Last week we were deprived of the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time in lieu of All Souls Day. This week we are deprived of the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C for the Feast of the Basilica of Rome, that is, St. John Lateran. When the Feast of St. John Lateran (Nov 9th) falls on a Sunday, just as with All Souls Day last week, it supersedes the regular Sunday readings.
Why are we celebrating a church and why St.
John’s Lateran Basilica. You will have
to wait for the excellent homilies. The Gospel
reading is of Jesus cleansing the temple, and the supporting readings also
speak of temples.
Here is the Gospel passage.
Since the Passover of
the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to
Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those
who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the
money-changers seated there.
He made a whip out of
cords
and drove them all out of the temple
area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins
of the money-changers
and overturned their
tables,
and to those who sold
doves he said,
"Take these out
of here,
and stop making my
Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled
the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house
will consume me.
At this the Jews
answered and said to him,
"What sign can
you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and
said to them,
"Destroy this
temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has
been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it
up in three days?"
But he was speaking
about the temple of his Body.
Therefore, when he was
raised from the dead,
his disciples
remembered that he had said this,
and they came to
believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had
spoken.
~Jn 2:13-22
Fr. Geoffrey Plant gives
a superb explanation of the significance of St. John’s Lateran basilica, the
Biblical implications, and ties it to the readings of Ezekiel and St. Paul’s First
Letter to the Corinthians.
That was Fr. Geoffrey at his best. Do not fail to watch the entire 32 minutes of the homily. It was perfection.
The pastoral homily
is again here embedded from Archbishop Edward Weisenberger from the Archdiocese
of Detroit, who provides most excellent photos of the Basilica to go along with
his excellent homily,
“We celebrate, I would even say crave sacred space. Building upon that foundation our churches, chapels, cathedrals, and other places of worship are further made sacred by prayer, sacrament, and faith life that we witness there. We don’t walk into a building where our grandchildren were baptized, where our parents married, or we celebrated funerals of our loved ones the same way we walk into a grocery store.”
That says it all!
All Saints Day Meditation: "Take these out of here, and stop making
my Father's house a marketplace."
I will not post a
hymn for a second week in a row. Last
year when this reading came up during Lent, I posted the Cleansing of the Temple scene from the movie Jesus of Nazareth. Today I
will post the Cleansing of the Temple from the series, The Chosen.
Both renditions are
well done but with some differences.
Which one did you think best?
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