One of my favorite places to visit during my year in Rome was St. Peter’s Basilica.  The first time I went to the Basilica, standing outside in the piazza waiting for the Holy Father’s Sunday Angelus address, I felt instantly at home.  Having recently arrived in a different country – my first time in Europe – and surrounded by a language I barely understood, this was the first place that I felt I belonged.  And during all the many times I visited St. Peter’s throughout the year, I never lost that feeling of peaceful belonging.  This place – and the universal Church which it represented to me – was my home.  In a way, it felt as though from all eternity, I was meant to be in this place.   

On June 29, we celebrate the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.  The first reading for the Vigil Mass of this feast recounts the incident when Peter and John, in the early days of the Church, met a crippled man at one of the gates to the Temple.  Peter told the crippled beggar, “I have neither gold nor silver, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk” (Acts 3:6).  Raised by the hand by Peter, the man proceeded to “leap up,” “walking and jumping” into the Temple, “praising God” (cf. Acts 3:8).  Notice carefully the words of St. Peter here: he points, not to himself, but to Jesus Christ. 

We see the greatness of the Church in this action of our first pope and primary Apostle.  The Church does not point to herself; rather, she leads us and all people to Jesus Christ.  This is why the Church is our home: it is here that we encounter everything we were made for in Jesus Christ, who is God Himself.  Despite all the weaknesses and terrible sins of members of the Church and even of her leaders, she exists to lead us, especially through her Sacraments, to a radical encounter, a life-changing relationship with the Lord.  In belonging to the Church, we belong to Him. 

 When I visited St. Peter’s Basilica, I loved praying the Creed in front of Peter’s tomb in the crypt.  Suggested to the Sisters by a priest living in Rome, this practice symbolized our unity in faith with the one, holy, Catholic Church founded on the Apostles.  Praying in this way also emphasized to me my own belonging to the Church founded by Jesus; this Church – not just the Basilica building but the living Body of Christ, the People of God – was my home.  From all eternity, I was meant to be in the heart of His Church.   

When I pray the Creed – at Mass on Sundays and Solemnities or during private prayer – I confess that I believe in all that God has revealed to us about Himself through His Church.  I proclaim that I intend to live my life in faith formed by charity, moving on pilgrimage toward God, in communion with all the faithful.  May those of us who have risen to walk with Christ recognize that we belong to Him not in a vacuum, not in isolation, but as members of His Church.  May we find joy in forever claiming His Church as our home.