(After the gospel) The roots of the first real Catholic congregation can be traced to about 1805 when the small Catholic community of Louisville was served by regular priestly visits from Father Stephen Badin, the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. Badin and other clerics came up from “the Kentucky Holy Land” [our part of the woods] to minister to that primal congregation that was to become the Cathedral of the Assumption.

When the seat of the Bardstown diocese was transferred to Louisville in 1841, St. Louis became the new cathedral, and Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget took up his residence next door. Perhaps his last public act was his blessing of the cornerstone for a new structure, today’s Cathedral of the Assumption, on August 15, 1849. Because that was the Feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption, that name was affixed to the Cathedral that had been known under the patronage of Saint Louis.

As our gospel reminds us, God is ever working in unexpected ways. Jesus seeing Zacchaeus up in a sycamore tree, tells him to “come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” For a moment I was tempted to think Jesus favored persons short in stature! Jesus is ever calling each of us as members of a community or a family to be living temples of his Holy Spirit so let us be grateful for this day.

1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30; Luke 19:1-10