Chapel Blessing and Altar Dedication: Bishop Reflects on Connections to Christ the Teacher

Here is the text of the homily for the Mass with Blessing of the Christ the Teacher Chapel and Dedication of the Altar, celebrated on July 19, 2013, reprinted with permission of Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. We thank Bishop Rhoades for the great gift of his presence and support during a wonderful time of grace for the whole ACE community.

“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!” These words of psalm 84, our responsorial psalm today, express our prayer today as we celebrate the blessing of this beautiful chapel and the dedication of this altar. This Chapel becomes a sacred place today, a place of worship and prayer, where the lord indeed will dwell. His presence in the tabernacle makes this chapel truly the dwelling place of the Lord.

The most important part of this ceremony is the dedication of the altar. The altar is a sign of Christ. It is the focal point of every Catholic church and chapel because, at the altar, the memorial of the Lord is celebrated and, from it, Christ’s Body and Blood is given to the people.

The altar is both a table of sacrifice and a table of the paschal banquet. It is a table of sacrifice since on it the sacrifice of Jesus, His oblation on the cross, is perpetuated and made present. We heard in our first reading about Joshua building an altar to the lord on Mount Ebal. On that altar, the people of Israel offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. In the Old Testament rites, sacrifices of animals and crops were offered to God for the expiation of sins, for purposes of atonement, as well as thanksgiving and praise. In the new covenant, Christ is the offering, the sacrifice. He is also the priest, the Mediator who offers Himself in the perfect act of love on the cross for our salvation. The Holy Eucharist, offered on the altars of our churches, makes present the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and applies its fruits for us today. Every time the community will gather at this altar for the Eucharist, the community unites itself to Christ’s sacrifice. We offer our praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, indeed our entire lives, to the Lord, uniting ourselves with Christ and His offering. Here the ACE community will be united with Christ and His sacrifice through the great sacrament of the Eucharist.

The altar is also a banquet table as well since here God’s children receive as spiritual food the Body and Blood of Christ. As Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians, the bread we break is a participation (a communion) in the Body of Christ and the cup we drink is a participation (a communion) in the Blood of Christ. In The Eucharist, we become one Body in Christ. The Eucharist makes and builds the Church, Including the ACE community that will gather here in this chapel for Holy Mass.

In the Gospel today, we heard part of that profound dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well. They are talking about the divine worship and where it takes place. Our Lord makes it clear that the most important thing about worship, true worship, is that it be done in Spirit and truth. With the blessing of this chapel, we recognize that it is not just a gathering place. Rather, it signifies and makes visible the Church living in this place, the Christian community of the Alliance for Catholic Education, the members of which are called to be built into a spiritual house and to be temples of the living God. We are to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, united to Christ, the spiritual temple from whom living waters flow.

Given the mission of ACE, it is most appropriate that this chapel bears the title “Christ the Teacher.” We recall that the people who heard Jesus teach were astonished at his teaching because he spokes with such authority, unlike the scribes. The authority was constituted especially by the power of the truth contained in Christ’s preaching, the source of the authority being God himself. Jesus himself said: “My teaching is not my own, but is from the one who sent me.” (John 7:16) He was the Teacher of the truth which is God, he bore witness to thus truth unto the end. We recall Jesus’ reply to Pontius Pilate during the passion: “I have come to bear witness to the truth.” His teaching manifests to humanity the eternal Wisdom of God. ACE serves this truth as do our Catholic schools. We look to Christ as the teacher of eternal truth about God, humanity, and the world.

Let us also be reminded that in Christ the Teacher, there is a profound conformity between his deeds and his teaching. Jesus not only taught that love is the supreme commandment, be he himself fulfilled it in the most perfect manner. The Eucharist sacrifice celebrated in this chapel reminds us of this. In the testimony of Jesus, divine truth and divine love are united. In our Catholic schools too, there must be profound conformity between what we teach and what we do, how we act.

In this chapel, for many years to come, may God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be worshiped in spirit and in truth! In the chapel dedicated to Christ the Teacher, may all who pray here learn from Him the wisdom and love of God! May this Chapel be the heart, the center, of the ACE building, since it is here that the Lord will dwell and, from here, His graces will abound and be poured forth upon the ACE community!