The Solemnity of the Dedication of Lateran Basilica
November 9, 2018: Ezekiel 47: 1-2,8-9,12 (or) 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11,16-17; John 2:13-22
The dedication of the Basilica of St John at the Lateran gives us a great opportunity to reflect on the decadence of the divinity that resides within humanity. But before go to discuss that, let us say a word on the Basilica itself.
The Basilica and the feast:
The feast that we celebrate today is the remembrance of the dedication (on 9th, Nov, 324 AD) of the Basilica that stands on the property which was called 'Lateran' because it belonged to that family but acquired and given by Emperor Constantine to the Church earlier. The Church which was built was dedicated to the two great Johns of the Gospel: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist! This Basilica is one of the so-called Four Major Basilicas of Rome (the other three being those of St. Peter, Mary Major and St. Paul outside the walls). There is yet another importance attached to this Basilica because this is the Cathedral, that is the Official seat of the Bishop of Rome, that is none other than the Holy Father himself. Hence this is called the Papal Cathedral or the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, and not the all-famous Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican!
We are the Temple:
The Word speaks to us of the Temple today. Temple of the Lord. Temple of the living God. Temple where lives God. That temple you are! And it is from here the Lord wants his glory to be spread far and wide, from the temple of our selves, from the altars of our daily struggles and sacrifices. The Lord's zeal for the temple flairs up today and that temple is not the structure that stands in places, but the persons that we are.
Such a sanctuary, filled with such extraordinary truths is made into a robbers den: a place where all evil resides; and a market place: where everything goes on except what is sacred! Exploitation of persons, decadence of moral dignity, human trafficking, sexual aberrations, killing in the name of god, violating the rights of the other, scheming to wipe out the races of people, keeping quiet at the face of blatant inhumanity that is perpetrated at large, buying and selling human labour without an iota of human respect, the swelling of the moneyed and the suffering of the exploited, the arrogance of the affluent and the insensitivity towards the downtrodden, the thousands and thousands of lives of the poor over whose graves walks the so called development today... these are the crimes against which the Lord would make a whip!
Cleansing the temple, the invitation that Lord has is fundamentally to realise the divinity that resides within us and the dignity that arises from the fact and to understand that we are a blessing to many, as Ezekiel points out about the waters that flow from beneath the Temple which makes fertile every land that it flows into. In simple words, we are called to be persons worthy of the Lord, communities worthy of our faith and societies worthy of the sacredness of the humanity.