The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, November 9, 2020

John 2:13–22

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.

It is in St. John’s Gospel that we learn of the three Passover’s the Lord Jesus spent in Jerusalem.  If not for John, we would have to suppose, based on the first three Gospels, that Jesus’ Public Life lasted only one year, since they describe only one journey to Jerusalem.  John also tells us that on two of these visits Jesus cast the money-changers out of the Temple precincts.  He does this on his first visit very early in his Public Life, not long after the Wedding at Cana.  St. John, providing precise details of these visits to the Holy City, tells us through Jewish witnesses to his actions at this time that the construction on the Temple had been ongoing for “forty-six years”.  Knowing when Herod began the construction, we can date this episode to 26-27 A.D.  This further leads us to conclude that the Lord died on the Cross in the Spring of 29-30 A.D.  

The Lord comes to the Temple with his newly acquired Apostles after the miracle at the Wedding at Cana where St. John tells us, he “manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (John 2, 11).  To show that his mission is not only to the Jews in Galilee, he takes over the Temple: “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.”  No one had challenged the authorities of the Temple before.  He acts as though the Temple belongs to him, and to confirm this interpretation of his actions, he declares: “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”  He does not speak here of “our” Father, but of God as his own Father — as though he has a unique relationship with God utterly different from any other’s relationship with him.  Thus, he begins here to reveal himself as the Son of God, and acting on behalf of his Father.

“Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”  The cattle and birds sold in the courtyard made sacrifices convenient for pilgrims.  Joseph and Mary probably bought the birds they offered in sacrifice when they brought their baby to the Temple to present him to his Father.  The Lord’s action here, then, makes clear that the time of the sacrifices of the old law is over.  The Lord here begins the public offering of himself for our sins as he encounters mockery and derision from the Jewish leaders.

“Zeal for your house will consume me.”  The disciples recall this line from Psalm 69, 9.  The implication is that zeal for God’s house did not consume the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership.  Zeal for profits, culled from the money-changers and animal sellers, however, did.  The Greek verb translated as “consume” can be more graphically translated as “eats [me] until there is nothing left”.  The love of his Father and of his Father’s house as a sign of his Father did utterly consume him.  It ate him alive.  Or, as fire also consumes, it inflamed him until not even ashes remained.  We remember how he himself said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12, 49-50).  His heart was on fire to do the Father’s will.

We celebrate today the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which took place in 324 A.D. by Pope St. Sylvester.  The building had served as a palace for the Laterani family.  It came into the hands of the Emperor Constantine I and was given by him to the Church.  It is the seat of the Roman Pontiff and is considered the “mother church” of the Faithful.  As such, it represents the Catholic Church. 

The fiery zeal of the Lord Jesus for the Temple in Jerusalem is a sign of his zeal for the Catholic Church, his Bride.  May we share in his passion for her, defending her reputation and preaching her Gospel, so that we may rise with her in victory at the end of time when the Lord returns to lead her home to heaven.  And may the Lord so purge the Church of evil and corruption that she may light the way most efficaciously to Christ.