Father Chas Canoy
Watch the Homily
Listen to the Homily
Homily: The Dedication of St. John Lateran – The Mother and Head of All Churches
In this week’s homily, Father Chas explores the deep meaning behind the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica—the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome and the Mother Church for all Catholics worldwide.
He reminds us that just as the Lateran Basilica symbolizes the universality and endurance of the Church, we too, as members of Christ’s body, are living temples of the Holy Spirit—carrying God’s presence into the world.
Read the Homily
Father Chas:
Good afternoon. So we just heard Jesus make a bold claim, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. But he was talking about the temple of his body. So remember what the Jerusalem temple was for the Jews. It was the very dwelling place of God on earth, right? It was where God dwelt. Remember Emmanuel, God with us, he comes into the scene, Jesus. He’s the new dwelling place of God on earth, taking on our human flesh, but it was God the Son from all eternity, begotten from all eternity. So he, that’s why we call him the new temple.
And so where is that temple of God’s presence on earth today? Well, wherever the body of Christ is today. What’s in this tabernacle? Well, the body of Christ. And so here is the new dwelling place of God on earth. Right here in our very midst. That’s why Owen just bowed to the Blessed Sacrament, right? So that’s why we come in here. Wherever we go to Catholic Church, we look for the dwelling place of God on earth. Every Catholic Church. That’s why we build beautiful churches like this to surround it.
Now, by extension, what do we receive at every Mass from this very altar? The body of Christ. That makes each and every one of you, as members of his body, a temple of the Holy Spirit. So that God’s presence goes throughout all the earth. Right? And the good news is proclaimed. So that’s why St. Paul called you all, you are now God’s building. You are the temple. Right? Because you have the body of Christ within you, the Holy Spirit dwells in you.
Have all of that in mind as we, because I want to make the connection now to what we are celebrating this very Sunday. This is another Sunday where we supersede, the high-ranking feast day supersedes the Sunday in ordinary time. So we’re today celebrating the dedication of St. John Lateran.
And so what’s all that about? Well, let’s start off with a little Catholic trivia, shall we? How many cathedrals are there in each diocese? One, yes, one. There’s only one cathedral in each diocese. And there are some folks out there who may not know the technical meaning of a cathedral. Perhaps they think it’s just a beautiful church with some historical significance. That’s more of what a basilica is. But there is a more precise meaning of cathedral. The cathedral is the principal church of the diocese, and it’s considered the official seat of the diocesan bishop, the successor of the apostles, right, in our area.
In fact, the Greek term cathedra, which is also developed into the Latin term cathedra, the root word of cathedral is cathedra, and that literally means seat. So what is the name of our cathedral church here in the Diocese of Lansing? St. Mary’s, correct. And actually, the full official name is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That’s a mouthful. That’s why we only say St. Mary’s Cathedral, right? Now, what is the name of the cathedral church in Rome? Is it St. Peter’s?
Yeah, it is not St. Peter’s. It’s the most famous. It’s the largest church in the world. It’s in the Vatican in Rome, but it’s not the principal church. It’s not the cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Rome. That would be what we celebrate today, which is St. John Lateran.
So the photos that you are about to see of St. John Lateran were all taken during our parish’s jubilee year pilgrimage to Italy. So the folks you might see in here are part of our parish, most likely. So this one is the front of the facade in the distance of St. John Lateran, taken by…
…a statue of St. Francis. Well, that’s not St. Francis, but that one is St. Francis right there, commemorating his visit when God told him, “Go rebuild my church,” and he goes to visit the pope, because remember the Lateran Basilica was the home of the papacy for a thousand years. So this next one is the facade of St. John Lateran and it’s…
Why is it called St. John Lateran? Is it because there’s a saint who has a first name John and a last name Lateran? No, right? It’s because the original landowner on which the church was built was the Laterani family way back in the fourth century. And the other interesting fact about being called St. John is that this principal church of Rome is actually named after two St. Johns.
So one, St. John the Baptist, and the other, the patron saint of our parish, St. John the Evangelist. So the official name, actually, is the Arch Basilica of the Most Holy Savior of Saints John the Baptist and Evangelist at the Lateran. Again, another mouthful, so we just call it St. John Lateran.
So you can see the statue at the pinnacle of this church is Jesus holding up the cross. And then flanking him at each of his sides is St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. The other statues you see there are of the twelve apostles. And so now there are four major basilicas in Rome.
St. John Lateran, then there’s St. Peter and St. Paul Basilicas, as well as one to Our Lady. The highest ranking of those four is not as grand as St. Peter’s is, is not St. Peter’s Basilica. It might be the greater work of art for sure, and the world headquarters, if you will, but of those four major basilicas, the highest ranking one is St. John Lateran.
By virtue of the fact that that’s the cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Rome. And so on this huge, this next slide, on the huge foundation of two of the main pillars. Excuse me. There is this Latin inscription above Russ’s head there. It says Omnium excelsiarum urbis et orbis mater et caput, which in English translates to “The mother and the head of all the churches of the city of Rome and of the world.”
So the reason why our parish and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world celebrates today the dedication of a church in Rome is because it’s the mother church of all Catholic churches throughout the world. We may be the mother church of Jackson, but this is the mother church of all mother churches.
And celebrating the anniversary of its dedication, back in the year 324 was when it was first dedicated, highlights two things in particular. Number one, the universality of the church. And number two, the longevity of the church.
The universality of the church reminds us that we are part of something bigger. That the St. John Parish and the Diocese of Lansing is part of something much bigger than ourselves. And speaking of large, check out these doors. Like, I have one of our pilgrims, Russ Reagan, pictured in these two photos simply for scale. Russ is 6’5″, right? And he’s dwarfed by the main doors into the basilica. And actually, the woman in white there beside Russ on the right in the white hat is our Shane Slough.
So celebrating the dedication of this church reminds us about the universality of the church — that we are part of something that crosses all racial, ethnic, national, social, and other man-made divisions of the human family. We are part of God’s family, with Jesus Christ as our head and the pope, the Bishop of Rome, as the vicar of Christ until he returns.
Now, the second thing today’s feast highlights is the longevity of the church. The original dedication of the Lateran Basilica happened on this very day, the 9th of November, all the way back in 324. So we’re celebrating the 1,701st anniversary of St. John Lateran. Of course, it’s changed in appearance throughout all these centuries into the beautiful facade that it is today.
But the original Constantinian basilica was nothing to scoff at — it was fancy back then because it was the emperor that was building it as a gift to the Christians. Because remember, Constantine is the one that legalized Christianity. Before that, many emperors had been persecuting Christians and even killing them for fun.
So here you see this next slide, the sanctuary of St. John Lateran, including the baldacchino or the canopy over the high altar, which is on the left. And then you have the apse on the right. That canopy on the left is from the 14th century.
This next image shows you the apse area, which is the semicircular area at the back of the church. That’s why we call this mural project that’s behind this curtain here that Joe Macklin, the masterpiece that Joe Macklin is painting, we call that the apse project because the entirety of the apse is being painted.
And you can see here in the very upper part of the apse, there it is, a head and shoulder shot of Jesus surrounded by angels and then four principal figures. And those four principal figures are from left to right: St. Peter, of course, because this is his seat as the first Bishop of Rome; and then you have Our Lady that’s next to him; and then the cross; and to the right of the cross you see St. John the Baptist; and then to his right is St. John the Apostle, St. John the Evangelist, often depicted without a beard because he was the youngest of the apostles.
Now, look at the middle. There is the cross there of Christ. And remember that first reading from Ezekiel, how living streams would flow from the temple. This was prophetic of the true temple that would come, which is Jesus himself. What happened when Longinus stuck a spear into his side? Blood and water flowed out — blood and water that would give life to all the earth. So he’s that new temple.
And so you see here the two bucks, living water flowing from the cross. And then you have four sheep also drinking from that living water. Remember that motif because when this baby is unveiled, you’re going to see that same motif here with living water flowing from the cross. It’ll be awesome — and you hunters out there will be happy to know there’s a huge Michigan buck right pictured there drinking from that stream. No target on it though, right?
Another interesting thing is the way the valuable relics at St. John Lateran are presented. So many of you know that St. Peter and Paul have their own basilicas, but from their bodily remains they took skull fragments of both apostles and placed them in two ornate reliquaries, and those reliquaries are above the high altar at St. John Lateran in this baldacchino area above the high altar that you see here.
This next image features another valuable relic. Above the beautiful tabernacle for the Blessed Sacrament, it’s highlighted by the red rectangular frame, is a fragment of the table of the Last Supper — the altar upon which the first Eucharist was consecrated. So here’s a closer look at it right there. The fragment is behind that gold depiction of the Last Supper and the red curtains.
Now, lining the entire nave of the basilica — what’s the nave? It’s the main section of the church — this main section. So pretend that these pillars were all statues of the apostles. That’s what you would have lining the entire nave of St. John Lateran. And so this one up here is of St. Peter. How do you know? He’s holding the keys. Remember, Jesus gave him the keys of the kingdom.
And then the next one is a slide of St. Paul, an image of St. Paul, holding the instrument of his martyrdom, which was the sword, because he was beheaded for the faith.
So that’s a look at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral Church of Rome, of which we celebrate the anniversary of its dedication way back in 324, during the reign of the Emperor Constantine. Within that century, that fourth century, the giant Roman Empire would decline in power and be split up in 395.
Since then, over these 1,700 years, the Church has seen empires and powerful states all around the world rise and fall. And yet, she remains and will remain until the end of time when Christ, her head, returns to consummate all things. She remains strong and steadfast, not because of the fallen human beings who comprise her, but because of Christ the head, Jesus Christ. History is His story.
So brothers and sisters, whatever the state of our nation is in, whatever political ideology is in vogue, whatever the prevailing temporal powers that rise and fall in our world, and despite even the internal strife within the Church herself, there is one thing of which we can be sure: the gates of hell will never prevail against her. You can bank on Christ’s promise.
And we have the privilege and the honor of upholding that tradition here in our parish, the Mother Church of Jackson, whose cathedral church is St. Mary’s in Lansing, the seat of a successor of the apostle, which in turn ultimately has her roots in the Omnium Ecclesiarum Urbis et Orbis Mater et Caput — the mother and the head of all churches of the city of Rome and of the world.