Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 9, 2008 - Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
[Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Corinthians 3:9C-11, 16-17; John 2:13-22]Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
The mention of this feast day probably brings a blank look to the face of many folks. Why would this replace a Sunday scripture? The response is basically that this particular church is the official cathedral of the Bishop of Rome: Benedict XVI! (Surprise! It's not St. Peter's!) If it's the official cathedral of the Pope, it has a symbolic importance for the rest of the church and all cathedrals! However, I remember as a seminarian, one of our older fathers talking about his experiences as a chaplain in the Pacific theater of the Second World War. He was on a large island that was the headquarters of a vast missionary diocese and had the use of the cathedral, which wasn't much more than a very large covered pavilion, open at the sides in the usual tropical island style. He said about another of our brothers who was also a chaplain, "Father So-and-so also had a cathedral but I do believe it blew away!" The Laterani family is memorialized in this magnificent church, but as the Pacific Island story reminds us, cathedrals are, after all, buildings that can be blown away . They create a space but it becomes a sacred space only when the Lord and the faithful are there. St. Paul reminds us that WE are the temples of the Lord. Although Ezekiel the prophet today speaks of the symbolic importance of the temple, his fellow prophet, Jeremiah, warned the Chosen People, "Put not your trust in these words: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" Jesus' actions in today's gospel scripture also remind us that temples become corrupt when those who attend or serve them become corrupt - no matter how magnificent the building. A cathedral truly becomes a cathedral when there is a true People of God to attend it. AMEN
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