Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica - Nov. 9th 2008 -  It would be interesting to meditate about the value of the body. We have only one body.  Our only body has been with us all our life.  We have changed our clothes many times, been in several places and met many different people, but our same bodies have always been with us.

The body is valuable. When the Christian moral states the value of virginity, it does so because of the value of the body. We love with our body, not only with feelings and words. Living a virginal life is one way to love because the body is kept just for the person we love and not for anybody else. A woman who keeps her virginity is a woman who wants to love a man with her body, and for that reason she saves it only for her husband. The same is true for a man, who should save his body for his wife.

There are other ways to love with our body. We show our love for our neighbor when we smile and raise our hands, and when we embrace in a hug. We can show our love through our body by the way we position our body when we are talking to someone.  Nobody likes to talk to somebody who gives them their back.  The body is so very important! Even when we die, our body receives special treatment through the wake, funeral and burial service.

This morning we should meditate deeply about the body we have. What have we done with it? What are we doing with it? What are we going to do with it? The body is important and has a dignity no matter how small or weak it is. The body is one of the two aspects of the human being, the other aspect is the soul.

Furthermore, Saint Paul said: "Do you not know that you are temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us?... the temple of God, which you are, is holy". This is a strong, powerful and amazing statement from St. Paul.  He tells us that God is within us, which is why we are so valuable.  We are valuable not only for our bodies, but also for God's divine presence in our bodies which makes us individual temples of God.

Today we are celebrating the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. The Lateran Basilica is one of the oldest churches of the Christian world. It was built in the fourth century. It was the Pope's parish church.

A dedication is a special ceremony in which a church is dedicated, by which I mean, the use of building becomes devoted exclusively to the service of God. After a dedication, the building is used only for prayer, praise and worship to God.  Every church has to be dedicated.

This requirement for dedication raises another question: Is the church building or are the faithful more important to God? Of course the faithful are more important to Him.  A dedicated church is still important, though, because it is where the faithful can live our their faith by praying, praising and worshipping.  When we are praying in the physical structure of a church, we should not forget that our bodies are another miniature temple of God, a temple that should also be dedicated to the service of God.

The gospel says that the lord Jesus got angry and "made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables", and said "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." He was angry because they were not doing what they were supposed to do in a temple. They forgot that they were Temples of God.

Have you ever heard about Edith Stein? She was a German-Jewish philosopher, a Carmelite nun, martyr, and saint of the Catholic Church who died at Auschwitz. In 1922, she converted to Christianity, was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and was received into the Discalced Carmelite Order in 1934. She was canonized as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. In the time before her conversion to the Christian faith, she visited catholic churches in European cities, but she visited churches just like many other tourists do--Edith went to the churches to admire the beauty and architecture of the buildings.

One day, when she was at the back of a church looking around, a woman entered with a market bag. This woman knelt and prayed, her eyes were closed and her hands were together. Edith watched this woman for a while until she stood up and went out. After this happened, Edith said: 'Catholics talk to somebody in their buildings.'  God is present in our churches, and as Catholics, we should take advantage of our opportunities to speak to God where he is present.

This feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica is a wonderful opportunity to thank God that we have a temple where we can pray. Do you know how many people do not have a temple, or they have one and cannot go to it because it is dangerous in their country? Our temple is open from 7.30 am to 8.30 pm every day, and we should take advantage of this dedicated structure to pray to God.  Our temple should also help us remember that our bodies are a temple, and that we were created by God, who remains within us.

Take a moment to thank God, and meditate about the dignity we have because he is within us and has made us his temples.  Let us tell the Lord that we want to treat this, our body, and the body of our neighbor according to what it is, a temple of God, a temple which is holy.