Homily: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

November 9, 2025

 My dear brothers and sisters, today the Holy Mother the Church celebrates the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica. The first question that usually comes to mind is why does the Church celebrate this feast universally, allowing it to take place even over Sundays in Ordinary time? The feast is celebrated universally because the Lateran Basilica is the mother of all churches of the city of Rome and of the world. For many centuries it remained the usual seat of the Pope. For over a thousand years, the history of Christian Rome gravitated around this Basilica. The Church is One and Catholic; by celebrating the feast, we strongly affirm our spiritual connection with the Pope, the visible head of the Church in the world. The feast of the dedication of the church is a feast of our Lord Jesus; so, it is for this reason that the celebration takes precedence over Sundays in Ordinary time.

The feast of today including the three readings of today all invite us to reflect on the temple of God. These readings present to us two senses of understanding the temple of God: the spiritual sense and the physical sense. Sincere attention to the two understanding of the temple of God is very important and indispensable for our salvation. Beginning with the spiritual sense, in the gospel, Jesus called Himself the true Temple of God, He told the Jews: “destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.” Jesus is the true Temple, like the ark of Noah that saved mankind from the Great Flood, Jesus is the Temple of salvation, who would save our souls from eternal damnation. We have to be in this temple for our salvation to be guaranteed. Those who are in Jesus are truly on the path to eternal life.

Then, as God’s children, we are living stones that make up parts of this living Temple of God. In essence, we are the abode of the Most High, the condo of the Holy Spirit, a spiritual duplex where Jesus Himself lives. St Paul in the second reading of today asked us a very crucial question: “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.”

So, when Jesus gives the command, take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace, this Jesus’ injunction should preeminently be understood in the spiritual sense. We ourselves as living temples of God should be a place where God really lives and not a busy Walmart or Kijiji where different types of things: profiteering, lobbying, cheating, fraud etc. thrive. We should not allow the accumulation of different types of viruses to remove the spiritual principle in us and turn us into a den of robbers. Jesus’ injunction should motivate us into action, if we ourselves as God’s temple are gradually turning into a house of iniquity, like Jesus we need to be very courageous, we need to take a whip and flog out of ourselves whatever it is in us that is converting us from being a living abode of God into being a house of criminality.

The first reading further gives us a sense of the physical temple of God. Ezekiel was shown a vision which gives us a very powerful imagery of what happens in the church of God. Ezekiel was shown a river that flows from the sanctuary of the temple, whatever this water touches is restored to life, stagnant waters become fresh, living creatures in any river where the water touches come back to life, trees that it touches become evergreen and their leaves medicinal. This vision tells us of the grace that flows from the sanctuary of God. When we sincerely draw near to the sanctuary of God, those things in us that are gradually dying, will come back to life. When outside the doors of the church, we will make a positive change in the world.

In essence brothers and sisters, both from the spiritual and physical understanding of the temple of God, we have a work to do. Spiritually, as temples of the Holy Spirit, we must be committed to keeping ourselves holy. One of the major ways through which we shall achieve this holiness of life is by ceaselessly drawing near to the abundance of grace that flows from the physical temple of God. When we are swimming in this water that flows from the sanctuary, our spiritual life will be evergreen, dead things in us will come to life, our lives will be a medicine that will cure the sickness of the world.