[Salvation]

Regnum Christi

November 9, 2016 – The Indestructible Temple and zeal

09 Nov 2016

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Father Steven Reilly, LC

John 2: 13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that you are here with me, and I hope in your boundless mercy and love. Thank you for watching over me and keeping me in your friendship. Thank you for the precious gift of our Mother, the Church.

Petition: Lord, increase my zeal!

1. The Indestructible Temple: Today we celebrate the dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica, known as the “mother and head of all the churches.” Going to Rome and visiting this wonderful church, now some seventeen centuries old, one gets a sense of the durability of Catholicism. The Catholic Church has been around for a long time, and it will be around for a lot longer — until judgment day, to be exact. No matter how hard the world has tried, it hasn’t been able to destroy the temple of the Church. This should give us a deep confidence that the Lord is with us as we journey through history.

2. Purification: Being indestructible doesn’t mean, however, that the Catholic Church does not need constant purification. When our Lord arrived to the temple in Jerusalem, he found many things that marred the spirit of prayer and devotion that was to characterize that sacred building. His vigorous reaction serves to underline the high vocation of holiness that God had given to the Chosen People. We Catholics have inherited that call; yet all too often, the ways of the world creep into our souls. Each one of us needs to submit to the Lord’s purification. He will challenge us in our conscience, and sometimes that will sting like the whip of cords. But if we are sincere in our desires, we accept this with humility, aware that our souls must be living temples of God’s presence.

3. Consuming Zeal: When the apostles contemplated our Lord’s action in the temple, “zeal” was the word that summed it all up. Jesus is zealous because he doesn’t accept the status quo of entrenched mediocrity. The day he arrives it is no longer business as usual: His Father’s house WILL be respected. Too often we let the barnacles of laziness and the accretions of apathy weigh down and extinguish our zeal. Every day we must pray that the Lord will once again “enkindle in our hearts the fire of his love.” Our zeal in living the faith is part of the way God works to make this temple of his Church indestructible. Don’t we want to cooperate with his love, so that the “gates of hell will not prevail?”

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I love your Church. I thank you for the priceless gift of my Catholic faith. Protect the Church from all her enemies and help me to be an effective apostle filled with authentic zeal.

Resolution: I will offer myself to collaborate in a parish ministry or other Catholic apostolate out of love for the Church.

[Salvation]

Homily of the Day

November 9, 2016

We celebrate today the Feast of the dedication of the Lateran Arch Basilica in Rome, the cathedral church of the Bishop of Rome and therefore the Mother Church of all churches in Rome and in all the world. As the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome and of the Pope, the Lateran Basilica holds the central place in the Catholic Church, in a way similar to the Temple in Jerusalem as central worship place for Judaism.

Each of the three readings for today uses various images to convey the importance of the Temple as God’s holy place and as a key place for worship.

In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel speaks of a great stream under the Temple. Wherever the waters flow, there is abundant life, whether of fishes or of plants. The water symbolizes God’s infinite goodness and grace which bring blessing and life to all.

In the second reading, Paul teaches the faithful in Corinth, “. . . you are God’s field and building. . .
Do you not know that you are God’s temple? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. God’s temple is holy, and you are this temple.” (1 Cor 3: 9, 16-17)

No longer are we simply worshippers of God in the temple, for now we are the temple in which God dwells. We must then treat each other with the love and respect realizing that God dwells in each one of us. We then have to behave such that we express our love of neighbor and of ourselves, realizing that we are temples of God and therefore also holy. If we truly grasp that each one of us is a temple of God, how does this change the way we live and interact with one another?

In the Gospel reading, Jesus is angry that the merchants have made the Temple in Jerusalem, his Father’s house, into a marketplace and drives them out of the Temple. The commerce in the Temple area did not respect the Temple as a holy place, as God’s house; the commerce in the Temple area did not respect the worshippers in his Father’s house. Are we as zealous as Jesus for our churches and holy places?

As we commemorate the dedication of the Lateran Archbasilica in Rome, we should remember that every place of worship is a sign of the spiritual temple which is the Church made up of the people of God who are themselves signs of God’s presence, love and grace.