Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Here is another one of these feast days that because it falls on a Sunday takes precedence over the readings for the 32nd Sunday of the Liturgical year. Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Perhaps you are wondering what a basilica in Rome has anything to do with us. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of Rome. It is the Pope's cathedral. It was built in the time of Constantine and was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324. This is the church where popes were consecrated. Because John Lateran is the Pope’s Cathedral, celebrating the dedication of this cathedral is symbolic of the unity of the Catholic Church. This is the relevance of the feast – that we believe that we here in Dayton are called to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ who chose Peter as its shepherd. To everyone who loves the church, this is the feast of the people of God.
Today readings allow us to reflection on the temple and the church a little broadly. In the New Testament, the church is more than this building we are in. On this feast of the church I want to also I want to talk about every Christian and every Christian home as a church.
1. The Human Person – A Church Unto Itself. Let me begin with the image of the water flowing from the temple in Ezekiel’s vision. The life-giving water from the temple is a reference to baptism. Ezekiel’s vision is realized in Jesus’ baptism and the baptism of every Christian. No wonder then that Paul asks, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.” IN other words, every Christian is a church unto himself or herself. Just like every temple is holy we too are called to holiness. Holiness comes from making our individual lives a dwelling place for God. There are two implications of this: first, that I take myself seriously; that I care enough about myself to pray, to worship, to rest, to eat right, to exercise. Second, answering the call to holiness each one of us is a tributary of God’s river flowing through Dayton and the world, bringing God’s love, presence and healing. When people encounter us, they must have an experience of God.
2. The Home – A Temple of God. For a moment I want you to think about your home and the people you live with at home. Our home is our most prized possession – the space and the people we make our home with. In the Catholic tradition the home is also sacred space. In fact, in the early Christian era the church and home were the same thing. And yet, the home is the most threatened of all spaces. Our very busy schedules can sometimes make our homes more like a hotel. With technology and social media literally at our fingertips our homes can be very lonely places. The home, where each person should be loved beyond measure, can also the place where domestic abuse of children, spouse, and aged can be rampant. We can take our family and home for granted. Today, I am inviting you to think of your home as a temple, a church, a sacred space. Are there things in your home that you would want to banish, like Jesus banished the desecrators of his Father’s house? Today, I am inviting you like Jesus to reclaim the sanctity of your home. Banish those things that can destroy the home. Instead, find time to pray together, eat together, be silly together, to be grateful to one another and to suffer with each other. I am inviting you to make your home feel like a church.
3. The Church – The Temple of God. In many ways, I am very interested in this feast, especially now, when the church is in the midst of phenomenal changes. The Pope Francis era church is engaged in an intense and sometimes bitter debate about how we imagine church. Today, how can we imagine the church? We have an image in the first reading that can be helpful in answering this question. In Ezekiel’s vision, he sees water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the Temple and flowing out and becoming a river. Wherever the river flowed it brought life. I find parallel between Ezekiel’s vision and the Pope Francis’ vision. He says, “I can clearly see that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and warm the hearts of faithful, it needs to be by their side. I see the Church as a field hospital after a battle.” But the Pope has been very strongly rebuked by some people within the Church who think that he is diluting the mission of the Church by being compromising age old doctrines to accommodate people. Especially at the Synod on the Family, even some high ranking cardinals said that Pope Francis has lost his way and that the church is like a ship without a rudder.
I am not sure on which side of the debate you are. Clearly for me, like a river that brings life to those around it, the church must bring hope, love, reconciliation and healing in the world. I want to see our parish as a river in this neighborhood brining life, hope and love to those around, especially, those whom everyone else rejects. I want this not merely because of Pope Francis, but simply because that is the example of Jesus Christ in the gospel. This is the mission that Jesus entrusted to his disciples.
Today, offer yourself to Christ at this mass. Also offer your home and our parish community. May we indeed be the temple of God. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph