Pastor's Message

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Take these things out of here! Stop making My Father’s house a market place!” His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”     John 2:16

            Today we celebrate the Feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the oldest and highest ranked, of the four Major Basilicas in Rome; the other three basilicas are St Peter’s Basilica, St Paul’s Basilica and St. Mary Major.

            St John the Lateran, is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, the official ecclesiastical seat of the Holy Father, as the Bishop of Rome. The Basilica called the “Mother and head of all churches of the world,” was built after the Emperor Constantine’s edict of Milan, which in 313AD granted all Christian freedom to practice their faith. The same emperor, gave Pope Miltiades, the property of the family of the Lateran and built a Basilica.

            In ancient Rome, this is the Church where everyone was baptized. It is the oldest Church in the west was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324 AD.

            Today, the Liturgy celebrates the dedication of this Cathedral. In the celebration we are helped to recall an essential truth: “the Temple of bricks is a symbol of the living Church, the Christian community, which the Apostle Peter and Paul teach in their letters, as a “Spiritual Building,” constructed by God with the living stones, which are Christians, over the charity of the entire Catholic Communion.

            In the 1^st Reading, Prophet Ezekiel gives us a vision of what the Church is like. It is like a stream that is just a trickle in its source, but then broadens as thousands of small streams join together. The river flows and nourishes all that is in its path and many times, nourishes those that are well beyond the confines of its banks. When its water reaches the Sea, it changes, the oceans salt laden waters into life giving waters with trees lining its banks.

            In the Gospel reading, Jesus is hard on those who were using the Temple to exploit worshippers for gain, motivated by greed and profit. “Stop making my Father’s House a market place,” Jesus commanded them! For Jesus, the Temple was not merely a building where worshippers gather; it was “the House of my Father.” Israel related to God through its Temple but Jesus tells them, that their Temple belonged to him in a special way as a Son of the Father.

           When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign to confirm his authority, Jesus drew them into a deeper understanding of him; “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus here claimed to be the Temple. Jesus’ passion and death, as an Exodus to the Father, would lead to his being consumed, and after a very short time would raise up the Temple of his body. The presence of God in the Temple would be perfected by the revelation of God that would take place in the destruction and the resurrection of the Temple of the body of Jesus. At a time when there would no longer a Stone Temple in Jerusalem, believers would experience the presence of the crucified, yet risen Jesus as their Temple.

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