The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
This weekend, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, commonly known as St. John Lateran. Although St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican is more well known among Catholics around the world, it is St. John Lateran that serves as Rome’s cathedral.
St. John Lateran enjoys the distinction of having a feast celebrated around the world, even when it falls on a Sunday, since it is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. As such, the basilica is an important visible symbol of the place that the Bishop of Rome holds in the universal Church. This is rooted in Jesus’ naming of St. Peter as the leader of the Church, as Scripture records (Mt 16:18), and of Peter eventually settling in Rome and dying as a martyr there.
The first reading, from Ezekiel, speaks of the temple in Jerusalem, and of a spring that flows from the southern side of the temple. Each reference has a lesson.
At the time of Ezekiel, and throughout the history of God’s people, the devout regarded the Jerusalem temple as God’s earthly dwelling. The land was arid. Water was precious because it was so scarce and was also so vital to life. So, a spring was a blessed sight.
In this reading, the temple, God’s dwelling place, overflows with water. So great was the flow that the water poured across a great distance to the Dead Sea itself. Reaching the Dead Sea, the temple’s water brought life to a body of salt water in which no living creature could survive.
St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians provides the second reading. In this reading, Paul says that each Christian is a living temple, a human repository of God’s holy presence. Therefore, each person is holy.
For the last reading, the Church turns to St. John’s Gospel. It is one of the most familiar readings in the New Testament. The story is about the Lord’s arrival in the Jerusalem temple and finding men selling cattle, sheep and pigeons. As is well-known, Jesus drove these merchants away.
While it is intriguing to divert into discussions about the Lord’s temper, realizing that indeed Jesus was a human with human emotions, this passage declares the divine lordship of Christ. Jesus expressly refers to God as “Father” (Jn 2:16).
The Temple belonged to God. It was God’s house. Jesus showed dominion over this house by turning the merchants out. It is easy to capitalize on those merchants who used religious devotion as an opportunity for their own financial gain. But the principal lesson is that Jesus is God and that the Temple was sacred as the place of God’s repose among humans.
Jesus is the true temple, the true repository of God among humans. Jesus rose from the dead. He lives forever.
Reflection
St. John’s Gospel clearly teaches both that Jesus was a human living among humans and that he was also God. This fundamental point about Jesus further reveals that God was and is visible and active in human society.
God is the source of life and that strength that brings peace, joy and hope even in deadly conditions such as the Dead Sea. God’s life-giving power always prevails.
The faithful Christian, re-born in the water of baptism, possesses this life of God given by the Holy Spirit through the redemption of Christ. It assures us that eternal death will never come for us.
Jesus was visible to people 2,000 years ago. He still is visible. He still speaks. He still proclaims the glory of God. He still nourishes us through the Eucharist. He still forgives us and still comforts the distressed. He lives, acts and speaks through the Church, gathered around Peter, whose current successor, the 267th according to history, is Pope Leo XIV, who worships, presides and teaches in the Lateran Basilica. †