- Feast
of St. John Lateran is unusual in the Church’s calendar, because it is a
feast for a building rather than a saint or an event in salvation history
- Lateran
Basilica—dedicated to Christ the Savior in honor of both John the Baptist
and John the Evangelist—is the Cathedral of Rome, the mother church of the
mother diocese of the world.
- holds
the cathedra or throne of the bishop of
- we
call places of worship “churches,” in actual fact the true sanctuary or
place of worship is the Body of Christ
1.
Our First Reading Ezekiel 47:1-2 , 8-9 , 12 :
a. Ezekiel
beholds a new temple and new land
of Israel
b. At
the time of Ezekiel’s writing, the Jerusalem
Temple
c. Ezekiel
had preached to the people that this destruction and exile was the result of
their sin and abominations against the LORD.
d. He
sees, essentially, a New Jerusalem and a New
Temple , and this Temple has the attributes of the Garden of
Eden, which was the original sanctuary at the beginning of time.
e. Ezekiel’s
vision would be fulfilled in time, but in a way far different than he may have
imagined.
2.
The
Responsorial Psalm is Psalm
46:2-3 , 5-6 ,
8-9 :
a. a
song of praise of the Holy City Jerusalem, which was the special dwelling place
of God and site of the Holy
Temple
b. Gihon
was the only continuously-flowing source of water for the city of Jerusalem . As such,
the people of Jerusalem
saw it as sacred, a gift from God and sign of God’s blessing to the city.
c. The
spring was named “Gihon” after one of the rivers of Eden
(Gen 2:10 ) because
the ancient Israelites looked at Jerusalem
as a New Eden
d. Our
“Gihon,” our stream of fresh water to sustain life in time of siege, is the
Holy Spirit that flows within the Church, conveyed to us in the waters of
Baptism and the flow of Eucharistic blood.
3.
The Second Reading 1 Cor 3:9c-11 , 16-17 :
a. St. Paul uses temple
language to describe the Church
b. The
language of the temple is particularly poignant when writing to the
Corinthians, since Corinth
was renown for its massive temple to Venus/Aphrodite, which was a major center
for cultic prostitution.
c. the
body of believers itself is the dwelling of God, not buildings made of stone.
d. The
indwelling Holy Spirit—whose presence in the Old Covenant was limited to the
Holy of Holies—now inhabits each believer, making them holy. The
protection God once promised to Zion/Jerusalem now applies to the believer.
4.
The Gospel
is John 2:13-22 :
a. Jesus
exercises his role as Son of David, because the Son of David was entrusted with
the responsibility for building and maintaining the “House of God,” the Temple (see 2 Sam 7:13 ). So Solomon
built the first Temple ,
and subsequent Davidic Kings repaired and maintained it.
b. people
of Israel viewed the Temple as the successor
of the Garden of Eden and the Ark of Noah, built on the site where Abraham had
attempted to sacrifice Isaac
c. Temple originally
contained the sacred liturgical furnishings and vessels made by Moses
d. the
covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David were all tied up with the Temple .
e. Ezekiel
saw a river flowing forth from the New
Temple
f. Ancient
Jews would recognize the symbolism of blood and water, because the Temple Mount
g. The
blood and water from the side of Christ is a sign of the River
of Life flowing from the New Temple
h. This
is Eucharistic blood and Baptismal water, since it is the sacraments that carry
the Spirit to us.
i.
The Tree of Life bore fruit from which one could eat
and not die—we now have a food to eat which grants immortality, and that is the
Eucharistic flesh and blood of Christ.
j.
Eden
also had a river that brought life to the rest of the world—this is the Baptismal
font, that regenerates the spiritually dead and makes them into children of
God.
k. Physically
speaking, our church buildings are the locations and spaces of the celebration
of the sacraments. They “house” the River of Life
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