Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Dedication of our Parish Church which was dedicated on this day in the year 2000. This community transcends this reality because we began having Mass in our the gym of our parish school starting in 1990, our former church still stands in downtown Johnson City which was dedicated in 1931, there was a white church building before it, Mass was held in a home overlooking market street starting in 1906, and Mass was celebrated in this city even prior to that.
A church is not a building which is withdrawn from the ordinary. It takes that which is ordinary and dedicates it unto God. When Jesus drove the money-changers out of the Temple, He was not making a statement against capitalism. Rather, He was saying this place is not for that use: that it has been dedicated to something else. Not just for its own sake is a church building dedicated, an altar consecrated, a person baptised: no, we do all of this for a sacred purpose.
Our church is no mere museum for sacred objects, our altar no mere table for a special meal. No: this is the place to praise, to bless and to preach; to sacrifice, intercede and thank; to honour, to consecrate and to commune; to christen, to absolve and to commission. Here the most extraordinary things occur: babies are changed into children of God; bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood; couples into spouses; singles into priests and religious; sinners into saints.
May this sacred space continue to transform the lives of all who enter. The Catholic Church here in Johnson City has a strong history and will have a strong future if we allow God to be the one who is found as at work within us. The ordinary will be taken and will continue to be transformed in the presence of God.
