Last Updated on November 8, 2025 by Editor
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Reflection: The pope’s church
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
On Nov. 9, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the parish church of the popes, considered the mother church of Catholicism. The basilica’s history began around 318 or 324 C.E. and was alternately destroyed and rebuilt until 1724.
Although this is a major celebration in Rome, many of the faithful, especially in the Americas and Asia, might ask, “So what?” Maybe, rather than think of a cathedral that most of us will never enter, we might consider the meaning of our own experience of places of worship and what we experience as sacred space.
Not every space on Earth is the same, not for human beings. Our experiences and preferences lead us to favor certain places and avoid others. Places — with their smells, sounds, lighting and atmosphere — bring back memories, both joyful and not so. In some places we feel like strangers, in others, we’re deeply at home and peaceful. Entering some spaces gives people a sense of the holy — just ask pilgrims who have been to Lourdes or to the Mormons’ Sacred Grove in New York.
People of the Middle Ages built cathedrals to proclaim the greatness of Christianity’s God. With towers pointing to heaven, their immense windows portrayed saints and sacred stories in brilliant light. The space inside tamed both city and forest into breathtaking order. The “smells and bells” transported people into a sense of transcendence. Mere humans could enter these places and feel both their insignificance and an awesome awareness of participating in something immeasurable. Temples, be they Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris or the centuries-old log church in Cahokia, Illinois, provide the faithful with religious experiences that engage all the senses, put them in touch with the past and remind them of where all is going. It happens for those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hands to be touched and blessed.
In today’s Liturgy of the Word, Ezekiel describes a fantastic, hopeful vision of a new temple for his exiled people. Every detail illustrated its vivifying power. As a dwelling place of God, all that flowed from it would nourish and cleanse such that even the water of the Dead Sea would become pure and refreshing.
If Ezekiel’s vision inspired Jesus, he found little reflection of it in the temple of his day. While the buying and selling were legitimate and necessary for worship, commerce seemed to have become an end in itself, eclipsing the experience of worship. In that, Jesus saw a living sacrilege undercutting the very purpose of that sacred space. His reaction sprang from his passion for leading others into a deep and mutual relationship with God and one another.
If John’s Gospel had not been written decades after Paul’s ministry, we could consider today’s selection from 1 Corinthians as a commentary on Jesus’ final statement about destroying and raising up the temple. People considered the Jerusalem Temple, like churches, synagogues and mosques, as a place of encounter with God. Paul wanted the Corinthians to realize that, like Jesus, they themselves were now to serve that purpose.
Paul asked them bluntly, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” If he asked the same of us today, with what depth of conviction could we say yes? With what depth of sincerity could we say that we believe the Spirit of God is actively present in our community of faith? These are questions that might prove fruitful for those of us who are not celebrating today in Rome.
“The temple of God, which you are, is holy!” Contemporary English doesn’t communicate the word “you” quite as precisely as some other languages. In Spanish, one can say you with tú, vosotros, usted and ustedes. The first two (singular and plural) are spoken among loving equals, the others are more respectful or formal. When Paul says that “you are the temple,” he’s using the plural you. That means that we are the temple, not each on our own, but as a community, as church, as the body of Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 12.)
What does this tell us? When Jesus spoke of “this temple,” he implied that he himself incarnated the presence of God. That’s generally not a problem for us to accept. But when we hear Paul tell us, “It’s ‘you,’ ” isn’t this a call to collaborate? To discern together? To be concerned about our communal temple’s upkeep?
Take a look at the basilica we’re commemorating today or picture the most magnificent church or space you know. It’s overwhelming, majestic, beautiful, extraordinary.
It’s a dim shadow of what the Spirit wants to make of us.
Reading 1
(Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12)
The angel brought me
back to the entrance of the temple,
and I saw water flowing out
from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,
for the façade of the temple was toward the east;
the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple,
south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate,
and around to the outer gate facing the east,
where I saw water trickling from the southern side.
He said to me,
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9)
Reading 2
(1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17)
Brothers and sisters:
You are God’s building.
According to the grace of God given to me,
like a wise master builder I laid a foundation,
and another is building upon it.
But each one must be careful how he builds upon it,
for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there,
namely, Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God’s temple,
God will destroy that person;
for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
Gospel
(John 2:13-22)
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 who sold doves he said,
“Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
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.