"Every community has to take the utmost care of their own sacred buildings which constitute a precious religious and historical patrimony." These words were spoken yesterday by the Pope. Before praying the Angelus, he referred to the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica "chief of all the churches of the Urbe (city) and the Orbe (world)," the first basilica to be built after the Edict of Constantine was proclaimed in 313. "The temple of bricks is a symbol of the living Church, the Christian community," said the Holy Father. The beauty and the harmony of the Churches, destined to render praise to God, invites even us humans, with our limitations and sins, to convert ourselves in order to form a ‘cosmos’, a well-ordered construction, in close communion with Jesus, who is the true Saint of Saints. In the Eucharistic liturgy, "the Church of living stones is edified in truth and charity, and becomes interiorly shaped by the Holy Spirit. If it lives in sincere and fraternal unity, thus becomes a spiritual sacrifice that is pleasing to God." If "God wishes to build in the world a spiritual temple, a community that adores him in spirit and in truth," then yesterday’s occasion "also reminds us of the importance of the material edifices in which communities gather to celebrate the praises of God."
