Sunday Reflections, Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, 9 November 2025

Archbasilica of St John Lateran 

[Wikipedia; photo]

The full name of the church is: Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran. It is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome.

The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, as a feast of the Lord, takes precedence over the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: (England & Wales, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 2:13-22 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’

So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple 

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and oxen (John 2:15; Gospel).

This Sunday we celebrate the dedication of the Cathedral of Rome. In a real sense it is the Mother Church for Catholics.

In a homily in Spain on 3 November 1982 Pope St John Paul II said: Any church is your house, and the house of God. Value it as the place where we encounter our common Father. For most of us  the church where first we were able to encounter our common Father was the church or chapel where our parents and godparents brought us to be baptised. The First Reading, from the Prophet Ezekiel, which speaks of the life-giving waters flowing out from the Temple, reminds us of the waters of baptism which cleanse away sin and give us the life of God himself. The response to the psalm reflects this: The waters of a river give joy to God’s city, the holy place, the abode of the Most High.

The First Reading and the Responsorial Psalm are connected with the fact that St John the Baptist is one of the patron saints of the Pope's Cathedral.

St Paul in the Second Reading tells us what baptism accomplishes in us: Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? We become sons and daughters of God the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus and brothers and sisters of one another. We are a living community, sharing in the mission of the Church to preach the Gospel to every creature. The Church becomes alive when we gather together in the church building, especially to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

Many years after my ordination I realised that I learned what family is from being together each day for our evening meal and for our special Sunday lunch. In the same way I learned what the Church is from my parents taking me to Sunday Mass when I was a young child until I was old enough to go on my own. We all went to Sunday Mass, though not together. The term 'Family Mass' wasn't used when I was growing up in Dublin.

The words of Jesus in today's Gospel, Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade, always made sense to me since my experience of the church, the building, was that it was the place where we gathered for Mass, especially on Sunday, and where people went to pray during the week, old people like my paternal grandfather for long periods, workers and school children dropping in for a few minutes on their way home from work or school. In other words, the church building truly was my Father's house. And it usually was a house of beauty that invited one to pray. 

Something we can do today is to recall and thank God for the significant churches in our lives: the church where we were baptised, the church where we made our First Holy Communion, the church where we were confirmed, the church where we went to confession regularly, the church where we were married or ordained. For some, all of these important events happened in the same church, for others not so. But on all of these occasions we were able to encounter our common Father and in every church where the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle we meet our Risen Saviour Jesus Christ our Brother.

The papal cathedra in St John Lateran 

[Wikipedia; photo]

Traditional Latin Mass

What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI). 

Dedication of the Archbasilica of our Saviour

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-09-2025 if necessary).

Lesson: Revelations 21:2-5. Gospel: Luke 19:1-10.

Zacchaeus

Willem Isaacsz van Swanenburg [Web Gallery of Art]

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, 'Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost' ((Luke 19:10; Gospel).