Saint Rita Catholic Church and School in Webster, NY - An Introduction to the Sunday Scripture Readings

“You Are God’s Building”

The Feast of St. John Lateran Basilica is unusual in the Church’s calendar because it is a feast for a building rather than a saint or an event. The Basilica of St. John is dedicated to both St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. Pope’s cathedral. While this feast is for a building, the purpose is to help us reflect on the true Church, the Body of Christ—we the faithful who believe in Jesus, the Christ.

Our first reading is from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek 47:1-2, 8-9, 12). Ezekiel wrote at a time when the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed and the people exiled to Babylon. His intent was to give them hope of a future time when God would build a new temple in a new Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s vision saw a new temple with a river of life flowing from it that would bring new life to all the land. This river was similar to the river of the Garden of Eden. As the River of Life flowed from the original Eden, it brought life to all the land and watered the whole earth.

In our Epistle reading (1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17), St. Paul tells us that we are the true Church and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. “You are God’s building”, and Jesus is our foundation. Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” This indwelling of the Holy Spirit is what inhabits each one of us and makes us holy.

In our Gospel reading (John 2:13-22), we hear John’s account of Jesus cleansing the temple, overturning the tables of the money changers and telling the vendors to “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” Here, Jesus was exercising His authority of the Son of David, who was given the responsibility for maintaining the “House of God.” When questioned for a sign of His authority, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up....But He was speaking about the temple of His body.”

Jesus identifies His body as the new Temple. Thus Ezekiel’s vision of a new Temple applies to Jesus’ body. The river that Ezekiel saw in his vision is the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. While we celebrate today the Cathedral in Rome and the chair of St. Peter, our readings tell us that the true temple is Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit joins each of us to God’s temple.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110925.cfm