Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi,
the basilica in which the relics of our Holy Founder lie, this basilica which has been
privileged by the Church because it is the place where St. Francis and his presence
have hallowed the Church. We celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of that Church,
and it is in a way particularly fitting because St. Francis himself was dedicated
to the rebuilding of the church.
And as we celebrate this Feast, we think of the physical building which is consecrated
to the service of God. And we know that many times today, sometimes unfortunately,
even among Catholics, we get these sort of false and misguided,
misguided notions of what the church is. And so people will say things like,
the church is not the building, you know, it's the people of God, we are church, that type of thing.
And very often these are ways of denying fundamental truths of our faith,
maybe the incarnation of our Lord even, ultimately, that is being denied.
And when people deny the importance of the physical building,
in a way they are
denying the external reality of the church.
Church is this internal thing
that dwells in our hearts.
Of course, there is an element of truth to this, it's really not so much
either or, it's both and.
The church is a building.
The church is also
an institution.
the church is the body of christ and the people of god and the church is also an internal reality
the kingdom of god is within us it's not merely you know it's not exclusive it's inclusive of all
these realities but the importance of the physical building is that it is the place
where the sacrifice of christ occurs and christ came into our midst he came into our time
and space and he celebrated the first mass he instituted the blessed sacrament he instituted
the holy sacrifice of the mass as the memorial of his suffering death and resurrection
and saint francis understood this when jesus told him
you
to rebuild his church he was standing in the middle of a church that was falling down
and so he began to pick up the bricks around him and to rebuild that church and he did
he rebuilt three churches before he realized that our lord had other purposes for him
not that he had made the mistake by rebuilding those churches in fact the third church that he
built was the place that became most dear to him it was a place that he founded the order that he
used to prepare for the church and he said i'm going to go to my father's church and i'm going to
used to return when he was in need of a time of prayer, when he was sick. At the end of
his life, it's where he wanted to die, at the Porciunca, a little church dedicated to
the Blessed Mother. But he knew that in the process of rebuilding these churches, that
Jesus had another, a higher purpose for him, which was to renew the larger church, you
know, the collection of the people of God under the one shepherd, Jesus Christ, and
his vicar on earth, the Holy Father. And that would have to be done one person at a
time through the efforts of his friars.
And that would have to be done in the process of his resurrection, to preach penance, to
preach the Gospel in the name of Jesus Christ. And so as we make sure that we remember the
importance of the spiritual reality of the church that exists within each and every one
of us as members of the body of Christ, and that ultimately we all need to be converted
and to grow in holiness.
Remember that.
Remember that.
Remember that.
We also remember that the possibility to do this belongs to the sacraments that Jesus
has instituted, and in a particular way, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which takes place
within a consecrated space.
We leave the world for a few moments and we come into God's place, and there we witness
the death and resurrection of the Lord, and we participate in this mystery through our
own participation in the Mass, and especially through Holy Communion.
When Saint Francis saw the crucifix come alive and our Lord speak to him,
Rebuild my church, for as you can see, it is being destroyed.
He was standing, as I said, in the middle of a little chapel that was falling down,
and all that was in that chapel was the crucifix and the altar, and he rebuilt that church
so that the Mass could be celebrated again there as it should be.
At the time, there was no tabernacle in that little church.
As there was no tabernacle in most churches during that time, at that time, the Blessed
Sacrament was reserved mostly in cathedral churches for the purpose of providing communion
for the sick, and it was, to a large extent, the effort of the friars that made it customary,
to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in every church.
And so the friars have been greatly responsible over the centuries for the promotion of devotion
to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and for making the church more and more, the physical
building, a locus of our attention and a place where we come, not just for Mass, but to be
in the presence, the physical presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at any time
of the day.
And so as we think about what St. Francis did in rebuilding his three churches and working
for the conversion and sanctification of souls, we come before our Lord in this church to
celebrate these sacred mysteries and to ask that our own hearts may be ever more dedicated
and consecrated and purified.
For the sake of the Lord, we pray for this, this day on the feast of the dedication of
the Basilica of St. Francis, and we invoke his intercession on our behalf, that we may
always appreciate what the church truly is, the mystical body of Christ and the people
of God, the instrument that Christ has given us, the extension of his life in this world
for our conversion, sanctification, and our salvation.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.