Homily For Saturday Thirty- First Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 9th November 2024. The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

 

Readings: Ez.47:1-2.8-9.12, Ps.46, 1Cor3:9-11.16-17, John 2:13-22

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

REMEMBER YOU ARE A LIVING TEMPLE DEDICATED TO GOD

Today, in a special way, the Church celebrate the feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica Rome. It is the Mother and head of all the Churches and a symbol of unity for all the Churches in the world with the Roman Church.

This feast reminds us of our need to live in deep communion with the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, the rock on which Jesus built his Church on which our faith as Christians depends. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that it is the symbol of the true meeting point between man and God and Jesus Christ, who is the actual temple.

Little wonder Jesus in the Gospel passage today points to himself as the temple of God in the world, the one through whom God is present in the world. Here, he is speaking of the sanctuary that was his body when he said to the Jews: Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days, I will raise it up.

Thus, prophet Ezekiel, in our first reading, prophesying about this sanctuary, said: ‘Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.’

While St. Paul, in our second reading, emphasises that the Christian community, the body of Christ, is the place where God is to be truly present in the world. That the Church is a spiritual temple and each member of the Church is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a living expressions of God’s loving presence in our world today.

He said: ‘Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him because the temple of God is sacred, and you are that temple.

Dear friends, our bodies are sacred temples of the Lord; this is the heart of our baptismal character, to become temples of God through whom God’s loving presence touches the lives of others. So, today, we are reminded that we are a sacred reality, where God dwells, which should not be profaned or used as a material object.

Therefore, we must preserve our bodies from stains of sin and corruption. We must not let the pleasurable things of this passing world defile our body which by virtue of our baptism has become a scared dwelling of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, we must unite together to build up the body of Christ, which is his Church.

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as we celebrate the feast of the dedication of your Church, help us to realize that our bodies are the sacred temple of your dwelling presence and so preserve it always from the stains of sin and corruption. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Have a fruitful week.