Daily Mass gospel Reflection - Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 11-09-23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

John 2:13-22

Friends, in our Gospel,
Jesus performs the dramatic gesture of cleansing the temple.
His prophetic vocation will manifest itself in all of his speech, gestures, and actions.
Jesus’ confrontation with fallen powers and dysfunctional traditions
will be highly focused,
intense, and disruptive.

Standing at the heart of the holy city of Jerusalem,
the temple was the political, economic, cultural,
and religious center of the nation.
Turning over the tables of the money-changers, driving out the merchants,
shouting in high dudgeon,
and upsetting the order of that place was striking at the most sacred institution of the culture,
the unassailable embodiment of the tradition.

It was to show oneself as a critic in the most radical and surprising sense possible.
That this act of Jesus the warrior flowed from the depth of his prophetic identity
is witnessed to by the author of John’s Gospel:
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”
Many of the historical critics of the New Testament hold that this event—shocking,
unprecedented, perverse—is what finally persuaded
the leaders that Jesus merited execution.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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.+++

[JesusIsLord]

St. John Lateran is the oldest continuously used church in Christendom.

"The history of the Lateran Basilica begins with Emperor Constantine. In 313, the emperor passed the Edict of Milan, which allowed Christians to practice their own faith. Constantine also gave some of his own land to the Christians so that they could build their own church; the site of the Lateran Basilica. The plot of land itself was good, though it was located just outside the walls of Rome. So, the first Basilica of Christianity was not well defended, but it was close to the city of Rome.

The history of the Basilica can be divided into four stages: construction, restoration, rebuilding, and refurbishing. The first stage began in 314, following the Edict of Milan, when Pope Sylvester I began constructing the Lateran. Then, the building was restored in 450 AD by Pope Leo the Great. During the first millennium, the Lateran Basilica was rebuilt due to fire. The Basilica of St. John Lateran was finally given a new facade and some new decorations during the Baroque era. Thus, this Basilica was never dilapidated, because it was always being restored or updated. " - Re: https://insidethevaticanpilgrimages.com/history-of-the-lateran-basilica/

[MurphsLaw]

It's an awesome site to visit.
Of all the churches in Rome..
It's our favorite after St. Peter's.