Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938, when the Nazis fomented a massive campaign of destruction against the German Jewish communities. One hundred and ninety one synagogues were burned and seventy five hundred shops owned by Jews were destroyed.
Today is also the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Today is also the feast of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Pope’s cathedral, which has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. It is an impressive building with a separate Baptistry.
But what I most recall from my February 2013 visit is the sculpture of St. Francis of Assisi and his companions facing the church, across the plaza.
According to the legend, Francis had come to the Lateran to ask the pope to approve his group of brothers. The pope had a dream that the basilica of St. John Lateran was falling down and that a poor man saved it. He later recognized that man as Francis.
Francis came in homage to the Church, both the building and the institution, but his presence was a challenge to the power and the glory of the medieval church.
Francis sought a poor church, a church of the poor, a church that followed the Poor Man of Nazareth.
Such a church will identify with the poor – not merely serve them,
Such a church will break down walls.
Such a church will protest all the Kristallnachts that oppress others.
Such a church will love and follow the Lord who accompanied His people.