Friday, October 6, 2023

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, 2023
John 4: 19-24
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, 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).

Commenting on the dialog between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Bp. Barron writes:

She is seeking the center and orientation of her life, not in the properly eternal reality of God, but rather in a particular religious tradition.  She is wondering whether to anchor her life in one of those necessary powers—one of those great principalities that falls, nonetheless, short of God.

Jesus’ answer to this question is magnificent:  “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem….  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  In other words, the divine is not a reality in this world, not something that can be caught in the categories of finitude, not “this” or “that,” but is rather spirit that transcends even those necessary powers that are the great religious traditions.*

The feast of our cathedral, then, is really not a feast of a building, as beautiful as it is, but a feast of the Spirit of God building up his people in holiness.  The real Church is God’s people, not a building.  As persons who act, speak, and think thru our bodies, naturally we need some physical place to gather.  So churches and cathedrals are important.  But the “center and orientation of our life” isn’t in them.  Buildings are but aids that direct us toward the deeper reality that God dwells with us and he leads us toward his eternal temple, where we shall worship him in joyful glory forever.



* The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels (Park Ridge, Ill., 2020), p. 487.

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