(Feast
of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome: This homily was given on
November 9, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Ezekiel 47:1-12; 1
Corinthians 3:9-17; John 2:13-22.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica]
On this feast day every year, my first thought (believe it or not) is almost always about the popular game show Jeopardy—because I think this could be the subject matter of a question that a lot of contestants would get wrong. If the host of the show said, "The answer is: The first major Christian basilica built in Rome, which functions as the pope's cathedral," I think 9 out of 10 contestants would respond by saying, "What is St. Peter's Basilica?"
But that would be incorrect.
The correct response is: "What is the Basilica of St. John Lateran?"
We normally associate the Holy Father with St. Peter's, and that’s quite understandable. We do that because Peter was the first pope, and because in recent centuries popes have lived in close proximity to St. Peter’s and have celebrated many important liturgies there. But every diocesan bishop has a cathedral (including the Bishop of Rome), and the cathedral of the Holy Father is actually St. John Lateran, which is why today's feast has so much meaning.
It reminds us of our unity with the Holy Father. It reminds us of our unity with the Holy Father in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Faith. It’s really a day for us to thank God that we’re Catholic—that we are part of the one, true Church—the Church that Jesus Christ established 2,000 years ago; the Church that Jesus equipped with all the graces people need to attain eternal salvation. Those of us who are cradle Catholics can take all this for granted quite often, because we’re so familiar with it. I think that sometimes converts and those outside of the Church need to remind us of just how blessed we are as Catholic believers in Jesus. Back in 1996, for example, the well-known advice columnist Ann Landers wrote a column which proved to be rather controversial. She began it with the important question, “Do you have any idea when your religion was founded and by whom?” She then listed a number of different religions, Christian and non-Christian alike. Among the Christian religions she mentioned were Lutheranism—she said that one was founded by Martin Luther in the year 1517. Anglicanism, she rightly noted, was started by King Henry VIII in 1534; the Methodist church, she said, was begun by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744. She went on to mention several other Christian groups—among them Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists. But it’s what she said about Catholics that startled many of her readers, especially her non-Catholic ones. She said—and these are her exact words: “If you are Roman Catholic, Jesus Christ began your religion in the year 33.”
Ann Landers (God rest her soul; she died in 2002) was absolutely correct! She was Jewish, but she understood something that many baptized Catholics don’t seem to understand or have sadly forgotten. She understood how blessed we are as Catholic Christians to be part of the spiritual family which Jesus Christ established in this world by his passion, death and resurrection—the spiritual family through which our Lord gives us his word in Sacred Scripture; the spiritual family through which we are taught the fullness of God’s revealed truth (the truth that can set us free); the spiritual family from which we receive the sacraments—the seven sacred, efficacious signs that help us to know God and love God and serve God in this life, so that someday we will live forever with him in his eternal kingdom.
The importance of this—the importance of being united to the Holy Father and the Church—comes through clearly in our 3 scripture readings this morning.
Did you notice that a different temple is mentioned in each of those passages that we heard a few moments ago? In the Ezekiel text the temple mentioned is the temple in Jerusalem (which prefigures the Church today), From that temple Ezekiel sees water flowing. The water serves as a symbol of God’s saving grace. In the gospel Jesus calls his own body a temple when he confronts his enemies after driving the money changers out of the temple in Jerusalem. Predicting his passion, death and resurrection; he says, “Destroy this temple (meaning the temple of his body), and in three days I will raise it up.” And in today’s second reading St. Paul says that we as individuals are the Lord's temples.
So what's the Lord's message to us in these 3 Bible passages?
I would say that he's reminding us here that the grace of salvation comes from the temple (the temple of Jesus' body, sacrificed for us on the Cross), through the temple (the temple we call the Church) to the temple (the temple that each of us is).
Salvation is from the temple (Jesus), through the temple (the Church), to the temple (us).
The Church is key in the process, which is why we should thank God from the bottom of our hearts that we are united to the Holy Father as members of the Church—the one, true Church that was founded
by Jesus Christ, and through which we are saved.
And it's why we should pray for the conversions of all those who aren't members of the Church at the present time, because the Lord loves them as he loves us—and he wants to save them too.
