Ezk 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1 Cor 3:9c-11,16-17; Jn 2:13-22
Chapter 10 of St. John’s Gospel records the presence of Our Lord in the Jerusalem Temple during its solemn Dedication Feast (10:22). That annual celebration had been decreed by Judas Maccabeus, following his purification of the Temple in 164 B.C., after its pollution by the wicked King Antiochus Epiphanes. Jewish congregations also celebrated that Dedication feast in the synagogues of the diaspora. So we can discern a certain coherence between that Jewish celebration and our own practice of observing throughout the world an annual feast of the Dedication of the Lateran. This feast takes precedence even over a Sunday, because it is ranked as a feast of the Lord.
According to our holy faith, the Temple in Jerusalem as the place of God’s dwelling on earth was replaced not by a new building, but by the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. God dwells now also, we believe, in baptised Christians, for they are now themselves become Christ’s Body, and in them the Holy Spirit dwells. But it’s impossible to be a Christian in isolation. Our baptism necessarily inscribes us into Christ’s Body which is the Church; the Church who is our Mother, and from whom we receive both faith and baptism. Where is the Church, Christ’s mystical Body, to be found? We say she exists wherever the Holy Spirit is; so wherever there is charity; wherever Christian souls are joined together in worship; wherever there is a Catholic Altar, or wherever there is the Catholic Mass. All of that can be beautifully symbolised by, though certainly not confined to, a visible building. And we celebrate today this particular building, because the Lateran Basilica is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, and is therefore known as “the Mother and Head of all the Churches of the City and of the world”. Today’s feast then is a way of emphasising the unity of the Church, and our close union in faith, loyalty and love with the successor of St. Peter.
The Lateran Basilica was consecrated or dedicated by Pope St. Sylvester on 9th November in the year of our Lord 324. At the time this must have seemed very extraordinary. The Lateran Basilica is huge, and prominent, and a willing gift from the ruling Emperor. So after nearly 3 centuries of life more or less underground, and more or less constantly persecuted, now at last the Catholic Church could be a fully public presence. Christians could gather together for worship without harassment or fear. They could organise, and evangelise, keep their Sundays and feasts, spread their influence, carry out their good works. Today’s feast then is also a way of celebrating the freedom of the Church: or in so far as that is compromised, it’s a way of expressing our belief that the freedom of the Church is a good and desirable thing. And her public and visible expression reflects the visibility, the human actuality of Christ’s Body.
If anyone should feel that all that triumphalism, all that magnificent display of wealth and power ill befits disciples of the Crucified, then the history of the Lateran well illustrates the Lord’s ability to keep his Church humble, and in touch with the poor, and never satisfied with any earthly achievement. Twice this Basilica has been brought down by earthquake. Several times it has been swept by fire. It has been sacked and desecrated by barbarians, and Saracens, and heretics. It has suffered from the neglect and indifference of those entrusted with its care. And even as it was being dedicated, Constantine was busy shifting the centre of government away from Rome. After that the City ever increasingly lost its political importance. At some periods in the following centuries Rome sank to the status of a crumbling ghost town, a backwater mostly inhabited by brigands. During the 14th century the City was so unsafe that the Popes moved to the South of France. Napoleon put the Pope in prison and confidently declared the end of the Catholic Church. Then in 1870 Pope Pius IX lost whatever remained of his temporal jurisdiction, and with it his political independence. The present autonomy of the tiny Vatican City State was granted in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, set up between Pius XI and Mussolini.
In spite of all this, the Faith has survived, and so has the Papacy. Periods of decline or corruption have always been followed by periods of new fervour, new energy, new devotion, and new building. And with that have always come new expressions of beauty: great architecture, great music, great art, great scholarship, great liturgy, great preaching, great sanctity. So we have not only beautiful Churches, to help lift us up to God, but we see the Christian life of the little ones being fostered, and encouraged, and given new inspiration, and new confidence, and new hope.
The prophet Ezekiel was a Priest whose whole life was centred on the Jerusalem Temple. He was deported to Babylon after the first capture of the City by Nebuchadnezzar. From Babylon Ezekiel heard of the total destruction of the Temple in the second Babylonian assault. And it was in Babylon that Ezekiel had a vision of a new Temple in a new City. Healthful, life-giving Waters flow from its side. Immediately we Christians think of the water that flowed from the side of Jesus as he hung on the Cross; the water of the Holy Spirit; the water of baptism, through which the holy Church of God ever receives her supernatural life, and is ever renewed.
The great octagonal Baptistery of St. John the Baptist is a separate building from the Lateran Basilica, though connected to it. At one time this was the only Baptistery in Rome, so at Easter there would be very large numbers of people, all undergoing total immersion, then emerging in their gleaming white robes into the great Church packed with the faithful, singing in deepest night of Christ’s victory.
Maybe some day someone will drop an atom bomb on Rome, and our Basilica will be destroyed once again. But we believe the Holy Spirit will never abandon his Church. So whether we find ourselves in a period of prosperity or decline does not essentially matter. What matters is to become the Saints we are called to be, and to abide always in the communion of the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. For there we are fed by the Holy Eucharist; and there we ourselves become what our Church buildings signify: holy Temples of God, visible foreshadowings of future glory, living expressions of praise.