9 november 2024 – Dedication of the Basilica of S. John of Lateran
Ez 47, 1-2.8-9.12 ; 1 Co 3, 9-11.16-17 ; Jn 2, 13-22
Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Lateran
In each community where there is a consecrated church, we celebrate the anniversary of that consecration every hear, that is, we celebrate the anniversary of the day when that building was dedicated to God’s worship, and therefore the day when the community began to gather there several times a day in order to celebrate the Divine Office, and when nuns or monks began to come there privately, at any time, in order to meet God in an intimate prayer. Likewise, we celebrate every year the dedication of the Cathedral of the diocese where the monastery is located. Today, we celebrate the dedication of the cathedral of the Church of Rome, called the Basilica of the Lateran.
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is obviously better known than the Lateran. Pilgrims and tourists go there, first of all. It is also there that most great liturgical and pontifical liturgies and celebrations take place. However, the cathedral of the Pope, as bishop of Rome, is the Lateran and not St. Peter’s Basilica. Now, the pope is first of all the bishop of Rome, as Francis reminded us on the evening of his election. And it is as bishop of Rome, and successor of Peter in that function, that he has the mission of confirming his brothers bishops in the faith, and to watch over the communion between all the local churches. This is the reason why we express today of communion with the Church of Rome, and therefore with all the local Churches, by celebrating the anniversary of that Dedication.
The Cathedral of Lateran was erected in 320 by Constantine, shortly after his conversion and after the end of the persecutions against Christians. It was built on the plan (and model) of the civil “basilicas” who were the houses of the people in the Roman Empire. All the great Roman basilicas have kept, up to our times, that character of a large space where people meet in order to celebrate the Christian mysteries, and most of all to celebrate the mystery of its communion in Christ.
In the Gospel of the merchants expelled from the Temple, Jesus reveals already the worship of the New Covenant is different from that of the Old Covenant. The Temple of the Old Testament that was the “house of God” –the “house of my Father”, says Jesus – is not replaced by a new physical temple or by many physical temples. It is replaced by the humanity of Christ. “The Temple he spoke about – says saint John – was his body”. Since Jesus’ death, and since his resurrection, He dwells in all those who have received his Spirit and who have become, each one of them, the Temple of God. “Don’t forget, saint Paul says to us, that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. The temple of God is sacred and you are that temple.”
The vision of Ezekiel to whom is shown the water flowing from the right side of the Temple, and that brings life and fecundity as well as food and healing to everything that it touches, -- that vision is applied to Christ in our Christian tradition. He is the source of our communion and of our unity.
For many centuries, the pope does not live any longer at the Lateran but at the Vatican. In the exercise of his ministry he needs the help of several collaborators, who, with time have become a heavy machine, that is called the Roman Curia, that Francis is trying hard to reform so that it can be more clearly an exercise of communion rather than of power. – What is important for us is that, through the bishop of Rome, we are in communion with all the other ecclesial communities of the world and that, all together we form one Temple, one Body of Christ, drinking from the same river of blood and water flowing from the right side of Christ open by le lance of the soldier, on the Cross.
This is the mystery of the communion that we celebrate today, as we commemorate the anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral of the bishop of Rome.