Readings
of the day: Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9; 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17;
John 2:13-22
What is so significant about a building?
Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.
St. John Lateran, not St. Peter’s Basilica, is officially the cathedral church;
the most important church building of Rome and the seat of the Bishop of Rome,
the pope. It was dedicated, or blessed and recognized as a sacred space for
worship by Pope Sylvester I on November 9, 324, 1 690 years ago today.
About one thousand years later, Rome had
become a chaotic and violent place, so several popes lived in a city in France
called Avignon. When they returned to Rome another seventy years later, the
Basilica of St. John Lateran was falling apart, and so popes since then have
lived near what is now St. Peter’s Basilica.
Do not worry; there will be no quiz
after Mass on the dates, names, and places associated with the Basilica of St.
John Lateran. But with the history of St. John Lateran in the background, I
want to return to our first question: What is so significant about a building,
specifically a building for worship; a church building? Why do we celebrate the
dedication of St. John Lateran, a church building to which few of us have been;
a place that may seem remote to us?
A related question is this: What is
Church? If we were to ask everybody here what “Church” means, would we not hear
several answers? Maybe Church is a series of buildings. Maybe the Church is the
people gathered to worship, whether in one site or in unity (communion) with
all people around the world who worship God; with all Christians; with all
Catholics who celebrate the one holy sacrifice of the Mass. Maybe Church is both the people and the
building or buildings…
What is the significance of a building
for worship? What is Church? These questions are not easy to answer. The
readings we hear today may help us to answer these questions; they may not. The
prophet Ezekiel speaks in our first reading of the Temple of Jerusalem. Ezekiel
uses rich images reminding us of the Genesis creation stories to describe the temple:
Water flowing out in all directions; the streams all joining into a great river
that gives abundant life to everything along its banks. The temple; the
building; the center of worship that is the source of this life is very
significant. The temple, Ezekiel says, is to be the new Eden; the new paradise
on earth.
There is a problem with this, though.
Has anyone here ever been to Jerusalem? Those of us who have know that
Jerusalem is very dry for much of the year. There is no major river near
Jerusalem. The Pool of Siloam was next to the temple in ancient times. The
valleys around Jerusalem fill with water during the rainy season, but there is
no river anywhere nearby. Also, in Ezekiel’s time there was not yet another
temple. The first temple had been destroyed and Ezekiel was speaking to people
of Israel in exile in Babylon. And so Ezekiel’s prophecy cannot be primarily
about the importance of a building. Ezekiel is speaking of the primary
importance of the people who would worship in the temple once it had been
rebuilt. Ezekiel calls the people of Israel; the Jewish people not to become
obsessed with the physical rebuilding of a temple, but to become the dwelling
place of God within themselves; to become, with God at the center of their
worship and community, the source of new life to the world around them. Ezekiel
calls the people to be living stones of a new paradise.
We, too, are called to be living stones of
a new paradise, the Kingdom of God. St. Paul reminds us in our second reading
as he reminded the Corinthian Christians of his time: “You are God’s building…
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you”? We are, as Church, living stones built upon one “foundation…
Jesus Christ.”
Our Gospel reading from John is less
direct than St. Paul on this point, but still communicates the same message: We
are living stones of a new paradise, the Kingdom of God. But does not John have
a strange way of communicating this message? Instead of the images of building
and giving life that we hear from the prophet Ezekiel and from St. Paul, Jesus
speaks in John’s Gospel of destruction of the temple. Jesus acts in a
destructive way, overturning the tables of the money changers and driving them
and those selling “oxen, sheep, and doves” from the temple. “Stop making my
father’s house a marketplace,” Jesus says, “Destroy this temple and in three
days I will raise it up.”
What brings Jesus to such anger? It is
tempting perhaps to overlook the cleansing of the temple, which challenges our
image of the mild-mannered, peaceful Jesus. Like Ezekiel, Jesus reacts to the
people’s obsession with a building; obsession that turns sacred spaces, not
only buildings but the hearts of the people, into mere marketplaces: Buy this;
consume that; I want more… Cleansing; overturning; destruction of this
obsession must take place if we are to become living stones of a new paradise
built on Christ as our foundation; if we are to be raised up to be the Church
God calls us to be.
Might this message hit close to home for
many of us? We at St. Kateri are one parish made up of five church sites. In a
short four years, we have done, I think, remarkably well in recognizing that
St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish is more than the buildings here at Christ the
King, at St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Salome; St. Margaret Mary and St.
Cecilia. We are St. Kateri Parish. We are one parish built on one foundation, Jesus Christ. We are the faithful of one Diocese of
Rochester; one universal Church; living stones of a new paradise; the one
Kingdom of God that is fully present but, as it were, still under construction.
Our feast today of the Dedication of the
Basilica of St. John Lateran, then, is not primarily about a remote church
building in Rome. Today is an opportunity to re-dedicate ourselves; to renew
our commitment made in baptism and confirmation to be one Church; to allow the
Holy Spirit of God to dwell in us more and more deeply.
It is no accident that we are anointed
with the same sweet-smelling Oil of Chrism, blessed by the bishop during Holy
Week, in baptism and again in confirmation. Chrism is used to anoint
newly-ordained priests in holy orders. And the same Chrism is also spread over
the altar of when a church building is newly dedicated for worship.
This weekend [after this Mass], we
celebrate two baptisms here at Christ the King. We celebrate six baptisms in
total this weekend in our parish. We are invited on this Feast of the
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome to remember our own dedication; our
own baptism, when God’s Spirit first dwelt in us, when we, not a building,
first became Church, living stones of the Kingdom of God; living stones of a
new paradise with Christ as our foundation.
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