Today we celebrate the dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica, the oldest and one of the most important Christian basilicas in Rome. But it has always been recognized as the cathedral church of the bishop of Rome. It was first called the Most Holy Savior, then 2 centuries later called St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. It was the first Christian church building. The ground for it was donated by the Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century. It was rebuilt four or five times! The Vandals wrecked it in the 5th century, an earthquake did the same in the 9th, two fires destroyed it at different times in the 14th, and there was little left of the original when the interior was redone in the 17th.
Even though no building in this world is big enough to contain God's immensity, since very long, long time ago, human beings have felt the need to reserve certain locations for their personal and collective meetings with God. At the beginning, the gathering places for Christians were their private homes, where communities congregated for prayer and the breaking of the Eucharistic Bread. The gathered community was —and still is today— God's Holy Temple. As time went by, these communities have been building edifices devoted to their liturgical celebrations. One of the most striking features of the St. John Lateran Basilica is an inscription found in the basilica's baptistery which says: "This is the fountain of life, which cleanses the whole world, taking its course from the wounds of Christ." It is a powerful reminder that the
Church exists to carry on the work of Christ in the world.
St. John Lateran is the symbol of the unity of all the Churches in the world with the Roman Church, and this is why this basilica proudly displays in its main portico the title of Mother and head of all the churches in the city and in the world. It is even more important than St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the latter not being actually a cathedral, but a shrine built over St. Peter's tomb. It stands as a temple of stones as a symbol of the living Church, the Christian community, of which Christ is the cornerstone.
A church is a symbol of a believing community, just as a house is a symbol of the self. We search for God there, and God searches for us. This is not usually a peaceful process: “God ransacks the house,” Tauler said, “throwing aside one thing after another.” God comes searching for us, in our human stature and in all our ragged imperfection.
In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel saw healing water flowing from the Temple and going out in all directions. In one sense, that is us. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus wants to fill us to over flowing. In order to bring Christ to the world, however, we must plunge deeply into the fountain of life ourselves. Personal
prayer, the gift of the sacraments, the wisdom of Scripture, the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these are their own founts of life for us. If we immerse ourselves in Christ, we really can change the world.
We should never lose sight of the fact that the true meeting point between man and God, his actual temple, is Jesus Christ. This is why, He was empowered to tidy up his Father's home and to say these words: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up (Jn 2:19). Thanks to the sacrifice of his life for us, Jesus Christ has made out of believers God's living temple. This is why, the Christian message reminds us that all human beings are a sacred reality, where God dwells, and that it cannot be profaned by using it as material means. Let us go forth today remembering our call to be temples of the Holy Spirit whenever we go.
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