In this anniversary year,
we remember and give thanks
for the faith and generosity
of those who have come before us,
and we rededicate ourselves to serve you
with a love like theirs.

The love of Christ impels us
to welcome your word and to celebrate the Eucharist
so that we may bring Christ to those around us
and healing and life to our city and world.

We ask the patron of our church,
Saint John the Baptist,
to help us prepare a perfect people for the Lord.
In his name, we pray.  Amen.

Saint Anne, pray for us.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard, pray for us.
Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, pray for us.

Sacred or holy places are found in every culture and people on earth.  Such places are frequently marked or embellished by permanent structures and symbolic art.

The ancients saw mountains as particularly significant places of encounter with their gods whose power was revealed in dramatic displays of thunder and lightning called theophanies, literally, manifestations of God.

And despite their reality as a nomadic people, the Jews developed a keen sense of the sacred place.  Abraham, the common ancestor of the Jews, met Yahweh at the terebinth of Mamre and erected an altar there (Gn 13:18).  Later, at Bethel, Jacob took the stones of an altar and rested his head on them as pillows.  He dreamed of a ladder between heaven and earth and of angels ascending and descending upon the divine presence (Gn 28:10-22).  "When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he exclaimed, 'Truly, the Lord is in this spot, although I did not know it.’  In solemn wonder he cried out: 'How awesome is this shrine!  This is nothing else than an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!'" (vv. 16-27).  At Sinai, in the desert ― yet another sacred place for Jews ― God made a covenant with the freed Hebrew slaves and formed them over time into his people.

The life-giving waters of the Jordan are sacred to Jew and Christian alike; India’s Ganges River is thought to bring cleansing and rebirth to the devout Hindu.

To these sacred places (mountains, altars, deserts, and water), these portals between God and humankind, I would suggest that we add another ― the upper room.

For us, as Christians, it all began in an upper room.

It was in an upper room in Jerusalem, a city teeming with pilgrims and visitors for the festival, that Jesus of Nazareth gathered a small band of disciples to share the familiar ritual of the Passover Seder, and forever transformed its essence and its meaning.  By identifying it with the passion and death he would endure, in faithfulness to God and out of love for us, he created a new sacrament, the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life . . . and the true spiritual center of this Church of Saint Jean Baptiste.

The apostle Paul narrated what we might call the "tradition of the upper room" when he reminded a fragmented Christian fellowship at Corinth: "For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’" (1 Cor 11:23-25).

It was to the upper room, a place of solace and strength, that the frightened disciples retreated in the wrenching hours following his death.  It was from the upper room that these same men and women emerged in the power of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to begin the preaching task which continues to this day.

The upper room is a place of life and mission for believers.

As we begin this year of Jubilation, celebrating 125 years of life, it is important that we remember that another upper room features prominently in the history of Église Saint Jean Baptiste.  Let me read from an article in the souvenir book produced at the time of the restoration of the church in the late 1990s:

"A mission chapel was opened at 202 East 77th Street.  It was a rented hall above a stable.  From the non-liturgical hoof-beating of the animals below punctuating the silence of the Mass, the rattling of chains almost drowning out the tinkling of the Mass bell, and the fragrance of the incense not quite subduing the stable odors that filtered up through the thin floor, this place of worship was picturesquely called the ‘Crib of Bethlehem.’  But the group of some one hundred worshipers who assembled for the first Mass on February 22, 1882, did not mind such drawbacks.  The faithful came Sunday after Sunday to the stable loft, tracking straw and mud up to the improvised chapel.  On Saturday night, a mop and broom brigade of women invaded the hall to wash the floor and dust the walls, to hang images on the unpainted boards, and to set up the portable altar for Mass.  Other groups, non-Catholic, were renting the hall for services, so that all traces of Catholic worship had to be removed immediately after Mass.  The poverty of the locale did not daunt the ardor of the faithful.  A choir was formed, accompanied by a wheezy harmonium already on the premises."

"The infant congregation had not as yet received official recognition.  Grouping the French Canadians into a parish unit was only a venture, with ecclesiastical approval hinging on the success of it.  They did not have to wait long.  Moved by Father Cazeneuve's favorable report, Cardinal McCloskey, early in the spring of 1882, granted permission to build a church."

Alongside such sacred places as those we have enumerated ― mountains, altars, deserts, water ― perhaps the upper room is unique.  It is a place of divine intimacy (where God and we sit down at table).  It is a place of life (where the promised eternal life which is bestowed on us in baptism is nurtured and deepened).  It is a place of mission (where believers, like the apostles and generations of "Jeanites" before us, move out from these four walls, in the power of the Spirit, to minister to the city and world around us).

In the upper room, this magnificent sanctuary, we offer our prayer of praise and gratitude to God.

Father Anthony Schueller, S.S.S.
Pastor

REMEMBERING THIS SPECIAL YEAR

The Parish Office has available two mementos of our Jubilation Year.  The first is a 6” replica of the magnificent statue of Saint John the Baptist near the baptismal font.  Finely crafted in resin, the statue was custom designed for Saint Jean Baptiste’s anniversary and replicates every detail of the original statue, even to the off-white coloring of the marble.  Cost is only $15.  The second is a sturdy coffee mug emblazoned with the yellow, red, and blue Jubilation! logo.  These are $2 each or three for $5.

Église de Saint Jean Baptiste is a beautifully illustrated book detailing the history and grandeur of Saint Jean's from its construction, through the restoration, to the present.  Hardbound edition ($50), plus $7.50 shipping and handling.  A limited number of softbound editions are available ($30), plus $7.50 shipping and handling.

In 2008, the Archdiocese of New York celebrates its bicentennial.  Our Parish Office also has copies of Empire State Catholics: A History of the Catholic Community in New York State for purchase.  It contains dozens of articles and hundreds of photos related to every facet of the history, presence, and ministry of the Catholic Church in the state ― from Greater New York to the Canadian border and western regions.  Cost is $30, plus $7.50 shipping and handling.  Call 212.288.5082.

Consecration of the Church