Nov 9 Dedication of St John Lateran Church

John and Thommy
Good morning
I love you

Happy Sunday!

A day for Mass [the 0900 is getting fuller and fuller], some education in the youth room of the Kloster Center, the Times and a venti white mocha, skim milk, no whip cream – sitting in the sun for the duration of the reading and coffee, an afternoon at the library [first city then uncg], the giants v. eagles later this evening, and voila, the day is done.

And you? I hope all is weller with you than with me; better today than yesterday and not so good as tomorrow. What’s up? What are you doing? Whom with? Why? The fun? The challenges? The sorrows? All the dad questions and then some…. Remember the secret of a father’s love….

One of the reasons for my continuing with SPX is, as much as I don’t like the man, the sermons are the bestest within driving distance, consistently, day after day, Sunday after Sunday; plus, there’s the comfort of routine and same people. I’m basically a ‘behind the pillar’ kind of guy; unfortunately, there are no pillars in SPX….




November 9
Dedication of St John Lateran Church on the Caelian Hill

A Church universal feast celebrating the dedication of a church? Something more to learn about our faith and religion. A chance to remember the assimilation of church into Church; a time to also remember that we, individually and collectively are Church, we, personally, in our body, are the Temple of God. Stop to meditate on the personal connection with God-in-us and that we are always and everywhere connected as members of the Body of Christ, all the millions of Catholics. [and Christians and others of faith and even those without faith… the theology of connectivity? But that’s an aside….]

Jesus put our church on the foundation of Peter, the rock – thus making Jesus the bedrock, yes? And Peter, as first among equals, plopped down, sat down on the Chair, the cathedra, in Rome…. Peter, Bishop of Rome, Pope….

Constantine, Emperor of Rome (306-337), ended the persecution of the Christians and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. (Helen, his mother, found the Holy Cross.) For the Bishop of Rome, the head of Christianity, Constantine built a Basilica. [He received the land from the Laterani family as part of the dowry for his second wife but gave them the naming privilege.] To this day, St. John Lateran Church is the Pope’s cathedral. [There are three other Basilicas for the Pope in Rome: St. Paul’s outside the gate (where Paul was martyred), Mary Major (dedicated to our mother), and St Peter’s. But it is St. John Lateran that the Church recognizes as our cathedral, our universal parish church.]

Having moved more times than I wish to count, I’ve experienced parish churches in NYC [Elizabeth of Hungary, my baptism (and yours, too!)], Albany [we went to the cathedral of St. Patrick (my first holy communion)], Portland [Sacred Heart and then St. Patrick (my confirmation)], NYC [St Clare, from where your grandmother and uncle were buried], Novitiate of St. Stanilaus Koska in Lenox, Tuscaloosa [Newman Center (St Francis Chapel) et al.], Eugene, Staten Island, Bayville, Birmingham, Rochester, Covington, Nashville [St. Henry where your mother was confirmed a Catholic; et al., including the Cathedral where the good Dominican Sisters took us for your first communions and John’s confirmation – for which, no matter how much he tries to revise history, he was not pressured, forced, etc. I’ve got the essay to prove it .], Greensboro [SPX where Thommy was confirmed], Columbus [Newman Center at OSU is the best Newman Center I’ve experienced], Dayton, Rutherfordton…. At any moment of any day, there is a Mass being said, with us and for us, in our universal Church – connected. Each parish, within each diocese, is part of the universal Church – connected to The Parish, The Diocesan Cathedral, St John Lateran, the Pope’s cathedral…. Each parish is a unique part of the Church just like each of us is a unique part of the Body of Christ….

The Lateran palace, given to Pope Melchiade, was the Pope’s official residence until the fifteenth century. The Basilica was consecrated in 324 by Melchiade’s successor, Pope Sylvester I. Initially, the Emperor had the Basilica dedicated to Christ the Savior – to clearly make his point about the place of Christianity in his reign. Pope Sergio III added St. John the Baptist at the beginning of the tenth century when he rebuilt it after an earthquake destroyed it in 896. Pope Lucius appended St John the Evangelist in the mid-12th century.

When the Popes returned from their side trip to Avignon (1304-1377) their basilica and palace were in such disrepair, they decided to transfer to the Vatican, near St. Peter’s basilica (also built by Constantine, first as a pilgrimage church).

The Popes now reside at the Vatican, and since the fifteenth century, St. Peter's Basilica has hosted most important papal ceremonies. Every year, however, the Holy Thursday liturgy, when the Holy Father symbolically washes the feet of priests chosen from various parts of the world, is celebrated in St. John Lateran.

www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1194 - 31k –
June Hager, February 1996 issue of Inside the Vatican.








Today’s readings - Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1Cor 3:9-13,16-17; Jn:2:13-22


Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12

The angel of the Lord brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east; and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then the angel brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and the water was coming out on the south side. He said to me, 'This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh.

Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes.

'On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.'

A vision of Church qua Temple. Rich imagery for our better understanding of Church, the living waters of Church. And more than understanding because the imagery elicits sights, sounds, taste, touch, and aromas – all of our senses, heart and soul are refreshed and sustained by the flowing waters from our Church. Maybe it is what flows from our Church that is more important than the church/Church itself? Maybe it is what we take out of the Church and what flows out of us personally qua Church that is most important? Our Church as the source of life – as the source of the sources of life, as the source of the sustainers of life: Church and each of us. Each moment, our Church makes us and the world, the people we touch, fresh. And this life is forever, this life will not wither, by this Church we are healed, renewed, eternal….

Remember the ditty – with folded hands, ‘here’s the church, and here’s the steeple, open the doors, and see all the people’!



1Cor 3:9-13,16-17

"Brothers and sisters, you are God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."


Paul’s [and more recently, John Paul II’s] theology of the Body – our personal Body as Body of Christ, as tabernacle for Jesus.

You, you yourself, each one of us personally, are God’s building. The foundation has been laid for us – we are not our own foundation. Built on rock or sand? We’re more like a mobile home, I suppose – we can move from one to the other [AND back again!]. Not only are we not our own foundation, we are not alone in being our own builder. We are God’s building, put together not by ourselves but in concert with Jesus, Paul, Peter … parents, priests, etc. et al.

We are God’s temple, God’s Spirit dwells in us. Munch on that awhile! We are given our body as tabernacle! We are responsible for using the talents we’re given, accessing the resources we’re given, assimilating the people we’re given to build, sustain, improve God’s building, misknown as ‘our’ bodies.

Paul is not one to mince words. Destroy God’s temple and God will destroy you! Expand the metaphors from Ezekiel and Paul, mess with God’s temple and God will mess with you! Delve into JPII’s theology of the body [with its grounding in scripture and tradition, especially Vatican II] for more clarity, more depth, a greater awareness of what your body is and your responsibility for how you care for it, what you do with it….



Jn:2:13-22

"The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, 'Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!' His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'

The people then said to him, 'What sign can you show us for doing this?' Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' They then said, 'This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?' But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. After 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."



Continue with the metaphor of one’s body as temple and apply Jesus’ finding people in The Temple selling cattle, sheep, doves, money changers [shysters?]…. What metaphors can you use to describe what Jesus finds in your body? How your body is being used qua temple of God? Zeal for your house, aka God’s Building, should consume you.

In this famous interchange with the people in the temple, they speak with Jesus on different planes and don’t recognize how they are missing one another – it took the resurrection and our subsequent traditions to sort out what Jesus was doing that day, what he was communicating that day.

What sign can you show, what authority do you have for doing this? For saying this? Only that which is given by God! “Who are you to tell me that?!” [whatever ‘that’ is] - - such a petulant, defensive, childish retort!

I’ve been living my entire life - - 46 years, 21 years, 19 years, 59 years - - and you come along and tell me what to do? Tell me how to live? Tell me what I’m doing is wrong – and I’ve been doing this without admonition all this time!?. This is the way I’ve been living my life and it works for me!

On what plane are you living? Is Jesus your foundation? Your Building of God, is it a tabernacle for God to be proud of?



I love you,
dad