick’s is the spiritual home of our bishop and of the entire people of God in the archdiocese.  The building—the cathedral in midtown Manhattan—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, religious houses, 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.