8/5/2014 – Tuesday of 18th week in Ordinary Time – the dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major – Psalm 102

         Our psalm declares: “The Lord will build up Zion again, and appear in all his glory.”   Zion is word that refers to Jerusalem, the beloved holy city of the Jewish nation, the center of the promised land that God gave to them.  We have a lot of holy places in our faith, don’t we?  The parish church where we worship is a very holy place for us.  Each diocese has a cathedral – our beautiful cathedral of St Peter the Apostle in Jackson just recently received a very extensive renovation.    During our Church’s liturgical year, we honor the dedication of the four great basilicas of Rome, the mother churches of all of Christianity: St Mary Major, St Peter, St Paul, and St John Lateran. 

          Today we honor the dedication of St Mary Major.  When I went to Rome in December of 2010, it was Cardinal Bernhard Law, who was originally ordained as a priest for our diocese, who was the rector of St Mary Major. Legend has it the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to Pope Liberius and two faithful Roman Christians, asking that a church be built in her honor on the site where snow would fall on the night of August 4-5 in the year 358.  Pope Liberius traced the outlines of the church in the snow and the first basilica was built on that site.  The basilica was completed about a century later by Pope Sixtus III after the Council of Ephesus in 431 in which Mary was declared to be the Theotokos -  Mother of God.  St Mary Major is also significant because it was the first Marian shrine to be built in Rome.  Today, we not only celebrate the Basilica of St Mary Major and honor our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, but also celebrate all those holy places that are a part of our lives of faith.