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Contents: Volume 2 November 9, 2025
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Dennis Keller
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****************************************************** Dedication of the Lateran Basilica November 9 2025
It may seem strange we celebrate the dedication of a Basilica in Rome instead of reflecting on a theme from Scripture. What has that dedication in 311 CE have to do with us? What reason would we celebrate something in Rome? The oddity of that is like a poke in the ribs to pay attention to a message that is more than the celebration of an ancient church building. In itself, a building that survived seventeen hundred and fourteen years is something to marvel at. As it much of spiritual history, there is a lot more meaning and an in our face symbolism in this celebration. In our understanding, there is much more than admiring architecture, craftsmanship, and design. Here is an opportunity to look deeper in the spiritual context of the term church.
The gospel provides a view of a place built as a gathering place, as a place reserved for worship, solitude, and most essentially a place contrary to a socio-economic culture. Walter Brueggemann, a distinguished scholar of the Old Testament, in a sermon portrays the Temple as “the citadel of meaning in society at the time of Jesus. The Temple was the symbolic expression of all that is true and good and beautiful, the ultimate hope and desire of his people for the presence of God.” (quoted from Give Us This Day, November 9, 2025, page 101) As Jesus entered the Temple he saw a marketplace. The world supplanted the Presence of God with commercialism. In the Hebrew Scriptures, this is what was meant when foreign dictators installed their gods in the temple. It was an abomination, an affront to God, Creator and sustainer of what is most important – life, especially human life. The message of the Temple was diminished to a mere marketplace, a place of haggling, of altered scales, of misrepresentation. The Temple, named the Temple of Herod, was replacement of Solomon’s Temple destroyed by the Babylonians. This later temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans who had planned to make it a temple to Caesar. That was interrupted by a soldier’s mishandling of a torch which destroyed that Temple in 70 CE.
The Lateran Basilica in Rome is the Pope’s Church. It is the Mother Church of Catholicism. It is the oldest of the basilicas, and enduring donation by the Laterani family in 311.
A Church is only a building until people gather within for worship, prayer, and sharing. The very word “church” comes from the Hebrew by way of the German Kirche. The Hebrew is “quahal” which loosely translated means “those called together.” That understanding provides the meaning of church in Christian history.
Churches are built of pieces of brick, stone, wood, etc. These pieces individually are just pieces of building materials. It is when they are joined together that they form something. Frequently in the writings of the Fathers and Mothers of the Church and in many hymns the church is described as being constructed of living stones. We members of the church, we who are called together, are a community. Just as an architect draws up plans, as procurers collect materials for building, as what is procured makes up the structure, so we who are called together form a community. We are living stones that carry our community in our hearts into the world.
The lesson from John’s gospel is a warning for us to stay aware of the influences and values of the world. Just as commercialism became a primary purpose of the temple courtyards, so too if our hearts and minds are seduced by the values of the world, then the presence of God is rejected and our community is a community no longer. The church is not a matter of “me and Jesus.” The church is an “us.” When its about me then Communion loses it’s power to make us one church. Communion is from the Latin meaning union with. That union is with the Body of the Lord.
Why this constant reference to community? It’s not an easy task to care about those who are living stones. Living the Way of Jesus, we are able to overcome the way of the world that looks at others as competitors and enemies. The world’s response is that’s how we get ahead. That’s how we win. If there is a winner, there must be a loser. We must ask ourselves, was Jesus a loser when he submitted to torture and a cruel and ignominious death on the cross? Do we follow a loser? How very ignorant and misguided we must be that for 2000 years we have sought to walk as Jesus did.
Often we hear from Jesus and from preachers that we should aspire to living the life of God? What is that life? We know that God is the very model of unity. Three unique relational persons are so intricate and intimately united that they are one. That is caused by a love that binds them. We, members of the parish church, the diocesan church, the global church are the living stones that make up a global community. We are the stones, bricks, plaster, wood, shingles, pipes, and all the appurtenances that make up the physical building that is the Lateran Basilica we honor today. To live the life of God we’ve got to live as a community. The sacrament of Baptism is our initiation into that community. The washing is like Jesus cleansing the Temple in this Sunday’s gospel. That Baptismal washing installs us into the community of faith. Without the community we’ll struggle to stay clean of the world’s way. Let us be the community of respect, support, and self-giving love of the others. Let us come to know one another and love them. We are called together; we are the church of living stones.
Dennis Keller Dennis@PreacherExchange.com
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Blessings, Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP Southern Dominican Laity
****************************************************** ****************************************************** 4. ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 5. ****************************************************** Volume 2 is for you. These reflections follow the Liturgical Calendar and appear here about mid week each week. They are written by various guest authors. If you would like to submit a reflection of your own, then click here to send an email request to post to the Webmaster. Deadline is Monday morning of each week for the upcoming Sunday.
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A service of The Order of Preachers,
The Dominicans. (form revised 10/13/2025) |
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