The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica — Feast
Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time · Proper of the Feast · White
Opening
Every town has buildings that seem to belong to everyone: a courthouse, a school, a church whose bell has marked the hours for generations. Their walls outlast the people who built them. Their doors open to children whose grandparents once entered those same doors.
Today the Church celebrates the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, the cathedral of the Pope and a visible sign of the unity of Catholics throughout the world.
Yet the Gospel presents us with a startling image. Christ enters the Temple in Jerusalem, overturns the tables of the money changers, and speaks of a Temple that will be destroyed and raised again in three days.
As we begin this morning, we ask what makes a place holy—and what it means for the living God to make His home among us.
Opening Verse
V. Lord, open my lips.
R. And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory
Antiphon: Come, let us adore Christ, the cornerstone of His Church.
Psalm 94 (95) — Come, Let Us Praise the Lord
Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore Christ, the cornerstone of His Church.
Psalmody
First Psalm — Psalm 62 (63)
The Soul Thirsting for God
Antiphon: My house shall be called a house of prayer.
O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day. For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O how many ways!
In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory.
For thy mercy is better than lives: thee my lips shall praise.
Thus will I bless thee all my life long: and in thy name I will lift up my hands.
Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness: and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
If I have remembered thee upon my bed, I will meditate on thee in the morning:
Because thou hast been my helper. And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings:
My soul hath stuck close to thee: thy right hand hath received me.
But they have sought my soul in vain, they shall go into the lower parts of the earth:
They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes.
But the king shall rejoice in God, all they shall be praised that swear by him: because the mouth is stopped of them that speak wicked things.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: My house shall be called a house of prayer.
Old Testament Canticle — Daniel 3:57–88, 56
All Creation Blesses the Lord
Antiphon: Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the holy temple of thy glory.
All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye heavens, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye sun and moon, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye stars of heaven, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye spirits of God, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye dews and hoar frosts, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye nights and days, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O let the earth bless the Lord: let it praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye mountains and hills, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye fountains, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye seas and rivers, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye fowls of the air, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye beasts and cattle, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye sons of men, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O let Israel bless the Lord: let them praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye priests of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye servants of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. For he hath delivered us from hell, and saved us out of the hand of death, and delivered us out of the midst of the burning flame, and saved us out of the midst of the fire.
Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven: and worthy of praise, and glorious for ever.
Antiphon: Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the holy temple of thy glory.
Second Psalm — Psalm 149
The Praise of the Saints
Antiphon: Praise the Lord in His holy Church.
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: let his praise be in the church of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: and let the children of Sion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in choir: let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery.
For the Lord is well pleased with his people: and he will exalt the meek unto salvation.
The saints shall rejoice in glory: they shall be joyful in their beds.
The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands:
To execute vengeance upon the nations, chastisements among the people:
To bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with manacles of iron.
To execute upon them the judgment that is written: this glory is to all his saints. Alleluia.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Praise the Lord in His holy Church.
Short Reading — Isaias 56:7
I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for all nations.
Short Responsory
V. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
R. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
V. In the city of our God, upon His holy mountain.
R. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
Gospel of the Day — John 2:13–22
The Cleansing of the Temple
And the pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And he found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.
And when he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew.
And to them that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my Father a house of traffic.
And his disciples remembered, that it was written: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.
The Jews, therefore, answered, and said to him: What sign dost thou shew unto us, seeing thou dost these things?
Jesus answered, and said to them: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
The Jews then said: Six and forty years was this temple in building; and wilt thou raise it up in three days?
But he spoke of the temple of his body.
When therefore he was risen again from the dead, his disciples remembered, that he had said this, and they believed the scripture, and the word that Jesus had said.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise be to thee, O Christ.
Benedictus — Luke 1:68–79
The Canticle of Zachary
Antiphon: Today salvation has come to this house.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Today salvation has come to this house.
Intercessions
Christ is the true Temple of God, and through Him we are made living stones in His Church. Let us pray to the Father with confidence.
Response: Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For the Holy Father, our bishops, priests, deacons, and all the faithful: that the Church may remain steadfast in truth, united in charity, and faithful in worship.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For those who build, maintain, and care for our churches: that their work may preserve places of beauty, reverence, welcome, and prayer for generations yet unborn.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For our communities and nations: that justice may be honored, the dignity of every person protected, and those in authority guided by wisdom and humility.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For those beginning another week of labor, study, or service: that their work may be honest, fruitful, and offered to God with grateful hearts.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For our homes and families: that forgiveness may overcome resentment, patience may overcome anger, and the love of Christ may be present in our ordinary conversations.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For the sick, the lonely, the homeless, and those who suffer without consolation: that they may find the shelter of God’s mercy and the practical kindness of His people.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For the faithful departed, especially those who built and sustained the churches in which we worship: that they may rejoice forever in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
For ourselves: that Christ may cleanse whatever has become unworthy within us and renew our desire to live as temples of the Holy Ghost.
Lord, make us your dwelling place.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty and eternal God, you have called your people to become a living temple, founded upon Jesus Christ, your Son.
Purify our hearts from all that is unworthy of your presence. Strengthen the unity of your Church, preserve her in truth, and fill her with the beauty of holiness.
May the churches we build with human hands remind us of the heavenly Jerusalem, and may the lives we build through faith, hope, and charity bear witness to your everlasting kingdom.
Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Blessing
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
The Paradox of the Day
We build houses for the God whom no house can contain, so that He may teach us to become His dwelling place.
Chesterton for the Morning
“He cannot have a city that is all gates any more than a house that is all windows”
— G. K. Chesterton, The New Jerusalem (1920).
A Chestertonian Meditation
The House That God Builds
There is something rather wonderful about an old church door.
It may have been opened ten thousand times, perhaps a million. Children have pushed against it with both hands. Brides have passed through it trembling with excitement. Coffins have been carried through it in solemn silence. Workmen have repaired its hinges, painted its frame, and complained about the drafts it admits in winter.
And yet it remains a door through which people enter to meet God.
The door itself is an ordinary object. It is made of wood or metal, with hinges, a latch, and perhaps a lock that has not worked properly since 1958.
But what lies beyond it is anything but ordinary.
Today the Catholic Church celebrates the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.
This is a curious feast when one thinks about it. Catholics in Kansas, England, Africa, and Australia are invited to celebrate the dedication of a building most of them have never visited and may never see.
The Church does not do this because Rome possesses exceptionally fine masonry, although it certainly possesses plenty of that.
She does it because the Lateran Basilica is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, and therefore a visible sign of the unity of the Church throughout the world.
It is a building that points beyond itself.
And that is the first remarkable thing about a church.
A church is never merely what it appears to be.
A Building with a Purpose
A man may build a barn to shelter his cattle, a garage to protect his automobile, or a workshop in which to make useful things.
He may build a grand house to impress his neighbors, although the neighbors will probably be more impressed by the cost of the house than by the man himself.
But a church is built for something altogether different.
It is built for worship.
The distinction matters because modern life is extraordinarily good at confusing the purpose of a thing with the machinery required to maintain it.
A school may become so concerned with administration that teaching begins to seem like an inconvenient interruption.
A hospital may become so absorbed in procedures that the patient appears chiefly as an obstacle to efficient paperwork.
And a church can become so preoccupied with buildings, committees, budgets, and activities that prayer seems to be one more item on the calendar.
None of these practical matters is necessarily bad. Schools need administrators. Hospitals need procedures. Churches need roofs that do not leak.
But a roof is not the reason for a church.
It is the thing that keeps the rain off the reason.
Today’s Gospel gives us a dramatic illustration of what happens when the purpose of a holy place is forgotten.
Christ enters the Temple and discovers the merchants and money changers conducting their business.
He does not organize a committee to study the situation.
He overturns the tables.
This is not the sentimental Jesus of greeting cards, perpetually smiling at everything and apparently incapable of objecting to anything.
It is the Lord who loves His Father’s house enough to be angry when its purpose is profaned.
His anger is not the opposite of love.
It is one of the consequences of love.
We are sometimes angry about things that do not matter because our pride has been wounded. Christ is angry because something infinitely important has been treated as though it did not matter.
The Temple was made for God.
And God had been crowded out.
The Temple That Walked into the Temple
Then Christ says something that astonishes His listeners.
Destroy this Temple, He declares, and in three days He will raise it again.
The people naturally assume He means the great building standing before them.
They know how long it has taken to build. They know the labor, the expense, and the immense quantities of stone required.
They think Christ has made an absurd claim about construction.
But St. John tells us that He was speaking of the Temple of His Body.
The true Temple had walked into the Temple.
The One for whom the sacred building existed was standing inside it.
And the men who were so concerned about the building could not recognize its Lord.
There is a tremendous irony here, the kind of irony Chesterton delighted in discovering.
The Temple was intended to bring men into the presence of God. Now God Himself had come into their presence, and they were arguing with Him about architecture.
They were measuring stones while standing before the cornerstone.
And when Christ spoke of rebuilding the Temple in three days, He was speaking of the Resurrection.
The building that matters most is not one made by human hands.
It is the Body of Christ, crucified and risen.
The Living Stones
St. Paul takes the mystery still further when he tells the Corinthians that they are God’s building.
This is a remarkable promotion for the human race.
We have always been reasonably good at making buildings. We are less successful at making ourselves into the sort of people who ought to inhabit them.
We construct magnificent courthouses and then discover that justice depends upon the honesty of the people inside.
We build beautiful homes and discover that happiness depends upon the love of the family living there.
We erect great churches and discover that their beauty calls for something equally beautiful in the souls of those who worship within them.
The Church is made of living stones.
And living stones are troublesome materials.
Ordinary stones stay where they are placed. They do not become jealous of the stones beside them. They do not complain about their position in the wall. They do not insist that the architect has misunderstood their talents.
Human beings do all these things.
Yet God chooses to build His Church from precisely such material.
He does not wait until we are perfect.
He begins with us as we are, and through grace makes us into something we could never have become by ourselves.
The Church is not a monument to human achievement.
It is a miracle of divine patience.
The Door We Carry into Monday
This brings us back to the ordinary church door.
There is a danger in imagining that holiness belongs exclusively on one side of it.
We enter a church, kneel, pray, and perhaps receive Holy Communion. Then we walk outside and return to the ordinary world of errands, responsibilities, disagreements, and bills.
But the purpose of entering a church is not to escape the world forever.
It is to be strengthened to live faithfully within it.
The man who kneels before the altar must eventually return to his workbench.
The mother who prays in the quiet church must eventually return to the noisy kitchen.
The student who attends Mass must eventually return to examinations, friendships, disappointments, and decisions.
And each is called to carry something of the holiness of the church into those places.
A house becomes more truly a home when its inhabitants practice forgiveness.
A workplace becomes more humane when its people practice honesty.
A community becomes more Christian when its members remember the forgotten, visit the lonely, and care for those who cannot repay them.
These things may appear small beside the splendor of a Roman basilica.
But the Church has never been built by marble alone.
It has been built by saints.
And saints are often made in kitchens, workshops, classrooms, hospital rooms, and ordinary homes.
The Lateran Basilica stands in Rome as a visible sign of the Church’s unity.
But the living Church reaches into every place where Christ is loved and served.
The same Lord who cleansed the Temple wishes to cleanse our hearts.
The same Lord who raised the Temple of His Body wishes to raise us into new life.
And the same Lord who dwells among His people asks us to make room for Him today.
Perhaps that is the most important thing to remember as we pass through the doors of our homes and workplaces this Monday morning.
We do not leave God behind when we leave the church.
We are meant to carry His presence into the world.
The door of the church opens outward for a reason.
Closing
Lord Jesus Christ, true Temple of the living God, cleanse my heart of all that crowds out your presence. Make my home a place of peace, my work an offering of love, and my life a living stone in your holy Church.
Amen.
Pray first. See the ordinary world again. Carry the wonder into the day.
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