Dedication of St. John Lateran

Dedication of St. John Lateran
OMNIUM ECCLESIARUM MATER ET CAPUT
"Mother and Head of All the Churches”

Nov. 9, 2008, Feast of St. John Lateran
Ezekiel 47:1-12 I Corinthians 3:9-17 John 2:13-22

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.In the temple area there were merchants selling oxen, sheep, and doves. There were also the money-changers at their stalls. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and He scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He yelled at those selling doves and commanded them saying, “Get them 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 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 Jesus’ words.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Introduction
History of the feast

St. John Lateran was once a royal palace and basilica which belonged to the Roman Emperor Constantine and his family. After his conversion to Christianity in 313 A. D., the Emperor gave the palace and adjacent basilica to Pope Miltiades (311-314). His successor, Pope Sylvester I (314-335), as bishop of Rome, dedicated the basilica as his cathedral church on November 9, 324.

The palace and adjacent basilica became the cathedral church and residence of the popes from the fourth to the fourteen century, when the popes went into exile in Avignon, France (1304-1377). Built on land owned by the Laterani family and dedicated to John the Baptist, the basilica was called St. John Lateran. In the course of time, it became the venue for five ecumenical councils.

When, however, the popes returned from exile in Avignon, they found St. John Lateran in such disrepair they decided to move to St. Peter's Basilica (also a gift from Constantine) which until then had served primarily as a pilgrimage church. The popes now reside at the Vatican, and since the fifteenth century, St. Peter's Basilica hosts almost all important papal ceremonies. Every year, however, the pope goes back to his cathedral church, St. John Lateran, to celebrate the feast of the Lord’s Last Supper on Holy Thursday.

As the cathedral church of the pope (who is the bishop of Rome) St. John Lateran ranks first among the great basilicas of Rome, even before St. Peter’s. A Latin inscription on its facade proudly proclaims:

Omnium Urbis et Orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput
Mother and Head of all the Churches in the City [Rome] and the World.

That lengthy explanation is for many of us who wonder why the church proposes that we celebrate the dedication of a church which most of us have never seen and will never see -- a dedication which took place sixteen hundred years ago in far-off Rome.

Since Nov. 9 (the date of the ancient dedication) lands this year on a Sunday, the feast of John Lateran replaces what would normally be the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

A spiritual twist

St. John Lateran, like St. Peter’s Basilica, is a marvelous temple built by human hands working in stone, brick and mortar. The prayer and readings today, however, give a strange spiritual twist to the idea of temple; they speak of a temple not built by human hands. In the opening prayer we pray, “God, our Father, from us as living stones you built an eternal temple to your glory.” In the second reading Paul writes, “Brother and sisters, do you not know you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (I Cor. 3:9, 16)

Jesus and the temple

The spiritualization of the temple continues in the gospel today. With zeal for His Father's house in His heart and a whip of cord in His hand, Jesus drives the money‑changers and vendors out of the temple built by human hands. When asked by what authority He does such things, He cryptically replies, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it." (Jn 2:19) Rebuild it in three days! My gosh! It took l0, 000 men to build the temple. It took 1000 priests as masons to construct its sacred sections. It took 46 years to complete it.[3] How could Jesus possibly rebuild it in three days! Scripture says He was not speaking about a temple made by human hands but about the temple of his body. (Jn 2:23‑21)

Jesus again spiritualizes the idea of temple when He and the Samaritan woman are having an argument about whose temple was better: her temple built on Mt Gerizim or His built in Jerusalem. Jesus assures her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming and is already here, when real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. (Jn 4:1-42)

St. Stephen and the temple

That same spiritual twist to the idea of temple is found also in Acts. Just before being stoned to death, St. Stephen concludes a long hefty speech to the High Priest, saying,
King David found favor with God and asked God to allow him to build a house for the God of Jacob, though it was not David who actually built a house for God but Solomon. However, I tell you [ High Priest] the Most High God does not live in a house built by human hands; for as the prophet says, “The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house could you possibly build Me?” (Acts 7:48‑49; Is 66:1)]

At the end of the day, Scripture’s spiritual twist to the temple betrays a dissatisfaction with all temples and churches built by human hands – a dissatisfaction with the basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Italy and with the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

Reformers and the church

The Reformers of the 16th century were not only dissatisfied with the church built by Rome, they were also downright angry at it. They were angry at it for its money‑changers and vendors. More theologically, they were angry at it for selling good works instead of the saving blood of Jesus. So the Reformers, like Jesus Himself, spiritualized the idea of church. The true church of Christ, they said, is not some visible institution built by human hands. It is not constructed out of human teachings, creeds and laws. At heart, they said, it is the assembly of all those who believe they are saved not by good works but by the precious blood of Jesus. That, of course, spiritualizes the church, for belief is invisible and spiritual.

Others, less attached to Reformation theology, spiritualize the church as simply the assembly of those who believe in the blessed words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. It is not necessary for them go to a church built by human hands. Many of them, in fact, do not go regularly to any church. Many of our sons and daughters, who no longer sit with us at Sunday Mass, belong to that invisible and spiritual church. If they go to church at all, it is at Christmas and Easter, and with that they are for the time being content.

The prophet Archbishop Hunthausen

The synagogue built by human hands persecuted the prophets of old. Jesus complained, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God sent you!” (Mt. 23:37) The church built by human hands also persecutes the prophets.

It persecuted Raymond Hunthausen, Archbishop of Seattle from 1975 to 1991. When he became Archbishop, he moved out of the Episcopal mansion into an ordinary house in town. He is remembered most for his support of the poor and disenfranchised. He was an inveterate pacifist and anti-nuclear protestor. He disagreed with the Vatican over various issues. In a letter on July 1, 1977, he publicly defended the rights of gays and lesbians. One of Hunthausen's most controversial acts was to permit a militant homosexual group, Dignity, to hold its own Mass in his cathedral. “They're Catholics too,” he explained. "They need a place to pray.” In 1985, Pope John Paul, supreme head of the church built by human hands, stripped prophet Hunthausen of his authority, because “his lack of clarity about homosexuality had confused the faithful.”

The prophet Bishop Untener

The church built by human hands also persecuted now deceased Kenneth Untener, the Bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, from 1980 to 2004. 1993 was the 25th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (1993) which reaffirmed the Church's stand against artificial birth control. Bishop Untener seized the occasion to urge the church to start a new, honest and open discussion on birth control. That was a courageous and prophetic invitation, because for the past twenty-five years Humanae Vitae had become a litmus test of Catholic loyalty. Untener’s daring invitation quietly infuriated Rome and assured prophet Untener that he would never and could never become a Cardinal.

The prophet Gumbleton

The church built by human hands understandably persecuted Thomas Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit from 1968 to 2006. In a letter to America magazine, November 20, 1963, he wrote, "I can vouch for the fact that very many bishops share the same conviction [that not every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil]. However, sadly enough, fewer and fewer are willing to say this publicly.” The bishop also predicted that, “Priestesses will inevitably come. Already, female parochial administrators are proving their competency and laying the groundwork for the ordination of women.”

Gumbleton has a brother Dan who is gay, was married and has four children. At first the bishop found it hard to accept. So did his mother who asked him one day whether her son -- his brother -- was going to hell. In 1997 he initiated and co-authored a pastoral letter of the US Catholic Bishops entitled Always Our Children. It is a pastoral message to the parents of homosexual children with suggestions for pastoral ministers. In a presentation in Lexington, MA, Gumbleton said, “We must further the steps we took in our pastoral letter Always Our Children to overcome the homophobia within our culture and within the Church. We must be a truly welcoming community for homosexual people.... Always Our Children pointed out that homosexuals are a gift to the Church, and we should not marginalize them and push them aside.”

What! A gift to the Church! When Gumbleton reached mandatory retirement age in 2006, his very good health prompted him to ask permission to continue on as Auxiliary Bishop to Detroit. His request was given to the head of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Giovanni Re, and he denied it. Gumbleton served as pastor to a number of parishes in Detroit, including St. Leo's. In 2007 when he asked permission to remain a part of St. Leo's community, the Archdiosese of Detroit denied it.

The Prophet Father Farrow

As we speak, the church built by human hands has struck again. On Sunday, October 5, 2008, Father Geoffrey Farrow, 50, chaplain of the St. Paul Newman Center (which primarily serves students and faculty at Cal State Fresno) delivered a sermon which criticized church leadership for supporting California Proposition 8 -- a ballot measure that would make it unconstitutional for same-sex couples to marry. In his sermon Farrow said,

Recently, I was speaking with some of our parishioners who advocate for the
ordination of women. In the course of our conversation, a question arose which
has haunted me: At what point do you cease to be an agent for healing and growth
and become an accomplice of injustice? By asking all of the pastors of the
Diocese of Fresno to promote Catholics to vote ”Yes” on Proposition 8, the
bishop has placed me in a moral predicament.

In a well-thought-out, not-off-the-top-of-his-head homily, Farrow continued,

In directing the faithful to vote “Yes” on Proposition 8, the California bishops
are not only entering the political arena, they are [also] ignoring the advances
and insights of neurology, psychology, and the very statements by the church
itself that homosexuality is [an] innate [orientation]…. When the hierarchy
prohibited artificial birth control, most of the faithful in the United States,
Canada and Europe scratched their heads in wonderment and proceeded to ignore
them. There is an expression in theology: “The voice of the people is the voice
of God.” If your son or daughter is gay/lesbian let them know that you love them
unconditionally. Let them know that you are not ashamed or embarrassed by them.
Guide them as you would your other children to finding true and abiding love.

Farrow ended his fatal homily saying,

I know these words of truth will cost me dearly. But to withhold them would be
far more costly, and I would become an accomplice to a moral evil that strips
gay and lesbian people not only of their civil rights but of their human dignity
as well. Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” He didn't promise that it
would be easy or without personal cost to speak that truth.

On Thursday, October 9, that personal cost came crashing down upon prophet Farrow. The church built by human hands struck again. Fresno Bishop John T. Steinbock removed Farrow as chaplain of the Newman Center saying,"Your statement contradicted the teaching of the Catholic Church and has brought scandal to your parish community as well as the whole Church." In a disciplinary letter he also admonished Farrow against "using the Internet as a means of continuing your conflict.”

Hunthausen, Untener, Gumbleton, Farrow, and many others are a great cloud of witnesses for us. They call to mind the words from Hebrews, “Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that easily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies before us. (Hebrew 12:1)

Conclusion
Also in need of a temple built by human hands

This great cloud of witnesses of bishops and priests do not call us to wallow in negativity. In fact, on this feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran, they call us to be positive about the temple built by human hands. For we are human beings who need to come together and worship in a structure made of stone, brick and mortar. We are human beings who need to worship with flesh and blood – especially the Eucharistic flesh and blood of Jesus. We are human beings who need to hear the proclamation of Good News in a world filled with bad news. We are human beings who, in the dark and gloomy days of November and December, need to see God’s beauty carved out in the marvelous marble of our cathedrals and basilicas, and see God’s glory shining forth from their stain-glass windows. We are human beings also in need of a temple built with human hands.

[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3]It took 120 years to build St. Peter’s. Construction began on April 18, 1506 and was completed in 1626.