A living temple

     Today the Church celebrates the Dedication of a building for worship.  It is not just any building, it is the Cathedral church of Rome, the Pope's Cathedral, Saint John Lateran Basilica.  A church was built by Constantine in 324 on the Lateran hill, and the dedication has been celebrated on this date since the twelfth century.

     Do you remember the game Trivial Pursuit?  In the edition that I owned, I found a mistake that is commonly made.  It listed Saint Peters Basilica as the Cathedral of Rome - wrong!  In fact, on a tour years ago, our tour guide, a great and very knowledgeable individual, told our group the same thing.  But the Cathedral, the place of "the chair - the cathedra" is Saint John Lateran.

     We might reflect upon the why of celebrating a building.  The readings today, especially 1 Corinthians, point us to a greater reality - that we are God's building, we are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us.  That temple of God, which we are, is holy.

     Ezekiel points out in his vision that as the angel brought him to the entrance of the temple of God, he saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold, flowing from the altar.  That water is life giving and transforming, it makes the salt sea fresh.  Along its banks grow fruit trees of every kind, bearing fresh fruit every month (the first fruit of the month club?) whose fruit serves as food and whose leaves serve as medicine.  The waters of that river gladden the city of God and all who dwell within her.

     Not only are we a temple made up of living stones, we are the dwelling place of the Most High, and the source of blessing through the life giving waters of grace that flow from the altar of God through us into the world.  That is what we need to be rededicated to in our call, and recommitted to in our lives of service.  We are made holy by the indwelling presence of God and thus become a source of blessing for others.  So "Come", as the psalmist says in Psalm 46, "behold the deeds of the Lord, the astonishing things he has wrought on earth."