"It's NOT Too Late" - Priest Explains Why Your Best Years Are AHEAD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ-_TWnRyQ0

Good morning, everyone.

Why We Celebrate a Church

My dear brothers and sisters, today is the feast of the Lateran Basilica, St. John Lateran.

Why are we celebrating a building? What makes this church more special than others? To understand this feast, we need to understand the reasons, especially in today’s Gospel.

Time and Fear

If I look back, I feel I lost time, a gift you cannot get back. I lost so much time. Why? I do not know.

What is it about us that makes us so fearful? From birth, we are put in a bassinet, protected by four walls. Then a crib, like a little prison. Then our own room. Then a classroom. Then a dorm. Then a cubicle at work, our place. And when it is time to leave this world, we get our coffin.

Maybe that is why we fear living. We are trained from a young age to stay within walls, to make the most of this small world, and to accept it as it is.

We call that learned helplessness. I cannot change anything. Nothing will change. It is just the way it is. And we believe it, so many of us live as observers.

Christ Overturns the Tables

In today’s Gospel, what does Jesus do? He overturns the tables in the temple.

You might think he did it because he was angry. I think he did it because he was free. Free from fear. Free from everything that keeps us passive. Tearing those tables apart, flipping them over, he showed us you can make a difference. You can build my church. You can make this temple what it is meant to be.

The Lord invites us not to be afraid. Start poking at this world. When you press on one side, another side opens up. Build my church.

Build My Church: Evangelize and Act

So many churches in the Northeast have closed, hundreds of them. Why? People say the neighborhood changed, demographics shifted, socioeconomic realities are different.

Does that mean a neighborhood no longer needs a church? Is that all? Or do we need to act?

Evangelize. Go into the streets. Say, have you been to Mary Magdalene? How long has it been since you came to church on Sunday? Come to Mary Magdalene. Come over.

People say, I cannot do that. Why not? When will you realize this world was shaped by people smarter than you, people just like you, and people less smart than you? It does not take someone special to do something remarkable.

When Jesus commanded, Go into the whole world. Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and I will be with you until the end, was he talking to a few or to all of us?

The Lateran Basilica: Mother of All Churches

Today we celebrate the Lateran Basilica because it is the mother of all churches, the first. The land was donated by the Emperor Constantine. It was built from pagan ruins and transformed into the beautiful church we can visit today. It has been rebuilt, reshaped, and expanded over time.

That is the pattern for each of us. Build my church.

Dare to Wonder

At our school, we once hired an organization to craft a catchy motto. They offered Leaders of tomorrow. Every school says that. I told them, get out.

We came up with our own: Dare to wonder.

Dare to wonder what you can achieve. Dare to wonder how far you can go. Dare to wonder how high you can climb. Dare to wonder what great things you can do in your life. Dare to wonder. It is the best motto we have ever had.

Now we teach children and ourselves to wonder.

If I am all in, if Jesus is my Savior, am I living like it? Yes. Then live as if that is true.

Will it be hard? Yes. Nothing is easy. When people say, this is going to be hard, what are they really saying? You cannot do it. In other words, can you find someone else?

Freedom From Fear

At my age now, I am free from fear. Lord, I still have time to pray.

Christ overturns the tables, not because he is angry, but because he is free. Free from fear, free from the lie that only someone else can do what must be done.

Today’s Gospel challenges each of us. Dare to wonder. Dare to wonder.

Amen? Amen.