Dedication
of St. John Lateran
(32nd
Sunday in Ordinary time)
There are four great basilicas in Rome ,
namely, St. Peter, St. Paul ,
St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major. Among these four, St. John Lateran is the
oldest and the first built in Rome .
It was built by Emperor Constantine the Great in 313. Being called the Church
of the Savior, the Mother and Head of all churches, it is the cathedral of Rome and the official
residence of the Pope, the symbol of unity of the Catholic Church.
A church must be dedicated when it is newly built, and must be
re-dedicated if it is profaned and defiled by such crimes as murder or
fornication. The book of Macabees recorded such a re-dedication. Antiochus, the
pagan king of the Greeks, invaded Jerusalem .
He made the temple
of God
So, when Judas, the leader of Israel ,
defeated the invaders and recaptured Jerusalem ,
he ordered the purification of the temple and re-dedicated to the worship of
God. (In 1976 there was a shooting
inside the church
of St. Vincent 3 Thang Hai street ,
district 10 that killed several persons. The church, thus desecrated, was
sealed and closed for many years. Only until 1982 was it purified, re-dedicated
and re-opened for public worship!)
If a material temple made of stone and brick must be cleansed in order
to be a place of worship, how much more should
our souls be purified to become the dwelling place of the Holy Trinity. St. Paul said : “You
all are living temples of God, because you have been purified and dedicated to
God when you received baptism.”
Being temples of God, our bodies and souls are to be used for no other purpose
than for the service of God alone. So every time we commit a grave sin, we
profane that temple and turn it into the temple of idols and of the devil.
Christ went into the temple and began driving out those who were
selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money changers and pigeon
sellers and said :” Does not scripture say my house will be called a house of
prayer for all the peoples? But you have turned it into a robbers’ den!” (Mk 11 : 15-18). Let us try to keep our personal temple
immaculate and beautiful. And if ever we profane it by our sins, do not forget
to go to confession, so as to make it clean and beautiful again.
Fr. Joseph Nguyen,
O.P.
