The Feast of the Dedication of the the Lateran Basilica, Tuesday, November 9, 2021

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.

This Roman basilica was first built in 324 on land donated by the Laterani family a few decades after the Christian Faith was legalized in the Roman Empire by Constantine I.  Originally, it was dedicated to the Holy Savior, and later was co-dedicated to St. John the Baptist and to St. John the Apostle.  The feast to honor its dedication was set in the calendar in the early 1100’s.  

We might wonder why the dedication of this basilica is celebrated.  It is first, a celebration of the unity of the Church under the successor of St. Peter, for this basilica is the seat of the Bishop of Rome.  It is also a feast of victory after the centuries-long persecution of the Church by the Roman authorities, who used every means at their disposal, including the murder of women and children and the burning of books.  With the end of the persecution, the Faith spread rapidly through the Empire.

The Gospel reading for the Mass of this feast recounts the first visit of the Lord Jesus to the Temple after he began his Public Life.  When he arrived there, “he found in the Temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there.”  The Temple authorities had allowed the sale of these animals for many years and the Lord had seen them before.  Money-changers had also been permitted inside the Temple complex in one of the courtyards, for the convenience of the people who came to buy the animals for their sacrifices.  We can assume that the authorities received payment by the money-changers for this privilege.  But the Lord reacts to this scene differently than he had before his Public Life began.  His work of the Redemption of the human race had commenced.  “He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area.”  He drove out the animals because the time for sacrifices in the Temple was ended with his arrival.  He would be The Sacrifice, and he, as such, would appear before the Father in heaven: “For Jesus is not entered into the Holy of Holies made with hands, the patterns of the true: but into Heaven itself, that he may appear now in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9, 24).  Thus, the Temple in Jerusalem is a sign of the Temple in heaven, and so much more the Catholic churches which have succeeded it.  “And spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.”  The Lord did this, showing that “you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver, from your vain following of the tradition of your fathers: but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Peter 1, 18-19).

“Zeal for your house will consume me.”  This quote from Psalm 69, 9, speaks of the Lord’s zeal for the Church he is founding, and for which he will give up his life.

When the Jews asked for a sign that would show his authority for doing all this, the Lord replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  The overthrow of the tables and release of the animals was itself the sign of the reality of Christ’s own sacrifice for us, and he confirms this by speaking of his Body as a temple.  The Jews incredibly misinterpret what he has told them: they asked for a sign and the Lord gave them an answer that used a sign — his Body as a temple.

We, for our part, celebrate this feast day and pray to God for the coming of the Kingdom.  In the New Jerusalem that will “come down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21, 2), “I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the Lamb” (Revelation 21, 22).