Monday, November 9, 2015 - DEDICATION OF LATERAN BASILICA - If the Lord were to visit the Temple of your life what would his response be?

To read the texts click on the texts: Ez 47:1-2,8-9; Jn 2:13-22

The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the Church of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Pope who is Bishop of Rome. It is the oldest and ranks first among the four major basilicas of Rome. As the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, it contains the papal throne and ranks above all churches in the Roman Catholic Church, even above St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

It was built by Lateranus Palutius, whom Nero put to death to seize his goods. It was given in the year 313 by Constantine the Great to Saint Miltiades, Pope, and was inhabited by his successors until 1308, when they moved to Avignon. The Lateran Basilica built by Constantine near the palace of the same name, is the first Basilica of the West. Twelve councils, four of which were ecumenical, have assembled there, the first in 649, the last in 1512.

When the Lateran Church was partially ruined by fires, enemy invasions, and earthquakes, it was always rebuilt with great zeal by the Sovereign Pontiffs. In 1726, after one such restoration, Pope Benedict XIII consecrated it anew and assigned the commemoration of that event to the present day. The church was afterwards enlarged and beautified by Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII.

The texts chosen today speak of both the external temple and the temple that is Jesus’ body. Ezekiel is given a vision of a temple from which water flows. In the Gospel text of today, Jesus cleanses the external temple which had become a place of degradation and a market place and replaces it with the Temple that is his body. In other words, true worship now is no longer merely external and in an external place but has to be in spirit and truth.