HW: You are God's temple and the Spirit of God is living among you.

A reflection on what is church for, to mark the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. Written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA.

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
25.11.09
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Welcome
Today, we celebrate the cathedral church of the bishop of Rome, the basilica of St John Lateran. The building itself is remarkable — for example the front doors are from the ancient Senate House in the Roman Forum and there is a very beautiful cloister attached to the cathedral. To be candid, it must, of course, seem strange to remember a building, however important in another country! But there is more to it than that.

Topic
In celebrating the cathedral of the bishop of Rome, we are marking our communion in the Catholic Church under the leadership of the Holy Father.

Steps
There are some 1.2 billion Catholics, at least on paper. As The Economist, using a different lens, said: the Catholic Church is the largest NGO in the world. We are more than an NGO, of course, but the remarkable feature is that we are all in communion with each other, across the globe. Part of the genius of the church is being able to cope with a great diversity of ways of being Christian. These days we are frequently reminded that it is a broad church. This has become more apparent in the Synodal Pathway.

But first of all, a brief word on each reading

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
Ezekiel is not always easy reading but this excerpt is quite appealing. The prophet worked during the terrible time of the great exile in Babylon, when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. In exile, Ezekiel experienced an extraordinary vision of a renewed Temple — he goes way beyond the engineering project and using rich and evocative imagery, he focuses on the purpose of the temple: to be a source of life and wellbeing. The closing image reads:

Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.

Medicinal leaves reminds us of a favourite image of Pope Francis of the church as “field hospital.” The church can never be for itself: it is to bring life, health, refreshment, healing and wellbeing.

1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17
Paul takes up again the imagery of a building, noting the foundation is Christ. Then he makes an imaginative leap: the Christ-believers, individually and as a community, are in themselves the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is worth remembering that when he wrote, the Second Temple in Jerusalem still stood. It was the place of the presence, the shekinah, of God. But Paul’s tells us we are all temples of God, with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. The full implications of such a teaching can be traced in the great Romans chapter 8.

John 2:13-22
The Gospel of John was written later, in the aftermath of the destruction by the Romans of Herod’s great temple in Jerusalem. All strands of Judaism then had to ask themselves, where is God now to be found. What emerged as Rabbinic Judaism located God’s presence in the Torah, following good biblical tradition. In the book of Baruch, chapter 3, we read about God’s wisdom searching for a place to dwell: 

3:38 Afterward she (Lady Wisdom) appeared on earth
and lived with humankind.
Baruch 4:1    She is the book of the commandments of God,
the law that endures forever.
All who hold her fast will live,
and those who forsake her will die.

The John community, committed to Christ, takes a very different tack. It is the risen Christ who is now the temple of God, the place of encounter, as we see regularly in the quest stories in John’s Gospel.

Conclusion
As you will have noticed, with the help of the Word of God, we have moved well beyond bricks and mortar. What is the church? It is, we are, meant to be a place of encounter, a place of life, health, refreshment, healing and wellbeing. At the centre of our gatherings is the risen Lord, the new shekinah, presence of God, among us. Finally, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, we share in that Christ reality: we too are God’s temple — we too have the Holy Spirit within us. 

A French bishop once put it very sharply: a church which does not serve serves for nothing. In his first letter to us all, Dilexit Te (“He loved you”), Pope Leo challenges us to become what we supposed to be. He writes passionately of the church as a place of encounter and welcome, with no barriers, especially welcoming to the poor. We are to see Christ in every human being in need. Simple! Radical! Life-changing.