@ the Pope's Cathedral

Friday January 23, 2015 

By Deacon John Christianson

As we left the hotel this morning at 8 am to make our way to the Lateran Basilica, there was a overcast, but no rain fell. We entered the Basilica and as you would expect from all Basilicas in Rome, especially the Arch-basilica of Rome, the space inside was overwhelming. Most of the older Churches and Basilicas in Rome do not have pews so this extenuates the sense of their enormity. I will not include a description of the Basilica in all its parts or a history, but  I will share some of the features that caught the eye of my mind. Looking from the entrance, the balduccino seemed to be perfectly proportionate to the whole Church which also denotes the proportionality of the sanctuary to the rest of the Basilica. On top of the balduccino are two figures who have Golden heads. Inside the Golden heads are the skulls of Saints Peter and Paul. Having these two Saints and some of their remains above the altar where the Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection is celebrated, reminds us that as the Apostles were sent out by Christ, we too are called to evangelize the world in the context of the Eucharist. 

We celebrated Mass at the Altar of Pope John XXIII. Fr. Carl elected to celebrate the Mass as we would on November 9th (the Feast), but chose to have the readings from the day. This helped Deacon Grant Lacey, because he volunteered to preach the day before, preparing for the readings for the day versus for the feast. In his homily, Deacon Lacey related the unsureness of our futures in our given ministries to the apostles, who did not know what their ministries and lives would entail. These are very sobering words to a group of guys who are so excited to begin their ministries that the talk among us in Rome is about chalices and vestments that have been bought or will be bought in the coming months. 

We returned to the hotel at a quarter to noon to hear Fr. Terence Lino Idraku AJ speak about his order and its ministry in around the world. Unlike the USA, lunch or pranzo is not served until at least one o'clock in Italy. Yes, it takes a little while to get use to the late start time. There are always 3 to 4 seminarians in line waiting for the doors to open everyday. I guess that some of us have not acclimated to the Italian schedule yet. Fr. Lino, an Ugandan priest who belongs to the institute of the Apostles of Jesus, said that some people can become somewhat offended at their name, because they ask, are not all people called to be the apostles of Jesus? He told us that he responds with, of course all people are called to be the apostles of Jesus. We didn't choose this name to claim that we are the only ones called, we chose this name as an invitation for all to become like us, the apostles of Jesus .