"The Cathedral as Sacrament "

This is an only just published account of an address given five years ago, with a truly lovely, and thought provoking encomium of the Cathedral, both as a building and as a community, reflecting on the cathedral's importance to the local Church, by the rector of Mission San Juan Capistrano, at a benefit for the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

The Very Reverend Arthur Holquin begins with a fine description of the essence of Catholicism, inspired by an encounter with a Mormon missionary twosome: what distinguishes Catholicism is "our sacramental perspective on life."
Yes.

He goes on to enumerate the ways in which the catheral church itself is a sacrament, as it:

...[strives to be a place] of mercy and compassion...

The authenticity and true splendor of cathedral worship must be gauged by the splendor of its care for those who live on the margins of society...

Cathedral churches are a sacrament of justice in the quality and effectiveness in which God’s holy word,.... From the cathedra – the bishop’s chair – the good news of God’s liberating love is proclaimed – bringing “good news to the afflicted... liberty to captives, sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free…” In the midst of a world enslaved by the lie of self sufficiency, a culture of death that views the ultimate value of life from the perspective of productivity and expediency,... there is a hunger to hear the liberating word of God proclaiming what we need to hear rather than what we may want to hear....
Cathedral churches are a sacrament and sign of God’s presence that comes to us in beauty. The language of sacrament is the language of sign and symbol. Words fail when we try to capture the meaning of life’s deepest realities....

The language of worship is so often the powerful and engaging presence of the beautiful in our lives. For centuries we Catholics have wisely shaped our liturgical celebrations and particularly those in our cathedral churches in beauty – the beauty of soaring architecture, of sacred imagery that spans the centuries, the beauty of the poetic word, and most especially the power and beauty of music....

a cathedral church is called to be a sacrament of hospitality in the midst of the city. ...in the Cathedral church all should be able to find a place where they are greeted with dignity that befits the children of God.

Of course, the beauty of which Rev. Holquin speaks, no less than the out-reach, does require effort and expenditure.
And there is always someone bound to ask, could not this ointment have been sold....?