Just before the Jewish Passover 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 Jews 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.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he 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. (John 2:13-22)

Reflection - A living temple

Today’s feast celebrates the dedication of the Cathedral Church of St John the Baptist in Rome. This cathedral is often referred to as the ‘Lateran’ because it is built on the site of a palace once belonging to the Laterani family. This palace served as the official residence of the Popes from the 4th to the 14th centuries. It is the cathedral church of the diocese of Rome of which the Pope is the local bishop.

We celebrate the dedication of this cathedral as the mother church of the whole Catholic community. Cathedrals, like all churches, are physical signs of God’s presence and the gathering place of the people of Christ. It is the living Body of Christ, which gathers to celebrate and witness, which becomes the living temple of God’s presence on earth.

The readings take up these themes. The first reading is taken from Ezekiel’s vision of a new Temple in Jerusalem. The old one had been totally destroyed. Interestingly, the reading does not focus on the glory of the building, but on the ‘life-giving water’ which flows out of the building.

In the second reading, St Paul makes the point that we are God’s building among whom the Spirit of God is living.

The Gospel is the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem. This passage always reminds us of the need not to be distracted from our true purpose to be the living Church of God. It also reminds us that the new and true temple is Jesus.

We, who are baptised in Christ, are the living stones in the Temple of God.

Our feast is a celebration of Christ, the one in whom we are built into the true temple of God on earth; the ones through whom the living water of God’s Spirit finds its way into the world to bring growth, goodness and healing.

You can download and print our prayers and reflections for this Sunday.

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