The Dedication of St. James Cathedral
December 21, 2015

     It’s hard to believe that it is now 21 years since we re-dedicated this Cathedral following an extensive renovation and restoration.  Archbishop Thomas Murphy presided at the Mass of Dedication.  He anointed and consecrated the altar with the oil of Chrism, and then I joined him in anointing the walls at each of the entrances.  It was a great day in the history of a great cathedral, and one I will certainly never forget!

     The readings we just heard were the readings that were proclaimed at that Mass of Dedication.  They were fitting then; they are just a fitting now.

     The reading from Isaiah painted a grand picture of people from the ends of the earth joyfully making their way up to God’s house, God’s holy mountain, there to pray and to offer sacrifice, to make the house of God’ a house for everyone: “a house of prayer for all peoples,” as Isaiah put it.

     St. James has long been just such a place.  This Cathedral is God’s house and it is our house, too – our parish church where a wonderfully diverse community of people gathers day after day to pray and offer sacrifice.  But, as you know, this is far more that a parish church: St. James is the mother church for a large and far-flung Archdiocese that comes together here with the archbishop for many important celebrations each year: the Chrism Mass, the Mass for the Ordination of priests, the catechumenal rites, colorful multicultural celebrations, and on and on it goes!

     And the cathedral is also the city’s church: a beloved place where Seattle – people of many different faith traditions and some who claim no faith at all - come together to pray, to remember, to celebrate, to mourn.  It is no exaggeration to say that this house of God on this holy hilltop has fulfilled and more than fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy by becoming “a house of prayer for all peoples”!

     The reading from the Second Letter of St. Peter was also read on the feast of our dedication back in 1994.  At that time, it made people aware of something that was brand new in the cathedral and that by now we have come to take for granted – I’m speaking of the beautiful baptistery in which hundreds of adults and children have now been baptized.  In the floor around the baptistery are inscribed words from the First Letter of Peter, words you have come to know well: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people that you may declare the wonderful deeds of God who called you out of darkness into marvelous light.”

     For me, those words are a powerful commentary on the meaning of baptism and a reminder that the people who gather in this beautiful cathedral are far more important than the cathedral itself.  The cathedral is made of brick, stone, wood, marble, bronze, and glass.  But, beautiful as it is, it is only a building, only a thing.  It is the people who gather here who are the real temple, the living temple of the living God: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, holy, God’s very own.  It is here through Word and Sacrament that we are shaped and formed into a living temple so that when we leave this place we can go out there – out into our city and out into our world, out to our families and our workplaces, to declare openly and fearlessly “the wonderful deeds of God who called (us) out of darkness into marvelous light.”

     Lastly, there was the reading from Luke’s gospel, the wonderful story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. It might have puzzled the people who came here for the Mass of Dedication that December day in 1994. They probably wouldn’t have expected to hear the story of Jesus encountering and befriending a hated tax collector hiding high in a sycamore tree.  But, my friends, that meeting between Jesus and Zacchaeus is what this place is all about.   This cathedral is a place where that sort of meeting takes place every day.  Sinful people have always encountered Jesus in this place – they have for 108 years now and they will for as long as this cathedral stands.  In this Holy Year of Mercy, I am proud to say that this Cathedral is the place where human sinfulness and divine mercy meet, the place where peoples’ lives are turned around and transformed like Zacchaeus’ was, the place where selfishness becomes generosity, where fraudulence becomes justice, the place where forgiveness is found and love overflows. And, as in the Zacchaeus story, it is the place where Jesus joyfully joins sinners at table and dines with them.

     My friends, as we celebrate one more year in this wonderful Cathedral’s long and wonderful history, may we experience at this Mass what people have always experienced at St. James Cathedral: God’s warm and welcoming presence, the challenge of the gospel, the nourishment of the Eucharist.  And then may we take what we receive in this place to all the people in our lives and to all those places where we live our lives!

     Father Michael G. Ryan