‘A house of prayer for all peoples’
San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer delivered the following homily at Vespers at the Cathedral of the Madeleine Aug. 14 in Salt Lake City. Led by Bishop John C. Wester, former auxiliary bishop of San Francisco, the Utah diocese is celebrating the centennial of the Madeleine Cathedral.
Saint Paul the Apostle, in the eighth chapter of his Letter to the Romans, describes God’s plan of salvation in these words: “Those God predestined he likewise called; those he called he also justified; and those he justified he in turn glorified.” The apostle tells us that every moment and action of God’s saving plan is aimed at the final destiny of eternal glory for all who put their faith in Jesus Christ: we are chosen, we are called, we are justified (that is, put in right relationship with the Father through the Son by the action of the Holy Spirit), and we are ultimately glorified–called home to share eternal life with our loving God. We believe that this plan of God includes everything that happens to us Christians.
How easy it is to nod our agreement with these lovely thoughts, yet how greatly they are in conflict with what we might call “the American way” of religion! In this country many people like to say that we can all try to find God in our own ways, we can embrace the religious faith that suits us, and we can choose the church community with which we feel most comfortable. This sounds as if we ourselves are definitely in charge; we take the initiative. And yet, at the Last Supper, Jesus said to his first followers (and to us): “You have not chosen me; I have chosen you.” God, in Christ Jesus, comes in search of us, all of us. God takes the initiative; we do not. Of course St. Paul teaches that we are free to respond to God’s grace, but his saving grace is offered to all. God sent his Son to redeem us; we received the Gospel story, we didn’t make it up; the Good News awoke love and trust in our hearts. It is all God’s doing. He gives us a share in the life of the risen Christ here and now, so that we may live it with him forever.
Mary, Christ’s Mother and our Mother, is the perfect sign of this saving plan of God for us. In this solemn feast of her Assumption we celebrate the fullness of salvation in Jesus Christ. Mary is united forever with God, body and soul, in eternal life. As spiritual writers have remarked, what we are now, Mary once was, answering God’s call here on earth; what Mary is now, we hope and pray to be, fully one with God forever. Her response to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” becomes our lifelong prayer.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our brother, saved us as a people, and not one by one. We are called to be the assembly of believers, to be the living stones with which the Holy Spirit builds up the Church, the People of God. “You are the temple of the living God,” St. Paul told the Corinthians, and St. Augustine, preaching at the dedication of a church, declared, “what was done when this church was being built is similar to what is done when believers are built up into Christ. When they first come to believe they are like timber and stone taken from woods and mountains. In their instruction, baptism and formation they are, so to speak, shaped, leveled and smoothed by the hands of carpenters and craftsmen.”
From the time of Father Lawrence Scanlan, who came to Utah more than 130 years ago, who became its first Catholic bishop nearly 120 years ago, and who dedicated this Cathedral exactly 100 years ago, the Holy Spirit has been building up the Church in Utah out of the living stones of generations of faithful and faith-filled Catholics. When Archbishop Joseph Alemany of San Francisco first sent Father Lawrence Scanlan to Utah in 1873, there were 90 Catholics here. Father Scanlan rode on horseback from mining camp to mining camp to visit them. Now there are a quarter of a million Catholics in this diocese. All along the way, this Church’s one foundation has been Jesus Christ her Lord, built on the rock of faith shared by Catholics around the world, united in fidelity under the Vicar of Christ, the Bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter. The cathedra, or chair, of the bishop, gives the cathedral its name, and signifies his role as chief priest, teacher and unifier of the local church.
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” proclaims the Prophet Isaiah, and that has been the story of this beautiful Cathedral of the Madeleine. Think for a moment of the generations of Catholics who have come here to pray for one another and for themselves, to pray for servicemen in danger in two world wars, in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and now at risk in Afghanistan and Iraq. Think also of Catholic families, whose members have been baptized here, received their First Communion and first sacramental absolution here, been confirmed and married here, worshiped here week after week; and finally been commended to eternal life from this church.
We give thanks for the vision and the courage of Bishop Scanlan. He began this exceptional Cathedral when there were probably no more than 3,000 Catholics in all of Utah, fewer than you would find in many a city parish here today. In this Diocese of Salt Lake City parish after parish and mission after mission followed the course of the ancient Catholic Church in so many places: first a house church, then a building used for many purposes, and finally a beautiful sacred space.
We celebrate, and give thanks for, not only the building of this Cathedral 100 years ago, but also the attentive, expert and loving restoration of the Madeleine over 15 years ago. So much dedication and so many skills and talents went into the fashioning of this gracious gift to future generations of Utah Catholics.
From time to time one hears the voices that deplore such lavish beauty in a mere building, and claim that the resources would have been better spent on helping the needy. Even St. John Chrysostom, though, while he urged his people to give alms before giving beautiful ornaments to the church, still advised them to feed the Christ in front of them who is hungry, “then use the means you have left to adorn his table.” Dorothy Day, a holy woman who spent her life serving the poor, nevertheless defended the building of a beautiful church. She said the poor need bread, but they need—and deserve—beauty as well. With joy, then, we can celebrate this lovely Cathedral of the Madeleine as well as the Good Samaritan Program right next door in the rectory, feeding the hungry and ministering to the needy 365 days a year.
On this feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary we continue our earthly pilgrimage of faith together toward the heavenly Jerusalem where Mary reigns as Queen. During this joyful centennial celebration we seek the continued blessing of Mary’s Son on this house of prayer and faith and hope and love, this temple where Christ dwells in our midst and hallows our hearts.
