Homily for November 9, 2025

On September 30, 1970, the St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge was re-dedicated after it became a Cathedral in 1961 and underwent interior renovations in 1967.   Every year since then, on September 30^th, if you are anywhere in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, we celebrate the dedication of our “mother church” – for us Catholics in BR.   This one building becomes a central point; it’s where the bishop presides as the head of our diocese.   Each diocese has its own feast—celebrating the day that their local cathedral was dedicated.   You might wonder, if Pope Leo XIV is the Bishop of Rome,   when was his cathedral dedicated?   Glad you asked!

It was AD 324, on November 9^th, when Pope Sylvester I dedicated the Cathedral of Rome, the Basilica of St. John Lateran.   This weekend is for all the Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Rome what September 30 is for us all in BR!   Now, Rome is a special diocese b/c that bishop is the successor of the Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter,   so all Catholics also celebrate this day:   to remember the unity as Catholics in BR with 
Bp. Duca and together around the world with Pope Leo XIV!

Now, you might say, ‘Didn’t the Lector just read from the Bible where St. Paul said: Brothers and sisters: You are God's building. Aren’t we putting the cart before the horse, here?’    These two things are not at odds.    We certainly are God’s building/ we are the temple of the Holy Spirit!   St. Paul makes us reflect on a reality that we often forget:   Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.   How often do you think about that?

If you are made up of both body & soul, and God has cleansed you from all sin in your Baptism, and God has made a dwelling within you for Himself,   then why do we forget that we have been made a holy dwelling for God?   I’m not talking about something that is likely in the far distant future: No, you are God’s holy temple right now!   The Holy Spirit dwells in each of us Baptized.   We can ignore that fact and keep living our sinful ways, or we can be attentive to what the Spirit says to us in those moments of temptation and weakness.

Clearly, we are not merely spiritual beings. We are embodied!I can’t Baptize you w/o water; I can’t give you Holy Communion without Bread or Wine, w/o a mouth; I cannot give you Absolution w/o your humble confession of all your sins.   Jesus knows that we are physical creatures and that we need things we can touch/see/hear/ smell/taste—that’s how we encounter the world and they’re the same means Christ gives us to encounter God!

So, by celebrating the dedication of these buildings, we remember the tangible unity of all the faithful under one Lord, Jesus Christ—guided by temporal shepherds: Bp. Duca, Pope Leo.   The risk exists, where we can look down to this earth and think this dirt is all there is,   but these buildings are meant to be symbols of an invisible reality.   That, just as we are united with our bishop & the Bishop of Rome in a tangible way,   it is even more real that we are united spiritually as the Mystical Body of Christ.

These tangible buildings remind us of the Church Militant – those of us still in this life trying to grow in holiness and avoid sinful temptations.   Even though we are primarily responsible for ourselves,   charity directs us to battle (especially) for others.   To guide my neighbor along the right paths, and to pray on behalf of the holy souls in purgatory, the Church Suffering.   They’re guaranteed heaven, so their suffering is the delay b/c of the purgation from everything that is not holy in them.   Just as Jesus flipped those tables & made a whip out of cords in the Jerusalem Temple,   He is separating from the Temples of those in purgatory those things that do not belong there to enter heaven.

God’s ultimate will/desire is unity. These buildings where we gather to pray are a symbolic reminder of the invisible reality of our union in Christ;   that’s why it matters to gather every Sunday to pray. We gather on the day of the Resurrection, where new life is born. And we are further supported by the Church Triumphant—those who share in the triumph of Christ in heaven: they pray for us all here and we get a foretaste of that participation in the Eucharist.

Just as these church buildings serve as a physical means for us to gather and pray in unity, so are we being prepared to be in union with the Holy Trinity in the Temple of Christ’s Body in heaven—to ultimately become one Temple with Him.   Something that necessarily entails separating from us everything that is not holy.   The book of Revelation gives us St. John’s vision of the new Jerusalem:   I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb… During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there. The treasure and wealth of the nations will be brough there, but nothing unclean will enter it, not anyone who does abominable things or tells lies.

Therefore, as Scripture tells us, nothing that is evil can ever enter heaven. We have this life to allow the Holy Spirit to keep the temples of our bodies clean/to practice heaven by using the physical temples as tangible signs of unity in Christ now—or we can choose to separate ourselves (in this life and in the life to come).
     Above all, remember that the Lord always looks kindly on those who turn to Him with a sincere and contrite heart.   Look to the Temple of His Body.   Receive His Temple into yours   that you may be purified by Him and given a share in His inheritance forever.