Sunday Gospel Comment

 

Alberic Jacovone OSB

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YEAR B

DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA - 9.11.03

Ezek 47,1-2.8-9.12; 1 Cor 3,9-11.16-17; Jn 2,13-22

A Building For God? Celebrate Rome¹s First Basilica

Basilica means ŒEmperor¹s House¹ and the event happened in 324AD, when Emperor Constantine left his Lateran Palace to the Pope who then lived there and the adjacent Basilica became the first Cathedral of Christianity, Head-&-Mother-of-all-Churches. In today's feast, we acknowledge that Jesus Incarnate Word, has set his tent in our midst, and lives among us. We know that a Church highlights the presence of Christ, who speaks his word, gives Himself as Eucharist, leads the assembly in prayer and remains with us forever. But at the same time, we cannot avoid a tension between the concept of Church as building and Church as believing community. It¹s always been normal to call a church house and abode of God: indeed the Greek word for Church (ŒKuriakon¹) means house of the Risen Lord (Kurios). In the concept of God¹s abode we immediately visualize a Sanctuary (Holy of Holies), with separating altar rails (the Greek Ikonostasis), a Tabernacle (which means Tent) with its Red Lamp pointing to God¹s presence as Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament. But, parallel to these concepts runs the counter-awareness that no building can ever contain God: it¹s a place of assembly, where we meet for worship and gather for the two tables of Word and Eucharist; but again no wafer and no building can ever contain God's mystery and immensity.
Temple Contemplation
Solomon, who built the first Temple, was the first to admit to a tension between God¹s: House and Household. In his prayer of dedication he said: folly it were to think that God had a dwelling on earth: the very heavens and the heavens that are above the heavens cannot contain You (1 King 8,27). The prophets were also strong in pointing to God¹s Œutter-otherliness¹ and immensity. And when the Temple became amulet and place of superstition, they foretold that it would be destroyed. In this time, Jesus too expressed the same tension: he warned against abuses in the Temple - expelled money dealers from it: (do not turn my Father's House into a den of robbers!), claimed to be the New Temple, and created a new community made of living (and not dead!) stones. Indeed Jesus was condemned to death for a statement against the Temple, which the Sanhedrin considered blasphemous: destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it! At Jesus death, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom, to give way to a new abode and sanctuary, where the Risen Lord takes his body the Church, in whom the Holy Spirit lives In spite of this awareness, Christians have built many magnificent basilicas and across the centuries new meanings have been explored. The Kabbalah points out that in the Temple, people can find four levels of comprehension or interpretation: literal, allegorical, metaphysical and mystical. The physical details and designs of Solomon's Temple - with its three rising courts, its Magnificent Tent (Hakhal), containing Assembly Hall and Holy of Holies (ŒDebir¹): all this gave the Temple a powerful focus of religious, political and social attention. A place of pilgrimage to be seen, visited and used to express commitment and covenant of a people dedicated to proclaim and obey the Torah, which was kept on the tablets of stones in the Holy of Holies. Should the covenant be broken, the Temple and its nation would be destroyed. The same three levels of outer, inner and priest's courts stand for the three levels of human experience before arriving at the Menorah (the 7-branched candlestick) at the threshold of God¹s Glory (Shekinah). All this opens into a mystical and dream-like vision into the Heavenly Jerusalem and its Temple there.

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