Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
(A-cycle) November 9, 2008
Today we look back to the year 324 a.d. to a turning point in church history. On November 9th of that year, near the Lateran gate to Rome the pope dedicated a basilica that would be his cathedral, the mother church of Catholicism. What a day that must have been! In the past, Christians typically had to worship huddled in tenement rooms or, in times of persecution, in the catacombs. But in a dizzying series of events, the Emperor Constantine had decreed that Christianity must be tolerated, then he made it the official religion of the Roman Empire, then his wife Fausta gave the pope her palace as his official dwelling place, next to which a great church was built.
What a celebration they must have had! I might seem to be the skunk at a lawn party, but I have to say the church and the palace were mixed blessings. A religion that basically had nothing was now the possessor of prime real estate. As more and more people followed Fausta’s example and donated land and money to the church, its new holdings often proved to be dead weights, dragging the church down from its lofty spiritual mission.
In the Middle Ages, the Church began to function like an ordinary country. It owned a big swath of central Italy, known as the Papal States. Despite Christ’s warnings against violence, it made war on other countries. It used capital punishment. It made Jews live in ghettos and wear distinctive insignias hundreds of years before Hitler followed the same policies. We’re much better off here than there.
In the first reading, Ezekiel, a Jewish priest and prophet, has a wild and crazy dream. Water is flowing everywhere in the Temple, even though it’s at the top of Mount Zion, far above any river. This mysterious water not only cleans out the Temple, it flows all the way into the Dead Sea and makes it come alive with all kinds of trees and plants and fish. In the Gospel, Jesus makes the dream a reality when he purifies the Temple by driving out the merchants who are turning His Father’s house into a marketplace.
Jesus and Ezekiel---two religious reformers---what would they want to clean up in our church today? Certainly, they would want to purge the church of the sins against children that shamed us in recent years. They would want to correct the improper use of church funds by clergy and other personnel. They would want to wash away the timidity that kept the church silent in the face of sins against peace and justice.
In its innermost core, the church is not a building or an institution. It is the body of Christ in the world, the community of those who follow his way, believe his truth and share his life. St. Paul tells us: “You are God’s building…Did you not know you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” The church is always in need of reform and reform starts with us. We will get the kind of church we really want. God is speaking to us through Ezekiel when he says: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you.”
