The last three months of the year are my favorite. The feasts of four saints whom I love most are in October: two women and two men.
In December, comes Christmas- the most tender time of the year. Then there are also the feasts of six saints towards whom I have special veneration to. Sandwiched between these two months is the month of November with most profound celebrations- other than the usual celebration of individual saints. Since it is the last month of the liturgical year is it holding in it such special celebrations.
All Saints' Day, Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, the Feasts of the Dedication of the Basilicas of John Lateran, Peter, and Paul, and Christ the King of the Universe: are celebrations that are very different from the all others.
To be frank, all these are very related celebrations to one another. In other words, one could say that all of the above are different aspects of the same celebration.
The Lateran Basilica is the first church to be built in the history of Christianity. It was a manor house and land that Emperor Constantine had come to own. Originally the property of the Laterani family. The palace and estate were seized and confiscated by Emperor Nero on the accusation that the Sextius Lateranus had plotted to assassinate Nero. Later, it belonged to Emperor Maxentius' sister Fausta. When Constantine became emperor, he married Fausta and received the above-mentioned property as a dowry. That property he donated to the then Pope Miltiades in 322 as a gift to be converted to a church. Thus, the Lateran Basilica, named after the Holy Savior, had become a Church in the 9th year after Christianity was declared an official religion of the Roman Empire in 313. It took two years for the Pope to convert it into a magnificent Basilica. In the year 324, Pope Sylvester I consecrated the basilica. Thus, the Lateran Basilica became the mother-church of all the Christian churches in the world. The official cathedral of the Bishop of Rome - or the Pope.
The church or house of God is something that has many layers of meanings. Over the past few centuries, the term "church" has come to denote every physical church, the worshiping community and the people of God at large. When Jesus was clensing the temple of Jerusalem, in answer to those who questioned his authority he said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The author of the Gospel immediately interprets that he said this about the temple that is his own body. Then, in addition to the earlier mentioned meanings, the "Church" becomes the body of Christ itself - the house of God. When viewed in this way, every believer becomes the house of God in the specific sense, and every human being becomes the house of God in the generic sense. This world and the Earth become the house of God in total!
