Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lantern (32 Sun)

November 9, 2025

John 2:13-22

We might well wonder why we are celebrating the dedication of a church building in Rome, Italy. And it’s not even the dedication of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. But actually this basilica is the Cathedral Church of Rome, the Pope’s cathedral as bishop of Rome. It was given to Pope Sylvester by Constantine and dedicated 0n November 9, 324 AD. This basilica has been destroyed by fire, earthquakes and attacks many time, but each time it as carefully rebuilt. It’s importance is that it stands as a symbol of the unity of the Church. It symbolize our unity in one foundation which is Christ. The Church, of course, is not a building. But a church is where the community of the faithful gather to pray and worship, and so is a symbol of the unity of the faithful gathered in it. As St. Paul says in our second reading “You are God’s building.” So, this church of St. John Lateran symbolizes the whole Church gathered in many such buildings throughout the world.

St. John’s gospel today also deals with a church, the Temple of Jerusalem; in Jesus time it was the symbol of all faithful believers in the true 

God of Israel. It was a sign of God living in the midst of that community, but had strayed from it’s original purpose of being a House of Prayer, as Jesus so dramatically points out: “Take all of these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” We know he was talking about the money changers and ritual animal dealers. So what is he saying about the temple end the people who prayed in it. He means that all the buying and selling pointed to the leaders of the people and to some extent the people themselves who worshiped there had strayed from their original purpose of showing God as present in the world. The people and the temple were no longer that living symbol Of God, as prophets throughout the ages had warned about. Ezekiel in our first reading so elegantly and vividly describes. The Temple was supposed to give God’s nourishment to all creation.

Even today popes have warned us of our own failures as a community of love making Christ’s presence alive and real in the world in which we live. Jesus’ purpose in today’s gospel regarding the Temple and it’s community was not to destroy, but rather to build up. That healing message is one we, as a community of love urgently need to make real. We see families breaking down, the elderly languishing in loneliness, people no longer seen as people, but as enemies who would take away our prosperity.

St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians can guide us today and give us that wake up call: Come home for Christmas, a phrase we’ll be hearing a lot in the coming weeks. Remember who we are: the Body of Christ. In both Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, he is addressing divisions that have grown up obscure the community of the faithful, the Church, from it’s primary purpose of making Christ present in all creation and all peoples. A healthy body is formed and made one out of reflecting Christ’s love. After all, isn’t that one the first observation non-Christians had of the people who made up Christ’s Church. Jesus had said in John 13, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” St. John of the Cross tells us “Put love where there is no love, and there you will draw out love.”

So, as we celebrate the dedication St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome, a symbol of the unity of the Body of Christ, Jesus gives us a warning. It is all too easy to be preoccupied with turtle doves and the right kind of temple money, and forget our central purpose: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” So in celebrating the dedication of a symbol of our unity in the love and mission of Christ, we always need to remember how we live out this unity and mission in actual life, Christ’s life. After all, now we are his Body. The church building where we gather as his Body must remain a true symbol, and not just adeception. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

Fr. John Tran