We Have All Been Made Temples of God
THE DEDICATION OF SAINT JOHN LATERAN
“I have chosen and consecrated this house, says the Lord, that my name my be there forever” 2 Chronicles 7:16
From a sermon by Saint Caesarius of Arles, bishop (470-573)
“We have all been made temples of God through baptism”
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
My fellow Christians, today is the birthday of this church, an occasion for celebration and rejoicing. We, however, ought to be the true and living temple of God. Nevertheless, Christians rightly commemorate this feast of the Church, their mother, for they know that through her they were reborn in the spirit. At our first birth, we were vessels of God’s wrath; reborn, we became vessels of his mercy. Our first birth brought death to us, but our second restored us to life.
Indeed, before our baptism we were sanctuaries of the devil; but after our baptism we merited the privilege of being temples of Christ. And if we think more carefully about the meaning of our salvation, we shall realize that we are indeed living and true temples of God. God does not dwell only in structures fashioned by human hands, in homes of wood and stone, but rather he dwells principally in the soul made according to his own image and fashioned by his own hand. Therefore, the apostle Paul says: The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.
When Christ came, he banished the devil from our hearts, in order to build in them a temple for himself. Let us therefore do what we can with his help, so that our evil deeds will not deface that temple. For whoever does evil, does injury to Christ. As I said earlier, before Christ redeemed us, we were the house of the devil, but afterward, we merited the privilege of being the house of God. God himself in his loving mercy saw fit to make of us his own home.
My fellow Christians, do we wish to celebrate joyfully the birth of this temple? Then let us not destroy the living temples of God in ourselves by works of evil. I shall speak clearly, so that all can understand. Whenever we come to church, we must prepare our hearts to be as beautiful as we expect this church to be. Do you wish to find this basilica immaculately clean? Then do not soil your soul with the filth of sins. Do you wish this basilica to be full of light? God too wishes that your soul be not in darkness, but that the light of good works shine in us, so that he who dwells in the heavens will be glorified. Just as you enter this church building, so God wishes to enter into your soul, for he promised: I shall live in them, and I shall walk the corridors of their hearts.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
The anniversary of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which was erected by the Emperor Constantine in 333, has been observed on this day since the twelfth century. This is the oldest, and ranks first among the four great “patriarchal” basilicas of Rome. The basilica was then, and remains today, the official cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
Saint Leo the Great restored it around the year 460. This second church lasted for four hundred years and was then burnt down. It was rebuilt by Clement V and John XXII, only to be burnt down once more in 1360, but again rebuilt by Urban V.
In 1376, when the Gregory XI and the papal court returned to Rome after residing for 74 years in Avignon, France, they found the city deserted and the churches almost in ruins. Great works were begun at the Lateran by Martin V and his successors. The palace, however, was never again used by them as a residence. The Vatican, which stands in a drier and much higher location, was chosen in its place. It was not until the latter part of the seventeenth century that the church took its present appearance. It’s altar stands alone among all the altars of the Catholic world in being built of wood and not of stone, and enclosing no relics of any kind. The reason for this peculiarity is that it is itself a relic of a most interesting kind, being the actual wooden altar upon which St. Peter is believed to have celebrated Mass during his residence in Rome.
This feast was at first observed only in Rome but later in honor of the basilica, which is called the mother church of Christendom, the celebration was extended to the whole Latin Church. This action was taken as a sign of devotion to and of unity with the Chair of Peter which, as Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “presides over the whole assembly of Christians.” Saint John Lateran remains the official basilica of which all popes are identified with in their title “Bishop of Rome.”