THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF ST JOHN LATERAN GOSPEL: John 2:13-22 Just before the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, 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’. Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said, ‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?’ Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up’. The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ This Sunday we celebrate the dedication of St John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome. The cathedra represents the teaching authority of the bishop, and the Bishop of Rome presides over all the Catholic Church. It is important that each of us play our particular role in the ecclesial body that is the Church. The first reading speaks of a fountain of water that comes out of the Temple and gives life to the entire world, animals, plants and fish. We, as the Church, are also called to give life to the world. The feast this week highlights the unique position of the Cathedral of Rome at the heart of the Church, and the readings focus very appropriately on the zeal of Jesus to purify the Church. Whatever our role may be, the Church will not function well as a stream of life-giving water for the world unless the water that issues from her is clean. Jesus drives the money changers and sellers out of the Temple because the house of God must not be compromised with worldly things. There is always a temptation to make mundane things central and to marginalize the sacred things that ought to be our absolute priority! We also are temples of God. We must allow Jesus to enter our hearts and purify us so that we will becomes springs of water for the world. The money changers and sellers that exist in our hearts, the constant tendencies to make worldly things central, these must be driven out of us by Jesus. We must be constantly purified so that we become worthy temples of the Holy Spirit, carrying life-giving water to the world. The cathedra represents the teaching mission of the bishop of the diocese: This Sunday we celebrate the dedication of a church, the Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of Rome. St Peter’s might appear to be more important, but the cathedral of a diocese is the place of the cathedra or seat of the bishop of the diocese. When the bishop sits in his chair, this act symbolizes his fundamental teaching role. In the apse of St John Lateran there is a marble chair on which no one else can sit except the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome. A chair can symbolize the office of master or judge, and in the case of the cathedra of every diocese, it symbolizes the magisterium or teaching authority of the bishop. A bishop, of course, doesn’t just exercise his magisterium whilst sitting on that chair. He does so wherever he goes and in various different ways. Every part of a body has is particular role, and the role of the Bishop of Rome is to preside in charity over the rest of the body: The Church is not an abstract entity but the communion of all the faithful, the body of Christ. The parts of a body have different functions, but they all operate together for the good of a single person. There is also the role of government. If the body is not united under a single decision making component - the mind - and if the various parts do not operate according to their particular design, then problems result. A cell that does not develop in the way that respects its role in the overall plan is called cancerous. The role of the bishop is the teaching of the faith, and he is assisted in this by priests. It is important that there be unity in the teaching of the faith. The Church of Rome presides in charity over the magisterium of the Church. The Catholic Church recognizes in the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, this special and unique role as successor of Peter. The Church is a fountain of water that gives life to the world, but the waters must be purified: With all of this we are already very familiar. The dedication of the Lateran Basilica, insofar as it is the dedication of the cathedra of the Bishop of Rome, the bishop who presides over the entire Catholic Church, involves the consecration of a physical place. Through these concrete objects - this Chair, this basilica - we grow in awareness of who we are ourselves. The Church is a temple that is purified by Jesus. The first reading speaks of a stream that issues from the Temple. It becomes a marvellous river giving life to all of creation, animals, plants and fish. In the same way, the Church gives life to the world. At the heart of the Church, the body of Christ, is the assembly of the people of God, a concrete entity that gives life to others. It is not a self-sufficient entity that exists for its own sake. It is something, rather, from which abundant waters flow for the benefit of the entire world. But in order for abundant waters to flow, it is essential that the Church be built upon a pure source. A stream can be polluted in the valley or in the mountains through which it flows. For this reason Jesus goes to the heart of the Temple to purify it. There is a constant temptation to make the temple impure by allowing worldly things to take pride of place: The Temple of the Old Testament is symbolic of the Church, and it is also symbolic of every individual Christian. The Temple is the holy place of God, where God speaks to his people and where people make contact with God. In this place sacrifices and liturgies made heaven and earth touch each other. The transformation of the Temple into a market place represented an abuse of sacred things. The money changers and the sellers of doves were not completely alien to the place, but they were an abuse of the necessities of the cult. The maintenance of the Temple as a place worthy of the cult required the offering of a very particular coin. The Jews that came from various parts of the world to worship in Jerusalem had need of the money changers in order to be able to offer that coin, but the problem was that this secondary kind of activity had taken central place. There is a constant temptation with the sacred to allow secondary things to dominate our attention. That which should be at the heart of our worship becomes a servant of these secondary things. The purification of the Temple is Jesus’ priority. In the Gospel we are told that he is filled with zeal for his Father’s house. This Sunday let us renew our commitment to drive the money changers and sellers from our hearts, to cease to make worldly things our priority, to allow ourselves to become pure temples of the Spirit, places where the loving paternity of God is contemplated constantly: We, as an ecclesial community and as individuals, as temples of the Spirit of God, have need of order and purification. We are not purified once and for all. We exist in a perpetual state of being purified. Our houses don’t get cleaned just once a year, they are in need of regular cleaning. Our bodies need constant cleaning and care, and in the same way our souls need constant care. Our souls must cease to be a market place, where our overriding preoccupation is with acquisition, gain, the satisfaction of what we can attain. We must allow our souls to be transformed by Jesus into the house of the Father, the place where we cultivate always the memory of the loving paternity of God. This Sunday presents a wonderful opportunity to restore our discipline, to tenaciously focus only on that which is necessary so that the fountain within us becomes pure and clean.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 19:43:45 +0000
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