Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Today's Mass Readings

Today we celebrate an unusual feast. It is not the feast of an event from Christ's life (like the baptism of Jesus) or even the feast of a saint. It is the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. What is the significance of the Feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran? The significance of this feast is symbolic. Most Catholics think of St. Peter’s as the pope’s main church, but in reality, St. John Lateran is the pope’s cathedral. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome of which the Pope is the bishop. In it sits the official chair of the pope. The history of this basilica is a testimony to the antiquity, the length, the breadth and the depth of the Catholic Church.

Pope Sylvester I dedicated the Basilica and the adjacent Lateran Palace in 324, declaring both to be Domus Dei or "House of God." Thus today's reading focus on the Temple as the "house of God." Beginning with the first Temple that Solomon built in about 1000 BC, today’s readings take us through its destruction, through the raising of Christ as the New Temple, to each Christian being a temple of God. The Temple was the center of the Jewish nation. But in 587 BC the Babylonians razed it to the ground and took the people into exile. The Jewish people never imagined that God would let the Temple be destroyed. Today’s first reading from the book of Ezekiel was written when people were still in exile. In this vivid image of the Temple and the water flowing out from beneath the threshold, the prophet his vision of a new temple. In fact, this Temple was rebuilt when the people returned from the exile. Tragically, though, in today’s gospel reading, we have Jesus already predicting that the Temple would be destroyed again. As Jesus predicted, the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD. The Temple lays destroyed in Jerusalem even today.

But as Christians we are not celebrating the feast of a destroyed Temple. We are not even celebrating the physical building of the basilica in Rome. We are really celebrating the spiritual reality of the Church that Christ founded. Yes, Christ is the New Temple of God. In and through Christ who sanctifies us, we ourselves become living stones of the temple. And God intends for the Church to be the Temple from where salvation flows like a river.

Paul says in today’s second reading to each of his community members, “Do you not know that you are the Temple of the Holy Spirit?” The Church at large can only be as holy every individual member is. The church can only be what each of us makes it to be. Our individual lives, then, are more precious than we can ever imagine it to be. Just like the basilica of St. John Lateran, dedicated to be the “house of God,” at baptism each of us is dedicated to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Time, history, life experiences and human weaknesses do take its toll but we can never forget our calling – to individually be the house of God.

Let us give our calling to be the "temple of God" some prayerful thought this week. We are the house of God because each Sunday Christ comes to dwell in us in the Eucharist. Let us be ready to be transformed by Christ into the dwelling place of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, the House of God. Let us welcome Christ into our temple and may Christ dwell there forever.

-Fr. Satish Joseph