Dedication of the New Church of Our Lady of the Lake, Edwardsburg

Nov. 22, 2014 4:00 p.m.

Readings for the Solemnity of Christ the King

  • “Praised be Jesus Christ!” (Now and forever!)
  • What a blessing it is to be here together for this very special and joyful occasion as we dedicate this newly-renovated Church of Our Lady of the Lake Parish for the glory and honor of God!
  • First of all, I want to welcome our very special and revered special concelebrating priests who are with us:
  • Bishop-elect Robert Prevost----former Prior General of the world-wide Augustinian Community; former Prior Provincial of the Chicago Province; former and frequent visiting priest here at Our Lady of the Lake Parish and St. Mary Parish in Niles----and just recently appointed by our Holy Father Pope Francis to be the Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Chiclayo in northern Peru. Bishop Bob, we congratulate you and thank you for your presence here with us today.
  • The Very Reverend Bernard Scianna, the current Prior Provincial of the Chicago Province of the Augustinian Community----We are so very grateful to you, and to your community, for the ministry of Father Joe McCormick, whom you are so generously sharing with Our Lady of the Lake Parish as their pastor----and we pray that you will continue to share him for many years to come. Father Bernie, thank you for your presence here with us today.
  • Father David Otto, who served here as
    Pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish for 18 years, from 1988 until 2006. Father Dave, thank you for all that you have done in helping to build up this community of faith, and in a special way, for your presence with us today.
  • And of course, to you Father Joe, the pastor of this community of faith, who most importantly over these 8 years of your ministry have been such a good Shepherd, helping to bring your people closer to Christ and encouraging them to actively and joyfully live their faith as members of the Body of Christ. In addition, of course, we thank you, and all those who worked so closely with you over these several years, in planning so thoughtfully and well for this new worship space. Thank you and Congratulations to you on this very happy day.
  • Finally, I want to welcome and thank all those who are here this afternoon---friends and benefactors of Our Lady of the Lake Parish, those who contributed in any way to the building of this beautiful new structure: thank you for all that you have done to make this day possible.
  • But most especially, I welcome and salute all the parishioners of Our Lady of the Lake Parish. This is YOUR day----and we congratulate all of you on this special day.
  • An occasion such as this---the dedication of a new church---is one of the happiest moments in the life of any Parish.
  • Our Lady of Lake, dating back to the early 1920’s when it began as a mission, and over these little more than 30 years since you became a Parish in 1981, has had this experience of building and dedicating new churches on several other occasions.
  • Today, we celebrate this Rite of Dedication of a new Church----one of the most beautiful liturgies in our tradition---because it focuses our attention on the essence of who we are as People of Faith.
  • We construct a church building only for one basic reason: to be the place where “the Church” can gather together to give praise to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and through Him, to give honor and glory to our Loving Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • This liturgy focuses our attention on those basic realities of who we are in relationship with our Loving God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so when we blessed this new building with holy water, we did so only because it “houses” us, those Baptized into Christ, the “holy ones” who are on a Journey of Faith which, one day, when the journey in this life is completed, will lead us, we pray, into the eternal dwelling place of God in Heaven.
  • In a similar way, very shortly we will anoint this new Altar of Sacrifice, where the Sacrifice of our Redemption will be celebrated at this Mass and at every Mass to be celebrated for generations to come. We will anoint this Altar with Sacred Chrism----because Jesus is “Christos”---“The Christ”----“The Anointed One.” It is through the Sacrifice of His Body and Blood on Calvary, which takes place once again in an unbloody way at every Mass, by which Jesus’ Body and Blood is made Present for us, really and substantially, to be our spiritual Food and Drink in the Holy Eucharist.
  • In turn, we will anoint the four walls with the same Sacred Chrism, because this church building brings together those of us, who are also “the anointed ones” through our Baptism and Confirmation in Jesus, the Christ!
  • This building is so beautiful. The Preface for today’s Mass gives us powerful images of why the church building is so important to us: “You allow us to dedicate to your service places designed for your worship….this work of our hands, this house of prayer….this church is the image on earth of your heavenly city.”
  • As beautiful as this Church building is, my dear sisters and brothers in Christ----as holy as it is---and as we’re doing today, as dedicated as it is for the glory and honor of God---to be the visible, stable presence in this greater community of Edwardsburg of God’s abiding Presence among us----this building pales in comparison to the “beauty” of who we are as God’s Holy People---we who ARE the Church!
  • The Preface for today’s Mass continues: “You have established the Church…founded on the apostles, with Jesus Christ its cornerstone…and continue to build your church with (living) stones, enlivened by the Spirit, and cemented together by love.”
  • That is who we are, dear Family of Faith: we are the living stones---and what gives us life is the Holy Spirit----and what keeps us bound together is the love of Christ and our Love for one another.
  • As the beautiful Prayer of Dedication reminds us, which we will hear very shortly, right after the Litany of the Saints, we, as Church, come together in this Church, for five very important reasons: 1) to have us, and our children, be reborn in the waters of baptism and live as God’s children in this world; 2) to celebrate Christ’s forgiveness of our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation; 3) to gather around this Altar Table to celebrate the memorial of our Redemption and to be fed at the Table, both with Christ’s WORD as well as with His Body and Blood; 4) to offer our prayers of praise, our pleas for help for those in need, and our hope for the furthering of God’s Kingdom among us; and 5) to commend our loved ones to the Lord of Life when their lives in this world come to an end.
  • Today of course we celebrate the Solemn Feast of Christ the King---the final Sunday of this Church Year. The Readings that we’ve heard today are perfect for the Dedication of this new Church because they remind us very graphically that as important as it is for us to “come to Church”---to come here to this Church building---regularly, and faithfully, to strengthen our spiritual lives and deepen our relationship with God----the most important thing we do here is what happens at the end of every Mass, when the Deacon (or the Priest) proclaims: “Go forth---the Mass is ended---Go forth, glorifying the Lord by your lives----Go forth to announce the Gospel to the world. Having been strengthened, nourished, and inspired while we are in this Church, we are called by God to leave here to be Church in the world through our joyful witness, to invite those who have lost faith or “fallen away” to come Home; to share the Gospel with those who have not year heard it; and to put our faith into action through our works of charity and justice.
  • As Jesus so powerfully teaches in today’s Parable about the Last Judgment, at the end of all time, or at the end of our lives---whichever comes first----there will be an accounting, which will be based on how well we saw the presence of Christ Himself in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the imprisoned, the immigrant, the social outcasts, the marginalized, those with differing political opinions than our own---to whomever you meet, and the question will be: did you bring Christ’s love and mercy to them? If so, we will hear those words of great comfort: “Come, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” If not, we will hear words we do not want to hear.
  • That’s why our Church is dedicated and made holy. We come to Church not to stay here, or live here. We come here, to use Pope Francis’ beautiful images, to let this place be a “way station” or a “rest stop”---so that we can be renewed, strengthened, inspired and ready to go forth announcing the Good News to the world.
  • Or to use another image of Pope Francis, we come here to a “Field Hospital,” bringing with us our wounds, our sins, our burdens, our worries---and here, we find comfort, mercy and forgiveness, so that we can go forth, glorifying the Lord in our lives.
  • We need the Church. For those who think that they can get by in this world on their own---who think that they can love Jesus by themselves----they have completely missed the essential point of Jesus’ teaching. As Pope Francis so bluntly says about this: “It is an absurd dichotomy to want to live with Jesus without the Church; to follow Jesus outside the Church; to love Jesus without the Church.”
  • But more than that we need the Church, we must remember that we are the Church. As those who are baptized into Christ and confirmed in the Holy Spirit, we are Disciples of the Lord Himself, on a mission: to build up God’s Kingdom in the world, to help those in our lives and to have them help us through the life of the Church, to accomplish our most important life goal: to get to Heaven.
  • Today, then, as we bless and dedicate this beautiful Church, built for the honor and glory of God, let us take this occasion to renew our baptismal commitment to BE the Church in all that we do---to bring Christ’s Love to all that we meet----and to be able to proclaim, at all times and in all our life circumstances: Praised be Jesus Christ!