Claiming Land for Christ: On the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul

The Catholic Church does something that sounds rather odd on November 18. On that date, the universal Church invites us to celebrate the dedication of the Churches of Saints Peter and Paul in Rome, which occurred in the fourth century.

We do something similar on August 5, September 13, and November 9.¹ Of the hundreds of thousands of Catholic churches in the world today, why should we include a commemoration of these specific buildings in our liturgical calendar? More fundamentally, since Jesus Christ came to save souls,² not build buildings, why should we take the time to remember church buildings at all?

Several years ago, I heard a priest give a homily about one of these four dates. He described a conversation he had had with a missionary priest who had served in an area which had not yet been evangelized. When asked what he found different about being a missionary priest, as compared to being a priest in, say, America, he answered, “Exorcisms.” Performing exorcisms was a significant part of his ministry, something that my parish priest pointed out was not a typical part of his pastoral duties. He then suggested that this had something to do with the fact that one could hardly drive a mile or two in any direction in our community without passing a Catholic church. We are surrounded by tabernacles, he pointed out to us, and each of those churches represents land that has been conquered for Jesus Christ.

It’s easy for faithful Christians to think of their churches in utilitarian terms, as places we go to get the sacraments (or fellowship or service projects or spiritual education) that we want. But that’s not how we should think about places of worship.

In the Old Testament, the Jews established a place to worship God, even when they were nomads. They built a Tent of Meeting³ when traveling through the desert, built a Temple,⁴ then a second Temple,⁵ and then a third Temple⁶ when the preceding ones had been destroyed. The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem around the year 70 may have changed Jewish worship, but it did not change God’s desire to be worshiped by us or remove the human need for a physical place to worship God.

The early Christians gathered to worship God, first in the Temple and in private homes,⁷ then in Roman buildings converted to Catholic use, and then in churches built for that purpose. You can see this pattern reversed in countries where the practice of the faith becomes prohibited, such as the house churches found in countries today where the Church is persecuted.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to visionaries such as Saint Juan Diego, Saint Bernadette, and the three children of Fatima, she told them to pray, particularly to pray the rosary. She also generally addressed a particular problem of that time and place, such as the need to pray for Russia’s conversion. But in approved apparitions of the Blessed Mother, she also consistently asked for a church to be built on the site where the vision occurred. This was not for the purpose of establishing a lucrative gift shop. This was so that the Son of God would be worshipped on that spot. One more piece of land would be claimed for Christ.

The ancient practice of asking a priest to bless your home is not done merely for the sake of defending your family from evil spirits. A home that is blessed expands the reign of Christ, so that He will be worshipped not just spiritually, but geographically, by more and more of His followers.

We can also see the importance of claiming land for Christ when we think about physical places where something evil, rather than good, is present.

There are many reasons to pray for an end to abortion outside an abortion facility. For example, former employees of abortion facilities tell us that the number of women who don’t show up for their abortion procedures goes up significantly—as much as 70%—when someone is praying outside. This happens even when the praying person doesn’t speak to the pregnant women entering the building. As Christians, we can attribute that to God’s ability to move hearts in ways unknown to us. But it is also true that many abortion-minded women are looking for a reason to not go through with their abortions. The sight of someone praying outside gives them the reason they need to turn around and think again about that life-altering choice.

But when we pray outside an abortion facility, we are not only asking God to reclaim the hearts of the clinic workers and the patients. We are asking Him to reclaim that physical territory where abortions are being performed. We are asking Him to find a way to remake that building so that it will serve life, not death, that it will help women bring their children into this world, not end their children’s lives. More than one abortion facility has been closed and reopened for this better purpose, as the result of many prayers.

Each time we celebrate the dedication of these famous churches in the liturgical calendar, it reminds us of the antiquity and universality of our Church. But it also reminds us that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”⁸ All of that fulness—the land, the seas, the animals, the people, and the buildings we build—everything belongs to God, and we can claim that fulness and dedicate it back to Him this day and every day.

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