St John Lateran is an immense cathedral, a magnificent place, really, commissioned by the Emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century. Technically it still is the cathedral for the Diocese of Rome. It was there that the Councils met, treaties were made, kings were crowned, and the course not only of Christianity but much of the western civilisation was given shape. Because of its age and rich history, St John Lateran is still called by historians the “Mother of Christian Churches”. But more than a historical curiosity, it is still a Church. People today are doing there, no doubt right this very minute, just what their ancestors did there 1,700 years ago. They are going there to worship, to celebrate the sacraments, to pray.

For 1,700 years in that same spot, human beings have been celebrating love, confronting sin, and building community among themselves and between themselves and God. To put it all in one word, for seventeen centuries, people have judged that church to be a holy place.

It is a powerful thing, that sense of sacredness, and it is not at all a sort of shapeless, vaguely spiritual thing but rather is very much tied to the real world, the physical world, where real people live. That sacredness is given shape and weight and place. It is experienced in terms of sight and sound and touch.

There is a very Christian word that speaks directly to that sense of sacredness. It is the word “incarnation”, and it means to take on flesh and blood, to take on weight and shape and place, to give real form to the presence of God in the midst of his people. Holiness in the world

is not of our making, it is God’s. Holiness is found where God has chosen to be.

That is equally true of every place in which God has chosen to be. It is true of St John Lateran; it is true of this place here. But more than that, it is true of every home, every gathering place. Simply enough, it is true of any place faithful people are to be found. God has taken up residence with and within his people. By his choice, we are the dwelling place of the Father, and it is our flesh and blood that the incarnation is given shape, and it is to one another, wherever we gather, that we first owe our sense of sacredness.

We should be very much aware that the presence of God is no less inescapable than is the presence of his creation, and that we move in the company of holiness when we move in the company of his faithful people.