Homily for the Feast of St. John Lateran

Homily for the Feast of the
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Nov. 9, 2021
John 2: 13-22
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“What sign can you show us for doing this?” (John 2: 18).

(Caravaggio)

In the Synoptics, Jesus’ challengers ask him for a sign, as if his miracles weren’t signs enuf (Matt 12:38||).  He offers them another sign, decidedly unclear at the time:  “the sign of Jonah,” who was 3 days in the belly of the great fish, as the Son of Man will be 3 days in the earth (12:39-40).  Here in John, Jesus gives another answer that will become clear only after his resurrection (John 2:19).

That answer identifies his body as a temple that men will destroy but God will raise up.  Our feast today of the anniversary of the dedication of a physical place of worship, the cathedral church of Rome, points to the symbolism that all of us are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16), and our bodies will be raised by the power of God because the Spirit gives us Jesus’ own life.

Jesus’ driving the sellers of livestock and the moneychangers out of the temple presents another symbol, too.  He chastises those who’d turned a sacred place into a marketplace—as happens all too often in some parish churches as people gather before Mass, doing anything but preparing for worship.  Happily, that’s not the case in this place of worship.

But Jesus is making a point here about our focus on God.  Evidently the merchants weren’t focused on God, altho some of their clients may have been aiming at the means of sacrifice and temple offerings.  Jesus wants to redirect us, to establish God as the priority of our lives:  “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17; Ps 69:10).  If we are temples of the Holy Spirit, then living godly lives and not secular or commercial ones must be our focus.  Assuredly, we as religious are professed to do so, and if perhaps we weren’t always properly focused on the primacy of God, at this stage of our lives we probably are.

May God’s grace always be with us.  May God’s love consume us.