Gospel & Reflection for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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.
Reflection
Friends, there is an episode of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ which is my favourite episode ever of any sitcom. It contains a joke, that no matter how often I hear it, it simply gets better and more hilarious. It is the one where Dell Boy and Rodney’s friend Trigger was awarded a special medal – a medal for his service to the community as a road sweeper. His job, according to Trigger, had saved the local Council tons of money because he had used the same sweeping brush for twenty years!
When Dell Boy asks, “if a broom could last twenty years, had it ever swept a road,” Trigger says it had, but that he had just maintained his brush very well for all of that time. He proudly shows and tells his friends, “this old broom has had 17 new heads, and 14 new handles in its time!” For Trigger, he sincerely believed that even with all of those ‘modifications,’ it was still his original brush!! Classic comedy.
Well, not making light of today’s feast in any way, but whenever I think of the Feast of the Lateran Basilica, I am reminded of that classic joke. You see, as a building, the history of the Lateran Basilica spans 1700 years and counting. It began as a palace belonging to the wealthy Laterani family, from where it gets its name, but their property was confiscated by the psychotic Emperor Nero. In the third century, the site was passed on to Emperor Constantine, who on converting to Christianity gave it to the then Pope, Miltiades. Miltiades built a little Church on the site, making it the world’s first, legally built, public Christian Church. Over time, that small Church was replaced with a larger Basilica that became the official residence of the Pope for the next thousand years.
However, through the centuries, the Basilica has endured numerous trials. It was ransacked and plundered by invaders; it was severely damaged by at least two great fires and was even levelled by an earthquake. It has had to be rebuilt, renovated, and renewed for varied reasons repeatedly across the centuries, with each era leaving its mark. Yet, like Trigger and his unshakable conviction about his well-maintained, if modified broom, the Lateran Basilica, with all of its renovations and incarnations, still keeps intact and sacred, its original form and purpose.
As the ‘Mother and Head of all the Churches of the City and the World’, the Lateran, just like our own beautiful Church, invites us to reflect on the nature of the universal Church—the Church not merely buildings of wood, mortar, and stone; but the Church and its people as the living Body of Christ which has survived all the challenges of time, history, and faith; and which will continue to survive all the trials still to come.
Here, silently and out loud, as many and sometimes as few, if not just one, we seek to be renewed in mind, body and spirit; to be energised to face the world as God’s people and to witness to Him in all that we say and do. Here, we find the space to be with God, to consider His majesty, to be in His presence through the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, to be with each other, and to become confident in all that God can do when we call upon Him.
But as the Gospel reminds us, sacred spaces and faithful people can cease to serve their intended purpose. Jesus declares that His Father’s house had been turned into a market, and that those present in the Temple were not encountering or revering what they should have been facing and respecting, that is, the formidable presence of God.
Friends, as we celebrate the Feast of the Lateran Basilica, let us never cease to recognise the importance of our Church building and of our presence within it. Every Church and its people should be a living sign of life, love, faith, and hope in a community. As this parish community, we need to keep allowing our sacred space, our Church, to be a place that helps us to be open to the Spirit of God living among us; a place that empowers us to move beyond these walls and be living witnesses of faith, hope, and love.
Here, we should find together, an unshakable conviction that we are the Body of Christ. Here, we must nurture our resilience to make real and visible God’s loving and merciful presence in a world that needs Him now more than ever. We must always trust that while much changes, what is most important stays the same – God, our loving Father and we His faithful people.
Fr. Richard
