What the Church Offers
Last Saturday, November 9th, we celebrated the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Those who do not wholly understand our veneration of the saints might see this feast as the Catholic Church worshipping a building.
Our Catholic faith in no way worships a building.
We do hold it in high regard just as the Jews in the Old Testament and the Gospels held the temple in Jerusalem in high regard. The Lateran Basilica is also known as the St. John Lateran Basilica. The feast day is celebrated throughout the world because it serves as the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. Thus, it is the cathedral for the pope. So, it serves as an image of unity in the church.
For this we hold it in high regard, but we do not worship it. We worship only God.
The first reading for this feast provides a vision of the temple. The Prophet Ezekiel was among the Jews taken to Babylon in Exile. There God provides a vision of the temple to be restored. (The vision is described over several chapters.)
In this particular passage, Ezekiel sees water flowing out from the temple. The waters become a river. “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.”
The waters that flow from the temple give life. Through the Church God provides us with living waters. We need this water to have life. God chooses to deliver living waters through the Church.
The second reading for this feast speaks of Jesus Christ as our foundation. The Church is built upon the obedience of Jesus Christ who submitted to the Father’s Will (see Matthew 26:39) and willingly lays down his life for us (see John 15:13). The second reading also reminds us that we are all temples of God, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
Then, in the gospel reading for this feast, we hear Jesus teach us that the temple is his Father’s House. To function in the world today, churches need to make sound business decisions, but the Church is not a business. The Church “exists in order to evangelize” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14).
We cannot build the Church upon sand (see Matthew 7:24-27). Many in the world today build their own notion of truth based on relativism. Relativism says there is no universal truth. There is no truth to build people together. It is nothing more than loose sand.
We need to build our faith upon the rock that is Jesus Christ and all that He teaches us. The Church is the way that God presents this truth to us today.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff
For more on what it means to be church these items on my website: