In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The gospel is to inspire us today of an increase in faith, that we may always have faith when we turn to our Lord asking his assistance.
And we may feel that we lack the benefit of this man who was in the presence of the Lord, but actually, we are even more deeply blessed that we are in our Lord's presence here in the Blessed Sacrament, but also we receive him truly present in his body, blood, soul, and divinity.
And so what does this remind us is that when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we should be like this man and plead with our Lord, pleading with him for our, for our needs, for all our needs, physical, spiritual, physical and spiritual, and for the, of course, the needs of the world, and to do this with faith.
For our Lord was so gracious to assist this man as he was passing by.
How much more will he assist us when we receive him with love and devotion in the Holy Eucharist?
And that's why that time after Holy Communion is so important to be intimately united to Jesus and turn to him and asking his assistance in all the things that we need his grace and assistance in, in our life, in our life.
Today we honor the, the, the dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter's and St. Paul.
Once again, these two saints are joined in one feast or the Basilicas are two separate Basilicas, St. Peter's, of course, the Vatican, and St. Paul's outside the walls.
They're joined in one solemn feast.
Once again, as even the feast day of these two saints is together in June, showing the, the unity of these two saints and their mission for Christ and spreading the gospel and spreading that faith and spreading the holy faith, holy faith, St. Peter's Basilica and St. Paul's were both originally built by the Emperor Constantine over the graves of each of these two saints.
The original St. Peter's was torn down, and the present Basilica was built and consecrated, I believe in 1624, in 1624 and the St. Paul's, the original St. Paul's, was damaged by fire and reconsecrated in 1854, 1854 but both these, these Basilicas are built over the burial places of each of the saints, St. Peter and St. Paul as a testament of their faith and witness to Christ and so magnificent these Basilicas are, it's a, of course, a foreshadowing in the taste of the heavenly Jerusalem.
These beautiful Basilicas always elevate our hearts and mind to our true home in heaven, that we are all on pilgrimage as people go on pilgrimage to these beautiful Basilicas in Rome, that we are on pilgrimage to our true homeland in heaven, in heaven.
And of course the, these, the dedication of these two Basilicas is also a reminder to us of that faith that has been handed down to us of the Apostles in which they gave their lives for that faith, they shed their blood and gave their life for their faith in Jesus Christ.
And it's a wonderful reminder how Peter had denied our Lord three times, St. Paul was an enemy of the Church persecuting the Christians, and yet these two Apostles and their love were chosen by Christ for a special role in spreading the faith and, and how that faith was spread in their lifetime and so we continue their legacy that each of us has a role to play in spreading that faith that, that the work of the Church is not finished and will not be finished until the end of time, that we all have a responsibility and a role to play in Christ as Christ, members of Christ's mystical body to spread that holy faith, that the world needs to be reconquered for Christ and that we each have a role to play through our daily witness, our prayers and our, and our sacrifices.
May these two Apostles inspire us to give witness to our faith that we may truly be renewed in our love and zeal for Jesus Christ and that we may always strive to adorn our soul, the true temple of God, through baptism with the beautiful virtues of Our Lady, asking her to make our souls beautiful as her souls, that we may truly reflect the love of Christ, the love of Christ in our souls.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.