Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
November 9
John 2:13-22

Background on the Gospel Reading

The story of the cleansing of the Temple is found in all four Gospels. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus is upset with the deceitful practices of the vendors and expels them for that reason. But in John, Jesus’ authority is contrasted with the authority of the Temple cult and is a criticism of the cult itself.

The story is composed of two parts, Jesus’ action in the Temple and Jesus’ predictions about the Temple’s destruction. The time of year is the sacred feast of Passover. If the many pilgrims to Jerusalem during Passover were to have animals for the sacrificial rituals of the feast, it was necessary to sell cattle in the Temple and to change the unclean Roman money. By denouncing this, Jesus is cutting to the core of the Temple cult.

The story is really about Jesus’ fate, not the Temple’s fate, revealing that Jesus, not the Temple, is the locus of God’s presence on earth. As they often do in John, the Jews misunderstand Jesus’ words. This gives John the chance to explicitly state his point. Although this is the beginning of his ministry, Jesus is already speaking of his coming death and Resurrection.

John intentionally integrates a post-Resurrection perspective into the Gospel narrative. The statement that concludes this passage uses the fact of the Resurrection to prove the point of Jesus’ words. Believers need to remember the words and actions of Jesus and claim them as affirmations of the truths of their faith.

Christians sometimes point to Jesus’ anger in this passage as a way to point out Jesus’ humanity. But this would miss the powerful point of the entire Gospel, that the Word became flesh. The point is not that Jesus’ anger proves he is human. It is that a human being, in his words and actions, can claim the authority of God.
http://www.loyolapress.com

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

“To dedicate or consecrate” a place to God is a ritual that is found in every religion. To “reserve” a place to God is an act of recognizing His glory and honor. When the Emperor Constantine granted full liberty to Christians in 313, they did not spare in order to construct places for the Lord – numerous are the churches constructed at that time. Constantine himself also constructed churches, one of which he was a magnificent basilica on the Caelian Hill in Rome, over the ancient Lateran Palace, which Pope Sylvester I dedicated to Christ the Savior (318 or 324).

A chapel dedicated to Saint John the Baptist was built inside it which served as the baptistry. This moved Pope Sergius III to dedicate it to Saint John the Baptist as well. Lastly, Pope Lucius II also dedicated it to Saint John the Evangelist in the 12th century. Thus, the name of this Papal Basilica is the Basilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran. Christians consider the Basilica to be the mother church of all churches in the world.

The church was destroyed several times in the course of the centuries, and always rebuilt. The final reconstruction took place under the pontificate of Benedict XIII. The church was rededicated in 1724. It was at that time that the feast celebrated today was established and extended to the universal Church.

Meeting place

The biblical readings selected for today’s feast develop the theme of a “temple”. In the Old Testament, during the Babylonian exile around 592 BC, the prophet Ezekiel tried to help the people overcome their discouragement over not having any land or any place in which to pray. This situation gave rise to his message in the First Reading (Ez 47) in which the prophet announces the day on which the people would adore their God in a new temple – a place where the people would raise their prayer to God and where God would draw near to them, listen to their prayer and come to their aid: a meeting place. In this way, the temple would assume the role as the House of God and the House of the People of God. From this temple the prophet saw water flowing: “I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple”. This water was a gift that brought life wherever it flowed—a blessing. It was a place in which justice was exercised, the only type of justice capable of healing the people.

Out of here

Every male Hebrew was obliged to go up to Jerusalem to offer a lamb during the Passover. Three weeks beforehand, animals fit for sacrifice were offered for sale. It was the money changers responsibility to exchange Roman coins for those minted in Tyre. This had nothing to do with the orthodox practice of their religion, even if it was portrayed that way. Even the coins minted in Tyre had a pagan image inscribed on them. These coins, however, contained more silver, and were therefore worth more. Overseeing this “commerce” were the temple priests who always made a profit from this exchange. This is the context in which Jesus found himself in the Temple (v. 14, the Greek text uses the word hieron), or more precisely, in the Temple’s outer court, the Court of the Gentiles.  The proper name for the Temple in Greek was naos, the sanctuary, and used in vv 19-21. “He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area” (v 15). Using a whip, Jesus threatened these “merchants” present in the Temple (the hieron). He overturned the vendors’ tables and cast everyone out (cf. Ex. 32 – the Golden Calf).

“Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” These words and actions bring to mind the prophet Zechariah who prophesied what would happen when the Lord would come into the city of Jerusalem: “On that day…there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord” (Zc 14:21).

“What sign can you show us for doing this?” … “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Temple priests asked by what “authority” Jesus did this and He responds by inviting them to destroy the Temple (naos) and He would raise it up. Jesus does not refer as much to the temple, that is to the building, but to the true and proper “sanctuary” where God was present. “He was speaking about the temple of his Body.” With Jesus’s Passover – with His body destroyed and restored to life – the new cult, the cult of love would begin in the new Temple – and this new Temple is Jesus himself. His resurrection would be the key that would allow the disciples to finally understand. Later, it would be the gift of the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:26) who would make them recall these things and interpret them in a new way.

Jesus, the new Temple

Today’s Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica allows us to remember the journey of the people and God’s constant and faithful care. At the same time, we are reminded today that each one of us is a “house of God” in the Risen Jesus, because the Holy Spirit dwells in each one of us (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16). This awareness alone leads us to praise the Lord on the one hand, and on the other, it leads us to say, at times excessively, “O Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” (Mt. 8:8), forgetting that He is already in us and that He welcomes us and loves us not as we would like to be, but as we are, here, now. All the present distractions are what make the Lord’s face blurry. When we learn to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, of our friendship with Him (cf. Heb 12:1-4), our faces will shine with light that flows from a “unified” heart. The serenity required is momentary, but it is needs to develop over a life time of continuous entering within ourselves and heading straight for the “King’s room” (cf. The Interior Castle, Saint Teresa of Avila).
http://www.vaticannews.va

Today’s feast celebrates an ever current mystery
Benedict XVI

The liturgy today has us celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, called the “mother and head of all the Churches of he Urbe and Orbe”. Actually, this Basilica was the first to be built after the Edict of the Emperor Constantine who, in 313, conceded to Christians the freedom to practice their religion. The same Emperor gave Pope Miltiades the ancient estate of the Laterani family and had the Basilica, the Baptistery and the Patriarchate built for him, the latter being the Bishop of Rome’s residence, where Popes resided until the Avignon era.

The dedication of the Basilica was celebrated by Pope Silvester in about 324 and the temple was dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour; only after the 6th century were the names of Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist added, from which came its common name. This occasion initially only involved the city of Rome; then, from 1565 onwards, it extended to the entire Church of the Roman rite. Hence, honouring the holy building is meant as an expression of love and veneration for the Roman Church “which”, as St Ignatius of Antioch affirms, “presides in charity” over the entire Catholic communion (cf. Epistula ad Romanos, 1, 1).

The Word of God during this Solemnity recalls an essential truth: the stone temple is the symbol of the living Church, the Christian community, that the Apostles Peter and Paul had, in their Letters, already understood as a “spiritual building”, constructed by God with the “living stones” that are the Christians, upon the one foundation that is Jesus Christ, who is in turn compared to the “cornerstone” cf. 1 Cor 3: 9-11, 16-17; 1 Pt 2: 4-8; Eph 2: 20-22). “Brethren,… you are God’s building”, St Paul writes, and he adds, “God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3: 9c, 17). The beauty and the harmony of churches, destined to render praise to God, invites us human beings too, though limited and sinful, to convert ourselves to form a “cosmos”, a well-ordered construction, in close communion with Jesus, who is the true Holy of Holies. This reaches its culmination in the Eucharistic liturgy, in which the “ecclesia” that is, the community of baptized finds itself again united to listen to the Word of God and nourish itself on the Body and Blood of Christ. Gathered around this twofold table, the Church of living stones builds herself up in truth and in love and is moulded interiorly by the Holy Spirit, transforming herself into what she receives, conforming herself ever more to her Lord Jesus Christ. She herself, if she lives in sincere and fraternal unity, thus becomes a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God.

Dear friends, today’s feast celebrates an ever current mystery: that God desires to build himself a spiritual temple in the world, a community that adores him in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4: 23-24). But this occasion reminds us also of the importance of the concrete buildings in which the community gathers together to celebrate God’s praises. Every community therefore has the duty to carefully guard their holy structures, which constitute a precious religious and historical patrimony. For this we invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, so that she might help us to become, like her, a “house of God”, living temple of his love.
Angelus 9/11/2008

The mother of all Churches of the city and of the world
Pope Francis

Today the liturgy commemorates the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which is the Cathedral of Rome and which tradition defines as “mother of all Churches of the city and of the world”. The term “mother”, refers not as much to the sacred building of the Basilica, as to the work of the Holy Spirit who is made manifest in this building, bearing fruit through the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, and in all communities which abide in unity with the Church over which he presides.

Each time we celebrate the dedication of a church, an essential truth is recalled: the physical temple made of brick and mortar is a sign of the living Church serving in history, that is to say, of that “spiritual temple”, as the Apostle Peter says, in which Christ himself is the “living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious” (1 Pt 2:4). In the Gospel from today’s liturgy, Jesus, speaking about the temple, reveals a shocking truth: that the Temple of God is not only a building made of brick and mortar, but is his Body, made of living stone. Through the power of Baptism, every Christian takes part in “God’s building” (1 Cor 3:9), indeed they become the Church of God. The spiritual structure, the Church community of mankind sanctified by the Blood of Christ and by Spirit of the Risen Lord, asks each one of us to be consistent with the gift of the faith and to undertake a journey of Christian witness. And we all know that in life it is not easy to maintain consistency between faith and testimony; but we must carry on and be coherent in our daily life. “This is a Christian!”, not so much in what he says, but in what he does, and the way in which he behaves. This coherence, which gives us life, is a grace of the Holy Spirit which we must ask for. The Church, at the beginning of her life and of her mission in the world, was but a community constituted to confess faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God and Redeemer of Man, a faith which operates through love. They go together! In today’s world too, the Church is called  to be the community in the world which, rooted in Christ through Baptism, humbly and courageously professes faith in Him, witnessing to it in love.

The institutional elements, the structures and the pastoral entities must also be directed toward this goal, this essential goal of bearing witness to the faith in love. Love is the very expression of faith and also, faith is the explanation and the foundation of love. Today’s celebration invites us to meditate on the communion of all Churches, that is, of this Christian community. By analogy she spurs us to commit ourselves in order that humanity may overcome the confines of enmity and indifference, to build bridges of understanding and dialogue, to make of the entire world one family of people reconciled among themselves, in fraternal solidarity. The Church herself is a sign and preview of this new humanity, as she lives and, through her witness, spreads the Gospel, the message of hope and reconciliation for all mankind.

Let us invoke the intercession of the Most Holy Mary, that she may help us to become like her, the “House of God”, the living temple of his love.
Angelus 9/11/2014

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Fernando Armellini

Introduction

Last week the commemoration of All Souls fell on a Sunday. Today the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran happens on a Sunday too. It is the cathedral of the Pope as Bishop of Rome. It was built by Constantine and was for centuries the habitual residence of the Popes. Even today, although he lives in the Vatican, the Pope annually presides on Holy Thursday the Eucharist and the washing of the feet in St. John Lateran.

This basilica is a symbol of the unity of all Christian communities with Rome. It is called “mother of all the Churches,” and for this reason we celebrate this holiday worldwide. It is a reminder that we are all united by the same faith and that the Church of Rome, the Church of the Apostle Peter, is a fundamental reference point of our faith.

Today we may begin the Eucharistic celebration with the sprinkling of water in relation to the theme of water in the first reading. Then we may sing the Creed, the symbol of our faith, which unites us to the Church spread throughout the world, with its center in Rome.

Today’s readings show a mosaic of images of what the Church is: water that flows from the temple, the building which is built on Christ, the temple of God, and abode of the Spirit (we are all God’s building). Each of us is the temple, to be defended as a house of prayer (and not changed into a market, as in the scene of the gospel), the Body of Christ, which will be rebuilt on the third day…

But we could focus on the first image, the water that should flow from the Church, the community of Jesus, to clean and fill the world with life.

Ezekiel sees the water that flows from the temple. Actually, salvation comes from God. But God sacramentally manifests his presence through the Temple. This water runs down the slopes, which sanitizes whatever it encounters along its path. Wherever it passes everything is full of life, fish in abundance, fruit trees with rich crops and medicinal leaves. It’s like going back to the life that the four rivers of Eden gave to paradise. The Apocalypse, in its final page of the story, also returns to present the same view: “He showed me the river of life, gushing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On both sides of the river are the trees of life, the leaves of which are for healing the nations” (Rev 22:1-2).

What is this water? The symbolism of this valuable element is very rich. But in the gospel, the water is especially Christ Jesus, as he tells the Samaritan woman at the well, where both had gone to fetch water. Or it is also his Spirit, as on another occasion the evangelist says, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water. He was referring to the Spirit which those who believe in him were to receive” (Jn 7:38).

God gives to the thirsty and parched mankind the Water of Christ and of the Spirit. Now the visible sign of this grace that comes from God to the world is the Church, the community of Jesus and of the Spirit.

To the Israelites and the strangers that came, the Temple of Jerusalem was the required benchmark of the salvation from God and of the worship the believers devote to him. Now that sign should be the Christian community in the world, in a diocese, in a parish.

Somehow, the meaning of this life-giving water is as sacramentally condensed into their temples and their liturgy: a church in the middle of town or neighborhood, with its bell tower, as their meeting place and prayer for believers and as a reminder of higher values ​​for others. In these buildings—as we equally call the community “church”—is where the community celebrates the sacrament of Baptism, but also the other sacraments, that the Catechism says that emanates from the living and life-giving Christ (CCC 1116).

But above all, it is the community of persons, which must be a credible sign of God’s life, in and out of the celebration. Jesus, through His Church, continues to give His saving water to all mankind. They are “waters that flow from the sanctuary” and should give that “life wherever the current flows.”

Does the water that quenches the thirst of the world, the light to illumine its darkness, the balm of hope to cure its wounds, really still flow from the sides of each ecclesial community? Does the church, evangelized and full of the good news, feel and act as evangelizer, communicator of water, of hope, of life? Can she call herself “light of the nations”, salt, ferment and source of hope for society? Does she display interior unity—around the “cathedral of the world” which is in Rome—and missionary zeal?

First Reading: Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12

The final chapters of the book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40–48) provide a description of a bright future for the people of God, in the form of the prophet’s vision wherein he contemplates in detail the new temple of Jerusalem, the cult celebrated in it and the distribution of land among the tribes of Israel. Like the entire book of Ezekiel, the text responds to the historical situation of the time of the Babylonian exile after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. It wants to reaffirm the hope of the believers in a new future for the people of God.

The temple is the place of God’s presence among his people. So it is central to the vision of Ezekiel. The water flowing from the temple suggests that all the blessings that Israel receives come from God. Water is the source of life, and is often associated with the presence of God. Therefore the water flowing from the temple has the capacity to fertilize the desert land of Judah and is even able to clean the salt waters of the Dead Sea, in which there could be no life.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:9b-11, 16-17

Paul’s letters use multiple images to refer to the Christian community. One is that of a building (another well known is that of the human body). Christians are described as the building of God, a concept that conveys the idea of ​​the strength and unity among all who make up the community.

One of the most important statements linked to the image, is that the foundation of the building, the Christian community, can be none other than Jesus Christ. This means, among other things, that Christian missionaries and the leaders of the communities should be very careful to not build anything that deviates from that foundation, that is, to do or teach anything that is outside of Christ.

Actually, speaking of the Christian community with this language, Paul usually thinks of a very specific building, which is none other than the temple of Jerusalem. This is a very suggestive and a very rich image, given the centrality of the temple in the life and spirituality of the people of Israel.

The temple was the place of God’s presence. Paul says that God is present now in the believing community. Just as in the temple of the ancient covenant God resided in the temple, now the Spirit of God dwells in believers, the new temple of God.

This conception has as corollary the extraordinary dignity of the believer that is, therefore, a holy place par excellence, scope of God’s presence in the world. Therefore, everyone should be treated with respect and veneration.

Gospel: John 2:13-22

The temple in Jerusalem was the central place of the religious life of Israel. It was considered the privileged space of God’s presence on earth and, therefore, the proper place for worship and prayer. It is therefore not surprising that several New Testament texts have a certain connection with the building of the temple, with the worship celebrated in it or with its symbolism.

The famous episode in which Jesus expels the vendors and moneychangers from the precinct of the temple is present in the four Gospels. In one way or another, they interpret the gesture of Jesus in the line of the prophetic call to a sincere and authentic worship. The prophets had often strongly denounced the perversion of a formal cult that had no resonance to life. More specifically, the Gospels see in Jesus’ action the fulfillment of Malachi’s announcement (Mal 3:1-4), in which the Lord will enter the temple to purify it.

In John’s gospel the story focuses quickly, as usual, in the person of Jesus, and becomes a text of self-revelation. It is the first time that Jesus manifests, yet indirectly, his divine identity when speaking of the Temple as “my Father’s house.” On the other hand, he takes the image of the sanctuary to apply it to his body. It is another way of indicating that he is the real presence of God in the world. Moreover, his words about the destruction and reconstruction of the temple, his body, are an announcement of his future death and resurrection.

This Sunday we celebrate a very special feast, which usually falls on a weekday and goes almost unnoticed. It is the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. It is natural that in such celebrations our interest go blurred as we move away from the nearest ambient. We are more accustomed to commemorate the dedication of our own parish, the anniversary of the inauguration of the temple, dates that do not always coincide. It makes us miss the feast of the dedication of the cathedral itself, which every diocese commemorates. Going beyond, with a feast that refers not to a saint of the universal church, but to a more or less distant building, it can seem to us like a rather strange call.

What then is the importance of the church of St. John Lateran? Why do we remember its dedication, its inauguration? Well mainly because it was the first public building, the first temple where Christians find themselves free, in the capital of the empire, after the persecution. At the site’s entrance there is an inscription that reads: “Holy Church of Lateran, mother and head of all churches of the city and of the world,” meaning that all temples, where Christians gather throughout the land, had its beginning there.

We know that the feast of a Christian building reminds us not of the stone but of the people, the living stones of the temple of God. Today’s celebration leads us to think of our own communities, because each of our churches has a link to that. With the image of this temple “head and mother” we can see our local churches, because in them and for them the Catholic Church exists, the one and only, forming a communion.

Today we specially pray for all those who form the living building of our dioceses: from the most humble and hidden members to our bishops that from the symbolic place of the cathedrals are the visible foundation of unity. We pray also for those who have the mission of research and teaching, theologians, those responsible for preaching, catechesis, teachers and counselors; for all who have a pastoral mission; for the communities and movements that strive to convey the gospel: that all may live under the impulse of the Spirit who leads into all truth. That our local church, with the testimony and actions of all its members, fulfills its mission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of men and women of our time and place.

Today’s readings present to us two situations and different reactions in relation to the temple as a place of prayer and community setting. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of a stream that comes from the sanctuary and makes fruitful and heals wherever it passes; there is a beneficial influence that comes from the temple. Instead, the evangelist John shows us the action of Jesus driving the merchants from the temple and wanting to purify his space as a place of true encounter with God. Both situations are possible and are given in our own churches, which, as the ancient Fathers said, are holy and sinful at the same time, carriers of the treasure of the gospel and always in need of conversion and reform.

The stream, the river of Church history, has been spreading throughout the centuries. It brings us the living water of the gospel and the grace that comes from the side of Christ, who through his body offered on the cross is the true temple. At the same time, the river of history, this day in our communities, often goes dim and always has to confront the living voice of the Gospel to return again and again to the first loyalty.

The action of Jesus shows us what that loyalty has to be. If the temple is a place of encounter with God, God Himself shows us the great place to find him: in the concrete man, the poor, the needy brother. This is the temple to be respected; no one can defile with contempt and exploitation. Practicing good and justice, this is the true worship that certifies sincere prayer. So the face of Christ, in image presides our temples, will show itself to our world as living water, with an influence of liberation and salvation. The glory of God is man’s life and the life of man is the ability to see God.
https://sundaycommentaries.wordpress.com