Homily for the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran

We are called and sent from within these walls, like a river that flows out into the desert, allowing God's Spirit to flow through us, not to block it, but to let it flow through us, so that all who hunger and thirst for God may be satisfied. And all those who are wounded may find their way back home.

I have Mass on Saturday, November 8 at Holy Name Church in Birmingham @ 4 pm.

I have Mass on Sunday, November 9 at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am

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Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel According to John. 

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers, and overturned their tables. And to those whose soul doves, he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my father's house a market place." His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me." At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days." But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Every year, on November 9th, we celebrate the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. John Lateran is not a person, but the name of the Church. The first church of St. John Lateran was dedicated on November 9, 324. That’s 1701 years ago. The church is dedicated to Christ the Savior, in honor of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.”

You might say that St. John Lateran is the first real “home” of the church in Rome. This church — and not St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican —is the cathedral church of Rome. 

Let’s jump ahead a few centuries to another November 9th in more recent memory. The Berlin Wall was first erected as a barbed wire fence on August 13, 1961. It’s main purpose was to prevent East Germans from defecting to the West. The wall became a potent symbol of the the Cold War and the Iron curtain that divided Europe.

In May of 1989, visible cracks in the iron curtain appeared. Hungary began dismantling the 150 mile long electric fence along the border. People from East Germany were able to go into Austria and then into freedom.  In June of 1989, there were partially free elections in Poland. 

And then suddenly, in November, on November 9, 1989, East Berlin announced that people were free to visit the West. People came to the wall, both on the East and the West side, and they stood along the wall. But the gates were still closed. And suddenly, at 7 o'clock, 36 years ago today, somebody ordered the gates to be opened. And for the first time, people could move freely out of East Berlin into West Berlin to walk forth in freedom. 

In the temple, Jesus is announcing that the walls are coming down, the barriers that separate us from one another and from God will not stand. In the temple, we see, structured in stone, boundaries between insiders and outsiders. At the center was the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest could enter. This was surrounded by the court of the priests and Levites. Outside that, there was the court of the circumcised Jewish men. And the outer court of the temple was the court of the Jewish women and the Gentiles. The chambers are ordered so that some are admitted only at the edge, fewer are permitted to enter midway, and only one is given access clear to the center. The process is to differentiate between neighbors. Some are more worthy than others. 

The closest we can come in our world to the notion of three chambers of qualification is a commercial airline with coach class, first class, and the Holy of Holies, where none may go. 

In the temple, Jesus finds people buying and selling as if this is what gives us access to God. Jesus enters the temple and announces that this system of buying and selling is a dead end. It will not get us to God because God simply comes as a gift. All we have to do is receive the gift. The temple has been under construction for 46 years, they said. You're going to raise it up in three days? But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 

So the church has left the building. St. Paul makes this clear in the second reading, where he tells the Corinthians and us that we are the building of God. We are God's holy temple. The church is not a building of wood and stone, but an assembly of believers in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. The temple of God, which you are, Paul says, is holy. We still say these words when we recite the Creed, that we believe in one holy, Catholic, an apostolic church. 

So how can the church be called holy? Some people in the ancient church answered that the holiness of the church stems from the holiness of its members. Thus, the church is holy because it is populated by saints. That means anyone who is not a saint had better get out. But as St. Augustine pointed out, taking his cue from St. Paul in the letters of the Corinthians, the real source of the church's holiness is the Holy Spirit. All holiness flows from God's Spirit, and the first effect of the Spirit of God is communion. 

The Spirit, as we saw at Pentecost, is the one who brings together those who have been separated. Therefore, Augustine concluded, if the presence of the Spirit, who is the source of holiness, is marked by communion, the holiness of the church consists not in excluding sinners, but in welcoming them. 

In his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis wrote, "I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out in the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security." At the World Youth Day Rio 2013, Francis repeated this call, "I want the church to go out to the street. 

We are called and sent from within these walls, like a river that flows out into the desert, allowing God's Spirit to flow through us, not to block it, but to let it flow through us, so that all who hunger and thirst for God may be satisfied. And all those who are wounded may find their way back home.