11/09/25 Meant to Be

1:49 Thank you to have a seat. I don't know if you've ever been going through a, by a construction site and you're wondering like, what are they building? And soon as it's taking shape, pretty soon you can say, oh, I get it. This is meant to be a bank or this is, as it's taking shape, you say, oh, this is meant to be a drive-thru or that as it's taking shape, you say, this is meant to be a school, that kind of situation. This is a gas station. You can always tell that. Or as someone's building a building, you'd say, okay, this is meant to be a church.

2:21 You can see it. You can see it in the building. This is what it's meant to be. Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran. St. John Lateran is the Pope's Cathedral. So we always think of St. Peter's Basilica as that's the Pope's church. I'm sure that's his too, but the St. John Lateran is actually the Pope's Cathedral. It's the Cathedral of Rome. It was actually fascinating. As soon as Christianity became legal, sorry, became legal, in 324, the Feast of St. John Lateran, that was when St. John Lateran was dedicated, on November 9th in 324, so 1,701 years ago, this church was consecrated. And that's what I think is so fascinating. It's the mother church of all Catholic churches, but the feast today isn't the Feast of St. John Lateran. It's the feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran, which is, what does that mean?

3:15 To be dedicated, it means to be consecrated. So this is the feast of the consecration, the dedication to be consecrated means what? It means simply to be set apart. It means to be set apart for a purpose. It means it's created because it's meant to be something. And that's what it meant to be, what St. John Lateran is meant to be, is at least two things. It's meant to be at sign of unity that every Catholic throughout the world could say, no, that's the mother church of all the churches. It's also meant to be a visible sign of God's invisible presence.

3:52 That's what every church is meant to be. In fact, look at the prophet Ezekiel. That's what the temple is meant to be. What the temple is created to be, what the temple is dedicated and consecrated to be, what the temple was meant to be is it's meant to be where God's presence would abide, right? This is where God would dwell among his people, but also this was the place of worship. This is the place where the God of salvation would save the world. That's why this is so fascinating. In that first reading today, Ezekiel talks about, I saw this, you know, from the right side of the temple flowed this stream. And as the stream went from the temple, remember, the temple is a place of God's presence. It's also a place where God would begin saving the world. That's what it's meant to be. So that stream flowing from the right side of the temple, it gave life. Wherever it flowed, it said that trees would, they would bloom or they would give fruit every month of the year. So this abundant life that would come from the right side of this temple. And we know, of course, that Jesus in the gospel today, what's he say?

4:47 He was talking about the temple of his body, that he is the true, he's the fulfillment of the temple. And here's a little kind of a side note, which I think is just absolutely fascinating. Remember, Ezekiel saw this vision of the temple from the right side of the temple flowed this water that gave life to everything, abundance, saved the world. You know, in virtually every depiction of Jesus on the cross, when he's pierced by that soldier's lance he's pierced on the right side and so we know this we know that from jesus that when the soldier pierced him what flowed out flowed out blood and water which is the sign of what is a sign of the eucharist and a sign of baptism and the recognition of like this is just incredibly incredible incredible jesus is meant to be the new temple and jesus is right that place where god's presence would abide and a place that God would save the world.

5:43 That's what he's meant to be. And now we get to us, right? Because we have all these markers. We have St. John Lateran, meant to be something unique. We have the temple meant to be something unique. We have Jesus, who is something unique. And we have St. Paul saying, okay, you, Christians, he says, you are God's building. He says, you are the temple of God where the Holy Spirit dwells. So what does that mean? as Christians, what are we meant to be? We are meant to be, if we're temples of the Holy Spirit, that wherever we are, that's where God's presence is. And what we're meant to be is we're meant to be those, the place, the vehicle through which God saves the world.

6:25 You just pause on this. Do you realize that's what Christians are meant to be in this world? And actually, throughout history, you look at history and you realize that's what Christians have been. That's what Christians have been. Catholics have been this year 324, right? Here is the dedication of St. John Lateran. In that same time, what do Christians do? Christians began living out their faith and they transformed the world. That what Christians meant to be, right? They're meant to be God's presence in the world and meant to be the vehicle by which God saves the world. And so even just the Christian perspective on humanity, the reality that we believe, we know this is true, that every person is made in God's image and likeness that revolutionized the Roman Empire. It revolutionized the Germanic peoples that revolutionized everyone. If you've studied anything about the Roman Empire, you realize it was barbaric. The Germanic people, the Vikings, absolutely barbaric. The idea of mercy, the idea of compassion, the idea of humility, none of those were virtues in the ancient world.

7:23 Because the idea that human beings had intrinsic value was completely foreign until Christians, who were meant to be a sign of God's presence and the vehicle by which God saved the world, showed up. In fact, even more, Christian moral vision shaped all of the West. I don't know if you know this, but church law was the very first coherent legal system in all of Europe and established that authority has to be subject to law. Before that, it was like, no, if you're the emperor, if you're the king, if you're the queen, you're in charge. But church law said, no, actually, all the authority still has to be subject to law. Christians, when they were who they meant to be, they made marriage, the revolutionized marriage, that men and women were coming together as Christians as equals. And the purpose of marriage was lifelong faithfulness to each other was the norm. And also, not only that, but children had worth.

8:21 Again, go back to pre-Christian times. Children had virtually no worth whatsoever. So what did Catholic Christians do? What did Catholic Christians do when they saw children whose parents had died and they were orphans? Well, Catholic Christians started the very first orphanages. What did Catholics do when they saw numerous people who are getting sick? Well, Catholics started the very first hospitals. What did Catholics do when they saw people who are uneducated? Catholics started the first schools. In fact, the first universities that still even exist to this day were started by Catholics who basically said, if this is what we're meant to be, we're meant to be the presence of God in the world, meant to be the vehicle by which God saves the world, we have to start doing this. I mean, the reality even that Catholics are convicted, we believe that human beings are made for beauty. And so if you go throughout Europe, what do you see? You see art and architecture and music. And you realize all of that came from Catholics, Christians.

9:18 In truth, our philosophy, science, that all comes from Catholics. probably most importantly, what do Catholics do? They brought the good news of Jesus to everyone. I know it's been recently popular to criticize missionaries who have gone around the world, but realize this. Think of any missionary.

9:49 What did it cost them to go to a place because they heard that there are people different from them but they left with the conviction that these people were worth sacrificing their lives for to bring them the gospel. That's the story of every missionary who's lived throughout all of Christianity is these are people who say it's worth my sacrificing my entire life, leaving my family, leaving my home, leaving my comfort because there are people who are different than me.

10:22 But I'm leaving with the conviction that God wants them to know his love. Now, of course, the church for the last 2,000 years hasn't been perfect. There's plenty of wounds. But the church was meant to be where God would dwell among his people. The church was meant to be the place, the vehicle through which God would save the world.

10:46 That's what it's meant to be. That's what we're meant to be. But have you ever driven by a building and say, oh, that used to be a school? Or you ever drive by a building and say, well, that used to be a bank and now it's a coffee shop. Or you drive by, that used to be a drive-thru and now it's another drive-thru. Or you drive by a pizza hut. You can always recognize pizza huts. That used to be a pizza hut. Or you drive by a church and you say, oh, that used to be a Catholic church.

11:14 And now it's a museum. Go throughout Europe and that's what it seems like. That used to be a Catholic church. Now it's a museum or it's a nightclub. I don't know. I came across this statistic that said that since 2005, in Germany alone, there have been over 650 Catholic churches that have been deconsecrated.

11:35 Imagine that. That was meant to be where God would dwell among his people. That was meant to be the place where God was saved. And now it used to be where God would dwell among us. When it's deconsecrated, it used to be the place the world was saved. to realize, okay, it had been dedicated. It had been consecrated. It had been set apart for a purpose and now it's deconsecrated. And yet, what does St. Paul say? Beloved, you are God's building. Beloved, you are temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, which means what? It means that you and I are meant to be a visible sign of God's invisible presence. That's what we're meant to be. We're meant to be another Christ who participates. We get to be the vehicle by which God saves the world. In fact, there's a saint. Her name is St. Catherine of Siena. And she said this, she said, if you were who you were meant to be, you would set the world on fire.

12:30 If we as Christians were who we were meant to be, we would set the world on fire. are we who are meant to be, or is this just who we used to be? If you go to the island of Nantucket or go to Cape Cod or any of the Boston islands, you can see, if you go along the shoreline, you can see these little huts. They're called huts of refuge. They're dotted about maybe 50 meters to 100 meters apart. And what the story is, is that back in the day, in 17, I think in 1786, the Massachusetts Humane Society was formed. This is the precursor to the Humane Society. But whereas we have the Humane Society that takes care of animals and other things, the Humane Society originally in 1786, it was formed to be a rescue operation. Basically, there were so many shipwrecks off the coast of Nantucket or Cape Cod on the Northeast Atlantic coast that if you're part of the Humane Society, if there was a storm, it was your job to go into one of these huts of refuge and you would scan the horizon to see if you could see a ship that was in distress.

13:39 If you saw a ship that was in distress, you'd ring a bell. And every person in the village, every person in the town who was part of the Humane Society would rush to the coast, rush to the shoreline, would get into a little wooden rowboat and would row out into the storm in order to save anyone, any survivors from this shipwreck. And that's what they did. They came together because they knew they were meant to be the kind of people who saved the lives.

14:03 And they did. they did save lives. But at one point, the U.S. Coast Guard got formed and they now save lives. And so the Humane Society, they used to be in the life-saving business. Now, they still exist. We know they still exist. And they take care of animals and they do good. And they have a brunch once or twice a year. And they give people awards for being decent folks. And that's fine. It's great. It's good. But here's the thing. it was invented because they were meant to be the kind of people who saved lives and now they used to be they used to be people this used to be an organization that saved lives and i wonder how much that's us yes here we have the church and you have the church we have these followers of jesus and and we have people who are temple of the holy spirit and we're called to be what? We're meant to be the presence of God in this world, meant to be the vehicle by which God saves the world. And then what happens? And that's what Christians did, right? That's what every Christian realized. No, that's me. I'm a temple of the Holy Spirit. I'm a temple of God. I have to be a sign of God's presence. I have to be the vehicle by which God saves the world. And then what happens is give it to the pros. So saving people's lives, that's the priest's job, or that's the monk's job, the nun's job. That's the missionary's job. Here we still gather, right? We still go to church.

15:28 And we're nice people, hopefully. And hopefully we do good. But us Catholics, we used to save lives. That's what we used to be. But what if? what if we Catholics, what if we followers of Jesus,

15:58 what if we were who we were meant to be? That we come here into God's presence. We come here and we receive God's grace. And then we go out there. Because this is the reality. Every one of us knows someone, whether that be someone here on campus, someone in your class, someone at your work, someone in your life. we all know someone who is dying inside. Every one of us knows someone who is dying of hopelessness. We all know someone who just is living in a world of darkness. We all know someone who's living in a world of loneliness. We all know someone who's living without purpose, without meaning. We all know people who are living without hope. And we know them. We know their names. They're sitting next to us at work, on the bus, in class. They might even be living in our own home. what if, what if we were who we were meant to be?

16:58 We say to all those people who are lonely, okay, I can be that friend. Those people who are living in darkness, I can bring you the light of Jesus. Those people who are living without meaning, without purpose to say, actually, I know that God has a meaning and a purpose for your life. Those people who are living without hope, living without love, we can say, actually, there is the God of hope. There is the God of love and we could actually introduce him to them. I think things would change. And I think things would change faster than we can imagine. This is the last thing. I know some of us might say, well, Father, that's a great idea, but I've tried it. Like I've tried reaching out to people in my life, tried reaching out to people in my family, reached out to people at work, at school. I've tried it already and I got shot down. I tried it already and I failed. What if, what if I try it and do the wrong thing? What if I try it and I get rejected? What if I try it and it doesn't work?

17:51 you know the regional humane society when that bell rang what they do they ran to the coast and they got into little wooden rowboats rowing out into a storm into a storm that was big enough to sink a ship and they rode out into that storm on the chance that maybe someone would be still alive out there on the chance that maybe you could get to them. And on the chance that maybe if they were still alive and you got to them, you can bring them back to shore.

18:25 But there's also the chance that you might not make it back to shore. That's why the Humane Society, they had a motto. And this motto is just so intense. This motto is this. When there's a storm, when there's someone out, when there's someone who needs to be rescued, when there's a life that needs to be saved, the motto is this. You have to go out. You don't have to come back. this was the motto of an organization that was meant to save lives. You have to go out. You don't have to come back. That was the motto of an organization that was meant to be the kind of organization that believed that people are worth saving, that people who are drowning are worth risking your life for, that people who are in need might deserve your help. That was the motto of people who believed that it was worth risking it all on the chance that someone might be saved.

19:24 I would say this, I'd say, I believe that the tide has been turning in the church for years. I mean, really, truly, for years, I have seen this. More and more Catholics realizing that they aren't who they were meant to be. More and more parishes realizing that, okay, we aren't who we were meant to be. More and more dioceses realizing we haven't been who we were meant to be.

19:46 Realizing, maybe you're realizing this today, you are meant to be a temple of God. You're meant to be dedicated like St. John Latteran. consecrated like St. John Lantern to be God's presence and the vehicle of his saving the world. Because that's not. That's not what we were used to be. that's what we're meant to be.

20:15 And if you and I become who we're meant to be,