A Feast For Stones?

You would be forgiven for thinking that the Pope’s main church is St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. It’s certainly the largest. But no.

The Pope’s own church – his episcopal seat as Bishop of Rome – is in the church of Saint John Lateran.

Which Saint John?

Good question. Two of them, actually, for the full name of this church is the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran.

(In the original Latin, that’s Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sanctorum Iohannes Baptista et Evangelista in Laterano.)

So technically, it’s named after Christ, with a couple of Saint Johns in support. Even so, in Rome it’s generally called San Giovanni in Laterano.

We visited this church in 2005, where I took the photo above. It’s really hard to capture the scale of the place. Those are larger-than-life statues of Christ and the apostles up top. Each of the apostles is carrying symbols of their martyrdom; I think that’s Saint Simon on the far right, holding a timber saw.

Today is the anniversary of the founding of this church, and therefore a feast day in the Universal Church.

The scriptural readings from today’s Office speak of the heavenly Jerusalem, the bride of Christ the bridegroom, and the cornerstone rejected by the builders. A feast for this building and all it represents, not only a feast for mere stones.

The reading that really struck me, though, was this one, apparently composed for today:

My fellow Christians, today is the birthday of this church, an occasion for celebration and rejoicing. We, however, ought to be the true and living temple of God. Nevertheless, Christians rightly commemorate this feast of the church, their mother, for they know that through her they were reborn in the spirit.

At our first birth, we were vessels of God’s wrath; reborn, we became vessels of his mercy. Our first birth brought death to us, but our second restored us to life.

(from today’s Office of Readings,
A sermon of Saint Caesarius of Arles)

In a real sense, Christ saves us through His Church. And the mother church, if you will, of the Church Universal, is this one, whose feast we celebrate today.

So let us contemplate our divine adoption by God the Father through the Incarnation of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who became our brother in the flesh. We are now all sons and daughters of God in Christ, and children also of the Church His bride.

O God, who from living and chosen stones
prepare an eternal dwelling for your majesty,
increase in your Church the spirit of grace
you have bestowed,
so that by new growth your faithful people
may build up the heavenly Jerusalem.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

(today’s collect)

My friend Steve is currently visiting Rome. I certainly hope he gets a chance to visit San Giovanni in Laterano on this, its feast day.