The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Ez. 47:1–2, 8–9, 12 / Ps. 46:2–3, 5–6, 8–9 / 1 Corinthians 3:9–11, 16–17 / Jn. 2:13–22

Why commemorate a church dedication that happened in fourth-century Rome? First, because St. John Lateran is no ordinary church — it’s the cathedral church of the pope and still known as “the mother of all the world’s churches.”

But more than that, because God has from all time intended the church building to be a symbol of his church and our bodies. This is what the readings for Sunday’s feast invite us to consider.

God’s prototype for the church is the Jerusalem Temple, described in this week’s First Reading and Psalm. It’s God’s “holy dwelling,” site of his presence in our midst, source of “living waters” — of all life and blessing. But God intended the Temple to give way to the body of Christ.

That’s what Our Lord’s words and actions in Sunday’s Gospel are intended to dramatize. Christ’s body is now the dwelling of God’s “glory” among us (see John 1:14). It’s the new source of living waters (John 4:10,14; 7:37–39; 19:34), the living bread (John 6:51), the new sanctuary where people will worship in Spirit and truth (John 4:21, 23).

By baptism, we are joined to his body in the Church (see 1 Corinthians 12:13). Sunday’s Epistle says the Spirit of God comes to dwell in us and makes us “God’s building … the temple of God” (see also 1 Corinthians 6:9). Jesus drove out the sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, signaling an end to the animal sacrifices that formed the worship of the old Temple.

In the spiritual worship of the new Temple, we offer our bodies — our whole beings — as a living sacrifice (see Romans 12:1). Like living stones (see 1 Peter 2:5) built on the cornerstone of Christ (see Mark 12:10; Acts 4:11), together we are called to build up the new Temple of God, the Church.

As the Jerusalem Temple was, so the Church will always be under construction — until at last it is perfected in the new Jerusalem, our mother Church, come down from heaven (see Revelation 21:3, 10, 22; 22:1; Galatians 4:26).