SPEAKER_01: Not sure if you know the song.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I brought her.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, Joanne, who's here, uh, Frank and Joanne Del Rio went with me on the trip and she saw it and she said, we gotta take it back to the parish.
SPEAKER_00: So she's part of our parish community now.
SPEAKER_00: But we were this morning at an ungodly hour uh standing at the in the tarmac of a very run-down uh shabbly looking airport there in Santiago de Cuba.
SPEAKER_00: And we made it back here to Miami about 1.30 this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: But what we saw really has shaken me to the core.
SPEAKER_00: No electricity, and of course, that was happening before the hurricane, so you can only only imagine how compounded it is now.
SPEAKER_00: No running water to see women and older elderly women and children and men standing in line in a well trying to uh put water into jugs and in even with uh carts to bring water to their homes.
SPEAKER_00: Entire neighborhoods affected and wiped out because of the hurricane.
SPEAKER_00: The streets are lined with broken trees and down branches, fallen power lines, really shattered homes.
SPEAKER_00: Debris is everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna take a while to pick up and clean up the place, but in many areas where it's very lush and green and beautiful, it's just it's just brown and ugly and burned.
SPEAKER_00: Looks in some of the areas as if a bomb had gone off.
SPEAKER_00: But we went there precisely to represent the Archdiocese of Miami and the Order of Malta and Catholic charities to bring down 43,000 pounds of food.
SPEAKER_00: And our main goal was to make sure that that food was unloaded off the plane and into the trucks of the church, and and that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were very happy to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And then from there we went to uh El Cobre, to the sanctuary to pray before our Blessed Mother to help our mission now to see how we can continue to help uh them rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that is is incredible to me when we were standing there, and uh actually I asked the pilot, I said, How many flights have come down from Miami or come down from Miami to help Cuba?
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and he said, I've already done nine trips to Jamaica.
SPEAKER_00: So when the doors opened up and we were standing there uh watching the food being unloaded off of the plane, I said to myself, this is what the gospel looks like.
SPEAKER_00: This is what faith and action looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to tell you, I was very proud of this community because someone leaked that I was going to Cuba, and uh within less than 24 hours, I had$9,000 cash in my hand that I was able to divide in four to the different dioceses to be able to hand to the bishop.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and Frank and Joanne are uh can testify to that, just an incredible outpouring of what this community does and how in just very quick time we're able to respond.
SPEAKER_00: And then we went to at Cobre, as I said, to the shrine of Our Lady of Charity, and it reminded me of a previous trip that I when I had gone to um to uh a different part of Cuba in a different hurricane, but we had gone there to visit the the festation, and I was there visiting with the archbishop.
SPEAKER_00: I was at his I was his secretary at the time and with the archbishop there, and we pulled up to a church that had been decimated.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that was left was the marble floor, just this foundation.
SPEAKER_00: And when we pulled up to the what was the church before, there were people there picking up the debris and sweeping, and there was a lady there, an elderly lady with a broom, and the bishop said, when as he got out of the car, he says to her, My dear, I'm so sorry, your church is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to console her.
SPEAKER_00: She reprimanded him.
SPEAKER_00: She stopped sweeping, she said, Oh no, bishop, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_00: We are the church.
SPEAKER_00: The body of Christ cannot be blown away.
SPEAKER_00: I never forgot that.
SPEAKER_00: Her words preach the gospel better than any homily could ever.
SPEAKER_00: Because that, my friends, is exactly what we celebrate today.
SPEAKER_00: Today the church celebrates the solemnity of the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the mother church of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And as I mentioned at the beginning of Mass, that is the Pope's Cathedral.
SPEAKER_00: You see it today, it's not really about a building in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, St.
SPEAKER_00: John Lateran is the Pope's Cathedral.
SPEAKER_00: It's magnificent, it's ancient, it's holy.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you go to St.
SPEAKER_00: John Lateran, the baptismal font where Constantine was baptized is still there.
SPEAKER_00: But today's feast reminds us that we are the living stones, the dwelling place of God.
SPEAKER_00: The church is not just marble and mortar.
SPEAKER_00: The church is men and women who are sweeping the foundation when the roof is gone.
SPEAKER_00: The church is volunteers in action trying to bring food to those who are hungry.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the young people who are refusing to give up hope.
SPEAKER_00: The church is Christ very much alive in his people, even when everything else has been taken away, even freedom.
unknown: St.
SPEAKER_00: John Lateran itself, the church has been through earthquakes, fires, wars, scandals, betrayals, and yes, and yet there it is.
SPEAKER_00: You go to Rome, it's one of the papal basilicas.
SPEAKER_00: But her foundation isn't made of stone.
SPEAKER_00: Her foundation is Jesus Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: The Basilica in Rome has been rebuilt many times, but so have we.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us here, every single one of us, is a work in progress.
SPEAKER_00: We still have a lot of work to do.
SPEAKER_00: We, our temple, as the second reading was talking about, we, this our the temple of the Holy Spirit, is always in constant renewal and in need of repair.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, you know that there are some cracks in our walls and some broken beams in our hearts, some corners of our souls that need attention.
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the church has cracks too.
SPEAKER_00: The point is not perfection, the point is that we are constantly renewing ourselves and seeking conversion.
SPEAKER_00: And conversion is what we desperately need right now.
SPEAKER_00: Our world is in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: The constant division and bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: We've grown too comfortable living in the ruins.
SPEAKER_00: We've learned to live among the rubble and call it normal.
SPEAKER_00: We scroll through social media finding some sort of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: We argue, we divide, we blame, we are miserable, and we forget that the church isn't them, the church is us.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to complain about what's wrong with the church, but it's harder to admit what's wrong with me.
SPEAKER_00: Where do I need change?
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to point to the bishops or to point to Rome or to Washington, D.C., but it's harder to sweep the foundation of our own souls.
SPEAKER_00: That woman in Cuba that I talked to you about with a broom in her hand and tears in her eyes preached the whole of theology of today's feast.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't waiting for Rome to fix anything.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't even waiting for her diocese to fix anything.
SPEAKER_00: She was rebuilding there with her community.
SPEAKER_00: She knew that faith begins with action.
SPEAKER_00: When the world falls apart, we don't just sit in the rubble and complain.
SPEAKER_00: When the world is falling apart around us, we need to get up.
SPEAKER_00: We need to start sweeping.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the church, what that's what it means to be church.
SPEAKER_00: A collective body helping those who are in need.
SPEAKER_00: Because when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, just maybe, that's what God is asking of us today.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God is teaching us today, to rebuild, to help those in need, not with bricks and mortar, but with mercy, with forgiveness, with action.
SPEAKER_00: To be a people who sweep the foundations of faith in a broken world, to be a testament, a witness that we can be better.
SPEAKER_00: To stop talking about what's gone, to stop talking about what could be, and start building what can still be.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering what the blueprint for rebuilding looks like, St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul in the second reading tells us, he says there's no other foundation than Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Every parish, every priest, every Catholic must come back to that foundation, must understand that realization.
SPEAKER_00: If we build upon him, Jesus Christ becomes a cornerstone of our marriages, of our families, where we work, every decision that we make.
SPEAKER_00: And then when those hurricanes come, and they do come, we will not fall.
SPEAKER_00: We will be strong.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it with my own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: In a country that's been ravaged with communism and stupid ideologies, a country that has no power at all, I still found people who are beautiful and joyful and so full of light.
SPEAKER_00: In a town that has absolutely no running water, people standing in line from a dirty pipe, are people who are still looking for hope.
SPEAKER_00: In a place where church has uh churches have fallen, I saw them standing there trying to rebuild and pick up the debris.
SPEAKER_00: That's a type of world that I want to live in.
SPEAKER_00: No more arguments or miser misery, but witnesses of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so, my friends, I ask you, when people look at you, do they see a church that is alive?
SPEAKER_00: When people look at your home, when they visit your home, do they see a domestic church?
SPEAKER_00: Do they know that Jesus Christ dwells in your home?
SPEAKER_00: When people look at our parish, do they see a community that is welcoming, a community that is growing in the faith, a community that is forgiving?
SPEAKER_00: The walls of St.
SPEAKER_00: John Lateran have been torn down and rebuilt many times.
SPEAKER_00: There's a history there when you go to St.
SPEAKER_00: John Lateran.
SPEAKER_00: It's been built upon basilicas and built upon different other churches, but every generation adds a new stone.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are that generation now.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, what will we add to the beauty of the church?
SPEAKER_00: Will we add beauty or do we add problems?
SPEAKER_00: Do we contribute to the cracks and the leaks?
SPEAKER_00: If you want to rebuild the church, if you want to start with a broom, you need to start with a broom in your hand and do whatever God tells you.
SPEAKER_00: Sweep your corner, love your family, forgive your enemies, help those who are in need, pray without ceasing.
SPEAKER_00: Because when the Son of Man returns, he will not be looking for perfect buildings, he's gonna be looking for faithful hearts, he's gonna be looking for those who gave when there was the most need.
SPEAKER_00: That woman in Cuba got it right.
SPEAKER_00: The roof may fall, the walls may crumble, but the church of Christ, the body of Christ, will always stand strong.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ is always victorious.
SPEAKER_00: And if we rebuild our faith on Him, on Jesus Christ, then like St.
SPEAKER_00: John Latrin, like that little Cuban parish, like the cross itself, we at the end of the day will be victorious because we will rise in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.