THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERIAN BASILICA
9 NOVEMBER 2025
The
Prophet Ezekiel says that the angel brought him to view the Temple. Looking from the Mount of Olives, Ezekiel is aware
that there is no Temple in Jerusalem.
The Babylonians had destroyed it and carried most of the people into
Exile. But Ezekiel is given a vision of
the reconstructed Temple, which is central to the faith of the people. It is God’s House, where God makes himself
known. God instructs people from the
Temple and receives their worship there.
Using water as a symbol, Ezekiel sees the water streaming from the
Temple as God’s power to engender fruitfulness, nourishment, and healing. Out of God’s dwelling in the Temple, God has
the power to change everything, including the lifeless Dead Sea into a source
of life.
Centuries
later, Jesus enters the reconstructed Temple.
He has just changed water into wine, the first of his signs in the
Gospel according to Saint John. Jesus has
shown that he has the power to turn the ordinary water of human life into the divine
wine of God’s love. Now he enters the
Temple at the beginning of his public ministry at the Feast of Passover. Knowing the theological significance of the
Temple, Jesus drives out the money changers and merchants. He insists that they are making his Father’s
House a marketplace. When asked to show
a sign, he answers, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up.” Saint John is reminding us of the
Mystery of the Incarnation, God dwelling in our midst. Jesus is speaking about the temple of his human
body, which will be destroyed on the cross and raised up three days later. Through this sign, he is indicating that he
is the source of our life. As the
resurrected Lord, he invites us to worship him not in a temple designed for
animal sacrifices, but in spirit and in truth.
Today, we celebrate
the dedication of another important religious structure. After the Emperor Constantine declared that
Christians were free to practice their religion in the Roman Empire in 313,
Pope Sylvester dedicated the Basilica of Saint John Lateran as the “mother and
head of all the churches of the city and the world.” Although it has been rebuilt many times over
the centuries, the Basilica has remained the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of
Rome. Just as Bishop Rhoades has his
chair, or cathedra, in the Cathedrals of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in
Fort Wayne and Saint Matthew Cathedral in South Bend, Pope Leo’s chair is in
Saint John Lateran. This Feast reminds
us that our Catholic Church is bigger than the parish of Saint Augustine or
even the Church of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
We are part of a universal Church connected to the Bishop of Rome
through the Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
It is in this
sacred building and in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran that we worship Jesus
Christ in spirit and in truth. These
sacred buildings are important. They are
God’s House, where Jesus Christ makes himself known. Jesus Christ instructs us in these buildings
and receives our worship. Even more
importantly, Saint Paul reminds us that we who gather in these physical
structures are living stones of God’s Temple.
We became those living stones when we were baptized, and we are being
built on the foundation of Jesus Christ himself.
Today, we
give thanks for the beautiful Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. We give thanks for our physical building here
at Saint Augustine. We are reminded of
our connection with the Bishop of Rome and all Catholics around the world. Most importantly, we who worship here in
spirit and in truth must allow the Holy Spirit to continue to form us as the
temple of God. We must be open to the
ways in which the Lord drives out the greed, jealousy, anger, lust, and all
that defiles our Temple, the Body of Christ.
Purified by the Lord’s love, we are sent from this Mass to make a
difference in our divided, war-torn, and dangerous world.
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