Dedication of the Lateran Basilica 2025
Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Cor 3:9-11, 16-17 John 2:13-22
Our celebration of the Liturgy today is honouring the Cathedral Church of Pope Leo, the Bishop of Rome. The Cathedral Church of any diocese is special: it is the chair of the bishop, the mother church of the diocese and the centre of all major diocesan liturgies. The Cathedral Church of the diocese of Rome is regarded as the mother and head church of all the churches of the City and the World. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch said this church “presides over the whole assembly of charity”. So, in a sense, it is more than just a building!
From the very beginning the human race has tried to identify with where God lives. In Genesis we have the image of God walking in the Garden of Paradise in close proximity to creation and the human race. Temples were made by human hands and were the spaces where the Patriarchs discovered the Presence of God. Moses spoke with God in a tent in the midst of the wild desert. Later it was considered that God took up a dwelling in the Temple in Jerusalem and the ‘line of David’ then took up the guardianship of the ‘house of God’.
It seemed that people found it easier to sense the Presence of God ‘within walls’ and eventually it was the Prophets who began to announce that God wished to dwell in the hearts of God’s Faithful People. So, as we read from today’s 1st Reading, Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple is that of ‘God’s Dwelling place’. This is not a static, concrete structure, but rather a fount, a source, a spring from which flows power and health and life to all. It was through the same Ezekiel that God revealed that His dwelling place to be, not a structure, but a space where ”I will be with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Ez 37:27).
The New Testament, and particularly the letters of Saint Paul gave new understanding to what Church is all about. “You are God’s building” St Paul declares in our 2nd Reading today. Our life in Christ takes on the meaning of a Body and this body is founded on Jesus Christ. He is the foundation and the body is formed and developed by the Apostles of which Paul is one (the Architect), this body is us and we are the Temple.
We are reminded today of last weekend’s liturgical celebration of the Communion of Saints. The Communion of Saints is made up of all who have been redeemed by Christ: the Communion of Saints is the Church: the Communion of Saints is the Body of Christ and within this Communion of Saints dwells the Holy Spirit. Because of the Holy Spirit this body is not static or inactive. From this Communion of Saints flows power and health and life. Before our bodies are consigned to the earth, from which we came, the Church honours them with incense recognising them as having been ‘Temples of the Holy Spirit’.
So, God dwells in the building, in the people, in each person. The Body of Christ , which is the Church culminates in what St John describes in his vision of Heaven: the communion of Saints around the Throne of God, giving Glory, Honour, praise and power to God forever.