 |
| Lily and me praying in front of one of the relics from the Holy Land brought to Rome by Constantine's mother St. Helen. This is said to be some wood that was part of the crib of Jesus. |
Today in the Catholic Church we celebrate the Feast of the
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Constantine built it in the fourth
century and the Church has been celebrating this on November the 9th at least
since the twelfth century. This is a day to remember our unity with the Chair
of Peter and the mother church. The great Basilica of St. John Lateran is the
oldest of Rome’s four major basilicas and, unknown to many, the cathedral of
the Church of Rome. It is thus the
official seat of the Pope and holds the title of “Mother church of the whole
world” among Catholics. It ranks above all other churches in the Roman Catholic
Church – even above St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. When my family and I
visited Italy in 2015, and Rome in particular, we were blessed to be able to see
and pray in the Lateran Basilica as well as the other 3 “Major Basilicas” of
the Holy Catholic Church—St. Peter’s, St. Paul-outside-the-walls, and St. Mary
Major. However, if we look at the readings for today, they challenge us to look
beyond physical structures, even important, beautiful ones, and meditate upon
our call to be holy temples of God.
A temple is to be a sanctuary, a holy place. From that
temple should flow love, joy, peace, healing, and holiness. Ezekiel “saw” such
a temple. Water flows out of it. That water makes salt water fresh and causes
living things to multiply. Trees along the river produce abundant fruit and
their leaves are used for healing.
The apostle Paul takes this image even further. He says that
we as a people are God’s temple. To be his temple we need to stand on the firm
foundation, the only foundation of this temple, Jesus Christ. Thus, when we
serve the Church as builders by sharing our faith and bringing others into
God’s temple, we need to be sure that we are bringing them into the temple that
has Jesus as its foundation, and not a building of our own choosing. In fact,
he gets fairly blunt about it. This temple is holy because the Holy Spirit
dwells here. So, if we do anything to destroy that temple, God will destroy us.
John’s Gospel shows us how serious this is. Jesus drives the
money-changers out of the temple. They had turned a house of prayer, God’s
temple, into a marketplace. Did Jesus have the right to make this judgment and
do what he did? Wouldn't it be wonderful if zeal for God's house would consume
us all? Wouldn't it be wonderful if our first thought upon rising in the
morning was, "Zeal for your house will consume me"? What does zeal
for God's house look like?
For me, Zeal for God's house takes the natural form of
loving each person as a separate and unique and loveable image of God. It does
not consist in long lectures about right and wrong, or in diatribes about who
is right and wrong. Instead it lives in leading by good example. You do what
you expect others to do and you don't make a point of the failings of others,
but instead, of how you love them. How
you love others shows the world what the House of God looks like; the extent to
which we live that love shows the extent of our zeal.
Today we celebrate a basilica in Rome. We should look in the
mirror and celebrate “that” basilica, too. May zeal for God's house consume us
all and show us the way to love each person to an eternity of happiness with
God and the whole human family who clings to Him.
 |
St John Lateran Basilica
|
 | ||||
Like all of the Basilicas, St John Lateran is beautiful and impressive
|
No comments:
Post a Comment