Celebrating the Bishop of Rome. Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (C)

The union with the Pope is so important that this year the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica has priority over the normal Sunday. Because Our Lord told us “he who listens to you listens to me”.” (Lk 10:16), and Peter is, in the words of St. Catherine of Siena, the “sweet Christ on earth”, the representative of Our Lord. Let us remember that the Lateran Basilica, and not St. Peter's Basilica, is the Pope's cathedral. The latter is only the Pope's personal church, almost like his chapel, enormous as it is! Thus, the Lateran Basilica represents the seat of the Pope's authority as bishop of Rome. Every cathedral expresses the authority of the bishop and in every diocese we celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of that cathedral as an expression of our unity with the bishop. Today, throughout the Church, we celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica as a sign of our union with the Pope who, although he is a universal pastor, is also the Bishop of Rome.

The basilica is considered “Mother and Head of all the churches of Rome and the world”, which makes even more sense if we remember that it is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and has a huge baptistery, bigger than many cathedrals! Baptism was our birth into Christ and the Church, and John, of course, was the great baptizer who even baptized Christ, though only so that Our Lord would grant his grace to him and to us. Since the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, by the power Our Lord gave to those waters, divine grace somehow “flows” into all baptismal waters in all places and throughout time. So today's feast speaks to us of our union with the Pope and the Church and how, through Baptism, the Church acts as a mother to give birth to us in Christ.

But today's readings give us a warning. We must never abuse the sacred spaces that God gives us to meet with him. United with Christ, who is the true Temple of God, the true place where God meets with man, we ourselves must be living temples of God (1 Cor 3:16-17). God also uses material buildings so that we can have a physical place to come to as a community, but those buildings must always be houses of prayer and never be reduced to places of barter and trade. Jesus will not tolerate that, as today's Gospel shows. Perhaps we could also use this feast to reflect on whether we really respect our churches and see them not as mere community centers, but as places of prayer and worship to God.