November 09, 2025・Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (C)

Ezekiel 47.1-2, 8-9,12・Ps 84.2+3,4,6+7・1 Cor 3.9c-11,16-17・John 2.13-22

We are celebrating today the annual feast commemorating the dedication of the historic Lateran Basilica. Today is Sunday of course and we highlight the importance of the Lateran Basilica symbolizing our spiritual devotion and the enduring faith of our Catholic Community. Though it may sound “a thing of this world,” but we consider its rich historical background and architectural and artistic significance too.

Following the annual feast of the dedication of the historic Lateran Basilica, our Liturgy of the Word today is so rich with many emphases about our church life, then and now. We Catholics are respectful of things we use for our prayers and sacred gatherings, sacred places too, no matter how temporal these things, buildings and places are, There are even people, and communities who spend much money to acquire them. We ask for the rite of blessings with holy water, and for the priests’ and bishops’ laying of hands. Many among us even believe that the more we use particular object for prayers, and the more we gather for prayers, for devotions and masses, the more the place or the church becomes sacred. We further believe that grace indeed overflows in such sacred places and churches. A sacred place becomes more and more conducive for prayers,  becomes a source of spiritual healing and inspiration, and becomes the best place in deepening our understanding/realization of our connection with God. Our first reading from the book of prophet Ezekiel seems to elaborate what comes out from the temple of God, “a water flowing from the temple that brings life to the land and see, providing food and healing, and nourishing trees and other creatures. The temple can also be the Creator Himself.... and our Lord Jesus Christ, in the New Testament. We can find Jesus during the cleansing of the temple talking about Himself. At first it was simply about the temple of God (the building, as understood by the people around Him) that is being disrespected by the people making it like a marketplace. After which it was no longer about a literally called temple turned marketplace but the Temple of God, His Body.

So St. Paul to the Corinthians is telling that God’s Spirit lives in them, making them God’s Holy Temple., or “God's building.” The one who laid the foundation to God’s building is the One who lives in the heart of each one of us, who is, Jesus Christ. A strong reminder for each one of us is about keeping God’s Holy Temple, sacred.  Paul says:  

Do you not know that you are the temple of God,

and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So we understand now what Jesus exactly means when He said to stop making His Father’s house a marketplace.

In today’s feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, may we not confine ourselves to what can be seen by our eyes looking at the designs of the church building inside and out, but focus on what is unseen and on what we rarely see by our own eyes. Let us all be wise to spend our time and other resources in preserving/keeping the sacredness first and foremost of our hearts, and our heart’s desires.

The Holy Temple is aways under God's protection. Paul further says:

if anyone who destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; f

or the temple of God, which you are, is holy.