Dedication of the Lateran Basilica Yrs ABC 2025

Title

The Lateran Basilica is the Symbol of the Body of Christ

Outline

Why celebrate the Lateran Basilica and Why these readings?

First, because it is the locus of the papal cathedra and therefore called: “Major Papal, Patriarchal and Roman Archbasilica, Metropolitan and Primatial Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in Lateran, Mother and Head of All Churches in Rome and in the World.” That says more than calling it the oldest (324) church in Rome or the oldest basilica in the West or the only archbasilica in the world. It is therefore the temporal temple of the one Church and the symbol of its unity.

Second, because it has endured despite structural deterioration, two fires, and later rebuilding in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is a symbol of the Church’s temporal decline and restoration. Look at our readings.

The first reading points to the Church as the source of life

The Temple, which will be reflected in Revelation ch 21 in terms of the Church as Holy of Holies, is the source of living water (as Jesus said of himself) that brings life and healing even to places long dead, such as the Arabah and the Dead Sea. This is a partial reality in the present but it is the ultimate reality when the earth is made new.

The epistle points to the Church as being built in this age but liable to corruption

Paul as master-builder builds on the foundation of Jesus Christ for “y’all” are God’s building. Paul warns that both he and other builders must be careful to build in union with the foundation, Jesus. So far so good, but then comes a warning: “Y’all are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in y’all.” So we are collectively like the Temple with God himself in the Holy of Holies. Therefore the Church collectively is holy. If a person destroys it, God will destroy that person. This could be external attack such as Nebuchadnezzar or Antiochus Epiphanes or internal corruption as in Ezekiel or as in the Church in various periods, but one thinks of the pre-Reformation period and then of the destruction done from within by the so-called Reformers themselves.

Finally, we have Jesus who combines the two images

In the Synoptics he “cleanses” the Temple by stopping the sacrifices as he drives out the sacrificial animals, predicting the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and stating that it had become a “den of revolutionaries” (which is a play on the two meanings of lestes). In John it is that the court of the Gentiles has become a temple of mammon, a marketplace. In either case it is a corruption. Yet in John Jesus goes father in that, when challenged he replies, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” John interprets this as Jesus’ body, which, as we saw in Paul, can oscillate between individual and collective, between Jesus and his body the Church. He would raise up, yes, himself, but more centrally the Church from the metaphorical ruins of the Jerusalem Temple. And that would not be destroyed.

Sisters, reflect on these images

We wonder at the antiquity and beauty of the Lateran Basilica and rightly so, for it is still the official seat of the Church and the Spirit dwells within it. This Church like the basilica has suffered corruption and rebuilding so we can have hope in dark times. But in the end this and all basilicas as well as those of mammon and power and the like will be destroyed and the earth itself will be renewed on a new plane and there will be a building, a community, in which God dwells on earth and from which will come the water of life for the renewed world. Our call now is to take our place in that building and do our part in obedience to God in bringing the first trickles of that water to the world now as a sign of the world to come.