Homily for Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica 2008

Welcome to those who are visiting tonight. Particulaly any of the Fr Hefferan Memorial Bursary and Awards winners and their families. There will be a brief presentation to the winners at 7pm in the gathering area. Welcome also to Beryl McDougal who is celebrating an important birthday tonight in the Community Centre!

You would not have thought there was a world financial crisis judging by the great turnout to the School Fete last Friday night. It was a lesson in confidence of which the stockmarket could take note! The gate crasher who caused a disturbance late in the evening of the Fete only emphasises that it only needs one small incident to diminish our confidence in ourselvse or our confidence of the financial system. The Fete is only one of many events like the Award presentations which make up the life of our Parish. So why do we celebrate this weekend the dedication of a church in Rome, the Basilica of St John Lateran?

There are several reasons. One is that it is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. So it is the mother cathedral of the Roman Rite of which we are part. Then, the Lateran Basilica was the centre of the Catholic Church for many centuries where Popes lived for a thousand years before St Peter's Basilica was built. Lastly, it is an important Church because several ecumenical councils were held there and twenty-eight popes are buried there. So we celebrate its dedication to honour our link with the pope and that important part of our history.

We have almost completed the reinstallation of the Baptism Font in the Gathering area as you may have noticed. Water is rich in symbolism and in reality for us. Ezechiel in his vision we read in the first reading (Ezechiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12) describes water flowing from under the Temple threshold. Water was flowing from the Temple towards all directions of the compass: North, South, East, and West. The great Jewish Temple above all was seen as the dwelling place of the glory of God. So it is from God that all life flows producing abundance even in the wilderness and desert places in our hearts.

The Baptism Font in our parish churches remind us of the life giving waters of grace we receive in the Sacraments celebrated here. Then Paul takes us further in our Second reading (1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17). He says to the people of Corinth, and to us, "You are God's building." We are a Church built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to say, "Didn't you realise that you were God's Temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you?" For the Jews the Temple was the centre and focus not only of their religion but of their whole society. Jewish taxation was applied from the Temple as distinct from the Roman taxes. These activites were open to abuse. Paul says the Christian Church is the Temple. As we celebrate baptism we should remember that to which we are called to become: "The Temple of God is sacred, you are that temple," he says. You are the graced presence of God for the world. That is our holiness given us by God. What will be our response?

This understanding of the Jewish Temple makes us realise how outrageous for the Jews were Jesus' actions described by John in the Gospel today (Jphn 2:13-22). Jesus is putting God's reign at the centre of life. All of creation is a gift of God. Seflishness has desecrated this world, its beauty and diversity, human society, and its financial system. We have let one another down in so many ways in spite of our best intentions. John's Gospel often speaks with irony when he uses those great themes of light, life and bread. So when Jesus defends his actions, he is referring to his own body as the Temple, which would be destroyed and rebuilt, not the Temple build of stone. His Body which is the Church can be restored no matter what our failures and difficulties.

Our parish church of St Joseph's no less than the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome symbolises who we are as the dwelling place of God's Spirit. Will the world outside which so often professes not to need a saviour, look to us as a source of the life giving water prophesied by Ezechiel?

Fr Graham