The difference between a cathedral

Tomorrow, Monday, November 9, is the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. It’s a very large church and a whole lot more, the official Cathedral of Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Rome. Outside the Vatican, it used to be the headquarters of the Catholic Church with live-in popes and all that. It was a gift to the Church from Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century. It’s been knocked down a time or two, ravaged by Saracens, burnt by fire. We look upon it as “the Mother of all Christian Churches,” a sign that can be found in its halls.

Still there is an important “difference” between places of worship, however grand ther strike us. We see this in tomorrow’s gospel. In Jerusalem, Jesus makes a whip of cords and drives the oxen and sheep being sold there out of the Temple. Out go the money changers too, their tables overturned. The Pharisees ask Jesus what sign can he produce of his right to do that that? “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” he says.

Actually it was a little boy that brought home to me “the difference” between a basilica ...or a cathedral or a temple for that matter. I could here him calling me, Christopher, that is ...our three-year-old neighbor.

“Ta Ta, Ta Ta!” he called loudly. “In here,” I said. He popped into my bedroom carrying a black pot, like the kind witches brew with. He showed me his stash: Candy harvested two days ago ...Halloween. Impressed, I asked solemnly: “Would you share that with me?” “No!” he said abruptly. Straight away, he turned to leave and as he grabbed the doorknob I called: “I thought you loved me." (pause) "Don’t you love me?” “No!” he said, with just a slight hurt look on his face.

Two nano-seconds later, I heard a voice out in the kitchen: “Na Na, Na, Na, I love you.” Twice the voice sounded. I smiled. Just a bit later, I found the wee one in the front room, staring at his candy spilled on the chair in front of him. He picked up my favorite piece, chocolate malt balls. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but slowly he gave it to me. Then a big tootsie roll; then a smaller one. “That’s enough,” I said. “Thank you.” Paul’s words came to mind: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

That's when it came to me, the difference between a cathedral; the difference is one of them might last 2000 years ...but the other one will live forever. ---- Brother Caedfile