Dedication of the Lateran Bsilica: XXXII :[A]: Ezek 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1Cori3:9-11,16-17; Jn2:13-22

Dedication of the Lateran Bsilica: XXXII :[A]: Ezek 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1Cori3:9-11,16-17; Jn2:13-22

Introduction: From today's Gospel we hear about Jesus driving the money-changers out of the Temple and can conclude we should focus exclusively on "spiritual things." But is that the real message? Jesus drives out the money changers because of "zeal" for the Temple. The Temple is a stones and mortar structure - a physical place where God meets his people. When Jesus cleanses the Temple he shows his care for that material reality. Today we celebrate the dedication of a specific building - the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

In our first reading today the vision of the prophet Ezekiel about the temple of Jerusalem is presented to us in a most articulate and dramatic fashion. This reminds us of God’s ever abiding presence within his temple. As a sign of God’s presence among his people, the Temple or “Church” is a place from where the river of God’s joy emanates and flows towards us in order to nourish and satisfy us. It is a place of refuge and a place where we find eternal bliss, a place where our spiritual hunger and thirst are satisfied, and most importantly, it is a place of healing where we find Jesus our balm of Gilead (Jer 8, 22) that heals our wounded souls.

The Gospel today shows the only really violent image of Jesus, overturning the tables in the Temple in Jerusalem because they had forgotten the ‘holiness’ of the place of God, and had turned it into a marketplace. Immediately after this, he predicts that he can rebuild the Temple in three days. The logic of this is, of course, totally misunderstood by his listeners, but reading backwards, we see that though God the Father may dwell in that Jerusalem temple, God also was Jesus, and after his death he would be restored to us in three days.

Our young people have been given a very strange view of what is morally acceptable. They are taught this unbalanced concept: anything is permissible as long as the bad results of an action are prevented. This is wrong. Both end and means that leads to end should be right. For example, the concept would be that it is OK to get drunk, as long as you have a designated driver. Thinking like stealing is fine if the stolen money is used for charity is wrong. Or that it is OK to engage in casual intimate actions as long as you have protection from AIDS or pregnancy. The beauty of creation has been sacrificed to a pornographic world that has neither need nor desire for God. Sometimes you just want to run to a Church to get away from it all. And we do. We run to the Church as our one refuge of sanity

Saint Paul picks up on the moral concerns of having Christ within us as well. “Are you not aware that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?....The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Cor. 3:16-17) Today’s celebration is not really about a place, after all. It is about us. We are the Church. Together we are a place of refuge from the terrors of the world. Together, united with Christ, we are a people of love in a world of hatred.

Practical:  1)We see Jesus' zeal for the physical temple and we reflect on the material blessings God has given us. And we ask: How can I share those blessings so that we have dynamic and flourishing parish? If you care for the Lord's Temple - his Church in all its dimension - if you care for that Temple, God will care for you.

2)The loss of the sense of the sacred in church buildings and church worship might be one reason why young people are no longer keen on church attendance. If they come to church thinking it to be another social gathering, no wonder they find it so boring. But when we realize that the church is a holy place, a place of encounter with God, with one another and with oneself, and then we bring a certain disposition of mind and body to church service which helps make worship an uplifting rather than boring experience. Today’s celebration of the dedication of St John Lateran invites us to renew our faith in the church as a house of prayer and to cultivate habits and practices that make it easy for God to encounter us whenever we go to church.

The Dedication of  the Lateran Basilica : Introduction

Message:  The waters flowing from the temple, the dwelling place of the Lord, bring forth life and growth.  Jesus is the living sanctuary and we his living body in the Spirit.

History: Today marks the anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral church of Rome, on land owned by the Laterani family, by Pope St. Sylvester I (31 Dec.), 9 Nov.324; honored as the Episcopal seat of the pope as bishop of Rome; according to an inscription which Pope Clement XII (reigned 1730-1740) placed on the façade, this basilica is the “mother and head of all churches of Rome and the world” (“omnium ecclesiarum Urbis et Orbis mater et caput”); residence of the popes from the 4^th c. until their moving to Avignon (1309); site of five ecumenical councils; Pope Innocent X commissioned the present structure in 1646; beneath its high altar rests the remains of the small wooden table on which, according to tradition, St. Peter celebrated Mass; dedicated to the Savior, later to St. John the Baptist.

Saints and Events in this week:  10 – Tenth - Monday – Saint Leo the Great, pope, doctor of the Church; 11 – Eleventh - Tuesday – Saint Martin of Tours, basilica; 12 – Twelfth - Wednesday – Saint Josephat, bishop, martyr; 13 – Thirteenth - Thursday – Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin; 15 – Fifteenth - Saturday – Saint Albert the Great, bishop, doctor of the Church;