TEMPLES FOR WORSHIP OF GOD

FEAST OF DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA

1 Cor 3:9-11,16-17; Ps 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; Jn 2:13-22

The Dedication of Our Temple

We celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, built by Emperor Constantine in 324 on the Lateran Hill. Rome has celebrated it since the twelfth century to mark the basilica's significance as “the mother and head of all the churches of Rome and the World.” The celebration was extended to the whole Roman Rite as a sign of unity and love towards the See of Peter, the head of the apostles. In celebrating the ancient basilica, the Church looks beyond the physical building to the reality which it signifies, the Church as the body of Jesus Christ. The dedication of the physical building is only a symbol of believers’ conversion and dedication to worship of the living God in the physical buildings and elsewhere. Physical buildings are dedicated only to mediate the consecration of our bodies and lives to God. The dedication of the physical building achieves nothing if those who enter therein do not consecrate themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to the living God. God does not live in buildings constructed by human hands, but only as a means to reach our lives and hearts. Thus, physical churches should not only remind us of God’s presence, but must remind us that God lives within us as his temples.

Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians teaches this deep mystery of our connection to God. By converting to the Gospel at the instance of Paul’s preaching, the Corinthians have become a holy building for God, which Jesus Christ is building through the Holy Spirit for the habitation and glory of the Father. “You are God’s building. By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid the foundations, on which someone else is doing the building.” The Christian preachers are only workmen for Christ. As Christ’s members, he works through them to build up his body, the Church. Understanding that we are constructing Christ’s body, we must work as trustworthy stewards to please the master, and not for any personal gain. “Everyone doing the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any other than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ.” We must build only with heavenly materials, not earthly. The genuineness of what we build with will be tested by the fire of trials, which will destroy what has no heavenly origin. We are cooperators in the work of building. The Lord builds through the preachers, but we also build with him and consecrate ourselves to God. Paul therefore asks us: “Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him, because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.”

Considering the resources God commits to the heavenly Temple, individually and collectively, each of us must be careful with ourselves. We are not free to do whatever we want with ourselves. We must pay attention to Jesus Christ and follow his will in all things. This is why he gave us his Holy Spirit when we came to faith. As we stated in yesterday’s reflection, we learn to live and act wisely by listening to and obeying the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is the water that is meant to bring life and joy to the city of God. “The waters of a river give joy to God’s city, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, it cannot be shaken; God will help it at the dawning of the day.” The river of God will overflow into all we do if we learn to walk interiorly. We will desecrate the temple we are if we walk exteriorly, with eyes for only physical gains. The Lord reveals what our fate would be if we use ourselves only in worldly affairs and fail to worship God duly in our bodies. “Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coin, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’” God has committed so much to our spiritual restoration. He offered the life of his Son to remake us into his worthy temple. “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.” Let us recall his saving death, which restored us to spiritual life, as we live and worship God in Spirit and Truth.

Let us pray: O God, who from living and chosen stones prepare an eternal dwelling for your majesty, increase in your Church the spirit of grace you have bestowed, so that by new growth your faithful people may build up the heavenly Jerusalem. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.