Good morning, I hope your weekend is going well.
It is not often that we celebrate a church building. But the Church of St. John Lateran is the Pope’s Church. As bishop of Rome, St. John’s is the cathedral of the Roman Archdiocese, and the seat of bishop of diocese, who who also happens to be the Pope.
This church has a very long and distinguished history. The land was given to the Church by the Empower Constantine. Through the years the church building has suffered from fire, earthquakes, and ravages of war. But even with all this, St. John’s has always been the Pope’s Church. It was in the fourteenth century when Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome from Avignon, that he found the Church and it’s buildings in ruins. It was Pope Innocent X who commissioned the present church in 1646.
We can go on and on about church buildings. How big, how beautiful, how prayerful, etc., etc. But we know that it is not the building that makes up the church, WE are the church, the community who comes together to give thanks to God, who goes forth and spreads the Good News, who attends to the needs of our brothers and sisters. That is what makes us CHURCH.
The American TV Personality, Jase Robertson tells us today, “Going into a bar or a pool room doesn’t make you a drunk, just like sitting in a henhouse does not make you chicken. It’s the same in the opposite setting. Sitting in a church building doesn’t make you a follower of Christ.”
So as we attend our church services this weekend, let us keep in mind that while we are there we are given Good News. This a gift that keeps on giving . . . only if it is shared with the ones who may have not been in church to receive this gift.
May you all have a blessed and safe Sunday.
Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.
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