Ezekiel
47:1-2, 8-9,12
|
1Corinthians
3:9-11, 16-17
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John
2:13-22
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THEME
OF THE READINGS: “ The Church as the place of worship should be given a
priority in Christian life.”
Today
we celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome simply because it
is the head and mother of all churches in the World. As we celebrate this feast
one might ask himself/ herself that why are we not celebrating this feast to be
of St. Peter’s Basilica instead? According to the Catholic tradition, every
bishop has a cathedral and the Pope’s cathedral is the Basilica of St. John
Lateran and not the Basilica of St. Peter.
As
I pointed out at the beginning one may ask why this feast is not dedicated to
St. Peter’s Basilica since he lives next to St. Peter’s Basilica? With this
History gives us the answer. In past centuries Christians in Rome were not valued and as the result many Christians
suffered martyrdom . After the emperor Constantine converted to
Christianity he allowed Christians to
practice their faith in Public. Constantine had been given a palace in Rome that
belonged to Lateran and after his conversion he gave it to the Pope. The
Lateran palace was then adopted to become a Church and was dedicated on
November 9th 324, then afterwards
the Pope lived in the Lateran Palace as it was called, for the next 1000
Years the basilica was his Cathedral. It
was first called the basilica of the savior but later was dedicated to St. John
the Baptist and St. John the evangelist and so it acquired the name Basilica of
St. John Lateran. When the Papacy transferred to Avignon for about the century
the condition of the Lateran deteriorated so much that when the papacy returned
to Rome the Pope lived in two other
locations before finally settling adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica where he now
lives.
We
can say that the church having been suffered many attacks and injustices may be
interpreted as a symbol of the attack on the church and the hatred of some for
the church. According to historical account of the attack on the church it may
be said that it was attacked twice by the vandals in the year 408 and 455. It
was totally destroyed by an Earth quake in the year 896 and it was also destroyed
by fire in the year 1308 and 1360. The Basilica nowadays has become a pilgrimage
center and a tourist attraction whereby, thousands of people every year visit
it. In fact this act symbolize the love of so many people for the church.
Celebrating
this feast of Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, also is an invitation for the
unity between the Pope and the Christians, our love for him and respect for
him. Also in celebrating this feast, it is an invitation also that we are
united with each other in the church of Christ.
When
we celebrate its dedication to God, therefore, we celebrate the mystery of God’s
special presence and indwelling in buildings set apart for divine worship,
including our own Parish Church. As we celebrate this feast we are also invited
to have this idea in mind that the Church as the sacred place of worship.
Nowadays some Christians have lost completely the sense of the church as the
place of worship, as the place where we encounter God. Many Christians nowadays
have forgotten the tradition belief that the church is a sacred place, instead this
traditional practice has been abandoned by few members of the church, without
forgetting this includes dressing code, dressing in a dicent manner, liturgical
gestures like one to sign himself/ herself with holy water placed at the
entrance door of the church before and after the mass, the manner of receiving
the holy Eucharist, that is the body of Christ, genuflecting before the
tabernacle etc all of these in some occasions are no longer observed by the
faithful Christians. The feast of the dedication of the temple conveys both the
idea of the temple’s sacredness, and also the need for constant purification of
the structures of our Church. From our readings more especially from the gospel
we hear Jesus in the temple driving out those who were selling oxen and sheep
and pigeon, and on top of that driving out money changers at their business and
making a whip of cords, he drove them all with the sheep and oxen, out of the
temple; and poured out the coins of the
money changers and overturned their tables and he told those who sold the
pigeons, “ Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house
of trade.”His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house
will consume you.” The challenge with our readings today is that, as the church
how are we able to convince people to have this zealous spirit of remaining in
the church? Let’s make our place of worship not the place of trade.
This
act of Jesus to drive away all sheep and oxen business men and turning the
table of money changers symbolically implied the destruction of the Jerusalem
temple and the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem. More on that, the act
implied the purification of both Jewish way of worship and practices as their
spiritual way of life. Jesus is elevating the rest of Christians to the high
level than that of Jews. In short act of Jesus driving the business men out of
the temple was an act of purification of Jews based formalities of worshiping
We
are God’s building; we are the living temples of God. Each of us is one of the
living stones in the temple of God. None of us is the whole temple: I am not. You
are not. Pope Francis is not. But each of us and all of us together build up
that temple that is Christ’s body. The church, the body of Christ, never exists
for itself alone, but always for others. Saint John Henry Newman said in famous
quote “ I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, But
God declared: “ Go down again –dwell among the people.” The Church is called to
be ever faithful to Christ. The Church is called to be his witnesses and bring
about his Kingdom. As unique parts of the Church, may we all play our little
part in building it up here on earth.
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