Fr. Koch: The Church stands as a witness to the testimony of faith
November 7, 2025 at 2:29 p.m.
Father Koch’s Gospel Reflection for November 9, 2025 The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Some will say that the Church is not about buildings but about people and they then shun the splendor of historic church architecture. As Jesus formed a community of believers the Church quickly adopted the language of Greek society, using the term ekklesia for itself and the work of the assembly being the leitourgia. The early Church endured persecution and remained largely on the fringes until the Emperor Constantine granted them legal status. The Basilica of St. John Lateran stands on the site of the first public church in Rome, a sign that the martyrdom of the prior generations was indeed the “seed of the Church” as Tertullian foresaw.
While the word “Catholic” means universal and we tend to think of the Church in very broad terms, our focus is really on the church at its micro level. Each one of us is a member of a domestic church, a family, even if it is only you living in a home alone. It is at home that we spend time in prayer, sacred reading, and nurturing our faith and the faith of those with whom we live and have care. Many domestic churches come together and form a parish, where we are nurtured by the sacraments, specifically the Mass, and we share more fully in the community of believers. Here we exercise our baptismal commitment and from here we both return to the domestic church strengthened in faith, and also take our faith into the marketplace, living in the world.
Parishes together form a broader sense of the Church, gathered around the bishop, forming a diocese. The chair of the bishop is in the cathedral (from the Latin for chair) and it is from here where he most definitively exercises his teaching authority. When we are gathered around our Bishop in his Cathedral, we get a foretaste of the assembly of all nations at the end of time, gathered around the throne of the Lamb. The Bishop, a successor to the apostles, stands in communion with our chief shepherd, successor to St. Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
In a sense, then, as we observe this feast for the Cathedral of Rome, we are re-signifying our connection with the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XIV.
Due to the ecumenical nature of the work of the papacy, we often forget that the pope is a bishop who has governance of a diocese as well as the pastoral and juridical care of the universal Church. Our Bishop, united in communion with the Bishop of Rome, is the assurance that we are in communion with the universal Church.
This weekend then, we celebrate the continuity of the Church with the mission and ministry of the very apostles of Jesus who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We stand with the communion of the saints celebrating the Paschal Mystery that brings our salvation and draws us into eternal life.
Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children have and continue to suffer the cruelty of torture and death at the hands of unbelievers, as a testimony to our faith. It is their blood, first realized in the witness of the deacon Stephen, as the first martyr in the church, that is the seed of the church yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
We are not, then, so much celebrating the dedication of a building, no matter how beautiful it might be, but we celebrate what the building itself represents. It is a sacred space, where the sacraments are confected and the work of the Church celebrating the Pascal Mystery happens each day.
The smallest and most remote and humble chapel in the world is no less majestic and beautiful than the 18th century Romanesque masterpiece that is the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in the city of Rome.
We pray that the work of the church will continue to inspire, nurture, and lead to salvation, the souls of all men and women throughout the world. Today, in union with the whole church, we express our unity with Pope Leo XIV and the Holy Roman Catholic Church, united as one Body in Christ.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.
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Father Koch’s Gospel Reflection for November 9, 2025 The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Some will say that the Church is not about buildings but about people and they then shun the splendor of historic church architecture. As Jesus formed a community of believers the Church quickly adopted the language of Greek society, using the term ekklesia for itself and the work of the assembly being the leitourgia. The early Church endured persecution and remained largely on the fringes until the Emperor Constantine granted them legal status. The Basilica of St. John Lateran stands on the site of the first public church in Rome, a sign that the martyrdom of the prior generations was indeed the “seed of the Church” as Tertullian foresaw.
While the word “Catholic” means universal and we tend to think of the Church in very broad terms, our focus is really on the church at its micro level. Each one of us is a member of a domestic church, a family, even if it is only you living in a home alone. It is at home that we spend time in prayer, sacred reading, and nurturing our faith and the faith of those with whom we live and have care. Many domestic churches come together and form a parish, where we are nurtured by the sacraments, specifically the Mass, and we share more fully in the community of believers. Here we exercise our baptismal commitment and from here we both return to the domestic church strengthened in faith, and also take our faith into the marketplace, living in the world.
Parishes together form a broader sense of the Church, gathered around the bishop, forming a diocese. The chair of the bishop is in the cathedral (from the Latin for chair) and it is from here where he most definitively exercises his teaching authority. When we are gathered around our Bishop in his Cathedral, we get a foretaste of the assembly of all nations at the end of time, gathered around the throne of the Lamb. The Bishop, a successor to the apostles, stands in communion with our chief shepherd, successor to St. Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
In a sense, then, as we observe this feast for the Cathedral of Rome, we are re-signifying our connection with the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XIV.
Due to the ecumenical nature of the work of the papacy, we often forget that the pope is a bishop who has governance of a diocese as well as the pastoral and juridical care of the universal Church. Our Bishop, united in communion with the Bishop of Rome, is the assurance that we are in communion with the universal Church.
This weekend then, we celebrate the continuity of the Church with the mission and ministry of the very apostles of Jesus who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We stand with the communion of the saints celebrating the Paschal Mystery that brings our salvation and draws us into eternal life.
Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children have and continue to suffer the cruelty of torture and death at the hands of unbelievers, as a testimony to our faith. It is their blood, first realized in the witness of the deacon Stephen, as the first martyr in the church, that is the seed of the church yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
We are not, then, so much celebrating the dedication of a building, no matter how beautiful it might be, but we celebrate what the building itself represents. It is a sacred space, where the sacraments are confected and the work of the Church celebrating the Pascal Mystery happens each day.
The smallest and most remote and humble chapel in the world is no less majestic and beautiful than the 18th century Romanesque masterpiece that is the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in the city of Rome.
We pray that the work of the church will continue to inspire, nurture, and lead to salvation, the souls of all men and women throughout the world. Today, in union with the whole church, we express our unity with Pope Leo XIV and the Holy Roman Catholic Church, united as one Body in Christ.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.