Dedication of St. Augustine Church
Dear brothers and sisters,
Just
as parents celebrate the births of their children each year, so Mother Church celebrates
the dedications her churches. The prayers and readings we hear today are
different from those of the thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time because it was
on this day that, one hundred and thirty-nine years ago, this church was
dedicated to the glory of God and the honor of Saint Augustine of Hippo by the Most
Reverend Peter Joseph Baltes, the second Bishop of Alton. Today is, we might
say, the birthday of this church, the day on which “salvation has come to this
house” (Luke 19:9).
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| St. Augustine Church, Ashland, Illinois Dedication on November 14, 1882 |
As we celebrate this joyous anniversary of this charming little church, we cannot help but think of those who have gone before us in faith, those who, with such generous devotion, gave so much to make this dwelling place of God what it is. Nor can we forget those who have sustained and improved this sacred edifice since its dedication. We remember them with gratitude and we ask God, “who keep[s his] covenant of mercy with [his] servants who are faithful to [him] with their whole heart[s],” to pour out his loving forgiveness upon them and welcome them into his “festal gathering” (I Kings 8:23; Hebrews 12:22).
At
the same time, we also remember the countless prayers offered here, lifted up
to God in trust. How many people have here implored with Solomon, “…may you
heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place” (I Kings 8:29)? How
many tears have been shed here, and how many shouts of praise have been uttered
here? How many sacraments have been received here and how many souls have here
been strengthened and fortified with the grace of God? We will never know, this
side of heaven, yet this ignorance does not stop us from raising up joyful
cries to God who has made this home his dwelling.
When
he dedicated a church sometime between the years 391 and 395, our heavenly
patron, Saint Augustine, said,
…just as this building has been made for us to gather in physically,
so that building which we ourselves are is being constructed for God to live in
spiritually. “For the temple of God,” says the apostle, “which is what you are,
is holy” (I Corinthians 3:17).[1]
If you
and I are still in the process of being built into the temple of God, when will
we be dedicated? Saint Augustine’s answer is that we will be dedicated “when
the Lord comes at the end of the age.”[2] This holy house, then,
stands in testimony of the advent of God – both at Christmas and on the Last
Day – and it stands as a summons to us to prepare ourselves to meet him when he
comes.
On
this penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year, Mother Church is urging us to
prepare ourselves for the day when Christ Jesus says to us, “…today I must stay
at your house” (Luke 19:5). If we wish for salvation to come to us on that day,
we must be holy; we must be faithful to him with our whole hearts if we wish to
enter his festal gathering. How do we become so prepared?
Before
this church building was dedicated, laborers first had to cut down trees and
quarry rocks. Trees had to be planed into beams and rocks hewn into shape.
Everything had to be fitted together just right, having excesses taken away bit
by bit. So it must be with us if we are to be fitted into the eternal dwelling
of God.
While we are being built, you see, our lowliness is sighing up
to him; but when we are dedicated, our glory will sing to him, because
constructing a building means hard labor, while dedicating it means joy. As long
as stones are being hewn from the mountains and logs from the forests, while
they are being shaped and chiseled and fitted together, there is a lot of hard
work and worry. But when the dedication of the completed building is
celebrated, there is rejoicing and carefree satisfaction to replace the worries
and the hard work. In the same way too, while people are being switched from a
life of unbelief to faith, while whatever in them is twisted and not good is
being pruned and cut, while tight fitting, peaceful and mutually respectful
joints are being made, how many trials and temptations there are to be feared,
how many tribulations to be endured!
But when the day comes for the dedication of the eternal house,
when we are told, “Come, blessed by my Father, receive the kingdom which has
been prepared for you from the beginning of the world” (Matthew 25:34), what exultant
joy that will be, what carefree satisfaction! Glory will sing, and weakness
will not be pierced. When the one who loves us and handed himself over for our
sakes shows himself to us; and the one, who was manifested to humanity as what
he was made in his mother, is manifested to them as God their maker which he
was in the Father; when that eternal habitation himself enters his home now
complete and furnished, established in unity, decked out with immortality; then
he will fill all things, he will shine out in them all, “so that God may be
everything for everyone” (I Corinthians 15:28).[3]
How do
we, though, like those mountains and forests, become chiseled stones and cut
beams to be fitted into the dwelling of God?
We
can do so by following the example of Zacchaeus. “The Lord, who had already
welcomed Zacchaeus in his heart, was now ready to be welcomed by [Zacchaeus] in
his house… Grace is poured out, and faith starts working through love.”[4] May we, too, fully welcome
Jesus into the homes of our hearts; may we respond to his grace with love. May
we be so totally dedicated to him that salvation will come to us and we may be
welcomed into the festal gathering of the angels and saints. Amen.
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