Homily for Feast of St. John Lateran Basilica

Homily for the Feast of the
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Nov. 9, 2025
1 Cor 3: 9-11, 16-17
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

A variation of this homily was given to Scouts at the Michael Boccardi Trek-o-ree at Durland Scout Reservation, Putnam Valley, N.Y., on Saturday evening, Nov. 8.

Basilica of St. John Lateran

“The temple of God, which you are, is holy” (1 Cor 3: 17).

Every diocese has a leader who’s the main teacher, governor, and sanctifier of God’s people in that territory, its high priest.  That’s the bishop.  He teaches, rules, and sanctifies God’s people from the principal church of the diocese, which is called the cathedral.  It’s called “cathedral” because that’s where the bishop’s cathedra, his chair of authority, is located.

Thus St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the principal church of the archdiocese of New York.  (More important dioceses are called archdioceses.)  On the left side of the altar in St. Patrick’s, you’ll see the archbishop’s cathedra or seat of authority, with his coat of arms upon it.  Only the archbishop may use that chair, and that’s true in every diocese.

Archbishop's cathedra, St. Patrick's Cathedral
with Card. Dolan's coat of arms

The entire Catholic Church also has a principal church, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome, the Pope, the Holy Father, the successor of St. Peter.  That church is called the “Mother and dead of all the churches in the city and in the world,” because the Pope, St. Peter’s successor, is the supreme bishop of the entire Church as St. Peter was the leader of the apostles.

The Pope’s cathedral is the church whose dedication anniversary we’re celebrating today.  It’s not St. Peter’s Basilica, as you might think; after all, St. Peter’s buried under its high altar, and the Pope lives next to it.  Rather, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome is the basilica of St. John Lateran.  The Popes received that property as a gift from Emperor Constantine and resided there, in the Lateran Palace, from 312 to 1309, just short of 1,000 years, and much longer than the Popes have been at the Vatican.

The church, which Constantine built, is dedicated to St. John the Baptist; hence the 1st part of its name.  The property once belonged to a noble Roman family called the Laterani; hence the 2d part of the name.

A church is more than a building, however.  In the gospel you heard Christ refer to himself as a temple (John 2:19,21), and in the reading from St. Paul you heard the followers of Christ called a temple, a temple built by God, a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells.  In the reading from Ezekiel you heard about an abundance of life-giving water flowing from God’s sanctuary.  That’s the water of Baptism, given to us by Christ, and with that gift comes the Holy Spirit.

Baptism banner
Holy Name of Jesus Church
New Rochelle, N.Y.

So we become temples of the Holy Spirit, part of God’s holy temple connected to or built upon Jesus Christ.  We celebrate today not so much a particular church building, the most important one in the world, but what that building symbolizes—Jesus Christ and all of us who belong to Jesus.  We are the living Church of God.

Therefore, all of us are holy, and we’re called to live holy lives, to live as best we can like Jesus.  If every one of us is a temple of God, then we owe the greatest respect not only toward God but also toward God’s family, everyone in whom the Holy Spirit dwells:  man or woman; black, white, brown, red, or yellow; of any nation or language.

We celebrate the Pope’s cathedral church, which is an external sign of God’s dwelling among us, of God’s love for all of us, of God’s desire that all of us may dwell with him forever in heaven, members of the temple of God raised on the 3d day when Jesus burst out of the tomb.