Dear Christ the King,
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. It seems odd that we would have a feast dedicated to a building, something made from materials. One of the wonderful blessings of the Catholic faith is the understanding of the sacred of those things both of heaven and of earth; things of the material and spiritual. We celebrate the Sacraments, which have matter (the elements used and the gestures) and form (the words spoken) that gift us with a spiritual grace. We baptize our young and bury our dead with the hope that their souls live on with Christ in heaven. We pray, but in sacred places or use sacred materials to help us pray.
The Lateran Basilica in Rome was founded in 324 and is one of four main basilica’s in Rome. What makes St. John’s unique is that is the “cathedra” or chair of the pope. It is the cathedral for the diocese of Rome, and the pope is the bishop of the diocese of Rome. It signifies that he is a pastor, one who guides our spiritual life. It is a sacred place not just for those who live in the diocese of Rome, but for all Catholics.
Our readings today are beautifully descriptive about the sacred in the lives of the people of God. The reading from Eziekiel gives us an image that signals the transformation and conversion of those who were exiled and restoration of Israel. The water flowing from the Temple, a building made from materials, is a sign of abundance and grace; it is a sign of paradise.
In the second reading, Paul uses the metaphor of a building to illustrate that God must be our foundation for everything else in our lives. God must dwell in us for the “building” not to crumble. Our bodies are sacred because of God dwelling in our souls.
In the Gospel, we hear of the blasphemous use of material objects in the temple for animal sacrifices to God and then Jesus’ prediction of the resurrection. The temple was the most holy place for a Jew. It is where the spiritual and material worlds met. It was the building where sacrifices were made to God. However, the temple had become a market place of commerce that had created barriers to free and total access to God. Jesus points out that while his material body would be destroyed, death would be destroyed along with it and a newness of life would be experienced because of the resurrection. Jesus effectively replaces Jewish sacrificial sin offerings because he became that sacrificial offering when he died on the cross. Jesus is the sacrifice, not a purchased animal, and He is the sacrifice for our sins that makes God accessible to everyone.
So why do we have a feast for building? Because it is something very worthwhile to celebrate. We celebrate the building that represents our universal church, but also one that represents all of the Catholic Churches in the world. They are sacred buildings where God gives us ordinary bread and wine and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can experience the presence of God, who is substantially present. This sacrifice gives us spiritual nourishment for our bodies and souls. The sacred act of the Last Supper and the sacred act of receiving the Eucharist can make us holy. This definitive sacrifice is made sacramentally present at every Mass in every Catholic Church throughout the world, everyday. Now that is worth celebrating!
In Christ,
Teresa Oross
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